A parallel

            The whole Bible is about Jesus.  I don’t remember when I heard the saying: “The Old Testament is Jesus concealed; the New Testament is Jesus revealed. “ 
            As a young Christian I decided to read the Bible all the way through—as it seemed that it would be a forgone conclusion that someone who professed to be a Christian (a) would want to and (b) should know what was in the Bible.  So my eyes ate up the stories, trudged through the statistics, related to the Psalms, puzzled about the prophets and personalised the letters to the churches. 
            As with any instructional book, sometimes you have to read through something several times; one has to become familiar with it before one begins to understand its meaning.  But over the years I’ve begun to discover interesting parallels and corresponding instances between the Old Testament and Jesus. 
            Here is an example.

Numbers 11
⁸ So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!”
²⁹ Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” ³⁰ And Moses returned to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

Luke 9

⁴⁹ Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.”

⁵⁰ But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us^[a] is on our side.”^[b]

            In both instances young leaders, in the training programme, are “tattling” to the leaders (Moses and Jesus) about people “outside the clique” experiencing the Holy Spirit.  And in both cases, the reply is:  “God is at work—let the Spirit flow.” 

            Paul wrote to Timothy “¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16). God made sure all the indicators were in the scripture, so that when Jesus comes, we cannot fail to recognise Him. 

            Like a parent who plays “peek-a-boo” or “hide-and-seek” with his/her child; The Father rejoices in our delight when we recognise His Son—as revealed through the Bible, which is brought alive by the Holy Spirit. 

            Yes, there are times I struggle as I wade through reading Numbers and the census reports of the twelve tribes.  But, then I come across one of these “moments of reveal” and I’m so glad I’ve persevered.  I hope your reading time is just as fruitful.

Serving Jesus, Author of our faith,

Lady Helene