"And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the
Book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open
the Book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the
midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood
a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."-- Rev 5:4-6.
You will notice the three paradoxes of this scripture. He looked for a Lion and
beheld a Lamb; for the root of David, and lo, one who was the offspring of
David; for Him that had overcome, and lo! one who had apparently failed.[John
wept for no man was worthy] But you will note that the scene may be taken as
an illustration of the way in which our Blessed Lord took the sealed Book of the
Old Testament and broke the seals of it to His disciples by the Holy Ghost. In
the centre of Rome there was a milestone on which all the roads of the known
world converged; and we believe that there is a path, a road, in every book and
from every chapter of the Bible, converging upon Jesus Christ. Not only is
this the case in the Books of the New Testament, but in those also
of the Old.
Let us for a moment turn to Matthew 1 and give due importance to that white
sheet, which in our Bibles intervenes between the Old and the New. Because
these two Books are bound together, we sometimes forget that a lapse of four
hundred years is represented by that page, yet we are certain that the Jews
possessed the Old Testament, in the Greek form, two hundred years B.C. Now,
in the Old that lies on one side of the valley, and in the New that lies on the
other side of the valley, Jesus Christ is All.
In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is latent; in the New, He is patent.
In the Old, the reference to Him is implicit; in the New, it is explicit.
In the Old, we have foresight; in the New, insight.
The early Church did not attempt to argue for the facts of our Saviour's life,
death, and resurrection. They were acknowledged for three hundred years after
Christ left our world.
The one effort of the early Church was to show that the life and the work of
Jesus Christ were the Rosetta stone which opened the hieroglyphics of the Old
Testament Scripture. It has been said that there are some 333 predictions and
references alluded to in the New Testament from the Old. The Old threads the
New, as the warp the woof. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on His resurrection, Luke
24:27, set Himself to show this connection. "And beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
Himself."
"In all the scriptures". In other words, the glory of Jesus shines on the pages of
the Old Testament, as the light of God on the face of Moses. Only to many it is
hidden. But your study of the old Testament will be futile indeed, unless
you have learned in every veiled type and symbol, in every history and
character, as well as in the words of prediction, to find your Lord. When
you turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Let us consider the perpetual reference, on the part of the Early Church, to this
teaching about our Lord in the Old Testament. We will turn to the Acts of the
Apostles, (Acts 2). In St. Peter's sermon, out of twenty-two verses in our
version, eleven are Old Testament quotations. I am not sure that congregations
in these days would stand that proportion of scripture quotation in our sermons;
but you will notice that the sermon which the Holy Ghost used so
conspicuously that thousands were converted, was largely a mosaic of
scripture; from which we may gather why the Holy Ghost does not own many
of our modern sermons. He seeks in them for something He can use. If we can
once learn to use the Word of God, that is the sword which He can wield.
In the third chapter, in St. Peter's second sermon, there are five references to
the prophets--in Acts 2:18, 21-22, 24, and 25. He cannot open his mouth before
the Sanhedrim (Act 4:7) without quoting the Old Testament; and in the 25th
verse, as soon as the disciples get together, they quote for their encouragement
the Word of God. The seventh chapter of the Acts is one connected series of
scripture reference. And again, in the tenth chapter, the sermon which the Holy
Ghost used to introduce the Gospel to the Gentiles, was full of Scriptural
quotation. In St. Paul's first recorded sermon (Acts 13.) you will notice distinct
references to scripture in the Act 13, verses: 22, 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, and 35, and
his closing words in Act 13:41. So that again, if you will count the number of
words in that sermon, you will find fully half of them are Old Testament
quotations; throughout he is endeavouring to make the people see the
correspondence between the Man of Nazareth and of Calvary with that
wonderful portraiture in the Old Testament. Will you turn next to Act 17:3,
where you learn that just so soon as St. Paul reached Thessalonica, for three
Sabbath days he reasoned with them in the scriptures, opening and alleging
that it behoved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and "that
this Jesus whom I proclaim unto you is the Messiah foretold--the promised
Christ." And then if you go to Act 18:28, the characteristic of the golden tongue
of Apollos was that he powerfully confuted the Jews, and publicly shewed by
the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. You have it again in Act 26:27.
