Читать книгу Secret References to Christ In the Old testament Scriptures - Kenneth B. Alexander - Страница 14

These are the 10 commandments which the Lord gave to Moses while he was on Mt. Sinai in their original form. “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, [graven image] or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a  jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments”. All of the surrounding nations had idols and false gods which they worshipped and served. The truth is that the idols had Satanic origin because Satan wanted to be worshipped (Matt 4:8-10). This monotheistic idea was new to the earth as all surrounding nations had many idols relating to things on the earth; the same earth God had cursed in Genesis. .

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you”. This is the only commandment with a promise the promise of prolonged life.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex 20:1-17).

These are the first Laws given by God to the people. In all there would be 624 laws given. They would cover everything from criminal law, health laws, food, social laws, laws concerning the poor, laws concerning wealth and equality, ownership of land, worship and sacrifice, forgiveness of sins, obedience, fairness and more. God was creating a family and these laws were to govern interactions among the family of God and individual families. One cannot argue that if these spiritual laws were followed today, they would eliminate nearly every problem that faces humanity today. More than Laws these were promises of God that would be fulfilled spiritually under the New Covenant of Christ. Under the new Covenant Christ said: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people” (Hebrews 8:10). Christ Himself would fulfill these laws because man was unable. Jesus promised: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt 5:18).

Under this New Covenant the Laws would be imparted to the human heart until that heart had become the Law. They would no longer sin because it would no longer be in man’s nature to do so. Paul said: “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law,  being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our  TUTOR to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all  sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to  promise” (Galatians 3:23-29). Therefore the Law was expanded to include not only Jews but all other peoples also. It was always God’s intention to include peoples of all races in His Kingdom so long as they walked by faith. Our failure to do the Law led us to Christ who fulfilled the Law for us and will assure that we too become enabled to fulfill the Law as He did. As he said: “For God so loved the world, [not Jews only] that He gave His only begotten [unique, one of a kind] Son, that WHOEVER  believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

Exodus 20-31 covered some of the Laws that would govern the new nation, the family of God, which we will cover later. In Exodus 32 the fickleness of the people, who had received so much from God, was revealed in dramatic fashion. “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [he was there 40 days] the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for  this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him”. It is difficult to comprehend why the people made this decision and Aaron went along with it. Probably Aaron was pressured by the insecurity, distrust and unbelief of the people to do what he did. It is the nature of humans to have something, a concrete form, to allay their fears. So Aaron took gold from the people and fashioned a molten calf to satisfy the people. The people said: “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Perhaps the people considered the calf-idol an image of God. Since only one idol was made, the word gods (32:1, 4, 8, 23, 31) may refer both to the idol and to God whom it supposedly represented.

So Aaron proclaimed a feast for this new god which probably turned into a feast of debauchery. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom  you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and  have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” (Ex 32:1-10). Some commentators have suggested that this calf represented the Egyptian bull-god Apis, but this seems unlikely because Apis was not worshiped as an image. Even so, the bull symbolized fertility and sexual strength. This explicitly violated the second commandment (20:4-6; cf. 20:23), which the people had already received from God verbally through Moses. Nonetheless God was ready to destroy the people over this great sin.

Moses took up the cause of the people arguing they not be destroyed. “Moses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”. On the mountain He had called the people “Moses’ people”. But Moses turned the table and rightfully so when he said to God they were His (God’s) people. He went on: “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” So the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people” (Ex 32:11-14). One of the few places in Biblical history when a man argued with god and got Him to change His mind.

“Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on one side and the other. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets” (Ex 32:15-16). “As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it” (Ex 32:19-20). Aaron tried to make an excuse for what he had done. “The people made me do it” he said (reminiscent of Hitler’s henchman—“I was just following orders”). Moses response was: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’ ” So  the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day” (Ex 32:27-28).

