Four Types of Christ in Old Testament

Once again, dear friends, we bring to you a message from the Word of God, the Bible. And we want to continue our meditation today on the Lord Jesus Christ. We just want to enjoy Christ together.

What a blessed subject that God has given to you and to me today. We have sometimes said that everything in the world is changing, but up in the glory land, the Lord Jesus Christ remains the same. And while everybody on the earth seems to be dissatisfied, unable to find anything to satisfy their hearts except the Lord's people, we can praise God that in heaven, God has never changed his object.

The Lord Jesus has been the object of God's heart for all eternity. And so the beloved apostle in Hebrews 13 and 8 says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. May we say about that verse in Hebrews 13, God enjoyed Christ yesterday, God enjoys Christ today, and God will enjoy Christ for eternity forever.

Isn't that a wonderful thing to think? That in this very world of darkness and death and sorrow and shame, that God says to you and to me as beloved people, you can have the same object for your hearts as I have for my heart. I have nothing else to give you. I've given my everything.

I gave my beloved son. I gave him to die for you. And now I have raised him from the dead.

I've seated him in the glory. He is the only object I have for the heart of every believer in him. I will never change my program.

I will never alter my schedule. It's Christ in the past, Christ in the present, Christ in the future, Christ forever, only Christ. Oh, beloved Christians, how this should encourage us today.

God has nothing but Christ to give to you and to me. And again we say that is why God never, never puts heaven before our hearts as an object. Never does he put a place before us as an object, but a person, and the only person that has satisfied his heart, the Lord Jesus himself.

Now I want to bring before you four types of Christ that's found in the Old Testament. The first one is found in the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis. His name is Abel.

Now in connection with Abel, I would like to present to you Abel as a type of Christ bringing before our hearts the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Abel might teach us the humility of our blessed Lord. For in the fourth chapter of Genesis, we do not read anything of Abel's discussion with his brother Cain who killed him.

Cain, we know, is a type of Israel. However, let us think today of how Cain rose up against his brother Abel and was in the field that it took place. And the field in the Bible is a picture type of this world.

And it was in this world that man rose up against the humble Christ, the one who took the low place, the one who went down, as we know in Philippians chapter 2, seven steps down from the glory to the cross, and then, through the grace of God, seven steps back into the glory of God. And so here in our fourth chapter of Genesis, verse 8, we read, And Cain talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

We notice that there is nothing said about Abel talking to Cain. But Cain talked with Abel. It was Cain's enmity against his brother.

It was the enmity of the world against God's beloved son. And how often we read that the Lord Jesus never replied to his accusers. He was quiet before them.

So that the governor marveled at how quiet and how peaceful the prisoner was that stood before him. And so we may say, in connection with Abel, we think of the humble Christ. And now in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, we read about Isaac, another type of Christ.

And here we may find in Isaac the one who was willing to go to the altar. There is nothing very much said here about Isaac except in verse 7 of Genesis 22. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father.

And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? That's all that we're told that Isaac said to his father Abraham. Where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And that question of Isaac led to the sublime words, we believe, given to Abraham the father by God himself in the 8th verse, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

So they went both of them together. And so here in Isaac, we have a type of our Lord Jesus Christ who willingly went to the cross without any word of complaint, whatever, to lay down his life in order that God might be glorified about the sin question and that in the second place, poor, lost, guilty sinners such as you and me might be saved for glory. Let us remember that order.

First of all, the burnt offering, which speaks of what Christ is to God, was first and must be always first, and that is that Christ's death glorified God first. And then secondly, comes blessing to man. Let us not forget, dear Christians, that I believe it is very important to see that God had to have the first place in the beginning, God.

And so we have again, I say, in this young man Isaac, a picture of the Lord Jesus. Even the truth here in this verse that tells us that the wood was placed on the beloved son Isaac, a type of the Lord Jesus, bearing his cross to Calvary. And so as we read these opening chapters of the book of Genesis, we find and learn that God always had Christ before him.

