SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH FROM ITS BEGINNING – TYPES OF THE CHURCH FOUND IN THE OLD TESTAMENT – PART 3
OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF THE CHURCH
The Church is not mentioned in the Old Testament and was a concept fully unknown, as Israel only was the focus. For those Old Testament believers who studied the word they had – the Law and the Prophets – then they would have deduced that God’s blessings would extend out from Israel to the world, but so much of it was such a mystery, they could not properly comprehend. It was like they were trying to see through a mirror darkly, through a shadowy confusion.
The Old Testament is full of types and the study of typology is so beneficial. Much of that study centres around the Lord Jesus Christ in such matters like the Ark, and the goat of the Day of Atonement, and the Good Shepherd of Psalm 22. Joseph is a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are types and hints in the Old Testament for the Church even though they may have been rather obscure at the time they were written. I wish to look at some of these. I have chosen 4 though there are probably more.
[1]. ISAAC RECEIVES HIS BRIDE FROM A FAR COUNTRY.
In the fullness of time, Isaac, the son, was to receive a bride so that the two may be one. The servant journeyed to a far country on behalf of his father Abraham. Here are selected verses -
{{Genesis 24:4 “but you shall go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac,” Genesis 24:7 “The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you WILL TAKE A WIFE FOR MY SON FROM THERE,” Genesis 24:58-59 Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” and she said, “I will go.” Thus they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse with Abraham’s servant and his men,”}}
The bride was brought from a far country and united in marriage with the master’s son. Isaac and Rebekah are a type of Christ and the Church. The Lord Jesus came to this earth seeking a Bride and He found one in a far country. Because of sin we were all estranged and living in a far country at a great distance from God. As Rebekah did, so we willingly go out from the far country to meet the Lord. Rebekah was brought from a far country to the house of the son and there was a marriage. The Church was and will be brought from a far country to the Lord’s house in heaven where there will be a marriage.
{{John 3:16-17 “for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”}} {{Ephesians 2:17-19 “He came and preached peace to YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, and peace to those who were near for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. Therefore then you are NO LONGER STRANGERS AND ALIENS, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,”}}
[2]. THE STARS AND SAND OF ABRAHAM’S OFFSPRING
God gave many precious promises to Abraham, some of these coming through covenant. One of the most delightful promises concerned his offspring and recorded here – {{Genesis 22:15-18 “Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son - INDEED, I WILL GREATLY BLESS YOU, AND I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY YOUR SEED AS THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS, AND AS THE SAND WHICH IS ON THE SEASHORE, AND YOUR SEED SHALL POSSESS THE GATE OF THEIR ENEMIES, and IN YOUR SEED all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed My voice.”}}
Abraham has just come through the great testing of faith in offering up his son Isaac and this incident helped Abraham to gain the title “the father of the faithful”. The New Testament (Roman 4 being one example) covers Abraham as the faithful one, but as a result of his faithfulness at Mount Moriah, God promised him something wonderful regarding the children/generations that would come from him.
God does not waste words; He is not redundant in what He says, and after the trial of Mt Moriah, Abraham was promised two seeds as his offspring – he was to have stars and sand, but these are not the same as some commentators try to make out. These are two separate seeds, so we will look at them.
(A). THE STARS OF THE HEAVENS. This part of Abraham’s offspring are the heavenly people, and who are the heavenly people? These verses shed light on that – {{2Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to HIS HEAVENLY KINGDOM. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”}} {{Hebrews 11:16 “but as it is, they desire a better country, that is A HEAVENLY ONE.”}} {{1Corinthians 15:48 “As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy and as is the heavenly, so also are THOSE WHO ARE HEAVENLY.”}} {{Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN Christ”}}
It is the Church that is the heavenly people. The Church does not belong on earth, the far country. It is here only for a short time and then we be taken out of the far country and united to the Groom at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in the Father’s house. This earth is not our home; we are just passing through. The stars that are part of Abraham’s offspring are the heavenly members BY FAITH, the members of the Church. {{Romans 4:13 “The promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith,”}}
Genesis 22:18 is a fantastic prophecy of the coming Saviour, the Head of the Church. From Abraham was to come One through whom all the nations of earth would be blessed, and this is the Lord of heaven who came to this earth seeking a Bride, and through Calvary has brought blessing to His heavenly people, the Church, the stars of the heavens.
Paul pictures the Church as having come from that far country and brought to Mount Zion figuratively, and to the Lord’s city, figuratively again, the heavenly Jerusalem. Here is the verse – {{Hebrews 12:22 “but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,”}}
(B). THE SAND ON THE SEASHORE. This second part of Abraham’s seed relates to his earthly inheritance. Through the promised son of Abraham, has grown up an earthly people we know today as the Jews, or Israel, and I am not speaking of those who may be Jewish in location, but the actual offspring of Abraham. This will not be in this study, for we can not go into all the blessings for Israel, but they are all contained in Genesis and the Prophets.
There is a great future for the earthly people of Abraham. Never once in the bible is Israel promised heavenly blessings for they are the earthly people and all the blessings pertain to the earth. It is a travesty that so many in the churches and denominations have written Israel off and made it to be the Church. Read and study the Major and Minor Prophets.
