God’s Master Plan

“Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.” Luke 10:1

The New Testament is concealed in the Old, and the Old is revealed and fulfilled in the New. This is what St. Augustine said back in his time and his sermons and the sermons and writings of other Church Fathers were all about showing the parallels between the Old and the New. When I read this passage about Jesus appointing seventy-two disciples to go out on mission, I thought immediately of the seventy God asked Moses to choose in the Book of Numbers. “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them...Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied.” (11:16,25) But how about the two extra men? 

Back to the Old Testament I went and found the answer in the next verse, “Two men remained in the camp...and the spirit rested on them...and so they prophesied in the camp.” (11:26) 

Jesus is the new Moses. Just like Moses who was able to save his people from their slavery in Egypt, Jesus saves us from oppression to sin. But first Jesus as a baby had to be saved from the death threat of Herod the Great, King of Judea, who ordered the massacre of all the innocent baby boys two years old and below. (Matthew 2:16) Joseph and Mary fled with Jesus to Egypt. Isn’t this similar to what happened to Moses as a baby? The Pharaoh ordered that all the first-born male babies of the Hebrews to be killed. Moses was saved because, Jochebed, his mother, placed him in a reed basket and left him to float on the river where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed. (Exodus 2:1-10)

After that, for both Jesus and Moses, there is a long period of silence about their growing up years, with both of them having a secret identity. Moses grew up as a Prince Egypt, while actually being a son of a Hebrew slave. Jesus was and is the Son of God, and he grew up as a carpenter’s son. Moses became a shepherd and Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:1-17), and Jesus gave the new commandments, the Beatitudes, to the crowd who followed Him up the mountain (Matthew 5). Both Jesus and Moses spent 40 days fasting (Exodus 34:28, Matthew 4:2). Both of them performed many signs and miracles, and both of them are great mediators between God and man. 

All this and many more parallels between the Old and New Testaments show that God had a Master Plan to save His people. Thank You Lord that You are patient, loving, faithful, and true to Your Word. I am confident that during this challenging time of this worldwide pandemic, You are working zealously behind the scenes, redeeming, renewing, reviving Your people!