When St. Paul found himself in the presence of a Jewish Judge, he said, "King
Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?. I know that thou believest." And then
lastly, in Act 28:23, we are told that he expounded to the Jews in Rome,
testifying to the Kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both
from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning till evening.
There are two things to be noticed here. The first, of course, in our own reading
of the Word of God to find Christ in the Old Testament; and secondly, in
dealing with young men and young women who are troubled with modern
doubt, and who are eagerly demanding all manner of books and helps by which
to combat it. Let us shew them that the Bible is its own best witness, and
that probably the most conclusive proof of the truth of scripture is this
wonderful correspondence between the prophecy of the Old and the portraiture
of the New.
Because the field is so vast, I am compelled to take a specimen to illustrate what
I am saying, and limit our consideration to the paradoxes of the Old Testament.
Now, a paradox is a sentence which consists of two separate statements, each
of which is true, considered in itself, but which appear contradictory when laid
side by side; but they are combined and harmonised by some deeper truth that
lies beneath. For instance, it is a paradox that, on the one hand, we are saved by
the grace of God, and on the other hand, that it is necessary for every soul to
act for itself, and to flee for refuge-- to take hold of Christ. It is the old
controversy between election and free-will. But these two statements are,
doubtless, consistent if we could get the deeper truths which harmonise them,
and which at present are veiled from our sight. So it is with the paradoxes of the
Old Testament. There were a number of apparently contradictory statements
which awaited the fullness of time when Jesus Christ appeared; but, as God's
deeper truth was manifested, it became obvious that they were in harmony.
Let us look for a moment at some of them. Take our Lord's own paradox in
Matthew 22:42. There our Lord turns the tables upon His interrogators. "While
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying,
What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, the Son of
David." This was the ordinary appellation for the Messiah. Thus the blind man
had called out, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy." And He said to them,
"How then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord?" quoting Psalm 110:1-7.
How could the same being be at one and the same time David's son and David's
Lord?
There are three sorts of paradox-- the paradox in prediction, the paradox in
type, and the paradox in history. First, the paradox in prediction. Let us consider
two or three instances. Take two Psalms, Psalm 22, and Psalm 45. Psalm 22
has been called by an illustrious commentator the "Psalm of Sobs," because it is
so full of the sighing and broken heart of Jesus. It seems to me that probably (if
I may dare to say it) our Lord Jesus Christ was quoting this, verse by verse,
to Himself as He was slowly dying on the cross. Look at Psalm 22:6, "I am a
worm"; look at Psalm 22:12, "compassed me"; look at Psalm 22:15, "athirst";
look at Psalm 22:16, "compassed and pierced"; look at Psalm 22:18, "stripped."
It is very remarkable that the death thus foreshadowed could only be the death
of the cross, and very wonderful that it should have been predicted of Jesus
Christ, since to the Jewish mind it was so utterly repugnant. But turn now to
Psalm 45, the Psalm of the Bridegroom. In Psalm 45:2 He who had been as a
worm is said to be "fairer than the children of men"; He who had been
surrounded by enemies, in Psalm 45:3 is a "conqueror"; He who had been
athirst, in Psalm 45:2 verse has "grace poured into His lips"; He who in Psalm
45:16 had been pierced, in Psalm 45:6 is "on a throne"; and He who in the
former Psalm had been stripped of His garments, in Psalm 44:8 is "clad in royal
robes." How puzzling to a Jew. Must he not have wondered how Psalms 22,
and 45 could be true of the same Messiah? And yet the close of those two
Psalms distinctly points the reference to Him. Take another chapter in which
these paradoxes occur very numerously, Isaiah 53:1-12. A friend of mine has
noticed that Isaiah 53:1-12. comes just in the very middle of the sixty-six
chapters of Messianic predictions with which the Book of Isaiah closes. Now
take this cluster of paradoxes. In Isaiah 53:8, He is "cut off," in Isaiah 53:10 He
"prolongs His days." In the Isaiah 53:2, He is "a root out of a dry ground" (there
is no seed from it), but in Isaiah 53:10 "He sees His seed and is satisfied." In
Isaiah 53:9, He makes "His grave with the wicked," and in Isaiah 53:12: He
divides "a portion with the great." In Isaiah 53:12: He is "numbered with the
transgressors," but in the same verse He makes "intercession for the
transgressors." In the Isaiah 53:12: He "pours out His soul unto death," in Isaiah
53:10 the "pleasure of the Lord prospers in His hand." Do you wonder that the
Jews have invented two Messiahs in order to satisfy that wonderful chapter? So
much for paradox in prediction.
