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In this message we shall cover further aspects of Christ’s person in the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament Christ is typified by the tabernacle with all the furniture: the showbread table, the lampstand, the incense altar, and the ark. Exodus 25:9 says, “According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it” (lit.). This type is fulfilled in Hebrews 9:1-5; John 1:14 and Hebrews 10:20.
Exodus 25:8 says, “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” This sanctuary was the tabernacle, which signifies God’s dwelling place. This dwelling place was not only for living but also for enjoyment. God’s dwelling place is the place for Him to be the enjoyment for His people, the place where God’s people may participate in the full enjoyment of God Himself. The Old Testament tabernacle was a type, a prefigure, of the real tabernacle, which was Christ Himself in the flesh. When Christ was in the flesh, He was the tabernacle of God among men (John 1:14). In the Old Testament God was in the tabernacle, for the tabernacle brought God to the children of Israel. In the time of the New Testament Christ in the flesh was the tabernacle that brought God to man so that man might enjoy Him. Through incarnation God became a man, mingled Himself with humanity, and became His own dwelling place. In Christ, the real tabernacle, God was embodied for our enjoyment.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here we see that Christ, the incarnated Word, is a tabernacle. This tabernacle signifies the Word becoming flesh as God’s expression. Here the word “expression” is the same in significance as the gold in the Old Testament tabernacle. The tabernacle was built with boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold, which signifies God expressed. When Christ was on earth, there was with Him a certain kind of shining, and that shining was the expression of God typified by the gold of the tabernacle.
As the tabernacle, Christ shared in humanity. For the Word to become flesh means that the Word took on human nature. Humanity is typified by the acacia wood of the tabernacle (Exo. 26:15, 26). The shining gold and the acacia wood signify respectively the divine nature and human nature of Christ. Furthermore, as the tabernacle, Christ is God’s embodiment: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). The fullness of the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — was embodied in the tabernacle, and this embodiment was God’s dwelling among men.
The fullness of the Godhead was embodied in the tabernacle so that man may enter into God and enjoy Him. Originally, God was mysterious, invisible, and untouchable. But now God has been embodied in a tabernacle that can be entered. This means that God is enterable; we can enter into Him and enjoy Him. Once we enter into God, we can experience Him in Christ as our life supply, signified by the bread on the showbread table, and as our light, signified by the lampstand. We can also experience Christ and, in particular, enjoy Him as the ark.
The tabernacle in the Old Testament had two sections: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The first item of furniture in the Holy Place was the showbread table (Exo. 40:22-23), which signifies Christ as our life supply (John 6:35, 57). In particular, the showbread table signifies Christ as the feast for God’s priests, since only priests were qualified to be in the Holy Place. Because those who ate the bread displayed on the showbread table were priests, this table indicates that Christ is a feast for God’s priests.
On the showbread table twelve loaves of bread were displayed. The number twelve signifies eternal completion and perfection. Christ is our eternal bread. Our enjoyment of Him as the showbread table is eternal.
The showbread table was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exo. 25:23-24). Here acacia wood signifies that Christ’s humanity is the basic element for Him to be our feast. The gold overlaying the table signifies the expression of God, Christ’s divinity. Within Christ, His humanity is the basic element for our enjoyment, and upon Him is divinity as the expression of God. If we enjoy Christ, we shall express God. As we enjoy the Lord Jesus as the life supply with which we serve God, the outcome will be gold, Christ’s divinity as the expression of God.
After the showbread table is the lampstand (Exo. 40:24-25), where we experience Christ as the shining light of life (John 1:4; 8:12). The fact that the lampstand follows the showbread table indicates that the light comes out of our enjoyment of Christ as our life supply. When we enjoy Christ as our food, we have light because the “life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
The lampstand in the tabernacle (Exo. 25:31-40) signifies the Triune God embodied in Christ. With the lampstand we see three important things: the gold, the stand, and the lamps. Gold is the substance with which the lampstand is made, the stand is the embodiment of the gold, and the lamps are the expression of the stand. The gold signifies the Father as the substance, the stand signifies the Son as the embodiment of the Father, and the lamps signify the Spirit as the expression of the Father in the Son. Therefore, as a type, the lampstand implies the Triune God.
As a type of Christ, the lampstand portrays Christ as the resurrection life growing, branching, budding, and blossoming to shine the light. The fact that the lampstand has branches, buds, and blossoms indicates that it is a growing entity. Since the lampstand typifies Christ, it indicates that Christ is the One who is growing. Christ grows first in Himself, signified by the stalk of the lampstand, and then also in us, signified by the branches.
