Coffee Cup Bible Study-three minutes with God- Mocha with Malachi

[Dr Denis O'Callaghan]

Dear Gentle reader,

Today with your Mocha coffee lets consider our Lord and what is the Messianic hope in the Bible.

(Mal 3:1) Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh, saith the LORD of hosts.

The Bible is Christocentric. Eliminate Christ from the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) typology, psalmody, philosophy, prophecy and the whole anticipative structure disintegrates into incohesive fragments. There is scarcely a more engaging or illuminating study that to trace the progressive unfolding of the Messianic idea right through the thirty-nine oracles of the Old Covenant. It moves forward in six stages.

First, there is the Sethite or racial period, from Adam to Noah. In Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; they shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise their heel.' the first promise is given, that the "seed of the woman" should crush the serpent; by which is implied that the Restorer should come from the race itself. Thereafter through the antediluvian centuries, the promise links down through a chain of chosen individuals from Seth to Noah.

Second, there is the Shemitic or ethnic period, from Noah to Abraham The great racial divisions of humanity branch down from Noah’s three sons. The Shemite division is chosen; then within that, the line of Arpachshad (Arphaxad was your typical Biblical character. He was the grandson of Noah, he lived a very long time, he went forth and multiplied. Other than that, there isn't much written about him, but he jumped out at me the first time I read his name.

There's something about his name that fascinates me. The literal translation of it is "one who releases," but that doesn't help much. Granted, there are many cool names in the Bible--Nebuchadnezzar springs to mind--but this one is different. It has a certain symmetry to it, and a unique timelessness. In short, it doesn't seem like the name of a person out of the Old Testament.

Arphaxad (or Arpachshad, a greatly inferior spelling) first appears shortly after the story of the Deluge in the Book of Genesis. All of his vital stats are given in the following passage:

These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood. And Shem lived after he begot Arpachshad five hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. And Arpachshad lived five and thirty years, and begot Shelah. And Arpachshad lived after he begot Shelah four hundred and three years, and begot sons and daughters. Gen 11:10-13) down to Abraham.

Third, there is the Patriarchal or tribal period, from Abraham to Moses. Abram is separated as the first father of the promised seed from which Christ should come; then Isaac, to whom the covenant is renewed; then Jacob whose 12 sons become the Patriarchs or fathers of the Israel tribes; and the promise of Shiloh is narrowed to the tribe of Judah The sceptre turneth not aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Till his Seed come; And his is the obedience of peoples. (Gen 49:10)

Fourth, there is the national or theocratic period, from Moses to David. At Sinai the 12 tribes were welded into one nation. They were given laws, statutes, ordinances, directly from God, and were thereby constituted a theocracy. This was because the Messianic idea was to be unfolded institutionally or typologically through the divinely designed system of Israel’s priesthood and sacrifices.

Fifth, there is the royal or family period, from David to the Exile. David is told that the Messiah shall come from his own house or family (2 Samuel 7). Thus the stream narrows from the race as a whole, to one ethnic division, then to the Hebrew tribes, then to the Israel theocracy, and now to David’s’s household; the promise is handed down, king after king until the catastrophe of the Exile aborts the historic Davidic throne, and disperses the people through Babylonia.

Sixth, there is the final or post-exilic period from the Exile to Christ Himself. What changes during Israel’s 850 years occupancy of Canaan!

It is wonderful to see how, as the stream narrows down from race to family. Yet in another sense, it grows wider and wider, until messianic prediction reaches flood-point. Psalms and Prophets foretell His birth of a virgin in Bethlehem; His character and ministry; His betrayal and crucifixion, his very words on the cross: His ultimate kingdom; and a variety of other features.

So gentle reader, what does this say to you and to me? Why, this: the purposes of God are marching down through the centuries with irresistible force and footsteps. Let us have no fear. And dear saint of God, he chose you also, According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (Eph 1:4) The coming of Christ guarantees that the golden daybreak must surely be upon us soon!

Love,

Denis