And picture after picture in the Old Testament presents to you and to me today the person and the work of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And so in Abel we had the humble Christ, and in Isaac the willing Christ, who was willing to lay down his life for his sheep. And now we turn over to Genesis chapter 45, and we read about Joseph.

I suppose the outstanding type of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. The beloved Joseph, the coat of many colors, speaking to us of the many glories of our Lord Jesus Christ. The truth about Joseph, hated and despised by his brethren, a type of Israel.

But in chapter 45, I'd like to read to you a few verses. Genesis chapter 45, starting to read at verse 1. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

And he wept aloud, and the objections in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence.

And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now notice the first question that Joseph asked his brethren was concerning his father.

Verse 3, Doth my father yet live? And the second thing that Joseph said was, Come near to me. You see, his father was first, and the brothers were in second place, which corresponds exactly to what has already been said, that God the Father must have the first place, and man the second place. Blessing and salvation.

And so here, I believe, in Joseph, we might find a picture of the unchanging Christ, the Lord Jesus, of whom Joseph is such a lovely type, was like the beloved Joseph, humiliated, insulted, sold for thirty pieces of silver, the common price of a slave of those days, and beaten and bruised and nailed to the cross of Calvary, and yet risen, and the unchangeable Christ who loves his enemies and seeks their eternal welfare, the unchangeable Christ, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And so Joseph would present to us the unchangeable Christ. In the 44th chapter, in the preceding chapters, we find that Joseph gradually brings his brethren down to that place of repentance before him.

And when they come to that place of repentance and sorrow, then he says to them, I am Joseph. And so I would say to any who may be hearing this message, who may still be without the Savior, you must come to this place of repentance to see that you are verily guilty. That's what Joseph's brethren said.

We are verily guilty. You must come to that place, my dear unbeliever, that place of repentance in the presence of the Lord, and then you will hear the Savior say, by the grace of God, he will say to you, I am Jesus, I am the Savior, come near to me, and you will come to know personally the unchangeable Christ. And so now we have considered Abel, who brings before us the humility of Christ, and Isaac, the willing Christ, willing to go into death for his beloved people, his sheep, and in Joseph, the unchanging Christ, the one who is ever and for eternity the same.

Now let us turn to David, another outstanding type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, please, to 1 Samuel chapter 16, and here we find that God was going to give a king to Israel. Israel had chosen Saul themselves.

Saul was Israel's choice. David was God's choice. And so we notice that Jesse brings his sons before Samuel.

One by one, the sons of Jesse are brought before Samuel the prophet. Each one of them was rejected. This would make us think of man himself.

Oh, how man delights in man, in the flesh. But each and every one of Adam's children, Adam's sons, are rejected. And then we find that Samuel asks if all the sons of Jesse are present.

And Samuel finds that there's one that was not even thought of. He was forgotten, and that was David. And so Samuel says in verse 11 of 1 Samuel 16, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest.

And behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. There is no rest without Christ.

Dear sinner friend, you will never get rest in your heart, your soul, or your conscience until you see everything is in Christ. And so Samuel says we will not sit down. We will not rest until he come hither.

Verse 12, And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ready, and with all of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. What a picture of Christ we have here.

Goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. The coming of David gives God's answer.

This is he. And at the river Jordan, when the Lord Jesus was baptized, that's exactly what happened. As much as if God had said, This is he.

Anoint him, for the Spirit of God in the form of a dove rested on Christ. There was no rest for God or man until Jesus came. And so we find, beloved friends, in David this beautiful picture of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

Arise, anoint him, for this is he. God has found all his delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in David we have brought before us the chosen Christ, the one that was marked out from a past eternity.

David brings before us, beloved, the chosen Christ, the delight of God's heart, the delight of the Father's heart. And he was anointed, as we find here, in the midst of his brethren, just as our blessed Lord heard his Father say at Jordan, This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased. Do you not believe, beloved, that as David came here in this chapter on the scene, that God looked down through the ages and he saw not David, but the true David? And that's why immediately David's appearance on the scene brought from heaven above the words, This is he, and at Jordan this is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased.

