Sent by God: Moses, a Type Of Christ
For 400 years, Egypt enslaved Israel in the darkness of bondage. But God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he heard his people’s cries and took action. He saved Moses, a Hebrew baby boy from certain death, raised him to power in Egypt, then hid him in exile in Midian to prepare him for his ultimate calling: the saving of Israel. Fast forward 1,500 years, the Israelites were again enslaved in darkness, but this time because God had been silent for 400 years. Like before, God would speak through a baby boy; the baby boy Jesus who would not only save Israel but save the entire world!
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament: From Genesis to Moses
Reading Exodus 1 & 2 About 2,500 years passed from the time of Adam to the time of Moses. Adam’s one act of disobedience plunged the whole creation abruptly into an ice-cold curse. However, in the same moment that it seemed as if all hope was lost, God promised us a way out, a Savior (Genesis 3:15). The Book of Genesis gives us a foretaste of God’s divine plan of salvation; how He would fulfill his promise of redemption through one family, the family of Abraham. What God hinted at after the fall of man, He unveiled further in the three promises He made to Abraham, which together we call the Abrahamic Covenant: the promise to make Abraham into a great nation through which all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:2-3), the promise to give Abraham’s offspring land (Genesis 12:7), and the promise to give Abraham descendants far too great to count (Genesis 13:15-16). God repeated these promises to Isaac, the son of Abraham, and to Jacob, the son of Isaac. Genesis takes us through the lives of these three patriarchs showing us how they acted in faith and held tightly onto the promises of God. Jacob, whose name became Israel, fathered 12 sons, who would later become the 12 tribes of Israel. Genesis ends with Abraham’s descendants, although living in Egypt, far away from the promised land, still holding on tight to God’s promises of a nation, land, and descendants (Genesis 50:24-25). READING: EXODUS 1&2 Exodus picks up around 280 years after the death of Joseph, the last recorded event in Genesis. Joseph, the son of Jacob, and second in command in the pagan nation of Egypt, rescued his family from famine by offering them refuge with him. In response, Jacob (Israel) left Canaan and brought his entire family to Egypt to live, where they stayed for over 400 years (Exodus 12:40). While in Egypt, Abraham’s offspring began to see God fulfill His promise of many descendants to Abraham. The Israelites flourished and grew in numbers from 70 people (Exodus 1:5) to around 2 million (Numbers 1:46). They became “so numerous that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 2:7). Israel was becoming a great nation, not in the promised land, but instead, in Egypt. As Israel’s numbers increased, the Egyptian’s tolerance of them decreased. The Israelites sheer numbers threatened Egypt, and eventually, because of this fear, Egypt enslaved and oppressed them. The promises of God could not be stopped, not even by enslavement or oppression, because “the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread” (Exodus 1:12). Satan, who constantly schemed to destroy the line of the promised Messiah, began to work in the heart of the Egyptian king. He ordered every Hebrew baby boy to be thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Nevertheless, Satan’s plot failed, as we will see in the story of Moses. Moses was born in Egypt to Hebrew parents during this time of Egyptian subjugation. Moses’ mother devised a plan to save her son from being thrown into the Nile River to die. She hid Moses for three months, but when she could hide him no longer, she put him in a basket and placed him in the Nile near the royal bathing place. The Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses, and “felt sorry for him” (Exodus 2:6). Moses’ sister, who had been watching this scene unfold, approached Pharaoh’s daughter and asked if she wanted her to find a Hebrew nurse to feed the baby. Pharaoh’s daughter agreed, and Moses’ mom became his nurse. When Moses was old enough to be weaned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him (Exodus 2:1-10). Pharaoh’s daughter raised Moses with all the privileges of the Egyptian court, but instead of accepting this privilege, Moses “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (Hebrews 11:24). After seeing an Egyptian beat a fellow Hebrew, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. The next day, Moses returned to his people and witnessed two Hebrews in a fight. Moses tried to make peace between the two men, but they rejected his help and mocked him. Pharaoh heard what happened and tried to kill Moses. Moses fled Egypt to Midian, not a short journey. Once he arrived in Midian, he sat down by a well. (Exodus 2:11-15). At the well, he saw shepherds harassing the 7 daughters of Jethro, a priest of Midian. Moses rescued the girls and watered their flocks. Moses remained in Midian for 40 years. He married Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro, and became a shepherd. During these 40 years, the Israelites in Egypt “groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (Exodus 2:23-25). God heard the cries of his people. God had not forgotten them, and he had not forgotten about Moses. God had been making preparations behind the scenes. He had answered the people’s prayers before the Israelite even uttered them. God saved a Hebrew baby from certain death, positioned him in a position of power in Egypt, and then exiled him to Midian, all in preparation for what was to come: the liberation of His chosen people, the Israelites from Egypt. God had promised the Israelites he would make them into a great nation, give them land, and make them numerous. Amid oppression and slavery, these promises must have seemed distant and unobtainable to the Israelites. But God was working. God is always working. Through this story, even in the middle of trying times, even when God’s promises seem distant and unobtainable, we can rest assured that He is working and that what He promises will come to pass.
