Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
Preface
Though many are inclined to look with disfavor on any attempt at setting forth the Scripture types and their meaning because of the extravagances of some interpreters of the past, yet the fact remains that these types occupy a considerable place in God's Word and certainly were placed there for our instruction. In these are foreshadowed the grandest truths that ever entered into man's mind.
An endeavor is made in the following pages to describe the types sufficiently to give a proper basis for showing their antitypical meaning. The aim is to present these Biblical types and their meaning in a practical manner so that the average reader will be able to understand them. This work does not profess to be exhaustive. Its brevity excludes a detailed description of all the types with the various technical points related to them. Neither is it possible in the narrow limits of this volume to give a lengthy discussion of the various Christian truths typified. It is assumed that the reader is not entirely unacquainted with the Bible.
But though the first aim is a popular treatment of typology, yet the subject is presented systematically and with a degree of fullness and reference that will, it is hoped, make it of value to the student of typology as a textbook.
Less interest in Scripture types has been manifested in recent years than formerly, probably partly because of the influence of the modern religious liberalism that denies the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch and the prophetic element of Scripture. But every devout heart who gives careful thought to these "shadows of good things" can not fail to be strongly convicted of the fact that there is One who sees the end from the beginning and who in giving these adumbrations of glorious Christian truth proved [3] once for all the existence of God, the divinity of Christ, and the divine origin of the Bible and of the religion it sets forth.
I have derived assistance from a number of writers on this subject, also from various commentaries and religious encyclopedias. Of the former I acknowledge special indebtedness to Fairbairn's great classic on the "Typology of Scriptures," also to Dr. Moorehead's "Mosaic Institutions," though I have often felt obliged to vary widely from their interpretation of types. I especially desire to acknowledge the gracious assistance of the Spirit of God, whose illuminating influence I have very definitely recognized several times while writing when under his divine enlightenment new beauties shone forth that I had never before recognized. I sincerely trust that the same blessed Spirit will make the perusal of these pages profitable to the reader.
Anderson, Ind., July 1, 1922.
Russell R. Byrum.
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER I
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MOSES
The gladdest message ever proclaimed to a world of sinners, w a s t h e angel's announcement on Bethlehem's plains that a Savior is born. But the angel's proclamation on that wonderful night was not the first time the glad tidings of salvation had been preached. Centuries before God's holy seers with prophetic eye had foreseen in the dim future, beyond the miseries of many generations, the coming of Christ and his great salvation. Not the least of these was Moses.
We often speak of the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and sometimes we call Isaiah the "evangelical prophet," but too often we pass by the "gospel according to Moses." Yet according to the true meaning of the term "gospel," Moses wrote it as truly as did any of the four evangelists of our New Testament. The gospel is the proclamation of a way of salvation for sinners, the announcement of grace to the guilty, of Christ's love for the lost. Matthew wrote the gospel by relating the life story of Jesus. But Moses wrote it at greater length, more systematically and in greater detail in types and shadows. Moses' writings are as much about Jesus and his salvation as are those of the four New Testament evangelists.
Moses sets forth the same great fundamental facts of true religion as are given in the New Testament. He continually holds before us under various symbols—by veils that bar the sinner from God's holy presence, by the sprinklings of blood for cleansing, and by different representations of ceremonial uncleanness—the awful fact of man's [7] sinfulness and depravity. He also vividly sets forth the glorious truth of salvation by God's free favor through the vicarious death of Christ, under the type of the sprinkling of the blood of animals on God's altars.
Mosaic Rites Were Typical
Those who see nothing more in the elaborate ceremonies at the tabernacle of ancient Israel than an expression of natural religion or meaningless forms with no significance for us today, will doubtless find but little interest in reading that portion of Scripture which so minutely describes them. Alone it will be dull and uninteresting. But when it is read in the light of the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the New Testament, it sparkles throughout with dazzling gems of truth.
Our authority for believing in the typical element of the Pentateuch is no less than Jesus and Paul, the Son of God and his greatest apostle. Jesus himself said: "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me" (John 5:46); "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matt. 5:17). And to the two sorrowful disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, . . . expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). And shortly after, when he appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem, Jesus said, "All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44). Jesus was able to preach the gospel from the writings of Moses. He positively stated that he is the center of all the Scriptures, including those of Moses. He is their alpha and omega— their beginning and end. Paul also commonly taught the gospel according to Moses. When he arrived at Rome and the Jews came to him, he "expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets, from morning till evening" (Acts 28 :23).
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We may get a good idea of what these great exponents of Christianity taught from the law of Moses in the interpretation placed upon it by the inspired writer to the Hebrews, and in other more specific statements of Paul. The great apostle says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2:16, 17). This important statement is very definite and clear, and is conclusive proof that the Mosaic rites, those outward forms of religion, were typical. They were a shadow, or, as the original word, skia, implies, an adumbration, a faint sketch, a dim transitory outline of a real substance to come, which is said to be Christ.
Fully as definite and in much greater measure are the many positive statements in the Hebrew letter. The priests of the tabernacle are said to "serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, 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 shown to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8:5). Here the tabernacle and all connected with its worship are said to be an "example," or, according to the American Revised reading, a "copy," a "shadow," and a "pattern" or type. The inspired writer is here definitely arguing to convince his Jewish brethren that all that ancient worship of theirs was typical and that Jesus is the great Priest "of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:2).
In the ninth verse of the ninth chapter it is said of the first tabernacle, "Which was a figure for the time then present.... But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building." The original word here, parabole, from which we translate "figure,' is that from which we commonly get "parable." The twenty third and twenty fourth verses are especially definite in showing that ancient worship was typical. "It was therefore necessary that the patterns [ copies. A. S. V ] [9] of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures [pattern, A. S. V.] of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." And again this same writer reiterates in the beginning of the tenth chapter, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
Doubtless the texts already cited sufficiently p r o v e the typical element in the Mosaic institutions; but a good foundation is important, and inasmuch as our future argument is to rest largely upon these Bible statements of this fact and for the sake of cautious or skeptical persons we shall call attention to one other Biblical proof. The first given and one of the greatest of all the Mosaic institutions was the Passover. Paul plainly shows the typical nature of this in these words, "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7).
If it were necessary, many other proofs of this point could be given; but these are evidence that the good things of Christ's salvation were portrayed in the Old Testament types. These types all pointed forward to Christ and his salvation, to the Priest greater than Aaron, the Prophet like unto Moses, the true King of Israel.
Types Deserve Our Study
A considerable portion of the Bible, especially Exodus, Leviticus, and Hebrews, is devoted to the subject of types. This is just as much a part of God's Word as is any other part of the Bible. But this, and especially the books of Leviticus, is about as little read as any part of the Bible. The grand truths taught there deserve more earnest attention than most Christians give them. God doubtless means that we should explore its deep truth that we may the [10] better understand the way of salvation. Probably in no part of the Bible is the method of salvation so systematically and vividly set forth as here.
God has been pleased to reveal his salvation in various forms: John presents it in letters of love; while Paul sets it forth in profoundest logic. The evangelists describe it in historical form by simply relating the facts of that greatest life earth has ever known. Prophets tell it in poetry; and the Psalmist utters it in song. The Revelator takes us up into heaven and pictures mysterious visional symbols; and Moses by an extensive series of material symbols or practical hieroglyphs depicts the same great truths.
But why study types and shadows when we have the substance? Were not these things written for generations long dead, and not for us? A New Testament writer answers, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime w e r e written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope." The implication here is clear that these things were not only intended for us, but that we can understand and learn from them. Also types give a more vivid presentation of truth very much as do the parables of Jesus. Illustrations are important in God's message to give interest and force to it. The human mind is so constituted that it gets a clearer understanding of truth if presented in a concrete rather than in an abstract form. For this reason Bunyan's allegory, Pilgrim's Progress, is one of the most enlightening and useful religious books that have ever been published.
Another very important reason for our being familiar with Old Testament types is that they furnish us much of the background of the New Testament phraseology, expressions so familiar to us but which would be quite unintelligible except for their Old Testament usage in connection with the types. Examples of these are "the Lamb of God," "washed us in his own blood," "the blood of sprinkling," "the washing of regeneration."