Returning to this great promise of the stars (not of the sand), it is the Church that is in picture there, though a casual reading would overlook that. One interesting verse is in Paul’s explanation of these types – {{Hebrews 8:5 who serve A COPY AND SHADOW OF THE HEAVENLY THINGS, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.”}} These teachings of the Old Testament might have been shadows of greater things to come and this is very true of the seed – the stars and the sand.
[3]. THE PHYSICAL UNION OF MAN AND WOMAN IN MARRIAGE.
God created man and woman; Adam and Eve; male and female as was dramatically confirmed by the Creator, the Lord Jesus, in these verses – {{Matthew 19:4-6 He answered and said, “Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and SHALL CLEAVE to his wife and the two shall become ONE FLESH?’ Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”}}
This was the first marriage in history, and right back there in Eden, the promise of the Church as the Bride is found in a type. In one saying the Lord dismisses all distortions and evil of our generation about marriage and sexuality and gender, and reprobate homosexual marriage so called. Marriage is the union between man and woman and there is NO OTHER arrangement!
The first man Adam received his bride, Eve, (presented to him) and the two became one flesh as they were joined together. The Second Man, Jesus Christ, will receive the Church to Himself in the Rapture and the two will be joined in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (presented to Him) and never be separated. In speaking of this presentation Paul wrote – {{Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, THAT HE MIGHT PRESENT TO HIMSELF the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.”}} That is another very wonderful type/suggestion of the Church in the Old Testament.
[4]. ISRAEL IN THE WILDERNESS (WORLD)
Paul is explaining to the Corinthians how Israel in the wilderness was in representation, an assembly all passing through the sea and baptised into Moses but then he continues with this verse – {{1Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.”}} What this passage is saying is that Israel in the wilderness is a type of the Church in the world in its wilderness journey before the Church is called home to its promised land. That spiritual rock was God’s supply for Israel in its wilderness journey as it is ours too. Christ is our Rock and in type was theirs too though they did not realise that.
Egypt is always a type of the world in scripture and the Israelites left Egypt on the journey to the promised land. The Church has been called from the world to journey towards the promised land (heaven). The assembly of the pilgrims from Egypt is like to our pilgrimage out of the world to heaven.
There we have 4 types found in the Old Testament for the Church. Scripture is very rich and its food is a delight.
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Just something additional for those who have been following all this.
BEFORE WE FINISH I am going to paste an article from the Internet that is an interesting study for you to delve into. Here is the location for this. https://agodman.com It comes from “agodman on twitter. I think it is a lovely study.
[[ [[ WOMEN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT TYPIFYING THE CHURCH AS CHRIST’S COUNTERPART
August 24, 2012 by agodman.
Women in the Old Testament typifying the church as Christ's counterpart in our love relationship with the Lord - we are the wife, the female, and He is the Husband, the male. In the Old Testament there are several women that can be considered as a type of the church due to their marriage to certain men who were types of Christ.
Paul himself expounded on people in the Old Testament being types of Christ and of the church. As we see these types we see how rich the meaning of Christ and the church is, and we appreciate the Lord, our Husband much more.
Some of the women in the Old Testament which are a type of the church are Eve, Rebekah, Ruth, Abigail, and the Shulammite.
[A]. EVE: THE CHURCH COMING OUT OF CHRIST TO MATCH CHRIST
Eve is a type of the church as the counterpart of Christ; just as Eve came out of Adam and had the same life and nature as Adam to match Adam as his wife, so the church came out of Christ having the same life and nature as Christ to match Christ as His wife (see Genesis 2:21-24; Ephesians 5:23-32).
[B]. REBEKAH: THE CHURCH BEING CHOSEN FROM THE WORLD
Rebekah is a type of the church being chosen from the world (Genesis 24). Isaac is a type of Christ as the Son of God inheriting all the Father’s riches, and God prepared, courted, and brought Rebekah / the church to Christ to be His counterpart.
[C]. RUTH: THE CHURCH BEING REDEEMED
Ruth is a type of the church as the counterpart of Christ being redeemed (Ruth 4:13; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Rev. 5:9). Ruth was not of the people of God, she was from Moab, but Boaz (a type of Christ) redeemed her and married her, bringing her into the people of God.
[D]. ABIGAIL: THE WARRING CHURCH IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERINGS
Abigail as David’s wife is a type of the warring church in the midst of sufferings (1 Samuel 25:40-42). The greatest type of Christ in the Old Testament is David (Matthew 12:3), and so David’s wife, Abigail, is a type of the church in a certain aspect.
[E]. THE SHULAMMITE: THE CHURCH AS THE DUPLICATION OF CHRIST
The Shulammite is a type of the church as the counterpart of Christ, the reproduction and duplication of Christ to match Him for their marriage (Song of Songs 6:13).
The Shulammite starts off as a country girl and goes through a long process of transformation until she is the same as Solomon, the Beloved, to the extent that she is called, The Shulammite. She became the same as Solomon in life, nature, and image, to fully match him for their marriage.]] ]]
