by A. T. Stoddard

Our newsletter this month was written by the second of our two elder candidates as a way for him to develop his ministry to the church.

As we have gone through the book of Exodus, it has been very enlightening to see the many ways this book points forward to the work of Christ. Of course, the big picture is that of God redeeming His people out of slavery in Egypt depicting God’s redemption of His people from the bondage of sin. In Exodus 6:6, God reaffirms His covenant with Abraham to be their God and they will be His people. When the Israelites went to Egypt, they were no more than a large family or clan. When Moses leads them out of Egypt, they have become a nation showing fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Yet when they turn away from God and worship the golden calf, He threatens to destroy them and start over with Moses to build a new nation. Even here, God is faithful in His promise to build a nation of the descendants of Abraham. Moses pleads on behalf of the people acting as their advocate and intercessor, which results in God’s grace and mercy in dealing with the people. As the intercessor for the Israelites, Moses gives us a picture of Christ interceding for His people.

Along a similar vein, I wanted to share some things from a book I have been reading this year by Jonathan Edwards. For those not familiar with Jonathan Edwards, let me give you a brief introduction. He was a pastor in New England in the early 1700s. He is thought by many to be America’s greatest theologian, and R.C. Sproul considers him one of the top five theologians of all time. He may best be known for his part in the Great Awakening. The book that I have been reading is A History of the Work of Redemption. The thesis of this book is that in the Bible, God reveals His plan of redemption and documents His work toward that end.

God reveals His plan of redemption in numerous ways throughout the Old Testament. It begins with the promise in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. It is shown in other ways, such as the covenant made with Abraham and the promise of the covenant which is repeated to Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. The promise of the new covenant to Jeremiah points directly to the incarnation of Christ, His death, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for God’s people following the day of Pentecost. There are many things which point directly to Christ and His work. We have the Passover, which points to Christ being our substitute and God’s judgment passing over us. On the Day of Atonement, two goats were chosen: one to sacrifice, one to drive into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the people’s sins; this points to Christ’s work of both removing our sins and being sacrificed for them. God tells us He will remove our sins as far as the east is from the west and gave us an image of that as the goat was removed far from the people.

Isaiah points to the coming of Christ and His work. In Isaiah 9, there is the prophecy of a child to be born and a son given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders. We are given his name as “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah tells us that this will be the fulfillment of the covenant promise to David to establish his kingdom forever. Isaiah also describes Christ as the lamb led to the slaughter.

God also uses the Bible to show us how He accomplishes His work of redemption. The most obvious is the death and resurrection of Christ, but there are many things in the Old Testament which we often overlook as being God’s specific work in His plan of redemption. We have just finished Exodus, where God preserved His people by redeeming them out of Egypt, but that also serves as a picture of the redemption of God’s people from sin. God destroyed His enemies in the flood, but preserved Noah and his family; this serves as a picture of the redemption of Christ, who saves His people from their sin. God preserved Abraham among the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and He preserved the Israelites in the time of famine by placing Joseph as a ruler in Egypt and ensuring a supply of grain to preserve them. God established a kingdom of the descendants of Abraham with David as king, and through David provided a book of songs for worship. Many of these songs pointed toward the coming of Christ, the Messiah.

God worked out His plan of redemption in less dramatic ways as well, but no less important. He caused Elimelech to travel with his wife Naomi to Moab because of a famine; then Naomi returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth. Boaz married Ruth, and their son was the grandfather of David, in the ancestral line of Christ. God preserved David from wild animals as a shepherd, and when Saul hurled a spear at David, David’s life was preserved. His life was preserved many times before becoming king, and he kept his place in the ancestral line of Christ. God preserved that line through the rest of the Old Testament, even through wars and captivity.

This should encourage us to read the Bible—particularly the Old Testament—with new understanding. As you read the history, the genealogies, or the giving of ceremonial and civil laws, consider how they are part of the history of God revealing and working His plan of redemption. Ask how these things point to the coming of Christ and His work, or how they reveal what God did to accomplish His redemption through Christ in space and time. God’s work is not some abstract story; He has chosen to work through people in the context of history. Rather than seeing Old Testament passages as dull, look for the excitement of God slowly revealing the mystery of His redemption to the point where we now have God dwelling within us through the Holy Spirit. Finally, be encouraged that God continues to work out His plan of redemption through His people, the church.

In Christ,
A. T.