Signs and Symbols in Scripture

            In some areas of modern religious thought, there is a tendency to limit the need for Old Testament study.  It seems that these scholastic theorists wish to denigrate the first half of Holy Scripture to use as a historical resource, some so-called unfinished prophetic reference, proverbial Ouija board or even children’s fables with not much more significance than a Aesop's fable or Mother Goose.  This understanding comes from the mistaken idea that since the advent of the New Testament, due to the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior, all a modern believer needs to know is limited to only this portion of the Holy Bible.  A contextual misunderstanding of scriptures such as in 2 Cor, 5:17, “old things are passed away and all things are become new” essentially renders the Old Testament obsolete by most of these thinkers.  This understanding could not be further from the truth, which is illustrated many times throughout scripture, both Old and New.

            Just from a scholastic or logical standpoint there is a need to have an understanding of the people and times of the Old Testament.  The understanding of previous civilizations is essential to understanding man today in several fields of study.  How much more the understanding of the people to which God first dealt.  All of the things that Jesus taught, found in the first four gospels, dealt with the mentality or philosophy, history and beliefs of the Jews.  He had to describe the New Covenant to them in terms of their knowledge of the Old Covenant.  Jesus had to persuade the Jews by the Law and the prophets that there was an ending of one age and the beginning of another.  Our Lord was compelled by that same Old Testament to prove to them that He was that Seed promised to Abraham and that through Him all would be saved.  Accept for the disciples, Jesus spoke to everyone in parables or illustrations using Old Testament prophesy.  Without an understanding of what the Jews knew, we today have essentially handicapped ourselves from scriptural enlightenment.  This lack of symbolic reference is even more obvious when trying to decipher Revelation.  This book has and will remain totally mystifying without the symbolic keys found in the Old Testament.

            God says specifically many times to Moses, with regards to the construction of the original natural Tabernacle, to follow the pattern, the pattern and the pattern.  It was the pattern that was important, because the pattern had to be exact to represent or signify the attributes of Jesus properly.  The manifestation of this pattern was Jesus the Christ.  All of the patterns were maintained by that perfect manifestation and are projected to the revealing of His Body the Church.  Do not confuse the fulfilling or manifestation of a pattern as the pattern being thrown away.  The pattern is updated with better material, natural to spiritual, but the pattern is still valid. The plan or blueprint of God is still in affect.  The natural Law of Moses was implemented due to the disobedience of His Chosen People by the flesh.  That burdensome law was replaced by a Law of grace for the guiding of His Chosen by the Spirit in Love to maintain communion with God the Father.  Both laws are governors, one for the carnal mind (which is death) written on stone, while the other is for a renewed mind (Paul’s' words), the mind of Christ written on a spiritual heart (which is eternal life).

            I am in total agreement to the fulfillment or doing away of the Old Covenant (as law), but not the Old Testament (as scripture).  We are now longer under any obligation or governorship of the laws and regulations of the Mosaic Law.  It was never intended for the Gentile because the Gentile had, previous to the Law of Grace, no approach to God.  The Mosaic Law was added, as an addendum, if you will, to the covenant with Abraham.  It was never intended to replace, nor could it legally, that original covenant with Abraham.  The fulfillment of the Abraham Covenant was the Hope (Jesus Christ).  Once the Promise or Seed (Jesus Christ) or the reason for the contract or Covenant was delivered, the contract was fulfilled.  Once the contract was fulfilled there was no longer a need for that particular contract, ergo the end of the Old Covenant.

            The overall plan of salvation of the Father was not yet finished however, even though the Old Covenant was done away because of, the birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Promise.  A new Covenant had to be formed, by His blood.  This covenant or order would usher in the Church (Body of Christ), not just the immortal reestablishment of the Pre-fallen Adam.  The second or last man Adam (Jesus Christ) repurchased with His Blood the original rights, privileges and position with God of the first Adam (before the fall), immortal and without sin. 

