Our Lord gave us a very peculiar revelation in Psalm 25:
·
Who is the man who fears the LORD? Him will he
instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the LORD is for
those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:12-14;
ESV)
Here is what I had been pondering: Hadn’t the Lord already
revealed His covenant to Israel? Wasn’t it at the center of the Hebrew
Scriptures? Certainly! To what then was our Lord referring? Evidently, to the
New Covenant – a Covenant found in cryptic ways in the shadows of the Old!
This seems to suggest that God hides certain truths, and He
clearly does (Proverbs 25:2; Deut. 29:29; Isaiah 49:2). It is not surprising
that God’s greatest secret was hidden away in the most holy place of the
Temple, where only the high priest could enter and only once a year, on the Day
of Atonement.
The “atonement cover,” also translated as the “mercy seat”
(KJV), covered the Ark of the Covenant, and was itself covered by the massive
wings of two golden cherubim to prevent it from being seen. When the high
priest entered this holiest place on that holiest day—Yom Kippur—he had to
enter with great plumes of smoke generated by his incense censer, to prevent
him from seeing the mercy seat and being struck dead (Lev. 16:2):
·
Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin
offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to
slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. He is to take a censer full of
burning coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground
fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. He is to put the incense on
the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement
cover above the Testimony [the Ten Commandments which had been placed in the
ark], so that he will not die (Lev. 16:11–13, NIV).
This provokes many questions. Why should the atonement
cover, or mercy seat, be so carefully concealed, and why with an accompanying
threat of death? Shouldn’t something called the “mercy seat” have been foremost
among God’s self-disclosures? Why wouldn’t God want to display the fullness of
His mercy?
Seeing God could also bring death (Exod. 33:20; Gen. 32:30;
Judges 13:22). Was this threat related to the danger of seeing the mercy seat?
Adding to this mystery, the mercy seat rested above the ark containing the
tablets of the Ten Commandments. This seemed to suggest that this mysterious
cover might even have had a greater stature than the Law.
Furthermore, God would meet with Israel above the mercy seat
(Exod. 30:6), where He was mysteriously “enthroned between the covering
cherubim” (1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; Ps. 80:1; 99:1). This mercy seat therefore
seemed to have been intimately related to God’s provision of mercy. (It’s where
Israel came to receive His mercy.) Why then would God so strenuously hide it?
The mercy seat was associated with the other divine
mysteries: God’s atonement, new covenant, and Messiah. Although He had ordained
the Levites to make atonement for Israel’s sins, He cryptically revealed that
He would provide the decisive atonement: “Rejoice, O nations, with his people,
for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his
enemies and make atonement for his land and people” (Deut. 32:43; Ps. 65:3;
79:9). However, He conspicuously neglected to disclose the redemption or
atonement price:
·
“For this is what the LORD says: ‘You were sold
for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed’” (Isa. 52:3).
Redemption always costs. What then would the atonement for
God’s people cost? This disclosure is curiously opaque. This takes us back to
the question of the nature of the atonement cover resting on the ark and the
Law it contained. Why this complex of mysteries—the atonement, its price, and
its agent? Wasn’t the Law, with its sacrificial system, adequate? Evidently
not! Seemingly, this sacrificial system would be superseded by a new but still
hidden atonement or mercy, the Savior Jesus.
However, according to Psalm 25, this truth was hidden in
plain sight from those who were not ready to see it and perhaps even despise
what is closest to the heart of our Lord.
The Hebrew Scriptures
are home to many mysteries, all pointing to the Savior and His Gospel.
Jesus even affirmed that these Scriptures are about Him:
·
“You search the Scriptures because you think
that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40)
This assertion gives us permission to search out Christ in
the Hebrew Scriptures, the very thing that I now want to do in just one other
way by focusing on one little phrase – “the arm of the Lord.” Let’s take one
enticing example:
·
“Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil
makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no
justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to
intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness
upheld him.” (Isaiah 59:15-16; Ezekiel 22:30)
The Lord was distressed by the lack of truth and justice,
but there was no one to intercede on behalf of His people. Therefore, He would have to intercede with Himself
to bring salvation, and His arm would be the Intercessor. However, it doesn’t
make any sense for Him to intercede with Himself unless He is a plurality of
Persons. Is this what our Lord intends to reveal to us?
