Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” verses 13-17
The letter to the Romans talks of “the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (see 1:1-2), and a verse in First Peter says, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully” (1:10). John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets and was a contemporary of Jesus. There was a time when they existed in the world together, John as a prophet in the wilderness, and Jesus as the son of a carpenter. John the Baptist is like a shadow of Israel in the Old Testament, and at the same time, he is representative of all the prophets of Old Testament times.
In Deuteronomy chapter 18, God said to Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him” (verses 18-19). This passage foretells of the coming into this world of the true prophet. Then, not long after the birth of John the Baptist, Jesus of whom all the other prophets bore witness was born into this world.
John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the River Jordan is a very important incident. In a relay race, the person who runs first passes the baton to the next person in his team. This is similar to what happened when Jesus was baptized by John. Jesus appeared before John the Baptist, but John said, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” To this Jesus replied, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (see Matthew 3:14-15) Through obedience, Jesus acted in accordance with the heart of God. The will of God contained in the Old Testament through the history of Israel in Old Testament times was perfected in New Testament times through the flesh of Jesus Christ. This is the entire content of the Bible. The long process of events revealed in the Bible is compressed in this image of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist.
There is also something truly unique to this scene. Through the Bible, we know that the Holy Spirit exists, that Jesus the Son of God exists, and that God the Father exists, and we know what the holy trinity is, but rarely do we come across a scene in the Bible in which these three images of God appear at the same time. Yet, here as Jesus came up out of the water at his baptism, the three images of God appear together. All at the same time, Jesus came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and came to rest on him, and the voice of God the Father was heard. We are presented with the new starting point, when the tremendous plan that had been in God’s heart before the creation of the world began to be accomplished, and “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared” (Titus 3:4).
As we read the Bible, we can see that there are many sides to Jesus’ nature. He came to this world as king, prophet, and priest. All the power that hosted the history of the Israelites was contained in his one body when he came to the world. We can also see through the Bible that his delivering up his body to the cross in order to achieve one specific purpose has been at the center of history as it has unfolded.
God’s Law of Management
Within the course of the history of Israel as it appears in the Bible, we can see God’s method of controlling the course of the history of this world. We need to know in a little more depth about the eternal high priest who appeared in this world after the order of Melchizedek as we read in Hebrews chapter 7. There in verse 16, it says, “who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.” If we lend our ears to the legal requirement concerning bodily descent, and examine and research it with all diligence, we are able to see the law of the power of life that is hidden behind it and that God has prepared for us.
Jacob’s family went down to Egypt and Israelites came out of Egypt about 430 years later under the leadership of Moses, they made up a huge crowd of six hundred thousand counting only the men fit enough to fight and not including the women, children, and elderly. An account of how they left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and went through the wilderness can be found in the book of Exodus and the books that follow.
Eventually, they arrived at Mount Sinai. Galatians chapter 4 talks of Mount Sinai where the law was given, saying, “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem” (verse 25). God called Moses up to Mount Sinai, and there He gave him the Ten Commandments, which He wrote on tablets of stone.
We need to examine carefully the order in which the Israelites received the law and acted according to the law. It was God who made the first tablets of stone. He made them and wrote on them with His own hand (see Exodus 32:16). This is really mysterious. But there was a second set of stone tablets. When Moses went up Mount Sinai, he did not come back down for a long time, whereupon the Israelites at the foot of the mountain made a golden calf and worshiped it. When Moses saw this, he threw down the first tablets of stone and broke them, so God gave him a second set. This time Moses carved out the stone tablets and God wrote on them. (see Exodus 32:17-34:9)
We need to think about the heart of God as we read these accounts that we tend to skim through. God continued to speak to the Israelites in Old Testament times, but when he appeared in order to accomplish the new commandment of the law of the spirit of life in this world, he was born through a human body. Jesus was God, born in human form. In Jesus who come to the human body there existed both the divine nature.
Similarly, it was God who made the first tablets of stone, but he permitted man to make the second tablets. Still it was God who did the writing. Within all this, there is also something we need to know. Also, through the first tablets of stone being broken and a second set being made, we can see an image of Old Testament times intersecting with New Testament times.
