THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The All-inclusive Christ
Message Five—Christ Typified in the Old Testament (2)
Scriptures Reading: Lev. 1-7; Exo. 19:4, 6; Exo. 28; Lev. 11-14; 16:15-19; 24:2-9; Num. 35:14; 21:4-9, 22, 23; Exo. 14:27-28; Ruth 2:1, 4:9-10; Rev. 1:16
I. The offerings typify the incarnated Christ who joined Himself to man to be man’s substitute offering to solve all of man’s problems, including sin, before God; as the offerings, He also becomes food to God and to those who belong to and serve God so that both God and man may be satisfied—Lev. 1:3-13; 2; 3:5; 6:12; 4:3; 5:6; 7:29-31, 32-33; Exo. 29:40-41; Lev. 7:12; 7:16.
II. The priesthood of Aaron and his sons typifies Christ and His believers as the New Testament priesthood—Heb. 5:1-2; Exo. 19:4, 6; Rev. 1:5b-6; 5:9-10; Heb. 10:9; Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28-29.
III. The ephod and robe worn by Aaron, the high priest, typify Christ in His expression of God’s glory and beauty in all that He did and in His care for the redeemed saints that constitutes His glorious church—Exo. 28:4-6, 9-10, 15, 31-34.
IV. The animals that are clean for eating signify the persons whom God’s people may contact; the animals that are unclean and not for eating signify those whom God’s people should not contact—Acts 10:11-16; Lev. 11:2-3, 9, 13-19, 21-22.
V. The Bible uses human birth, leprosy, and discharges to speak concerning man’s uncleanness in various aspects and man’s filthiness in different conditions; we need to experience Christ as the sin offering and the burnt offering to deal with our sinful nature and to be our life so that we may live a life that is absolute for God—Lev. 12; Heb. 10:5-7; Num. 12:1-10; Lev. 13:45-46; 15:13-15.
VI. The cleansing of the leper typifies that a person invaded by sin is cleansed entirely through the redemption accomplished through Christ’s death and the salvation carried out by His resurrection; the cleansing of the leper also typifies a person’s thorough dealing with what he does and what he is according to the redemption through Christ’s death and the salvation by His resurrection—Lev. 14:2, 3a, 4-32; 13:47-59; 14:49-53.
VII. The type of expiation show how Christ accomplished for the sinners the taking away of sins in the New Testament age—John 1:29; Heb. 9:12; Rom. 3:25; Lev. 16:15-19.
VIII. Priests, Nazarites, kings, prophets, and shepherds are five kinds of people with special statuses in the Old Testament, typifying Christ and the New Testament believers in these five aspects of their status—Lev. 24:2-9; Exo. 30:6-8; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; 1 Sam. 1:11-28; Heb. 1:1, footnote 2; Jer. 23:3-4; Ezek. 34:11-31:
A. The ministry of the priests is engaged especially in the service of God; this typifies Christ as our High Priest who brings us to God and prays for us so that we may be saved and brought fully into God’s eternal purpose—1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Col. 1:28; Rom. 15:16.
B. Nazarites are those who have voluntarily consecrated themselves, who are separated from worldliness, and who have submitted themselves to God; this typifies Christ as One who voluntarily consecrated Himself to God, who sanctified Himself to God, and who submitted Himself to God for the accomplishment of the eternal purpose of God to whom He is in subordination—1 Sam. 1:11-28; Acts 3:14; Phil. 2:8.
C. The kingship is mainly to reign for God, to represent God, and to bring God to man. It is equal in importance to the priesthood and is brought in by God’s anointing; this typifies that Christ was anointed by God to be the Ruler among God’s people and to be the King ruling over the nations—Acts 13:36; Rev. 20:4, 6; 2:26-27.
D. Prophets are those who speak for God by God’s revelation. Their ministry is to speak for God, to speak forth God, to prophesy (predict) for God, and to assist the kings in establishing God’s kingdom; this typifies Christ speaking for God, ministering God to people in God’s word, and prophesying for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ—Heb. 1:1, footnote 2; 2 Pet. 1:21; 1 Sam. 3:19-21; John 1:1; Rev. 19:13; John 16:12-13; Matt. 16:18.
