They were precursors, forerunners, exemplars. Hundreds of years before Jesus Christ invaded our earth and left us his command to love each other as he has loved us, they actually did it. Three Old Testament saints loved someone else the way Christ tells us to. In doing so, they changed the course of history.
Therefore, it behooves us to study, meditate on, and imitate their lives. In addition, we are going to see that all three of these examples have anti-types: examples of how not to love like Christ. Just as these Godly examples illustrate Christ’s love and its impact on others, so their anti-types illustrate Satan’s hatred and it’s impact on others. Here they are:
Judah
The first example of Old Testament believers practicing Christ’s love is Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Judah’s anti-type is Cain and his jealousy of his brother Able. Cain’s jealousy led him to murder Able. The stories of Cain and Judah act as bookends to the Book of Genesis, showing us a picture of God’s agenda for humanity.
Judah and his brothers had been infected with Cain’s Satanic, jealous spirit, a spirit that led them to sell their father’s favored son, Joseph, into slavery in Egypt. Eventually, God exalted Joseph to second in command in Egypt. As a result of two famines, Joseph’s brothers were forced to go to Egypt to buy food from Joseph, whom they no longer recognized because he spoke Egyptian. But before they could go, Judah had to give himself as surety to Jacob for Jacob’s now favored son, Benjamin.
In the climax to the book of Genesis, Joseph, who had not yet revealed himself to his brothers, accused Benjamin of spying and insisted on keeping him a prisoner in Egypt while telling Benjamin’s brothers that they could go.
But instead of leaving Benjamin behind, Judah stepped forward and offered to take his place.
“If the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bare the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
“Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.“1
Ruth
Our second example of Old Testament saints demonstrating the love of Christ is Ruth. Ruth’s anti-type is Orpah. Both Ruth and Orpah were Moabite women and Naomi’s daughters-in-law. Naomi, her husband and two sons had immigrated to Moab from Israel, where their sons married Ruth and Orpah. But Naomi’s husband and sons died, leaving all three women widowed.
When Naomi decided to return to Israel, Ruth and Orpah followed her. But along the way, Naomi insisted that Ruth and Orpah return to their homeland and to their gods. As a result, Orpah abandoned them in the wilderness and did just that. Ruth, however, refused to leave Naomi’s side, sealing her decision with an oath:
“Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.2
Jonathan
Our third example of Old Testament believers demonstrating the love of Christ is Jonathan, King Saul’s son and heir to the throne of Israel. As a result of David’s growing popularity, Saul, who was Jonathan’s anti-type, became jealous of David and wanted to kill him. Jonathan, however, saw God’s hand on David and realized that he would be the next king of Israel. In an act of great humility, Jonathan made a covenant with David that he would protect him from Saul.
“Then Jonathan said to David, ‘I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorable disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family – not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.‘
“So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, ‘May the Lord call David’s enemies to account.’ And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.”3
So how do these examples illustrate the love of Christ? In all three of these stories, believers found themselves face to face with someone in a life-threatening situation. With Judah, it was Benjamin. With Ruth, it was Naomi. And with Jonathan, it was David. And all three of those believers put themselves in great danger in order to save someone in trouble. In fact, Jonathan would die as a result of his oath to David.
That, my friend, is the love of Christ.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”4
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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