Jesus in Genesis

Find three ways that Jesus Christ is pictured in the book of Genesis and discuss how each one relates to Jesus either in His person (deity) or in His work. Be specific. Use sources.

1. A lot of people seem to think that Jesus Christ makes His first world appearance in the New Testament, but we actually get our first mention of Him in Gen 1:26. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after our likeness”

There are a couple of things to see here. First, we see a mention of the Trinity. When God says “Let Us make man in Our image”, He’s obviously speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In addition, Jesus is God incarnate, so when He states “in Our image”, He’s not just speaking of body, soul, spirit; He’s also speaking of what man would look like, predetermined by what Jesus would look like when He came to earth.

In John 1:3 we read, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”, so we definitely see Jesus present here; not only in creation of man, but the creation of everything.

2. Unfortunately, as a testament to man’s depraved heart, we only have to make it to Gen 3:15 before we see a very clear picture of Jesus once again. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel”. Here is God’s provision to heal the rift between God and man and bring redemption through Jesus. He’s clearly speaking here of providing a savior for man; and that while Satan would be able to wound Christ’s physical body on the cross, (bruise His heel), Christ would ultimately win the battle and defeat Satan, Hell, and Death and deliver a crushing blow (bruise your head); so here we’re clearly seeing His work as Savior, redeeming mankind to the father.
Adding to this, in just a few more verses we see another picture of Christ’s redemptive work; Gen 3:21 “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them”. Where man, after disobeying God by eating of the tree, (representing religion), had tried to clothe himself, God stepped in and made clothes for them out of animal skins, once again a picture of Christ;
Hebrews 9:22 (New International Version)
22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
3. And probably one of the clearest pictures of Christ is when Abraham met Melchizedek. 1This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, Hebrews 7:1 (New International Version)
When Abraham met with Melchizedek in the Valley of Shaveh, Melchizedek brought out bread and wine. The ate together; Melchizedek is mentioned as king and priest to the God Most High; and Abraham gave him a tenth or a tithe of his possessions. Melchizedek is a perfect picture of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis; and some even believe that he was a Christophany, or a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself. He was a picture of how Jesus would fulfill the offices of profit, priest and king. He had bread and wine with Abram just as he did with His disciples before going to the cross. We know He was a profit. And the fact that Abraham tithed to Him shows that He was more than just some man he met in a valley.
Gen 14:19 “And he (Melchizedek) blessed him (Abraham), and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and Earth: (Melchizedek blessing Abraham means that the standing of Melchizedek was greater than that of Abraham. The reason? Melchizedek was a type of Christ [Heb 7:4,7]
The Expositor’s Bible