Another incident occurred many years before the time of Moses. Two of Jacob’s sons were Simeon and Levi. When their sister was raped by the prince of the Hivites, they went out and killed all the males amongst the Hivites (see Genesis chapter 34), and as a result, they were both cursed by their father (see Genesis 49:5-7). This is the same image that we have in the New Testament where it says that both Jews and Greeks are under sin (see Romans 3:9).
Nevertheless, these two sons appear before us in very different ways through the historical events that unfolded after this. We can see this even just by looking at the numbers of the members of these tribes. At the beginning of the book of Numbers, we find a record of the number of people in each tribe when they came out of Egypt, but after the infection the number of people in the tribe of Simeon was greatly reduced (see Numbers chapters 1 and 26). Also, when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, the tribe of Simeon was not given its own land; they had to live on the land of the tribe of Judah. (see Joshua 19:1-9)
But the tribe of Levi was different. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of stone and found the Israelites had made a golden calf and were dancing before it and worshiping it, he said to them, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” At this time, the Levites stood with Moses. Then Moses commanded the Levites to take up their swords and kill their brethren.
Moses spoke about the position of the Levites when he was blessing the twelve tribes, as recorded towards the end of Deuteronomy. The blessing the Levites received was the blessing received by the priests. This is also a shadow of the church. Yet, there is no blessing for the tribe of Simeon amongst the blessings of Moses. These two contrasting images appear here as well.
The second set of stone tablets, which Moses made, were given into the hands of the Israelites and the Israelites stored them in the Most Holy Place, and lived with the priests. We find sequences like this in the Bible. At times they are to be found in brief stories, and at times they appear over a long period in history, extending beyond time. This is what makes the Bible so very difficult.
It was only after Moses had met God again and received the second set of stone tablets that the tabernacle was built that God had commanded Moses to make when He gave him the first stone tablets. When the first tablets of stone were given to the Israelites, they were commanded to build the tabernacle, and when the second tablets of stone were given to them, they actually built the tabernacle. Similarly, in Old Testament times there were the words of prophecy, and in New Testament times, Jesus came to this earth and fulfilled these prophecies. A precise image of Jesus is revealed in the tabernacle.
If we look a little further down the path of history, however, we find that within the history of Israel there was the tabernacle and there was the temple. This is really strange. There was the tabernacle, but then there was also the temple. It is not that the tabernacle and the temple existed at the same time; first there was the tabernacle, and later the temple. God explained carefully how the tabernacle was to be built, and it was built precisely as He said, but it was at the time of King Solomon that the temple was built. Made of stone and covered with cedar wood, the temple presented a magnificent image.
In the shabby image of the tabernacle, we find a shadow of Jesus in his suffering, and in the image of the temple Solomon built, we find a shadow of Jesus when he comes in his glory, having tasted death and risen again in a new and perfect body. So we see there is not the slightest error in the sequence of events in the Bible.
All the Ingredients that Made up the Tabernacle Are Representative of Jesus.
Let’s consider what was in God’s heart as He commanded the Israelites to build the tabernacle. In Exodus chapter 25, we find the method God told Moses to use when building the tabernacle. Then in the latter part of the book of Exodus, we see how Moses actually went about building the tabernacle after he came down the mountain with the second set of stone tablets, having listened to God’s command.
First let’s take a look at the command God gave to Moses. This is in Exodus chapter 25.
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.” verses 1-2
Here it says that the pleasant hearts of the people of Israel were moved to contribute. There was no need to force them.
And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Exodus 25:3-7
There were many different things. Let’s consider them one by one.
And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze. Exodus 25:3
When it comes to the “gold” referred to in the Bible, there was the lampstand which was made of hammered down gold, and there are passages that talk of a crown of gold. Gold is a material that reveals Jesus’ glory. It is also a material that is visible to us to remind us of Jesus when he comes as King in his glory.
Then there is “silver.” In Luke chapter 19, we read about a nobleman who went into a far country to receive fo
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