Old Times and Old Timers

Luke [24:13]-35

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. Luke [24:25]-27

Growing up I rather disliked the phrase, “We are going to your grandparents”.

Grandparents (to a teenager) are dreadfully boring. All my papa wanted to do was talk about cows and go out in the woods and chop up trees with his hacksaw. I made the mistake of going with him one afternoon and the old man nearly worked me to death. And grandma just wanted me to put up curtain rods and stand there and tell me what I’m doing wrong and about memories of her yester years. To me those were dreadfully boring times.

I think that many of us find hearing about old times pointless. That may spill over to reading the old testament. In my younger days reading about plagues, laws, and people with names like Ismerai, Jezliah, and Joab didn’t thrill me much. I didn’t see the point. And there was a couple of fellows walking to Emmaus that might have felt like we did. But they met a traveling companion that changed their minds. 

While He walked with them Jesus started at Moses taught them how He was everywhere in the Old Testament scriptures (which the Jews would have known). It’s easy for us to just quickly breeze over those texts and not look deeper. But here is an example of what we are missing if we just read them without digging deeper. 

In Exodus 26 God is giving instructions on the construction of the tabernacle. I freely admit just reading the description of the coverings, boards, and hardware is boring. Taking time to study the entire process gives us a picture of our church today.  

The outer covering was badger skin. This is what everyone would see from the outside. From my research it would be ugly to look at. Not pretty at all. But underneath that is the covering of rams skin. Dyed red. To us that represents the blood that Christ shed for us. And in the innermost parts you will see the curtains of fine twined linen. Things that are beautiful and pleasing to the eyes. 

And this is (to me) foreshowing how we and the world see the church. From the outside it’s ugly. Nothing to entice you to come in. But once you look deeper and see the whole picture you see how beautiful it is. And the more we look and learn about God the prettier the picture gets. 

It takes time and effort to look deeper into those Old Testament books, but there are countless pictures of Christ and His love for us. 

Riley Lee


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