When we first read the Bible, each of the books, and each of the letters in particular, seems to begin from a different point. The letter to the Ephesians was written by Paul, a Jew and an apostle, to the Gentile sinners of Ephesus who worshiped Gentile gods, including the goddess Artemis. Paul wrote to them, saying, “you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise” (2:12). He said they were uncircumcised and strangers from the covenants of promise. Then the letter to the Hebrews begins with the words, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets” (1:1). The writer of this letter addresses the Jewish people with this premise that God spoke in times past to the ancestors of Israel. Yet, depending on the order of events and the direction in which God directs the course of history, both these letters meet and present the answer provided by the blood of Jesus which Hebrews chapter 13 refers to as “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (verse 20).
The Old Testament tells of events that took place over a long period of time that stretched across thousands of years before Jesus was born into this world, but through these records, we learn little by little what is in the heart of God as He accomplishes His purpose. In the process, we develop in our hearts the desire to live for God.
Nevertheless, man is not able to live for God. It is arrogant even to think that people who live but 70 or 80, or in some cases 90 or more years might live for the same God who has been guiding the course of thousands of years of history. We must first set aside such an attitude. All we can do is approach the Bible with the desire that God’s will might be accomplished in our lives.
When John the Baptist was in the wilderness and preached God’s words, Jesus was already in this world. When Jesus began His ministry, however, the voice of John the Baptist gradually dwindled. In the Bible, we have a record of the deep relationship between the history of the Jews, the shadow of the church that lies behind that history, and the mystery of the church in the process of these matters being revealed. It is truly amazing the way in which God has hidden these things away within the pages of the Bible.
When King Ahasuerus laid on a feast to boast of his magnificence, he summoned Queen Vashti to show off her beauty to the people and the officials. But Vashti disobeyed the king and did not go. As a result, she was stripped of her position as queen. Then Ahasuerus sent for all the beautiful young virgins from all the lands over which he reigned and he chose one of them to be his queen. In this way, a fine-looking young Jewish woman by the name of Esther became queen. Esther’s cousin Mordecai, who had raised her from when she was a small child, told her not to reveal that she was one of the Jewish people.
In that land there was a court official by the name of Haman who was in a position not unlike that of prime minister. When Mordecai refused to bow down to him, Haman thought he would simply wipe out everyone of Mordecai’s people. When Mordecai heard about this, he said to Esther, “Who knows whether you have become queen for such a time as this?” Even while she was queen, Esther had not revealed her background. Now, she did as Mordecai told her and when she had her chance, she went before the king and told him she was a Jewess and that Haman was plotting to massacre her people.
In the Old Testament, Esther’s identity as a Jew was revealed, and at Esther’s cry, Hamon was hung on the gallows. Following Mordecai’s command, Esther’s identity which had remained a secret until this point was revealed to the world, and the Jews were protected.
Mordecai is presented to us in the Bible as a shadow of Jesus. In John chapter 3 it says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (verse 14). Haman erected a tall gallows intending to hang Mordecai on it, but in the end, he was hung there himself. Jesus, the Son of God, was put to death on the cross in Jerusalem, but not even Satan knew that Jesus would reap the perfect victory in this way. It was a complete come-from-behind victory.
This account, which may seem no more than a story when we read it, contains a shadow of the church that would be established in the course of history. For the Jews, who do not know the church, the feast of Purim is a joyful day held in memory of this time when their people escaped being massacred. Knowing the Bible, however, as we read passages like this, we can see that within the history of the Israelites, God has hidden away secrets regarding the church. When we read the Bible in this way, we are able to accept as a gift the kind of heart that God wants of us, much like when we meet someone and understand who that person is. The Bible is written in such a way as to enable us to come to know God little by little.
The same is true of the book of Ruth. When the Gentile woman, Ruth, lost her husband, she went back to the land of Judah with her mother-in-law, and there she met an elderly man who gave her some bread to eat dipped in vinegar. This is an image of Jesus delivering up his body to the church. Through the course of history, God has been unraveling such secrets regarding the church hidden away deep down inside the Bible so that we are able to see these secrets with our human eyes. Within all this, we can discover the depths of God’s will.
It is also the same for the account of Esau and Jacob. Esau was a hunter, and while he was out in the fields hunting game in order to receive his father’s blessing, Jacob went in to his father ahead of Esau and received the blessing. Jacob lived quietly and received the blessing that Esau forfeited, and thus he became one of the patriarchs of Israel and was later given the name of Israel. When we consider the image of the dynamic life he led full of capabilities that had previously been hidden, we can see how the mystery that had been hidden from ages and from generations is revealed through the church, and we see an image of the tremendous history of the church.
Whether the world wanted it or not, Jesus Christ was born and two thousand years have passed since then. And whether the world likes it or not, more copies of the Bible have been sold than any of the world’s best sellers.
History has unfolded in this way, and we cannot escape from this maelstrom of history. No matter how much a person may judge God and the Bible on his own, it does not change anything; he is the only one who loses out. The history of the world unfolds precisely as God has promised through the Bible. This continues no matter what may happen to interfere.
In the book of Isaiah, it says, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (55:10-11). Since God’s words are alive, the Bible has the power to direct the course of history. As mere specks within that history, it is the duty of each of us to put our trust in God.
David, a Shadow of Jesus who Will Come as King
Jacob fled from Esau to Haran where he lived for more than twenty years before returning to Canaan with eleven sons. His youngest son, Benjamin, was born on the way back to Canaan. Then, through Joseph—one of Jacob’s twelve sons—all of the Israelites moved down to Egypt.
Yet, in the Bible we find that Abraham went down to Egypt and then returned to Canaan (see Genesis 13:1), and God did not allow Isaac to go down to Egypt (see Genesis 26:2). In the Bible, we find that Egypt is representative of the whole world. The entire nation of Israel moved to Egypt and later came back to Canaan just as their forefather Abraham had done, and in the same way, Jesus also went down to Egypt to escape the sword of Herod and later came back again (see Matthew 2:13-15).
This provides us with an image of Jesus who was with the Father, but then came down to this world to reveal His love. It was because Jesus was to come to this world and bring about the complete salvation of mankind by delivering up His body that Isaac was ordered not to go down to Egypt. There was no need for Jesus to come and do this twice, since it was accomplished once for all.
When Jacob’s family went down to Egypt, Pharaoh gave them the land of Goshen as a gift, and there they raised livestock. In Genesis chapter 46 verse 34 it says, “‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,” and “that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.” Here we find the character of each of these peoples: the Israelites raised livestock, and the Egyptians considered it an abomination to raise animals. The Israelites raised sheep in the pastures. These sheep were used for sacrifice, but they also provided the Israelites with food.
The Israelites continued to raise sheep from generation to generation, and then, led by Moses, they left the land of Egypt, wandered through the wilderness, and entered the land of Canaan, which God had promised them at the time of Abraham. When it was time for their nation to be established there, one particular person came to the fore. At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel, where it is explained how Jesus was born as King of Israel, it says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son o
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