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER II
NATURE AND INTERPRETATION OF TYPES
Among all nations, especially in the earlier stages of their civilization, abstract thoughts and ideas have been represented by material symbols, either actions or objects. Such symbols have been especially common in their religion. Their worship of material objects in nature or of images began by their using them as symbols of the spiritual deity. So likewise their forms and means of worship, including sacrifices, were symbolic to a considerable degree. The religion of ancient Israel, as described in the Old Testament, contained much of this symbolic element; but these symbols differ from those of the ethnic religions in that they were divinely given and therefore were of a much higher order both in nature and in purpose.
Classes of Bible Symbols.—Clearness in thought requires that we distinguish between various classes of symbols and types. The Scriptures contain two main classes of symbols, ( 1 ) visional and ( 2 ) material. Visional symbols are such as never have had nor ever will have any real existence, but are merely presented to the mind of the seer, or are seen in vision by him. Many such symbols are described in various parts of the Bible, and such books as Daniel and Ezekiel, and especially the Apocalypse, are largely given to them. Particular examples are the kine and ears of corn of Pharaoh's dream, the four great beasts of Daniel 7, and the great red dragon of Revelation 12.
Material symbols are as truly symbolic as are visional, and rest on the same basic principle as to their symbolic nature and interpretation. But these have a real material existence, and these, too, are divinely ordained as symbols. Examples of these are the tabernacle, the sacrifices, the Sabbath, and Melchisedec. They are found principally in the writings of Moses. [12]
Two classes of material symbols, or types, are also to be distinguished, (1) ritual and (2) historical. Ritual types are those which have to do with the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic worship, such as the tabernacle, sacrifices, priesthood, and feasts. The historical types are those persons, things, places, and events which are of a typical nature, as the brazen serpent, or the land of Canaan.
Nature of Types
A knowledge of the essential nature of types is important to our knowing what are types and what are not. Too often for lack of a clear definition of what constitutes a type things have been called types which are referred to by New Testament writers only as illustrations, or which are merely similar in some particular but yet not typical.
In defining types we are dealing with the subject of Old Testament types and not the Scriptural usage of the particular word, for, as we use the English word in a variety of meanings, so the Greek word tupos has various uses. A type may be described as a divinely appointed institution or action to represent a religious truth and to fore show, by resemblance, those facts in the work of Christ on which the truth symbolized rests.
A Type Resembles the Antitype.—The first great basic law of typology is the element of resemblance or analogy between type and antitype. Not only is there an analogy between the type and the truth prefigured, but also between the type and the truth symbolized to them to whom the type is given. A certain proper parallel is maintained between the type and that which is represented. Spiritual good things are represented by material good things and spiritually impure things by material impurity. So leprosy, a loathsome disease, is made to represent sin. Also leaven, a form of fermentation or decaying vegetable matter, is made a type of sin. Likewise the priest must wash his body clean with water before he can enter into the house of God, to signify the moral cleansing from sin needed to enter God's holy presence. [13]
But identical similarity is not required in a type. In such a case the type would not be a type but the thing itself to be represented. There must be in a type, not only similitude, but also disparity in some phases. Types do not agree with their antitypes in every point. This brings us to another important fact in the nature of types—only institutions or actions, using the terms broadly, are types, never persons, or things as such. Not the lamb with the flock in the field, but the lamb bleeding on God's altar is a type of the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The ram in fierce struggle with another of its kind does not typify Christ the sin bearer, but when it is led to God's altar, the hand of the offerer is laid upon it, and its life blood flows out in sacrificial offering it becomes a type of the true sacrifice for sin. Melchisedec as a man of ancient Salem does not typify Christ, but he does as "priest of the most high God." The manna regarded as a natural phenomenon is not typical of Christ, the bread of life; but as a divinely provided means of feeding God's people it is a type.
We are aware that this principle excludes many persons and things, as such, that have been considered typical, but it is according to both the Scriptures and reason. Many of these persons and things, however, because of their typical offices, actions, or uses are types in this connection.
A Type Is Divinely Preordained As Such.—A second important element in the nature of a type is its divine appointment. It is not sufficient that some institution or action already past be taken to represent things yet future, but the type itself must be preordained to represent that truth in the more distant future. Marsh has well said: "To constitute one thing the type of another, something more is wanted than mere resemblance. The former must not only resemble the latter, but must have been designed to resemble the latter. It must have been so designed in its original institution. It must have been designed as something preparatory to the latter. The type as well as the antitype must have been preordained; and they must have been preordained as constituent parts of the same general scheme [14] of Divine Providence. It is this previous design and the preordained connection which constitutes the relation of type and antitype." Those who disregard this important point of divine preordination and make mere resemblance alone their criterion for determining what are types in the Old Testament will go far astray, as have gone certain interpreters of the past.
A Type Both Symbolizes and Predicts.—The third characteristic of types is that they both show and foreshow. They primarily symbolize religious truths of the dispensation in which they are given, but they secondarily predict important facts of the future on which the truths symbolized rest. Thus they possess a twofold character. The dying lamb at God's altar was symbolic of the great truth that the sin of the offerer could be forgiven only on the ground of vicarious suffering, and it typified or predicted the more glorious fact of Christ's vicarious suffering to atone for men's sins. A type, then, is first a symbol of a general religious truth already revealed, and secondly a prediction of that same truth as it is related to Christ's work of redemption. God first asks men to believe "the truth" and next to believe that same truth as it is "in Jesus."
Thus we find that those more elementary truths symbolized by the type must agree with and rest upon the facts of the antitype. This is what constitutes them types. This is the relation between the old covenant and the new. The type was conformed to the antitype, not the antitype to the type. The devout, spiritual minded Israelite who came to God's altar with a load of sin doubtless often recognized that the blood of the mere animal was insufficient to atone for his sins and would probably see dimly by faith the true offering for sin. However, of a type it must not be supposed that those to whom it was given should always recognize the predictive element. Probably it was enough that they saw the general truth represented. Doubtless these things were written principally "for our learning," especially as to the predictive element.
To the ancient Israelite the symbolic element in the type was of primary importance, but to us the predictive [15] element has more especial value. In this respect a type is a prophetic similitude, or an acted prophecy. It is as truly prophetic as is a word prophecy, and had equal value with word prophecy, in directing the faith of the Old Testament saints to the coming salvation, and has also as a means of instruction and as Christian evidence for us today. In the one class a word is made to describe a future idea or fact, and in the other an institute or an act in some respect analogous to that future idea or fact is used to foreshow it. Of the two classes the acted prophecy is probably more forceful and represents more details, especially to those who behold it, than does the word prophecy. In the fifty third chapter of Isaiah is given a word prophecy vividly portraying the vicarious suffering of Christ. At the altar of God's house the same great truths were daily predicted both morning and evening in the harmless, innocent lamb, its substitutionary death for another, and the sprinkling of its blood before God.
Interpretation of Types
As we have described the characteristics of types heretofore for the purpose of aiding in determining what institutes and acts are types, so now our object is to call attention to those principles which will enable us properly to interpret those things found to be typical; for error in interpreting is probably as common as is the mistake of ascribing a typical character to those things which are not types.
It is well to remember, however, in our consideration of principles of typology, that we are by no means dependent upon the principles we may describe. These are needed only where the Bible is silent or not explicit either as to the fact or the interpretation of a particular type. God has been pleased in his infinite wisdom to give us by his inspired penmen definite information that certain things are types and of what they are typical. The tabernacle and all its rites are described in a single verse (Heb. 8:5) as being typical. It is from these examples of interpretation of types by the Divine Spirit that we get our principles of typology. [16]
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER II
NATURE AND INTERPRETATION OF TYPES
The Difficulties of Typology.—In endeavoring to interpret Old Testament types we are not unaware of the abuses of the subject and extremes to which typical interpretation has been carried in the past. This immoderation of the past is probably the cause of the present neglect of the subject among Christians. There is a general skepticism concerning types. Much of what is written on the subject consists of warnings against improper interpretations. The dangers of error have been allowed to eclipse almost entirely the fact that these constitute an important part of God's Holy Word and are given for our instruction. We might also be skeptical about the interpretation of other portions of the Bible, because there has been error in a greater or less measure in interpreting all phases of it in the past. Is it not better that instead of saying with the agnostics, "We do not know and it can not be known," that we do as with other portions of the Bible—learn by the errors of our predecessors, avoid their extremes, and learn what is knowable about the subject even if we can not understand everything about it?
