THE KEY TO THE BIBLE, STUDENT - 4th SESSION
GET ACQUAINTED - Relate the story of your
conversion or tell about your family/church background.
What insights
did you bring to share?
Types, representations, images,
shadows, forshadowings, parallels, patterns, figures,
signs, and symbols depict, picture, outline, prefigure, point to, or render
some semblance or clue to the reality (ie., antitype). They
are not themselves the reality and there are more representations than those specifically
identified as such in the N.T. They
serve to condition our thinking and instill certain concepts so we will
recognize the truth when it is revealed.
[see apdx.B] Thus the Old
Testament is the historical foreshadowing of the future reality. It builds a conceptual framework that
provides the categories for comprehending the ways of God and the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
For examples
of the New Testament (Gospel) interpretation of the Old Testament, look at the
following passages and list the promises given to Abram.
Gen.12:2-3,
7-8; 17:4-8
How are the
promises expanded or clarified in the N.T.?
Rom.4:13
Gal.3:16
Gal.3:29
The historical narrative of
the Bible is not merely a succession of events from which we draw moral lessons
or a convenient cache out of which we extract principles or illustrations of
the Christian life. Biblical history
gives us a frame of reference to understand God’s purposes and spiritual
nature of reality. The whole Bible
presents itself as the unfolding process of God's dealings with man and of His
self-disclosure to man. Revelation is
progressive. The history of redemption
is incomplete without the New Testament, because the New Testament clarifies
the typology and transforms the Old Testament imagery by the Gospel. For example, deliverance effected by a judge,
king, or other means is a redemptive event (prefigures
redemption). The Old Testament
progression of revelation toward fulfillment in the New means that the whole
Bible is properly understood only in light of the Christ of the Gospel.
Example of Typology of a Redemptive
Event
in Contrast to Subjective (Allegorical) Interpretation:
Read Joshua 2:1-21; 6:22-25
One well-worn line of interpretation focuses on the redness
of Rahab's cord (2:18) as a type of the
blood of Christ. The focus and only
connection are merely the redness of each.
But the conquest of
Identify 2
redemptive events from the Old Testament other than Rahab
and the exodus. Notice that each is
accompanied by judgment.
CHRISTOPHANIES
·
A
Theophany
is the manifestation of God to people in some visible form
such as a pillar of
fire or cloud (Ex.13). A Christophany is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ in a
human form. Christophanies
reveal significant truths about God and his purpose for his people. The most common appearances are identified as
"the Angel of the Lord." The
word translated "angel" literally means "messenger". This angel possesses divine attributes,
performs divine works, and is even referred to as "God," while at the
same time is distinct from God. Christophanies helped prepare the way for the incarnation
by creating a mindset that anticipated the visible manifestation of God in the
messianic work of prophet, priest and king.
Read Gen.16:7-13; Gen.18; Gen.21:14-20. What things do you see that only God can be
and do (characterize divine perfections and works)?
·
List some other designations or titles
of Christ in the O.T.
Zech.3:8-10
Ps.2:6-7
Isa.52:13-15
Isa.53:11
Ezek.34:23-24
·
List some of the N.T. designations of
Christ pointing back to the O.T.
Rev.22:16
THE OFFICES OF CHRIST
Since the fall of Man and his consequent
separation from God, mankind has needed a mediator
between himself and God. A mediator stands between 2 parties who
are at odds as an intermediary to resolve the conflict, bring reconciliation,
and peace. In Old Testament times there
were three classes of public service that filled this need - prophets, priests,
and kings. They were consecrated
[definition?] to their offices by an anointing oil (1Ki.19:16b; Ex.28:41; 1 Ki.1:34).
Since all human instruments come short and fail, God planned from the
beginning to provide the perfect prophet, priest, and king. This expectation among the Jews was the basis
for the idea of a coming Messiah. The
words "Messiah" (Hebrew) and "Christ" (Greek) mean anointed one.
Look up the following verses and write your observations.
A. Prophet - The Old Testament prophets were
called to be channels of revelation. They spoke to men in behalf of God. The preeminent prophet was Moses, who
mediated the covenant between God and His people, the Israelites.
Dt.18:15-19
Jn.8:28
Jn.17:8
Heb.1:1-2
B. Priest - Priests were the mediators
between God and men. After the
construction of the tabernacle they spoke to God on behalf of men through
sacrifices, offerings, and intercessory prayer.