Turn for a moment to the paradox in type. He was the pigeon whose neck was
wrung, and its blood shed over the flowing water; and He was the pigeon flung
up into the air, and winging its way to its native woods-- the type of
resurrection. He was the goat that fell beneath the stab of the priest, and the
goat that went into the lonely land, bearing the guilt of the people. He was the
victim and the priest.
With regard to the paradox in history-- [He was a type of]: Elijah sweeping up
in the ascension car, and Elisha completing a milder ministry. He was David the
great conqueror, and Solomon the man of peace. He was Moses the law-giver--
nay, a greater than Moses-- and he was Aaron the priest, and Joshua the
forerunner. He was Adam the father-- for He was the second Adam, and the
figure of Him that was to come; but He was also the son Abel, though His blood
speaks better things than that of Abel, and puts away sin. He was Noah, who
built the ark and swam the flood, and He was the Ark that bore him across. He
was the Joshua that led the people into the promised land, and He Himself is the
promised land. So that beneath all these paradoxes, with which the Old
Testament is so full, we must implicitly find our blessed Lord Jesus as the only
interpretation of what is contradictory. Is this not true of all perplexity and
anxiety-- of all that seems so contradictory in your life and mine-- that
underneath all these dealings of God there is the one loving purpose in
Jesus Christ our Saviour. Whenever there is a veil, whether on human life, or
in regard to the mysteries of Scripture, so soon as we turn to the Lord it is
removed. As Jesus Christ underlay the Old Testament, full of grace and
truth, it was necessary for those who lived after His time, by faith to
extract from the Old Testament that which He was. Just as it is necessary for
us in these days, who know that He underlies the New Testament, by faith to
extract all the grace and all the blessing that await us there.
Turn for a moment to 2 Corinthians 3. The Apostle imagines he is challenged
for letters of commendation, which he refuses, "because" in the third verse he
says, "You are my epistles, you are my commendatory letters; upon your hearts
the Holy Scripture has engraved the character of Jesus"; and then he draws a
contrast which I pray you to notice. In the seventh verse and onward, he
suggests a parallel between the face of Moses, upon which there was a veil, and
the veiled glory of Christ in the Old Testament. He describes the Jews as sitting
in their synagogues with their veiled faces, as though the veil had fallen from
Moses' face on theirs, and is fearful lest the same veil might hide from his
converts the glories of the Lord. In the fourteenth and fifteenth verses he says,
"Until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts." When the people turn unto the
Lord, the veil will be taken away. First let us lay aside the veil; then receive the
Spirit of the Lord; and then with unveiled face beholding in a mirror, or
reflecting as a mirror, the glory of the Lord, we shall be changed. The Old
Testament did not profit them because of the veil, because they did not realise
the power of the Holy Ghost, because they did not adequately reflect.
These are the three lessons for ourselves here today.
(1) Christ is in the New, as He was and is in the Old. Up till now, perhaps,
with some of us, our Bible study has not profited. We have not seen Jesus in
the Old or in the New; and, therefore, today let us meet the solemn challenge. Is
there any veil upon our face? There was a time when, in the Holy of Holies,
the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [See Matthew 27:51]
Has there ever been, in your life and mine, a rending of that veil? Has there ever
been a time when your spirit and your soul have been, so to speak, thrown into
one, and your individuality overshadowed and penetrated by the Shekinah glow
of the Holy Ghost? Has there ever been a moment in your life when there was
the sudden rending in twain from the top to the bottom of some prejudice, of
some uncharity, of some inconsistency in heart or life? Oh! what wonder, if
there be such a veil, that up till now the Word of God has been a veiled Book--
that you have not seen Christ in it! And whatever it may be, I pray you get
alone by yourselves before God Almighty and ask that this veil-- whatever has
come between you and the perfect vision of Christ in his Word-- may be
rent in twain, and that you may see eye to eye.
