Facts and
Theories as to a Future State
CHAPTER XXV
OLD TESTAMENT SHADOWS
WE have mentioned it as an apparent contradiction to our
view of the limited range of the Old Testament future, that the belief of the
people plainly went beyond it. Not only does the epistle to the Hebrews tell us
that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob confessed themselves pilgrims upon earth, and
looked for a "heavenly country"; but also the very word used by our Lord for
hell - Gehenna - seems to have been in use among the people before our
Lords time in that very way.* This implies a knowledge apparently in
opposition to the statements of the last chapters. But any one need only read
carefully the first half of the book of Genesis, to be quite clear at least as
to Abraham that there is no promise at all of heaven to him recorded there. How
then did he obtain the assurance of there being in store for him "a heavenly
country"?
*It is used in the Targum of Jonathan, and in the Mishna, as
well as commonly by the Jewish doctors since. It is not used in the Septuagint,
save once in Josh. xriii. 16, for the literal "valley of Hinnom."
One of two things, could alone be supposed. There was either an
unrecorded promise; or else he must have been given to see very plainly the
typical character of things which we know were types of the very truths which
the New Testament shows us he had received. Abrahams call to Canaan was
the perfect symbol of our "heavenly calling," but how he could have understood
it so, we may be at a loss to comprehend. Yet some things there were that might
have aided greatly in this.
Man had been shut out of Paradise two
thousand years before, and Revelation ends with the picture of another
Paradise, heavenly, not earthly, into which those that have "washed their
robes" in the blood of the Lamb shall be admitted. No one doubts, save an
infidel, that here again the first garden of God was a type of the other. Had
the secret then been shut up those two thousand years, - absolutely shut up -
that there was in it some such meaning?
Our Suppositions in such a
matter may not possess much value; but we are seeking to account in this way
for a fact at least not to be denied, of Abrahams having a knowledge of
that which certainly does not appear upon the face of the inspired record. And,
our attention being turned to this, we cannot but notice how much the divine
way was in those early days to teach by type and figure. Did Abel know nothing
of the significance of that "more excellent sacrifice" which by faith he
offered? And if the "seed of the Woman" spoke, as we know it did speak, of a
deliverer to come, it spoke still in the language of type of the bruising of
the serpents head. In Abrahams vision it was a figure spoke, though
with some interpretation (Gen. xv.). So Jacobs ladder; and still more the
mysterious night wrestling, with its consequence of a halting thigh.
Josephs dreams still exemplify this way of the divine teaching: and so
the dreams which he interprets. In these and similar instances we find not
merely the use of type and figure, but of these as things whose significance
was known to the people in whose time they happened. They show us that these
were the language of the day, unintelligible, certainly not wholly, when first
uttered, however much the full mystery waited for revelation, when the
appointed time should be come.
Still more would this be so as
the word of God grew gradually to its full proportion, and the meaning of the
law came to be unfolded by the prophets, partial though the unfolding were. And
though the people were indeed blind and carnal, even this would not hinder the
attainment of a certain body of truth as orthodoxy, while the point and power
of it as bearing practically upon themselves might be denied. Such exactly was
the later Pharisaism which carried with it the mass of the people. And such, in
the history of the Christian church, was the Nicene orthodoxy.
We may
thus account then for a knowledge in Israel beyond the apparent measure of the
revelation that had been made to them. We have only to suppose (what is
otherwise indicated also) that the great system of types which their law
embodied was not wholly unknown to them; and while the ministry of death and
condemnation was allowed to have its full effect, and the consistency of
purpose was maintained throughout, the light was allowed in another way to
shine, even if dimly, through the wonderful imagery in the midst of which they
moved.
This was surely divine wisdom. But let us seek to realize a
little how far beyond the usual thought of it, this typical character of the
Old Testament books extends.
All must of course admit (who are not
infidels) the figurative nature of the tabernacle and temple service. Priest,
altar, sacrifice and sanctuary we must allow to have their inner meaning, for
the New Testament so reads them all. But the New Testament finds such also in
far other things: in the details of Israels history, their Passover and
Red Sea deliverance, the manna, the water from the rock. "All these things,"
says the apostle, "happened unto them for ensamples (literally, types), and are
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world (or ages) are come"
(1 Cor. x. 11). But this typical teaching is not even confined to Israels
history: we have similar explanations as to Adam and his wife (Rom. v., Eph.
v.), the flood and the ark (1 Pet, iii.), Melchisedek (Heb. vii.),
Abrahams wives and sons (Gal. iv.), with more than a hint as to the
offering upof Isaac (Gal. iii. 16, 17). Thus the history itself (while of
course true and divine) is typical and prophetic also. Guided thus far by the
word of God, are we to stop where the actual explanation stops, and view the
rest of it as history simply; or are we to take this explanation rather as the
establishment of a principle which is applicable all through the historical
books? On the one hand, we must remember that many of the parables given us by
our Lord are given without interpretation, and that we are left to find this in
the figurative meaning of words elsewhere, and the doctrine of Scripture
generally. On the other hand, who could ignore a deeper meaning in such a story
as that of Joseph, for which meaning yet no express warrant of inspiration can
be produced?
