“It’s a wholly integrated
messaging system that could have only resulted from supernatural,
extra-terrestrial engineering,” says Richard Jordan of Shorewood Bible Church.
“When you look at the insights painted from the beginning of Genesis, they go
way beyond the horizon of the writer himself. They demonstrate their source
understood the whole tapestry of time and embroidered in clues all along the
way, so that when the reader reaches the end, he can look back and say, ‘Wow,
He’d been planning this all along!’ ”
*****
In Genesis alone are some of the
Bible’s most complete pictures/proto-types/macro codes regarding Jesus
Christ’s first coming, His crucifixion, His resurrection and Second Coming.
In I Corinthians 15:4, the
Apostle Paul tells us Jesus Christ “rose again the third day according to the
scriptures,” but there’s not one prior verse—in the Old or New
Testaments—telling the reader this. It was obviously foretold in code by the
story of Abraham and Isaac.
“There’s not even ONE clear verse
that says He’s going to be resurrected,” says Jordan. “In fact, the disciples
themselves in Luke 18, after having spent three years with Jesus, didn’t even
know He was going to die. Paul says in I Corinthians 2 that the meaning of all
this wasn’t revealed until he revealed it—until Christ revealed it to and
through Paul.
“Paul obviously knew something
about the Bible’s macro codes. Genesis 22: 4-5 says, ‘Then on the third day
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto
his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go
yonder and worship, and come again to you.’
“He’s going to take his boy and
not just kill him, he’s going to take his boy and cremate him, and yet he says,
‘The boy and I are going to come back.’ In Hebrews 11 it says ‘he received him
as though from the dead.’ Abraham believed in resurrection. He’s the one
through whom Job learned that ‘my redeemer liveth’ though ‘worms eat my flesh’
(Job 19).
"The very spot Abraham offered
Isaac—the hill on Mt. Mariah, which is just outside of Jerusalem (777 meters up
from sea level) and has a peak named Golgotha—is the exact same place God the
Father offered His Son 2,000 years later. Genesis 22 tells us Abraham 'called
the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount
of the LORD it shall be seen.'
“Abraham gives it a prophetic
name and doesn’t even know that’s what he’s doing. It’s also
fascinating to note that in Genesis 22:19, the writer mysteriously leaves out
mention of death-spared Isaac, reporting only that ‘Abraham returned unto his
young men.’
“Isaac was obviously with
Abraham, but he’s edited out of the text. You don’t find Isaac appear in the
Bible again until you find him in Genesis 24:62, and you know what he’s doing?
He’s coming to get his bride! That’s the Second Coming, isn’t it?! Isn’t that
Revelation 19 when Christ comes with His bride?
“Another incredulous foreshadowing
is information Sarah was 127 years old when she died (Genesis 23). Genesis 17 tells
us Sarah was 90 when she got pregnant with Isaac, meaning Isaac was 37 at the
time of his mother’s death.
“Abraham wasn’t taking a little boy up onto that mountain to kill him;
he’s taking a man at least 30-33 years old! How old was Jesus Christ
when He went up onto the mountain and God the Father took His life?
“You go through Genesis 22 and there’s
one thing after another after another after another that matches. Sarah dies.
There’s the fall of Israel. Abraham sends his servant. He’s not named in the
text there; you get his name in Genesis 15—Eliezer, a type of the Holy Spirit.
“To get a bride for Isaac,
Abraham says ‘go back to my kin folk.’ Isaac goes back to Abraham’s kin folk (a
picture of the ‘little flock’ being gathered in the Book of Acts) to get his bride, Rebecca.
“In Chapter 25, Abraham took
another wife and he gave her six kids, seven grandsons, and three great
grandsons. You’ve got a picture of the blessings that flow in the Millennium.
You tell me how in the world did the writer of the book of Genesis know how to
write all that?!
*****
“The account of Noah and the
Flood represents yet another set of macro codes in Genesis regarding the Second
Coming. In fact, Jesus Christ says in Matthew 24:37, ‘But as the days of Noe
were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’ In Luke 17: 26-32, Jesus
Christ also likened the time of His return to the days of Sodom.
“In the Book of Jude, which
directly precedes Revelation, is a reference back to Genesis’ Enoch, ‘the
seventh from Adam,’ and how he prophesied, ‘Behold the Lord cometh with ten
thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all.’
“Jude informs us God had given
Enoch a message about a coming judgment upon the world of the ungodly, which
turned out to be the Flood. In Jude the judgment being talked about is the
Second Coming of Christ—an event that will once again wipe out the ungodly from
the earth.
“This clearly tells the reader
that the Flood was a picture of the Judgment in the ‘last days.’ Now, in I
Peter 3:20 it talks about ‘when once the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls
were saved by water.’
“From the different ages of men
given in Genesis 5, what’s revealed is that Methuselah, the oldest man in the
Bible at 969, is a proto-type for God’s longsuffering before wielding judgment.
“Enoch is 65 years old when he
has his boy Methuselah. In Genesis 5:22, we learn something happened when
Methuselah was born that caused Enoch to begin to ‘walk with God.’ This had to
have been the message he got from God about an upcoming judgment.
“After 365 years, Enoch is taken
to heaven without dying. Hebrews 11:5 tells us, ‘By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated
him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.’
“Methuselah was 187 when he had
his son, Lamech, who was182 when he had his son, Noah. We’re told in Genesis
7:6 that the Flood came when Noah was 600 years old. If you add these
three numbers together you get 969, the year Methuselah died.
