OT events point to NT truths

Exodus 14; Job 32; Luke 17; 2 Corinthians 2

When it comes to creative ways to communicate, the mind of God is astonishing. This morning I’m thinking of how He used the Old Testament to foreshadow the gospel and wondering if there is more to the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus than just pointing to the escape of God’s people from the bondage of sin. For instance, in the New Testament, believer’s baptism symbolizes the truth of salvation in that believers go down into the waters to declare our death to sin and rise out of the waters to declare our entrance into new life. In Exodus, the people of God went through the waters, literally between water walled on each side of them, to freedom and new life also. In the New Testament, this is used to symbolize or point to baptism.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:1–4)

But what about Pharaoh and his armies? Did not that same water destroy them? Is there a foreshadowing in this event pointing to the defeat of Satan also? This might be my imagination working overtime, yet the ideas are true. Baptism is a vital first step of obedience and obedience and a way of declaring faith in Christ. Clearly that is part of overcoming Satan’s power as he tries to thwart faith and spiritual growth in Christ.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12:10–11)

Christ overcame the power of Satan by saving me and my obedience is a necessary part of putting this enemy to the run!

Interesting that the reading in Job is vaguely related. People use the term ‘devil’s advocate’ for those who accuse others, something that Job’s ‘friends’ had been doing and something Satan does. God’s answer to accusations is truth. Job tried to speak truth and God later commended him for doing so. He did no wrong in expressing how he felt and the confusion he had about God. The Lord rebuked him for his assumptions but did not condemn him.

The accusation of speaking against God is only true if I do it when I know better. Job didn’t know better. He thought God would tell him the problem or let him know if sin was involved, but God was silent. Job’s ‘friends’ severely criticized him for speaking his heart. So do some commentators, yet God only told this man that he didn’t know everything and that he had spoken rightly.

My thoughts flow from the power of the enemy depicted in Pharaoh and slavery in Egypt, to the freedom gained in Christ and expressed in baptism, to the attacks of the enemy using false accusations depicted in the three ‘friends’ who insisted Job was evil when God had declared him righteous. However, typology needs to be handled carefully lest I get carried away.

That said, I see connections between OT and NT truths, similarities between the OT enemies of God’s people and the activities of my spiritual enemy described in the NT. One of them already mentioned is accusation. Satan even goes to God with his slander as he tries to flood me with false guilt and ruin my victory over sin. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:11, I’m not to be ignorant of his tricks.

APPLY: Easy applications. Let God’s truth affirm who I am in Christ, a sinner set free from sin’s bondage. Don’t listen to accusations that deny that reality or that cause me to fear that Satan can defeat me. Satan has already been defeated by Jesus Christ. The Gospel and Baptism both declared death to self as well as sin, so remember this and act like it!