It seems plain then that we are to apply the principle to
the history in general. And here what a field of research presents itself, and
how marvelously light breaks out in new and unlooked for places in the Old
Testament!
From the first Eden, over now six thousand years, we look on
to another, brighter and more blessed, Gods own Paradise; where the tree
of life, in new luxuriance and beauty, hangs its glorious fruitage over the
perpetual stream that flows from the throne of God itself. Who can miss the
comparison, albeit no doubt there is contrast also, between these two? Who can
fail to see that the one is designed to be the shadow of the other; and that
the contrast is but to remind us that the first is only the shadow, and cannot
be the very image of that before whose transcendent beauty all pictures and
forecasts fail? The first scene is the earthly and the fleeting; the second
heavenly and eternal. Earth is made the mirror of heaven, as indeed to mortal
eyes (it would seem) must be, to convey to us what "eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard," but which "God hath (nevertheless) revealed to us by His Spirit."
When we look further at the New Testament vision of the New Jerusalem,
we find a new and most interesting link with the Old Testament. Let any one
compare that picture of future blessedness with which Ezekiel closes, with this
closing scene of our last Apocalypse, and say if the correspondence between the
two can possibly be undesigned. The waters flowing from the house of the Lord,
in Ezekiel, bring life even into the salt sea; "and by the river upon the bank
thereof on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose
leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall
bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued
out of the sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf
thereof for medicine" (ch. xlvii. 12). Who can refuse the connection with the
account in Revelation: "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, Clear
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst
of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of
life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev. xxii. 1,
2).
Yet there are contrasts also between the two descriptions. in the
one case there are limits to the blessing which we do not find in the other,
as, for instance, the marshy places are yet given to salt (Ezek. xlvii. 11);
and the one is connected with an earthly city and a temple, while in the
"heavenly Jerusalem" no temple is seen (Rev. xxi. 22).
Thus here again
we find the true characters of Old Testament types. The earthly is the pattern
of the heavenly. The law has a shadow of good things to come, but not the very
image (Heb. x. 1).
But then this shows us that not only the past history
but the prophetic future also contains its types. And that the millennial age,
which the prophecy in Ezekiel speaks of, is in part at least a picture for
earths inhabitants of things outside of earth. Visible signs of divine
power* will bring them thee to face as it were with eternal realities. It will
be in short, in a very important way, a final dispensation of sight, as those
preceding it have been of faith. Introduced by the appearing of Christ, and the
manifestation of the risen and perfected sons of God, the reign of
righteousness will be maintained by as manifest a display of divine authority.
And as on the one hand we have seen in Ezekiel pictured the blessings which
reflect the heavenly and eternal ones, so on the other hand does Isaiah show us
the shadow of its awful opposite, by which men will be brought as it were face
to face with "eternal judgment "
*So, Heb. vi. 5, miracles are called
"powers of the world (or age) to come."
"And it shall come to pass
that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all
flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and
look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me; for their
worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an
abhorring unto all flesh" (Isa. lxvi. 23, 24).
Now these are words in
part quoted by our Lord in reference to another judgment, of which the scene in
Isaiah is only the earthly type. We shall shortly consider the difference
between His words and those of the Old Testament prophet: for there is here (as
before in the blessing) a contrast between the Old Testament and the New. But
in Isaiah it is evidently an earthly scene, and a literal one: - no mere
figure, as Mr. Dobney with others supposes, of "the complete triumph of the
cause of true religion." The solemn words will not admit of being explained in
this way. It would not give them meaning but evacuate it. And yet what is
surely a reality is also a symbol too. It is the designed contrast, openly
manifested to the eyes of all in that day, with the living water flowing from
Jerusalem. There was the symbol of eternal life, and here the shadow of the
second death. Each with its tale to tell in the ears of the millennial nations,
- this warning, that inviting: Gods last appeal to man this side of
eternity.
This then finally gives us the Old Testament with some
completeness, and in full harmony with itself, and with that later revelation
which supplements it, in which both life and incorruption are fully brought to
light, and also the second death is seen to be what the first shadows, as it is
that to which finally also it gives place. We must not even here, however,
expect to have done with figures, for still we see in part and we prophesy in
part, and the things with which we have to do are still seen but "through a
glass, darkly" - in a riddle or enigma.
But whatever is given by
inspiration of God is given for our instruction, and we must patiently and
humbly take Gods word as He has written it, and see if it deals in
"ambiguous metaphors," and whether perhaps we may not find there the truth of
which we are in search.
Go To Chapter Twenty Six
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