Many have believed the Old Testament is of minor value since we have the New Testament. Clearly, the Jewish nation focuses on the Old Testament as its religious basis of study. When I was a young believer, the ministers promoted the idea of the limitations of the Old Testament thus marginalizing its value. The exceptions were typically Psalms, Proverbs, and tithing. In my personal walk, Our Heavenly Father decided to correct this. HE removed Pam and me from church and then for 18 years my studies were highly impacted by the Old Testament. Why, would you ask?
The Old Testament contains the seeds that are harvested in the New Testament. The Divine Intent displayed in the many stories and sage advise in the Law and the Prophets point to the manifestations in the New Testament. The Old Testament was a manifestation of the physical whereas the New Testament reveals the manifestation of the Spiritual. The types, shadows, numbers, name meanings, stories, and prophecies all point to the reality in the Spiritual realm. As we study the Law, we can appreciate the Lawgiver. The Law was given to Moses and then we were shown how Israel could not keep the Law. In the New Testament, Our Heavenly Father moves the Law from external to internal. HE proclaims to the “Remnant of Israel”:
Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
The above passage is repeated and confirmed in Hebrews 10:
15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
The New Testament is the culmination of the seeds planted in the Old Testament. It contains the fruit of the harvest. The Divine Intent of Love comes into full manifestation in Jesus Christ being formed in the womb and brought forth as the first begotten Son of Our Heavenly Father. The Law and the Prophets pointed to Jesus Christ from every observable viewpoint. Children need physical examples as they grow and mature.
When we were first married, the house we bought had a floor furnace. The 720 square foot house was built in 1939. Back then a floor furnace heated the whole house… more or less. The furnace had a metal grate and it became scorching hot after the furnace had been on for awhile. Pam needed to educate our toddler concerning the danger of the furnace. He was not old enough to reason with so it was necessary to show him the “physical”. She took him close enough to the grate for him to feel the discomfort of too much heat but not enough to burn him. He responded accordingly. From that day, he stayed away from the grate. Had he been more mature and experienced in understanding the physical laws and their ramifications, she could have simply warned him.
When we want to gain the greatest perspective and appreciation, we must consider both Testaments. We can surely appreciate how NOT to do things as recorded in the many stories in the Old Testament.
The feasts and the Tabernacle in the wilderness provide us excellent external examples of the internal process of maturity. We are provided with great detail of this Tabernacle. Each word, description, name, and number were carefully selected by Our Heavenly Father to point us to the culmination of the Age to come. The immature read those descriptions and get bored because they lack the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge to embrace the mysteries being revealed. Others attempt to hold on to Old Testament methodology at the expense of Spiritual progress. They form external traditions with the expectation that Our Heavenly Father will be coerced into performing in response to their diligent acts.
The same Author wrote both Testaments and HE did not change between the two writings. Both represent HIS Divine Intent and the old points to the new and is a progression toward the fullness of time on earth. The three feasts are physical representations of the Sons’ spiritual progress in being perfected. Justification, sanctification, and glorification are expressed in order by those feasts. There is no way to bypass any portion of this process. Salvation must occur first. Leaving Egypt was accomplished by those who embraced the Passover Lamb’s blood. Those that didn’t… perished. This first feast revealed the Love of Our Heavenly Father. It pointed to the ultimate fulfillment of the feast by Jesus dying on the cross. First the physical, then the Spiritual. First the seed, then the fruit. Embrace the process and full maturity will come.
The First Son was the “seed”. The many-membered Body of Christ is the fruit. As Genesis 8:22 declares:
“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”
The Apostle Paul concisely stated the essence of both Testaments:
Colossians 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Paul also reveals the fruit being “many-membered” in nature in the following verse:
1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
Just before Jesus went to the cross, He planted “seed” on behalf of the Sons. He understood the need to speak, proclaim, and plant the Word in the physical. In this passage, He speaks of the unity of the many members in Christ. Since He only spoke what FATHER instructed Him to speak, we are provided with details of FATHER’S Divine Intent:
John 17:20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Everything in Scripture, ultimately points to the “substance” of Christ. The harvest is ripening!