(2) But next, there must be the reception of the Holy Ghost. It was by the Holy
Ghost that the Prophets wrote, and by the Holy Ghost that the Apostles were
directed to understand what the Holy Ghost meant; and there must be on the
part of all of us the constant reception of the Holy Ghost who wrote the
Word, and who will reveal Jesus in that Word. It is by the Spirit that we
know the Lord all along the line of our life. You will find that if you live near
God, there will be a constantly fresh reception-- a constantly enlarging reception
of the Holy Ghost-- and in proportion as you get this, He will open up to you
the Old and the New Testament alike-- Jesus Christ and His glory. Have you
received the Holy Ghost? Have we received the Holy Ghost definitely into our
life, as a spirit of revelation? And do you, whenever you open the Word of God,
meekly bow your heads and say, "Oh! Spirit of God, shew me the face of
Christ here"?
(3) And then, lastly, in order to appreciate Christ in the Old or New Testament,
there must be reflection. People go away from our Conventions and
Conferences with their notebooks and say to themselves, "I have got it all here"
and they think that because they have recorded the words of the speaker they
have got the truth; whereas, in point of fact, they have only got so much truth
as they are obeying and living in their lives. Those are not blessed who hear, but
blessed who do--"that man shall be blessed in his deeds." And if you really
want to see Jesus in the Bible, you must go and live Jesus in your daily
life. When you have seen some sweet trait of the character of Jesus Christ in
the Word, you must ask that by the grace of the Holy Ghost you may
reflect it amongst men. I want just to say a thing here that has been of extreme
help to me. So often in one's life, one waits to feel impelled in a certain
Christ-like direction; and if the impulse does not come, one is disposed to
postpone action. But we have no right to wait to feel in the mood to act in such
and such a way; rather, by the force of our will, obeying the impulse of the
Holy Ghost who wills in us, it is our duty to do, or to attempt to do, what we
know we should do; and as we do it, we shall find ourselves able to do it; so
that, what we did merely by the force of our will, we shall do ultimately by the
choice of our heart. Thus if you will begin to live Christ up to the small limit of
your knowledge, and because you ought, you will be transfigured by reflecting
Christ, you will be changed into the likeness of Christ. In other words,
transfiguration does not only come to the man who, with rapt attention, beholds
the glory of God in Jesus, but to the man who day by day is trying to translate
Jesus into his daily life, and repeat Jesus in thought, word, and deed. If you
would be a Bible yourself, you would understand the Bible. If you would
pass on what you have found, the Bible would get richer and deeper to your
soul. So with the rent veil, with the reception of the Holy Ghost, and with the
daily endeavour in the power of the Spirit to live Christ, we shall ever find in
this Word the Christ who is in our heart. We shall see His face looking out
from Old Testament and from New, and we shall realise that the whole Book is
like His seamless robe, "woven from the top throughout."
1Kings 6:20. "Is not the love of Jesus the Holy of Holies unto millions of souls?
Is not the love of Jesus the inner sanctuary into which now, as the veil is rent,
we are permitted as priests to enter? We stand upon a pavement which is
redemption ground, and that ground is laid, every stone of it, in the love of
Jesus. We stand between walls of providence and grace, and whether it be the
providence of His Hand, or the grace of His Spirit, in either case we are
surrounded by the love of Jesus. We stand under a canopy which is bright with
glory, and full of mercy. It is a very heaven of heavens to us, but it is a heaven
of love, the heaven of the love of Jesus. Whether, therefore, we look up, we
look into the love of Jesus, or whether we look down, we look down into the
love of Jesus, or whether we look at the right hand, it is to the love of Jesus, or
whether we look to the left hand, it is to the love of Jesus. The Oracle is one full
of love in breadth and length and depth and height." ~Rev. J. B. Figgis
Written by Frederick Brotherton Meyer , Baptist Pastor and Evangelist
1847 - 1929
Further Reading:
Proof That Jesus Is The Jewish Messiah from the Old Testament
The King of Glory
The Trinity in The Old Testament
Why Did Jesus Have To Die For Us?
Book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open
the Book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the
midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood
a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."-- Rev 5:4-6.
