The more we look at the Scriptures, the more they transport us to their scenes. The Bible has the wonderful power of putting us, by faith, in the place it describes, as though we are there as one of the company and we are conscious that we are there in the scenes it describes. It is this that gives a blessed character to the whole Word of God.
“Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," every part by the Holy Ghost! The Bible is a history of original sin and its fruits, and God's method of putting sin away. God has "a fit man," a fit Person (Lev. 16:2121And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: (Leviticus 16:21)). In the Old Testament, we are waiting for a fit Person, and if we look at the New Testament, we find Him. In Matthew we see Him as the Messiah; in Mark as the perfect Servant. In Luke, He is the Son of man, and in John as the Son of God. In the Gospel of John the beginning is before Genesis.
We are attracted by the grace which is in the gospels, and we get the application of this grace in the epistles. Our eyes in the gospels look through the carpenter's Son, and see His divine glory. The aim of the epistles is to get the soul on the same platform of standing and walk as that of the Lord Jesus.
In the Old Testament we see, as it were, the unity of the Godhead, and in the New Testament the trinity of the Godhead.
In Genesis we see the election of the people of God.
In Exodus we have their redemption.
In Leviticus it is their priestly service and worship.
In Numbers is their walk and warfare in the wilderness.
In Deuteronomy there is a recapitulation of God's dealings with them up to the time that they are about to enter into the land.
Leviticus is a wonderful book for bringing out the detail of the work of Christ which we do not get elsewhere. Just as we enter into the significance of the sacrifices in Leviticus, so in worship we enter into the joy of God in the different aspects of the sacrifice of His Son.
Oh, the delight of God in His Christ! What a thing it is to have a heart to enter into it! What gives joy to God is the soul's entering into all Christ's work; having the heart bowed with a deepened sense of His worth—divine Person as He was—all His graces go up to God. We should want to be in Mary's place as learners!
If we wish to know Israel's experience after the Church is translated, look at the Psalms; Israel will then be under law again. The difference between Solomon's Song and Ecclesiastes is that in the one we have God Himself, and our hearts are too little for Him; in the other we have the world and all things in it, and our hearts are too large to be filled by it.
Prophecy is as a lamp in a dark place, as a lamp in a tunnel. "Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place." We should be interested in all that interests Christ. John closes the book when he says, "Come." He is perfectly satisfied when he is waiting for Jesus, and then he ceases to write! Young Christian