Craig Gaunt
Biblical Hermeneutics
What can be seen of the Father’s character in the Old Testament is echoed by the Son in the four gospels, showing that the two are one and of the same nature. Jesus Himself directly or indirectly says this in many parables and discourses throughout the gospels, but lest anyone doubt His words, He also proved it by His actions.
The Father and Son desiring “the outsider”
One behavior of Jesus that was highly scandalous in His day was a willingness to associate with Gentiles. However, throughout the Torah, one can see God focusing on Israel in order that all the rest of the world (Gentiles) would come to know Him (Ex. 19:6). Israel was not meant to be the only one privy to God’s blessings. This theme would be re-emphasized in the Old Testament prophets (Isa. 42:6; 49:6; 51:4). God also sends prophets to Gentiles in times of Israelite unbelief because He desires that they know Him too, and remarkably they believe! (1 Kgs. 17:1-9; 2 Kgs. 5:1-4). Although He does say He was sent primarily to the lost sheep of Israel, Jesus never turns away any non-Jew who believes in Him sincerely (Mt. 8:5-13; Mk. 4:1-8; Jn. 4:1-8).
The Lord providing for peoples’ basic needs
God delights in providing the needs of His children, even when all seems lost. Although there are dozens of examples in the Old Testament, two specific ones come to mind. The first is when God provides manna in the wilderness for the newly-freed Hebrews for forty years every day (Ex. 16). The second rings similar to the gospel accounts, and it is Elisha taking twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain and using it to feed at least one hundred people (2 Kgs. 4:42-44). Jesus embodies the providing attitude of our Father when He feeds five thousand on one occasion and four thousand on another both times from a few loves of bread and some fish (the former is found in all four gospel accounts) (Mt. 14:13-21; Mk. 6:30-44; Lk. 9:10-17; Jn. 6:1-15).
The Father and Son having power to create and over creation
Something that would have certainly confirmed Jesus’ divinity by comparing His acts to God’s power alone would have been Him walking on water and the calming of the wind and the sea when He was with the disciples (Mt. 14:22-33; Jn. 6:16-21). Jesus performed this miracle not only to demonstrate His power over nature but also power over death symbolized by the sea in ancient cultures. Only God had this ability as is seen by His creative acts in Genesis and master of nature in the plagues of Exodus (Ps. 107:20). However, both the Father and the Son always had a redemptive purpose in mind by controlling nature, and they would never do it just for sport or arrogance. Rather, it was to show people that God is all-powerful but He will always use it for good, even when the purpose may not be clear to us.
The Father and Son giving/restoring life
Along with this idea of restoration, God always desires that all would have life renewed and abundant, whether it seen with the Father or the Son. In the Old Testament, the Father uses the prophets Elijah and Elisha to demonstrate that not even death can stop His power. Elijah raises a widow’s son, and Elisha does the same to a Shunammite’s son (1 Kgs. 17:17-24; 2 Kgs. 4:8-37). God even uses Elisha’s bones (something that would have been seen as desecrating if touched) to restore someone to life! (2 Kgs. 20-21). The Son also demonstrates power to conquer death by raising Lazarus (John 11:28-44), Jarius’ daughter (Mt. 9:18, 23-26), and (like Elijah) a widow’s son (Lk. 7:11-16). Even Jesus’ resurrection points to God as not being stopped by death! He shares this power with God His Father, “like Father, like Son”.
The Father and the Son accepting worship
Although there are some today who attempt to say that Jesus never believed He was God, the fact that He never stops anyone from worshipping Him (when even the angels stop people throughout the Bible from worshipping them), testifies strongly to Jesus’ self perception. Anything less for a devout Jew would have been blasphemous. Throughout the Old Testament, the Father rejoices when His people worship Him as long as they do so with a heartfelt attitude of gratefulness rather than superficial spirituality, which He abhors (1 Sam. 15:22-23; Mic. 6:6-8; Hos. 6:6). Jesus accepts such worship from many different people, and one of the clearest confessions of who He is comes from Thomas who boldly proclaims, “my Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:24-29). Again, Jesus does not rebuke him for this because it is done with heartfelt sincerity, and no Jew would accept worship if it were not true of the one worshipped. However, Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple in the gospels show that the Son will not stand for prayer that is done with a corrupt heart but, instead wants purity (Mt. 21:12-17; Mk. 11:12-19; Lk. 19:45-48; Jn. 2:13-25). All four gospels write this to show that Jesus is purifying worship for all who would come, Jew or Gentile.
