We introduced the topic of living parables with one of the earliest creeds Christians used to communicate a summary of the gospel:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NIV
We’ve already said there is no single verse or prophecy in the Old Testament that tells us that Christ would one day die for our sins and then rise. Instead, that idea is found woven throughout the Bible.
There is also no Old Testament prophecy that predicts that the Messiah would rise from the dead on the third day. However, there is definitely a third day pattern woven through the Old Testament: it is on the third day that God creates, renews, redeems, and restores.
Genesis Creation Account
Two events in the Genesis creation account take place at three-day intervals. On the first “third day”, God brings vegetation out of the earth. The picture here is of new life rising out of the ground. This was the first living thing God created, and it happened on the third day.
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
Genesis 1:11-13 NIV
The second third day event comes on day six, when God created animals and then human beings. In both of these events, God created life in a way it had never before existed.
Isaac’s Resurrection on the Third Day
The next third day event in the Bible occurs when God tells Abraham to go to the region of Mount Moriah and sacrifice his only son Isaac. The narrative tells us that:
Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Genesis 22:3-4 NIV
Of course, God stopped Abraham in time, and provided a ram to take Isaac’s place, just as Abraham trusted that he would. With that ram caught in the thicket, God provided the sacrifice and illustrated the ultimate purpose for his covenant with Abraham: to bring God’s own Son into the world to secure our redemption.
So, on the third day, God metaphorically brought Isaac back to life. The writer of Hebrews connects the dots for us:
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Hebrews 11:17-19 NIV
God’s Covenant with Israel on the Third Day
After God rescued his people from centuries of slavery in Egypt, he asked Moses to prepare them; God was going to appear to the people and establish his covenant with Israel. The people were to prepare themselves to meet God.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
Exodus 19:10-11 NIV
God’s covenant with Israel began when he redeemed the entire nation from slavery in Egypt. On this third day, God confirmed the covenant, and laid out the structure of their covenant in the Ten Commandments. This established Israel’s new identity as God’s people.
Redeeming Israel after the Exile
After Israel had repeatedly broken their covenant with God, mainly a result of idolatry, God allowed them to be taken into exile by the Babylonians. Two hundred years before that event, Hosea was given a prophecy about Israel’s release from exile.
“Come, let us return to the LORD;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”
Hosea 6:1-2 ESV
In God’s promise to raise Israel up on the third day, scholars also see a shadow prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection on the third day.
Restoring Jonah on the Third Day
Jesus connected the third day pattern dots for us when he used the story of Jonah to foretell his death and resurrection.
Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:38-40 NIV
God had asked Jonah to go to Ninevah, about 500 miles to the northeast, but Jonah booked passage on a boat bound 3000 miles to the west. When a deadly storm arose, the sailors cast lots to determine who was at fault for their calamity, and Jonah confessed that he was the problem. The sailors threw Jonah overboard, but God used a large fish to rescue him. After three days metaphorically buried in the sea, the fish delivered Jonah to new life by coughing him up on shore to complete the task God had given him.
There’s a third day pattern in two more events recorded in the New Testament:
The Wedding at Cana
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
John 2:1-10 ESV
I can imagine Mary’s look, when Jesus tells her he can’t help, his Father hasn’t told him to start his ministry yet. Something in Mary’s expression must have told Jesus “it’s time when your mother says it’s time.”
Jesus Clears the Temple
Nearing Passover time, Jesus and his disciples had gone up to Jerusalem. When Jesus found the temple crowded with money changers and people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, he made a whip from cords and cleared them out of the temple.
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
John 2:18-19 NIV
It should strengthen our faith to consider that God designed history around Jesus, and every third-day deliverance points to him.