The Bible and Indirect Forecast
The waters of the Pool of Siloam, outside of the city of Jerusalem, have their fountains underneath the ancient site of the temple on Moriah. Those springs discharged their waters through a subterranean passage and came up in Siloam’s Pool — then, again following an underground conduit, appeared in another pool farther on; and then, following still another subterranean passage to the Gardens of Solomon, distributed their irrigating and fertilizing influences and promoted fertility. Dr. Edward Robinson, of New York, crawled on his hands and knees through this subterranean passage, in order positively to ascertain whether such hidden channels existed.
The Messianic Conception, springing from beneath the Throne of God, follows hidden channels, coming up now and then in clear, direct messianic prediction; then, following other courses beneath the surface, opens up in Messianic history, and so waters and fertilizes the whole Garden of the Lord;
and when the student, in a devout frame of mind,
123 studies, under the control of the Spirit, the prophecy and the history, and traces even those concealed and indirect suggestions of the coming of Christ, he finds everywhere new unfoldings of the Messianic idea.
These Indirect Prophecies about the Lord Jesus Christ now claim attention. Two passages of Scripture at the outset need careful comparison.
In Luke xxiv, we have a record of an informal discourse of our Lord, while going with two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus. On that occasion of His post-resurrection appearance and converse — “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (verse 24). Still more definitely He said: “All things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me” (verse 44).
The Old Testament scriptures were popularly divided into these three main parts: (i) The Law, or the historical books; (2) The Psalms, or the poetical; (3) and the Prophets, or the prophetical. This division, though not exact, was the current way of classification, and is still followed in the Hebrew Old Testament. Christ,
therefore, showed His disciples how they could
124 start with Moses — the beginning — follow the course of the Law or historical writings, pass into the Psalms, the poetical and devotional, and then through the whole group of prophetical books, and in all those scriptures trace things concerning Himself which must needs be fulfilled.
Where our Lord has spoken, it is ours to be silent, hear and learn. If any one doubts or denies that there are such intimations in the Old Testament scripture, it is enough to refer him to the authority of the Master. It must take nothing short of audacity to venture any such denial in face of this post-resurrection assurance from the Lord Himself.
How did this discourse come to be known to Luke? The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit should bring to their remembrance the things that He had said to them; and ordinarily it is safe to infer that, where anything is recorded, the party recording it was present on the occasion; and there is little reason to doubt that it was Luke himself who was with Cleopas, and was the other unnamed disciple who, on this journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, heard these marvellous words of Christ.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, there is what seems to be the substance of this discourse of our Lord to these two disciples. AU readers of the
Word have felt how gladly they would have been w:th those three, that day, and had their hearts burn within them “while He opened to them the Scriptures;” and the question has often been raised whether there is any hint in the Bible of what Christ said on that occasion. Possibly we may find such a hint in this Epistle to the Hebrews. Luke was the companion of Paul, and it is generally conceded that, if Paul did not write this anonymous letter to the Hebrews, he, who did,wrote at Paul’s dictation or with his cooperation and under his immediate guidance. If this be true, how likely it would be that Luke should have communicated to Paul, his companion, the substance of this conversation; and so m the Epistle to the Hebrews the substance of that discourse is reproduced. This seems the more likely, as this is the only letter in the New Testament which shows, on a large scale how the Old Testament Scriptures contain indirect as well as direct predictions of the Lord Jesua Christ.
For instance, the contents of the first ten chapters present before us six or seven ways in which the Old Testament foreshadows Christ: (i) Typical characters and oces; (2) typical structure and furniture in the tabernacle; (3) typical
rites and ceremonies; (4) typical events and
126 scenes; (5) typical fasts and feasts; (6) typical sayings and doings; (7) typical precepts and prohibitions. All these are drawn from the Old Testament, and used by the writer of this Epistle to prove that, even where no direct prediction is found, indirect forecasts referring to Christ may be distinctly traced. In these ten chapters it is curious that seven words are used, indicating the typical character of Old Testament teaching. For instance, the word ‘’order:’” “After the order (or rank) of Melchisedec;” ‘’Likeness’’ or “similitude,’* used of the same party; “shadow;’” “example’” ’ ‘parable •“” type; ““anti-type; ’ ‘* these words or their equivalents occur in the chcpters referred to; we give the English equivalents of the original terms; for instance, the word “parable” does not occur in the English version, but in the ninth chapter, eighth verse, in the Greek Not only have we these seven words, to indicate that we may find typical teaching in the Old Testament, but it is distinctly said in the ninth chapter, eighth verse, — (“The Holy Ghost this signifying”) — that the Holy Spirit, in these types of the Old Testament, signified or forecast Messianic truth. It is certainly noteworthy that the intimation is twice given by Luke, that Christ un-”olded the things
* vapaoXr], (airoeLyixa, (TKta, rais, 000:0x775, tvttos ajriTUTTOs.
