Hidden In Plain Sight

I’ll never forget the time I was running late for work and I couldn’t find my keys. I tore the house apart looking for them. I had couch cushions on the floor, drawers pulled out and my frustration was building by the minute. I kept checking the same spots over and over like that was somehow going to help. I even started blaming my wife, convinced that she must’ve moved them. She calmly walked over and checked one of the places I had already looked. Of course she found them sitting in a kitchen drawer and I found myself owing her an apology. It wasn’t that the keys were hidden. It’s that I wasn’t really seeing what was right in front of me. That’s how it is with Jesus in the Old Testament. He isn’t missing. He’s woven throughout the whole story… hiding in plain sight.

From the very beginning the Old Testament gives signs that point directly to Jesus. Right after the great fall God tells Adam and Eve that her offspring will crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). That’s the first hint of our coming savior. Isaiah made it even clearer when he prophesied “the virgin will conceive and bear a son” (Isa 7:14) and later he describes a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isa 53). The prophet Micah reveals more details when he tells us the ruler of Israel would come from Bethlehem (Mic 5:2). Psalm 22 paints a picture of crucifixion long before it was even practiced:  “they pierce my hands and my feet” and “they divide my garments among them.” Piece by piece the Old Testament builds a profile of the messiah that Jesus fulfills precisely.

But it goes even deeper than prophecy. The Old Testament doesn’t just point to Jesus. It reveals that He’s God! There are moments when Jesus shows up in a distinct but fully divine way as the Angel of the Lord. In Genesis 16 the Angel of the Lord speaks to Hagar and she responds by calling Him “the God who sees me.” In Exodus 3, the Angel of the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush and the text says God is the one speaking from the bush. This Angel is sent by God, speaks as God and is identified as God yet he’s still distinct. That’s not a created angel. That’s the visible appearance of God Himself! Then you have passages like Isaiah 9:6 where the coming child is called “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father,” and Daniel 7:13-14 where the Son of Man is given eternal dominion that belongs to God alone.

When you step back and take a deeper look the picture becomes quite clear. It’s like finally opening the right drawer and seeing the keys was there the whole time. Jesus isn’t just part of the story. He’s the center of it… present from the beginning, hiding in plain sight and waiting to be seen for who He truly is.

Think about it.