By: Obed Pineda
In literature, foreshadowing is frequently used to tease the reader about a dramatic event that will be taking place as one reads further on. Subtle clues that can easily be dismissed by the reader as insignificant or unimportant, typically reveal their value when the event it foretold is made manifest and the reader is in disbelief that such tiny details were crucial in setting up the climactic moment of the story. There is no question that lovers of suspense novels like mysteries or horror, greatly appreciate those stories that require its reader to pay very close attention to every detail, since one of those details could be a bread crumb leading to the big reveal. Although it is true that foreshadowing is an excellent tool implemented by fiction novelists to entice a reader’s curiosity, this intriguing verb regularly appears in everyday life. For example, a child who at an early age took great interest in figuring out how a certain toy worked and took it apart to try and put it back together again, who as an adult became a mechanical engineer, this outcome would not be too surprising because his childhood interest indicated this possibility. Think also about when the skies during the day turn gray and the wind begins to pick up. Do we not immediately recognize that perhaps a storm is about to fall, because of those slight changes? The truth of this statement is illumined by those who take the precaution of carrying an umbrella to avoid being soaked by the rainfall being announced by the overcast skies. Truly, when one takes the moment to consider these examples (and many more similar to them) one can spot how foreshadowing is intricately intertwined in our daily lives, and not just for entertainment. On the contrary, the great value of foreshadows in a human being’s life is that it allows the opportunity for proper preparation for what is to come. It is unquestionable that this was designed by God to train man how to look ahead into eternity, so that he may prepare adequately for eternity. Holy Scripture verifies this reality as the Hebrew writer explains the spiritual nature of Jesus’ priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek, “For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain’” (Hebrews 8:4-5). A studious disciple of the Bible will verify that as Moses is being instructed on how he was to build the tabernacle and its furnishings, four times he is cautioned to insure that he follow the pattern he had been shown (cf. Exodus 25:9, 40, 26:30, & 27:8). Additionally, Stephen concurred with the Hebrew scribe as he boldly proclaimed, “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen” (Acts 7:44). A few verses further into Stephen’s sermon, he explains that the prophets of old who were killed by their ancestors were “those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it” (Acts 7:52-53). Thus, upon learning that those things established under the old law were foreshadowing the coming of Jesus, it is tragic to observe Stephen admonishing the lack of preparation the Jews displayed when He arrived into the world. The beloved apostle echoes this sorrowful cry: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:10-11). Of the plethora of figures that Jehovah God had provided, announcing the first coming of His Son, one of them was illustrating to Israel the agreement that had been negotiated by the great Mediator. The tabernacle (later Solomon would build a temple, 2nd Kings 5:1-8:66) was divided by two rooms: the Holy place and the Most Holy place (cf. Exodus 26:31-34, Hebrews 9:1-5). Jehovah God had commanded that the ark of the covenant was to be placed in the Most Holy place, with the mercy seat set above it (cf. Hebrews 9:3-5). God explained to Moses, “You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel” (Exodus 25:21-22). The inspired Hebrew scribe provides further details explaining that “into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance” (Hebrews 9:7). This one day a year when the high priest was to enter into the Most Holy was referred to as the Day of Atonement, where two goats were required (cf. Leviticus 16). According to the heavenly paradigm manifested to Moses, after Aaron (and the high priests to come after him) had cast lots, one for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat, the goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell was to be offered as a sin offering and the other was to be released into the wilderness (cf. Leviticus 16:7-10). The Hebrew penmen reveals that the purpose for this yearly sacrifice was “the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to conscience” (Hebrews 9:8-9). Ergo, these emblems designated by the Holy Spirit were all prefiguring Jesus heralding, “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:23-26). The Holy Spirit reveals through the Bible that the sin offerings established under the law, were “a reminder of sins every year” and “it was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator” (Hebrews 10:3 and Galatians 3:19). Thus, the goat for the sin offering and the scapegoat, foreshadowed God’s plan of redemption that had been negotiated by Jesus as Mediator between God and Man. Amazingly, the mercy seat, too, was prefiguring a crucial detail of this precious scheme. To be continued…