A Shadow of Things to Come

In the first chapters of Genesis, God promises that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, a messianic prophecy at the very start. "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." Some approaches to Scripture dispose of earlier truth ("that was for them, not for us"), but every Old Testament type and shadow teaches us Christ. The lamb shows God's plan unfolding: a lamb for a man (Abel), a lamb for a family (Passover), a lamb for a nation (the tabernacle), and finally the Lamb for the whole world (the cross).

"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." From Adam to Christ is about 4,000 years, or four "days." A full week has seven days, so three remain after the cross. These are "the last days" Joel prophesied and Peter declared fulfilled at Pentecost: "This is that." They are spirit days, dimensions to be entered, not calendar days to wait out. The seventh day is God's rest, the day He sanctified for Himself, the Lord's day. The seven-day order was planted in creation, which is why Scripture is full of sevens, and why the power of God so often shows up "after six days" or on the Sabbath.

Light does not create a shadow; an object standing in light does. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." God shines from the end, His finished work, back to the beginning. That light strikes the cross and casts a shadow backward into history. The shadow it casts is the tabernacle of Moses, "a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." The brighter the light, the bigger the shadow.

On the mountain, God showed Moses the heavenly tabernacle and said, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern." Its design is the grandfather of all spiritual revelation.

The court fence stood about eight feet high. No one could climb over; everyone entered through the one door, because "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

The tabernacle is a portrait of Christ crucified:

• The door, at the foot: "I am the door." Everyone enters at the foot of the cross.
• The brazen altar: His feet, "like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace."
• The laver: from His side flowed blood and water.
• The candlestick: one nailed hand; He is the Light of the world.
• The table of showbread: the other nailed hand; He is the Bread of life.
• The altar of incense, at the heart: His inward parts broken, and the place of praise and worship.
• The ark, at the head: crowned with thorns, now crowned with glory and honor. The glory dwelt between the cherubim.

Jesus was not merely in the tabernacle. He was the tabernacle.

Under the law, a lamb was slain each year, and the people "walked up the shadow." The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin; it rolled sin ahead year after year like a growing snowball. Then the Lamb of God was slain. "For the joy that was set before him" He went through the cross, through the very object that cast the shadow, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Everything that had been shadow became reality in Him. Before the cross, people cried, "Shew me thy glory." After it, we behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

When you pass through the object casting a shadow, the image inverts. On the far side of the cross, the tabernacle is no longer three natural rooms but three spiritual dimensions laid over the last three days:

• Day 5, the Outer Court: the first dimension of grace.
• Day 6, the Holy Place: the second dimension of grace, where the anointing and the church (the candlesticks) are.
• The Veil: His flesh, and ours.
• Day 7, the Holy of Holies: the third dimension of grace, God's rest, the glory, Mount Zion.

This is why Jesus told the woman at the well that true worship would no longer be tied to a mountain or a temple, but would be "in spirit and in truth." It's also why Scripture says, "Ye are come unto mount Sion," present tense.