From Pits to Palaces: Joseph a Type of Christ
Even though Joseph’s story begins in a pit of despair, it ends in a palace of blessing. This rags to riches story is one of encouragement, showing us that God can and will take what is meant for evil and use it for good (Genesis 50:20). But it is more than that. It also points us to Jesus, reminding us and instructing us of the perfect One that was to come: Jesus Christ!
Finding Jesus in the Old Testament: Understanding Jacob’s Ladder
Reading: Genesis 28:10-22, 31:3, 35:3, John 1: 47-51 In every book of the Old Testament, we find Jesus. We discover Him in creation, we call Him the last Adam, we see Him in the first sacrifice, and as the ark of salvation. He comes alive in the story of Abraham and Isaac, and we can also discover Him in the story of Jacob’s Ladder. Who is Jacob? Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebekah and the twin brother of Esau. When Rebekah became pregnant, God revealed to her that she would bear twins and that the younger twin would rule over the older one (Genesis 25:23), setting up a power struggle that would continue with their descendants. This wrangling between the twins began in Rebecca’s womb, where they “jostled each other within her.” The younger son, Jacob, was born with his hand grasping the older son’s Esau’s heel (Genesis 25:22, 26). Names in the Bible have meaning; they are full of symbolism. Jacob’s name was no exception; it means supplanter or deceived. He lived up to his name when he took his brother Esau’s birthright as the firstborn son. Later, by tricking his father, he stole Esau’s blessing. Because of this act of deceit, Esau threatened to murder Jacob. Rebecca, to protect her son, convinced Isaac to send Jacob away to Harran to find a wife (Genesis 28:1-2). Beersheba to Haran Jacob’s journey from Beersheba to Haran was not an easy one. Unlike Esau, Jacob was not a man of the field; he was “content to stay at home among the tents” (Genesis 25:27). Jacob, not used to being away from home, must have been lonely and afraid. One night on this journey, he took a stone, laid his head on it, and fell asleep. He dreamed of a ladder that reached from the earth up to heaven, and on it, angels were going up and down. God stood above the ladder, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Genesis 28:13-15 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he was encouraged and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it” (Genesis 28:16). Jacob knew about God’s promise of land, seed, and blessing, yet, at the request of his parents, he was walking away from this very promise. God reassured Jacob by reaffirming the covenant with him that He had made with Abraham and then Isaac. God told Jacob that He would bring him back, that he would not leave him until He had done what He promised (Genesis 28:15). Jacob’s dream was more than just a dream; it was a glimpse into a more profound truth, a truth that would culminate in the promised Messiah. Although Jacob may not have wholly understood what he was seeing, his vision would become clearer to future generations as God continued to unfold His divine plan of salvation. Reaching to Heaven The ladder in Jacob’s dream represented a divine connection between heaven and earth. Earlier in Genesis, we are told about a people who tried to make their own divine connection by building a tower reaching to heaven, a tower built through their own works. Their tower, called the Tower of Babel, never reached heaven because God scattered the people forcing them to stop constructing it. The exact phrase, “reaching to heaven,” used earlier in Genesis describing the Tower of Babel, is also used to portray the ladder Jacob saw in his dream. Joshua Bokel quoting Ed Clowney, says that the “stairway-tower of Jacob’s dream was God’s answer to the Tower of Babel. The top of it did reach to heaven, for God was the builder, not man. God alone establishes communication between heaven and earth.” Jacob’s Ladder Expanded Jesus certainly knew the story of Jacob’s ladder and, through his interaction with his disciples Philip and Nathaniel, further expands our understanding of Jacob’s dream. Philip and Jesus had just met. In his excitement, Philip found Nathanael and told him that Jesus was the one whom the prophets had written about and invited him to meet Jesus. “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:47). Nathanael immediately asked Jesus how he knew him. Jesus said that he saw him under the fig tree. Upon this revelation, Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus goes on to tell Nathanael, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus is the Ladder Jesus, from the moment he met Nathanael, was alluding to Jacob and the story of Jacob and the ladder. Was it possible that Nathanael was reading the story of Jacob’s ladder when Jesus saw him under the fig tree? We don’t know. But Nathanael was moved by what Jesus said so much that he immediately knew that Jesus was the Son of God. When Jesus described Nathanael as an “Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” he was distinguishing Jacob and Nathanael. Remember, Jacob’s name means supplanter or deceived. Then Jesus continues referring
10 Ways Isaac is a Picture of Jesus
Most of us are familiar with the account of Abraham and Isaac and how God put Abraham’s faith to the test. Abraham’s obedience is a lesson for all of us. Yet, did you know that this story also represents beautifully the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus? In this often misunderstood story, Jesus was both pictured and promised.
Finding Jesus in the Story of Melchizedek
We often overlook or ignore the story of Melchizadek. In fact, many have never heard of him. But as it turns out, this ostensibly insignificant story in Genesis is actually very important. Understanding Melchizadek helps us to more tightly grasp the reality that no fact in the Bible can be simply glossed over; all details are included for a reason. Through Melchizadek, we also get a better sense of how the Old Testament cannot be fully understood without Jesus.