You will notice the three paradoxes of this scripture. He looked for a Lion and
beheld a Lamb; for the root of David, and lo, one who was the offspring of
David; for Him that had overcome, and lo! one who had apparently failed.[John
wept for no man was worthy] But you will note that the scene may be taken as
an illustration of the way in which our Blessed Lord took the sealed Book of the
Old Testament and broke the seals of it to His disciples by the Holy Ghost. In
the centre of Rome there was a milestone on which all the roads of the known
world converged; and we believe that there is a path, a road, in every book and
from every chapter of the Bible, converging upon Jesus Christ. Not only is
this the case in the Books of the New Testament, but in those also
of the Old.
Let us for a moment turn to Matthew 1 and give due importance to that white
sheet, which in our Bibles intervenes between the Old and the New. Because
these two Books are bound together, we sometimes forget that a lapse of four
hundred years is represented by that page, yet we are certain that the Jews
possessed the Old Testament, in the Greek form, two hundred years B.C. Now,
in the Old that lies on one side of the valley, and in the New that lies on the
other side of the valley, Jesus Christ is All.
In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ is latent; in the New, He is patent.
In the Old, the reference to Him is implicit; in the New, it is explicit.
In the Old, we have foresight; in the New, insight.
The early Church did not attempt to argue for the facts of our Saviour's life,
death, and resurrection. They were acknowledged for three hundred years after
Christ left our world.
The one effort of the early Church was to show that the life and the work of
Jesus Christ were the Rosetta stone which opened the hieroglyphics of the Old
Testament Scripture. It has been said that there are some 333 predictions and
references alluded to in the New Testament from the Old. The Old threads the
New, as the warp the woof. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on His resurrection, Luke
24:27, set Himself to show this connection. "And beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning
Himself."
"In all the scriptures". In other words, the glory of Jesus shines on the pages of
the Old Testament, as the light of God on the face of Moses. Only to many it is
hidden. But your study of the old Testament will be futile indeed, unless
you have learned in every veiled type and symbol, in every history and
character, as well as in the words of prediction, to find your Lord. When
you turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Let us consider the perpetual reference, on the part of the Early Church, to this
teaching about our Lord in the Old Testament. We will turn to the Acts of the
Apostles, (Acts 2). In St. Peter's sermon, out of twenty-two verses in our
version, eleven are Old Testament quotations. I am not sure that congregations
in these days would stand that proportion of scripture quotation in our sermons;
but you will notice that the sermon which the Holy Ghost used so
conspicuously that thousands were converted, was largely a mosaic of
scripture; from which we may gather why the Holy Ghost does not own many
of our modern sermons. He seeks in them for something He can use. If we can
once learn to use the Word of God, that is the sword which He can wield.
In the third chapter, in St. Peter's second sermon, there are five references to
the prophets--in Acts 2:18, 21-22, 24, and 25. He cannot open his mouth before
the Sanhedrim (Act 4:7) without quoting the Old Testament; and in the 25th
verse, as soon as the disciples get together, they quote for their encouragement
the Word of God. The seventh chapter of the Acts is one connected series of
scripture reference. And again, in the tenth chapter, the sermon which the Holy
Ghost used to introduce the Gospel to the Gentiles, was full of Scriptural
quotation. In St. Paul's first recorded sermon (Acts 13.) you will notice distinct
references to scripture in the Act 13, verses: 22, 27, 29, 32, 33, 34, and 35, and
his closing words in Act 13:41. So that again, if you will count the number of
words in that sermon, you will find fully half of them are Old Testament
quotations; throughout he is endeavouring to make the people see the
correspondence between the Man of Nazareth and of Calvary with that
wonderful portraiture in the Old Testament. Will you turn next to Act 17:3,
where you learn that just so soon as St. Paul reached Thessalonica, for three
Sabbath days he reasoned with them in the scriptures, opening and alleging
that it behoved the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and "that
this Jesus whom I proclaim unto you is the Messiah foretold--the promised
Christ." And then if you go to Act 18:28, the characteristic of the golden tongue
of Apollos was that he powerfully confuted the Jews, and publicly shewed by
the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. You have it again in Act 26:27.
