August 12, 2009

• The Substance of Shadows

  A Look at the Reality of Old Testament Symbols
  

  I am going to “sort of” divert ever so slightly from Galatians.
  Bernie (site located HERE) had asked an interesting question over at his site and it
  prompted a “thought”… (yeah that can be dangerous… but eh… I will
  just live “dangerously” today.)

  His question was concerning the “Ark of the Covenant,” he essentially asked…. 
  “Where is the Ark of the Covenant and should we be looking
  for it?”

  At first glance it seems like that question would be easy enough to answer.  Well… not exactly… you see the topic is actually much
  BIGGER
  than one would first expect.   Funny how that always happens with God. He is always so
  much bigger than we think and His deeds are so much bigger than we can
  imagine!  So, let’s
  dig a little into this……..
  Bee

  The Substance of Shadows

  All physical principles (being created by an amazing God) carry within
  them the “finger print” of the creator, light and darkness is no
  exception.  I would like to take a peek (particularly in the epistles
  since we are in the Book of Galatians,) at an interesting word in
  scripture… the word is “Shadow”. 

  There is a fascinating verse in Hebrews 8:1-5.  It is obviously
  contrasting the eternal priesthood of Christ with the earthly
  priesthood, but what I want you to notice is the phrase I underlined….
   
  “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have
  such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of
  the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true
  tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.  For every high priest
  is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is
  necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on
  earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the
  gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things,
  as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the
  tabernacle. For He said,  “See that  you make all things according to
  the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

  Hmmm… these things that Hebrews speaks of… the Tabernacle, the
  Priesthood, etc… the author says that these things are but a “shadow”
  and a “copy” of the heavenly things!  This got me to thinking about the
  nature of shadows in general and I began to apply that to what we knew
  of these things that were symbols of God’s interaction with mankind
  over the ages… (things like the Ark of the Covenant.)

  To help get a picture of this… let’s first look at the
  characteristics of a shadow.  What causes a shadow?  Is it not the
  position of the Light? 

  1. The Fore-shadow:  This is the shadow that is cast “in front of” a
  person or thing.  This happens when light from behind is shown on the
  object.

  2. Absence of Shadow: This indicates that light is directly overhead shining down on the person or object.

  3. The Aft-shadow:  This is the shadow that falls behind someone and
  indicates that light is coming from in front of a person or object.

  Now let’s apply these characteristics to those things spoken of in Hebrews and think of a time line……

  1. Fore-shadow:  The light from eternity past has spoken and a “shadow”
  began to form.  The shadows at first appeared like symbols such as the
  Tabernacle, the Ark, and others but soon they began to take on the form
  of a Savior and preceded the arrival of Messiah!

  2. Absence of shadow:  He is here.  Christ walked this earth in the flesh and light from above illuminated him.  There was no “shadow” we saw him in the reality of space and time.

  3. Aft-shadow:  Christ has ascended….has “passed by us” so to speak,
  but behind him we see a “shadow” because there is a “future light”, (or
  light from in-front-of) that is being cast upon him.  This light from
  the future points toward a “glorified Christ” who will rule and reign
  as was seen at His ascension.

  I know this is rather abstract, but bear with me.

  The “shadows” of things past … the tabernacle, the ark of the
  covenant, the priesthood, all of these things spoke of Christ, His
  character and His redeeming work.  That is why God was so particular
  about the pattern!  

  Now here is something else interesting… look at this verse… it
  speaks of a shadow as being something that indicates not just past
  things but also “things to come.”

  Col 2: 16,17 “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” 
  
  The feasts, festivals and sabbaths point to “things to come”, (at least
  that was the understanding of the first century church at the time.) 
  There is much in prophecy about a “sabbath rest” for the people of God,
  a time when they will be in the promised land and the lion will lay
  down with the lamb, swords will be made into plowshares, etc… 
  There will be a literal rule and reign of Christ on this earth, at
  least until the “new heavens and the new earth” are created.  And when
  the new heavens and the new earth is created, there is an
  interesting thing that shows up. 

  Revelation 21 describes the new heavens and the new earth and in
  particular the “New Jerusalem”… also called “The Bride”… it has the
  names of the twelve apostles on it’s foundations and the names of the
  twelve tribes of Israel on it’s gates.  There is no need for a temple
  in this city because as vs.  22 says the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
  is it’s temple.  The lamb is also it’s light source.  How glorious this
  city will be!  But there are a couple of strange verses… look at
  15,16…

  “The angel who talked to me held in his hand a gold measuring stick
  to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. When he measured it, he
  found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles.”
  
  
  The New Jerusalem will be a perfect “cube”, how odd!  Not
  really, if we study the “shadow”…. the “Most Holy Place” or “Holy
  of Holies” within the Tabernacle was a perfect cube, this was also the pattern in the Temple.
  
  1Kings 6:20 “The inner sanctuary was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits
  wide, and twenty cubits high. He overlaid it with pure gold, and
  overlaid the altar of cedar.”

  Do you see what has happened!!??  The thing that was only a
  “shadow” has actually become a reality and expanded to fill
  everything!  The small intimate Holy of Holies that only the priest
  could enter into once a year now fills all in all!  We must always remember that the shadow is never as glorious as the reality it points to. 

  So to answer Bernie’s question… should we be looking for the Ark of
  the Covenant?  I would say yes…… but we will find it much BIGGER
  than we ever imagined.

  • 1:06 am
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