In a very similar verse, He says:
·
“For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and
my year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was
appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me
salvation, and my wrath upheld me.” (Isaiah 63:4-5)
Is our Lord speaking of a distinct Person bringing
salvation? We find a parallel scene in the Book
of Revelation, which might shed some light on this question. In this
vision, no one was found righteous to unlock God’s scroll, allowing God’s
redemptive plan to go forward:
·
Then I [John] saw in the right hand of him who
was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with
seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is
worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on
earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I
began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to
look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open
the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:1-5)
Only the Lamb of God was found worthy. It seems that it is He
who is this same arm of God, the one who “brought…salvation” for God (Isaiah
63:5). A few verses later, we read about “the Angel of His Presence” who had
brought salvation. Could this be the same Person?
·
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and
the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he
redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah
63:9)
If He had redeemed them, He had to pay a redemption price
for them, the very thing that the Son had done for us. Who is this “Angel of
His Presence” who had saved them from Egypt? Is this another reference to the “arm
of the Lord?”
·
The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from
here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to
the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your
offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive
out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not
go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked
people…My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus
33:1-314)
The Angel, also referred to as “My
Presence,” is a distinct Person. He would lead Israel out of Egypt (Numbers
20:16), because God the Father could not remain in close proximity to Israel:
·
“Behold, I send an angel [or “messenger”
in the Hebrew] before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place
that I have prepared. Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; do not
rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in
him. (Exodus 23:20-21)
All of this sounds suspiciously like the second Person of
the Trinity. For one thing, God’s name – His character and essence – is in this
angel, signifying that He is God. As we continue to examine references to the
“arm of the Lord,” I think that this will become more apparent. The arm also
seems to be a Person:
·
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his
arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense
before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in
his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with
young. (Isaiah 40:10-11)
His Arm rules. He gathers, carries, and gently leads His
flock. He is the Good Shepherd (John 10). Israel was even waiting for the Arm
of the Lord, who brings salvation:
·
“My righteousness draws near, my salvation has
gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and
for my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the
earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like
a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation
will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed… O arm of
the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you
who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?” (Isaiah 51:5-6; 9)
His Arm is again associated with His salvation, something
that the entire world awaits and will see. For whom do they wait? For a literal
arm? No, for their Savior:
·
The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes
of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of
our God. (Isaiah 52:10)
Not only will the world see the Arm of the Lord, He will
also die for the sins of the world:
·
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And
to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?... He was despised and rejected
by men… Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our
transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah
53:1-5)
The Arm is the Son of God Himself, the Savior of the world. This
should not surprise us. Jesus, Himself, said that the Hebrew Scriptures are
about Him, and this is just what we are finding. But why are these Scriptures
so cryptic? Why not more explicit?
For one thing, we can profitably handle only so much light.
God discloses it to us in incremental digestible portions. Jesus declared that
His disciples were not yet ready for full disclosure:
·
“I still have many things to say to you, but you
cannot bear them now. (John 16:12)
For another thing, the world was not supposed to see what was
intended for His Chosen. Jesus purposely taught in parables for this reason. He
warned us to not through our pearls of wisdom before swine (Mathew 7:6).
However, the Father had other reasons to hide Jesus and His New Covenant:
·
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God,
which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age
understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8)
But why would God hide the revelation of His mercy? I think
that as the natural must precede the spiritual, so too must the law precede
mercy. Why? Mercy is shallow and meaningless unless we have a deep
understanding of our need for mercy –
that we are sinners who deserve only death and damnation (Romans 6:23). The
gift of life is not a gift as long as we think that we deserve it as our
entitlement. The law illuminates our sin, showing us that we are only entitled
to death (Romans 3:19-20; Deut. 27:26).
Without this understanding, God’s mercy is foolishness (1
Corinthians 2:14). The way to God’s mercy must therefore be carefully
elucidated. The lessons of the law must first humble us, as the sinner who had
entered the Temple to pray (Luke 18:9-14). Only then can it serve as a teacher to lead us
to the hidden Messiah (Galatians 3:24).
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