127 concerning Himself in the law of Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets; and then, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, it would seem as though the very substance of that discourse is unfolded by divine illumination to the mind of the writer, so that we can trace in a large part of the Old Testament, these typical characters and offices, events and sayings, rites and ceremonies.
What pertains specially to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, constitutes, in itself, a body of testimony deserving special notice; but at present we notice some of the forecasts, found in these ancient types and parables, or, as they are called in one place, allegories — * that is, without denying their historical value as facts, hinting that, beneath the historical facts, lies another and deeper meaning, to be unfolded.
For instance, the epistle refers to certain typical characters and offices. In the first few chapters we have four such typical personages: (i) Adam, (2) Moses, (3) Aaron, (4) Melchisedec. Adam forecasts Christ as the Second Man, the Last Adam. Adam was created a prophet, by immediate intuition to know the will of God; a priest, having the right to stand before God in specially intimate relationship; and a king, having the sceptre of
* Galatians v; 24 aWi]lopovfj£va.
dominion over the visible creation; so that he embodied in himself these three parallel functions. When he fell, he ceased to be a prophet, and needed a teacher; he ceased to be a priest, and needed a mediator; he ceased to be a king, and needed a sovereign to reign over him and regain for him his lost sceptre. All this the Seed of the woman was to accomplish. He was to be God’s Prophet to men, to teach God’s will; the High Priest, to represent man before God; and the King, to rule man and eventually bring all things in subjection under His feet. This three-fold character of Christ as the Last Adam is further anticipated and forecast in the three great characters of the Old Testament that follow — Moses, Aaron and Melchisedec.
In the third chapter we read: “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession;” Apostle — Moses; High Priest — Aaron. An apostle is one sent from God to man, an authorized prophet and teacher; a High Priest is one sent forth from man to God, an appointed representative. Christ as God’s apostle comes forth from God to represent Him to man, and as High Priest goes back to God to represent man to God; and so in Moses, the apostle and prophet, and in Aaron, the priest we have two typical characters, representing two
aspects of that three-fold character foreshadowed
129 in Adam, and to be fulfilled in the Seed of the woman.
In Melchisedec, a priest-king, this three-fold profile is completely filled out. Moses and Aaron together (brothers jointly sharing the administration) represent Him as the Prophet-Priest; then Melchisedec is presented as the Priest-King, and together the three foreshadow all three great offices of Jesus Christ, and hint, by their combination, that those offices are to be combined in Him.
Typical structure and furniture are shown in the tabernacle, the description of which, with its contents and ritual, occupies more rooni in the Bible than any other single object or subject in the Old or New Testaments, and there must be a reason for it. Every detail of the tabernacle is described, and seven times in all is reference made to the pattern shown in the Mount,* to emphasize the fact that in no respect, however minute, was that pattern to be disregarded. What was that pattern? The simple diagram opposite may assist to fix on the mind, through the eye, the structure of the Tabernacle. At the rear was the Holiest of all, a perfect cube, ten cubits long, deep and high; in front of it, separated by a
Exod. XXV: 9, 40, xxvi: 30, xxviii: 8. Numbers viii: 4. Acts vil: 44. Heb. vin:5. Como. I. Chron. xxviii: 11, 12, 18, 19.
DfAGRAM of the TABERNACLE
AND ITS FURNITURE
HOLY OF HOUES
SECOND VEIL
GOLDEN
ALTAR OF INCENSE
HOLY PLACE
GOLDEN
TABLE
CANOLTSnCft SHEW BREAD
FIRST VEIL
ILAVER
OUTER COURT
BRAZEN
ALTAR
%.
s* veil, the Holy Place, twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad; and, outside another veil, the court.