When St. Paul found himself in the presence of a Jewish Judge, he said, "King
Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?. I know that thou believest." And then
lastly, in Act 28:23, we are told that he expounded to the Jews in Rome,
testifying to the Kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both
from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets, from morning till evening.
There are two things to be noticed here. The first, of course, in our own reading
of the Word of God to find Christ in the Old Testament; and secondly, in
dealing with young men and young women who are troubled with modern
doubt, and who are eagerly demanding all manner of books and helps by which
to combat it. Let us shew them that the Bible is its own best witness, and
that probably the most conclusive proof of the truth of scripture is this
wonderful correspondence between the prophecy of the Old and the portraiture
of the New.
Because the field is so vast, I am compelled to take a specimen to illustrate what
I am saying, and limit our consideration to the paradoxes of the Old Testament.
Now, a paradox is a sentence which consists of two separate statements, each
of which is true, considered in itself, but which appear contradictory when laid
side by side; but they are combined and harmonised by some deeper truth that
lies beneath. For instance, it is a paradox that, on the one hand, we are saved by
the grace of God, and on the other hand, that it is necessary for every soul to
act for itself, and to flee for refuge-- to take hold of Christ. It is the old
controversy between election and free-will. But these two statements are,
doubtless, consistent if we could get the deeper truths which harmonise them,
and which at present are veiled from our sight. So it is with the paradoxes of the
Old Testament. There were a number of apparently contradictory statements
which awaited the fullness of time when Jesus Christ appeared; but, as God's
deeper truth was manifested, it became obvious that they were in harmony.
Let us look for a moment at some of them. Take our Lord's own paradox in
Matthew 22:42. There our Lord turns the tables upon His interrogators. "While
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying,
What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, the Son of
David." This was the ordinary appellation for the Messiah. Thus the blind man
had called out, "Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy." And He said to them,
"How then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord?" quoting Psalm 110:1-7.
How could the same being be at one and the same time David's son and David's
Lord?
There are three sorts of paradox-- the paradox in prediction, the paradox in
type, and the paradox in history. First, the paradox in prediction. Let us consider
two or three instances. Take two Psalms, Psalm 22, and Psalm 45. Psalm 22
has been called by an illustrious commentator the "Psalm of Sobs," because it is
so full of the sighing and broken heart of Jesus. It seems to me that probably (if
I may dare to say it) our Lord Jesus Christ was quoting this, verse by verse,
to Himself as He was slowly dying on the cross. Look at Psalm 22:6, "I am a
worm"; look at Psalm 22:12, "compassed me"; look at Psalm 22:15, "athirst";
look at Psalm 22:16, "compassed and pierced"; look at Psalm 22:18, "stripped."
It is very remarkable that the death thus foreshadowed could only be the death
of the cross, and very wonderful that it should have been predicted of Jesus
Christ, since to the Jewish mind it was so utterly repugnant. But turn now to
Psalm 45, the Psalm of the Bridegroom. In Psalm 45:2 He who had been as a
worm is said to be "fairer than the children of men"; He who had been
surrounded by enemies, in Psalm 45:3 is a "conqueror"; He who had been
athirst, in Psalm 45:2 verse has "grace poured into His lips"; He who in Psalm
45:16 had been pierced, in Psalm 45:6 is "on a throne"; and He who in the
former Psalm had been stripped of His garments, in Psalm 44:8 is "clad in royal
robes." How puzzling to a Jew. Must he not have wondered how Psalms 22,
and 45 could be true of the same Messiah? And yet the close of those two
Psalms distinctly points the reference to Him. Take another chapter in which
these paradoxes occur very numerously, Isaiah 53:1-12. A friend of mine has
noticed that Isaiah 53:1-12. comes just in the very middle of the sixty-six
chapters of Messianic predictions with which the Book of Isaiah closes. Now
take this cluster of paradoxes. In Isaiah 53:8, He is "cut off," in Isaiah 53:10 He
"prolongs His days." In the Isaiah 53:2, He is "a root out of a dry ground" (there
is no seed from it), but in Isaiah 53:10 "He sees His seed and is satisfied." In
Isaiah 53:9, He makes "His grave with the wicked," and in Isaiah 53:12: He
divides "a portion with the great." In Isaiah 53:12: He is "numbered with the
transgressors," but in the same verse He makes "intercession for the
transgressors." In the Isaiah 53:12: He "pours out His soul unto death," in Isaiah
53:10 the "pleasure of the Lord prospers in His hand." Do you wonder that the
Jews have invented two Messiahs in order to satisfy that wonderful chapter? So
much for paradox in prediction.
