The Seed Blog: Shadows of Light

Just after Jesus was Crucified and His disciples were left with crushed faith and hopelessness, two of those disciples were walking to a village called Emmaus when Jesus joined them in their walk. Jesus kept them from recognizing Him for a reason which we are about to see: Luke 24:13-27. Just like these disciples, so many people (even Christians) are having struggles with faith in a world that ridicules and rejects our Jesus. So many others are simply clueless to the overwhelming proof that our Jesus is absolutely the Creator and Savior of their very lives.

Today—using exactly what Jesus used—let’s uncover some of the most unparalleled and indisputable facts that show us this book and our Jesus
are absolutely like none other on earth. Jesus did not have a New Testament written about Himself to use when telling the disciples of all He had done and would do. He did not need One. He had something just as complete and even more compelling—every Word of the Old Testament because it told of what would happen before it came to be. The Old Testament was written in God’s perfect plan and sovereignty, literally guiding events, history, people, and nations, to give us perfect, detailed, shadows concerning the revealing and the plans of the Christ—the Ultimate Redeemer of all men. Jesus Himself explained to the disciples at His Coming using, “Moses, the Prophets… And all of the Scriptures!” These disciples immediately ran to the other eleven and as they were explaining what happened, Jesus appeared to them all. Then after proving He was of flesh and bone, He said to the eleven disciples as well: Luke 24:44-46. Using the OT only Jesus showed how it had been written of His suffering, death, and resurrection. Let’s take a look at just a very small portion of those passages—passages Jesus surely revealed to His disciples on that evening—remembering that every passage we discuss was written long before Jesus was ever born (proven by the most secular of scholars through the Septuagint (Greek Translation) in 285BC to 246BC).
Let’s start at the very beginning, at the initial fall of man (6000yrs) written by Moses about 1400BC. We see that God is already revealing He has a plan to crush Satan and restore mankind: Genesis 3:15. Women do not have Seed, and Scriptures do not Speak this way anywhere else (only one woman). This Seed of a woman was later revealed completely in Isaiah 740yrs before Jesus ever walked the earth: Isaiah 7:14. To say that God would have a Son—much less from the Seed of a woman—was unknown, unthinkable, even blasphemous. But we see glimpses of these Truths throughout the OT: Proverbs 30:4; Psalms 2:6-12. So we see a Man of the Seed of a woman promised to come as a Savior and King—Who would be called, “The Son of God” and “God with us.” And there are close to 300 more OT Prophecies giving exact details of the exact days He would walk the earth; of catastrophic events shortly after His Coming (Temple, Dispersion); of His parents lineage; His birth, and His place of birth; His earthly ministries performed; details of His suffering, betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection [and we will discuss a few of these in just a moment]. But first, I ask you to join me in seeing something truly amazing and unique to any other writing on earth. Watch how God shaped incredible events which made no sense to those involved or even to those recording the events, which were living pictures in history that screamed the plan of God. Listen to this, seemingly insane command of God to Abraham that so many have questioned
(remember when God does something unusual, He has a plan): Genesis 22:1-8. Please grasp every detail of this incredible story, written by someone clueless of the events in Jesus’ Life. Abraham was told to take his only son and make him a sacrifice. God allowed Abraham to mourn for what he thought would be his son’s death for a three days journey. He was told to take Issac to Mount Moriah (to a mountain of God’s choice), an obscure, weird choice from where Abraham was at the time [which was in Jerusalem exactly where Jesus was offered as a Sacrifice 2000 years later]. There were two other men who walked the road to the sacrifice, just as the two criminals that walked with Jesus. Issac placed the wood for his own sacrifice on his back and walked up the hill to his own planned death. Abraham prophetically said (unknown at the time), “My son, God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering.” This was lived out and written about 2000 years before any knowledge of Jesus:  dearly loved, only son, given by his father as a sacrifice; mourned for three days; accompanied on his journey to death by two other men; to be sacrificed in the exact place of Jesus Crucifixion (2000 years later); carrying the wood of his own sacrifice up the hill to die. Genesis 22:13-14:
The very mountain that Jesus would die upon was named, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Genesis 22:15-18: Because Abraham was so faithful to produce this forever shadow, God said that ion his seed all nations would be blessed. [This is but one of many stories lived out by real people, all orchestrated by God in history, to cast undeniable shadows of the Christ to come. Moses raised a bronze serpent, symbolizing what killing the people with their poison, for all the poisoned people to look upon (and be healed): Jesus was raised up as the poison that was killing us, for all the people infected to look upon and be healed. Joseph was betrayed and sold out by his brothers (Genesis 37-50); he had his garments stripped from him; he was falsely accused and rejected; he was anointed of God and raised to have equal status in power to the Pharoah; he brought lifesaving bread to the whole known world. The Passover was established by God Himself to free the Israelites from slavery and death and start a new year; requiring the blood of a lamb to cover the door of every person who had faith in God to save; and death would pass them by, if the Blood was applied. Jesus, 1400 years later in history (Roman and Hebrew Torah), came into Jerusalem on the same day the lamb was to be chosen, and died on the day the lambs were being slaughtered for sacrifice as had been rehearsed unknowingly for 1400 years. The other three Spring and Summer Feasts established by God lived out for 1400 years (Unleavened Bread, representing the taking away of sins, fell on the day Jesus laid in the Grave removing sin; First Fruits representing the first of the harvest fell on the day Jesus arose as the first fruit of Salvation; Pentecost celebrates the day the Law was given to men and because of sin 3000 died that day—1400 years later on that day the Holy Spirit was given—the Law written in men’s hearts not stone—and 3000 people were saved through Christ.) The three remaining feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles) tell us of being called in from the harvest to the Temple (place where God dwells); of closing the Temple doors and making all judgments final; of dwelling in the Promised Land forever with God. If the first four historically came true to the hour and detail, can we not trust the last three will as well?
