What role did Jesus play in the Old Testament

The old testament is the original Hebrew Bible, it was written before Jesus Christ came to earth. This does not mean that Jesus Christ was absent entirely from the old testament. If you believe in Trinity, you would understand that Jesus was even present at the creation, "Let us make man in our own image" tell us that there are other personalities who were present at creation. Again John 1:1,6 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word was made flesh and dwelled amongst us," this Word is Jesus.

Secondly, there are a lot of old testament prophecies about Jesus Christ coming to earth as the messiah. Thirdly, there are some elements in the old testament that were later likened to Jesus. An example is the serpent of bronze that Moses lifted up in the wilderness (Number 21:4-9, John 3:14-21).