As to the furniture of the tabernacle: first, outside the first veil and directly in front, as one approached, was the brazen altar of sacrifice, and back of it, the laver. Then, inside of the first veil, the table of shew bread on the right; and on the left, the golden candlestick; then, nearer to the second veil, the golden altar of incense. Beyond this second veil was the Ark, with the mysterious cover — the Mercy Seat, with the Cherubim facing each other, and bowing over it; and, in between them, burned the sacred Shekinah fire.
Here, then, are seven objects that fixed the gaze:
(i.) The Brazen Altar of Sacrifice that stood for atonement by blood.
(2.) The Laver that stood for Regeneration through the Word and through the Spirit, as is plainly taught in the New Testament.
(3.) The Table of Shew Bread, with its oblations and libations,* representing food and drink for the sustentation of life.
(4.) The Golden Candlestick, with its seven branches, type of Christ as the light of the world.
* The latter are often overlooked; there seems no question that the cups or bowls on that table represented liquid food, as the “Loaves of Presence” represented solid food.
(5.) The Altar of Incense which stands for prayer and supplication.
(6.) The Mercy Seat, that stands for Intercession, Reconciliation and Identification with God.
(7.) And then the Shekinah Fire, that symbol of the Life of God, and specifically, the Holy Spirit.
That succession of objects, seen by the High Priest as he went into God’s presence, represents the entire work of the Lord Jesus Christ from the beginning to the end of His sacrificial and glorious mediation on behalf of man. In the Gospel according to John, the order of truth as there unfolded with regard to the person and work of Jesus Christ, is exactly correspondent with the order of these objects in the Tabernacle, and in not one particular is that order violated. In the first chapter — “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world” — reminds us of the sacrifices on the Brazen Altar; in the third chapter: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” suggests the Laver of Regeneration; in the fourth and sixth chapters. He is represented as the Drink that satisfies all thirst, and as “the Bread of Life; he that cometh unto Me shall never hunger.” Thus, in these chapters, the Table of Shew Bread, with its oblations and libations, is suggested.
In the eighth and ninth chapters Christ twice distinctly declares “I am the light of the worid.” Here we are reminded of the golden candlestick, and that suggestion of light runs through; for example, the blind man in the ninth chapter relieved from his blindness from birth, and made to see, is the symbol of the sinner, when the light of the world shines on his darkness and drives it away.
Then, in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters, we have that seven-fold lesson on “asking in Jesus’ name,” never before taught — which corresponds to the golden altar of incense; and, in the seventeenth chapter, the great glimpse of His own intercession, and the first and only instance of that general work of intercession,* forecast in the fourteenth chapter, sixteenth verse, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.”
Exactly the order of the sacred furniture of the tabernacle reappears apparently in the truth unfolded here, so that the Apostle John’s Gospel narrative becomes, as it were, a new tabernacle of testimony, where we begin at the outer court, go into the holy place, pass the veil into the Holy of
* Compare Luke xxii: 32. This was not general but individual. “I have prayed for thee.”
Holies, and hear His intercession as He stands before the throne, although not Himself yet permanently withdrawn within that veil.
This veil itself is typical, as we are taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It represents “His flesh,” which flesh was rent, in order that the salvation of the world might be accomplished, and the believer himself draw near to the Mercy Seat. Here, in this Intercessory Prayer, we have a glimpse of Christ’s perpetual mediation beyond the veil. Then, when, having passed through the experience of death. He comes forth from the grave in resurrection power. He ascends on high to send the Holy Spirit to teach the Church the two great and glorious privileges, of which He has thus given the forecast: Access in Him to the Mercy Seat; identification between God and man in Christ: — “My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God.” And then the impartation of the Shekinah Fire and Light to us: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
Let this startling correspondence not be too hastily passed by.
