Few people truly understand the Bible. It IS the mind of God, which means, in one sense, it is unfathomable. But God wouldn’t, and didn’t, give man a Book he couldn’t understand. That would be useless. But the Almighty does expect a little effort on our part to study and learn His written message. Most people aren’t willing to do that, to their own cost.
I encourage you to read my ongoing “The Story of the Bible” series. If a person truly understands the Bible—and that means the Old Testament, too, of course—then the resurrection of Jesus is not only unsurprising, it is expected. It was actually predicted in the third chapter of Genesis.
4. The Old Testament as a proof of the resurrection of Jesus. God created a perfect world (Genesis 1-2), but man ruined it by voluntary sin (Genesis 3). God immediately announced that a Redeemer would be sent, in human form, to bring man back into the fellowship with God that sin had cost him. Thus, the entire theme of the Old Testament is “Christ (the Savior) is coming.” The rest of the Old Testament is an historical account of how God fulfilled that promise over the next several thousand years.
The Jews, of course, knew that their book (the Old Testament) predicted a coming Messiah. But the Messiah Who came (Jesus) wasn’t the one they wanted, so they rejected Him. And still do.
But Jesus did exactly what God intended all the way back in Genesis 3—He died for man’s sins, was buried, and then resurrected from the grave, giving us all the hope of a future resurrection and eternal life. The resurrection was predicted in Genesis 3:15:
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
That verse is a little obscure, and if someone picked up the Bible and started reading it for the first time, he/she would almost doubtless not understand this as a Messianic prophecy or a prognostication of the resurrection. But have you ever read an Agatha Christie novel, or Sherlock Holmes? We may get clues early, and then often, in the novel, but the great detective at the end puts it all together for us. Such is the same with the Bible. God’s “plot” was played out in history, and recorded for us in the Old Testament. The New Testament “detectives” tell us what the “clues” of the Old Testament mean.
How does Genesis 3:15 predict the resurrection? In this verse, God is actually talking to Satan. Satan would “bruise the heel” of the Messiah (His crucifixion), but the Messiah would “bruise the head” of Satan in His resurrection. It is the best possible explanation of the verse (how else can it be understood?), and one that fits with a true understanding of the Bible and God’s purpose.
Psalm 16:10 is also a prediction of the resurrection of Jesus: “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” Jesus, of course, didn’t remain in “Sheol” (the grave) for long, and the “Holy One” (only God can truly be “holy”) did not see corruption. We aren’t left to wonder what this verse means because Peter quotes it in Acts 2:27 and applies it to the resurrection of Jesus.
This is brief, and again, I encourage readers to read my “The Story of the Bible” series. The Judaic sacrificial system demonstrates the need for man’s sins to be remitted (though the blood of bulls and goats, ultimately, couldn’t do it, Hebrews 10:4), but only the Messiah could be raised from the dead to conquer death for us. And the Old Testament, with its “Christ is coming” theme—salvation from sin for all of mankind, not salvation from Rome for the Jews—speaks of a sacrificed, buried, and risen Lord. And that is exactly what happened, history being our witness.