Category: Thoughts

The Old Testament and the New Covenant   Part 17

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us or for our adversaries?’  He said, ‘No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.’  And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, ‘What has my lord to say to his servant?’  The captain of the Lord’s host said to Joshua, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’  And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:13-15).

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place” (II Corinthians 2:14).

On the eve of the battle of Jericho, Joshua found himself face to face with a stranger.  The man stood opposite Joshua with a sword drawn in his hand.  The captain of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”  Do those words sound familiar?

Let’s look back to an encounter that Moses, Joshua’s predecessor, had with a burning bush.  “So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’  When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’  And he said, ‘Here I am.’  Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground’ “ (Exodus 3:3-5).

In both instances, the servant of the Lord was instructed to take off their sandals; they were standing on holy ground.  This phrase suggests that the captain of the Lord’s army whom Joshua met was indeed a pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.  We don’t know all that the Lord may have had for Joshua, but I believe it had something to do with preparing Joshua for the battle of Jericho which immediately follows in the text.  Maybe Jesus was reassuring Joshua that the battle belonged to the Lord.

Our battle also belongs to the Lord and just as in Joshua’s day, the promise to us is victory.  “ ‘O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:55-57).

Jesus was present at the battle of Jericho, because Jesus was there from the beginning!

The Old Testament and the New Covenant   Part 16

“Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness.  The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:21-22).

“For by a one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds.’  Then He adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’  Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:14-18).

On the Day of Atonement, the second of the sacrificial goats was not killed.  The High Priest laid his hands on the live goat and announced the sins of the people to be placed upon the goat.  The goat was then sent away to the wilderness to symbolize their sins being taken away.

“Taken away” are such beautiful words.  And they are words that describe what Christ has done for us as our scapegoat.  “Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14).

Our sins were “taken away”, having been nailed to the cross, because Christ bore our sins in His own body.  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Peter 2:24).  Jesus is our scapegoat!

Jesus is the scapegoat, because Jesus was there from the beginning!

The Old Testament and the New Covenant   Part 15

“Then Aaron shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.  He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins” (Leviticus 16:15-16).

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp.  Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate” (Hebrews 13:11-12).

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the tabernacle with two goats as part of the atonement ritual.  The first goat was sacrificed as an offering for sin.  The remaining live goat had the sins of Israel ceremoniously laid upon it and was sent into the wilderness symbolizing their sins being taken way.  This goat was known as the scapegoat and we will talk about it next time.

For now, let’s return to the first goat, the sin offering.  This goat is a clear symbol of Jesus being our sin offering, the One who “sanctified us through His own blood.”  Jesus is our sin offering, a truth laid out for us primarily in the books of Romans and Hebrews.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:2-3).  Jesus’ sin offering for us set us free from the condemnation of the Law, sin, and death.  If you have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, Jesus is your sin offering!

Jesus is the sin offering, because Jesus was there from the beginning!

The Old Testament and the New Covenant   Part 14

“Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.  According to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it” (Exodus 25:8-9).

“And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

As the children of Israel were beginning their journey to the promised land, God instructed them to build a tabernacle, a mobile tent of worship where the presence of God would be made known.

The tabernacle from its layout to its furniture is a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah.  The ark of the covenant was the most holy article in the tabernacle and sat in the inner room called the Holy of Holies.  The ark was made of wood representing Christ’s humanity, and covered in gold representing His divinity.  Its lid, the mercy seat, was sprinkled with sacrificial blood representing the blood of the lamb, Jesus, that was spilled for us.

The other articles – the golden lampstand, the bread of the presence, the basin of cleansing water, the brazen alter, the golden alter of incense – are highly symbolic of Christ.  But the greatest connection is the purpose of the tabernacle; a place for God to dwell with His people.

God is not a distant God.  His desire is to come to us and He has come to us in Jesus.  When Jesus came to earth, God’s deity came to live and walk and heal and love among us.  The resurrected and fully living-in-us Jesus is God’s tabernacle to us today.  Jesus is God’s presence with us and in us!

Jesus was present in the tabernacle, because Jesus was there from the beginning!

The Old Testament and the New Covenant   Part 13

God said to Moses, ” ‘Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.’  And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel” (Exodus 17:6).

“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 were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ” (I Corinthians 10:1-4).

The apostle Paul makes the connection for us in this Old Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.  The backstory in Exodus chapter 17 has the children of Israel complaining about the lack of water on their journey.  Moses appealed to God, worried that he was about to be stoned by the people due to the lack of water.  God instructed Moses to strike the rock at Horeb and water flowed.

The flowing rock is a picture of Christ.  Similar to the manna/bread, the water from the rock would not sustain them forever.  But Christ is the eternal spring of water, the water of life.  Jesus said to the Samaritan women at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

And again, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ”From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water” ‘ “ (John 7:37-38)

And finally, “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’ “ (John 6:35).

Never thirsty.  Jesus is the Water of Life and His flowing in you will never end!

Jesus is the rock at Horeb, because Jesus was there from the beginning!