Hebrews 8:1-5
What is a shadow?
If you were to look only at my shadow, you'd have no idea what I looked like. My shadow is not a representation of me, it's only an effect made because light can't pass through me. It doesn't show the color of my hair. It doesn't show whether I'm skinny or overweight. It doesn't even truly show how tall I am.
The author doesn't say the law is a reflection of the things in heaven--a reflection is inaccurate and sometimes imprecise, but it at least gives you a good idea of what the original thing is. But a shadow? You can tell the relative outline of an object from its shadow, and that's all.
Think about a new moon. When the moon is full, you can see the entire moon. As it wanes, we see the shadow of the earth on the moon. The shadow has the curve of the earth, so we know the earth is curved. The shadow covers the entire moon, so we know that the earth is close to the moon. But from the shadow of the earth, that's about all we can tell.
That's the way the old law was. We can tell a few things about heaven from the law, but not much. Looking at the law and imagining heaven is like looking at the crescent moon and imagining the earth: it's not very effective.
Now contrasted to this simple light-trick that is the law is the "radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being", which the author calls Jesus in 1:3. It's this perfect image that establishes the new law, as opposed to the weak shadow of the old. The difference between the new law and the old law is the difference between a 10 megapixel photograph of God's will and a cave painting.
Now that's what we're called to serve: the real thing. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying: we're not called to take part in a shadow play any more--we're called to be a part of the kingdom of God, plain and simple, and we've got the one-and-only Son of God leading us in this new kingdom.
Isn't it amazing? Praise God!
If you were to look only at my shadow, you'd have no idea what I looked like. My shadow is not a representation of me, it's only an effect made because light can't pass through me. It doesn't show the color of my hair. It doesn't show whether I'm skinny or overweight. It doesn't even truly show how tall I am.
The author doesn't say the law is a reflection of the things in heaven--a reflection is inaccurate and sometimes imprecise, but it at least gives you a good idea of what the original thing is. But a shadow? You can tell the relative outline of an object from its shadow, and that's all.
Think about a new moon. When the moon is full, you can see the entire moon. As it wanes, we see the shadow of the earth on the moon. The shadow has the curve of the earth, so we know the earth is curved. The shadow covers the entire moon, so we know that the earth is close to the moon. But from the shadow of the earth, that's about all we can tell.
That's the way the old law was. We can tell a few things about heaven from the law, but not much. Looking at the law and imagining heaven is like looking at the crescent moon and imagining the earth: it's not very effective.
Now contrasted to this simple light-trick that is the law is the "radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being", which the author calls Jesus in 1:3. It's this perfect image that establishes the new law, as opposed to the weak shadow of the old. The difference between the new law and the old law is the difference between a 10 megapixel photograph of God's will and a cave painting.
Now that's what we're called to serve: the real thing. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying: we're not called to take part in a shadow play any more--we're called to be a part of the kingdom of God, plain and simple, and we've got the one-and-only Son of God leading us in this new kingdom.
Isn't it amazing? Praise God!
posted by ionathas78 at 11:48 AM
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