The Old and The New

The Old Testament is full of types and shadows of things that were to come and things that are to come, and many things in the Old Testament prefigure things in the New Testament. In 1 Kings, Micaiah, a prophet of God, gets slapped by Zedekiah, a false prophet. This is Micaiah speaking:

21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ “‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. 22 “‘I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ 23 “So now the LORD has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” 24 Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked. 25 Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.” (1 Kings 22:21-25)

Micaiah tells Zedekiah that he’s destined to see which way the spirit of the Lord goes on the day he goes to hide in an inner room. By that time, it will be too late. Zedekiah believed he was acting on the Lord’s behalf when he slapped Micaiah because of the deceiving spirit that God sent Ahab’s prophets. But some things never change. In the gospels, Jesus was mocked and beaten:

Then they spat in His face and struck Him. Others slapped Him and said, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit You?” (Matthew 26:67-68)

MIRROR IMAGE

The New Testament is like a mirror image of the Old Testament. The apostle Paul is contrasting Adam and Jesus in the following scriptures:

18 So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)

Let’s compare the following scriptures from the books of Exodus and Acts:

The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead. (Exodus 32:28)

Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day. (Acts 2:41)

In these scriptures, the bad people in the Old Testament are killed and the good people in the New Testament are saved. It works the other way around as well:

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18)

And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. (Rev. 11:13)

In these scriptures, seven thousand good people in the Old Testament are saved and seven thousand bad people in the New Testament are killed. Let’s go to Leviticus:

fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. (Leviticus 24:20)

Now let’s go to the gospel of Jesus Christ:

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (Matthew 5:38-39)

In the Old Testament, Zechariah wanted vengeance for those who stoned him:

21 But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the LORD. 22 Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.” (2 Chronicles 24:21-22)

In the New Testament, Stephen wanted forgiveness for those who stoned him:

59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59-60)

In the Old Testament, they laid hands on people to inflict harm:

but I warned them, “Why are you camping in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on, they did not return on the Sabbath. (Nehemiah 13:21)

In the New Testament, they laid hands on to pray and bless:

And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (Mark 10:16)

Vengeance belongs to the Lord:

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” (Hebrew 10:30)

There are plenty of details in the book of Revelation on God’s wrath on an evil world and on those who take the mark of the beast. Let’s see how the wrath of God is prefigured from the Old Testament when God’s wrath came down on Jerusalem. The following scriptures from Ezekiel are a shadow of the end-times wrath of God:

3 Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side. 4 “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.” 5 And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone! 6 Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children, but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So, they began with the elders who were before the temple. 7 Then He told them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!” So, they went out and began killing throughout the city. 8 While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell face down and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?” 9 And He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’ 10 But as for Me, I will not show pity or spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.” 11 Then the man clothed in linen with the writing kit at his side reported back, “I have done as You commanded.” (Ezekiel 9:3-11)

God’s judgment in Jerusalem is a microcosm of the end times wrath of God. The man clothed in linen represents Michael the archangel from Revelation 7:2 and Daniel 12:1. The mark on the foreheads represents the seal of God in which the angel places on the foreheads of the servants of God in Revelation 7:2-3. Let’s continue in Ezekiel 10:

And the LORD said to the man clothed in linen, “Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in. (Ezekiel 10:2)

Let’s compare this to Revelation 8:

Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, and rumblings, and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:5)

In Revelation 9, we have an interesting scripture in which the locusts are told only to harm those who “do not” have the seal of God on their foreheads:

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (Revelation 9:4)

So, the people who have the seal on their foreheads are kept safe like those in Ezekiel who have the mark are kept safe from the six destroyers. Let’s look at the next verse:

They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. (Revelation 9:5)

Let’s compare this scripture with a scripture from the Old Testament:

My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ” (2 Chronicles 10:11)

Let’s move on to looking at the mirror images of Jesus and Jonah. Jonah tries to flee from the presence of the Lord while Jesus is always in God’s presence. Jonah is down below sleeping during the storm at sea in Jonah 1:5. Jesus is down below sleeping during the storm at sea in Mark 4:38. The crew that throws Jonah overboard are the good guys, and the Pharisees that kill Jesus are the bad guys. Jonah is in the fish for three days. Jesus is in the earth for three days:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)

God commands the whale to vomit Jonah upon dry land in Jonah 2:11. In the New Testament, God raises Jesus from the dead as we see in Romans 4:24, and it was through death that Jesus Christ defeated death.

In these last days, let’s receive God’s promise of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s avoid the terrible fate of eternal destruction by accepting Christ as Lord and savior and turning from wrongdoing. Let’s love God and our neighbors and do our best in a fallen world.