Now Joseph was chosen above all his brethren, as I have just said. He was the preeminent one. And we read in Colossians about the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Father, that in all things he must have the preeminence.

As David was the preeminent one above all his brethren, so Christ is the preeminent one above all mankind, the delight of his Father's heart. He was also the victorious one over Goliath, the great giant. And the Lord Jesus was and is the victorious one over Satan, of whom Goliath is surely a type, the victorious Christ.

He won the great victory all by himself on the cross of Calvary. Then we have also in David's life Christ, the rejected one. Saul's desire was to kill David.

Absalom revolted against David, his father. And so we have a perfect picture, do we not, of the rejection of Christ. And then we have also David acclaimed to be the king of all Israel, bringing before us this glorious truth that the Lord Jesus is going to be the king of Israel.

Israel's rightful king, now rejected, gone back into heaven, sitting at God's right hand. What a picture we have of Christ in David. David anointed king over all Israel, the Lord Jesus, the rightful king who will soon return as the king of kings and the Lord of lords, the king of all Israel.

And now let us turn back finally to Genesis chapter 24. In this wonderful chapter, Genesis chapter 24, we have in Abraham, the father, elder servant, a type of God, the Holy Spirit. Abraham's servant going to find a bride.

Who for? A bride for Abraham's beloved son, the one who in Genesis chapter 22 was on the altar, a picture of the cross of Calvary. Isaac, a picture of the risen Christ, now must have a bride. To get that bride, Abraham's elder servant goes on a long journey and he brings before that girl, Rebekah, the wonders and the love and the power and the riches of Abraham, the father, and then refers as they come back across the desert, Rebekah coming to meet a man she had never seen, but a man she had heard about.

What a picture this is of the Holy Spirit in this world bringing to the beloved son, the risen Christ, a bride. And the bride has never yet seen him. And yet she is brought across and through this desert world to meet her beloved Isaac, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Isaac.

And we notice at the end of Genesis chapter 24, verse 64, and Rebekah lifted up her eyes and when she saw Isaac she lighted off the camel. In verse 63 we find that Isaac lifted up his eyes. And again we're reminded of this truth, that in all things Christ must have the preeminence.

We sing and hope we lift our wishful longing eyes. Here we find that Isaac lifted his eyes first and in the second place Rebekah lifted up her eyes. And in verse 65, For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master.

Therefore she took a veil and covered herself. She felt her unworthiness, did she not, in the presence of this one who is a type of Christ. And notice, to meet us, does not this remind us that when the Lord comes in the air, not only will the church and all the redeemed rise to meet him, but the Holy Spirit himself, of whom the servant of Abraham is a type, the Spirit of God will also go back to heaven with the beloved saints of God.

And then in verse 66, And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Rebekah going into Sarah's tent would bring before us, we believe, the truth that the church replaces Israel as a witness for God on the earth during this day of grace. What a lovely picture this is. Isaac loved Rebekah.

Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Isaac did not have to die to secure his bride, Rebekah. Christ, the true Isaac, had to die in order that he might have his bride, the church, that he loved so dearly.

And yet we're reminded again that Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. In other words, the Lord Jesus never forgets Israel. And in chapter 25 of Genesis, we find that Abraham takes another wife, bringing before us the fact that after the church goes to glory and all the redeemed are with the Lord, God turns back to bring blessing to Israel.

For God will never forget the covenant that he made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God is going to bless the 12 tribes of Israel. How blessed it has been to see Christ brought before us in the Old Testament, in the books of the Old Testament, Christ brought before us, beloved.

Christ, the one who was so humble. The humble Christ. And then the willing Christ in Isaac.

The one who in Joseph we see as the one who submitted himself, the unchanging Christ. And then in David, the chosen one, the chosen Christ, the beloved son of his father. And so we delight today to bring before you God's beloved son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

May God be pleased, beloved Christian, to warm your heart today with the blessed Christ of God, the one who is the same yesterday and today and forever. God's beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be eternal glory and praise. May God be pleased through these messages to exalt only Christ.

We pray this for his namesake.