Christ in the OT

This book, The Unfolding Mystery, is a great and easy to read survey of a few key OT stories, and how they point to Jesus.  The stories include Adam/Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Samuel, David, Solomon, and Elijah, along with a few more.

Here’s a section of Clowney’s discussion of Joshua.

“The role of Joshua as the military leader of the people of God prepares the way for the later judges and kings of Israel.  He anticipates, therefore, the role of Christ as the Lord’s Anointed, the Son of David, who is the Savior and deliverer of the people of God.  Jesus fulfills both sides of the covenant.  He is the Lord, the Divine Warrior, who comes for the salvation of his own.  He is also the Servant, the Lord’s Anointed, through whom the victory is won.  Joshua and his successors, the judges and kings of Israel, fight the battles of the Lord through the long centuries of warfare in the land.  Their struggles are recorded, not to describe their military genius, but to show how God used them to deliver Israel.  They all foreshadow a greater Deliverer and Savior to come.”

The book is full of great redemptive historical notes such as this one.  It does have a Scripture index in the back, which I’ve used quite a bit.  Not only would this book be a helpful one to study on your own, it would make a great Bible study book or discussion book on how to read the OT in light of the empty tomb.

Edmund Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (Phillipsburg: P&R, 1988), 135.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

Meribah: Yahweh on Trial

In Ex 17, Israel files a rib with Moses and ultimately Yahweh (v 2).  Many translations use terms like “quarrel” or “contend” or “grumble and complain” for rib.  Here’s Clowney’s assessment, which both Sarna (in Exodus) and Lincoln (in Truth on Trial) generally agree with.  (From The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament [Phillipsburg: P&R, 1988], 121-126.)

“The word ‘quarrel’ does not adequately express the meaning of the Hebrew term (rib). It is a legal term describing the institution of a lawsuit.  In the prophets it is used to express the lawsuit that God brought against Israel because they broke his covenant (Mic. 6.1-8).  Meribah designated Israel’s lawsuit against God.”  (Note the rib in Meribah, the name given to the place of this lawsuit in v7.)

Ex 17 tells us that Yahweh stood on the rock “before the people;” Clowney says “God stands in the place of the accused, and the penalty of the judgment is inflicted.”  The rock – where God was standing – was smitten, and water gushed out as a result of the blow from the rod of judgment.

“Is God, then, guilty?  No, it is the people who are guilty.  In rebellion they have refused to trust the faithfulness of God.  Yet God, the Judge, bears the judgment; He receives the blow that their rebellion deserves.  The law must be satisfied: if God’s people are to be spared, He must bear their punishment.”

Of course Clowney (following Paul in 1 Cor 10) shows how this finds its fulfillment in Jesus.  When Jesus was struck on the cross, water flowed; there was judgment for the Son of God and life for the people of God.  “Yes, the Lord was among them [the Israelites], among them in a way they could not have imagined.  There He stood upon the rock; not only among them, but in their place, bearing their condemnation.  Before God gave His covenant at Sinai, He pledged His presence at Calvary.”

“In His own Son, God came to bear our condemnation.”  He is the life-giving water, the true temple-presence of God who bears judgment so his people can have life.  Yahweh on trial in Ex 17 is a huge arrow pointing us to the trial of trials at the cross.

shane lems

sunnyside wa