John 5:39,
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye
think ye have eternal life: and
they are they which
testify of me."
This morning there are many
today that have a skewed
view of the Scriptures. Many
think that the Bible is
a good history lesson, or that
it has wonderful
stories or fables that can be
used to teach children
lessons. These statements are
not false, but they do
not hit upon "the whole truth."
The "whole truth" and
most important truth about the
Scriptures is that they
show us things about our Lord.
This book is NOT just
history or stories (while the
history and accounts are
indeed true and accurate), this
book is a thorough
furnisher of His people and
gives us all that we need
here in this low ground of sin
and sorrow.
Notice that Christ told these
Pharisees to "search
the scriptures." At that time,
the New Testament had not yet
been penned by Divine
Inspiration. So, obviously, He
has the 39 books of the Old
Testament in mind when He says this.
Therefore, the first 39 books of
the Bible are
testifying of Him. Many people
ask me how to read the
Old Testament, for they find it
monotonous and difficult. The
easiest answer is to read the
Old Testament and look for Christ.
Look for Him in the giving of
the law, look for Him in
the giving of ordinances, look
for Him in the lives of
His people as they are accounted
throughout. If you
do not see Him,
keep digging. He is there.
Many of us
put pictures of our loved ones
in our houses, wallets,
cars, office desks, etc. The
Heavenly Father has
painted beautiful portraits of
His Son, and placed
them with liberal strokes
throughout the Old Testament. When we
begin to look at the OT, we
begin to see the parallels
in the life of Joseph to the
life of Christ. We begin
to see a shadow or
representation of Christ on the day
of atonement in Leviticus 16. We
begin to see a
picture of Christ in the rock
that brought forth water
in abundance for the children of
Israel. (Exodus 17 and Numbers 20) We begin to
see a picture of the redemption
of the bride of Christ
with the redemption of Ruth by
Boaz. We begin to see
the redemption of spiritual
Israel by Christ with the
redemption of natural Israel by
David smiting Goliath
(and many other
occasions).
We begin to see
the
smiting that Christ would endure
as shown in Isaiah 53
and Psalm 22. These are some of
the BIG pictures
(11x17 wall portraits). Once we
find them, we begin
to rejoice, and our study
becomes sweeter. Then, we
begin to look for the smaller
pictures all the way
down to the wallet size photos.
We begin to see a
picture of the redemption made
by Christ in the
account of David's mighty man
that slew the lion in
the pit on a snowy day. (I
Chronicles 11:22) We begin to see a picture of
Christ in each prophecy about
Him: His virgin birth,
birthtown (Bethlehem), tribe
(Judah), Kingship (Zion),
and likeness (Lion). Each of
these "little" things
about Christ together bring
about another picture that
makes us rejoice. Let us ever
strive to find these
beautiful pictures that the Lord
has left on record so
that we would know more about
Jesus. One day we will
know Him even as He knows us,
but let us try to know
all that we can
while on our journey here below.
In Hope,
Bro Philip
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