Tag: type

Achan’s Curse and the Cross of Christ

~ Bob Hayton ~ 2 Comments

The stoning of Achan is one of the most horrific accounts in the Bible. Many Christians cringe when reading the account.

Let me quote it here at some length, and then point you to a very helpful meditation on this passage.

Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the LORD. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor. (Joshua 7:19-26 ESV)

The thought of being stoned for a crime seems barbaric. Stoning Achan’s family and servants, his flocks and possessions, and then burning them seems unconscionable. Is not this evidence that the God of the Old Testament, is not the Christian God of Love, presented in the New Testament Scriptures?

Some would say so. But our revulsion to this event is actually an important emotion for us to ponder. In fact, the wrath and fury of God against sin is bound up in the violent action taken against Achan. And when we think of this event from a redemptive historical perspective, when we look forward to how this story prefigures the work and death of Christ, a glorious picture comes into focus.

Christ’s cross was the place God poured out all his violent anger and fury, for God is a Holy God who cannot tolerate sin, even sin in his covenant people. Ultimately, no one could be completely holy and stay perfectly true to God’s covenant. This is why Jesus came to take our punishment for us. God’s just and holy anger against sin was meted out in full measure upon His own Son! What love and mercy, what amazing grace and pity!

My thoughts were turned in this Christ-centered direction by reading a meditation on Achan’s curse from my friend Nathan Pitchford of Psalm 45 Publications. Let me share his concluding paragraph and encourage you to read the whole thing.

Oh, that you would flee to this great Savior and Sacrifice, who was hanged on a tree as a curse, who was made a spectacle before all the people, and went to a bloody death for them, and suffered all the fire of God’s wrath, who was numbered among the sinners, and experienced all that an accursed sinner ought to experience, for no wrong of his own, but only that he might deliver his people from all their sins, and lead them in triumph over all their enemies! Oh, what a Savior is he!

Nathan goes through many Old Testament passages like this mining rich jewels for our meditation. He speaks with the heart and words of a true Puritan. Lately, he has been going through the book of Joshua. I encourage you to feast on his devotions on the Old Testament.

Along these lines, I did a post on the typological aspects of the Battle of Jericho some time ago, which you may also like to read.

Meditating on Mediator-Types

~ Bob Hayton

Last week, our pastor taught on Noah and the Flood. As we read Gen. 8:20-22, I started thinking about Noah as a type of Christ. This got me thinking and I came up with the beginning of a list of Mediator-Types in Scripture.

The following pattern merits further mediation and study.

God’s punishment and/or wrath for sin > a Mediator > a burnt offering for sin and/or prayer > God stops his judgment and blesses mankind

Flood destroys the earth > Noah > burnt offering Gen. 8:20-22 > a new covenant and pledge to preserve earth

Sodom & Gomorrah’s judgment > Abraham > prayer Gen. 19:27-29 > rescue of Lot

Death of firstborn > Moses > Passover lamb, blood applied to doorposts Exod. 12 > Destroyer passes over

Angel of the Lord destroys 70,000 > David > burnt offerings on the threshing floor of Ornan
1 Chron. 21:14-17, 26-27 > Angel sheathes his sword

Any other examples come to mind? I realize this is just a bare sketch, but it the Mediator theme in the Old Testament is a great study.

Quotes to Note 15b: Sailhamer on How Genesis Intends Joseph’s Life As a Type of the Coming Messiah

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

I’m working my way through John Sailhamer’s The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation (IVP). I’m finding multiple nuggets of special insight and blessing; the reward for reading through this 600 page book is well great indeed.

Often the interpretation of the Joseph narratives proves problematic among pastors and evangelical theologians today. Many don’t want to see Joseph’s life as paralleling Christ’s because the New Testament doesn’t expressly indicate that Joseph’s life is typical of the Messiah. But right in Genesis, however, Sailhamer finds a warrant for seeing Joseph’s life typified as an example of what the coming Messiah-King will be like.

…special attention [is] given to Judah in the whole of the Joseph narrative (Gen 37-50). As the story of Joseph’s journey to Egypt is getting underway (Gen 37), the author interrupts the narration to insert a lengthy story about Judah and his “righteous” (Gen 38:26) descendants (Gen 38). Also, when Joseph’s brothers devised a plot to kill him (Gen 37:18), it was Judah, rather than the firstborn, Reuben, who saved Joseph from sudden death. Such “reversals” occur numerous times within the remainder of the Joseph narrative. Judah is singled out from the other brothers as the one through whom the rescue of the family of Jacob was accomplished.

…Joseph’s brothers understood his [dreams] to mean they… would bow down to him…. As the narratives unfold, that is exactly what happens…. When they bow to him, Joseph “remembers his dreams” (Gen 42:9), and with him, the reader discovers that this is a work of divine intervention. The point of the narrative is to show that these and similar events are a fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams.