1 Tim.2:4-5
Heb.4:14-16
Heb.6:20-7:3
Heb. 6:20-7:3
Heb. 7:24-25
C. King - The role of the king was to act
in the name of God, ruling righteously for the welfare of the people. He was both protector and judge. In many ways King David's life typified that of
his greater Son, Jesus Christ.
Lk.1:32-33
Eph.1:20-22
What
captured your attention in this lesson?
FURTHER STUDY
Look up the following
passages Theme: redemption in
Christ before creation
2 Tim.1:8-10
Heb.1:1-3
Eph.1:3-10
1 Pt.1:18-21
Tit.1:1-2
APPENDIX - B
Chap.2 of
RPCD http://pop.eradman.com/
OLD TESTAMENT SHADOWS
WERE MYSTERIES
INTENDED
TO FORESHADOW REALITIES CLEARLY PICTURED IN OUR DAY
God has spoken and dealt
with mankind in such a way as to both hide and reveal unseen realities.3
“Why do you speak to them in parables?…Because it has been
given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to
them it has not been given…All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in
parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘I will open my mouth in
parables: I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the
world’.” (excerpts from Mt.13)
That
God spoke with special clarity to Moses was an exception (Num.12:8) to
the way He usually communicated with the prophets (Num.12:6). The prophets themselves had a difficult time
grasping even the most basic things (1 Pt.1:10-11). What does the New Testament do with Old
Testament history, characters, structures, practices, events, and
prophecies? Hebrews 1 begins, “…but
in these last days [our day] God sent a messenger not like the others
(prophets, v.2), but one who radiates His glory and exactly represents
His reality (v.3). He is the very
image [“icon”,
an exact picture as opposed to a likeness or a sketch showing similarity] of THE INVISIBLE
GOD" (Col.1:15). The person who sees Jesus, is looking at the Father (Jn.14:7-11). Hebrews presses several arguments as to the superiority
of Christ, His position and accomplishments over other bearers of God's word
(angels, Moses, etc.) in order to contrast the many Old Covenant forms,
figures, shadows, and representative copies with the actual reality:4 Christ is seated with God in the heavens …
ministering in the true sanctuary of the actual tabernacle (Heb.8:1-2);
Priests “serve a shadow and copy of the heavenly things” (8:5);
Christ has entered into heaven itself - the true, not the copy (9:24); “the
law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form [icon, picture, image] of these realities” (10:1). (see No Little People,
by Francis Schaeffer, pg.107-122) The
physical structure of the earthly sanctuary and the furnishings, ordinances and
services of the first (Old) Covenant (Heb.9:1-7) were temporary and
symbolic (v.9) “until the time of reformation” (v.10). The true way into God’s presence was
not made known (v.8) until the New Covenant was established (v.15). Old Testament sacrifices were a pattern or
illustration of what Christ was to do IN FACT (Heb.9:23-24; 10:1).
The
Old Testament hid spiritual realities in the shadow form of its language, both in terminology
and in mixing them with immediate and distant circumstantial realities. Those Old Covenant institutions as a whole
were meant to establish lines of continuity between the Old Covenant
mysteries and New Covenant revelations [unveilings of those mysteries].5 The Bible reveals both the existence and the
details of unseen realities in types and images of various sorts.6 In
other words, the institutions, commands, laws and practices in the Old
Testament were clear and detailed in themselves, but were only shadowy
precursors of the realities they represented. For example,
Believers under the Old
Covenant had a sense of the realities underlying the knowledge they
received. Abraham set his hope on
dwelling with God (Heb.11:10), not the land he was wandering around in
or a particular city. He apprehended
more in God’s promises than
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3. P.148
Fairbairn.
4. One aspect of the
concept of the true involves the
real, actual, or genuine article as opposed to the type or designated
symbol or representative that never lived up to its calling. Jesus is the true vine, true branch, true
bread, true shepherd, true servant, true son, etc…the truth.
5. “…the antecedent
history of redemption” was “the prelude of redemption itself.” p.33 Fairbairn
6. See further the first
chapter of The Israel of God (yesterday, today, and tomorrow) by
O. Palmer Robertson entitled "The Israel of God: Its Land."
7. P.32 Fairbairn