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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.
From Numbers to the end of the Old Testament, the various aspects of the history of the children of Israel can be divided generally into six stages.
After their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel began a journey through the wilderness under the leading of God with the pillar of cloud in the day and the pillar of fire in the night. Furthermore, through their experiences of the tree which caused the bitter water to become sweet (Exo. 15:23-25), the twelve springs at Elim (v. 27), the manna from heaven (16:14-15, 31-32, 35), the living water flowing out of the cleft rock (17:6), and by their overcoming the Amalekites (vv. 8-16), they were brought to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.
At Mount Horeb the children of Israel received God’s revelation and equipping. First, they received the enlightenment of the law to know God’s being. Then they received the revelation concerning the tabernacle and the priesthood, and thereby they participated in the building of the dwelling place of God on earth, knowing how to fellowship with God and serve God and how to be God’s holy people, living a sanctified life by the tabernacle, with the offerings, and through the priests. Lastly, they were built up and formed into a priestly army to journey on under the leading of God and to fight for Him.
After they were formed into an army, the children of Israel began their journey to the good land to possess it so that God could gain a place on the earth to build up His kingdom with His house.
After journeying for eleven days from Mount Horeb, they reached Kadesh-barnea at the border of the good land (Deut. 1:2). Even though God had gone before them in the fire by night and in the cloud by day, seeking out places for them to camp and showing them the way they should go (v. 33), the children of Israel disregarded God’s care for them in the wilderness because of the evil report brought back by ten of the twelve men who went to spy out the good land and because they forgot how He had carried them through the great and awesome wilderness (v. 31). Thus, they had an evil heart of unbelief, believing neither in God nor in His promise. They even murmured against God, saying that God brought them into the land to fall by the sword and for their wives and little ones to become a plunder (Num. 14:1-3). Hence, God swore in His wrath that not one of the unbelieving generation would see the good land which He had sworn to give to their fathers; only Caleb and Joshua were allowed to enter (Deut. 1:34-38). As for the rest of the people, their corpses fell in the wilderness, but the little ones, who the people said would become plunder, were brought into the land by God. The people and their children wandered in the wilderness forty years to bear their iniquities according to the number of days that the land had been spied out (a year for every day). Those who gave the evil report all died by a plague before Jehovah (Num. 14:26-38). This shows that it is a terrible thing not to believe in God. We need to be careful not to have an evil heart of unbelief.
After the failure of the children of Israel at Kadesh-barnea, God commanded them to leave. Therefore, they turned and set out for the wilderness by the way that led to the Red Sea. The time they spent in going from Kadesh-barnea until they crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years (Deut. 2:1-14). Although Kadesh-barnea was the entry into the good land, the children of Israel were not allowed to enter in; rather, they wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years until everyone in the old generation had been consumed, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb.
Because of their evil deeds and unbelief, most of the children of Israel became those with whom God was not well pleased (1 Cor. 10:5). Eventually, in their wandering in the wilderness, all of the first generation, except Caleb and Joshua, fell dead in the wilderness, failing to reach the goal for which God led them out of Egypt.
The goal of God’s calling the children of Israel was that they would enter into the promised good land to enjoy its riches so that they might establish God’s kingdom and be God’s testimony on the earth. The all-inclusive Christ, typified by the good land, is the greatest blessing which God intends to give to His elect. To inherit the promised good land, a person should love God, fear God, care for God’s intention, and live in God’s presence. The old generation of the children of Israel fell away from the living God because of their evil heart of unbelief (Heb. 3:12); they repeatedly offended God and disobeyed Him to the point that they, being abhorred and rejected by God, fell in the wilderness and were not allowed to enter the promised good land.
