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Day 235 – Thru the Bible
Today marks quite an accomplishment – we complete Second Chronicles and the Old Testament. Wow, great job!
2 Chronicles 35 – The celebration of the Passover is of special importance in 2 Chronicles—celebrated by Hezekiah in chapter 30 and then by Josiah in chapter 35. In fact, no other book in the Old Testament mentions this feast more. Recall that the Passover was first celebrated by Israel on the evening before their famed exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12; Numbers 9; Deuteronomy 16). The Passover sacrifice gives us a stark reminder that the wages of sin is death, and that the shedding of blood is required to appease God’s wrath. But this event also memorializes the Lord’s great mercy and power by delivering His people from the bondage of slavery.
As the last book in the Hebrew Old Testament, Chronicles prepares us for the arrival of Jesus the Christ in a unique and important manner with its emphasis on the Passover. First, the Passover lamb of the Old Testament was merely a shadow or type of the great cost of forgiveness and escape from death. God the Father paid this price for His people when He sent the true and better Passover Lamb, Jesus, as the full and final payment. John the Baptist was given the honor of publicly identifying this Passover Lamb sent by God, when he said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:7).
Secondly, not only is Jesus the Passover Lamb of God, but He is also a new Moses, leading God’s people in a new exodus (Luke 9:31), a deliverance not simply from slavery or subjugation in this world, but from the slavery of sin and death to eternal life in a new heavens and earth. The Passover is good news because it sets before us our arrival in the true Land of Promise and the extravagant price our heavenly Father was willing to pay for us to be with Him for all eternity.
How does seeing Jesus as the “real thing”, that the Passover points us to, lead you to worship Him?
2 Chronicles 36 – The New Testament is clear in its assessment of the Old Testament (Mosaic) covenant—namely, that it was a shadow of a better reality, something designed to pass away (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1).
Nevertheless, God’s character does not change, and we observe here the long-suffering compassion of a father working to provide every opportunity for repentance through the prophetic word. Having sent His servants the prophets to no avail, it would soon be time to send His one and only Son (Matthew 21:33–41).
And though they would kill the Son as they did the prophets (Acts 7:52), this death would turn out to be the means by which God would bring true and lasting forgiveness to His people, forever breaking the cycles of temporary fidelity with His provision of everlasting righteousness.
The Old Testament has been continually pointing us of something better to come, namely Jesus. Tomorrow we begin the New Testament.
How has the Old a Testament Prepared you to see all of its fulfillment to come in the New Testament?
What other thoughts or questions does today’s reading bring up?
Some of these notes are from the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible study notes. We highly recommend this study Bible.
Videos produced by www.TheGospelProject.com.
All links you need to be a part of this are here – Thru the Bible in 2018.