Jerry C. Brewer
God’s dealings with mankind are marvelous and leave no room for our failure to understand His will. Teachers know that information is retained best when visual aids are used along with precepts. The Creator knew that long before man did, and has left a number of what we call “Bible Pictures” scattered throughout His word, demonstrating His will. Here are three of those.
Man’s Inability To Cover His Own Sins
These oft-quoted words of Jeremiah indicate man’s inability to know the way of salvation apart from God: “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). God first demonstrated that truth when man sinned in the Garden of Eden.
When Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they recognized their nakedness. In their shame, they fashioned coverings for themselves. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Gen. 3:7). According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of The Bible, the word aprons in this passage is translated from the Hebrew word meaning, “a belt (for the waist).” Aprons occurs only one other time in the Bible, in Acts 19:12, and Strong says the word there means a “semicinctium (i.e. narrow covering):—apron.” From these definitions, it is probable that their aprons were like the scanty clothing one would see at a public beach or swimming pool today.
According to God, the aprons which Adam and Eve devised were not sufficient to cover them, so He provided proper clothing. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). This demonstrates that God considered them unclothed since He made coats of skins “and clothed them.” God did not say that in so many words, but He demonstrated His will in this account. In that demonstration, He set forth His will regarding not only man’s physical covering, but for his spiritual covering as well. Their covering with animal skins implied that animals had to be killed, demonstrating that blood had to be shed in order for man’s sins to be covered, and that blood was Jesus Christ’s (Heb. 9:11-28).
The End of The Law And The Prophets
Jesus took Peter, James and John upon a mountain and was transfigured before them. Mark records the account this way:
And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him (Mark 9:3-7).
Matthew renders the disciples’ reaction this way: “And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and, said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only” (Matt. 17:6-7).
Not only did God pronounce that Jesus’ authority would supersede the Law and the Prophets, as personified in Moses and Elijah, but He demonstrated that fact as well. When the apostles fell to the ground, they hid their faces from the fearful sight and the sound of Deity’s voice from heaven. But when Jesus touched them and told them to arise and to not fear, they looked up to see their Master standing alone. Moses and Elijah had returned to the unseen world of hades. Not only did God command them to hear Jesus above the Law and the Prophets, but He demonstrated His will by removing Moses and Elijah from the scene, leaving only Christ through whom God speaks in this dispensation (Heb. 1:1-2).
Three Demonstrations of Judgment Day
Three great watershed events in man’s history constitute God’s demonstrations of a final event in that history. That final event is, of course, the judgment and the meting out of God’s rewards and punishments—His goodness and His wrath.
The first historical event that demonstrates the goodness and wrath of God in the final judgment is the flood. For 120 years, Noah labored in building the ark and preaching to his contemporaries. It had never rained before, but God said He would send a flood upon the entire earth. The ark stood as mute testimony—a demonstration—of God’s mercy. It was designed to save men from the coming deluge, but men ignored the warning, and rejected God’s mercy. When the flood came, only eight persons were saved in the ark (1 Pet. 3:20). The rest of mankind perished. Why? Because, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8), because he was obedient to God (Gen. 6:9), and, “…the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). God delivered righteous Noah and His wrath fell upon vile humanity. When judgment comes, God will deliver the righteous and punish the wicked.
The second event that demonstrates the goodness and severity of God was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). Because of the exceeding wickedness of these cities, God rained fire and brimstone upon them, eradicating them from the face of the earth. But God delivered righteous Lot. When judgment comes, God will deliver His children and eternally punish wicked men.
The third demonstration of God’s righteous judgment was the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Step by step, Israel’s cup of iniquity was filled with the blood of the prophets until, at last, it overflowed when they murdered the Son of God. Jesus told them what would occur as a result of that act in the parable of the wicked husbandmen (Matt. 21:33-43), and that came to pass nearly 40 years later.
The Romans invaded Judea, laid siege to Jerusalem, razed the temple to the ground, and utterly destroyed Israel as a nation. Josephus says 1,100,000 persons perished in that destruction, and blood literally ran in the streets. But not a single faithful Christian died in Jerusalem’s destruction, when they heeded the Lord’s warning of the city’s final doom (Matt. 24:15-28). God delivered His faithful from Jerusalem’s destruction and utterly destroyed those who had killed His prophets and His Only Begotten Son.
Not only does God tell us that the final judgment is coming (Matt. 25:31-46; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10), but these three events demonstrate what is to occur at the second coming of Christ. God will judge the world in righteousness by Him, and now calls all men to repentance (Acts 17:30-31). But, like those of Noah’s day, the vile men of Sodom, and the Jews in Jesus’ day, few in our age really believe that the God we serve is a God of vengeance but they will rue the day they spurned the Gospel invitation. “For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30-31).
