Psalms 71-73; Hebrews 9

Everything God has done from the beginning of time until now has been done with precision and purpose to prepare the hearts of men to receive his Son.

Consider Psalm 72…It was a royal Psalm, a prayer for the king of Israel – but it pointed forward to a day when the king would enjoy world-wide rule and bring about peace and social justice. It looked forward to a day when Jesus will rule the earth in peace and justice!

Hebrews 9 connects the symbols in the Old Covenant to their true heavenly counterparts. The temple…a temporal copy of God’s true home in heaven points to Jesus. The priesthood, instituted by God but fulfilled by imperfect men, points to Jesus. The sacrifices, offered day after day after day – were copies of the true sacrifice – offered once and for all, by Jesus!

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:13-14).

First, God established the law, the tabernacle and the priesthood – to point forward to Christ’s saving work on the cross. But there was more to be revealed!

Just as the temple and priesthood were copies of their true heavenly counterparts…I wonder how much of our world is also a dim reflection of what’s to come…

We look forward to a new heaven and a new earth – where the bride of Christ will be united with her husband. We look forward to the wedding feast of the lamb. Every wedding, celebration and feast is just a dim reflection of what’s to come. Every tree, stream and creature is just a dim reflection of God’s creation in the New Earth!

We live in the now and not yet, the time between Jesus’s two comings. We are the church age, and we look forward to the end of the age when all things will find their fulfillment in Christ!