            It is for this reason that the entire New Testament exists.  This understanding is culminated with the Apocryphal (Revelation or the revealing of Jesus the Christ and His Church).  As mentioned earlier, without the historical perspective, our understanding will be flawed and subject to false interpretation.  The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.  Let the Bible interpret itself.  John the beloved establishes, in the first few verses of Revelation, that the revealing of Jesus (in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, First and the Last, Alpha and Omega) is to be done with signs and symbols (signified).  This entire book is based on visions given to John, who describes the things he sees with things that he understands (as we all do).   John is a product of Judaism or the Mosaic Law before the establishment of the New Covenant.  He was not a disciple of Paul who taught with an understanding of gentiles but a disciple and apostle of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) who was also a Jew in the flesh. 

            The Jews had fallen into the trap of worshiping the manifestation of the symbolism of God's plan without recognizing the fulfillment of that symbolism as being Christ and His Church.  Unfortunately, the same process of thought is prevalent today.   The patterns and symbolic found in the Old Testament are the keys or definitions of the symbolic found, in not only Revelations, but in many other books of the New Testament.  These patterns and symbolism were, in most cases, established before the Mosaic Law.   I agree the items or manifested patterns found in the Temple are no longer to be used as items of ritual or worship.  That usage is done away with.  These articles of worship for the approach to God are definitely no longer applicable in the New Covenant.

            With that said, a true understanding of the manifestation of these symbols must be gained in order that we can see clearly what our Lord is saying of Himself and the Church.  We can now look backward or in hindsight, as we do in all historical study, with the gained understanding received in our current age of the knowledge received from our Lord in this New Covenant of Grace by the Holy Ghost.   It is said, agreeably, that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us into all truth.  It is also said that the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance all things.  In both cases, we accomplish this mostly by the foolishness of preaching and the studying of the word.  Although the Holy Spirit at times gives us a word from the ethereal, it must still be verified by what has already been written.  It takes two wings for an eagle to fly.  It takes both sides of the seven golden lamp stand to stand upright.  It takes both olive trees.  It takes both witnesses for the totality of Christ and His Church to be understood.

            In Genesis, God would not have been so insistent that, Moses follow the pattern, pattern, etc. for the Tabernacle if the pattern had not already been established elsewhere.  The pattern had to remain exact for all of prophesy to have been fulfilled.  The pattern had to be exact so that the Savior could be recognized.  Unfortunately, the manifestation of these patterns in Jesus could only be fully understood with the patterns and the Holy Spirit, not one or the other.  One pattern example that can be easily used to illustrate this position is found in Genesis before Moses but after the fall of Adam. 

            God the Father (Elohim) sacrificed an animal (Gen 3:21).   This animal, the pattern or symbol of the coming Lord, was killed before temple worship or Judaism or Mosaic Law.  This blood sacrifice was made for Adam and Eve to have their bodies, nakedness or sin, covered by the skin obtained by bloodshed.  It was the original establishment of the precursor of the ultimate blood sacrifice of Christ.  This also better explains why the lamb sacrifice (later sin offering in the Tabernacle of Moses) of Able was accepted while the sacrifice of works or produce (later a wave offering in the Tabernacle of Moses) by Cain was not.  Able followed the already established pattern for atonement that had to have been taught to him by his father Adam.  Since Able used a pure lamb, it implies that the animal sacrificed by God was also a lamb.  Although it is not stated as such in the above scripture, all subsequent references to atonement are accomplished by the sacrifice of a pure lamp.

            In closing, I say again that my point was not to refute the replacement of the Old Covenant by the New Covenant.  It was only to illustrate that knowledge gained from the historical understanding of scriptural patterns and symbols, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, is not only valid, but also rather necessary to the full understanding of Jesus and His Church.  Worship or the approach to God today has nothing to do with ritualism or naturally formed implements based on past patterns.  True worship today is based on the manifestation of the true pattern or symbol, Jesus the Christ.  He and His represented Church, were, are and will always be the final fulfillment of these symbols and patterns found in the entire Bible not just half of it.