The antenicene Greek church fathers were much given to finding a typical meaning in every part of the Bible. This was especially true of the learned Origen. He held a plain or literal sense of all Scripture and also an allegorical, typical, or spiritual interpretation. He held at least a twofold, and some have supposed a fourfold, meaning of all parts of the Bible. This method of interpreting the Bible was so destructive to certain knowledge of truth that it led to a revolt from that method by Luther and other reformers who always strongly held for a single plain sense.
But subsequent to the Reformation a prominent school of typical interpretation arose under Cocceius which without regard for sound principles of interpretation endeavored to find types wherever they found a mere superficial resemblance between things in the Old Testament and the New. This tendency became widespread. As is too often the case, this extreme led to an opposite one by Bishop Marsh's school, which denies typical significance in things of the Old Testament unless they are expressly declared [17] or obviously implied to be types by the New Testament. Marsh's rule has had wide acceptance, doubtless due to the prevalence of the other extreme.
As the Cocceian method violates sound principles of interpretation to which we have already called attention, so Marsh's view on the other hand is too narrow and excludes many real types. Doubtless we should look to the Scripture for a correct knowledge of the nature of types, but we should not expect to find in the New Testament a formal or systematic interpretation of every Old Testament type. Those that are interpreted there are done so only incidentally, as occasion required. Bible truth is not revealed scientifically but historically, and it is an error to view, the Scriptures as a scientific or systematic treatment of theology. Nor do we think of applying so rigid a rule to the interpretation of word prophecies or parables. Examples are given in the Bible of the interpretation of prophecy and parables, and from these we derive the general principles for interpreting the others not there explained. Likewise we deal with the symbolic predictions of Daniel and the Apocalypse. When we read in Revelation 1 that the seven candlesticks are the seven churches, in the seventeenth chapter that the ten horns are ten kings, and other similar examples, we get the idea that these are symbols analogous to certain facts. May we not be as reasonable in our study of the Bible types?
Principles of Interpretation.—The following specific rules for interpreting types are intended, not to dispel every ambiguity, but rather to set forth the more prominent principles bearing upon the subject.
1. A proper analogy must be sustained between the type and the antitype or that predicted as there is also between the type and that symbolized. Only the most precious materials in the construction of the tabernacle were fit to represent the true tabernacle, God's church.
2. The antitype, though analogous to the type, yet is essentially different in nature from it. The type is [18] material, the antitype is spiritual. Aaron, the priest, does not typify the Christian minister but something essentially different—the meditorial office of Christ.
3. The antitype is higher and more glorious than the type. The thing signified is more valuable than the sign, and eternal spiritual realities are more precious than temporal material things. Christ "is the mediator of a better covenant" (Heb. 8:6) than was Moses.
4. The antitype must contain, and furnish the basis for, the same element of truth as the type symbolizes. If the brazen serpent, as a type of Christ, was a symbol of salvation from death, then Christ's being lifted up must be for a similar purpose.
5. (This and the following rules are especially applicable to the ritual types.) An understanding of the name of a type is important to its interpretation; for, as in the "sin offering," the name is given with direct reference to the idea represented.
6. A clear understanding of the outward constitution of the type is important to the correct interpretation of the antitype. To attempt to know the antitype without first knowing the type is like trying to reach an end without using the means.
7. In interpreting types we must not attempt to find antitypical meanings of those accessories of the type which are required by its physical constitution, such as the grate of the brazen altar, which was required probably to make the fire burn well, the rings and bars on the ark by which it was transported, or the snuff dishes by the golden candlesticks. If we keep this in mind we are not liable to go too far wrong in explaining the details of these ritual types. [19]
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
God always desired to come near to his people as every loving heart craves intimate association with those it loves. He desired to commune with men, the exalted creatures made in his own image, who are able to serve him from choice and to reciprocate his love. When God created men he prepared a place deep in their hearts that he alone could fill. During the time of Adam's holiness, God doubtless often came to beautiful Eden in the cool of the day to commune with him. And ever since man's sin separated him from God, God has sought to draw as near to man as His holiness and man's sin would allow. Though the holy God could not dwell in men's sinful hearts, yet he decided to dwell among his people Israel when he led them out of Egypt. Therefore he ordered Moses to build him a suitable dwelling, becoming to his dignity, that he might tabernacle among them.
No house like this was ever built before. It was not extraordinary in the same respect as are some buildings. It could not compare for vastness with the temple of the sun at ancient Heliopolis; for this house of Jehovah was no larger than a small two room cottage. Neither were its walls built of glistening marble or imperishable blocks of granite as was the temple of Diana at Ephesus or the Parthenon at Athens, for it was a light, portable building.
It was principally peculiar because it was to become the abode of the invisible, infinite God of all the universe among his people Israel. He whom the heaven of heavens can not contain, the one who inhabits eternity and whose presence fills remotest space, was to specially dwell there, to set his name there and there to exhibit his glory. [20]
Therefore he gave full specifications for it himself. It had a divine architect. This was important; for it was to be, not merely an abode, but an instrument for divine worship then and a type of the grandest realities men's minds have ever known. Though so small a structure, yet it must be of quality in keeping with the infinite dignity of Him who was to dwell there. It has been estimated by William Brown that it cost one and one half million dollars. It was literally covered inside and outside with plates of gold. Also all of its furniture was either of solid gold or overlaid with gold.
How God made known to Moses what the nature of his dwelling should be we are not told further than in the description in Exodus 25—30. From Heb. 8:5 it seems God showed him a pattern of it in Mount Sinai; but whether this was a mental conception of it from the oral description such as an architect might have of a structure before he draws his plan on paper, or whether it was shown to Moses in a vision or otherwise, we do not know. The important point is that it was designed by God as a whole and in minute details. Also Moses was warned against any deviation from God's specifications. This was essential to its usefulness as a type.
Its Names
Inasmuch as the name of a type is given by God with direct reference to that which is symbolized or typified, the meaning of the names of the tabernacle should first receive attention. Of the various terms used to designate God's ancient dwelling place, the one employed in the first mention of it to Moses is given in Exod. 25:8 and is translated "sanctuary." This word is full of meaning and is probably the most comprehensive term used to designate the tabernacle. It is said that the original Hebrew word is never used to describe the temples of heathen deities, but only to describe the sacred abode of Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whose name is holy. Holiness is the most prominent idea connected with the tabernacle and its service. To make people holy was the great purpose of God's [22] revealing true religion. Then they were made ceremonially holy, now actually holy. Holiness is peculiar to the religion of Jehovah. Therefore he designated his dwelling place as a sanctuary. The term is used of the tabernacle as a whole, of the holy place, and also of the holiest place. Though the tabernacle represented these various degrees of holiness, yet it was all holy because of the awful holiness of Him whose glory was manifested in the thrice holy place beneath the outstretched wings of the cherubim.
The next word used in Scripture to designate that first house of God is the one translated "tabernacle." It is probably the most common name of it. Its sense is "to settle down" or "to dwell." It expressed the grand truth that the infinite God had come to dwell among his people. "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them," were the words in which he first commanded the making of the tabernacle. It was the first statement of the wonderful truth afterward included in the name given to Christ, "Immanuel." which means "God with us." The term "tabernacle" is used of the curtains, the boards, and of the entire structure.
The third important Scriptural name of the tabernacle is one translated "tent." It is the one used of the common tents such as those in which the patriarch Abraham or Lot dwelt. It expresses much less of spiritual significance than does "sanctuary" or "tabernacle." It has been supposed to have value to us as indicating somewhat as to the structure of the tabernacle. It seems to be used especially of the coverings of goats' hair, rams' skins, and badgers' skins which were over the upright framework of boards. Therefore it is sometimes called the "tent of the tabernacle." Some interpreters have understood this to teach that the tent was therefore separate from and over the tabernacle; but probably this does not positively prove more than that it was a cloth covering whether a flat roof over the framework or a separate tent with a ridged roof.
Another descriptive designation of the tabernacle very expressive is "tabernacle of the congregation." The [23] Revised Version renders this "tent of meeting," which is much better. The idea is not the meeting of the people with each other, but their meeting with God. "At the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee" ( Exod. 29:42 ). There at the brazen altar in the presence of the pouring out of the blood of sin offerings the holy God would meet sinful men and speak to them.
