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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:1; Mal. 4:5-6; Matt. 1:1; Rev. 22:20-21
A concluding note:
All the above points present a vivid portrait of the all-inclusive Christ in and for God’s eternal economy in the Old Testament. In types we see that Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy and the divine blessing to all of God’s chosen people. In history we see that the all-inclusive Christ is the God-promised good land that all of God’s chosen people should take, possess, inherit, and enjoy to the uttermost, even to the level of kingship. In poetry we see that Christ is the unique perfection for God’s chosen people to pursue and the unique satisfaction for God’s chosen people to obtain and enjoy. In prophecy we see that the Triune God has become a God-man to accomplish His full redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal economy, which will consummate in the new heaven and new earth.
God is speaking, and His speaking is for His moving. He moves by His speaking. For instance, He spoke, “Let there be light,” and light was there (Gen. 1:3). The previous chapter was concerning the Triune God, His Word, His revelation, His vision, and His move. Now we want to see what the Bible unveils by considering the sequence of the arrangement of the Bible.
The entire Bible presents a picture that in the universe there is One who is. This One is God. He is triune, and He has been speaking throughout the generations. He has moved and is still moving in and according to His speaking. This move will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In its essence the Bible speaks about the Triune God and the New Jerusalem. This is simple but all-inclusive. The Bible begins with the Triune God, and it consummates with the New Jerusalem.
The Bible is of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, but why is this so? We may say that the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, presents a shadow, and the New Testament presents the reality. A person is the reality of his shadow. Now I would like to use a new term to describe the entire Old Testament. This new term is figurative portrait. The Old Testament is a figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy. A portrait, a picture, is a shadow. The Old Testament is a portrait but in figure.
The Bible unveils that the Triune God has a desire. He has a purpose, so He made a plan, an economy. He made this economy in Himself and in His Son, Christ. His economy concerns His coming to be born through incarnation, to live on this earth, and eventually to die an all-inclusive death on the cross. Then He entered into resurrection to release Himself as the divine life so that this life can be dispensed into many people chosen by Him before the foundation of the world to make these ones God-men. He is the unique God in His Divine Trinity, but through His incarnation, living on earth, death, and resurrection, He has made the many thousands of His chosen people the same as He is in life and in nature but not in His Godhead. They are the many God-men to be the members of the Body of Christ, and this Body is the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God to consummate in the New Jerusalem for His enlargement, expansion, and expression forever. This is a brief definition of God’s economy.
The figurative portrait of God’s eternal economy presented in the Old Testament spans thirty-nine books, but it is only in four sections—in types, in history, in poetry, and in prophecy. The section of types is of five books, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The section of history is of twelve books, from Joshua to Esther. The section of poetry is of five books, from Job to Song of Songs. The section of prophecy is of seventeen books, from Isaiah to Malachi. There are five major prophets and twelve minor ones. Thus, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament can be divided into three “fives” and two “twelves.” There are five books of types, twelve of history, five of poetry, five of the major prophets, and twelve of the minor prophets. The twelve minor prophets are from Hosea to Malachi. We want to see the intrinsic significance of these four sections of the Old Testament.
The types from Genesis to Deuteronomy unveil the Triune God embodied in Christ as the center and circumference of His eternal economy. They also unveil this Christ as the blessing and everything to the Triune God’s chosen people.
The twelve books of history from Joshua to Esther unveil the Triune God’s move in His chosen people to possess, inherit, and enjoy His promised all-inclusive Christ as the good land. They also unveil the failures of God’s chosen people as a warning to His New Testament chosen people. God’s chosen people in the Old Testament became altogether a failure in God’s move. The record of this in the Bible is a warning to us, the church people today in the New Testament.
The poetry in the Old Testament is of only five books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. They unveil that the Triune God Himself, not ethics or morality, should be man’s pursuit as his perfection. This one sentence covers the central, intrinsic revelation of Job. The Psalms unveil that this God was incarnated to be a man in the flesh to be His Anointed, who is His delight, who has been exalted by Him, and who should be received, treasured, and exalted by His chosen people. Ecclesiastes unveils that all things in the human life under the sun are vanity of vanities, and Song of Songs shows that Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the unique satisfaction to God’s chosen people. Thus, we should pursue God as our perfection, and we should pursue Christ as our satisfaction. God should be our perfection, and Christ can be our satisfaction.
The seventeen books of prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi unveil that the Triune God embodied in Christ will come to be the God-man (Isa. 7:14; 9:6) to accomplish redemption (ch. 53) for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy according to the preceding three categories of the books in the Old Testament. They also unveil that the accomplishment of the processed and consummated Triune God in Christ will consummate in the new heaven and new earth (65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1).
All the above points present a vivid portrait of the all-inclusive Christ in and for God’s eternal economy in the Old Testament. In types we see that Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy and the divine blessing to all of God’s chosen people. In history we see that the all-inclusive Christ is the God-promised good land, which all of God’s chosen people should take, possess, inherit, and enjoy to the uttermost, even to the level of kingship. In poetry we see that Christ is the unique perfection for God’s chosen people to pursue and the unique satisfaction for God’s chosen people to obtain and enjoy. Then in prophecy we see that the Triune God has become a God-man to accomplish His full redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal economy, which will consummate in the new heaven and new earth.
Isaiah prophesied about the new heaven and new earth for Christ to be the centrality and universality in the entire new heaven and new earth as illustrated by the New Jerusalem. In the four sections of the Old Testament Christ is revealed as the centrality and universality of God’s economy.