God rejected the old generation of the children of Israel, but He promised to lead their children into the good land of Canaan. After the new generation of the children of Israel passed through forty years of trials and tests in the wilderness, God gave them a renewed training through Moses when they reached the Jordan River. Moses trained them through a review of the past (Deut. 1—4), a rehearsal of the law (chs. 5—26), a warning (chs. 27—28), the enactment of the covenant (chs. 29—30), along with some other words, so that they might be prepared and fit to inherit the promised good land as God’s blessing to them. In his review of the past, Moses pointed out God’s leading and the people’s failure. With a view toward the future, he expected that the people would know the love and government of God and their real condition. They needed to know that God is loving and righteous in dealing with them. They also needed to know that they were a failure so that they would condemn themselves, humble themselves, and have no trust in themselves and so that they could respond to God’s love in a way that would fit His governmental administration. Thus, they could be in the good land, having a prolonged enjoyment of its blessing.
After the new generation, the second generation, of the children of Israel received this renewed training, everything was ready (Josh. 1). The children of Israel had been chosen, called, redeemed, saved, trained, and prepared by God. Thus, they were qualified to go forward with Him to cross over the Jordan River and take the good land, which typifies the rich, all-inclusive Christ. Under the leadership of Joshua they crossed the Jordan River by faith to enter into the good land of Canaan.
To take, possess, and enjoy the land of Canaan after entering into it, the children of Israel had to fight the enemies who had usurped the land. Beginning with the city of Jericho, they fought battle after battle, city after city, until eventually they took the whole land of Canaan. In his lifetime Joshua did not cut off all the enemies from the good land. After his death, in the age of the judges, a period of approximately four hundred and fifty years, the children of Israel were unable to completely dispossess and utterly destroy the seven tribes remaining in the good land. This fighting lasted until the time of David. During David’s reign all the enemies in the land were fully subdued (1 Chron. 22:18).
Whenever the children of Israel defeated their enemies, they took possession of the land for their use, and they settled down and lived in the good land, laboring on it and enjoying its rich produce for their rest and satisfaction.
After the children of Israel entered into the good land, the people of God did not have the adequate place and time to build the temple for God because of incessant fightings and rebellions. After David subdued the enemies in the land, the kingdom of God was brought in. Then Solomon built the temple as God’s dwelling place upon the foundation of peace brought in by his father David.
Although the children of Israel established the kingdom of God and built the temple for God in the good land, they were unfaithful to God; the people and their kings forsook God and His word and turned to the worship of idols. Although God sent prophets to warn them, they still did not obey. Eventually, they suffered the fall of their nation and were taken into captivity.
The children of Israel transgressed against the covenant which God made with them, forsaking God as the fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13) and not loving Jehovah their God with all their heart and soul. They forsook the law which God set before them and did not listen to His voice (9:13). This was the main factor of the degradation of God’s people. Because they forsook God and His word, they turned away to burn incense to other gods and worship the works of their own hands. They took idols as their God and committed spiritual fornication. They committed fornication on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree, and they committed adultery with stones and trees so that even the land became polluted (3:6-9).
The children of Israel forsook God and were rejected by God. First, the northern kingdom of Israel was captured by Assyria and Egypt. Instead of taking this as a warning to repent to God, the kingdom of Judah also did things that were evil in the sight of Jehovah. Hence, Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Chaldea, to be taken as captives to Babylon. Thus, the holy land was usurped, the holy temple was burned, and the holy city was torn down. The children of Israel became a subjugated people in the Gentile lands, suffering all kinds of hardship and mistreatment until the days ordained by God for their punishment were fulfilled.
According to the word spoken by Jeremiah, God would visit the children of Israel and bring them back to their land after seventy years were fulfilled (25:12; 29:10). They became captives in the Gentile lands for seventy years until the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, when God began to bring them back to the God-promised good land enjoyed by their fathers.
Their return occurred at three different times. The first return was under the leadership of Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, of the royal family; he was appointed the governor. The second return was under the leadership of Ezra, a descendant of Aaron, of the priestly order. The third return was under Nehemiah, an ordinary person, a commoner.
After the children of Israel returned to their own land, under the leadership of Zerubbabel they rebuilt the temple on its original foundation (Ezra 3:1-4, 8). Furthermore, they recovered their worship, service, and enjoyment of God through Ezra (Neh. 8:1-3, 13-17; 13:15-22). Then they rebuilt the holy city through Nehemiah (2:17-18; 6:15) to restore the government of the kingdom. However, the kingship was never restored so that they had to govern themselves under the dominion of the nations.
