08-Historical Types
Historical Types A type, as already shown, may be either an institution or an action. Types are of two classes-ritual and historical. Thus far in our consideration of types we have dealt almost exclusively with the former class. Now we shall undertake a brief discussion of historical types. It is not unreasonable that God should choose to order events in such a manner that they as well as the institutions which he ordained should foreshadow the grand truths of true religion. But let us remember that a real type must not only resemble a particular Christian truth, but must have been designed to resemble it at the time of its institution or occurrence. He whose controlling hand governs all things is well able to so order events of history that they will typify great truths of the gospel. That he has done so is clear from the plain statements of Scripture and also from the nature of certain historical facts that bear all the marks of types. But caution is needed in determining which of these events are typical and which merely possess a superficial resemblance. Because of lack of clearness on this point some of these events have more value as illustrations of Christian truths than as proofs of them. But the opposite danger must also be avoided of laying down a rule for determining types, as did Bishop Marsh, that excludes many of the real types that God gave. The reason many historical happenings are so remarkably parallel with Christian truth is because God caused them to occur as they did with that very Christian truth in view when they took place. They are parallel because designed to be parallel.
Examples of Historical Types The brazen serpent as a means of salvation for the Israelites was a most remarkable type of Christ as a means of our salvation through him. The Israelites murmured against Moses and God, and as a punishment God sent fiery serpents among them to bite them, so that many of the people died. When, at the request of the people, Moses prayed for their deliverance, he was told to make a brazen serpent and place it upon a pole so that those looking upon it might live and not die. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14). Jesus did not here merely find an apt illustration of his means of saving men by dying on the cross; it was a remarkable divinely ordained type of salvation from death and the punishment for sin by a God appointed means. As they looked at that serpent and lived, so we believe on Christ and live. It very beautifully set forth salvation through Christ. We need not suppose that God ordained that the Israelites should sin that he might present a type of New Testament salvation; but when they did sin he took advantage of the occasion to give this type. So usually the historical types seem to be incidental; but that is God’s ordinary method of doing things. The institution of the Lord’s Supper seemed at the time to be incidental. The salvation of Noah and his family in the ark at the time of the deluge was another remarkable type of our salvation through Christ. Of course there was a more immediate and practical purpose in the preservation of Noah and his family from drowning; but that was true in the case of the brazen serpent, and practically every other typical institution or event. The flood was a divine judgment on sinners. As Noah, a just man, accepted the divinely appointed means of salvation by entering the ark, so we who are in Christ are saved from the penalty of sin. In 1 Peter 3:21 the apostle describes that salvation of Noah as well as Christian baptism as being a figure of the salvation we have in Christ. Other historical types, such as the offering of Isaac, the suffering of Joseph in Egypt that his people might be saved, cannot be described for lack of space. But probably the most important point to be noticed in this class of types is that the people of Israel themselves were a type. We have already shown that their worship in its various aspects was typical. It is just as clear that the nation itself as God’s special people was typical of the true people of God. It was literal Israel, but Paul describes Christian believers as spiritual Israel. Except for the spiritual Israel which was to be and whom God foreknew there had been no literal Israel. Literal Israel was divinely ordained to resemble spiritual Israel. The literal seed of Abraham typified the spiritual seed of Abraham, and some of the promises made to his seed were not fulfilled at all to his literal seed, but, as Paul teaches in Romans 4, only to his spiritual children. Literal Israel as a type of spiritual Israel is constantly set forth by Paul in the Roman and Galatian letters. And with the fact before us of the nation of Israel as a type we need not be surprised to find that some of the great facts of the history of literal Israel also had typical significance.
Journey from Egypt to Canaan
Typologists commonly allow that Israel’s extraordinary, divinely directed journey from Egypt to Canaan, full of miraculous dealings, during which God led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, was typical of Christian experiences. Egypt, the land of oppression, well typified the state of sin. The bitter bondage was like the slavery of sin, in which sinners are held and compelled by sinful tendencies within to serve sin and bear the consequences even though they should like to do otherwise. Pharaoh was like Satan, who strives so hard to keep people in bondage and from obeying God. Moses was like Christ, who through the Holy Spirit leads men out of sin. The crossing of the Red Sea was a beautiful type of salvation from sin. Deliverance from sin’s bondage, like theirs, is not possible by human means. Like them, the sinner trying to get out of sin finds himself helpless and hopeless except as God is pleased to aid him. As the crossing of the Red Sea was by a miracle of God’s power, so the conversion of every sinner who is saved is a miracle. When the Red Sea was crossed, and the people found themselves free, they sang the "Song of Moses," a song of praise for salvation and deliverance. Even this seems to typify the joy which, times without number, has come to the newly converted soul with the first realization of freedom from the bondage of sin. The Israelites seemed to think, when once out of Egypt, as some newly converted Christians think today- that it will be all singing, and no trouble or trials. But their very next move brought them to the bitter waters of Marah, of which they could not drink. The circumstance discouraged them greatly. They doubtless felt much as does the new convert when he meets his first adversity in the service of God. But He who made the waters of Marah sweet for Israel through Moses’ faith and obedience to God’s command makes the bitter sweet for us. The next important type was the manna. God sent the people food from heaven. This was a remarkable miracle. It meets every requirement of a true type. Jesus makes it to represent the "true bread from heaven" (John 6:31-51), which is himself. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." As God gave Christ for the life of the soul, so he gave the manna for the life of the body. As the manna was given daily, and could not be kept until the morrow, so we must continually partake of the life of Christ. Our souls must be divinely fed daily with food fresh from God. The manna was enough for every man. If one gathered much, he had but an omer full when measured. If he gathered little, he had the same amount. It was enough for all and alike to all, as God’s gracious provision for the sustenance of our souls.
