(#17 5980) Day 4 - The Law

FIRST POSTED ON 1 APRIL 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

In our previous session, we saw how, on the Fourth Day of Creation, God made the greater and lesser lights, and how these lights were prophetic of Jesus the Greater and True Light and of God’s people - Israel and the Church - who were to be the lesser lights to reflect His glory to the world. In this and the next few sessions, let us dig deeper into how God first equipped Israel for this purpose.

When God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, His reason was not only to preserve His chosen people out of whom Jesus would be born. They were also to become His kingdom of priests and holy nation to draw all nations to worship the one true God in Jesus. God prepared Israel for this role during its one-year stopover at Mt Sinai after escaping from Egypt by first giving the nation His Law - also known as the Law of Moses or, more commonly, the Ten Commandments. The Law was like a National Constitution or Agreement binding Israel to God. In Ex 19:5, God said, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” We all know from the Bible that Israel failed to keep God’s Law. In fact, none of us is able to meet up to God’s standards of righteousness. In Rom 3:20, Paul said “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

No one, that is, except Jesus. You see, when God gave Israel the Law, the Israelites thought that the Law was given for them to follow in perfect obedience. They did not understand God’s real intention, which was actually - by their very inability to keep the Law - for Israel to thereby lift up the Law like a banner before the entire world to expose our utter sinfulness and inability to meet God’s standard of righteousness and holiness, and therefore our great need for Jesus, who alone was able to fulfill the requirements of the Law (References). God already knew that neither Israel nor anyone of us for that matter would be able to perfectly obey the Law. His purpose in giving Israel the Law was so that through it, Israel would unwittingly serve as God’s lesser light uncovering man’s true condition and pointing them to the only One who could save them.

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(#16 5980) Day 4 - Greater & Lesser Lights

FIRST POSTED ON 15 MARCH 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

Previously, we saw how the first three days of creation pointed to three key events characteristic of the first three thousand years of human history - the fall of Man in the First Millennium resulting in sin and death entering the world, judgment in the Second Millennium in the form of a worldwide flood and a second chance through Noah and his ark, and God’s plan of salvation in the Third Millennium beginning with the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - and that was so vividly portrayed in the Exodus.

Day 4 concerns the creation of specific lights - firstly, to separate day from night - symbolic of the separation of good from bad, holy from unholy; second, to serve as signs to mark sacred or appointed times - we learnt in our first session that these are God’s opportune times or Kairos when He will act in the Chronos of world history to bring about His will. The lights are to guide, indicate and draw our attention to these Kairos events; lastly, to give light - to illuminate or make clear not just what is good or holy or opportune, but ultimately to reveal God Himself to us in Jesus.

To this end, we were told that God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. In the original Creation Account, the greater light referred to the rising sun that marked the end of night and dawn of a new day, while the lesser light referred to the moon. Prophetically, the greater light refers to Jesus the risen Son of God who marks the end of the darkness and night of sin and death and the dawn of a new day in the light and life of God. The lesser light - as we will see in Sessions Three and Four - refers to God’s chosen people and nation, Israel. It is not coincidental that the first act by Israel as a nation was to sanctify or set apart the new moon - we can read about this in Ex 12:1-2. Instead of using the sun or solar cycle/calendar to measure time, Israel was to use the moon or lunar cycle/calendar. Instead of starting the day at sunrise, they were to start the day at sundown (or you could call it moonrise).

The lesser light also refers to the Church today. Now, there is a reason why God used the sun to refer to Jesus and the moon to refer to His people. For just as the moon does not have light in itself but reflects the light of the sun, both Israel and the Church are called by God to reflect His glory as ultimately revealed in Jesus so as to draw all nations to Him.

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(#15 5980) The First 3 Days of Creation in History

FIRST POSTED ON 1 MARCH 2019.

Shalom Aleichem and welcome to my Shabbat blog!

In Session 1, we learnt that the Creation account gives us a unique Biblical perspective of world history - when God would act in His Kairos. Further, the 7 Days of Creation referred to 7 Millennia (7,000 years) of world history, as determined by the chronology of people and events in the Bible. As we conclude Session 2, we see that this was indeed the case with the first three Days of Creation.

First, we saw how DAY 1 foreshadowed sin and its consequences - in the Fall of Man. In Gen 2:17, God warned Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day he ate from it he would surely die. If a day is indeed like a thousand years, then Adam truly died within the day at age 930. In fact, none lived beyond a thousand years (one day).

Then we saw how DAY 2 foreshadowed impending judgment and salvation - through the Flood and Noah’s Ark. The Flood happened during the Second Millennium - in AM 1656. Noah lived another 350 years after the Flood and passed away in AM 2006 - marking the end of Day 2.

Finally, we saw how DAY 3 foreshadowed God’s dry ground of salvation - beginning with the Patriarchs and followed by the Exodus. Abraham, the first of the Patriarchs, was born at the start of the Third Millennium in AM 2008, two years after Noah died. The Exodus of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt also took place on Day 3 - in AM 2513.

Let me end by briefly highlighting some loose ends to keep in view, given their prophetic significance later on. I know that some of these ideas will appear quite “heavy” to digest, so do take your time and if you wish to, you can study them in more detail by checking out the materials on my website or through your own research.

Circumcision - God instructed Abraham to circumcise all the males in his family as a sign of His covenant or oath with them. This act of physical circumcision foreshadows how God Himself will spiritually circumcise our hearts, cutting off our hardened selves so that we are made receptive to Him, through the Holy Spirit’s work in us when we receive Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

Melchizedek - this mysterious king, who ruled over Jerusalem and whom Abraham gave a tenth of his possessions, was also said to be a “priest of God Most High.” The Bible would later describe Jesus as both King and Priest from the line of Melchizedek.

Time of Jacob’s trouble - after years on the run, Jacob finally returned to face the consequences of stealing his elder twin’s birthright. The night before he was to meet Esau, Jacob wrestled with God and God changed his name to Israel. This “time of Jacob’s trouble” foreshadows how the nation of Israel - like their forefather Jacob - would wrestle with God later on, crucifying Jesus as part of God’s plan of salvation two thousand years ago, and setting the stage again in the very near future for Jesus to return. Keep our eyes on Israel as the Church shares a common spiritual identity and destiny with it!

Fullness of the Gentiles - when Jacob died, God’s blessings that were inherited by him were passed on to his twelve sons. Now, Joseph received a double portion normally given to the firstborn when Jacob took Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, as his own. In blessing the younger son, Jacob further prophesied that Ephraim’s descendants “will become a multitude [fullness] of [gentile or non-Jewish] nations.” In Rom 11:25-26, Paul explained to us what Jacob meant by revealing that “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.” You see, Jacob already prophesied through his blessing given to Ephraim that God would bless all nations as He had promised Abraham, because it was through Israel’s rejection and crucifixion of Jesus that the way to God was opened to the rest of the world.

Now throughout these first three days or millennium of history, we see glimpses of Jesus:

Like the ten generations from Adam to Noah, the names of twelve tribes of Israel point to Jesus.

Further, in Jacob’s children Joseph and Judah, we see two descriptions of Jesus the coming Messiah (which means the “Anointed One”). In Joseph, the Messiah was revealed as, firstly, a man of suffering and sorrow. He is the Passover Lamb of God first seen in the Exodus, who died so that God’s judgment will pass over our sins. And through Joseph’s son Ephraim, the way of salvation was open to all nations. Jesus fulfilled all these in His first coming as Saviour of the world. In Judah, the Messiah was revealed as the conquering King of Kings - the Lion of Judah who will rule all nations. This will come to pass when Jesus comes again to usher in the Millennial Kingdom.

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