The narratives that focus attention on the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams are not permitted a final word. There are still important parts of the narrative that draw our attention not to Joseph, but to Judah. That focus reaches its fullest expression in Jacob’s poem (Gen 49). The last word of the Joseph narrative turns our attention toward the preeminence of the tribe of Judah: “your brothers will bow down to you”… (Gen 49:8b). These words connecting Judah to Joseph’s dreams are… important in giving us another look at the author’s understanding of Jacob’s first words to Judah. By means of these words (Gen 49:8b), a larger lesson is drawn from the Joseph narratives. What was once true only of Joseph, that his brothers would bow down to him (Gen 37:7-10), is now to find its fulfillment in the reign of one who holds the scepter from the house of Judah (Gen 49:10)…. In drawing a connection between the Joseph narratives and the promise to the house of Judah, Joseph and the events of his life foreshadow what will ultimately happen to the king from the house of Judah, the one spoken of in this poem. The king who was to come from the house of Judah is foreshadowed by the life of Joseph. He will save his people and the nations, just as Joseph saved the families of the sons of Jacob (Gen 50:20) and the nations (Gen 47:19). Joseph, rather than Reuben, will be the firstborn among his brothers, but Judah will reign through the kingship… (pg. 327-328)

A redemptive-historical approach to interpretation such as I advocate, would already feel liberty to find divinely-intended parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of Christ. Now with Sailhamer’s work, a stronger connection is forged, and we can see that the prophetic shapers of the final canonical form of the Tanak, themselves, saw parallels between Joseph’s career and the life and work of the coming Messiah-King.

“101 Portraits of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures” by Bob Beasley

~ Bob Hayton

Author: Bob Beasley
Publisher: Living Stone Books
Format: Softcover
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9780979973147
Stars: 3 of 5

Many Christians are bewildered by the Old Testament. They start reading in Genesis and give up by the time Leviticus comes around. They remember bits and pieces of a smattering of OT Bible stories: David and Goliath, the Red Sea, Daniel and the lion’s den, etc. But the Old Testament (except for Psalms and Proverbs) remains generally obscure and mysterious to many.

For those who have discovered the many connections between the Old Testament and Jesus Christ, this is quite sad. Recognizing how Jesus fulfills the types of the Old Testament truly makes the Bible come alive. Nothing is so spiritually impacting as finding Christ in the Old Testament, and being moved by the picture of our God so beautifully illustrated by His works with the Israelites.

Bob Beasley is eager for the average Christian to become familiar with the many portraits of Jesus in the Hebrew Old Testament. In his book 101 Portraits of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures, he marches through the Old Testament highlighting many of the clearest pictures of Jesus found there. He uses promise/fulfillment and type/anti-type models as he explains the significance of the OT’s witness to Christ.

Beasley explains:
…Jesus does not jump into the pages of history as a little child in a stable in Bethlehem. His story begins much further back in history than that…. all history is His Story. Jesus is the Creator God, the promised Redeemer, the great Prophet, Priest, and King of the Hebrew Scriptures. He is Yahweh, Jehovah””the great I AM””of the burning bush. He is Immanuel — God with us!

The book deals with 101 such places in the Old Testament. Each is given just two pages of space, which is why no passage is really covered in too much depth. The result is a good introduction to the Old Testament witness to Christ, most helpful for the new Christian who may be inexperienced with the Old Testament.

Beasley will give one an eye for finding Christ all throughout the Old Testament. The book’s emphasis on the unity of the Bible and the person and work of Jesus Christ make it especially good. Anyone interested in learning more about the harmony of the Bible and how the OT speaks of Jesus Christ, should certainly consider this book. With its simple layout, 101 Portraits makes for a great devotional book. Each portrait of Christ can be considered slowly and provide meat for one’s soul.

Disclaimer: this book was provided by the author for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to provide a positive review.

This book is still available for purchase at Amazon.com.

Contemplating the Cross: Christ Our Passover Lamb

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

For the next few days, I’ll be posting excerpts from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (Crossway). Join me as I aim to contemplate the cross this passion week.

Today’s meditation is by John Calvin, from chapter 17 “Blood and Water” (pg. 103-104 of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross, edited by Nancy Guthrie).

“Not one of his bones will be broken.” This quotation is taken from Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12, where Moses refers to the paschal lamb. John takes it for granted that that lamb was a figure of the true and only sacrifice through which the church was to be redeemed. This is consistent with the fact that it was sacrificed as the memorial of a redemption which had been already made. As God intended it to celebrate the former favor, he also intended that it should show the spiritual deliverance of the church, which was still in the future. So Paul without any hesitation applies to Christ the rule which Moses lays down about eating the lamb: “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:7-8).

From this analogy, or similarity, faith derives great benefit, since in all the ceremonies of the law it views the salvation which has been displayed in Christ. This is the purpose of the evangelist John when he says that Christ was not only the pledge of our redemption but also its price in that we see accomplished in him what was formerly seen by the ancient people under the figure of the Passover. In this way the Jews are also reminded that they ought to seek in Christ the substance of everything that the law prefigured but did not actually accomplish.

Christ truly is our Passover Lamb. A deliverance greater than that of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt (and the fury of the Death Angel) was effected by His death. Christ is without blemish, and his bones were not broken. He was brutally sacrificed for us, in our place. May His sacrifice for our sins grip us to the extent that like a Jewish home in Goshen, Jesus’ blood would adorn the door posts of our hearts. May we glory in nothing else but His Cross.