Concealing and Revealing
What do you see
in this picture?
Sometimes
reading and understanding the importance of parts of the Bible,
particularly in the Old Testament, can be much like looking at a
jumble of lines in a child’s puzzle picture and trying to
discern anything recognizable. The picture above really does
include outlines of something familiar. But the busy-ness of all
the extra lines tends to obscure just what is being depicted.
As a variety of
Christian teachers have phrased it over the years, “The New
Testament sometimes reveals what the Old Testament conceals.” In
other words, there are teachings in the New Testament that
clarify what may have only appeared to be vague hints and
obscure references in the Old Testament.
The reality is
that the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and Second Coming
of Jesus, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on His
disciples fifty days after His resurrection, were all
“foreshadowed” in numerous places in the Old Testament. And many
of these foreshadowings have to do with the biblical Feasts and Holy Days of God,
introduced in the Old Testament, as
they come in their seasons.
And thus if you
look closely, you can see Jesus—the Lamb of God—in all of them.
Many people who accept Jesus
Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer to themselves as "Christian" or
"Messianic," observe the biblical Feasts and Holy Days as times of worship,
fellowship, and celebration. They believe that these observances, described in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16, are shadows pointing to the
reality of Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable spiritual lessons to
be learned year by year through actually physically setting aside these Times
of Refreshing as
"appointments with God."
For an explanation
of how the Feasts and Holy Days are foreshadows of Jesus Christ,
see the article What Are Shadows and
Foreshadows? elsewhere on this Times of Refreshing
website.
For more about the biblical Feasts
in general, see the article Theme Times .
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Refreshing WebAuthor
All of the articles on this Times
of Refreshing website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit The Oasis website at
www.youall.com/oasis
All website content
© 2006, Pam
Dewey and Common Ground Christian Ministries
All rights reserved. Material may
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oasis@chartermi.net
