Old Testament Prophecies
of Christ’s Universal Peace
A Reign of Peace
Let us point to the passages of scripture that prophetically indicate that the coming Messiah will be the source of peace to the entire human family. The first passage of scripture is Isaiah 9:6 and 7. The prophet said,
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
The Source of Peace
The Branch / Messiah
The third passage of scripture is found in Zechariah 6:12-13:
“Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony (“peace” in original Hebrew) between the two.”
In prophecy, the coming Messiah was frequently called “the branch.” In Isaiah 4:2, He is called “the Branch of the LORD” which indicates His divine nature. In Isaiah 11:1, He was called “the branch of Jesse,” the father of David. That indicates His human nature. In the Zechariah passage this one who is called “the Branch” will build the temple, the future Kingdom of Christ. He will reign as King while He serves as Priest on His throne. But there will be “harmony,” or peace, between the two positions of king and priest.
Quite evidently the king is the one who establishes the law, and it is he who insists upon the punishment of the law breaker. Therefore, the righteousness and the justice with which He rules is underscored by the fact of His Kingship. On the other hand, however, from the same throne He functions also as a Priest. The priest is the one who is always intervening on behalf of those who are guilty of violating the laws of the King and He, as the Priest, will insist upon mercy, forgiveness and grace.
The Offices of King and Priest
Brought Together in Christ
Christ Prepares the Feast
The Prodigal Son
Hosted By Father
In Luke 15, there is one of the most touching examples of the banquet where God celebrates the restoration of His wandering, sinning child in the story of the prodigal son. The son had departed from home and had lost fellowship with the father. He wasted his inheritance; he was a lost man. Such was the judgment of the father: “My son was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found.” But the prodigal came to himself and became aware of the misery of his life with the pigs—trying to feed himself with their food. He admitted to himself how foolish his plight was. He promised himself that he would rise and go to his father. He would confess his sin against him and against heaven’s laws.
The father saw him from a distance, ran to him, smothered him with kisses and then called the servants to place a ring on his finger (restoration to family privilege), to put a robe on his back (to cover the nakedness of his spiritual condition), and then to put shoes on his feet—those are house shoes, for slaves did not wear shoes. Then the father said, “Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.” This parable illustrates the pleasure the Father has in the restoration of fellowship with His children. In this context, Jesus said three times that there is rejoicing among the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents. Such concepts explain why the Hebrew peace offering was celebrated with God’s spiritual participation in the courtyard of the Tabernacle, which is God’s house!
The Marriage Feast of King’s Son
The Great Supper
Eat and Drink at the Lord’s Table in the Lord’s Kingdom
There is another passage of scripture that deserves attention, from Luke 22:24-30. Jesus had instituted the Lord’s Supper, and on the way from the upper room to the Garden of Gethsemane the apostles began to discuss the question of who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Obviously they were seeking positions of prominence. Jesus overheard their conversation, and He told them in verse 27 that among the Gentiles their kings rule over them and those who do good to them are called benefactors. “But you are not to be like that” (verse 26). The Kingdom of Heaven is not built on positions of importance. Jesus asked: “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom . . .” (verses 27-30). This is not the Lord’s supper! It is the banquet of every spiritual blessing that is presented under the figure of a fellowship banquet with God.
Jesus informs the apostles that He allows them to sit at the table as the honored guests, and Jesus will be the one who will serve and supply the needs of their souls. This is a beautiful expression of the festive banquet that God prepared for His people somewhat in likeness to the peace offering that was found in the Old Testament story of Leviticus 3. In Luke 12:37, there is an amazing passage of scripture that Jesus gives to us. He says, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” In all these messages Jesus gave, He was describing with physical figures the spiritual blessings He provides for kingdom people. Once again, none of these figures relate to the Lord’s Table instituted by Christ in the context of the Passover Feast. These are just some of the passages of scripture from the gospel that indicate that Christ is the fulfillment of that banquet typology or that shadow system of the peace offering.
Hebrews 13:10 presents another amazing passage of scripture in this same vein. The writer said, “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.” That verse tells us that we do have an altar (the cross) and that we Christians have the exclusive right to “eat” of its spiritual blessings. Those who are still tied to the now abrogated Hebrew system have no right to participate in the spiritual “food” that derives from the sacrifice of Christ. Those who remain with the Levitical shadow after the reality has come are denied access to God’s banquet table in Christ. That old system has been removed; its sacrifices are no longer accepted by God, and its Law has been taken away, “nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14) In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul insists that Jewish food and drink restrictions, their festivals, their new moons and Sabbath days were “a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
The writer to the Hebrews tells us that those people who remain in Judaism and thus reject Jesus Christ have no right to eat at our altar. Our Christian altar quite evidently is Calvary. Only Christians have the privilege of participating in all of the benefits that come from Calvary—spiritual benefits that are described under the figure of a banquet of God-provided foods of spiritual good.
