Types and the church

… Hallo. Nice to be with you. My subject is the use of Old Testament times. How long have I got? Till when? Ten minutes? Oh, sorry. Okay. Okay, and I've pressed enter? You need to make a start to proceed. And I think if you stand somewhere like here, People over there can see me. Okay, that's a good thing. Could we just read, first of all, from Luke 24, the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And I'd just like to refer to that as we go through this topic now and again. 24, beginning at verse 13. And it goes on to say, And it goes on to say, And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre. And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found it, even so as the women had said. But him they saw not. And he said unto them, O fools, or foolish, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expanded unto them in all the scriptures things concerning himself. If we could just go to verse 31. The Lord broke the bread, gave it to them. It says, And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? And then if we could just drop down to verse 44. And Jesus said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. I've just read that because I'd like to refer to it as we go through the topic. But the fact is the Lord appealed to all the Old Testament scriptures, the law of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms. Now a great bulk, we might say, of those scriptures are not direct prophecies at all. They're narratives of what happened to Israel, of how God dealt with his people. Genesis, we get much narrative which is historical, inspired historical account. But the Lord appealed to all these things. And so he was appealing to what we call types or figures. And he was using them to illustrate to these disciples the truth concerning himself. And that is a very wide field. It wasn't simply that he was talking about himself personally, no doubt he was. But he was talking about the things concerning himself. And that would touch upon his dealing with Israel and also his assembly, that which concerns himself so deeply, his church. And all this he was taking from the Old Testament scriptures in order to show them the truth. And until he did this, their eyes, they were shut. They didn't understand these things until the Lord himself enlightened them regarding them. Now, perhaps we should first of all look at this subject in a general way and then go into more specific detail in applying the types later in the latter half of the talk. But we might ask, what is a type exactly? We've got a definition here. A type gives a figurative illustration of something that goes beyond its own literal meaning. Now, what does that mean? Well, for instance, the Ark of the Covenant. Literally, it is simply a box made of acacia wood covered in pure gold. That's what it is literally. But as a figure, it represents the Lord Jesus in his manhood, the wood, all the lowliness of his manhood, and in the glory of his deity. But the type is a very detailed one. And in the wood, the acacia wood, which is sometimes called incorruptible wood, we get the moral glory of his humanity. And then the Ark has a place within a narrative. And the whole narrative of the tabernacle then becomes a figure of which the Ark is part of. And so we see how figures communicate the truth in as much as they illustrate doctrine and they illustrate principles of doctrine. We wouldn't go to a type to learn about something initially. The doctrine would be clearly taught us from the Word of God. But then we would find that the type would illustrate that and help us to understand it more clearly. And principles which we read of in an abstract way, not applied, simply stated, in the figures, in the types, we can see them applied in a practical way. And that helps us to understand them more clearly. Because it's often difficult to understand something which is simply told us, but not actually applied. It's more difficult for us to understand truth in the abstract, perhaps, than applied truth. And in the types, we find them applied. Now, what authority do we have for thinking that these literal Old Testament narratives can be interpreted in a figurative way? The New Testament refers to types frequently and in different ways. We have in Hebrews 9.25, the type is referred to as a figure. Perhaps we could just turn to Hebrews 9.24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. So there we get the thought of the tabernacle. And the high priest would enter into the holy place once a year, and that would set forth a figure of the real thing. The tabernacle is a figure, but it speaks of the real thing. And the real thing is the Lord himself, our great high priest, entering into heaven. So we see that the writer of the Hebrews uses the Old Testament figures to illustrate truth which he's bringing out, doctrine which he's bringing out, and enabling us to understand. …