Shadow of things to come

[visionary]

II Melakim (Kings) 20:5-11 "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what HaShem, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of HaShem. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.'" Then Yeshayah (Isaiah) said, "Prepare a poultice of figs." They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah had asked Yeshayah (Isaiah), "What will be the sign that HaShem will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of HaShem on the third day from now?" Yeshayah (Isaiah) answered, "This is HaShem'S sign to you that HaShem will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?" "It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps," said Hezekiah. "Rather, have it go back ten steps." Then the prophet Yeshayah (Isaiah) called upon HaShem, and HaShem made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

Is there any significance about going back ten steps and shadow?????

Colossians 2:17
Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Hebrews 8:5
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Hebrews 10:1
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

[koilias]

The Hebrews 8:5 citation is very interesting to me, since the writer is referring to the "New Covenant" in Jer 31. The "New Covenant" is written on the tablets of the heart, not tablets of stone. The "New Covenant" represents the pillar of Hesed v'emet (Lovingkindness and Faithfulness, variously translated "Grace and Truth", John 1:17). According to ancient Jews, the world's foundations rested on three pillars: Torah, "Hesed v'emet", and Prayer. The "New Covenant" according to Hebrews is the pillar of Hesed v'emet, which is the writting of Torah on the heart. It is the Torah from within as opposed to the Torah from without. The Torah from without is a "shadow" or "image" of the Torah written in the heart!


In Hebrews 8:5 the writter has the key word "pattern" in mind. In Hebrew a better translation for the word is "image". "Shadow" is the way he refers to an "image" of heavenly things. In light of the Jewish notions surrounding the pillar of Hesed this is super interesting. When HaShem wrote the Torah on the new stone tablets he proclaimed His Glory to Moshe:

"HaShem, Hashem, G-d, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in Hesed v'emet (LOVINGKINDNESS and TRUTH)..." Ex. 34:6.

What does this say? This means that when HaShem was writting the Torah, He was writting the image (pattern/shadow) of His very nature, which is abounding in Hesed v'emet. This is the very nature that will be written on the new tablets of the hearts of the faithful, according to Jer. 31!

Paul says in Colossians that Yeshua is not an "image", like the written Torah, but the very substance of Torah!