It is also called "the tabernacle of testimony," because there in the holiest place with the sacred ark for a receptacle were deposited the divinely inscribed tables of stone, which were representative of God's righteous law.
General View of the Tabernacle
That we may better understand the several parts of the tabernacle by viewing them in their relation to the whole, let us in imagination take a walk through the sacred precincts of the house of God and make a survey of it.
Here we stand in the midst of the camp of Israel before Mount Sinai, with the rough, rocky peaks of Horeb looming in awful grandeur on every side. Of the twelve tribes of Israel the tents of three tribes may be seen to the east, three to the north, and as many to the west and to the south. Fringing the great interior square thus formed are pitched the tents of the tribe of Levi, that thirteenth tribe especially holy, of whom are the priests and whose work it is to care for and serve the tabernacle. Immediately to the east of us dwell the priestly families, because the tabernacle door is to the eastward, and these ministers of the sanctuary must be nearest of all. In the great square thus formed is located the sanctuary. Literally, "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved" (Psa. 46:5).
From the eastern side of this square we face to the westward from the tents of the priests, and before us is the holy house, with its entrance on the east side, nearest us. First notice this high fence around the tabernacle enclosing a yard, called the "court." This court you will notice is a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide. Or [24]
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
Or allowing eighteen inches for the cubit, which measure is supposed to have been originally derived from the length of a man's forearm, from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, it is 150 feet long by 75 feet wide. It is as big as a large sized city building lot. The surrounding fence or wall is very peculiar in that it consists of hangings of fine linen suspended between posts, which stand five cubits, or seven and one half feet, apart. The fence is also five cubits, or seven and one half feet, high, so we can not see over it. These sixty posts are set in sockets of brass and have hooks and fillets of silver. But the entrance, which is thirty feet wide, including four of the spaces between posts, has instead of the common white hanging a much more beautiful one in gorgeous colors—blue, purple, and scarlet—the colors of royalty.
Passing through the entrance to the court and looking straight ahead of us, in the further end of the court we see the tabernacle itself, and immediately before us stands the large brazen altar, where expiation is made for sin, and between this and the tabernacle is a large brazen vessel called the laver, filled with water, in which the priests must always wash both their hands and feet before entering the dwelling place of God. We expect to come back to these to examine them more carefully later, so we shall pass on.
The tabernacle proper is not very different in size and shape from the common flat top, black goats' hair tent of the average Arabian desert dweller as it has been constructed f o r thousands of years. Raising the beautiful hanging of blue, purple, and scarlet and passing between gold covered pillars we stand in the holy place, the first sanctuary, where we common people can never actually enter. It is as large as a large sized living room—a place of beauty and grandeur. The walls and ceiling are of the same fine linen and kingly colors as the hanging at the entrance, and are inworked with figures of cherubs in recognition of the presence of Deity.
Before us on the south side is the seven branch golden candlestick or lamp stand shedding its light round about. On our other hand is a table overlaid with pure gold. On [26] it are twelve loaves of bread, upon which is frankincense. Moving on we come to a beautiful little altar covered with gold. On this sweet incense is burned daily, morning and evening, for a sweet odor before Jehovah. Also on its horns are marks of blood, the blood of atonement sprinkled on it from the sin offering.
Now with trembling hand and bowed head we reverently lift the beautiful second veil and quietly enter the sacred inner room, the holiest place. Naturally all is dark, but we know we are in the presence of Him who dwells "in the thick darkness." (1 Kings 8:12.) Here we stand in the awful presence of the Almighty God. We are before the "throne of grace." This inner room is but half as large as the first, and its walls are covered with the same kind of beautiful hangings. The one piece of furniture is the chest like gold covered ark, containing the testimony, and over it serving as its lid the pure gold mercy seat with a golden cherub on either end stretching its wings out over the mercy seat like a golden canopy. Here above the mercy seat and under the shadow of the outspread wings of the cherubim (according to Jewish tradition) the Shekinah light, the glory of the Lord, ever shines. From here Jehovah speaks to and blesses his people. Here also on the mercy seat once each year, on the great day of atonement, the blood of atonement is sprinkled. Here intercession is made for transgressors, and here mercy is extended to sinners.
What the Tabernacle Typified
One can scarcely contemplate this peculiar structure with its various apartments, its strange furniture, its bloody sacrifices, and its mysterious rites without being impressed with the fact that it must be of symbolic significance, even if the Scriptures were silent as to the fact. We need have no doubt that the tabernacle was a type and therefore also symbolic to the Israelites. The writer to the Hebrews, after giving a description of the tabernacle, says, "Which was a figure for the time then present . . . But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, [27] by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands" (Heb. 9:9 11). Also Jesus is described as "a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb. 8:2). And again Christ is spoken of as the "Apostle and High Priest," as a "son over his own house; whose house are we" (Heb. 3: 1, 6). From these texts it is clear that as a house and as the dwelling place of God the tabernacle typified the true, spiritual "house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15).
But let it be noticed that only as the house of God does it find its antitype in the church. As a means of worship and ceremonial or symbolic purification from sin, it typified the way by which today the sinner comes to God or obtains salvation through the precious blood of the true Lamb of God from the guilt of sin and depravity of the nature. Of the large number of New Testament texts that teach this, probably the following is sufficient for our present purpose: "Having therefore, brethren, holiness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." ( Heb. 10 :19 22 ) .
The Court
( Exod. 27: 9-19 )
Surrounding the tabernacle was a considerable space called the "court" enclosed by a high fence three hundred cubits around, or it was one hundred and fifty feet long by seventy five feet wide. This was a screen of linen cloth, and was not very different from what is commonly used in the East at the present time to enclose the private apartments of important persons. The linen curtains as already described were seven and one half feet high and were supported by posts, twenty on each side and ten on each end. These posts were probably of shittim wood, were five cubits [28] apart, stood in sockets of brass, and had chapters of silver and silver fillets, which were probably connecting rods between the posts from which the curtains were suspended. Whether the sockets beneath were for the purpose of keeping the posts upright is not certain; but we are told that there were pins and cords which probably were used for this purpose as a common tent is supported. In the court were located the brazen altar and the laver.
But what is the typical significance of the court? Into the court came the penitent Israelite to offer sacrifice for sin, to obtain the favor of God. Here he came for justification. Here at the altar of burnt offering he came to God. If, then, those who came into the ancient court of the tabernacle were seeking forgiveness through those symbolic sacrifices, they must be typical of those who are convicted of their sins and are coming to God for salvation through Christ. They have forsaken the outside world, but have not yet come into God's church.
The Brazen Altar
( Exod. 27 :1-8; 38 :1-7)
The altar is doubtless the oldest of all religious institutions, and dates from the earliest dawn of human history. Doubtless Cain and Abel offered their respective offerings upon altars. Noah built an altar when he left the ark. At the first place Abraham stopped in the land of Canaan he built an altar to the Lord. These altars were of earth or of unhewn stone. Altars were common to heathen peoples —in Egypt, at Athens, among the American Indians of Mexico; and some of the ruins of the ancient Druids are supposed to be a kind of altar.
When God told Moses to make an altar of brass he was not introducing a new institution, but rather regulating the construction and use of an existing one. This altar of the tabernacle is called by various names, as the altar; the brazen altar (to distinguish it from the golden altar of the holy place); and the altar of burnt offering, probably because the burnt offering was that most commonly offered [29]
(see illustration on next page)
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The Church of God
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Brazen Altar
( Exod. 27 :1-8; 38 :1-7) [cont]
offered there. It was the most used and probably the most important instrument of service in the tabernacle.
Its Structure.—The brazen altar was constructed of shittim wood overlaid with brass. As these materials were used considerably, it is of interest to give attention to them. This shittim wood is the desert acacia, a hard, close grained wood, very durable, and capable of taking a fine natural polish somewhat as our imported lignum vitae wood. The "brass" used for the altar and other parts of the tabernacle is understood as meaning copper, for we are told brass was not known to them. The altar was made "hollow of boards," without top or bottom. In size it was to be five cubits, or seven and one half feet, in length and width, and four and one half feet, or three cubits, high. It was large enough to receive the largest animal and not too high for the ministering priests. Horns were to be shaped on the four corners. The purpose of these is unknown—unless we suppose the sacrifice was to be tied to them, this may be understood from Psa. 118:27: "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar."
