Typology

“Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling the generation to come the praises of the Lord, His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done.” (Psalm 78:1-4).

When God speaks naturally, His words carry so much weight in them that it takes time to grasp all He is saying to us thoroughly. The Bible is full of parables, and one of those is what we call Typology. Typology is the study and interpretation of types and symbols. It means looking at the deeper or spiritual meaning of things written in the Bible. For example, Jesus told the disciples to be wary of the doctrines of the Pharisees (Matt 16:6), but they were thinking of bread when Jesus meant teachings. Leaven is a substance, typically yeast, used in dough to make it rise. So, the disciples were right in thinking of bread. We can make fun of them, but we are worse off because we have the same mindset. There are many exciting things in the Bible, and no one is an expert to know all of them.

During the lockdown in 2020, I spent more time studying the Scriptures, and I was so amazed that the Bible has a lot more to teach on types and shadows than I thought. I can tell you honestly that the Bible is better than you will ever know and discover. It is an inexhaustible book full of wisdom, and therefore not studying it is of significant disadvantage to us.

Jesus is concealed in the Old Testament but revealed in the New. We must go back to the Old Testament to know more about Him. Today, churches do not encourage people to study the Old because they claim the New is better, but the Scriptures don’t support this view. “Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’” (Heb 10:7). This verse tells us that so many things are written about the Lord. Remember, this verse was quoted from Psalms 40:7. There are incredible things written about Jesus in the Old, and through the lives of others, we can see Him in the picture. God would be telling people to do certain things because those represented how Jesus would live His life on earth. For example, God told Moses to put a brazen serpent on a pole so that anyone who looked at it would be saved from a snake bite. (Numbers 21). Symbolically, God was telling Moses about how Jesus would be hung on a pole for our salvation. Doing things the way one wanted often led to their destruction because the Father will not allow anyone to taint the image of the Son. After all, Jesus is the image of the invisible God. (Col 1 1:15).

“Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45). We must know that the New Testament was not written, but Philip was able to know that Jesus was the Messiah using the Torah. If you read the Old but cannot identify Jesus, you are not studying your Bible well. When you check the Pentateuch, you must see Jesus in them. Philip said he had found the One that Moses wrote in the Law. When you read Genesis to Deuteronomy, you must see Jesus in them. This also teaches us that Jesus existed before His incarnation. Philip also mentions “Prophets.” These consist of both the major and minor prophets. Philip told Nathanael that he had found Jesus; the One that all the saints wrote about; Jesus of Nazareth. The entire books of the Bible point to our Saviour.

Philip discovered the Messiah using the Old Testament. Can you do the same? We now have the New Testament and still struggle to know the Messiah. In Typology, I want us to spend more time in the Old to appreciate the New. We are familiar with many stories in the Bible, but we don’t know they pointed to Jesus. Can you look at the Old Testament and see Jesus there?

Jesus Said the Old Testament Is About Him.

• “Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27).
• “Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:44).
• “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39).
• If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” (John 5:46).

I will look at the lives of various people in the Bible, what they did and how Jesus is hidden in their lives. These things are critical because they make the Bible even more impressive for us to fall in love. We will also appreciate God’s eternal plan for humanity when studying Types and Shadows. For example, Pharoah had a dream that did not make sense. Through Joseph, he understood it, and everything made so much meaning to him. When we read the Bible, certain things do not make sense to us, but looking at them in types and shadows overwhelms and brings the Scriptures to life.

As you go through these, I hope you see something new with even the familiar stories in the Bible.