The tabernacle, constructed in the time of Moses, all the details of which and its furniture are described with minuteness, was not in one particular, to be deviated from in the slightest respect. Connected with this structure were the Brazen Altar, Laver, Table of Shew Bread, Golden Candlestick, Altar of Incense, Ark and Mercy Seat with Shekinah Fire, — and, when John writes the last of the gospel narratives — particularly setting forth the Deity of the Son of God, and the fact that by believing in His name we have eternal life — he begins at the Brazen Altar: “Behold the Lamb of God;” he passes to the Laver: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit;” he takes us to the Shew Bread Table: “I am the Bread of Life;” he points us to the Golden Candlestick: “I am the Light of the World;” he leads us to the Altar of Incense: “Ask in My name;” and he then gives us a glimpse of things beyond the veil: “My Father, and your Father, My God, and your God;” “And He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Then, by the Holy Spirit’s Descent and Indwelling, the believer becomes himself the holiest of all, as taught in the two Epistles to the Corinthians, where the particular word translated “temple” in the original, means not generally the temple with all its courts, but specifically its inmost shrine.*
Is all this an accident, or is it divine design? and when Jesus Christ, on the way to Emmaus, unfolded in all the Scriptures the great things, there
* Compare lepov and vaos.
taught concerning Himself, did He not give then the substance of what is recorded in these chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews with regard to the structure of the tabernacle and its sacred furniture, the priesthood and its offices, as all pointing forward to Him, the Lamb of God, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Great Intercessor, the Mercy Seat, the Giver of the Holy Ghost?
This is but one illustration of the Messianic typology of the Old Testament, but it opens a door to unlimited discovery of truth in the whole recorded history of the Hebrew people. In closing this chapter, a few grand conclusions from this whole argument may be indicated.
First, the Bible is the mirror of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, or, rather, a series or group of mirrors, in the midst of which He stands, so that some separate aspect of His glorious personality is reflected in each of them in turn. Here is the mirror of direct prediction; there is the mirror of symbol, rite and ceremony; again, the mirror of individual characters and holy offices; the mirror of Levitica precepts and prohibitions; and, again, of sayings and doings which have an allegorical meaning. So all around the great gallery of the Scriptures, these manifold mirrors reflect one consummate and transcendent personality, — the Son of Man and the Son of God.
Not only so, but the whole Bible is again seen to be a prophetic book: there is no point where the line can be drawn so that we can say, “Here prediction begins, and there it ends.” Rightly understood, the Bible throughout contains the prophecies and revelations of Jesus.
How different the bird’s wings, and the wings which a man makes with which to fly. There have been almost countless experiments in the way of attempts to construct pinions out of material so light and flexible and yet so strong, and attached to the body by thongs and bands so tenacious, that man might hope to imitate a bird’s flight; but all these efforts have ended in broken bones if not broken necks. What is the difficulty? Why cannot a man construct wings to fly with, such as a bird has that enable him to fly and even to rest on the wing? Where the man’s wings begin, his life ends, so that his wings are a burden to be borne, not pinions to bear him; but where the bird’s wings begin, the bird’s life does not end — it penetrates the wings to the utmost tip; those hollow bones are pervaded as it were with the breath of the bird, the muscles with his blood and energy, and so the bird’s life reaches to the ends, the feather-tips of
137 the wings, and they are not burdens but pinions. The man’s wings are substitutes, the bird’s are attributes. So there is no place in the Bible where one can say: “Here the prophetic element begins and there it ends.” These predictions are not like a man’s wing, but like a bird’s wing; the whole Bible is penetrated and permeated by the Spirit of Life, which is the Spirit of Prophecy.
Then again, the Messianic predictions in the Old Testament, occult as well as obvious, latent as well as patent, are the key to the understanding of the Old Testament. When Christ gave that discourse on the way to Emmaus, and when the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote out what seems to be the substance of that discourse, we obtain a clue to the facts of Old Testament history as a whole. If we knew our Bibles as we shall know them some day, we might find that there is not a narrative, however remote it may seem to be from the person of Jesus Christ, that has not some reference to Him or His work, constructive and destructive — either to His personality or the personality of the Devil; or to the methods by which He advances righteousness, or by which the subtle enemy of God and man promotes unrighteousness. The more the reader is enlightened with a true insight into the Bible, the more he can begin anywhere, opening at random, and preach Jesus, as Philip did to the eunuch.
Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, on one occasion gave to his little children in the nursery a dissected map, somewhat elaborate, and said: “Do not try to put it together in any way excepting the right way, for if you do you will break it.” He came back in a few moments, and the map was all put together rightly with its scores of different pieces. “Why,” he said, as Isaac said to Jacob, “How hast thou found it so quickly, my son?” His boy said: “Father, there is a man on the back.” Sure enough, there was a figure of a man pasted on the back for some advertising purpose, and the children had discovered here a head or foot, and there an eye or ear, and so put the map together. There is a man on the back of the Holy Scriptures, and if all the books of the Old and New Testaments are arranged around the central Person of our Lord, He is found to be the key to the structure of the whole Bible. It is made by this all pervading Presence one Book, one Revelation; He is the one open door into its innermost mysteries.