The altar had a compass and a grate of network of brass in the middle, also a ring in each of its four corners through which was run on either side a stave or bar, also overlaid with brass, as a means of carrying it. Some difference of opinion exists concerning the compass and the grate of brass. At least four different views are held. The most probable view seems to be that the compass was a mere crown or band around the top for ornamentation as on the golden altar, and that the grate was a "hearth" or "fireplace," as it is rendered by the Septuagint, and was hung inside the altar midway between the bottom and the top. This grate was held in position by the rings in the corners, which passed through the corners of the altar to the outside, where the bars passed through them. Thus the grate would serve a valuable purpose; and it being supported by the loose bars, the ashes might have been sifted through by shaking the bars. The grate was thus one and one half cubits from the ground, which was also the height of the altar of incense and the mercy seat—probably [31] signifying that atonement, mercy, and communion are coordinate, that one can not exist without the other.
Its Meaning.—Neither the use nor the symbolic meaning of the altar can be understood apart from the sacrifice offered upon it. On the brazen altar was sprinkled the blood and were burned the bodies of animals as sacrifices to God, for the sins of the offerers. The sprinkling of the warm blood of the dying victim round about on the altar was an important part of the sacrifice, because it was the blood that atoned for the soul. After this the animal was skinned, cut in pieces, and all or part, according to the kind of sacrifice being offered, laid on wood on the altar and burned.
This act of sacrifice was very full of meaning. It was symbolic of vicarious atonement. When the sin burdened Israelite led the trembling lamb to the altar of Jehovah before the holy house, laid his hand upon it signifying that he was now identified with it—that the suffering for his sins was now laid upon it—cut its throat with his knife, while the priest hastily caught its blood in a basin and sprinkled it on God's altar, after which its body was prepared and burned there, he must have been forcibly reminded of the awfulness of sin, the holiness of God, and of the great truth of propitiation by another if his sin was to be forgiven.
If the ancient Israelite saw no more than this in his offering of sacrifice it doubtless had a good effect. But the spiritual minded offerer doubtless saw dimly in this faint shadow that most glorious future reality, the Lamb of God suffering for the sins of the world. The altar then with the sacrifice on it typified the glorious atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the blood of that animal was poured out in symbolic atonement, so Jesus' precious blood, or life, was freely and willingly poured out for us. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.... The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers [32] is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." (Isa. 53:5 7). "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). That the brazen altar with its offering typified Christ, the true offering for sin, is clear from many texts in the New Testament, especially in the Hebrew epistle.
The importance of the truth typified by the altar can not be overestimated. For atonement is the only possible means of forgiveness and acceptance by God. That ancient altar stood directly before the entrance to the house of God. It was directly in the line between the gate of the court and the ark of God in the holy of holies, signifying the great truth that we can not come to God except by Christ. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, hut by me." (John 14:6). "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12).
Neither is this requirement of atonement for pardon of sin an arbitrary requirement on God's part. It was necessary in the very nature of things. Man had sinned against the righteous commandment of a holy God and deserved to suffer its penalty. Moreover, if the penalty was remitted without atonement and the sinner received by God to himself, it could be only at the expense of God's holiness and the dignity of his good law, which men would then be tempted to despise. This could not be. So God sent his Son to suffer in our stead and to make an atonement or propitiation to God by which we might be spared the penalty due our sins.
At Jehovah's altar the stupendous problem of sin is settled. God forgives the sinner, but still remains a God of holiness—and yet the God of love. He is holy, and still merciful. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the [33] justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Rom. 3:24 26). Behold the depths both of the goodness and of the holiness of God in the atoning work of Jesus!
Some professed Christians acknowledge no objective or Godward element in the atonement. They claim they see only a manifestation of God's love in Jesus' death, and a consequent moral influence exerted on men to lead them to salvation. We gladly allow all this, but also we see at God's altar exhibited something more than the bloodless religion of Cain that these men teach. There a life is sacrificed that another life may be spared. The wages of sin is death, but the Lamb of God dies instead and the sinner lives. What a glorious thought! What matchless mercy! Eternity will be none too long in which to render to Him the praise and thanksgiving that is due.
Only by way of the altar can a sinful soul draw near to the holy God. Only when washed in the blood of Jesus can we have fellowship with God. Even our very worship is acceptable only after the sin cleansing blood has been sprinkled.
The Laver
( Exod. 30 :17 21; 38:8 )
The altar was typical of our justification through the atonement of Christ.
God has given us less specific information concerning the laver than of the other articles of furniture in the tabernacle. We are told that it was made of brass (copper), of the brazen mirrors of the women. Here the priests must wash both hands and feet before entering the tabernacle, or ministering at the altar, lest they die. Its shape and size are not given; but probably it was round in shape as was customary of such vessels. It was large enough to contain sufficient water for the washing of the priests, and probably also for the washing of the sacrifices to be burned upon the altar. The laver was located in the court between the brazen altar and the entrance to the tabernacle. It is stated of it, "And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass." This seems to imply that the foot was some- [34]
(see illustration on next page)
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Original Page: 31-34 This Web Page: 6 Total Original Pages: 141
The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
5334 Whitney Ave. Carmichael, CA. 95608
Pastor, Church Telephone (916) 482-7128
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Laver
( Exod. 30 :17 21; 38:8 ) [cont]
thing separate from the laver. Some have supposed the foot was a saucerlike basin below the laver in which the feet and hands of the priests were washed and which supported the laver by a shaft rising from its center.
Typical Leaning.—That the laver had symbolic and typical significance is to be gathered from the importance attached to the washings there. Twice it is stated of the priests who washed there, "That they die not." Moreover the New Testament is quite clear as to its typical meaning. "He saved us, by the washing of regeneration." (Tit. 3:5). The marginal reading of the Revised gives "laver" of regeneration instead of "washing." So it is translated in the Emphatic Diaglott. The same Greek word is used here as is used in the Greek Septuagint in Exod. 30:18 for laver.
This washing at the laver is not to be understood as typifying water baptism, as some have supposed. Sound principles of symbolic interpretation forbid making a literal thing symbolic of a similar literal thing. Besides, this was essential to entrance into the ancient house of God; but one may enter God's church before water baptism, as was evidently true of the thief on the cross, of Paul, or of Cornelius.
But the "washing of regeneration" is a cleansing that is necessary to entrance into God's church. Jesus said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). The kingdom and the church are practically identical. Regeneration and the new birth mean the same. As those justified at the altar and entering that ancient house needed this washing at the laver, so we today need, not only Justification from committed sins, but also regeneration of our hearts.
The laver was typical of this regeneration as the altar was of justification. The water typifies the word of God, which, in conjunction with the Spirit of God, is an agent for effecting the new birth (John 3:5). "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3). "Of his own will begat he us with the word of [36]
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The Purpose of the Church of God is to spread and
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Original Page: 35-36 This Web Page: 7 Total Original Pages: 141
The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
5334 Whitney Ave. Carmichael, CA. 95608
Pastor, Church Telephone (916) 482-7128
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Laver
( Exod. 30 :17 21; 38:8 ) [cont]
truth." (Jas. 1:18). "Being born again . . . by the word of God." (I Peter 1:23).
Conversion is twofold in its nature. It brings the sinner into right relations with God, and effects right character in the sinner. thus enabling him to keep in right relation with God. We need to be justified or pardoned of our committed sins, and we need also to have power over the power of the indwelling sinful nature so that we can keep justified by living a holy life. Justification would be of little practical value to us without regeneration. This regeneration is variously described as a new birth, becoming a "new creature," receiving a "new heart," and as being "created" anew.
It may be well described as salvation from the reigning power of the sinful nature. We naturally have a depraved nature that impels to sin. This depraved nature is a derangement of the moral nature. It is a perversion of the affections, and a weakening of the conscience and of the will insomuch that the sinner says, "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Rom. 7:18). Now, regeneration is not an entire removal of depravity; for it is the testimony both of the Bible and experience that depravity still remains in some sense in the regenerated. But we know that when one is born again a new power comes into his life that makes him triumphant over the depravity of his nature. Then he can say, "The law [power] of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law [power] of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2).
The incoming of the Spirit of the Almighty gives power over every sinful desire. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Cor. 5:17). "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." (I John 5:18). "A new heart also will I give you .... And I will ... cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them." (Ezek. 36:26, 27).
