The World and the Word

              The Advents and the Judgments of Christ

Christ came to the Israelites in slavery in Egypt and gave them a sin offering of a slain lamb. God's judgment fell on the firstborn of the Egyptians which symbolized His wrath against sin and evil which has enslaved the human race. God commanded the Israelites to put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts in the symbolic form of a cross to represent all humans who would ever become saved by the blood of Christ. God commanded that the rest of the lamb be made a burnt sacrifice to symbolize His lesser form of salvation for all living humans not saved by grace. The Israelites represented the entire human race because all humans are slaves to sin and evil. The liberation of the Israelites symbolized God's liberation of the entire human race from slavery to sin and evil. The slain firstborn Egyptians represented sin and evil itself which God will purge from the whole human race. Exodus 12:1-3.

When the Israelites came to Mount Sinai, God told Moses to get the Israelites to accept His covenant of grace by which He liberated them. The Israelites only had to keep this covenant by their sin offering at Passover to symbolize their faith in God's grace. God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites that if they would simply practice their faith by the sin offering, then God would take care of their sanctification, and He would make them "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" which is exactly the same gift that He has given to the Church Age saints. If the Israelites had accepted God's offer of salvation by grace, then the only living humans who would have ever been saved by grace would have been the Israelites, and all of the Gentiles would have had to be content with God's lesser form of salvation which is resurrection to be recreated to live on God's new earth. Exodus 19:1-7; Revelation 1:4-6.

But the Israelites summarily rejected God's covenant of grace, and they asked God to give them some laws to obey so that they could prove that they could make themselves good enough to be accepted by God. They should have humbled themselves to God and realized that God alone had saved them and that self-salvation was quite impossible. By their rejection of God's grace, they demonstrated that they still clung to the sin of excessive pride which is a condition from which all other sins emerge. Exodus 19:8; Luke 18:9-14.

God responded to their rejection of His grace by demonstrating His fiery wrath against sin and evil from the top of Mount Sinai. God commanded Moses to instruct the people to sanctify themselves by washing their clothes and by staying away from the mountain. By washing their clothes, the Israelites symbolized that they each possessed a good and clean soul and spirit that God had put into them when He created them. By staying away from the mountain, the Israelites demonstrated the fact that God will never allow the the good image of Himself within every human to ever be permanently destroyed. God directed His fiery wrath only against the sin and evil that had infected them. God did punish the Israelites by making them greatly afraid of His power to destroy them if He so chose to do, but He did not kill any of them which symbolized the fact that He will save the good souls and spirits of all humans confined to the regions of death. Exodus 19:9-24.

God then gave Moses the law for the people to obey, but He also gave the people animal sacrifices for their forgiveness when they failed to obey. God gave them peace offerings which was added to the sin offering to symbolize all living humans who would ever be saved by grace. God gives all living humans saved by grace peace in their hearts with God. God also gave them His burnt offerings which symbolized that one day, in the end of the world, God will resurrect all of His repentant, living humans confined to the regions of the dead for Him to recreate to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 5:11-14 prophesies that one day in the Tribulation period close to the end of the world, God will reveal Himself to all living humans confined to the regions of death, and His glory and majesty will cause them all to choose to repent and put their faith in the Lamb whom they will realize that only He can save them and resurrect them to a recreated life. Exodus 20:1-26; Revelation 21:1-5.