There is no finer teacher on whether Jesus is to be found in the pages of the Old Testament than the teaching of our Lord Jesus himself. It was He who said in John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures [which at that time were the 39 books of the Old Testament] …. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.” In Luke 24: 25-27, Jesus rebuked Cleopas, and that other unnamed disciple, as they walked along the road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the [Old Testament] Scriptures concerning himself.” It is only right that we should find that Jesus was present in the Old Testament. It was accurately predicted that He would come first as our Savior, and then in a later second coming, would appear as the King supreme over all the earth. Such an unusual state of affairs is possible because He was, He is, and He is the One to come!
(Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., Ph.D., Old Testament Scholar