Thank God, we are not only pardoned at the altar, Christ, but we are enabled to live well pleasing to God by [37] the laver of regeneration. How beautifully the process of our salvation is foreshadowed in this ancient type! It is a clearer and more systematic presentation of the method of salvation than is given anywhere in the New Testament.
The Sanctuary
( Exod. 26 :1 37; 36: 8 38 )
The exact dimensions of the tabernacle proper are not given, but it may be readily calculated from the size and number of the boards and the curtains. It was thirty cubits, or forty five feet, long by ten cubits, or fifteen feet, wide and as high as it was wide. It was divided into two rooms by the veil. The first room, or holy place, was twenty cubits, or thirty feet long and the second room or holiest place, was ten cubits, or fifteen feet, long, making t h e latter room a perfect cube.
Boards and Bars.—The framework was of boards of shittim wood one and one half cubits, or twenty seven inches, wide and ten cubits, or fifteen feet, long. These stood on end, edge to edge, twenty on each side and six at the rear, besides two corner boards. These boards were overlaid with gold inside and outside and set in sockets of silver with two sockets under each board and two tenons on the bottom of each board running down into these two sockets. To hold the boards in position, five bars of shittim wood overlaid with gold were provided for each of the two sides and as many for the rear. Rings were made on each of the boards, and through these four of the bars were passed. The fifth bar, "the middle bar in the midst of the boards, shall reach from end to end"; and "he made the middle bar to shoot through the boards from the one end to the other." It seems to have been mortised through all the boards from edge to edge.
Typical Significance of the Boards and Bars.—As we have already shown the sanctuary was typical of the church as God's dwelling place, so it is proper to interpret the typical meaning of the various parts in harmony with that of the whole. It is not unreasonable to believe that the individual parts that made up the Mosaic tabernacle were [38] typical of the individual parts that compose the church of the New Testament. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." (1 Cor. 12:27). "But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him." (v. 18). "The church, which is his body." (Eph. 1:22, 23). From these texts as well as from the meaning of the original term for church it is certain that the church is composed of all the truly converted people. Therefore the individual board in the tabernacle typified the individual Christian, as collectively that house typified God's present house, "whose house are we." (Heb. 3:6).
That this interpretation is correct is evident from various texts that speak very definitely on the subject. "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God t h r o u g h the Spirit." (Eph. 2:21, 22). This represents Christians as being "fitly framed together" as were the boards composing God's ancient house. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house." (1 Peter 2:5). Here the same idea is set forth although the figure of stones is used instead of boards, probably referring to Solomon's temple.
That which the bars are said to typify must also be in harmony with the antitype of the tabernacle as a whole and the other parts with which they are related. The detailed description given of these bars and their important function in the tabernacle are both good reasons for our expecting to find something analogous to them in the antitypical sanctuary. What, then, unifies and relates to each other the members of God's spiritual house as the bars held together and solidified in one the boards of that ancient house? Jesus prayed in that notable prayer recorded by John as follows: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." (John 17:20, 21). That the unity of Christians is important enough to be typified in the tabernacle is evident from this fact stated [39] by Jesus that it should be an evidence to the world of his divinity. Also on such an occasion with the gloom of Gethsemane already gathering about him and the horrors of Calvary immediately before him, we can not think of Jesus praying about unimportant things.
Let us look in Paul's great unity chapter, the fourth of Ephesians, for the unifying agents of God's church typified by the golden bars of the tabernacle. "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (v. 3). "And he gave some, apostles; and some. prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (vs. 11 13). Here we have two kinds of unity, a "unity of the Spirit" of God, and a "unity of the faith." So likewise we have one interior and four exterior bars for the boards of the tabernacle. Probably the number of boards and bars have no typical meaning, but are such as its physical construction required.
As that golden bar passed through the midst of the boards uniting them together from within, so the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all his people makes them one in a very real sense. The saved in Christ not only have kindred spirits, they not only have common aspirations and desires, but they all have one Spirit, the Spirit of God in them.
This unity of the Spirit is beautifully set forth by Paul in the twelfth chapter of 1st Corinthians under the figure of the human body as representative of the body of Christ, the church. As the hands, the feet, and every part of the human body cooperate under the direction of the one indwelling and animating human spirit, so the members of the church of Christ, in each of whom his Spirit dwells and moves, all work together in unity and harmony.
This indwelling of the one Spirit in all the members is the ground of the holy fellowship that normally exists among God's saints, and which is so blessed that even the hardened sinner looking on is convinced that they have [40]
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The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
5334 Whitney Ave. Carmichael, CA. 95608
Pastor, Church Telephone (916) 482-7128
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Sanctuary
( Exod. 26 :1 37; 36: 8 38 ) cont.
something he does not possess. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13:35). They "were of one heart and of one soul." (Acts 4:32). "There is one body." (Eph. 4:4). It is also the basis of the true organization and government of God's church. During the long ages of apostasy this unity of Christians by the rule of the indwelling Spirit was practically lost, but the time has come when devout hearts everywhere are seeking for that oneness which characterized the early church, and Christian unity, the oneness in the body of Christ, is again becoming a practical reality.
But let us again notice that unity of the faith symbolized by the four exterior golden bars. An invisible, interior unity is maintained by the inner bar, but the other bars are needed for outward unity. This is to result from the labors of the various classes of ministers mentioned in Eph. 4: :11. By their faithful preaching of the Word of God, their hearers will attain to this unity. Probably we are not to understand an absolute unity of comprehension of the details of religious truth or the interpretation of every portion of Scripture, but rather a unity of comprehension of those fundamental and practical truths that are necessary to the perfecting in Christian experience and to the bringing to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." What we know we know alike.
Typical Meaning of the Silver Sockets.—The Scriptures speak quite clearly concerning the meaning of the silver sockets. In Exodus 38:25 28 we are told that these were made from the silver half shekels which the men twenty years old and upward gave when they were numbered, as a ransom for their souls that they be not stricken with plague. In chap. 30:11 16 it is called "atonement money." Each man must give this exact amount, which was equal to about sixty two cents. The rich must not give more nor the poor less, signifying that God, not men, must determine the necessary atonement for sin. God's church, his redeemed people, rest on the atonement of Christ. His life's blood is the ransom price of every member of God's spiritual house, who were represented by the boards that [41] rested upon the costly silver sockets of atonement money.
Probably the apostle had this very atonement silver in mind when he wrote, "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Peter 1:18,19 19).
The Curtains.—Four coverings were placed over the framework of boards. An inner covering of ten magnificent curtains four by twenty eight cubits, of fine l i n e n (with cherubim in the royal colors blue, purple, and scarlet inworked), and fastened together at the sides, covered the walls and ceiling inside. Over this and covering the frame work outside were eleven curtains of goats' hair, four by thirty cubits, and fastened together at the sides. The length of one of these curtains was exactly enough to reach across the top and down each side of the tabernacle outside. The inside curtains seem to have been hung cross wise of the tabernacle in the same manner. Over the curtains of goats' hair was spread a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and over this one of badger's skins, or, as the Revised translates it, of seals' skins.
Typical Meaning of the Curtains. —These beautiful curtains of fine white linen inwrought with heavenly figures in kingly colors of blue, purple, and scarlet doubtless contain a lesson for us in the "true tabernacle." This fine white linen was a covering for the gold covered boards, which gold symbolized the glory of the Lord. This clothing for the boards was probably in the Revelator's mind when he said of the church, "To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." (Rev. 19:8). Divine righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, is the covering of every member in God's church. The royal colors blue, purple, and scarlet seem to signify the exalted honor which is the portion of those in God's church. These are a "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9). and, as they exclaim in Revelation 5:9, 10, "Thou . . . hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." "And hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Rev. 1:6). "They . . . reign in life" (Rom. 5:17). The cherubs or angelic [42] figures are characteristic of God's presence throughout the Bible. They appear in Isaiah's vision (Isa. 6:2), and the golden cherubim were on the mercy seat nearest to God's presence. On the curtains and the veil they doubtless signify the heavenliness of the condition of those in God's house today. God's people now "sit together in heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6). They have come "to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born." (Heb. 12:22, 23).