Another item of furniture in the tabernacle that typifies Christ is the incense altar (Exo. 30:1-5). The incense altar signifies Christ as the Intercessor to maintain the relationship between God and His people (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). The altar itself is a type of Christ’s person, not a type of His prayer. The incense altar signifies Christ praying, Christ interceding. Without such an interceding Christ, the proper relationship between God and us could not exist, or could not be maintained. For the maintaining of our relationship with God, we need Christ as our Intercessor.
According to Exodus 30:1 and 3, the incense altar was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. This signifies that Christ’s humanity, signified by the acacia wood, is strong in character and high in standard to express His divinity, signified by the gold.
The incense altar had four horns. In biblical typology a horn signifies power. Therefore, the four horns of the incense altar signify the power of Christ’s intercession. Christ’s intercession is powerful toward the four corners of the earth.
The incense altar also had a crown of gold round about, rings of gold, and poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold. The crown of gold around the incense altar signifies the glory of Christ’s divinity being the preserving power of His intercession. The two rings of gold as receptacles for the carrying poles signify the moving of Christ’s intercession, and the poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold signify that Christ’s human nature with His divine nature is the strength for the moving of His intercession. All these aspects of the interceding Christ typified by the incense altar are fulfilled in the New Testament, especially in John 17.
The ark of testimony is a type of Christ, the true testimony of God, who is the embodiment and expression of all that God is. The tables of the law, the Ten Commandments, were put into the ark (Exo. 25:21). This signifies that God testified by the law is embodied in Christ. As the ark was called the ark of the testimony (Exo. 25:22), so Christ is the testimony, the expression, of God.
As a type of Christ, the ark, which contained the tablets of the testimony, typifies Christ as the embodiment of God’s testimony. The ark as the embodiment of God’s testimony typifies Christ as the embodiment of God. Colossians 2:9 says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. Because God is embodied in Christ, He is portrayed, defined, and explained by Christ. Christ is God’s definition, His explanation.
The ark as a type of Christ also indicates that God’s redeemed people can contact God and enjoy God in Christ and through Christ. The New Testament reveals that God has come in Christ so that we may contact Him, receive Him, and enjoy Him. As the ark of the testimony, Christ is for us to contact God and enjoy God.
The ark was made of acacia wood overlaid inside and outside with pure gold (Exo. 25:10-11). The acacia wood typifies Christ’s humanity, strong in character and high in standard. Christ’s humanity is the basic element, the basic substance, for Him to be God’s testimony. Christ became the embodiment of God’s testimony in His humanity, which is the basic substance for expressing God. The pure gold that overlaid the ark signifies Christ’s divinity. Because the substance of gold does not change, it signifies God who is eternally unchanging.
Christ is one person with two natures, the human nature and the divine nature. Because He is man as well as God, He is rightly called the God-man. He is the mingling of God with man. The fact that the acacia wood was overlaid with gold both inside and outside signifies that in Christ the divine nature is mingled with the human nature. In Christ the divine nature penetrates the human nature and also rests on the human nature so that it may be expressed through the human nature. That the acacia wood was between two layers of gold indicates such a mingling. As the embodiment of God, Christ is the God-man, the mingling of God and man.
Exodus 25:21 says, “In the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.” According to Exodus 31:18, the tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written are called the “two tables of testimony.” This indicates that the law was God’s testimony. Because the law, God’s testimony, was placed in the ark, the ark was called the ark of testimony (Exo. 25:22; 26:33-34); and because the ark was in the tabernacle, the tabernacle was called the tabernacle of testimony (Exo. 38:21; Num. 1:50,53). The law was called the testimony because it testifies of God; it testifies what kind of God He is. In particular, the law, the Ten Commandments, testifies that God is holy and righteous and that He is love and light. In nature our God is love (1 John 4:8), and in expression He is light (1 John 1:5). He is also holy in nature and righteous in all His activities. The law testifies that He is such a God.
As the testimony of God, the law is a type of Christ. The real, living, full, and adequate testimony of God is Christ Himself. Christ describes God and expresses Him in a full and adequate way. Therefore, the law, the testimony, typifies Christ as God’s living testimony. The law was given, but Christ came to be the living expression of God (John 1:17). When Christ came, the testimony of God became a living person. Wherever the Lord Jesus went, He expressed God. Whatever He did and said expressed God. For this reason He is called “the faithful Witness” (Rev. 1:5; 3:14). As the faithful Witness, Christ is the testimony of God, His expression. He testifies that God is holy and righteous and that He is love and light. Christ is the reality of the testimony typified by the law.