E. The shepherding ministry is to feed, take care of, teach, and lead the people of God; this typifies Christ as our Chief Shepherd, feeding, looking after, and leading the believers and, as our soul’s Shepherd in the resurrection life, guiding us within and supplying us with life that we may follow in His steps—Jer. 23:3-4; Ezek. 34:11-31; 1 Pet. 5:4; Psa. 23:1-6; John 10:15, 17-18.
IX. The picture of the cities of refuge typifies that Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God, is our refuge. Now that Christ has died and resurrected, sinners can flee into Him to be redeemed and to be in the good land enjoying the blessed portion given to us by God—Num. 35:14, Num. 35:11b, Num. 35:25b-29.
X. In the typology of the Old Testament, five items—the bronze serpent, the one hanging on a tree, the hind of the dawn, and the bridegroom and the bride—are seemingly different from one another. However, in the spiritual significance of the New Testament they are connected—Christ died and resurrected as the Bridegroom to obtain the church as His bride—Num. 21:4-9, 22, 23; Heb. 7:27; Rom. 5:12; Psa. 22:1-21; S.S. 1:13-16.
XI. The Jordan River typifies the death and resurrection of Christ, and the crossing of the Jordan River typifies the believers in baptism burying their old man and being ushered into resurrection to bring forth the new man—John 3:3, 6; Exo. 14:27-28.
XII. Ruth and Boaz are a complete prefigure of the Gentile sinners’ being brought with Israel, God’s elect, into the divine inheritance through the redemption of Christ in their union with Him—Gen. 19:31-38; Ruth 2:1; 4:9-10.
XIII. The Ark being separated from the tabernacle typifies that Christ has left the formal church and is separated from the church—Gal. 1:6-7; Rev. 2:13, 20; 2 Sam. 7:1-2; Psa. 132:28; 1 Kings 8:6.
XIV. The holy temple typifies the incarnated Christ as God’s dwelling place on the earth, and it also typifies the church, including all the believers, the members of Christ, to be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place on the earth—1 Chron. 21:22-25; 1 Sam. 24:20-24; 1 Chron. 28:3-4; Eph. 2:15-22; John 2:19-20; 1:14; Matt. 12:6.
XV. The shoot of Jehovah, the shoot of David, a sprout coming forth from the stump of Jesse, a tender plant growing up before Jehovah and a root out of dry ground, the fruit and a green fir tree; The Shoot of Jehovah typifies Christ’s divinity and the sprouting of Christ’s divinity through the incarnation of God. It also typifies the divinity that sprouted in Christ to develop from His incarnation to His entering into glory in His resurrection and then to pass through His ascension to attain to His beauty and glory in the kingdom age—Isa. 4:2; Rom. 8:29; Ruth 4:22; Isa. 53:2; Ruth 1:42; Hosea. 14:8.
XVI. With stones as symbols, the Bible likens Christ to the living stone, the rock, the foundation stone, the cornerstone, the topstone, the rock of stumbling, and the smiting stone—1 Pet. 2:4; 1 Cor. 10:4; Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11; Isa. 28:6; 8:14-15; Dan. 2:34-35.
A. The living stone signifies that Christ possesses life and is living for generating the believers that they may become living stones for God’s building and expression, the consummation of which is the New Jerusalem—1 Pet. 2:4-5; 1 Cor. 3:9-12.
B. The rock portrays Christ as One who is steady, sure, and stable, who has been tested, who is trustworthy, massive, and spiritual, who follows His believers, and who has been cleft for ministering His riches to His believers—Isa. 53:2-3; Matt. 16:1-12; 19:3-12.
C. Such a Christ is also the foundation stone as the foundation of God’s building, who is firm, secure, and unshakable, having sufficient strength to uphold the entire building of God in the universe, which is His universal church—Isa. 28:16; 1 Cor. 3:11.
D. Christ is the cornerstone for joining the different sides, the different sections, of God’s building, making it one Body as God’s fullness—Isa. 28:6; Eph. 2:20b; Acts 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:7.
E. Christ as the topstone is for covering God’s entire building to resist the forces from outside and to protect the contents of God’s building—Jer. 4:7.
F. The rock of stumbling typifies the effect of Christ on the unbelievers—Isa. 8:14-15; Matt. 21:44a.
G. When He comes back, He will be a stone cut out without hands to smash and completely destroy the nations which fight against the kingdom of God, and He will become a great mountain to fill the whole earth—Dan. 2:34-35, 44-45; Matt. 21:44b.
XVII. The heavenly luminaries, the three lights—the sun, the moon, and the stars—signify Christ, the overcomers as His followers; and the totality of God’s redeemed—Gen. 1:14-18; 37:9-10; Rev. 12:1; Luke 1:78; Num. 24:17; Rev. 1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE OFFERINGS
The tabernacle typifies God incarnated to dwell among men that they may contact, receive, possess, and enter into Him to enjoy Him as their lie and their life supply. The offerings typify the incarnated Christ who joined Himself to man to be man’s substitute offering to solve all of man’s problems, including sin, before God. As the offerings, He also becomes food to God and to those who belong to and serve God so that both God and man may be satisfied. There are five basic offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and trespass offering, the drink offering, the offering for thanksgiving, and the offering for a vow or a freewill offering. All these offerings are types of Christ, revealing that the riches of Christ in His various aspects meet the need of God and man. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 21)
AARON AND HIS SONS
Under the old covenant, God’s original intention was that all the children of Israel would be His priests to become a kingdom of priests to Him (Exo. 19:60). Later the children of Israel fully forsook God by worshipping the golden calf (32:1-7); therefore, God rejected them and chose only Aaron and his descendants to be His priests throughout the generations. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 22)
THE HIGH PRIEST’S EPHOD AND ROBE
The ephod and robe worn by Aaron, the high priest, typify Christ in His expression of God’s glory and beauty in all that He did and in His care for the redeemed saints, the constituents of His glorious church. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 23)
ANIMALS THAT ARE CLEAN FOR EATING
Leviticus 11 uses the matter of eating to signify the contacting of people by God’s people, that is, whom they may contact and whom they may not contact (Acts 10:11-16). Those whom they may contact are clean; those whom they may not contact are unclean. If we, as God’s people, intend to live a holy life as required by our holy God, we need to be careful about our contact with people. The animals, both clean and unclean, are divided into five categories: first, beasts, including cattle; second, aquatic animals, animals in the water; third, birds, animals in the air; fourth, insects; and fifth, creeping things. All the creeping things are unclean, but in the other four categories some animals are clean, and others are unclean. Let us consider the four categories of living creatures that are clean with respect to diet, signifying persons whom we may contact. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 24)
HUMAN UNCLEANNESS—
HUMAN BIRTH, LEPROSY, AND DISCHARGES
Leviticus 11 covers what is clean and unclean in the contact of God’s elect with people. Chapters 12 through 15 then cover man’s uncleanness in various aspects and man’s filthiness in different conditions, including the uncleanness of mankind in birth, leprosy, and discharges. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 25)
THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER,
THE LEPROUS GARMENT,
AND THE LEPROUS HOUSE
The preceding lesson covers different kinds of uncleanness, of which the worst is the leprosy in man. This lesson covers the way for a leper, a leprous garment, and a leprous house to be cleansed before God. This cleansing shows the all-inclusive salvation God has prepared and accomplished for us. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 26)
THE EXPIATION
Leviticus 11 through 15 portray that man’s contact with people, man’s source, man’s manifestation, and man’s discharge are altogether unclean. These different aspects of human uncleanness all issue from sins. The sinful unclean man before God needs God to take away his sins. However, in the Old Testament the taking away of sins through the redemption of Christ, which God foreordained, was not yet accomplished. Hence, God set up the expiation, the covering of sins, as a symbol of the redemption which was to come. Therefore, after revealing the different aspects of human uncleanness in chapters 11 through 15, Chapter 16 presents the expiation prepared by God. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 27)
THE SABBATH, THE HOLY FEASTS,
THE SABBATH YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE
Concerning the Old Testament, the types in Genesis may be considered as a series, from Christ as light and life to the producing of a complete person redeemed, called, and transformed by the Triune God to become a prince of God; the types in Exodus and Leviticus may be considered as another series, from the keeping of the Passover and the exodus from Egypt by the people of God to their enjoyment of rest and keeping of the holy festivals with God and for the full mutual enjoyment of the jubilee foreordained by God for His people. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 28)
THE HISTORY OF THE CHOSEN RACE OF ISRAEL—
WANDERING, FALLING DEAD, CROSSING THE JORDAN RIVER,
ENTERING INTO CANAAN, BEING TAKEN INTO CAPTIVITY, AND RETURNING
In the first three books of the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus—different types are used to portray Christ and the church, Christ’s redemption and God’s salvation, man’s condition and his need, and the believers’ proper living and service before God. From Numbers to the end of the Old Testament, various aspects of the history of the children of Israel are used to prefigure aspects of the history of the church on earth. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 29)
THE FRINGES, THE WATER FOR IMPURITY,
AND THE CITIES OF REFUGE
The Fringes, the water for impurity, and the cities of refuge are rich in spiritual meaning, functioning as types and symbols. The fringes indicate beauty, and a cord of blue on the fringe signifies a heavenly binding. This indicates that, as people of the kingdom of the heavens, we should be bound by the heavenly binding and ruling to produce a beauty in our human conduct that we may be sanctified and glorify God.
The water for impurity is the water which was used to get rid of the filthiness of death with which the children of Israel were affected. The water for impurity was composed of a red heifer, the principal component, which signifies that Christ, who is sinless and perfect and who has never been used by anyone, is our redemption. Other components were cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet strands, signifying that the high and dignified Christ and the lowly and humbled Christ in His redemption were elements in the composition of the water for impurity.
The cities of refuge were for a manslayer, someone who killed a person unintentionally, to flee there to escape death. There were six cities of refuge, divided into two sets of three cities. Three cities were on the east of the Jordan, and three cities were on the west of the Jordan. Moreover, the six cities were the same distance from each other. This signifies that the Triune God, as the refuge for all those who make mistakes, dwells on earth among mankind to be their refuge, and that the Triune God, who has spread Himself among men to be a city of refuge for all those who make mistakes, is near and convenient. Regardless of where we are, we can flee into Him. As such a refuge, the Triune God is for all mankind. Everyone, including Jews and Gentiles, has a refuge in the Triune God. The one who fled to the city of refuge had to live in it until the death of the high priest, signifying that the redemption of Christ, our High Priest, became effective in releasing us at the time of His death. The picture of the cities of refuge typifies that Christ, as the embodiment of the Triune God, is our refuge. Now that Christ has died and resurrected, sinners can flee into Him to be redeemed and to be in the good land enjoying the blessed portion given to us by God. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 31)
THE BRONZE SERPENT, THE ONE HANGING ON A TREE,
THE HIND OF THE DAWN, AND THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE
In the Old Testament these five items typify Christ in different aspects. The first two items signify the crucified Christ, the third item signifies the resurrected Christ, and the last two items signify Christ in His resurrection as the Bridegroom gaining the church as His bride. In the typology of the Old Testament these five items seem unconnected, but in the spiritual significance of the New Testament they are connected—Christ died and resurrected as the Bridegroom to obtain the church as His bride. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 32)
THE CROSSING OF THE JORDAN RIVER
After Israel’s thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness, all the men of their first generation, except Joshua and Caleb, fell dead in the wilderness. The remaining second generation, the new generation, arrived at the plain on the east of the Jordan, and after they received renewed training by Moses in the reiteration of the law (Deut. 1), they crossed the Jordan and entered into the good land. The Jordan River typifies the death and resurrection of Christ, and the crossing of the Jordan River typifies the believers’ baptism. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 33)
RUTH AND BOAZ
The book of Ruth is the shortest among the historical books of the Old Testament, yet the story recorded in it concerning Ruth and Boaz carries great spiritual and typological significance. A Gentile, even a Moabitess, was joined to the holy elect of God and became an heir to partake of the divine inheritance through her union with the person among the holy elect who redeemed her. This is a complete prefigure of the Gentile sinners’ being brought with Israel, God’s elect, into the divine inheritance through the redemption of Christ in their union with Him. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 34)
THE ARK SEPARATED FROM THE TABERNACLE
The tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth typifies the church; the Ark as God’s testimony on earth typifies Christ. According to God’s arrangement, the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. After the children of Israel entered into the good land, because of the deterioration of the house of Aaron the priest, they presumptuously removed the Ark from the tabernacle to help them in their fighting, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:3-11). Later the Philistines returned the Ark to the children of Israel, and it was taken by the men of Kiriath-jearim and brought to the house of Abinadab (6:8; 7:1-2). Then it was taken by David from the house of Abinadab and put in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Later David removed the Ark and carried it from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David (2 Sam. 6:2-3, 10-12). During this time, however, the tabernacle remained in Shiloh (Josh. 18:1). During Saul’s time, the tabernacle was in Nob (1 Sam. 21:1; cf. Mark 2:26), and later, during the time of King David and King Solomon, it was in Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39; 21:29). Thus, the Ark was separated from the tabernacle until the building of the temple was completed. Then it was moved into the Holy of Holies in the temple (1 Kings 8:1-11). (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 35)
THE TEMPLE
Both the temple and the tabernacle served as God’s dwelling place on the earth. His dwelling place was first the tabernacle, which was movable and temporary, and then the temple, which was fixed and permanent. The tabernacle was the predecessor of the temple as the dwelling place of God on earth, and the temple was the consummate building of the tabernacle. The tabernacle and the temple were the same in use, and they have the same significance in typology.
The holy temple typifies the incarnated Christ as God’s dwelling place on the earth, and it also typifies the church, including all the believers, the members of Christ, to be the enlargement of Christ as God’s dwelling place on the earth. The body of Christ was destroyed on the cross, and in His resurrection Christ built up this body to be God’s dwelling place. In His resurrection, Christ also raised up all His believers together with Him and enlarged His body into the corporate Body, which is the church, as the corporate dwelling place of God. This corporate Body is altogether a new creation in resurrection; it is spiritual and mystical. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 36)
THE TWO OLIVE TREES
Zechariah 4:2 likens God’s people, the Israelites, to the golden lampstand, which testifies for God on the earth. There is an olive tree on both the right and the left side of the lampstand to produce olive oil to supply the need of the lampstand. The two olive trees are also called the two sons of oil. In Revelation 11 they are called the two witnesses and the two prophets, signifying Moses and Elijah.
Moses and Elijah as representatives of the Old Testament law and prophets appeared before the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses, who represented the law, and Elijah, who represented the prophets, stand before God to testify or God. The Bible also prophesized that Elijah will come again, indicating that he will be one of the two witnesses. Furthermore, one of the two witnesses in Revelation will devour the enemies with fire and shut heaven so that no rain may fall, as Elijah did; another will turn water into blood and smite the earth will every plague, as Moses did. This proves that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah.
The two witnesses are also called the sons of oil because they are full of oil, that is, full of the Spirit. They are also called the lampstands; in the last three and a half years they will replace the churches as the lampstands for God’s testimony that shines forth for God. Moses and Elijah as the two sons of oil live before God to supply God’s people with the Spirit in God’s word as the olive oil that they may receive the rich Spirit to be God’s lampstand shining and testifying for God. They also supply God’s New Testament believers. In the great tribulation, when Antichrist carries out his persecution by his evil power, the two witnesses will prophesy, speak for God, and testify against the evil doings of Antichrist. They will be filled with the Spirit to establish the Jews who are being persecuted and at the same time establish and minister to the believers who remain in the great tribulation after the rapture of the firstfruits. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 38)
THE LIVING STONE, THE ROCK, THE FOUNDATION STONE,
THE CORNERSTONE, THE TOPSTONE,
THE ROCK OF STUMBLING, AND THE SMITING STONE
The Bible uses not only plants to signify God, Christ, the church, the believers, and the world but also stones to signify Christ and the believers. According to 1 Corinthians 3:6-15, plants are for growth, and stones are for building. The plants grow to produce materials, and the stones are built to produce the church. The change from the growing plants to the building stones involves a process of transformation. This is the process of Christ being life to the believers, and it reveals the intrinsic reason that the Bible uses plants and the stones to signify what Christ is to the believers. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 39)
THE SUN, THE MOON, AND THE STARS
The heavenly luminaries, the three lights—the sun, the moon, and the stars—signify Christ, the overcomers as His followers, and the totality of God’s redeemed people. The Old Testament uses the sun, the moon and the stars to signify the hwole house of Jacob, which was chosen and redeemed by God. Among the redeemed, Jacob was like the sun, his wife Rachel was like the moon, and his twelve sons were like twelve stars. The New Testament uses the sun, the moon, and the stars to signify the totality of the saints of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament believers are typified as the sun, the Old Testament saints as the moon, and Old Testament patriarchs as twelve stars. (Truth Lessons, Level 3, Vol. 2, lsn. 40)