Saturday, February 15, 2020

Jesus Christ in the Old Testament Session 5

Session Five: Theoderm: The Holy Skin of God in the Tabernacle, Altar, and Priesthood
In this session we’ll discuss the Theoderm, or The Holy Skin of God in the Tabernacle, Altar, and Priesthood.
Session Notes

What We Will Learn Today

God’s House as a New Garden of Eden
The Sacred Locations of God
Adam and Eve as the First Priests
The Tabernacle as the Skin of God
Christ as the High Priest
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Theoderm: The Holy Skin of God in the Tabernacle, Altar, and Priesthood

We read the Bible backwards and forwards. Like a novelist writes the beginning of his book with a view to the end, so God the divine Author wrote Genesis with a view to Revelation (and vice versa).

From Eden to the tabernacle to the temple to the Incarnation and the church, God is establishing his kingdom in creation.
The Creation account reads like the construction of the tabernacle and the tabernacle like the Creation account. God’s house is a new Eden.

All the individual parts of the tabernacle proclaim the person and work of the Messiah, who is the new tabernacle of God.

The Sacred locations of God:

Eden
Tabernacle
Temple
Incarnation
Proclaim God’s will to make earth and heaven his holy dwelling place with his priestly people in the Messiah.

Torah Doppelgangers: Creation and the Tabernacle

In Genesis 1, God is a divine priest overseeing a cosmic liturgy.
Language: badal (separate) and mo’ed (times) and ohel mo’ed (tent of meeting)
Creation is a liturgical event and the tabernacle is a creational event—and both are the Christological epiphany of God’s ultimate salvation
Other Parallels Between Creation and the Tabernacle:
Gen. 1:31 and Exodus. 39:43 have the same word for “saw”
In Gen 2:1 Exodus 39:32 the Hebrew of “completed” is the same root.
Gen. 2: and Exodus 40:33 The Hebrew of “completed” and “work” are the same roots in both passages.
Gen 2:3, “Gen 2:3 and Exodus 39:43, The Hebrew roots of “blessed” and “all the work” are the same.

Adam and Eve: The Priests in the Garden Sanctuary

Guarding and Keeping: the two verbs, shamar and avad, are used to describe the duties of Adam and Eve as well as the priests and Levites (Gen 2:15; Exod 12:24-25; Deut 12:12-13; Number 3-4).
Priests and Levites were God’s new Adams and Eves in the Eden Tabernacle and Temple.
Christ is the High Priest who keeps the Father’s word and guards us from the evil one by placing us in the new Eden and tabernacle of his body
Eden itself is the first temple
Flora and Fauna: The tabernacle

The tabernacle (and later the temple) also looked like Eden iconographically because there were numerous flora and fauna there
The message was unmistakable: this place is a paradise, a garden, an Eden, where God dwells amongst his people as of old.
Kings 6 and Exodus 25 tell of the intricate carvings and depictions of plants and animals.
All parts of the tabernacle/temple, in some way, partake of creation and anticipate the recreation given in the Messiah

Theoderm: The Tabernacle as the Skin of God

Altar—the axis of heaven and earth. The place of sacrifice. The cross
Wash Basin—priests washed their hands and feet herein, as NT priests are washed in baptism. Hebrews 10:22
Building itself—the body of Jesus. John 1:14 and 2:21
Lampstand: the illuminating tree of life in this new Eden, the image of the Holy Spirit and the churches. Revelation 1:4, 12, 20.
Bread of the Presence: the most holy bread which gave holiness to the priests as they ate it—a foretaste of the Eucharists

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Jesus Christ in the Old Testament Session 4

Session Four: Thematic Layering of Creation & Exodus

In this session we’ll discuss the Thematic Layering of Creation & Exodus

Session Notes

What We Will Learn Today

Thematic Layering of Creation
Thematic Layering of Exodus
Metalepsis in Scripture
Reading with a Christ-Centered Lens
Creation ex nihilo

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The two most pervasive themes in the bible

Creation
Exodus

Genesis 1-3 is the Christological microcosm of the Bible.
The entire identity and ministry of the Son of God is compressed into these chapters.

Exodus is Genesis Part II
In saving his people from slavery by using elements of creation for his redemptive purpose, God demonstrates that he is the Lord of new creation.

To create ex nihilo (Speak into) is another way of saying saved by grace alone

Metalepsis: This phenomenon of using a word or phrase that beckons hearers/readers back to an original context

Metalepsis in scripture:

John 1:1, “In the beginning [en arche] was the Word.”

This brings us back to Genesis 1…

Matthew 1:1, “The book of the genealogy [biblos geneseos] of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Same phrase in the Greek translation of Genesis 2:4 and 5:1-2.

Mark 1:1, “The beginning [arche] of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Again, bringing us back to Genesis

Psalms 135 and 136 show how Israel saw the relationship between creation and exodus.
The two naturally go together from an OT standpoint.

Isaiah 35
Eden-like desert, disabilities healed, and a holy highway to lead the exiled home to Zion.

Isaiah 65:17-25
The new heavens and new earth will be like a new created Zion; all emblems of a fallen creation will be gone; images from Genesis 3 affirm that this new creation will be free of death, sin, and evil.

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean”
Ezekiel 36

This is the language of the tabernacle taking us back through metalepsis

Isaiah 11
Brings together the story of the exodus and pictures the work of the Messiah as a second exodus

How the NT uses OT themes of New Creation and New Exodus:

As the New Israel, Jesus retraces the steps of old Israel to Egypt and back (Matthew 2:14-15)
At the Transfiguration, Jesus talks with Moses and Elijah about his exodus that he is to accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31)
Jesus is crucified and resurrected during Passover
Christ creates a new heavens and new earth, gathers all his people to Jerusalem, which has become the new Garden of Eden (Rev. 21-22).
Paul related the baptism in the Red Sea, the manna and the water all to the NT sacraments
The OT prophets saw creation and the exodus as the blueprint for the Messiah’s work
They read Genesis and Exodus through a Christ-centered lens

Both creation and the exodus preach the Gospel of Christ with an OT accent, and invite us to do the same

Jesus Christ in the Old Testament Session 3

Session Three: Christological Pencil Sketches

In this session we’ll discuss the Christological Pencil Sketches of Christ in the Old Testament.

