To Encourage You

Ephesians 1:16-22 “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

One of the things I’ve come to understand over the years is how the wonderful shadows and types that we are given in the Old Testament are just that, shadows and types.  A shadow gives us an indication of the size and shape of an object as light strikes it, but the shadow is so much less than the object itself. You see, a shadow has no color, although the object that casts that shadow does. Shadows fall far short of objects from which they are formed. Shadows, for example, of people, can’t make sounds, but people speak and sing.  Shadows are one dimensional rather than three dimensional shapes that characterize all people.  Shadows have no personality. And there are a multitude of other ways that shadows fall short.  Yet, it’s in this realization that we can better appreciate the awesomeness of our Lord Jesus Christ to which so many of these Old Testament shadows point.  No matter how awesome the picture that the types and shadows portray, Jesus is greater still. 

You see, as Paul tells us in the passage above, the attributes of God, such as His power, are immeasurable.  Jesus is not only above all rule, authority, power, and dominion that exists, but he is “far above” it all.  Jesus is not just a great name, it is “above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.” 

As I’ve been working my way through the book of Judges, the reality of these truths has been impressed on me more and more.  Currently I’m studying Judges 4 and 5. It’s the story of Deborah, one of the female judges of Israel who led its conquest over Jabin, king of Canaan, and Sisera, his general.  It tells us how Sisera had 900 chariots of iron, which pointed to that army’s overwhelming power, while Israel, militarily, was far weaker.  However, we can be sure that no human strength is greater than the power of our Lord.  As we are told in Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”  It’s as Jesus told Peter after he used his sword to strike off the ear of the servant of the high priest who was one of those who came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so” (Matthew 26:52-54).

Another thing we are told in the account of Deborah is that a woman named Jael killed the general Sisera by pounding a tent peg through his temple into the ground while he slept in her tent.  It was a gruesome end for this one who had so enslaved and cruelly oppressed Israel for over 20 years (Judges 4:2-3; 17-22).  In the song of Deborah recorded in Judges 5, Deborah calls Jael the “most blessed of women” (Judges 5:24) for her victory over the enemy.  Might this be a shadow of the a much greater victory Jesus has given us over a much more powerful enemy who has enslaved us. I’m reminded of how a nails were driven through Jesus’ hands and feet on the cross.  I am also reminded of how God prophesied of Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspringand her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).  Satan’s “offspring” are those who are at enmity with God, such as the Jews who sought to kill Him. Of them, Jesus said “You are of your father, the devil” (John 8:44). The offspring of the woman ultimately pointed to Jesus, born of Mary, of whom Elizabeth said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42),  for it was from her womb that the Savior came.  Because of this, her blessedness surpassed, by far, the blessedness of the Old Testament woman, Jael.  It was as Satan, our greatest enemy, bruised the heel of Jesus on the cross with his nails that Jesus ultimately crushed Satan’s head, to which the shadow of Sisera’s death may point.

The surpassing greatness of Jesus our Lord – greater, far greater than any Old Testament shadow that ultimately points to Him.