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"THESE THINGS WERE OUR EXAMPLES" (1 Cor. 10:6):THE PLACE OF TYPES AND SHADOWS IN BIBLE STUDY

Bernard Burt

1 CORINTHIANS 10 shows us the principle of types and shadows, and how they can help us to live our lives in Christ, more clearly than any other chapter in the Word of God. It is evident that there was a large Jewish membership in the Corinthian ecclesia. [A consideration of Acts 18:8,17 and 1 Corinthians 1:1 shows that two successive chief rulers of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth were baptized as a result of Paul’s preaching in the city.] To these particularly Paul wrote: "all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (vv. 1,2). He penned these words with all the authority of a Spirit-gifted apostle (14:37), and he is drawing a multiple parallel between the events which befell Israel in the wilderness and the things which had happened to the members of the Corinthian ecclesia, as shown in the table.

The Scripture concept of a type

In his subsequent exposition Paul says that "these things were our examples", and "all these things happened unto them for ensamples" (10:6,11). The margin of the Oxford Bible gives "figures" as an alternative to "examples" in verse 6, and "types" as an alternative to "ensamples" in verse 11. In both cases the Greek word is tupos, from which we get the word ‘type’. Some of the places in the New Testament where this word occurs are:

"Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them... Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen" (Acts 7:43,44);

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12);

"In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity" (Tit. 2:7);

"... as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8:5).

Thus the basic meaning of the word as it is used by the Spirit is a pattern from which something else can be copied. It can be a physical pattern, such as an idol, or a moral pattern, as Timothy and Titus were exhorted to be. It can be a good pattern, worthy of copying, such as the tabernacle pattern which Moses saw in the mount, or it can be an evil pattern, such as Molech. The primary message of 1 Corinthians 10 is that Israel in the wilderness (with the notable exceptions of Joshua, Caleb and the Levites) was an evil pattern, a warning to us, an example to be eschewed rather than copied. The secondary message of 1 Corinthians 10 is that we should be looking at Scripture for these sorts of patterns, and that the study of them will be beneficial, both by warning us against evil and by positively exhorting us to more godly lives.

How Scripture uses types

In the brief consideration of 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 set out in the table above the apostle lists five aspects of the circumstances which befell Israel as being types. One fact which becomes immediately obvious from the list is that both Moses and the rock are types of the Lord Jesus Christ. [Such a dual type within one short section of Scripture may help us with other difficult sections of Scripture such as Revelation 5:7, where the Lamb and the one sitting on the throne both represent Jesus in the symbology of the chapter.] There should be no difficulty with this; in fact, there are many things in the Mosaic system which point forward to Jesus in this way. Jesus is

• our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7)
• our High Priest (Heb. 5)
• our altar (Heb. 13:10)
• our sacrifice (Heb. 9)
• our mediator (Heb. 8:6; 12:24)
• the veil of our tabernacle (Heb. 10:20).

The way in which Scripture sometimes picks out just one detail from a previous record and teaches us its typical significance is also important in our seeking to understand how to study types. For example, in Matthew 12 Jesus sees such a significance in one aspect of the life of Jonah: "for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (v. 40). Why was Jonah swallowed by the whale (or great fish)? The clear answer from the context in the book of Jonah is, Because he had disobeyed God; but Jesus was never disobedient: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mt. 3:17). The Spirit is not telling us that all the events in Jonah chapters 1 and 2 point forward to the work of Jesus. [However, although Jonah’s disobedient attitude is clearly not typical of that of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a useful exercise to look up all the marginal references to the Psalms in the prayer of Jonah in chapter 2 and see how many Messianic psalms he quoted as he sank down to the bottom of the sea before the fish swallowed him. Here is a man with a great appreciation of the saving work of God and of the wonderful deliverance to come through the life of Messiah.] Its view of types is narrow; only those details which truly prefigure the work of Jesus (or whatever the type may be a pattern of) are selected, the rest are ignored.

Jesus’s understanding and use of types

Jesus’s reference to the experience of Jonah has already been noted. What other types of himself did he see? If Paul knew that Israel passing through the Red Sea was a type of baptism, then surely Jesus would also recognise this. What followed the ‘baptism’ of Israel and the baptism of Jesus? In each case there was a leading into an experience of testing "in the wilderness" (Deut. 8:2; Mt. 4:1). This took forty years in the case of Israel and forty days for Jesus. Both Israel and Jesus hungered (Ex. 16:3; Mt. 4:2), and angels ministered to the needs of each (Ps. 78:25; Mt. 4:11).

In his wilderness experience, which he saw as typified by that of Israel, to what scriptures did Jesus turn? "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (v. 4); he quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, the context of which (in the type) was teaching him that his Father had led him into the wilderness, to humble him, to prove him, and to know what was in his heart, whether he would keep God’s commandments or not (v. 2). This would focus his mind on the spiritual purpose of his trials and therefore help him to overcome where Israel had failed. A ‘negative lesson’ (that is, do not behave as they did) can therefore be beneficial if we meditate on it in the right way.

The Garden of Gethsemane

Some types are clearly marked out in Scripture, others need searching for. We must develop a mind which is always asking questions about the Word of God. Why did Jesus go to the Garden of Gethsemane for his last agony of temptation? It was not the first time Jesus had taken his disciples to that spot, for John records that "Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples" (18:2). The context in verse 1 tells us that to get to the garden they had to go "over the brook Cedron". Where else in Scripture does that phrase occur?