Session Notes

What We Will Learn Today

Typological Interpretation in the OT
The Connection Between Adam, Noah, Abraham
The Messianic Priest, Melchizedek
Joshua as the OT Jesus
David as the foreshadowing of the Messiah

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Telos = The end
- Teleological = looking forward to the end
Jesus and the disciples used typological interpretation; the Jewish Rabbis called it
M’aseh avot siman lebanim, that is, the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the sons.

As an example, Abraham laid out a blueprint of what would happen to Israel

First Example of Typology: Noah

If you look closely, Noah is a second Adam
From Adam God started and in Noah God started again
If you look in the genealogies in Genesis chapter 5 you will find that Noah is the first recorded child born after the death of Adam.
- Ten generations from Adam to Noah and ten generations from Noah to Abraham
Noah’s father thought he was the Christ
The same language is used with Noah as with Adam

“Out of the ground [HA-ADAMAH] that the Lord has cursed [root: ARUR], this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil [root: ATSAV] of our hands. Gen. 5:29

Mirrors what said of Adam Gen. 3:17

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed [root: ARUR] is the ground [HA-ADAMAH] because of you; in toil [root: ATSAV] you shall eat of it all the days of your life.”

“In which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you.” 1 Peter 3:20-21

Second Example: Abraham

Noah and Abraham: Abraham going to Egypt, getting in trouble with Pharo and returning to the promised land is a foreshadowing of what will happen to the people of Israel under Moses later on
- Famine in the land of Israel
- Abraham and Sarah go down to Egypt to sojourn there
- They get into trouble with Pharaoh
- God plagues the house of Pharaoh because of Sarah
- Pharaoh sends Abraham and Sarah away with great riches
- Abraham and Sarah return from exile to the Promised Land
The Exodus of Abraham and Sara and then of the Israelites becomes the paradigm of the Exodus of salvation

Third Example: Melchizedek and the Messianic Priest and King

Gentile priest and king of Salem in Gen. 14
Priestly order of the Messiah in Ps. 110
Mysterious type of Christ in Hebrews 7

Fourth Example: Joshua and Jesus

Joshua is Hebrew of Jesus
Joshua leads Israel across the jordan and Christ is baptized in the same river
Joshua led his people into the promised land, Jesus is the promised savior
Joshua was the OT Jesus who prepares us for the NT Jesus

Fifth Example: David as the foreshadowing of the Messiah

David was the OT image of who the Christ was to be
In Ezekiel, Jesus is actually called David
- Ezekiel 34:23-24
- Ezekiel 37:24-25

To read the OT narratives from a Christological perspective, is not to read into them what is not there, but to read out of them what the Spirit put there. Just as light is necessary for us to see the colorful images of a kaleidoscope, so the light of Christ shines on these narratives to fully show the colorful ways they portrayed the Messiah

Jesus Christ in the Old Testament Session 2

augustinehippo1 / 2 weeks ago

Session Two: Christophanies, or Appearances of Christ

As we “walk backward to Bethlehem” together, we’ll see that the Old Testament Scriptures are not only full of prophecies of the Messiah, but also the presence of the Messiah, as he reveals himself to His people in manifold ways.

Session Notes

What We Will Learn Today

The implicit prophecy of the Incarnation in the creation of Adam and Eve
Why God forbade the making of divine images in the old covenant
The difference between chronos and kairos time
Christ as the Malak Yahweh
Christ as the Word, Wisdom, Glory, Name, Power, and Man of God

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What does “walking backward to Bethlehem” mean?
- The Hebrew word for “in front of” (qedem) is the same word for “past”
- The word for “behind” (achar) is the basis for the word for “future” (achareet)

Luther writes in his Genesis commentary that, in saying the Adam and Eve were created in the image of God,

“Moses wanted to intimate dimly that God was to become incarnate…Because he was created in the image of the invisible God, that statement is a dim intimation, as we shall hear, that God was to reveal Himself to the world in the man Christ. These seeds, as it were, of very important facts the prophets have carefully gathered from Moses and considered,” (AE 1:87).

The Prophets read and studied the Bible just as we do

Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. Jesus is the image of God.

Everything post-Torah is inspired interpretation and expansion.

The Torah forbids the making of divine images. Why?
- This is to make Israel wait until God himself discloses his own image in the incarnation.

Christmas is forecast in the Ten Commandments.

Two Versions of Time in the Old Testament

Chronos, from which we get chronological, is the moment by moment, day by day, gradual progression of time from the past into the future
Kairos, on the other hand, is the occasional explosion into chronological time of God’s time.
God works in chronos and kairos time

Genesis 16:7,9-10
The angel of the Lord say I will greatly multiply your offspring, not that God will.
Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “Thou art a God who sees”

Genesis 22:11-12
Once more, he speaks with divine authority and identifies himself with God.

Exodus 3:2-7
We meet the Son of God again in Exodus 3 at the burning bush.

Exodus 20:20-22
Here, the one who would eventually accomplish his own saving exodus of the world sends Moses.

Exodus 23:20-21
God says that his name is in this Messenger.

The Son also appears as:

The Glory of God
The Wisdom of God
The Word of God
The Man of God

The OT is not just full of the prophecies of the Messiah, but the presence of the Messiah, as he reveals himself to his people in manifold ways.

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