If there ever was a type of Christ in the Old Testament it was Moses in this situation. Moses atoned for the people and stopped God from destroying them. He atoned to God for their sin, putting his own life on the line to compel God to forgive them. He helped God save face because destroying the people would make Him look bad to the nations. Christ is our intermediator continually before the face of the Father on our behalf. Hebrews says: “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He ever lives to  make intercession for them” (Heb 7:25). He also drew on the compassion of the Father who would “that none perish” (Proverbs 29:27)

Moses made his plans very clear to the Lord and the Lord likewise. Moses said: “Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” Moses wanted to know the ways of the Lord as contrasted to His own. Psalm 103:7 says: “He [God] made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel”. There is a great gulf in knowing the ways of the Lord and His acts (miracles etc.). “And God said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here” (Ex 33:13-15). Moses knew that in himself he was nothing without the Lord. Moses proposed an even bolder request of the Lord: “Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen” (Ex 33:18-23).

“Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. “So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain” (Ex 34:1-2. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a COVENANT with you and with Israel.” The Lord considered the Ten Commandments a memoralization of the covenant He had made with the people.

The two key-words in the Bible for covenant or alliance are Heb. berîṯ and Gk. diathēkē. berîṯ, usually refers to the act or rite of the making of a covenant and also to the standing contract between two partners. diathēkē is the Gk. translation (lxx) of the word berîṯ which is taken over in the NT. Its meaning is ‘testament’ (New Bible dictionary (3rd ed.) 234). In the case of the Sinai Covenants from the standpoint of God they could rightly be called “promises”. In this case the covenants were very one-sided in that God promised many things while he only required the Israelites to do a few things—love Him and obey His commandments. Hebrews says this of God’s covenants: “For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you” [Gen 22:7] And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them  an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to  the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of  the hope set before us” (Heb 6:13-18). God swore allegiance to the Covenant by Himself since there was no one greater to swear by.

An oath is a statement by which people give assurance that they have spoken the truth or by which they obligate themselves to perform certain actions. God is usually invoked as guarantor of the oath, with the expectation that a broken or false oath will be punished. Oaths thus are a holy ritual and to swear falsely is to profane God’s name (Exod. 20:7; Lev. 19:12). Swearing by God’s name was most solemn (Matt. 26:63) (Harpers Bible Dictionary, p. 716). When men swore by an oath it an oath before God and a failure to perform the oath is considered a sin against God. The Hebrew word for ‘oath’ comes from the number seven, the sacred and magical number in Hebrew culture. In Genesis 21 seven lambs are used as witnesses to a covenant. Oaths and curses (a related type of statement) are often indicated in the Bible by abbreviated formulae, such as ‘May the Lord do thus and so if… Such oaths were mostly negated in the New Testament under the New Covenant of Christ since with the forgiveness of sin there was no punishment for violating an oath.

The Old Covenant in the Old Testament differs from the New Covenant of Christ since the only requirement to be righteous under the New was faith in Jesus Christ. It was not so different that the Abrahmiac covenant in that Abraham also was made righteous by his faith alone. In Christ, that covenant to Abraham remains in effect as righteousness is obtained by faith in Christ. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people” (Heb 8:10). Human effort was no longer required as righteousness was obtained through faith and grace. In Christ faith and grace produced an actual transference of Christ’s nature to the believer making the believer incapable of sin, as Christ was. As Christ said: ““Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke [jot or tittle, KJV] shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). This was not just for Christ but for all who believe. Christ was able to fulfill the Law because it was in His nature to do so—a quality we too can obtain by faith.

“When Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the  two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that  the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and  they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him” (Ex 34:29-35). But the glory that shone on Moses face was no comparison to the glory to be revealed in Christ. “But if the ministry of death,  in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?” (2 Corinthians 3:7-8). Paul used the term “ministry of death” because the Law was death for everyone who did not fulfill it completely. Israel never fulfilled the Law.

The remainder of Exodus covers parts of the Law that Israel was to obey in the wilderness. We will come back to Exodus when we are discussing the Law specifically. Otherwise we will go to the Book of Numbers to complete Israel’s progression in their wilderness march.