The answer is 2 Samuel 15:23, where David is leaving Jerusalem with his servants because of the rebellion of Absalom. It is clear that Jesus saw this event as typical of what was coming to pass in his life, for a short while before, in the upper room (Jno. 13:18), he had quoted, "He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel [Genesis 3:15—there is a type within a type here. Did Judas think that Jesus was the serpent’s seed, and that he was doing the nation good by ‘stamping upon’ him?] against me", from Psalm 41:9, where the original subject is Ahithophel, David’s wise counsellor who turned traitor and went after Absalom. [The reason is that David had committed adultery with his beautiful granddaughter Bathsheba and murdered his valiant and godly grandson-in-law Uriah.]

Now one of the major blows that fell upon David at that time occurred as he "went up by the ascent of mount Olivet", as he passed through the site of the Garden of Gethsemane: "And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom" (2 Sam. 15:30,31). It was to this very spot, 1,000 years later, that Jesus went with his disciples to await the arrival of his Ahithophel, Judas Iscariot. He must have meditated on the circumstances of his forefather David in his time of trial, and on all the psalms which David wrote in his grief at that time. Again, these things would have been a real and positive help to him as he battled against temptation in the garden.

Daniel and Christ

Sometimes there is just one detail in a chapter in the Old Testament which rings a bell in the mind and directs attention to a typical fulfilment in the New. Many years ago the writer noticed a marginal reference against Daniel 6:17. The verse reads: "And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel". The reference given was to Matthew 27:60-66: "and he [Joseph of Arimathea] rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre... So they [the officers of the high priest] went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch". That reference led to a study [See The Testimony, Sept. 1968, p. 334] which showed about twenty-five links between the experience of Daniel, as recorded in the sixth chapter of the prophecy, and the things which befell the Lord Jesus Christ. Further study over the years has expanded the list to more than forty links.

Did the types themselves understand?

The presence of so many detailed types in the record leads on to the question, Did men such as David and Daniel realise at the time that the things which befell them were typical of things which would come in the life of their Messiah? An impossible question to answer? No! Stephen, in Acts 7, cites the experience of Moses in being rejected by his brethren as typical of the rejection of Jesus by the Jews of his day, and the inspired writer to the Hebrews makes the following profound comment on the attitude of Moses at that time: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ [the Christ, RV mg.] greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward" (Heb. 11:24-26). The clear implication of this passage is that Moses understood that Messiah would have the opportunity of enjoying the pleasures of this world ["All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me" (Mt. 4:9)] and would reject them, only to be himself rejected by his people; and he understood that the time of trial through which he was passing was typical of that which would come upon his saviour!

David knew that the sacrifices under the Law were not what God really wanted: "For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:16, 17). He knew that, through the experiences which were being brought upon him, his spirit was being broken and his heart made contrite. He knew that, in Messiah’s suffering for iniquity, God would chasten him with the rod of men and the stripes of the children of men. So, when he penned such scriptures as Psalm 22, he would doubtless see in his own sufferings for his sin a pattern of the sufferings of his greater Son for the sins of many.

Moral lessons for us

Returning now to where we began in 1 Corinthians 10, in these verses Paul exhorted our first-century brethren as follows through the type of Israel in the wilderness:

1 Not to be idolators (v. 7)

Israel should have been waiting for their Saviour, Moses, to return from the presence of God to take them into God’s kingdom. Instead their minds turned back to the world from which they had been separated by their ‘baptism’. So they made the golden calf, sacrificed to it and "sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play" (Ex. 32:6) naked (v. 25). What had gone wrong? The answer is very simple—they had lost their vision of the kingdom: "Where there is no vision, the people is made naked" (Prov. 29:18, mg.). Do not be like them, says Paul.

2 Not to commit fornication (v. 8)

Israel were on the very border of the land, just about to enter the kingdom, when, at the counsel of Balaam (Rev. 2:14), the local women came and invited them to feast with them. So in the midst of the camp, in the midst of the ecclesia (Acts 7:38, Gk.), there was erected a place of curse (Num. 25:8, Heb.) where fornication was committed. Everyone who went there died in the plague, and all of those who maintained their separation lived (Deut. 4:3,4). The lessons for us are twofold: the first, via 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, is that we must keep our bodies pure; the second, via Revelation 17:3-6 and 18:3,4, is that we must keep separate from all forms of Catholic and Protestant religious harlotry. Either of these declensions will put our salvation in jeopardy.

There are two other examples in 1 Corinthians 10:9,10 which can be worked out into lessons and warnings for the present generation (see exercise, "Practical Lessons and Principles"). We should be able to see, in the lives of both faithful and unfaithful people in Bible times, types and patterns from which we can learn. We have the records of what they did and said, and we have the Divine verdict upon them. If we can see similarities in our lives then we can also see what the Divine verdict will be upon us.

Nothing could be more comprehensive than Paul’s declaration in Romans 15:4 that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning". Yet this follows directly on the citation of an Old Testament prophecy concerning Christ: "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on me". Even this, Paul dares to assert (but only by "the grace of the Holy Spirit which was given him"; 12:3), was written for the edification of the saints rather than of Christ himself! More than this, a consideration of the context shows that in this section of his epistle Paul was addressing himself to Gentile converts, exhorting them to a wholesome considerate attitude towards the ingrained religious prejudices of their Jewish fellow-believers. It was for their learning that these Messianic Scriptures were written, that they "through the comfort [exhortation] of the Scriptures might have the hope [of Israel]"; cp. 15:12, RV.

H. A. Whittaker, Enjoying the Bible