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Beginning to see parallels in OT Israel as the people of God, and the people of God in the NT takes time and growth and constant immersion in the Bible. And it is like the peeling of an onion except that all our earthly lives, the layers never end. Perhaps in the days of old theologians and students of the Bible began to uncover these parallels sooner than we might today, for they were more inclined to a focus on the things of God and in systematically mining the scriptures. It was, to them, everything and a very serious thing. Whereas today we are all in one way or another, victims of the culture. We have families and jobs and endless errands and appointments, and countless, ever repeating responsibilities. And we have at our fingertips an escape from all that. The television remote, our phones, the internet. And the mind does need a rest.
So I thank God for those men he raised up to do the tedious work of serious bible study and exposition and exegesis for us. We can and should, always check what is said against scripture as to its validity or not. This of course still involves actual reading beyond google bites.
We begin, if we are paying attention, to see parallels in Israel as a covenant people and the church (all believers of every nation, language and peoples)as a covenant people of God. However, never substitute a parallel for the meaning or its application to whoever it is applied to. Historical events in Israel are historical events. And never spiritualize what is historical so as to cause it to lose its historical place and significance. And yet these parallels can act as significant caution, warning, discipline and blessing.
The reason there are parallels is because God never changes, and neither does mankind as to his nature in Adam. Even those who are redeemed and are by grace and through faith, wrapped in the robes of Christ's righteousness, fully justified before God, and sealed there by the Holy Spirit, still deal with our sinful nature. As Paul describes it, our spirit desires one thing and our flesh another.
Those who have been Christians for any length of time, have no doubt been introduced to the types and shadows in the OT that are revealed in the NT. But parallels are not necessarily the same thing as types and shadows. I am going to deal here with one particular parallel that I came across this morning as I was reading in Judges 3, on my trek through the Bible again. It is not the first time I have seen this particular parallel between unfaithful Israel and a great majority of the New Covenant people of God. But this particular passage---which for the sake of brevity I will get to in the following post---was like finding something given directly by God that was percolating in the background for some time. A "there it is, right there!" moment.
So I thank God for those men he raised up to do the tedious work of serious bible study and exposition and exegesis for us. We can and should, always check what is said against scripture as to its validity or not. This of course still involves actual reading beyond google bites.
We begin, if we are paying attention, to see parallels in Israel as a covenant people and the church (all believers of every nation, language and peoples)as a covenant people of God. However, never substitute a parallel for the meaning or its application to whoever it is applied to. Historical events in Israel are historical events. And never spiritualize what is historical so as to cause it to lose its historical place and significance. And yet these parallels can act as significant caution, warning, discipline and blessing.
The reason there are parallels is because God never changes, and neither does mankind as to his nature in Adam. Even those who are redeemed and are by grace and through faith, wrapped in the robes of Christ's righteousness, fully justified before God, and sealed there by the Holy Spirit, still deal with our sinful nature. As Paul describes it, our spirit desires one thing and our flesh another.
Those who have been Christians for any length of time, have no doubt been introduced to the types and shadows in the OT that are revealed in the NT. But parallels are not necessarily the same thing as types and shadows. I am going to deal here with one particular parallel that I came across this morning as I was reading in Judges 3, on my trek through the Bible again. It is not the first time I have seen this particular parallel between unfaithful Israel and a great majority of the New Covenant people of God. But this particular passage---which for the sake of brevity I will get to in the following post---was like finding something given directly by God that was percolating in the background for some time. A "there it is, right there!" moment.
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