Aaron is a type of Christ as the High Priest (Exo. 28:3; Heb. 5:4-5). Aaron was called and established by God to be the high priest (1, Heb. 5:4). This is even more true with Christ, who did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest but was ordained by God (Heb. 5:5), having been chosen as a man to go to God with the needs of man. Aaron, as the high priest, took care of things pertaining to God on behalf of the people. Christ is superior to him in taking care of all of our cases before God. In type, Aaron offered both gifts and sacrifices for the people and himself (Heb. 5:1, 3), but, in reality, Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice for sins. As typified by Aaron, Christ offered Himself to God for our sins (Heb. 7:27; 9:14, 26; 10:10, 12), made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17), and made purification for our sins, after which He “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). On the cross, Christ, offering sacrifice to God for our sins, was a High Priest typified by Aaron. Therefore, this aspect of Christ’s priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, is mainly for the forgiveness of sins.
Aaron was established in honor to be the high priest only for his lifetime, for he was prevented by death from continuing. But Christ was ordained in glory to be our High Priest forever. With Him there is no preventing of death. He is glorified forever to be our High Priest.
As the high priest in type, Aaron bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his shoulders and on his heart (Exo. 28:9-10, 12, 21, 29). Today, as the High Priest in reality, Christ is in the heavens bearing us and holding us before God.
In the Old Testament Christ is typified by all the offerings. The New Testament reveals that in His person Christ is the fulfillment of these types.
The burnt offering (Lev. 1:3), which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He made God happy and satisfied Him because He always did God’s will (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38) and sought His glory (John 7:16-18). Whatever God wanted, Christ did. Therefore, He pleased God and satisfied Him.
According to Leviticus 1, the burnt offering was burned to ashes as God’s food to satisfy Him. The Hebrew word for burnt offering actually means ascending sacrifice. When this offering was burned on the altar, it became a sweet savor ascending to God for His enjoyment. This is the reason Numbers 28:2 and 3 speak of the burnt offering as God’s food. God’s food, the burnt offering, satisfies Him. As the fulfillment of the type of the burnt offering, Christ is God’s food. Christ has been “burned” to feed God and satisfy Him.
The meal offering (Lev. 2:1) typifies Christ in His humanity as food for God and especially for those who have fellowship with God and serve Him. In His humanity Christ is our food and constant satisfaction.
The meal offering was made of fine flour mingled with oil (Lev. 2:4). The fine flour, with its evenness and fineness, typifies Christ’s perfect humanity with its balance, evenness, and fineness. The four Gospels portray the fineness of the Lord’s behavior in His human living. The oil mingled with the fine flour signifies the divine Spirit. This mingling typifies the mingling of divinity with humanity in the Lord Jesus. The frankincense added to the meal offering (Lev. 2:15) signifies the fragrance of resurrection life. This is Christ typified by the meal offering, the mingling of humanity and divinity with the fragrant manifestation of resurrection life to be our daily nourishment and supply.
The peace offering (Lev. 3:1) typifies Christ as the Peacemaker (Eph. 2:15). Apart from Christ, we cannot have peace with God or with others. Because there can be no peace in the universe without Christ, we need Him to be our peace offering. Christ has “made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). Now as the fulfillment of the type of the peace offering, Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14) with God and with one another. Through Him and in Him we have peace with God and man. As the peace offering, Christ is sweet and satisfying. In typology, the peace offering was food for God and the serving ones. Today, in reality, we with God may enjoy Christ as the sweet, satisfying peace offering.
The sin offering (Lev. 4:3) is a type of Christ as the One who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature of our fallen being. As the sin offering, Christ has dealt with the sin that dwells in us (Rom. 7:20), the personified sin extensively described in chapters five through seven of Romans (5:12, 21; 6:12, 14; 7:8, 9, 11, 13, 17, 23). This sin is actually the evil nature of Satan. Because we are sinful, even sin itself, we need Christ to be our sin offering. As the reality of the type of the sin offering, Christ, who did not know sin, was “made sin on our behalf” by God (2 Cor. 5:21). According to Romans 8:3, God sent “His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin” so that He might condemn sin in the flesh. Through Christ as the sin offering, sin has been dealt with. In Him our sinful nature has been judged.
