Beth Moore - Substance and Shadow - Part 2
Shadows change with the seasons. I know you probably knew that, but it was a good reminder to me that the tilt of the earth's axis affects the lengths of the shadows. So during the summer, our location is tilted toward the sun. That makes the shadows one way. In the winter, it's tilted away from the sun. That makes the shadows another way. And I say that because so often in our seasons, shadows change. And this is what reminds us of the glorious words of the New Testament that tell us that with God, there is no shifting of shadows, no variation. You're meant to understand, I'm meant to understand, that in the theology of shadows that he says, "I'm going to tell you something: 'That light stays still.'"
Nothing can put it out, nothing. And it will remain. It will remain. And there is no shadow shifting. There is no lengthening of days until God's authority has come to an end. It is forever, it is eternal. Remind me what number one was: shadows, what? Shadow's can't exist apart from light. Perfect. Shadows can't exist apart from light. Number two, the strong human bent is to swap substance for shadow. I'm going to refer to this phenomenon as the great swap. We need to know it when we see it. We need to know it when we're doing it. We need to be able to recognize it, and we are living in a culture where it is rife. And to be able to see it, to be able to give it a name, that this is the great swap.
The shadows are important. Who's gonna say this isn't a gorgeous shadow? Does this have no value whatsoever? Of course it does. So much beauty in the shadow. So much dimension, so much complexity, so much mystery in it, so much variety in it, but it's not the substance. And that inclination, it's the most paradoxical thing. Go here with me, go here with me. Let your mind go here with me. That the reason why we want to swap the shadow, the substance for the shadow, is because we can see the shadow, but we cannot see the substance.
Listen, listen, the greatest reality of your life and my life, greater than your friend that you can touch, a greater reality than the chair in which you sit, than the glasses upon your nose, the hair upon your head, the church building that you walked into, the car that you put into park, greater than any of those things is Jesus, whom we have, for the most part, unless you've had a vision that I haven't had, have never seen. That's one reason we do it. The other reason we do it is because we only get credit for the shadows.
If you look back at the text in Colossians chapter 2, that observing things, that's one reason why we wanna make observing things the substance is because we can control that. We can control that we're gonna fast for 40 days. Will that make us more spiritual? And listen, there's nothing wrong and everything right about fasting for the right reasons. I'm saying that this philosophy had become, there are certain things you can do to just be more superior in your spirituality and isn't that the way it goes? Don't we have 1000 books by one title that basically comes down to this: how you can be a better Christian than everyone you know?
We are trained continually on how to be superior to our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we tell one another we are superior to them. Why? Because we do certain things, we emphasize certain things. See, we can control that all day long. We're flexing our spiritual muscles there. So trade out that substance for that shadow. And suddenly, we are looking good. It's about what we do, observe, keep, eat, drink, about our goodness, and our devotion. I'm gonna read 2:17 again to you, and then I want you to go with me to a couple of places in Hebrews. 2:17 says this, well, I better back up to 16: "Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink".
Now, this is not just like, did you have fajitas for supper? All of these have religious implications and I'm going to explain them to you in just a moment. So it's not just about, you know, she judged me over my fries because I got chili on them and cheese. It's not that. It's not that. "Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath Day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ".
Keeping that in mind, go with me now to Hebrews, and if you've studied Hebrews or you've studied the tabernacle, you could have anticipated we were going there. So Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 10 for just a couple of moments so that we can compare. Eight, verses 1 through 6, say this, "Now the main point of what is being said is this: We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it was necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.
Now, if he were on earth, he wouldn't be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. These serve as a copy and," what's your word? "They serve as a copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain". Okay, this really, and it didn't occur to me to say this until today. This fits so perfectly with what we're talking about.
Because remember when Paul said toward the beginning of chapter 2 of Colossians, he said, "Listen, you want to know what the mystery is? The one that has been revealed to us, Christ Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". In other words, "Listen, you wanna be filled? You're filled in him". Doesn't mean we never study anything else. Philippians would tell us that: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, if anything is lovely," there's all sorts of things that are edifying to our souls. But here that's what I want you to understand.
Many, many, many years ago, when I was in my early thirties, I was teaching a Thursday morning class at a church. I was teaching Sunday school, but I was longing for something that would give me the opportunity. I was already like, I was full on, with a fever. I could not study enough. I got my kids out the door to school every morning, study, study, study, study until they came home. Then I started trying to clean the house before my husband came home. I mean, this was just madness. I just, I could not get enough. So I was in my early thirties and I'm just in my morning reading, I had run into to Exodus and just going like, "What, wait. I have been raised in church. Where has this tabernacle been all my life"?
