As you know by now, I am utterly in awe of the way God wove shadows of future events throughout the Bible. Seeing the abundance of them drives home the point to me that only our divine Creator could have written such a phenomenal book. Unfortunately, seldom do scholars ever seem to “search out” the shadows, other than a few obvious ones in the Old Testament that are included as pictures of the first coming of Christ. But shadows are just as plentiful in the New Testament as previews of what was to come following His resurrection.
        For example, on March 24 and April 8 we discussed at this blog site the fact that the Samaritan woman and the Canaanite woman respectively were both shadows of the coming church. If you have not read those teachings or have forgotten them, I encourage you to check both articles out by clicking on the archived articles to the left.
        Less than an hour ago I was stunned when reading a well known story in Mark 5 by seeing that another woman was just as surely a shadow of the church. The story I am referring to is the one in which a Jewish ruler, Jairus, asked Jesus to come to his house and save his dying daughter. On the way to the house Jesus was interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood. Because of that interruption the daughter of Jairus died before Jesus could reach the child. Think about it. Jesus came to first save the Jewish people, as we learned in the story of the Canaanite woman, but that woman also interrupted His journey to complete His mission. In the same way the woman with the issue of blood interrupted Christ’s journey to Jairus’s house. Three women, all represented the coming church. Three women, all shadows of His bride. And all three women were shadows of this two thousand year church age interruption which has given us Gentiles the chance to enter paradise.
        Fortunately for the Jewish people, in the end of the story in Mark 5, Jesus brings back to life the daughter of Jairus, obviously a shadow of what is still to come for the Hebrew nation, the nation that because of God’s promises to the Patriarchs is and forever will be His children.
        What a remarkable treasure the Bible is. Cherish it. Study it. Put His Word in your heart daily. Nothing on earth compares to it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Shadows.