This is God’s way in part of authenticating His own Scriptures. Books from one particular press, made of paper from a particular factory, often show a waterline in the paper which runs through all the leaves and may be seen back of the print, indicating that all came from the same paper mill. When these inspired pages are held up and seen in the light of God, His waterline is found on e verypage, the outline image of his dearly beloved Son, pervading and explaining the Holy Scriptures. The believer who, in a reverent spirit, studies the Book of God, discovers this image of Jesus Christ stamped on the whole book from beginning to end, woven into its texture.
There is a singular interrelation between all the parts of this book. The student finds himself following the perimeter of a golden ring. Starting, as it were, at the top of the circle, with Adam in Eden, we trace his fall, and the downward course of history to the time of the flood; then still down through the awful apostasy of the race till the lowest point is reached in that most damnable deed — the crucifixion of the Son of God as a malefactor. But in His Resurrection, we begin the ascent on the other half of the circle. Then as we go up we meet the Holy Spirit’s outpouring at Pentecost; and so on to the modern period of missions, with the prosecution of a world’s evangelisation; and, when the last chapter of Revelation
is reached, we are back where we were in the first chapters of Genesis: “The tree of life in the midst of the garden;” “The water of life, clear as crystal;” “The tabernacle of God is with men” — only that, in the original Eden, there came the curse of sin, but, in the new City, “There shall be no more curse.” Jesus Christ is the center of this great circle, and to Him as a center, every point in the perimeter of this golden ring is related. Christ, who is the key to the plan of the Bible, also unlocks God’s plan of the ages. In Him is the secret which explains the Book and all history from creation to the new creation and the ultimate redemption. If the Bible be studied with reference to this redemption plan, it records first, the creation of man and his fall; then the selection of a people out of whom Christ is to come, and who are to be the custodians of the inspired prophecies concerning Him; then these holy Oracles, gradually compiled through the ages, constituting the sacred Book of God, to be the guide to His chosen people, and full of Christ from Genesis to Malachi; then comes the record of the period of Christ himself, when the New Man appears on the historic scene, corresponding to Adam at the time of His creation. Then comes the separation from the world of another people,
called the “ecclesia” or called out ones, that church to be the new representative in the world of God in Christ, and the custodian of the doctrine of Redemption; then the second part of the book is completed, adding the New Testament to the Old; and finally the glimpse of the kingdom at the end of the dispensation, which is itself the beginning of another epoch and a new creation. This whole redemptive scheme is forecast in the Bible, which God and His Church are working out in history.
Such devout study becomes to those who will undertake it, another Emmaus walk. When with prayerfulness and reverence the Holy Scriptures are examined, we find, as step by step we pass on in our search. Another Who is speaking to us, unfolding and expounding in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself; and to all such students there comes a time of special blessed, divine revelation, when through the scriptures He makes known Himself, as He made Himself known to those disciples in the breaking of bread. Probably when He lifted those pierced hands to offer a few words of blessing on the food, they saw the prints of the nails. He still continues to take devout disciples into the secret place with Himself, draw aside His disguise and show the marks of the
Crucified. Then His humanity no more hides His divinity; even the Crown of Thorns blossoms into a wreath of celestial roses, and appears as the diadem of God upon His brow.
When the late George H. Stuart, Esq., of Philadelphia, had occasion, during the American Civil War, to pass through the lines on an errand of mercy, at night time, a sentinel challenged him: “Give the pass-word.” * ‘Washington.” ‘That is not the pass-word.” “Very well,” he said, “I will go back and rectify the mistake.” He had been given the pass-word of the day before. So he returned presently, knowing the pass-word of the day. “Who is there?” “A friend.” “The password?” “Advance.” “All right, Mr. Stuart,” came the response of the sentinel. Coming near he said to the sentinel, “I have given you the pass-word. Do you know God’s pass-word to heaven?” “For many years I have known it, Mr. Stuart; it is the name of Jesus.” And blessed be God, that password is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.