Wendy Wippel ~ Happy Hermeneutics

Happy Hermeneutics
http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7765
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Wendy Wippel 

Hank Hannegraff espouses a system of hermeneutics (hermeneutics being the fancy word for Bible interpretation) that includes literal Interpretation, illumination by the Holy Spirit, grammatical principles, historical context, teaching ministry, and scriptural harmony. Call me narrow minded, but I think I'll just stick with the one the Lord, Himself taught on the Emmaus Road.
The appearance of Jesus to two of His disciples on the Emmaus Road (shortly after His resurrection) is one of my favorite passages, for three reasons.
First, because the Jesus we see on the Emmaus Road is just so darn human. This is a guy, 100% male, that finds a couple of His friends walking down the Emmaus road and sees an irresistible opportunity to mess with them. They happen to be having a very emotional conversation about the last three days, because they had just seen their Lord accused, convicted, and executed. Now the body was missing, and there were rumors flying around that Jesus was not only, actually, alive, but that He had even been resurrected.
Jesus catches up to them (Luke 24:17), but keeping His identity secret, asks them what's got them so riled up.
Cleopas, obviously, thinks He's one fry short of a Happy Meal, asking Jesus, basically, "Where the heck have you been? :

"Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?" (Luke 24:18 NKJV)

Jesus (you gotta laugh) feigns ignorance. "What things?" 
I don't know how He kept a straight face.
The second reason this is one of my favorite passages is what Jesus does next:

"Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

The first thing Jesus does after His resurrection is to have a prophecy Bible Study!
The third reason is because this passage contains Jesus' system of hermeneutics, and it's just one sentence, again;

"beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

He taught them that everything in the Scriptures, from Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) on (i.e. everything else as well) speaks of Him!
 He had told the Pharisees that before He died:

"You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me."

But they didn't listen.
The Pharisees looked to the Scriptures for rules to follow in order to guarantee their salvation, and completely missed the fact that on every page there is a picture of  their coming redemption on the cross.
And what a contrast between the Pharisees system of hermeneutics and what the disciples have to see about the Bible study that Jesus had with them:

"Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

Jesus' system of hermeneutics opened up the Scriptures to them. And it made studying the Scriptures exciting! Their "hearts burned within them".
My experience? When you get Jesus' system of hermeneutics down, Bible study becomes an absolute obsession.
Exhibit A: Abraham and Isaac.
The story of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is probably the most obvious "prophecy by analogy" (otherwise known as a "type") in Scripture.  Abraham's offering up of Isaac is an unmistakable foreshadowing of the offering up of His Son that God the Father will make in Jerusalem  thousands of years later. We recognize the analogy between Jesus and Isaac, but most of us don't really look too much further than that. The details of the story in Genesis 22, however, maintain the foreshadowing to an exquisite degree. 
Here's the passage:

“Now it came to pass after these things that God … said to him, “Abraham!”…“Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; … Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, … “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar …He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
"Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:2-14 NIV)

A simple story, but there's a lot of untapped wealth in the details.
1)  Note that God tells Abraham to take Isaac to a very specific spot in the land of the Mariah, a spot identified as a mountain in verse 14. Golgotha, the spot where Jesus was crucified, is on the highest mountain in the area of Moriah, (the highest spot being a preferable spot for a sacrifice) and overlooks the area where the temple would be built some time later.)  A spot that is 777m above sea level. (But that's probably just a coincidence, right?)
It would seem that God directed Abraham to the exact same spot on which Jesus later would die on the cross.
2) Note that Isaac himself carried the wood to the place of sacrifice. 
3) Note that God arranged for the lamb. In fact, the verse is more correctly translated "God will provide himself a lamb." God became the lamb.
4) And, note that it took three days from the time that Abraham was asked to make the sacrifice until the time that the sacrifice was ultimately cancelled. Three days between the time that Isaac died to Abraham and the time that he was resurrected.
Pretty cool, eh? But wait, there's more. 
The really wild part is verse 19. Abraham had taken two servants with him (two witnesses like the thieves on the cross?) Genesis 22:19 tells us that;

"Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba."

Which begs the question: What the heck happened to Isaac? The passage never says that Isaac came back down!
What happens in the rest of Genesis is that Abraham apparently starts thinking about grandkids and decides to find Isaac a bride. He send his most trusted servant (the manager of all he owned) to find the right girl. The servant loads himself up with gifts for the new bride and shortly finds Rebekah. He reveals to Rebekah both the nature of his errand and the character and desires of the one who sent him.
And  Rebekah, having not actually met her husband, but trusting the servant's description of his master, agrees to be his bride.
The key to why this is a prophecy by analogy of Jesus is a clue hidden in an early passage .A passage that gives us the name of Abraham's most trusted servant. Genesis 15:2:

But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir (steward) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

Abe's most trusted servant, "the manager of all he owned" was named Eliezer. And Eliezer means "the comforter". "The helper".
The comforter is sent to find a bride for Isaac, bearing gifts which he would distribute to the bride abundantly. And Rebekah responds to the comforter without actually meeting her betrothed.
Cool, eh? But wait, there's more.
What about Isaac? He somehow disappears shortly after his resurrection, and doesn't show back up in the Genesis narrative until two chapters later, where he meets Sarah at the "well of the Living One who Sees me" (Beer Lahai Roi) for his marriage.
Which hopefully by now is an obvious prophecy by analogy of Christ and His church.  Jesus disappeared shortly after His resurrection, waiting in heaven for the moment at which He will be able to come and get His bride- you and I, who with respect to our betrothed,

"whom having not seen, you love". Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls." (I Peter 1:8.9)

And one fine day we'll see Him face to face.

I had heard of the Abraham & Isaac "model/type" of the sacrifice but not the continuing part of the servant finding the bride/Rebekah.
Very cool!

In God (I will praise His word),
In the LORD (I will praise His word) Psalm 56:10

Also remember, that Isaac was not a child when he volunteered himself as a sacrifice ~ he was at least 30 years old ~ adding to the analogy.

Further, not only did Abraham offer his son...his son AGREED to participate ~ both were aware that they were acting out a model of prophecy.

BOTH had the necessary faith to trust and believe God.