MAN is only a visitor here. “There is none abiding.” But, short as his stay on earth really is, he cannot, of himself, make sure of the future. One thing he knows; he is under notice to quit, but when he has to leave, and what will transpire before leaving, he cannot say. No matter how clever he may be, or how experienced, he cannot look into the future. To strain his imagination, and make ‘a good guess’, as he calls it, is his limit. But if man cannot, God can; and this He claims as His divine prerogative. Mark what He says, “I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (Isa. 46:9,109Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isaiah 46:9‑10)).
There is no greater witness of this than that which is brought before us in Old Testament foreshadowings. The precious truths in connection with our eternal blessing recorded in the last books of Scripture, we find distinctly foreshadowed in the first. But all is simple when we remember that it is the word of Him who can declare “the end from the beginning”. And in a day, when the inspired authority of the Old Testament, especially the earlier part, is being daringly questioned, we would earnestly seek to draw the reader’s careful attention to this vital matter. Of course, in the very nature of things, shadow could never perfectly answer to substance; there must be marked contrasts as well as comparisons; and so it is with these inspired foreshadowing’s? But there is another important thing to notice. When any subject is illustrated by a human figure, the substance invariably precedes the figure. For example, the lion existed before you could speak of being ‘as strong as a lion’. Man can no more give you the shadow of that which has not yet come into substantial existence, than he could exhibit your photograph ten years before you were born! But it is not so with God. Let us look at Genesis 22 and 24. and notice how the foreshadowing is answered by the full-revealing, hundreds of years later.
In Genesis 22 we have the record of the journey of Abraham with Isaac to the spot where God had told him his beloved son was to be offered as a sacrifice. The first thing to note is their intercourse by the way as to their significant errand. A great contrast at once becomes manifest. Abraham’s beloved son was not in the secret of what was before him; God’s beloved Son was. From the very beginning of His ministry His forerunner proclaimed Him to be “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 3629The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
36And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! (John 1:36)). Getting nearer to the cross, He had special intercourse with His Father about His death (see John 12:27, 2827Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. 28Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (John 12:27‑28)). “Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” Now come to the foreshadowing. Isaac said to his father, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. Here was prefigured a fact which is the very foundation of our peace, and the guarantee of every other blessing. God’s beloved Son crucified was His Own gracious provision for satisfying His Own righteous requirements as to man’s sinful deserts. Even in the days of Job He could say of such a ruined creature, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a Ransom” (Job 33:2424Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24)).
At last Abraham reached the appointed spot. The altar was built, and the wood laid in order. Then the beloved son was bound, and the knife taken to slay him! Here we get another lovely feature of the blessed One thus typified. There was neither resistance nor complaining in either case, nothing but absolute submission.
But here we get a touching contrast. At God’s request, Abraham’s beloved son had not been withheld. But when the test had proved his faithfulness, a voice from heaven arrested the uplifted hand. Abraham’s beloved son must be spared. But if sinners were to be saved by the death of the Sinless One, the holy Son of God could not be spared! So marvelously has God proved Himself to be set for our blessing, that “He spared not His Own Son but delivered Him up for us all” (Rom. 8:31, 3231What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31‑32)).
Then, at this point, God supplies the true ground of assurance for anxious souls. He said to Abraham, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me” (vs. 12). Who could count the myriads of troubled hearts that have been brought at last to say, “Now I know”? ―Now I know that Thou lovest me; for Thou hast not withheld Thy Son, Thine only Son from me― even Jesus.
Next we get another striking and comforting contrast. “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram; and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”
We are not told how that wandering sheep came there, to die for the beloved son; but we are told how the beloved Son of God came here. It was to die ‘in the stead of’ the wandering sheep. That well-known verse very definitely expresses it (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16))― “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
Abraham looked behind him to see the victim; and we do the same.
“My soul looks back to see
The burden Thou did’st bear,
When hanging on the accursed tree,
For all my guilt was there.”
Isaac, therefore, was released and returned home with his father; and this the Apostle refers to as a type of resurrection. He says that Abraham offered his only begotten son; accounting that God was “able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19)). Ascension followed.
But the resurrection of Christ and His return to heaven is not the end of the precious story. A few days later, the Holy Ghost descended to take from among the Gentiles “a people for His Name” (Acts 15:7, 8, 147And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; (Acts 15:7‑8)
14Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14)), and to form them into one as the bride for which He gave Himself.
When at last this gracious work is accomplished by the Spirit, and the present day of grace is ended, the Son will come forth to meet her in the air, and take her to the place prepared for her in His Father’s house (John 14:2, 32In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2‑3); 1 Thess. 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)). This, also, was foreshadowed. When toward evening, Isaac went forth to meditate, he saw that the One sent to win and secure his bride was returning; and the eyes of bride and bridegroom met. After the first greeting, he brought her with love to his mother’s tent as his wife.
So that we have an undeniable foreshadowing of the death of Christ, His resurrection, His ascension (that is, His return to His Father’s house), and His coming again; together with the mission of the Holy Ghost to this world. Who, but One able to see “the end from the beginning” could bring about and record the foreshadowing of such things as these; and in the very order in which they came to pass? The daring skepticism, so deplorably increasing today, becomes absolutely excuseless in the light of such facts. May God open eyes to see the deadly error, and to rejoice in the truth.
GEO. C.