God has a secret. He wrote a whole book about His secret, revealing it bit by bit until He had told the whole story.
Psalms 25:14 NIV
[14] “The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.”
In the Old Covenant, God told His secret, or part of it, to His friends, those who were serious about their relationship with Him.
Only a few under the Old Covenant faintly understood God’s secret.
People like Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the other prophets, realised the importance of God’s covenant with His people. His secret was bound up in His covenant. They also discovered that God’s mercy was not because they offered animal blood to remove their sin. There had to be something more, but God would only reveal the full story in His time.
Peter 1:10-11 NLT
[10] “This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. [11] They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.”
Abraham learned to live by faith in God because he believed God’s promises of a nation, a land, and blessing for the whole world through him.
Genesis 12:1-3 NLT
[1] The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. [2] I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. [3] I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
Hebrews 11:8-9 NLT
[8] It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. [9] And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.”
Genesis 15:6 NLT
[6]”And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Romans 4:1-8 NLT
[1] “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? [2] If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. [3] For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” [4] When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. [5] But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. [6] David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: [7] “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. [8] Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.”
[13] Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.”
God’s secret was slowly coming clearer to the few who believed Him and obeyed His Word. They learned that it was not their obedience to God’s instructions (because they could never obey Him perfectly) or the animal sacrifices God prescribed for failure to obey His law (because animal blood could never atone for their sin), but faith in God’s mercy because He promised to forgive their sin through a new way yet to be revealed.
To Isaiah came the clearest revelation of the foundation of God’s forgiveness, some of the other writing prophets adding details to the story.
Isaiah 53:3-6 NLT
[3] “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. [4] Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! [5] But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. [6] All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”
Faith, not in animal blood but in the blood of an innocent person was the only way God could forgive sin. God promised that He would send His Servant to be that perfect sacrifice.
David also envisioned some of that person’s suffering as he described suffering of his own. Somehow, out of his own agony, he described the agony of the one who died in his own place.
Psalms 22:1 NLT
[1] “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?..
[6] But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all! [7] Everyone who sees me mocks me. They sneer and shake their heads, saying, [8] “Is this the one who relies on the Lord? Then let the Lord save him! If the Lord loves him so much, let the Lord rescue him!”…
[12] My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls; fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in! [13] Like lions they open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their prey. [14] My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me. [15] My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead. [16] My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. [17] I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat. [18] They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.”
So, slowly, the secret is being unfolded, a secret which God clothed in a legally-binding covenant, based on His grace, which He would make known in all its glory in due time.
To be continued…