In principle, the various things experienced by the race of Israel in its history are repeated in the church in the New Testament. At Pentecost, the church entered into the good land promised by God in Christ, but because of unbelief, the church later failed to enter into the blessing promised by God in Christ to enjoy His riches. After the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, the general condition of the church was one of being captured by the great Babylon of Romanism, forsaking the straight way of the truth and turning away from God to worship all kinds of idols (Rev. 17). In the centuries before the Reformation, there were some feeble revivals that could be considered as undercurrents of the Lord’s recovery. During the Reformation in Luther’s time, however, these undercurrents burst forth into a definite recovery, which was signified by the church in Sardis. Nevertheless, the recovery was still very weak in life and truth (3:1-2). It was strengthened by Zinzendorf and later by the Brethren, especially in the matter of truth, through their returning to the unique name of Christ apart from the divisive names of the denominations as signified by the church in Philadelphia. However, the church soon degraded into the lukewarm Laodicea. The Lord desires that His lovers would carry on with what was recovered through Luther, Zinzendorf, and the Brethren until His church, which has been divided, can have a full testimony of oneness for the organic building up of His Body.
The various aspects of the history of the chosen race of Israel can be divided generally into six stages: wandering, falling dead, crossing the Jordan River, entering into Canaan, being taken into captivity, and returning. The children of Israel had an evil heart of unbelief, believing neither in God nor in His promise. Hence, God swore in His wrath that none of the unbelieving generation would see the good land which He had sworn to give to their fathers. They and their children would wander in the wilderness forty years until all the fleshly Israelites were destroyed and had fallen dead in the wilderness. After a new generation of the children of Israel passed through forty years of trials and tests in the wilderness, God gave them renewed training through Moses so that they might be prepared and fit to inherit the promised good land as God’s blessing to them. Under the leadership of Joshua, they crossed the Jordan River by faith to enter into the good land of Canaan. They had to fight with the enemies who had usurped the land to take, possess, and enjoy the land of Canaan after entering into it. This fighting began with Joshua and lasted until David. During David’s reign, all the enemies in the land were fully subdued. Thus, the children of Israel were able to settle down and live in the good land, laboring on it and enjoying its rich produce for their rest and satisfaction, thereby bringing in the kingdom of God and the building up of the holy temple as God’s dwelling place.
Although the children of Israel established the kingdom of God and built the temple for God in the good land, they were unfaithful to God; the people and their kings forsook God and His word and turned to the worship of idols. Because of their lack of repentance, their nation fell, and they were taken into captivity until the days ordained by God for their punishment had been fulfilled. According to the word spoken by Jeremiah, God began to bring them back to the God-promised good land enjoyed by their fathers seventy years after their captivity. They rebuilt the temple on its original foundation, recovered their worship, service, and enjoyment of God, and rebuilt the holy city to restore the government of the kingdom. However, the kingship was never restored so that they had to govern themselves under the dominion of the nations.
In principle, the various things experienced by the race of Israel in its history are repeated in the church in the New Testament. At Pentecost, the church entered into the good land promised by God in Christ, but because of unbelief the church later failed to enter into the blessing promised by God in Christ to enjoy His riches. After the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, the general condition of the church was one of being captured by the great Babylon of Romanism, forsaking the straight way of the truth and turning away from God to worship all kinds of idols. During the Reformation in Luther’s time, a definite recovery came into existence, but intrinsically the recovery was still very weak in life and truth. It was strengthened by Zinzendorf and later by the Brethren, especially in the matter of truth, through their returning to the unique name of Christ apart from the divisive names of the denominations as signified by the church in Philadelphia. However, the church soon degraded into the lukewarm Laodicea. The Lord surely desires that His lovers would go on continually in His recovery until His church, which has been divided, can have a full testimony of oneness for the organic building up of His Body.
