Temporal Foreshadowings Of The Eternal

by OXLEY, C. A. | Category: Temporal Foreshadowings Of The Eternal | Jul 1936

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven ... Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth ... And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature ... cattle, and creeping thing ... and it was so."

Firmament, seas and earth prepared; and laws of nature so arranged as to maintain the provision made; then each sphere to teem abundantly with life to enjoy His provision.

As we reflect on all this, we think of how Christ came that we might have "life," and that we might have it "abundantly." Truly we can say with the hymn writer Burder

His Word this precious truth reveals,

And all His mercies prove;

Creation and redemption join

To show that God is love.

The record of the five days' work-Genesis 1. 3-25, concludes with the words, "And God saw that it was good." Then follows the record of the sixth day-that momentous day that witnessed

THE CREATION OF MAN: RSPONSIBILITY AND RULE.

The place being fully prepared for him, "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ... And God created man in His own image ... and blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it ... and have dominion over the fish ... and the fowl ... and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." In the unfallen state Eve shared dominion with Adam. He said unto "them" Be fruitful, have dominion. Here we see responsibility: rule and government over the lower creatures given to man. So in this narrative we have set before us Divine rule and human rule. Man had dominion given him over the works of earthly creation, yet, in the supreme and all-embracing sense it was and is and ever must I

be "THE HEAVENS DO RULE."

After the fall, Eve is put in subjection to Adam. And because she gave her ear unto the Deceiver, and was first to transgress the Divine command, it was said to her, "thy desire shall be to thy husband (that is, subject to thy husband), and he shall rule over thee." It was so under the law; thus -J if a woman's husband held his peace, her vows stood, but if he refused they were disallowed.

But may we not see foreshadowed in the joint participation and enjoyment of blessing and dominion by unfallen Adam and Eve, the coming blessed reign of Christ and those who shall live and reign with Him? Also a figure of His dominion; yet the earthly shadow falls short of the divine reality, for His dominion will be universal. In air, and earth, and sea, all will be subject to Him. Every knee shall bow to Him, "In heaven, and on earth, and under the earth"; and "Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Sea-power, landpower, and air-power shall bow to Him.

THE SEVENTH DAY: BLESSING AND REST.

The work of creation complete; the heaven and the earth finished and all the host of them, on the seventh day God rested, and blessed and hallowed it. But that rest was soon broken by sin entering the world, and death by sin. But how suggestive are the words " finished " and " rest " ; " hallowed

and "blessed"! Our hearts will not allow us to do other than think of the finished work of Christ upon the cross, and of the rest which God finds in that finished work, and of how hallowed and blessed is that eternal sabbath which remains for the people of God, for they also rest in the finished work of Christ upon the cross.

0 God, what perfect rest is Thine,

Thy rest is in Thy Son;

'Tis all unspeakable, divine,

Thy rest and ours are one.

PARADISE: THE MAN ALONE: THE WOMAN BUILDED AND PRESENTED.

"And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed ... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman (" builded He into a woman. See R.V.M., Genesis 2. 22), and brought her unto the man." This undoubtedly foreshadows the deep-sleep of Calvary, the death of the cross: and the wounded side of the Saviour, who, as exalted at God's right hand, is Head of the church the Body of Christ: the formation and presentation of Eve to

The lonely man" in Paradise, is most suggestive.

THE FIG LEAF GIRDLE AND THE COATS OF SKINS.

The worst of all the many inventions which man has sought out are the religious inventions, because, while professing to lead to eternal bliss, they lead men to eternal destruction.

It is the blood that maketh an atonement (or covering) for the soul " : "blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." "without shedding of blood is no remission." Man's way was a girdle of fig-leaves, but God's way was "coats of skins," which implied the shedding of blood, yea, death itself, to provide a covering. Thus was the atoning death of Christ foreshadowed, which provides the robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation for every believing sinner of Adam's fallen race.

Abel learned the lesson and brought of the firstlings of the flock and was accepted. Cain knew about it, but rejected it and brought of the fruit of the ground, and was himself rejected: and it was said to him, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin (sin-offering) coucheth at the door." By his action he practically denied the fall, and his need as a sinner; therefore he rejected God's provision for him of a sin-offering that was couching at the door. That is "the way of Cain," and it

stamps all human religion from one end of the earth to the other, and from the beginning of time to its end. Self- improvement; self-advancement; trusting in themselves that they are righteous; going about to establish their own righteousness; thus men do not submit themselves to the righteousness of God, nor acknowledge their utter ruin by the fall- "By nature and by practice far,

How very far from God."

COLLECTIVE TESTIMONY.

"Then began men to call upon the Name of the LORD" (Genesis 4. 26). With the growth of population, violence and corruption grew: but God established a testimony. Many centuries followed; at length Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was born. Outstanding things of great significance are said of him. Such as he "walked with God ... three hundred years," and he "was not, for God took him." He also foretold coming judgement (see Jude 14, 15) "Behold, the Lord came with His holy myriads, to execute judgement ... and to convict all the ungodly." Enoch's translation before the Flood, foreshadows the translation of the Church (1 Thessalonians 4. 15-17), for the Church will be "caught up" before the Great Tribulation. Enoch, before his translation, had this testimony, that "he had been well-pleasing unto God." Oh that it may be the aim of each one of us, that we may be well-pleasing unto Him! Noah's being saved through the Flood, foreshadows those who will be saved through the Great Tribulation. Enoch was saved from it and Noah was saved through it. Shadows of things to come! The days of Noah and the days of Lot are both used by the Lord as being typical of the Great Tribulation period: He said, As it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of Man. Many will ignore God's testimony, and Godless and heedless they will eat and drink, buy and sell, build and plant, marry and give in marriage right up to the actual moment of their destruction. As of old the Flood, and the fire of judgement came as before declared, and so will it be again.

OXLEY, C. A. | Jul 1936
Temporal Foreshadowings Of The Eternal