“Methuselah’s name (in Hebrew)
means, ‘When he dies it shall come.’ When you say Methuselah is the oldest man
in the Bible, doctrinally what that’s talking about is God’s longsuffering
that’s waited and waited and waited and waited and waited.
“It’s not just that
Methuselah was old; it’s that he was a demonstration of the longsuffering of
God. That’s why Isaiah 28 says God’s judgment is ‘his strange work.’
*********
“In the Book of Luke, women are prominent like in no other gospel.
You see Elizabeth and Anna and Mary and Martha and the widow of Nain. There’s
the woman who had the issue of blood and the weeping daughters of Jerusalem who
weep for the Savior.
“You see the sinful woman who washed the Lord’s feet with her
tears and wiped His feet with her hair. You see Mary Magdalene who was
delivered from the demons. You see the women who ministered to Him before His Cross and after.
“In other gospel accounts, you read about ‘a certain man,’ but in
Luke he says, ‘a certain woman did so and so.’ Women are everywhere but it’s
not just that they’re women—Anna, for example, is a widow; it’s ‘the widow of
Nain.’
“Luke took special interest in identifying who they were. It was
‘this woman, this particular lady, and she’s in this situation,’ and there’s
all these personal details constantly given. He’s constantly painting the human
side of it.
“You see how he looks into the feelings of people, especially
parents. And again, this is something you would expect of a physician like Luke.
*****
“For 84 years Anna’s been a widow. Luke 7:12: ‘Now when he came
nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was
with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto
her, Weep not.’
“The Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said unto her,
‘Hush, little baby, don’t you cry.’ You know that song? That’s just the kind of
moment it’s written for. He sees this little widow woman with her boy. That’s
all of her family and he’s dead and the Lord has compassion on her.
“He says, ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, I’ll take care of it,’ and He
does. He understood what it was to reach out and Luke understood how to paint
the picture so you can see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ as He’s
touched with the feelings of our infirmities.”
*****
“If you come over to Luke 15 you see the insight I think is
probably the most precious: ‘Then drew near unto
him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and
scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth
sinners, and eateth with them.’
“Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you glad that’s what He did?! He doesn’t stand off and say, ‘I can’t be touched, I
can’t be bothered; I won’t be around them.’
“It’s in Luke that you see the two men at the temple. One is a
Pharisee saying, ‘I thank God I’m not like these others,’ and the other is publican that goes by the temple and smites himself on the breast and says,
‘Father be merciful on me a sinner.’
"He understood what the walk of faith was
about. He understood God had given the blood and the ‘mercy seat’ to cover the
law as a payment for his sinful condition.
“Go back to Luke 3 and you find the publicans also came to John’s
baptism. In Luke 7:29 you find the publicans justified God and believed the
Word and the preaching of John.
“It’s in Luke that you see the two thieves and Christ saying to the
one, ‘This day shall thou be with me in paradise.’ The issue in Luke is
salvation. ‘Unto you is born a Savior which
is Christ the Lord.’
“You go over to Calvary and see the humanity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Did you know the word ‘Calvary’ is only in the Bible that one time? Did
you know that in every new bible they took the word Calvary out?!
“We sing the words ‘at Calvary’ but you couldn’t sing that if you
didn’t have a King James Bible because your bible wouldn’t have Calvary in it.
You get the word from Luke because that’s the Latin name for Golgotha, which is
an Aramaic word.
“Luke gives three cries from the cross. In the first, Jesus says,
‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’ There’s His compassion.
Then in verse 43 He says, ‘Verily I say unto thee, To day
shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ There’s His power to forgive sins. In verse
46 He looks up to the Father and cries, ‘Into thy hands I commend my spirit.’
There He is quoting Scripture and trusting in the Word of God to the very end.
“It’s fascinating to see the next verse. The centurion looks and
watches Him die and he glorifies God and says, ‘Certainly this was a righteous
man.’ You know what Matthew says? Matthew records him saying, ‘Certainly this
was the Son of God.’ But Luke says, ‘Yeah, He was that but, you know, we know
He’s MORE than that—He’s a righteous man!’
*****
“Luke was a companion to the Apostle Paul; Paul’s beloved and
loyal friend all the way to the end.
“The Gospel of Luke would be the account of our Lord’s life that
Paul would be the most familiar with simply by his familiarity with Luke, and
it’s Paul who says that there’s ‘one mediator between God and men—the man
Christ Jesus.’ Luke says, ‘Behold the man, behold the man.’
“I have my own ideas about the influence Paul must have had on
Luke and Luke on Paul but I know this—it’s fascinating that it’s only in Luke
that you find Christ saying to somebody, ‘Your faith has saved you.’
“Luke of all the gospel accounts is the first one to use the
word grace and by the way, he uses grace more than any of
them. The first occurrence of the word redemption, by the
way, is in the Book of Luke.
“Luke points to the Lord Jesus Christ and He says, ‘That Savior is
our Kinsman Redeemer. He’s bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, and in all
points He was tempted as like we are and yet He overcame it all by the power of
the Spirit of God.’
“And Paul says, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus.’ When he says that he’s not talking about following the Jewish program
that Christ followed. He’s talking about the character and the virtue, the
matchless manhood, the spirit-filled humanity that you see in Luke.
“Like the songwriter says, ‘Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon
my Savior’s brow, His head with radiant glories crowned. His lips with grace
o’er flow, no mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men. Fair is He
than all the fair who fill the heavenly train. Majestic
manhood, perfect pattern. Live again thy life through us.’ ”
No comments:
Post a Comment