Turn for a moment to the paradox in type. He was the pigeon whose neck was
wrung, and its blood shed over the flowing water; and He was the pigeon flung
up into the air, and winging its way to its native woods-- the type of
resurrection. He was the goat that fell beneath the stab of the priest, and the
goat that went into the lonely land, bearing the guilt of the people. He was the
victim and the priest.
With regard to the paradox in history-- [He was a type of]: Elijah sweeping up
in the ascension car, and Elisha completing a milder ministry. He was David the
great conqueror, and Solomon the man of peace. He was Moses the law-giver--
nay, a greater than Moses-- and he was Aaron the priest, and Joshua the
forerunner. He was Adam the father-- for He was the second Adam, and the
figure of Him that was to come; but He was also the son Abel, though His blood
speaks better things than that of Abel, and puts away sin. He was Noah, who
built the ark and swam the flood, and He was the Ark that bore him across. He
was the Joshua that led the people into the promised land, and He Himself is the
promised land. So that beneath all these paradoxes, with which the Old
Testament is so full, we must implicitly find our blessed Lord Jesus as the only
interpretation of what is contradictory. Is this not true of all perplexity and
anxiety-- of all that seems so contradictory in your life and mine-- that
underneath all these dealings of God there is the one loving purpose in
Jesus Christ our Saviour. Whenever there is a veil, whether on human life, or
in regard to the mysteries of Scripture, so soon as we turn to the Lord it is
removed. As Jesus Christ underlay the Old Testament, full of grace and
truth, it was necessary for those who lived after His time, by faith to
extract from the Old Testament that which He was. Just as it is necessary for
us in these days, who know that He underlies the New Testament, by faith to
extract all the grace and all the blessing that await us there.
Turn for a moment to 2 Corinthians 3. The Apostle imagines he is challenged
for letters of commendation, which he refuses, "because" in the third verse he
says, "You are my epistles, you are my commendatory letters; upon your hearts
the Holy Scripture has engraved the character of Jesus"; and then he draws a
contrast which I pray you to notice. In the seventh verse and onward, he
suggests a parallel between the face of Moses, upon which there was a veil, and
the veiled glory of Christ in the Old Testament. He describes the Jews as sitting
in their synagogues with their veiled faces, as though the veil had fallen from
Moses' face on theirs, and is fearful lest the same veil might hide from his
converts the glories of the Lord. In the fourteenth and fifteenth verses he says,
"Until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old
Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts." When the people turn unto the
Lord, the veil will be taken away. First let us lay aside the veil; then receive the
Spirit of the Lord; and then with unveiled face beholding in a mirror, or
reflecting as a mirror, the glory of the Lord, we shall be changed. The Old
Testament did not profit them because of the veil, because they did not realise
the power of the Holy Ghost, because they did not adequately reflect.
These are the three lessons for ourselves here today.
(1) Christ is in the New, as He was and is in the Old. Up till now, perhaps,
with some of us, our Bible study has not profited. We have not seen Jesus in
the Old or in the New; and, therefore, today let us meet the solemn challenge. Is
there any veil upon our face? There was a time when, in the Holy of Holies,
the veil was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. [See Matthew 27:51]
Has there ever been, in your life and mine, a rending of that veil? Has there ever
been a time when your spirit and your soul have been, so to speak, thrown into
one, and your individuality overshadowed and penetrated by the Shekinah glow
of the Holy Ghost? Has there ever been a moment in your life when there was
the sudden rending in twain from the top to the bottom of some prejudice, of
some uncharity, of some inconsistency in heart or life? Oh! what wonder, if
there be such a veil, that up till now the Word of God has been a veiled Book--
that you have not seen Christ in it! And whatever it may be, I pray you get
alone by yourselves before God Almighty and ask that this veil-- whatever has
come between you and the perfect vision of Christ in his Word-- may be
rent in twain, and that you may see eye to eye.
