Signposts
When I spoke at New Pastures Church recently a technical fault meant that the message wasn't recorded so I thought I'd share my thoughts here instead:
In John's gospel, Jesus says these words: “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!" so I looked at some of the incidents in the Old Testament which clearly show us Jesus.
Firstly I looked at the story of Noah. Genesis tells us he was "..was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God." Notice that he was the only blameless person. I'd always assumed he and his family found favour with God but the family were saved because of Noah.
As you will know, God told Noah to build a huge boat, big enough for a pair of every living creature (as well as him and his family.) What you may not know is that Noah lived in the middle of a dessert! Building a boat in a dessert earned Noah the ridicule of all around him, but he wasn't put off and because of Noah mankind and all the animal species were saved and were able to re-populate the earth after the flood.
The next character I looked at was Moses, who led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Another example of one man saving many.
There's a point in the story after the people have left Egypt when, pursued by the Egyptian army they come to the Red Sea. It seems they have run out of options, but God has other ideas.
God told Moses to stretch out his staff over the water and miraculously the sea parted providing an option for escape. The Israelites passed through the waters from death to life.
In front of all mankind lies death. In and around all of us is the evil of this age – we’re as trapped as the Israelites were!
God provided an option for all who are trapped – through Jesus’ actions a way to freedom was opened up. And by following Jesus we can be saved. We are instructed to repent and be baptised so we too pass through water from death to life.
In Genesis there's a character called Abraham. He's married to Sarah and they are both "advanced in years". (Old!)
God promises they will have a son, and even though this seems impossible it happens, just as God promised. (God's promises always are fulfilled.)
One day when the boy is older God asks Abraham to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice - in other words, God asks Abraham to kill his son.
The Bible doesn't tell us that Abraham agreed readily - it must have been agonising - but because he trusted God he went ahead with what had been asked of him. As they approached the place God had told them to go Isaac asked "We have the wood but where is the lamb for the offering?"
Abraham's reply was "God will provide himself a lamb."
When they reached the place and built the altar God stopped Abraham from harming his son and they found there was a ram with it's horns caught in a hedge, which they sacrificed to God.
The region of Moriah, where this incident took place, is where hundreds of years after Abraham’s lifetime Jerusalem was built, so literally this whole episode is mirrored when we read about Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. We’re reading about another father and son, and another donkey riding into exactly the same area Abraham had been told to go to.
Just as Abraham placed the wood for the sacrifice on his son, centuries later the Father placed the cross, the wood for the sacrifice, on the back of His Son. Jesus too carried the wood for His own sacrifice on a hill in the land of Moriah, and in the same way that God provided a ram as an offering, He provided a Lamb – Jesus - as the ultimate offering to take away the SIN of us all.
The final character I looked at was Joseph, one of my favourite stories from the Old Testament.
Joseph, we're told was his father's beloved son. The dreams he had when he was a teenager foretold that he was destined to rule; he would play a role in saving many lives.
He was sold into slavery for 20 pieces of silver, the going rate for a slave. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot for 30 pieces of silver - you might think this is an inconsistency but it's simply that by the time Jesus lived the price of a slave had risen!
Joseph was falsely accused and was imprisoned with two others, one of whom was saved.
These are just some of the very clear pointers throughout the Old Testament that show us Jesus, showing that even before most of the people in the Old Testament were born God already knew what was going to happen.
He knew what it would cost Him…and He went ahead because of His love for us.