The Two Veils and Two Rooms.—At the entrance of the tabernacle was a hanging of blue, purple, and scarlet of fine linen, suspended upon five pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold and set in sockets of brass Twenty cubits beyond this was the second veil of fine linen, with figures of cherubim in the same gorgeous colors as those on the curtains. The veil hung upon four gold plated pillars of shittim wood set in sockets of silver.
Typical Meaning of the Two Rooms.—No feature of the tabernacle is more prominent than the two divisions of it—the holy and the most holy place. This twofold aspect is seen, not only in the two rooms, but also in the first and second veil admitting to them respectively; in the two altars, the brazen altar before the first veil and the golden altar before the second veil; and in the two applications of blood, the first on the brazen altar and the second on the golden altar. Something of very fundamental importance must be foreshadowed by this oft repeated double aspect in type.
Some interpreters have understood this second room to represent heaven. They get this idea from the statement in Heb. 9:24, where Christ is said to have entered, not into the holy places in the literal tabernacle, "but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us." It should be noted, however, in interpreting this verse, that the analogy is not being drawn here between places merely, but especially between the service of the high priest's entering into God's presence in that ancient house to intercede for the people and Jesus' entering into God's presence in heaven to make intercession for sinners. The [43] presence of God is the essential thing, the place is merely incidental. For all others than the high priest, "the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." (Heb. 9: 8). Even he could enter only on the day of atonement, once each year, in the capacity of intercessor for the people. Therefore his intercession there was typical of Christ's intercession before God in heaven. But as a type of Christian experience, or in relation to the common priests, it represents a state of grace that may be obtained in this life, according to Heb. 10:19. A second reason why the holiest place is not a proper type of heaven is that a literal place can not be a type of a literal place even though that place be heaven. The laws of symbols forbid this. A place more appropriately typifies a spiritual state. A third reason is that in this twenty fourth verse of Hebrews nine the holiest place is not mentioned, but the "holy places," including the entire house, both the holy and the holiest place. But we have already fully proved that the tabernacle was typical of the church, the house of God, "whose house are we." (Heb. 3:6). (See also Heb. 8:2; 9:11; 1 Cor. 12:27; 1 Tim. 3:15). A fourth and very positive reason is that in Heb. 10:19 22. "Brethren" are urged to enter the holiest, which would be meaningless if used of heaven, which is not entered voluntarily—we can only will to be ready, and we already are prepared when we are "brethren."
But what is the antitypical inner room? Is there such a thing in the process of coming to God as two distinct degrees of holiness ? Do some of those in God's church possess a distinctly superior degree of holiness? Is there an experience in divine grace that is obtained by an application of the blood as at the golden altar subsequent to the experience obtained at the brazen altar and at the laver, which admits into the first room?
According to both the Bible and the experience of multitudes of the most spiritual Christians, these questions must be answered in the affirmative. The first room typified the regenerated state of believers, and the second room [44]
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The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
5334 Whitney Ave. Carmichael, CA. 95608
Pastor, Church Telephone (916) 482-7128
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Sanctuary
( Exod. 26 :1 37; 36: 8 38 ) cont.
the state of entire sanctification which is received at the time of the Holy Ghost baptism subsequent to conversion.
Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." (John 17:17). This prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples, who belonged to God and had "kept" his word (v. 6), who were "not of the world" (vs. 9, 14, 16), who had been sent to preach (Matt. 10:7), whose names were written in heaven (Luke 10:20), who had believed on him (Matt. 16:16) and were therefore born of God (John 1:12, 13). Now, to sanctify means to make holy. Therefore these who and been regenerated needed to be made more holy than they were already. So in John 15:1 6 a purging or cleansing of those who are already branches of the true vine, Christ, is promised. that they may be the more fruitful. Again, Paul prays for his newly converted Thessalonian brethren, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5:23).
"Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it [the church]; that he might sanctify and cleanse it [the church] with the washing of water by the word." (Eph. 5:25, 26). Here the church, those already regenerated, are to be sanctified, having been already cleansed at the laver of water. The Greek word here for washing is the same as that used in Exod. 38:27 in the Septuagint which we translate laver. There is a cleansing of those already in the church. This is accomplished by the Holy Ghost at the time of his baptism (Acts 15:8, 9). That the baptism by the Spirit is after the time of conversion is exemplified in the apostles (John 14:17; Acts 2:4), the Samaritans (Acts 8:12-16), the Ephesians (Acts 19:2-6), and others.
This sanctification is a restoration from the depravity of the nature. That the derangement of the nature continues in the regenerated has been the experience and belief of Christians generally. But in entire sanctification by a second application of the blood of Jesus at the golden altar we are able to enter through the veil into the holiest [45] place, the place of perfect holiness, where we are pure "as he is pure." This and this only is perfect redemption from sin. Under the ancient tabernacle, entrance into the holiest place was not possible except for the high priest; but now it is open to whosoever wills to enter. Then let us "enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [at the brazen altar], and our bodies washed with pure water [at the laver which admits into the holy place]" (Heb. 10:19, 22).
Typical Meaning of the Veil.—Both the hangings at the entrance, the first veil, and the second veil, typified Christ. That the second veil typified him is plainly stated in Heb. 10:20, where it is said we enter the holiest "by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." It is only by Christ's atonement, which he made by coming in the flesh, that perfect holiness is possible. This also throws light on the rending, from top to bottom, of the veil in the temple by unseen hands, at the death of Jesus. It signified that the atonement was now completed and full redemption from sin is possible, so we can go into the very presence of God, into the place of perfect holiness.
Under the symbol of a sheepfold Jesus states that he is the door (John 10:9). Therefore the door or veil at the entrance to the ancient house of God typified Christ. "For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father." (Eph. 2:18). Only through Christ can we be saved.
Typical Meaning of the Golden Pillars.—Four golden pillars supported the second veil and five the hanging at the entrance, or the first veil. In the Galatian letter Paul writes, "And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellow¬ ship" ( Gal. 2: 9 ) . "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out." (Rev. 3:12) As the pillars in that first temple of God were supports for it and held up the veils which typi¬ fied Christ, so the faithful minister of the gospel upholds [46] Christ and the interests of the church. The three leading apostles at Jerusalem were pillars in this way. Not only ministers, however, but all who are faithful and who overcome temptation may become pillars. [47 top]
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Original Page: 45-47 This Web Page: 10 Total Original Pages: 141
The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
5334 Whitney Ave. Carmichael, CA. 95608
Pastor, Bill Cornelison, Church Telephone (916) 482-7128
Last updated January 1, 1998
Notes regarding web site to: Webmaster
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Golden Candlestick
(Exod. 25:31 39; 37:17 24) cont.
This great candlelabrum, which stood at the south side of the first room, was one piece of pure beaten gold. It was made of a talent of gold, or about $27,375 worth of gold. Its size is not given in the Bible; but the amount of gold used, and the size of it in relation to the height of a man as shown by the bas relief on the Arch of Titus, is ground for supposing it was probably two cubits, or three feet, high, as was the golden altar on which it was to shed light.
It was made with a central upright shaft from each side of which went out three branches; oil lamps were on the top of the branches and central shaft, all on one plane. It was more properly a lamp stand than a candlestick. On each of the arms or branches were three bowls like almonds, with a "knop,' or knob, and a flower with each bowl. Four of these bowls, knops, and flowers were on the central shaft. Thus it had the appearance of a golden almond tree with fruits in the three stages, as was Aaron's almond rod laid up in the tabernacle, which, in one night, budded, blossomed, and bore almonds. The purpose of the candlestick was to give light on the table of shewbread opposite and for the priestly ministration there and at the golden altar. It was to be kept always burning with beaten olive oil, and to be trimmed and cared for by the priests evening and morning.
Typical Significance of the Candlestick.—As the altar and the laver were typical of Christ, so was also the candlestick and all the other articles of furniture in the sanctuary, as well as the two veils. It is necessarily so because he is the only Savior. The different articles of furniture were needed to set forth the various phases of his work in our salvation much as he used, in his parables, different [47] things to illustrate the various phases of the kingdom of God. He it is who is the source of all spiritual light. Christians merely reflect his light. He said, "I am the light of the world.' (John 8:12). In a special sense this light is shed on those who are saved. The sinner is said to be in darkness; but Christians are called "children of light" (1 Thess. 5:5). "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.' (Eph. 5:8). "That ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (1 Pet. 2:9). Even without these clear statements from the Bible, it would still be evident that the golden candlestick typified Christ, who is the giver of light to his church. Seven is the number of perfection. Christ's light is perfect. Its being made of gold may be significant also, because gold is the sacred metal that characterizes the presence of God and probably symbolizes the glory of God. As the boards and pillars have already been shown to be covered with gold, so the Christian is clothed with God's glory and presence. But the candlestick was solid gold—a fit representation of Christ. The blessedness of the light of Christ is better appreciated if we compare the condition of "saints in light" with those groping in the darkness of sin and heathenism.
