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!

Seeing the patterns of God . . .

For seventeen years, I wrote a weekly newspaper column. It was called “Parables” because God gave me insight into how much the events of this world point to spiritual truth. Through that, I realized manh things, especially His amazing oneness, His powerful hand in all that happens, both in creation and in the affairs of humanity.

It is easy to say that He designed the world that way, but I’m beginning to understand that this divine ‘dot-connecting’ goes beyond the design of a superior mind. That is, there is a cohesiveness in the created world that parallels the nature and working of God — and it is there simply because God is.

A crass illustration might be the presence of a large elephant in a small room. That huge animal affects everything in that space. If it sneezes, the entire room shakes. If it snoozes, everyone tiptoes.

Because of the working of God, an event happened in the Old Testament that points to a greater event in the years to come, an event that changed the world. This is a short episode, given only a few words, but it happened so God could use it to explain a vital truth. When He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, they set out for the promised land, but like us, they were a rag tag group, prone to the same sins we are, particularly when life does not go the way we want:

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:4–9)

Their complaining illustrates mine, grumbling when things go contrary to what I want. The fiery serpents illustrate what happens to not only the health but the lives of people who are never happy; it eventually destroys us. Moses illustrates the role of an intercessor — a person who takes pity on those who are continually out of sorts and sinful; he prays for them. And the fiery serpent on the pole illustrates what happened to Jesus.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14)

I’m not certain how far this illustration goes. Did Jesus take on the pain and affliction of a people who hated the rule of God in their lives? Certainly. What does being ‘fiery’ have to do with it? I don’t know. I just know that this barely mentioned event in the lives of God’s people pointed ahead to the work of Christ on the cross for the salvation of my sin. It also pictures human responsibility — God arranged this saving event so that we who are ‘bitten’ by sin must look at Christ on the Cross that we might live.

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Jesus, I’m thinking that all the events of life somehow point to You. I am oblivious to most of them, but what You reveal is so lovely, so profound, so grandly filled with Your power and grace. Of course, I don’t want to see things that are not there, but am starting to think that I’ve the opposite problem — I am oblivious to that which is there, not connecting the dots between cause and effect, between Your involvement in the world and how You are using it to say, “Wake up My child — this world is all about the glory of God!”

Glimpses of the Messiah

My dad had many one-liner jokes about the good side of being old, mostly to defend the reality that he was getting on in years. Never once did I hear him put down anything that was old. While I would not apply that to socks, stuff at the back of the frig, or a Windows 95 computer, he did teach me to value what others might consider obsolete.

For instance, many Christians do not bother with the Old Testament. Some have been told it is just that — old. It has no bearing on our lives because supposedly it ‘teaches salvation by works, and since that failed, God had to send Christ.’ This is tragic for several reasons, mostly because that that is a totally not true statement!

Another reason is that by not reading it, people miss out on its teachings. For example, Paul uses a quote from the Psalms to say this:

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:1–4)

The OT has much to teach and encourage us about life, giving us increased hope!

The second reason to value the OT is that it speaks of Christ. He said so when talking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection:

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25–27)

Some of my favorite books are those that draw out the references to Jesus from the OT and show how He has always been involved in God’s plan for redemption!

Another important connection between the two testaments is how often the OT is quoted in the NT. One of them is cited in today’s devotional reading. The OT prophet Isaiah says this:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1–3)

Several hundred years later, Jesus began His ministry using the OT and connecting Isaiah’s words to Himself:

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:16–22)

At that time, the people loved what Jesus was saying, but note that He stopped right in the middle of what Isaiah said. The Lord’s first appearance on earth fulfilled that purpose — to minister to needy people. The second part of Isaiah’s words (about the day of vengeance of our God . . .) is for the next time He comes.

These and many other connections usually require careful reading and the ability to connect the dots and discern the implications. However, casting half of God’s Word aside results in missing out the wonder of God’s plan to redeem sinners. Without reading the OT, I would miss the fulfillment of prophecy and many of the promises of God. I would also miss out on the way God works in all of history.

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Jesus, thank You for that short clue where You: ‘interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’ — just enough to know that You can be found in the OT narratives, prophecies, praises, and wisdom. Just enough to prod me to keep reading those ancient books and finding instruction for life, hope for the future, and so many glorious glimpses of You.