(2) But next, there must be the reception of the Holy Ghost. It was by the Holy
Ghost that the Prophets wrote, and by the Holy Ghost that the Apostles were
directed to understand what the Holy Ghost meant; and there must be on the
part of all of us the constant reception of the Holy Ghost who wrote the
Word, and who will reveal Jesus in that Word. It is by the Spirit that we
know the Lord all along the line of our life. You will find that if you live near
God, there will be a constantly fresh reception-- a constantly enlarging reception
of the Holy Ghost-- and in proportion as you get this, He will open up to you
the Old and the New Testament alike-- Jesus Christ and His glory. Have you
received the Holy Ghost? Have we received the Holy Ghost definitely into our
life, as a spirit of revelation? And do you, whenever you open the Word of God,
meekly bow your heads and say, "Oh! Spirit of God, shew me the face of
Christ here"?
(3) And then, lastly, in order to appreciate Christ in the Old or New Testament,
there must be reflection. People go away from our Conventions and
Conferences with their notebooks and say to themselves, "I have got it all here"
and they think that because they have recorded the words of the speaker they
have got the truth; whereas, in point of fact, they have only got so much truth
as they are obeying and living in their lives. Those are not blessed who hear, but
blessed who do--"that man shall be blessed in his deeds." And if you really
want to see Jesus in the Bible, you must go and live Jesus in your daily
life. When you have seen some sweet trait of the character of Jesus Christ in
the Word, you must ask that by the grace of the Holy Ghost you may
reflect it amongst men. I want just to say a thing here that has been of extreme
help to me. So often in one's life, one waits to feel impelled in a certain
Christ-like direction; and if the impulse does not come, one is disposed to
postpone action. But we have no right to wait to feel in the mood to act in such
and such a way; rather, by the force of our will, obeying the impulse of the
Holy Ghost who wills in us, it is our duty to do, or to attempt to do, what we
know we should do; and as we do it, we shall find ourselves able to do it; so
that, what we did merely by the force of our will, we shall do ultimately by the
choice of our heart. Thus if you will begin to live Christ up to the small limit of
your knowledge, and because you ought, you will be transfigured by reflecting
Christ, you will be changed into the likeness of Christ. In other words,
transfiguration does not only come to the man who, with rapt attention, beholds
the glory of God in Jesus, but to the man who day by day is trying to translate
Jesus into his daily life, and repeat Jesus in thought, word, and deed. If you
would be a Bible yourself, you would understand the Bible. If you would
pass on what you have found, the Bible would get richer and deeper to your
soul. So with the rent veil, with the reception of the Holy Ghost, and with the
daily endeavour in the power of the Spirit to live Christ, we shall ever find in
this Word the Christ who is in our heart. We shall see His face looking out
from Old Testament and from New, and we shall realise that the whole Book is
like His seamless robe, "woven from the top throughout."
1Kings 6:20. "Is not the love of Jesus the Holy of Holies unto millions of souls?
Is not the love of Jesus the inner sanctuary into which now, as the veil is rent,
we are permitted as priests to enter? We stand upon a pavement which is
redemption ground, and that ground is laid, every stone of it, in the love of
Jesus. We stand between walls of providence and grace, and whether it be the
providence of His Hand, or the grace of His Spirit, in either case we are
surrounded by the love of Jesus. We stand under a canopy which is bright with
glory, and full of mercy. It is a very heaven of heavens to us, but it is a heaven
of love, the heaven of the love of Jesus. Whether, therefore, we look up, we
look into the love of Jesus, or whether we look down, we look down into the
love of Jesus, or whether we look at the right hand, it is to the love of Jesus, or
whether we look to the left hand, it is to the love of Jesus. The Oracle is one full
of love in breadth and length and depth and height." ~Rev. J. B. Figgis
Written by Frederick Brotherton Meyer , Baptist Pastor and Evangelist
1847 - 1929
Further Reading:
Proof That Jesus Is The Jewish Messiah from the Old Testament
The King of Glory
The Trinity in The Old Testament
Why Did Jesus Have To Die For Us?
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| CHRIST....The Key To The Old Testament By F.B. Meyer |