It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. And when I started putting it together with the New Testament, oh, I cannot put into words what it did to me. All I could do, I slapped that desk over and over. There were times, I realize I'm just a demonstrative person, but I'm going to tell you, there were so many times I had to get up from my chair and just go to the floor and say to him, "Who are you that you have done this, this beautiful, majestic plan that you have laid out? That you would have the patience".
I don't understand a God that has the patience over centuries, millennia, to bring this about slowly, slowly. Like, all through the Old Testament, it's like he's bringing out his phone and going through his pictures on his phone and going, "Here's a picture of him and here's a picture of him. This is a really good picture of him. Now, you might not recognize him here, but this is a picture of him, and this is a picture of him and this is a picture of him". And then suddenly, this ain't no picture. "I've been telling you about him for centuries". The Word was made flesh dwelling among us. And the sound barrier was broken by a newborn, a newborn.
I want you to see something very important in 10. 10:1, we're just gonna do one verse here. 10:1. Everybody look at Hebrews 10:1: "Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshippers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year". Look again: "Since the law has only a shadow of the good things". This is so important for us to understand. The law given to Moses and given to the people of Israel was a good thing. It is poor theology if all you were ever taught and all I am ever taught that the Old Testament law was a bad thing.
What goes wrong on us is when we try to flip it where we are people living under the Old Covenant instead of under the New Covenant, which has been the Old Covenant fulfilled completely and entirely in Christ. But I want you to know, this is a very important point we're making: Shadows can be wonderful things, but they are not the substance. Let me say that again. Shadows can be gorgeous, meaningful. They can tell us so much. This shadow tells me so much about this right here, but it's not the same thing. I can't move it. I can't hold it. Good things, but not the thing, not the substance. Paul says in chapter 1 of Colossians, "That in all things, Christ may be pre-eminent, superior and supreme over all things".
So in Colossians, it says, "Let no one pass judgment on you in matters of". When it says "pass judgment on you," it's not just being criticized. That's kind of what we... don't judge me. That's really not what this is talking about. This is talking about something to a higher degree here. It's talking about people looking at one another who are professing Christians and saying to one another, "I don't think you're in him. And the reason why I don't think you're in him is because you don't do the things that I do, or you don't keep from doing the things that I do". That comes in a little later into play at the end of Colossians 2. Don't handle, don't touch, don't do it, don't do anything, don't touch it, don't touch it. Becomes all the don'ts.
So there's that kind of judgment. It is really like passing judgment on one another, that you don't live up to my high spirituality or I don't live up to your high spirituality. If you go anywhere from just judgment that is superior, to judgment that is condemning, in other words you are not in Christ at all. How do I know that? Because you don't do these things. It's referring to a caste system, not criticism. It's talking about a hierarchy of spirituality, if not just pure condemnation. It's exclusion from salvation and community at its worst. If you have been in the faith for any number of years, you have already at some point swapped substance for shadow and so have I, because there is almost no greater temptation.
Somehow, we just find it so hard to accept that it was completely about Jesus. We want so badly to be able to be in ranks of order so we can, like, rank really high in our spirituality. "Let no one disqualify you," it says. This is a very, very interesting word: "Let no one disqualify you". The NASB says it almost exactly. It makes it so clear because it's a word that's taken from the arena. It's taken from games. It means let no one take your prize from you. Let no one take your rewards from you. NASB says it this way: "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking a stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind".
Let no one keep defrauding you. Okay, look at the part that says, "food and drink," and then it's going to say, "festivals, New Moon and Sabbath". What it's doing for us, this is what Bible study is for, when you just have this moment that all of a sudden it just goes, "This makes perfect sense". He is talking now about the things we do every day, food and drink. So, in Judaism, there were certain dietary laws and so there were certain very clear things about what to do with food and drink. So we talked, the daily, day in, day out. Looked like I was milking a cow there. And that does, that works to some extent with drink and food. And then he says, "festival, New Moon or Sabbath," okay?
So festivals were annual. Remember they said shadows of things to come, good things, good things, festival, food and drink, the dietary rules, good things, festivals, wonderful things. These were annual commemorations of the goodness of God. Time to get together and feast or bring sacrifice. New moon. So new moon goes from annual, so we've gone daily, then we go annual, then we go monthly because the new moon brought in, the Hebrew calendar was a lunar calendar. So a new moon, every month came in with the new moon. The first little sliver, they blew the trumpets, they brought the sacrifices forth, because it was a new month. And then we've got Sabbath. That's weekly.