In Revelation 19:9, John said, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” The lamb, quite evidently, is Jesus, and the bride of Jesus is the church, “I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb” (Revelation 21:9). The wedding supper is the festive banquet that God has prepared in His house for His people.
The Festive Celebration in the Courtyard of the Tabernacle
Hosted by God to Celebrate
Restoration and Fellowship
The Sacrificial Body Is Called “Bread of God” or “Food of God”
The body of the peace offering sacrifice is called “the bread of God” or “the food of God” (Leviticus 21:17). Such language assures us that this is not only a banquet that is enjoyed by the worshiper but is also enjoyed by the Father Himself. This bread of God is actually the fat of the peace offering. It ascends to the Father from the altar of incense, as a sweet savor. It smells good to the Father, and it is a kind of a “food” that He enjoys. Just as the father and the prodigal son enjoyed that feast of mutual fellowship one with another, so is the peace offering of Leviticus. However, that is just a shadow of the real peaceful celebration that Christ brings to the Father and His children in New Testament realities.
Revelation 3:20 is the famous passage of scripture where Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” That means that Christians enjoy the mutually rewarding privilege of sharing in the spiritual benefits that come from the cross of Calvary—rewarding to Christians and to God. These are some of the specific passages of scripture in the New Testament that suggest the peace offering typology fulfilled by Christ.
Christ Is Our Peace
The Peace From/Of Christ
In Christ We Have Peace
We Stand in a Peaceful Relationship With God
Christ Is Our Peace
In Ephesians 2:11-17, Paul assures us that we have Christ as our peace. He is our peace who made peace. He reconciled Jew and Gentile together in one body, the church, by destroying the hostility between them. That was done by eliminating the Law of Moses that had created a barrier between those two ethnic groups. Initially, Christ brought about peace between God and the Jew—who is no longer a Jew, but now a Christian. Since they are both Christians, He made peace between Jew and Gentile. “He came and preached peace to you who were far away (the Gentiles) and peace to those who were near (the Jews),” (verse 17). He reconciled them both in one body through the cross “thus making peace” (verse 15).
There is one final passage of scripture that deserves our attention: Colossians 3:15, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Paul insists that Christ is the only source of all peace among ethnic groups and between them and God. Only those in Christ Jesus have such dual relationships of peace, both vertically with God, and horizontally with fellow Christians of all nationalities.
The Bread of Life
Jesus Has Just Fed the 5,000 Plus
In John 6:30ff, notice the amazing parallel between the language that Jesus used when He talked about the “bread from heaven.” Remember the language of Leviticus 3 and 21, where the body of the peace offering was called the “food of God.” It is clear that Jesus is building on the typology of Leviticus. John 6 and Leviticus 3 and 21 stand as substance versus the shadow. Jesus in this context had just completed the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes and fed more than 5,000 people. They took up twelve baskets full of food showing that there was no one who left His banquet table still hungry. When the Jews saw that He was able to multiply the loaves and the fishes, they came to take Him by force and make Him their king (verse 15). Jesus knew their intent. They wanted the kind of a king who could bring them physical food for the physical body. But Jesus’ mission was not physical in nature. He had indicated that His mission was to give spiritual food that brings peace to the soul.
Therefore when Jesus saw that their purpose was to force Him to be their king who could provide only the physical benefits of the physical body, He withdrew into the mountains and spent the night in prayer. That was the night that the apostles got in the boat and started back across the Sea of Galilee toward the city of Tiberias close to Capernaum. Jesus came walking on the sea. He calmed the storm. The next morning when the people who were on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee saw that Jesus was no longer there, they got in some boats and crossed the sea looking for Him.
“When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’” (John 6:25). Rabbi means “Oh great teacher” in the Hebrew tongue. It was quite evident to Jesus and to anyone who would read this passage of scripture, however, that they were not interested in His teaching. They were only interested in His loaves and fishes. Jesus knew that, so He told them in verse 26, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs . . .” The miracle should have convinced them that Jesus was a Prophet sent from God with a message. They should have been more interested in the message than in the miracle of loaves and fishes.
Jesus knew they were not interested in the message, and He so accused them: “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” They were hungry again and had returned for another feeding! They were working feverishly to make Him their King. Jesus challenged them: “Do not work for the food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” Jesus is that food! They asked Him: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” His answer was simple but imperative: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” In other words, “you have to believe in Me, not simply believe in My miracles.” It is only through faith in Christ that any man can have the true “bread of life.” So they asked: “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?” Was the sign of the loaves and the fishes the day before not adequate to convince them that Jesus had a message from God? “What will you do?” they asked.
