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 Finding Christ In GenesisTAB Cover
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We need to understand why God gave us these 66 inspired books. To understand why, turn with me to Luke 24.25-27. Here Jesus gives a seven-mile Bible study to those on the road to Emmaus. Note what He said THEY (the entire Old Testament) SPEAK (every book, every chapter, even every detail) OF ME (the Bible is Christ centered)! 

Luke 24:25-27   "Then He said to them,  "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

 

In the thirty-nine Old Testament books, Christ is in the shadows, seen in analogies and in pictures. He is in types and rituals. He is prophesied and anticipated. The twenty-seven New Testament books complete the Old, revealing Christ in person, in truth and reality, in the present and acknowledged. 

Pictures of Christ: The Covering of Adam & Eve  

When Adam and Eve clothed themselves with handmade leaf coverings, and God covers them with coats of skins, God was teaching them that by the shedding of innocent blood they would be covered. The institution that we sometimes call the Levitical system can actually be traced to Genesis 3. This gives us more of an insight into Cain and Abel because the sacrifices were instituted in the garden prophetically pointing to the redeemer. Abel observed the system, Cain did not, he was offering the fruits of his own hands, in contrast to the offering by faith. 

 

Pictures of Christ: The Offering of Isaac 

Perhaps the most dramatic prophecy of the Passover was when Abraham was instructed to offer Isaac. They traveled three days by instruction (Gen 22), and they went up the hill, when Isaac asks "where is the lamb for the offering?" Abraham turns to Isaac and says, "God will provide Himself a lamb." Abraham knew he was acting out prophecy; he was relying on the resurrection of Isaac for his salvation, because he figured that if God was going to kill him, God would have to raise him because God had promised that Isaac would have seed. So Abraham's belief in Isaac's resurrection is what scholars believe was the kernel of Abraham's faith. Abraham knew that he was acting out prophecy because he named the place, Jehovah Jireh (= in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen) which 2000 years later another Father offers His only begotten Son. 

 Pictures of Christ: The Burning Bush 

The Burning Bush has some very interesting symbolism. Fire is always symbolic of judgment (in the Scripture); brass was always used in the Tabernacle for vessels which needed to hold fire, so brass speaks of fire and thus judgment.

So with fire speaking of judgment, what is being judged here? The bush. The Hebrew for bush is (seneh), which actually comes from the word "to prick" and it thus means a bramble or thorn bush (sometimes called an acacia bush); the thorn bush of the desert. 

 

The symbol for sin is a thorn; see Gen 3:18. When we see Christ crucified, we find the Roman soldiers made a crown of thorns and placed it upon Christ's head. Christ was made sin for us Gal 3:13, He bore our sins on His brow.

 Here with the burning bush, we have sin being judged by God's consuming fire! The thorn bush is not consumed; sin in the Hands of the Living God, not being destroyed, is a model of mercy. Do not get Grace and Mercy confused. Grace is getting something that you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting that which we do deserve. 

To read even more pictures of Christ please click here.


Yours Because His,  

John Barnett, Pastor and the entire DTBM Staff

 

 

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