So in these couple of passages, he's covering everything. There's the daily: food and drink. There is the annual: those are going to be the festivals. Then there is the monthly: those are the new moons, and then there is the Sabbath: those are weekly. And he says the thing about it is, those are all wonderful things. But when you rely on those for your identity and your standing in Christ, you have disconnected from the head, because none of those things give you a better standing in Christ. I want you to see this trio. I think this kind of stuff is interesting. Sabbath, New Moons, and appointed festivals. I want you to see them.
So when Paul was using these three terms, he is echoing what is in the Old Testament. So he's using the same three terms very intentionally because, I mean, this is a rabbi. This is a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he said of himself. So look at these two verses. It says: "Whenever burnt offerings are offered to the Lord on Sabbaths, New Moons, and appointed festivals, they are to offer them regularly in the Lord's presence according to the number prescribed for them". That's 1 Chronicles 23:31. Now, Hosea 2:11, it sounds really, really harsh. But you gotta understand that this is talking about when they have given themselves, the people of God, to complete idolatry. This point could not be more important because there is some possibility that Paul, because of the order of it, look at the order of this.
So God is saying to them, "I'm gonna put an end to all of her celebrations," talking about the people of God, "her feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths". Exactly the same order in Hosea 2:11, all her festivals. Okay, what had they done? Listen carefully. They had gone off after other gods but they were still having the parties. Is this making sense to anybody? They were keeping all the religious rituals, but their relationship with God was completely fractured. So here they were having the party, the festival, without the host. It's like he's not even invited because they've given themselves to every kind of idolatry. But, by golly, they're gonna keep those dietary laws. Anybody understand what I'm saying? Because we do this same thing. Good things given by God. But they represented that which was to come and that was Christ.
So when he had come, he was the completion of that. It's very, very literal because food and drink, I mean, he's the bread of life. He's the living water, the cup of salvation, the wine, blood poured out for us, glory, all of these gorgeous things. He is the festivals, everything about them. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Christ is our Passover. Romans chapter 5 would tell us, Christ is our propitiation for sin, our mercy seat. He is the mercy seat. You know those golden cherubim that were on each side of the mercy seat? They made it out of pure gold, one piece, the mercy seat, and then this cherubim here, this cherubim here.
When Mary Magdalene in John chapter 20 looked inside that tomb and it said there were two angels in there, one that had been at his head and one that had been at his feet. All along, those cherubim over that ark of the covenant were foreshadowing that mercy seat where Christ died, where his dead body was lain, and those two cherubim were overseeing him and guarding that body. Everything was leading up to him and was fulfilled in him. Here's this. They were practicing all the things that made them distinct. What Paul is saying and he says it over and over again. He says it so strongly in Galatians that it's like PG 13. But what he's telling us is, you're doing all of this, all of this, when you've got what makes you distinct. And it is Jesus.
That what was meant to make us distinct is that our hearts have been circumcised by the circumcision of Christ. You see, let me tell you this because this just could not be more important. Listen carefully. Listen carefully. That we've lived in the midst of it, Christian practices and preferences and programs and issues have become, generally speaking, it may not be true of you, may not be true of your church, but generally speaking, more important than Christ himself. How do we know? Because we are less and less Christ-like. If we were going for the substance and not the shadow, we would become more like the substance than the shadow.
But here's what happens. Here's what happens. When we become more religious, yet less Christ-like, we are attending to shadows and have swapped them for substance. You can take it to the bank. It will happen every single time. If we get more and more religious and less and less Christ-like, we have taken part in the great swap. You know, the most wonderful thing that could happen to us this weekend? We swap it back. We just swap it back.
Jeremiah 2, verse 1: "The Word of the Lord came to me: 'Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it found themselves guilty; disaster came upon them.' This is the Lord's declaration. Hear the Word of the Lord, House of Jacob and all families of the House of Israel. This is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in me that they went so far from me, after worthless idols, and became worthless themselves? They stopped asking, 'Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of deserts and ravines, through the land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through, where no one lived?' I brought you to fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; you made my inheritance detestable. The priests quit asking, 'Where is the Lord?'"
We have gotten so good at church, we don't know if it's our programs and our lighting and our music or it's the Holy Spirit. But God charges us and charges leaders with the responsibility to be able to look around us and go, "Where is the Lord? Where is the Lord"? Yes, we know he's omnipresent. That's not what I'm talking about. But when the people of God cease seeing the things of God, the works of God, the demonstrated kindness of God, emulating the Christ-likeness of God, there need to be people that go, "Where's the Lord? Oh, that we would know Father. Oh, that we would know".