Christ is also typified by the trespass offering (Lev. 5:6). We are sinful and have many sins and transgressions. God can forgive our sins only through Christ as the trespass offering. On the cross Christ bore all our trespasses before God. He “Himself carried up our sins in His body onto the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). First Corinthians 15:3 says, “Christ died for our sins,” being “once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28). Therefore, as the sin offering Christ was made sin for us, but as the trespass offering He bore our sins.
The wave offering typifies Christ as the resurrected One. Leviticus 7:30 speaks of a portion of the peace offering being “waved for a wave offering before the Lord.” The words “waved” and “wave” indicate movement. This typifies Christ moving in His resurrection. The resurrected Christ is “waving”; that is, He is living. The wave offering, then, is a type of Christ as the resurrected, living One.
Leviticus 7:32 says, “The right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for a heave offering.” To heave an offering is to lift it up. The heave offering, an offering heaved up before the Lord, typifies Christ in ascension and exaltation. As the fulfillment of the type of the heave offering, Christ is the ascended, exalted, transcendent One, the One who is “far above all” (Eph. 1:21).
Exodus 29:40 speaks of the drink offering. The wine of the drink offering was for God’s satisfaction; it was poured out to God for Him to drink. In the Old Testament a drink offering was poured out on one of the basic offerings described in chapters one through seven of Leviticus. The basic offerings are types of various aspects of what Christ is to God on our behalf. The drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as real wine before God for His satisfaction. Christ poured out His very being unto God. Isaiah 53:12 says, He “poured out his soul unto death.” Thus, Christ is the heavenly, spiritual wine poured out to God for His pleasure. Furthermore, the drink offering typifies not only Christ Himself, but also the Christ who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine until He and we become one to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction.
Hebrews 10:1-12 indicates that Christ is the fulfillment of all the offerings. He came to do the will of God (vv. 7, 9), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people. As this unique offering, Christ is the reality of the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, trespass offering, wave offering, heave offering, and drink offering. In His death Christ offered Himself to God as the offering that fulfills all the types of the offerings.
Leviticus 23:3 speaks of “the sabbath of rest,” and verse 4, of “the feasts of the Lord.” In the Old Testament the children of Israel observed seven annual feasts: the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of firstfruit, the feast of weeks (Pentecost), the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles (also called the feast of ingathering or harvest). Among these seven feasts, the three major ones were the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles. In Colossians 2:16 and 17 Paul says that the Sabbath and the feasts are “a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Shadows are like types or figures. The “body,” the substance, the reality, of these shadows is Christ. The Sabbath signifies completion and rest, and the feasts, the annual Jewish festivals, signify joy and enjoyment. As the fulfillment and the reality of the Sabbath and the feasts, Christ is our completion and rest and our joy and enjoyment.
Christ is also typified by the brass serpent (Num. 21:8-9; John 3:14). Because the children of Israel in the wilderness complained and were rebellious, speaking against God and against Moses, “the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died” (Num. 21:6). Then the people came to Moses, confessed that they had sinned, and asked him to pray that the Lord would take away the serpents. When Moses prayed for the people, the Lord said to him, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live” (v. 8). Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. Then “it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (v. 9). In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus refers to that incident in Numbers 21: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
The incident in Numbers 21 was sovereignly prepared by God to reveal a particular type of Christ. The brass serpent lifted up on a pole is a type of Christ lifted up on the cross for us as the Son of Man. As descendants of Adam, we all have been “bitten” by the old serpent, the Devil. Therefore, we all are serpentine beings with the poison of the old serpent in our nature. In the sight of God, the entire fallen human race consists of poisonous “serpents.” As such serpents, we need a substitute, someone with the form of a serpent but without the poisonous element of the serpent. This substitute is Christ, who died on the cross in the form of a serpent to deal with our serpentine nature.
In Romans 8:3 Paul says that God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin and condemned sin in the flesh. This corresponds to the revelation in John 3:14 concerning the brass serpent. For God to send His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin means that Christ became a serpent in form, that is, a brass serpent without the serpentine poison. According to the type of the brass serpent and its fulfillment in Christ, when Christ was lifted up on the cross, He was in the likeness of the flesh of sin typified by the form of the brass serpent, but He did not have the nature of sin typified by the poisonous nature of the serpent. Paul’s word in Romans 8:3 about God condemning sin in the flesh indicates that the old serpent has been condemned so that the problem of sin may be solved. Now whoever believes in Christ as the One who was lifted up to be condemned in our place has eternal life (John 3:15). This is the significance of the type of the brass serpent in Numbers 21:8 and 9 and its fulfillment in John 3:14.