They began to compare Jesus with Moses. They claimed that Moses fed the people of Israel manna when they were in the desert. They seemed to be challenging Jesus: “Are you able to do better than Moses? Can you provide for us on a daily basis loaves and fishes?” They even quoted the Scriptures: “. . . as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus said that there was a great difference between the physical manna that was given in the desert and the “bread from heaven” that Jesus came to provide. The “bread” of which Jesus spoke was fellowship with God, a banquet which God provides through Jesus.
“I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven” (verse32). Manna was “shadow” bread; Christ is the “true” or “reality” bread! That only comes from heaven itself. Jesus is the true bread, and only God can give it.
To insist on the reality of His symbolic language, Jesus said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (verse 35). Again, it is through “belief” in Jesus that one may eat of the “bread of life.” The Jews were still insisting on the physical bread: “Sir . . . from now on give us this bread” (verse 34). They were still on the physical bread level. Jesus wanted them to understand that He is the One who can satisfy all the craving, the yearning and the hunger of the soul of a man. That is the purpose of His mission, to bring the food of redemption that produces fellowship with God. Peace is the end product of salvation, and only Jesus can give it. In verse 38, Jesus said: “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”
The Jews began to complain because Jesus said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They protested: “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” In verses 48 and 49, Jesus reproved them saying: “I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.” Perhaps many of them died with their stomachs full of manna. However, Jesus was not talking about that kind of food. He was talking about a “bread’ that if a man eats “. . . he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (verse 50). He was not talking about physical food. “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Jesus gave that flesh, and He shed that blood on the cross of Calvary. Thus Jesus insists that any man who enjoys eternal life must assimilate by faith His sacrificial death on their behalf.
John 6 does not tie in to the Lord’s Supper. It is the Passover that builds the typology of the Lord’s Supper; see Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-26; and especially Luke 22:14-23. In John 6, Jesus is talking about the cross of Calvary where He gave His flesh in sacrifice and where He shed His blood. He did neither in the Upper Room when He instituted the Lord’s Supper to memorialize His crucifixion on Calvary. He did not shed His blood in the upper room. He did not give His flesh in the upper room. He gave His flesh on the cross of Calvary, and therefore Jesus said, “. . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” He insisted that they accept His sacrifice as the source of their fellowship with God. They must accept Calvary. We all must agree with God’s judgment against out sin as it was borne by Christ on the cross.
It is not only the cross of Calvary that gives peace and fellowship with God, but it is also the cross of Calvary that maintains it. One must “eat the flesh . . . and drink His blood” of Jesus to receive spiritual life, and he must keep eating “the flesh” and keep drinking “His blood” to continue in that life. The verb tenses of verses 53-59 insist on the continued assimilation of the grace of Calvary to get and maintain spiritual union with the Father. It is essential that the Jews understand the figures that Jesus is employing. His sacrificial death is the only true, real (not shadow) atonement for sin. Therefore He added:
“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him” (verses 53-56).
The Hebrew peace offering was symbolic of the festive meal that Jesus would bring to the human family. As the Jews ate their peace offering sacrifice in a physical banquet in the courtyard of the Tabernacle, so Jesus presents His sacrificial body and blood as the spiritual counterpart of the Hebrew peace offering. The Jews were more interested in the “bread” of loaves and fishes, than in the real “bread of life.” They wanted the earth while Jesus was offering them heaven!
After this typology-fulfilling language of Jesus, the Jews really had a problem. “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” they asked (verse 60). “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” (verse 52). They pretended not to understand and they left, but they well understood that they were not going to get any more loaves and fishes. Before they departed Jesus said: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe” (verse 63).
“The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). In other words, “The message that I have given has spiritual application.” The flesh doesn’t profit. Physical manna does not profit. Loaves and fishes do not profit. Simple fleshly existence does not profit. It is the spirit, the spiritual message that Jesus discussed, that gives all the profit. When these people left, Jesus turned to the apostles and asked them the question, “You do not want to leave too, do you? Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (verses 67-68). This is the message that we need to remember from the peace offering: Christ is our peace, and that peace was acquired for us through the flesh and blood of Jesus’ sacrifice. We must consume by faith the redemptive offering Jesus gave on the cross.
When we consider the redeemed souls that now have peaceful fellowship with God through Christ’s sacrifice, it is easy to see why this was a “sweet savor” sacrifice—both in its prophetic, Levitical shadow, and in its typology fulfillment in Christ.