Exodus 13:21

I hope that you are enjoying this journey about Jesus in the Old Testament. Recently, I have been seeing a few short videos where this fellow reads Old Testament passages like Isaiah 2, 9, 53, or Zechariah 12 to Jewish people, and they assume, because it mentions a Son, that it is the New Testament. When they find out it is the Old Testament, they are astonished; some are still in disbelief.

But over the years, I have met a few conservative Jews who have come to see and know Jesus as their Messiah. I love talking to these Jewish brothers and exploring the stories of the Old Testament. Some are astonished that I know the Old Testament, understand the picture of the feasts, and other things that we chat about. This is not to boast; I am surrounded by Godly men who love the Bible, and we discuss it as often as we can.

The point is that the Bible is about Jesus. It is about His plan of redemption for us and for Israel, and for the whole world.

Today, we are going to see Jesus in another part of the Bible that many of us have read through, but we do not think that Jesus is the story and the picture here. He is!! I did not put the reading in the text as usual because it would take up a large part of the lesson space. Rather, I encourage you to read the passage maybe once or twice to get the details.

There are two parts to what we will observe today; one is the actual configuration of the tribes as they assembled after each trip that they took. If you will recall, they journeyed from place to place for 40 years in the Wilderness. God provided them with a cloud by day to guide them and a pillar of fire by night to provide light and protection.

Exodus 13:21, “The LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night.”

Once the cloud stopped in a place, the task of setting up camp began. God had laid out a specific way that they were encamped; it was not a haphazard just set your tent up kind of system. The tabernacle was the center of the camp; it was set up by the Levites and the families entrusted with the care and transportation of the Tabernacle. Then the tribes would set up in order. There were three tribes each to the north, east, west, and south. They never swapped; the order was the same each time.

Once they were set up, if one were to go up on a hill or a mountain and look down on them, they would see the form of a cross. Yes, the place for sacrificing is at the center, and the picture of a cross is there. There was never a doubt, never hesitation as to what would be happening to Jesus. The cross was there even in the wilderness. The cross was there at the Passover, and it was there every time they set up the camp.

The second part of what we will be looking at is the standards or the flags that were visible at the site of each encampment to the north, south, east, and west. Each tribe had their own standard, but over the 4 divisions, there was a ‘superior’ standard that marked each collective encampment. The Rabbinical tradition tells us that there were 4 standards or flags that were shown by the 4 leading tribes for each section as they set up. At the website, Biblefragrances.com, we see this laid out for us.

Neither the Mosaic law, nor the Old Testament generally, gives us any intimation as to the form or character of the standard (degel). According to rabbinical tradition, the standard of Judah bore the figure of a lion, that of Reuben the likeness of a man or of a man’s head, that of Ephraim the figure of anox, and that of Dan the figure of an eagle; so that the four living creatures united in the cherubic forms described by Ezekiel were represented upon these four standards.

Jewish tradition says the “four standards” under which Israel encamped in the wilderness, to the east, Judah, to the north, Dan, to the west, Ephraim, to the south, Reuben, were respectively a lion, an eagle, an ox, and a man, while in the midst was the tabernacle containing the Shekinah symbol of the Divine Presence.

These four images are repeated for us in the scriptures in Ezekiel and in Revelation; in Ezekiel 1:5 and 10, we see these verses: “And out of its midst [is] a likeness of four living creatures, and this [is] their appearance; a likeness of man [is] to them,” ….. “¹⁰ As to the likeness of their faces, the face of a man, and the face of a lion, toward the right [are] to them four, and the face of an ox on the left [are] to them four, and the face of an eagle [are] to them four.’

Then in Revelation we see this reference: Revelation 4: 6-7, “and before the throne [is] a sea of glass like to crystal, and in the midst of the throne, and round the throne, [are] four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind; and the first living creature [is] like a lion, and the second living creature [is] like a calf, and the third living creature hath the face as a man, and the fourth living creature [is] like an eagle flying.

These images are repeated over and over again in the scriptures, and they all paint a picture of an aspect of who Jesus is. Jesus is the Lion of Judah: in Revelation 5:5, we see Jesus called the Lion of Judah. “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jacob gave to his children in Genesis 49:9-10. Judah is promised an eternal lawgiver, and that their sceptre would never depart from the tribe; it has not in Jesus and the oldest living male of the tribe of Judah from the line through Mary, who still has the right to sit on the throne of David.

The tribe of Reuben had the image of a man on his standard; this was the reminder that Jesus would come as a Man. In Romans, He is called the Second Adam. Romans 5:12-15, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.”

The standard of Ephraim was the Ox, and of course, Jesus is our sacrifice, the one whose blood washes away our sins. 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Also see Acts 20:28, Colossians 1:20, Ephesians 1:7, and Hebrews 9:14; these are just a few of the verses about Jesus’ blood washing away our sins.

The last standard is that of Dan, the eagle. This one threw me for a bit, and in Numbers 2:25, see that Dan is situated to the North of the camp. The eagle is a sign of judgment. In Acts 17:31, we see this verse: “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” The judge is the one whom God has raised from the dead. Other verses that show Jesus as the judge: Acts 10:24, Matthew 25:31-32, John 5:22, and Matthew 16:27. These are just a few of the verses that show Jesus as the Judge of the earth.

Jesus is the story and central character of the Bible. The Jews had the pictures in the wilderness, but they refused to see, and they are still blind today.

Open your eyes; Jesus is the entire main and central character of the Bible. Is He the main character of your life and mine?

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario