PREFIGURES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
New
Testament is the fulfilment of the Old Testament
God’s revelation
throughout the Old Testament prefigures, anticipates, and announces beforehand
the redemption that he would accomplish in the person of Jesus Christ his only
Son incarnated. There are many prefigures of Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus
is the second Adam, the perfect law keeper, Noah, Joseph, Moses etc… God
announced beforehand, in type and shadow, promised and prophesied the
redemption he would accomplish through his incarnate Son. How
can a collection of books written over a period of a thousand years by many
authors find its fulfilment in a single individual? God over history ordered
events and intervened in history so as to reveal himself and his redemptive
purposes to his people (ex. Ex. 7:3–5). This same God superintended the
recording and interpretation of those events as he inspired individuals to
compose the books (cfr. 2Tim 3:16).
First,
Christ
is present in the Old Testament through promise, “I will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he
shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15). Promise
of the Messiah and an announcement of the work – he will accomplish.
A second way – Christ
is present in the Old Testament is through prophecy which time and again
heralds the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, “The
Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is 7:14).
Thirdly,
Christ is present in the Old Testament in the form of types and shadows. The Old
Testament types are signs that pointed believers to the reality (what
theologians call the antitype) which is Christ himself. Along with people and
places, a thing can also be a type of Christ. For example, the bronze serpent raised
in the wilderness brought healing.
Adam
is a prefigure of the Messiah. Adam and Christ are related to one another as a
photographic negative to its positive print.
What Adam did, Jesus undid. Adam was the first born of physical
humanity, where Jesus is the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18). Adam was the
first human to sin (well, technically he was the second), and therefore brought
death to all men; Jesus was the first human sinless. Adam made men unrighteous
and Jesus made men righteous through his blood.
Melchizedek king
of Salem (Jerusalem) meets Abraham. He was both priest and king.
Melchizedek was the temporal king of physical Jerusalem, while Jesus is the
spiritual king of the spiritual Jerusalem (Jn 18:36,37). He is the prince of
peace.
Joseph
is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ. Joseph and Jesus’ Brethren were indifferent
toward their suffering (Gen 37:25; Mt 27:41); Joseph and Jesus were sold for
the price of slaves (Gen 37:28b Mt 26:15); Joseph and Jesus were “Resurrected” out
of the Pit (Gen 37:25b–28a) and Joseph and Christ offer the “Bread of
Life” (Gen
47:13–19; Jn 6:35, 51).
Moses is
one of the clearest parallels between the life of Jesus Christ and Moses in
the Old Testament. From the event of killing of male child in Egypt to the
events in the desert to the Promised land.
Solomon is
a type and shadow of Christ. He is the Son of David. God said he is his Father;
he built the house of God; he is a man of peace; he has divine wisdom from God;
he rules with justice and righteousness; he has a glorious, magnificent
kingdom. Christ built God a house by building the universal church, which is
called the temple of God. Paul says to his church of Corinth, “Do you not know
that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Cor 3:16).
David
“My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of
them” (Ezk 37:24). It
seems that God is just using the name David to refer to the Messiah, the Son of
David “I, the Lord, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will
raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David (Jer 23:5-6).
Job is
a type and shadow of Jesus Christ longed for an Advocate to plead his case:
“Surely even now my
witness is in heaven, and my evidence is on high” (Job 16:19); “There was a man
in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright,
and one who feared God and shunned evil (Job 1:1). Pilate said, “I am innocent
of the blood of this just Person” (Mt 27:24).
Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son
of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Mt 12:40).
Jesus spent three days and nights interred the heart of the earth.
Both Jesus and Jonah are reminders to the Jews that God will be moving his
focus away from Jerusalem.
Israel Another typology of Christ we consider is the nation
of Israel. Matthew says that the Israel as a type of Christ. Scripture says, “Then
he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt.
He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by God through
the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt” (Mt 2:14-15).
Passover Lamb The
Jewish Passover lamb is also a type of Christ. They had the blood of a lamb
sprinkled on their doorposts (Ex 12:3-14). Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed. Every Christian is washed in the precious
blood of Christ (1 Jn 1:7-9).
Manna God
sending manna from heaven to sustain Israel in the wilderness is also a type of
Christ (Ex
16). And God
gave us Christ, as bread from heaven, to satisfy and save all who believe in
him (Jn 6:30-35).
The Bronze Snake The
bronze snake that Moses erected for Israel to save them from death is a type of
Christ – “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal
life (Num 21 = Jn 3:14).
The Rock Paul
says that Moses provided water for Israel from a rock that he struck two
different times—once near the beginning of their journey and again near the end
(Ex 17:1-7, Num 20:2-13); “And all drank the same spiritual drink; for they
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ (1
Cor 10:1-4).
High Priest In
the Old Covenant, God established priests to mediate between the people and
God. Jesus becomes the high priest as the sacrifice (Num Heb 4:15-16). For it
is indeed fitting for us to have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
The Sacrificial Lamb “…
stipulations about sacrificial lambs. The lamb had to be a male without defect;
God would accept it as an atoning sacrifice (Lev 1:1-4) - “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).
Tabernacle is
a type of Christ. While Moses was leading Israel in the wilderness, God had
them make a tabernacle (Ex 29:46). John the apostle called Christ our
tabernacle, “Now the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).
The Veil in
the inner sanctuary of the tabernacle and temple (often called the Holy of
Holies or the Most Holy Place) separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of
the sanctuary. The Holy of Holies was where God’s presence dwelt. At the death
of Jesus, the veil in the temple was torn into two from top to bottom (Mt 27;50-51) – meaning the veil of death and sin are
destroyed between God and man. The beginning of new relationship and friendship
of man began with God.
Mercy Seat which
was located in the Holy of Holies, within the tabernacle and temple (Ex 25:18-22;
Rom 3:25 = Heb 9:5) prefigures the merciful Christ sitting on the merciful
judgment seat.
The Sabbath Day Paul
argues that the Sabbath is a shadow of Christ – and now that Christ has come,
believers no longer need to practice the Sabbath. Christ said, “The Sabbath was made
for people, not people for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27); “Come to me, all you who are
weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Mt 11:28-30); “ The son of man is
the Lord of the Sabbath” (Mt 12:8).
Lev.
16:21-22: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the
head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children
of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the
head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the
wilderness”.
“And
the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited;
and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness” Who is “the live goat” today
for you?
“The
ignorance of the Bible is the ignorance of Christ” St Jerome
