There’s something beautiful and faith affirming about seeing Christ, the gospel, and the whole of the Christian life, rolled out magnificently in early Old Testament texts.
That has certainly been by experience reading through Deuteronomy recently. The setting for the book is Moses and the Israelites standing on the plains of Moab waiting for their ‘Joshua/Jesus’ to take them into the Promised Land. The fact that this picture is so clear in the Old Testament, only adds to the conviction that Scripture is divinely inspired, and our Joshua will certainly take us to our Promised Land once our wilderness wanderings are done.
And Christ is everywhere, as I found in Deuteronomy 8 yesterday. God tells Moses that, after He rescued His people from the land of slavery (sin) through the blood of the Lamb (the cross), He intentionally took them into difficult wilderness territory so that he might ‘know what was in your heart’ (Deut. 8:2). God placed His people in the kind of circumstances where they had to depend on Him for everything, and He proves His faithfulness by providing water from a rock and manna from heaven.
The New Testament links both the water from the rock (1 Cor. 10), and the manna in the wilderness (John 6), with Christ. Moses had to strike the rock to produce the water, and suddenly we find ourselves at the foot of the cross where our Rock was struck so that He might satisfy the spiritual thirst of his people (‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’). And we are then at the communion table where we eat the bread of heaven for spiritual sustenance on our often weary journey through the wilderness, on the way to the Promised Land.
One of the most beautiful images occurs when Israel finally reaches Canaan and starts eating the fruit of the Promised Land. On that momentous day, the duller, less enchanting, but still life-giving manna disappears (Josh. 5:12). They don’t need it anymore because they live every moment in a land of ‘milk and honey’ that God had prepared for them for generations.
Perhaps you are feeling weary on your wilderness journey. You might wish that God would stop testing your heart, leading you into situations that force you to depend entirely on Him. Perhaps every time you ‘eat the manna’ at the communion table, it seems a little dull, however meaningful it is, and makes you long for the day you will drink the new wine of the kingdom in the Promised Land He has prepared for you.
Deuteronomy is there to remind you that the test of faith you are enduring today is a sign that you really are walking through the divinely prepared wilderness/rugged road of true discipleship; that the blood of the Lamb, our Rock who was struck, is enough for you; and to fill you with confidence that you are definitely, certainly, without question, heading for the new world God has prepared for you and all His faithful children. You will eat and drink with such joy in the kingdom to come that even the best communion service will feel like that rather dull manna in the wilderness by comparison.
The story has already been written, not just through the imagery of pre-Christ Deuteronomy, but further back, since ‘before the foundation of the world’. As an ageing Han Solo said in Star Wars 7, about the Jedi’s legendary battles with the Empire: ‘It’s all true, all of it!’ So keep feeding on Christ today, in the heat of the battle, allowing Him to test you and prove His faithfulness, while filled with confidence that the best is yet to be!
