Adam
and Eve were in the garden, able to walk and talk with God, enjoying a close
relationship with their Creator. They
chose to disobey Him, and sin was introduced into the world. They became aware that they were naked, and
hid from God when He came looking for them because they were ashamed. God provided a covering for their shame by
killing an innocent animal and using its skin to make a garment for them. The
first recorded shedding of blood and death of a living thing in the Bible was
due to sin. This foreshadowed the death of Jesus, innocent
and without sin, as a covering for our sins.
Genesis 3
God told Noah to build an ark in order to deliver him
and his family, along with each kind of animal on the earth from the
destruction of the coming flood. God is
preparing to destroy everything in the world due to sin. Noah’s family, two of each kind of unclean
animal and bird, and seven of each kind of clean animal and bird are saved from
the flood by their entering into, and remaining in, the ark. After the flood waters subside, Noah builds
an altar and sacrifices one of each of the clean animals and birds to God as a
sign of thanksgiving for delivering the chosen from death. The sacrifice of the birds and animals
satisfy God because they are a precious sacrifice, one of only seven of their
kind left alive on the Earth. Jesus was
a precious sacrifice too, the only Son of God.
The ark is symbolic of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, which
saves us from destruction due to sin, if we enter into it and remain. Genesis
6-8
Abraham was instructed by God to take his only son
with his wife Sarah, Isaac, and go to mountains of Moriah. There he was to sacrifice his son on an
altar. Abraham obeyed, and just as he
was about to plunge the knife down, God intervened and stopped him. He provided a ram as a substitution for
Isaac, which Abraham took and sacrificed on the altar. Isaac symbolizes the only son of God offered
up as a sacrifice. The innocent ram
provided as a substitute for another is also symbolic of Christ’ death on the
cross for us. The mountains of Moriah
are where Jerusalem would
later be established. It is very likely
that this altar where
Isaac was offered up would later become
Moses was told by God that the last of ten plagues was
being sent on the Pharaoh, in order to obtain the release of the Children of
Israel from bondage and slavery in Egypt . The tenth plague would involve the death of each
and every firstborn animal and person in the land. Moses was instructed what to do in order to
avoid the death sentence which had been given.
The Israelites were to kill a spotless lamb at twilight, and place the
blood on each side of the door and the lintel of their house. They were then to roast the meat of the lamb
and eat a “Passover” meal inside their house.
The Angel of Death passed over Egypt
and all the firstborn not under the protection of the blood were killed. We are in bondage to sin and death. Jesus the spotless lamb was sacrificed on a
cross at twilight, the blood placed on the doorframe of the dwellings in Egypt symbolizing the shape of the
cross at Golgotha . Those who accept Christ’s sacrificial death
on the cross are under the protection of the blood, and do not have to fear
Death.
Exodus 12:46, John 19:32-33
The
Israelites wandering in the wilderness once again suffer trials and began to
curse God and Moses for their discomfort. God sends snakes among the
people who are bitten and begin to die. The Israelites recognize their
sin, and God tells Moses to make an image of the snakes out of bronze and hang
it on a pole. Whenever the Israelites were bitten by a snake, they would
then look at the bronze snake on the pole and live. Bronze
is an alloy metal, made by mixing copper and tin, just as Jesus is an
"alloy" in a way, fully human and fully God. The Israelites were
to look at the bronze image of the snake on the pole to save them. The
snake was the symbol of the thing which had bitten them and was causing their
death. Like this, we have been "bitten" by sin, and are
dying. 2 Corinthians 5:21
says that "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God." On the cross, Jesus
took on our sin and became sin. All we need do is make the decision to
look to Him in our state of dying, and we will live. Numbers 21:5-9, John 3:14-15