In Exodus 17:6-7 and Numbers 20:8-13, while dying in the desert from thirst, Moses was commanded to strike a rock and fresh, life-giving waters came out for all. Later he was commanded to do so a second time, but this time to only speak to the rock. Moses ruined the image by striking the rock again, but the shadow God cast was clear, the rock which was struck brought Living Waters, and He only had to be struck once. How about: How about the mysterious “Manna” which came down from Heaven that was the bread of life for all who had escaped slavery? The fourth Man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who walked with them in their trials and intended death and saved them. How about Boaz the Kinsman redeemer who took Ruth, a nobody gentile as his bride and paid the price to return all taken from her and give her lost inheritance back? How about Jonah with the strange story of being alone in the depths in a great fish that happened to represent the death of the Ninevites he would save when he returned? How about Jonathan (David’s best friend, son of Saul) who made a blood covenant with the King (David) to save all of those in his lineage (that should have been killed) because he was one with them—just as Jesus became one of us to make a Blood Covenant with God. How about the Sacrifices on the Day of Atonement for 1400 years (Leviticus 16:21-23)—one goat to receive the sins of the man and die for him, one goat to receive our sins and carry them far away, never to be seen again? How about the very Tabernacle of God built to represent God’s Presence, and in front of the Holy of Holies where God dwelt, was the light, the bread, the incense prayers, and behind the curtain—the Ark—the Presence of God, which could only be approached if the Ark was sprinkled with blood as God is only approached with the Blood of Christ?
We could go on for some time. Do you think every one of these events, Feasts, and lives lived could possibly have so strangely occurred and been recorded after the events, only to perfectly paint such unusual, and specific future details of one Man in all history? God, in His awesome power and wisdom, didn’t just proclaim His Son’s Coming, He caused all of history to mimic, rehearse, illustrate every facet of His truth to make it unavoidable, undeniable.
Suppose you had been there on the day that Jesus looked up to Heaven and cried, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” And you immediately recognized those Words from ancient Scriptures from Psalm 22::1, 6-8, 12-18. What if you had stood in the Roman Praetorium as one yelling “Crucify Him,” and watched Him led away in chains as a criminal, silent; watched Him be beaten until His face was unrecognizable; watched Him have deep stripes cut into His body, whipped with a scourge until His flesh was in ribbons; watched Him be accused of sins against God, accused of being judged of God; watched Him die and be buried in a rich, repentant Pharisee’s tomb? What if you visited His empty grave three days later and then went to the Synagogue the next day to hear this reading?: Isaiah 53:3-10. If you had witnessed these things, knew these OT Writings—would you need a NT verse to know this was the coming Messiah? Absolutely not, because you would have seen all of your Scriptures to that date lived out before your eyes in one Man, in one moment: John 5:39, 46-47; Hebrews 10:5-7. When the disciples were overwhelmed by this now seemingly false Messiah, which they had hoped in so very much; when they were scared of the consequences of following a Savior no one else seemed to believe in or agree with—Jesus, as a hidden stranger answered their wavering faith with proof that all Scriptures had beautifully told His story; that all of Scriptures had described every event they had seen, hundreds, even thousands of years before He came, in every crazy story of real lives throughout history. In every Law given, every Feast held, every Sacrifice made, every Prophecy uttered, they saw the indisputable truth orchestrated through all time in this Book of God; this Messiah of God. If you are wise, honest, hungry—you cannot come to any other decision than to join them in their restored faith and allegiance. However long our Messiah tarries before He returns, never lose hope in His truth and in His plan. It is all spelled out to the end. Stop looking up, and start working for Him as the Disciples did after these events. The soul you may help save could be that last one He was waiting for before He returns!