Understanding God: Pictures from the Old Testament

We come back today to our intermittent series of people from the Hebrew Scriptures, known to Christians as the Old Testament, whose lives picture our salvation in Christ in some obvious or hidden way.  Sometimes it's a parallel, sometimes a contrast, sometimes both in one.

Today we discuss Moses, who is recognized as having founded the nation of Israel.  Modern Jews trace their heritage from the defining moment of the Exodus, when Moses led Israel out of Egypt, just as Christians trace their beginnings from the incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  What might be revealed in the story of Moses as pictures of Christ?  Here are a few examples:

• Both were born into a life of oppression: Moses into slavery (Ex. 1:8-14, 2:1-10) the Son of God into human flesh (John 1:14, Phil. 2:1-11). 
• Both had to be rescued from a king who murdered children (Ex. 2:1-10, Matthew 2:13-23)
• Moses led his people out of Pharaoh's oppression, (Ex. 12:37-42) Jesus out from under Satan and sin (John 12:30-32)
• At God's direction, Moses helped create a nation as the people of God, united under their 12 tribes and the covenant of law (Ex. 19:1-8, 20:1-20); Jesus created a new people united by grace, not race; not by law but by God's forgiveness (Gal. 2). 

There's a contrast, also, in John 1:17:  "For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ." The phrase "unfailing love and faithfulness," also translated "grace and truth," comes directly out of Ex. 34:6, in which God is describing himself to Moses:  "The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, 'Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.'"  Just as God reveals himself to Moses in these words, Jesus reveals God to us in his entire life: "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."  (John 1:18). 

The whole Old Testament is filled with pictures of the salvation offered to every person on earth through Jesus Christ. Moses is just one more of those.  What else is in Moses' life that is revealed in Christ to be a picture of future grace?  Who else do you see in the Hebrew scriptures as they anticipate the Savior?  Let's find another one for next time.  

We Are All One (1)

Dirt and Humanity

A little boy was learning from his father that God had made the first man, Adam, out of dirt, and that eventually, all humans turn back into dirt when we die. ("For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return", taken from Genesis 3:19) A funny look came over his face, and he blurted out, "Well, I looked under my bed this morning, and it looks like somebody's either coming or going!"

The Hebrew words in that verse in Genesis show a connection between the first man ("Adam") and the dirt ("adamah") that he came from. I think God was trying to remind him, and maybe us, not to get too 'uppity' as my mom used to say. But isn't that what we tend to do, get uppity? It's sure easy for me to start thinking I'm something better than the rest of the people around me.

Am I, really? Are you, really, better than others? Well, according to God, we all came from the same source: him! And he made us all from the same dirt, and since we all came from the same original parents, then it looks like we are the same, in so many ways. Scientists have figured out how to 'read' our DNA strands, and tell us how very closely we are all related genetically. (Even the science of genetics comes from the same Latin root as Genesis, or beginnings.)

When we see others, though, we tend to look at differences: he's taller than me and has bigger muscles. She weighs less than I do, and has better hair. He's got dark skin, I wonder where he's from. She looks Chinese or Korean or something, not from around here. And the envy or the distrust starts to arise, and the next reaction to that is defensiveness and self-protection, shutting others out instead of including them.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God told the Israelites not to mingle with the nations around them -- not because they were inferior peoples, but so Israel wouldn't pick up the false and destructive religions of those people. (See Numbers 33:51-55, Deuteronomy 7:1-8, Deuteronomy 12:29-31, etc.) But the New Covenant is a relationship with God where everybody belongs, no matter where we're from: "Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts...Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." (Ephesians 2, especially verses 11 and 16).

The spiritual reality is greater than the physical reality of our external, visible differences. In Christ, we are one. How does that play out when we like different foods, use different grammar, enjoy different music, and naturally think ours is better? Let's keep considering those ideas in the next few posts.