The Father and Son associating with the “unclean”
Another of the most controversial actions that characterized Jesus on earth was His tendency to eat with those who were considered “sinners” in His day, even though they too were Jewish. However, He came to show that God had not rejected these people if they came seeking Him. By eating with them, Jesus was showing that God’s mercy and acceptance extended even to them, even though no one else of their day behaved toward them in this way (Mt. 9:9-13). At this Scripture, Jesus quotes the Old Testament prophets as they proclaimed that the Father desires that His people show compassion rather than stress superficial ritual (Hos. 6:6; Mal. 6:6-8). I would go further in saying that, when any of God’s people sinned in the Old Testament (even the great king David), they became defiled in the eyes of God. However, like Jesus did in the New Testament, the Father never gave up on His people and took joy in forgiving their sins and restoring them upon their cry to Him for mercy. An further example would be David in both Psalms 51 and 32.
The Father and Son exist to serve followers
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus says that His true followers should never lord power over others but instead should serve them selflessly (10:42-45). Jesus modeled this in his own life several time in His healings; most prominently at the Last Supper when He went so far as to wash the disciples’ feet, taking on the role of a servant (John 13:1-11). This is exactly the attitude of the Father in the Old Testament, especially seen in the Pentateuch when compared to other pagan societies at that time. Rather than have a huge, elaborate Temple of stone, God only asks for a slightly-larger tent than what His people live in for Him to dwell (Ex. 26:1-14). Instead of demanding an idol be made of Himself and dressed with the finest clothes, the Father dresses His priests and Levites with holy vestments (Ex. 28). Plus, pagan deities demanded a substantial quantity of food, even at the expense of their own people. God the Father in the sacrificial system requires little by comparison. The point of these three examples is the same. God does not need or want to be provided as much as He wants to do the providing and serving. Jesus is identical as can be seen in His actions.
The Father and the Son healing the afflicted
All four gospel accounts have numerous instances where Jesus heals various diseases and exorcises demons, even from people that the Jews would not typically associate with (Mt. 8:1-17; 9:9-13). In the Old Testament, we not only have psalmists praising the Father for His ability to heal, even through simply speaking (Ps. 107:20), but we also see examples of it in the Old Covenant as well. Not only for His people Israel, but also for outsiders. The healing of Naaman, the Syrian commander, is one of the top examples (2 Kgs. 5:1-19). Whether it is the Father in the Old Testament or Jesus in the New the purpose is still the same: God is not doing these healings simply in order to show off His power; there is a deeper purpose in mind. He is doing this so that all will know who the true God is and that He is present among humanity to bring about the complete fruition of His glorious kingdom.
The Father and the Son condemning religious hypocrisy
As stated earlier, God wants worship from His followers that is sincere and bringing glory to Him and goodness to others. This is exactly what Jesus condemned the Pharisees for not doing, especially seen in Mt. 23. It is not only what He said but where He said it that brings the point home. He charged them in the Temple which is where both the Pharisees and Sadducees had their base of operations. On their own turf, Jesus charges them with turning the Law of Moses into a burden, swearing false oaths, idolatry, neglecting justice and mercy, impurity, and basically breaking the principles behind every law and tradition they held dear. God the Father in the Old Testament did the same thing. He used several different prophets to pronounce stinging words against hypocrisy and breaking the principles behind the Law. While Jeremiah is a prime example, the Minor Prophets also condemned the injustice and impurity, and some even did it within close proximity to the Temple (Haggai). The purpose is the same: if you are going to be spiritually dead inside, do not even bother trying to fool God on the outside because God, in His own time, will expose it.
The Father and The Son both establish a “Righteous Remnant”
Despite the rampant sin of Israel in the Old Testament, God shows His faithfulness to them by never handing them over to be completely destroyed. In other words, He is always preserving a righteous remnant who will carry on His message and live for Him (2 Kgs. 19:30-31). Even after the exile and return to the Promised Land, God kept a remnant for Himself who would be faithful (Isa. 10:20; Ezra-Nehemiah). After a majority of Israel rejected Him (while there were many believing Jews during His time on earth), Jesus still chose a remnant in the form of the twelve disciples who would continue to carry on His message and be an example of Him throughout the earth. This shows that, despite individual or corporate sin, God is still always faithful and can always use anyone to bring about His purposes.
These examples are just a snippet of the dozens of characteristics that are identical between the Father and the Son. It all comes down to one idea that all four of the gospel writers are trying to get across here, and it even comes explicitly from Jesus’ own lips “I and the Father are One” (Jn. 10:30); even more so in John 14:9. These gospels’ retelling of Jesus’ actions also strike down the notion that Jesus was simply a prophet because 1) again, no Jew (and especially no true prophet) would accept worship, and 2) not all prophets were miracle-workers and not all miracle-workers were prophets. Elijah and Elisha are two exceptions to this in that they were both, but as Micah says, Elijah comes before that awesome day of the Lord. If John the Baptist fulfilled that role in Jesus’ time, then the gospel writers are trying to stress the logical conclusion: Jesus is God.