Shortly after the manna was given, the people found themselves without water, at Rephidim. Again through prayer and obedience God gave them water out of the smitten rock, in Horeb. Paul makes this rock representative of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Christ gives the water of which if one drink he shall never thirst. He it was who said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." His blood "is drink indeed." Christ both gives life to and satisfies every want of the redeemed soul. The battle with Amalek in Rephidim is a good illustration of the Christian’s spiritual conflicts. The victory was gained by the holding up of Moses’ hands. That act on Moses’ part symbolized prayer to God. Through prayer our victories are won today. The crossing of the River Jordan into the promised land was another highly miraculous event which evidently was full of typical meaning. No other reason can well be given for God’s leading the Israelites to the eastward of the Dead Sea and the Jordan that they might enter by crossing the River than that Christian truth might the better be typified. But what does this crossing of Jordan typify? The answer to this question can be known only by first learning what Canaan itself typified. Interpreters have often regarded it as being typical of heaven. So it has been represented in both sermon and song. But with this as with the holiest place of the tabernacle, we believe the Scriptures clearly show that it does not typify heaven as a place, but the fullness of Christian experience in this life. In the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews the inspired writer gives a discussion of this very matter. God said of those who did not believe that "they shall not enter into my rest." That rest was the rest from journeying, or the settled home they should have in Canaan, according to Hebrews 3:8-19; Hebrews 4:1-11. Next he shows that another rest than that in literal Canaan remains for the people of God, by quoting from David, who promises another rest than that in literal Canaan (Hebrews 4:7). Therefore the writer to the Hebrews says that Joshua, who led the Israelites into Canaan, failed to give them the promised rest (Hebrews 4:8).
He spiritualizes that promised rest and locates it, not in literal Canaan, but in Christian experience, of which Canaan was a type. Here is positive proof that God attached typical meaning to that journey of the Israelites.
Throughout the discussion of this matter the inspired writer shows that the reason those ancient Israelites failed to enter into God’s rest was because of their unbelief, and that we today may enter in by faith in God’s promises through Christ. "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest" (Hebrews 4:10-11). "For we which have believed do enter into rest" (Hebrews 4:3). Then this rest typified by Canaan is a present experience in this world, not merely in heaven. We do enter it now. He "is" entered who trusts in the mercy of God through Christ for salvation, and not in his own works. That Canaan is used in Scripture to typify the state of perfect holiness attainable in this life, rather than of heaven as a place, is further shown by the apostle Paul’s explanation of the Abrahamic covenant given in Romans and Galatians. The covenant of Abraham promised two things in particular: a numerous seed, and an inheritance in Canaan. There was a literal fulfillment of this promise under the law to Abraham’s descendants, but Paul clearly shows that the main application of that covenant promise is spiritual. In Romans 4:13-16 he says: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect . . . Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all." The Abrahamic promise, therefore, has a spiritual fulfillment. In the Galatian letter Paul gives explanation both of the seed of Abraham and of the inheritance promised to that seed. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of man; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). The seed of Abraham, then, in the spiritual fulfillment of the promise, refers directly to Christ. "And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29) . Hence Christians constitute the spiritual seed of Abraham, "the Israel of God," and they are heirs. Heirs of what? The Israelites inherited Canaan literally, yet Paul adds, "If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise" (Galatians 3:18). The real Canaan inheritance was therefore reserved for Christians "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT through faith" (Galatians 3:14). There was no inheritance promised except Canaan, and this Paul identifies with the baptism of "the Spirit," which Jesus elsewhere terms ’the promise of the Father’ (Luke 24:49). In view of these facts and what we have already shown of the fullness of Christian experience one can scarcely avoid the conclusion that if Egypt typified the state of sin, the wilderness must have typified justification, and Canaan entire sanctification. As the crossing of the Red Sea typical of conversion admits to the state of salvation, so crossing the Jordan admits to the blessed soul rest of entire sanctification, where the last remains of inherited sin are removed by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. It is reasonable that this Spirit-filled experience should have been portrayed in such a system of types as this journey presented. Also this interpretation is in harmony with the Scriptures and every law of topology. This experience of perfect rest God wants all his people to have. Too many of those who have left Egypt spend their lives wandering in the wilderness. Of course that is much better than the bitter bondage of Egypt, but God intends that all his people by faith in God, like the priests who walked out into Jordan with the ark, boldly cross over to the promised inheritance.
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