Devo Week 5

Mystery of Christ - Beholding Him

The Lord promises to go before us, to prepare the way for His coming (Eph. 3:4-6). In Devotional 4, we saw how God had prepared the Sawi of Papua New Guinea to receive Jesus through their "peace child ritual." Similarly, we witnessed how the ancient legend of the "buffalo skin" had prepared the Akeu to better understand and receive the Gospel.

Key Concept: Foreshadowing of the Gospel

Foreshadowing is an indication of what is to come. In our usage, we are referring to the coming of Christ. If we separated the word, fore which means that which goes before, and shadow which means the image cast from the light. Together, foreshadowing in the context of Christ coming, means the casting of an image of Christ, either referring to the time before He was incarnated upon the earth, or in present time before He becomes known or received by a person or people.

When the audio recording of the Akeu legend of the "buffalo skin" was played over and over to the village chief's daughter, she responded by saying, "What this tells me about God is that He loves the Akeu. Specifically, it tells me that God knows and loves the Akeu because we are a people who have always raised water buffalo." In other words, to her personally the legend of the "buffalo skin" was a beautiful picture of the foreshadowing of the Gospel. What an unveiling of God's love within the Akeu story!

Key Word Definition: Foreshadowing (verb)

--an indication of what is to come

Excerpt from Devotional 5 with highlighted word:

"What if they could see the buffalo was a foreshadowing of Jesus? And that veiled, behind the buffalo, is the life of Jesus, the one who completes the rest of their story. Jesus, then, would be incarnated within their context. This would change nothing about the person of Jesus, but only the presentation of Him."

Scripture: Ephesians 3:4

“In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ...” (NIV)