"My darkness now is passed away,
In Jesus all is perfect day;
And peace and comfort ever stay
Since Christ is my perfect light." [49] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Table of Shewbread
(Exod. 25:23-30; Lev. 24:5-9)
On the north side of the holy place, opposite the candlestick, stood the gold covered table of shittim wood, called the "table of shewbread." It was a table of ordinary size, two cubits (three feet) long, one cubit (eighteen inches) wide, and one and one half cubits (twenty seven inches) high. It was encompassed by a crown and border of gold, and had a golden ring on each leg through which bars were passed, by which to carry it. On the table were placed, each Sabbath day, twelve loaves of bread, as many loaves [49 bottom] as there were gems in the high priest's breastplate, one for each of the tribes of God's people. Six loaves were placed at one end of the table and six at the other end. On each of these rows was laid frankincense. When fresh loaves were brought each Sabbath, the former loaves were eaten, in the holy place, by the priests, while the incense was burned upon the golden altar near at hand.
The Antitypical Shewbread. — But what phase of Christ's redemptive work is foreshadowed by this golden table with its twelve loaves and frankincense? The loaves are not to be understood to be symbolic of the tribes, as some have supposed, but symbolic of something for those represented by the tribes, because they are eaten by the representatives of the tribes, the priests, But what is the bread of those in God's church, the "kingdom of priests" who were represented by those who entered into the first room of that ancient tabernacle? Let Jesus answer. "I am that bread of life. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:48, 51).
The loaves of the shewbread typified the same spiritual food as is symbolized by the bread of the communion Supper in the New Testament church. The one pointed forward to it, the other points backward to it. Jesus is the bread on which the soul of the regenerated feasts. He satisfies every hunger of the heart. As natural bread sustains the life of the body, so he sustains the life of the soul. And this bread is for all God's people. There was a loaf for little Benjamin as well as for royal Judah. As all God's people were then represented, so all of them are included in spiritual Israel now. And there is plenty to satisfy their hunger, which was signified by those sumptuous loaves; each one containing twice as much flour as was needed for the food of a man for a whole day.
But God also received a portion from the table of shewbread. The incense that was burned upon the golden altar was a memorial of the loaves that belonged to God. Here at this golden table, then, we feast with Jehovah. We not [51] only have communion with one another, but we have blessed communion with the Father. There, through the broken body of our Saviour, without which fellowship with our holy Creator were impossible, we have fellowship with Divinity. There he sups with us and we with him (Rev. 3:20). There we tell him our inmost thoughts. There also he reveals to us the indescribable glories of his own perfection. Thank God for Jesus, the true bread; for without him we could never know the blessedness of communing with our Maker. [52 top]
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The Purpose of the Church of God is to spread and
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Original Page: 49-52 This Web Page: 12 Total Original Pages: 141
The Church of God!
Justification, Sanctification, Unity
Carmichael, California USA
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Golden Altar
((Exod. 30:1-10)
The golden altar, though not so large as the brazen altar, was more precious, being made of shittim wood but overlaid with gold. It was one cubit, or eighteen inches, square and two cubits, or three feet, high. Like the brazen altar, it had horns fashioned on the four corners of it. Around the edge of the top was a crown, and two golden rings on the sides held gold covered bars as a means of carrying it. This beautiful little altar was located in the holy place near the second veil, before the ark, which was just beyond the veil. It was midway between the north and south sides of the tabernacle. It is described as the "altar to burn incense upon," because this was its chief use. Each morning when the priest trimmed the lamps, and again when he lighted them, specially prepared holy incense was burned there in worship to Jehovah. Similar aromatic substances were not uncommonly employed by Orientals in offerings of tributary homage as marks of honor to kings. The Magi brought such an offering of frankincense to the infant Jesus in worshiping him as King of the Jews.
There was a close connection between this altar and the brazen altar. Live coals of fire were brought from it to the golden altar, on which the incense was burned (Lev. 16:12). That fire had been divinely sent from God (Lev. 9:24). Nadab and Abihu profanely offered incense with other or strange fire and died as a result (Lev 10:1). Also [52] the blood of the sin offering was smeared upon the horns of the golden altar once each year, on the great day of atonement. And, too, in every sin offering for the priests or for the whole congregation collectively some of the blood from the brazen altar was brought and applied to these gold covered horns (Lev. 4:7, 18).
Typical Meaning of the Golden Altar.—As the golden altar had two uses, we need not be surprised to find an antitypical meaning of each of those uses. The significance of the offering of incense is clearly brought out both in the Old and in the New Testament. "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense" (Psa. 141:2). "The four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials [bowls, or censers], full of odors [marg., incense], which are the prayers of saints" (Rev. 5:8). (See also Isa. 6: 3, 4; and Luke 1:10) What a beautiful symbol is the fragrant odor of this sweet incense ascending there before the Lord! How pleasing to him must be the devotion of loving hearts, the devout feelings of faithful worshipers, [53] the praises of his people, the reaching out of the souls of the redeemed for blessed communion with him! All this is prayer in the broadest sense. We no longer offer incense, but "let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name" (Heb. 13:15).
This incense altar was "before the Lord." Though the veil intervened, yet it is constantly described as being connected with the ark and the mercy seat. In Heb. 9:4 it is stated that the holiest room "had the golden censer," which was doubtless the incense altar. Therefore when we pray today we come into God's holy presence, before the throne of grace, the mercy seat. There we give pleasure to the loving heart of a kind Creator by sincere hearts' devotion. And as the incense was offered continually, "a perpetual incense,' that is, each morning and evening always, so we are admonished to "pray without ceasing," to be "instant [constant] in prayer," to be "praying always " "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth" (Psa. 34:1).
The blood on the horns of the golden altar also shadowed forth some of the good things that God has now provided for us. Like the brazen altar and the laver, it was directly between the entrance to the court and the ark of God; signifying that it was one of the means by which the sinner came to God Those who have had their hearts "sprinkled from an evil conscience" (at the brazen altar), and have had their "bodies washed with pure water" (at the laver), the writer to the Hebrews exhorts, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" (Heb. 10:19 22). It is clear from this that the blood of Jesus gives entrance through the veil into the holiest, as we have already shown that the sacrificial blood at the brazen altar gives admittance through the first veil into the holy place. Also we have shown that this holiest place is typical of entire sanctification. A very definite proof of this is that the atoning blood was put on the horns of the golden altar only [54] for those who had been admitted to the holy place—the priests, as individuals, or for the whole congregation, whose representatives, the priests, were admitted (see Lev. 4:7, 18). The blood of the sin offering for "one of the common people" was smeared on the horns of the brazen altar out in the court (Lev. 4:30). How remarkably did God in these ancient symbols predict the minute details of the process of our salvation. But it may be objected that the priests did not gain entrance to the holiest by this blood on the horns of the golden altar. This was because "the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. 9:8). Likewise the common people were not admitted into the holy place by the blood of their sin offering on the horns of the brazen altar. But as the sinner is now admitted into the holy place of the church by the atoning blood of Jesus, so also those who have already entered it are now admitted into the holiest by the same blood on the horns of the golden altar. [55] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Ark and the Mercy Seat
( Exod. 25 :10-22 )
Of all the furniture of the tabernacle, that of the holy of holies was the most peculiar, the most impressive, and the most significant. It consisted of two distinct articles, yet inasmuch as they belonged together they are commonly spoken of as one.
The ark of the covenant was so called because in it was placed, and it existed as a receptacle for, the two tables of stone on which Jehovah had supernaturally inscribed the ten commandments, the foundation of his law to Israel. It was an ordinary sized, gold plated, shittimwood chest one and one half cubits, or twenty seven inches, wide and high, and two and one half cubits, or forty five inches, long. Around the top was a crown of gold, which seems to have been purely for the purpose of ornamentation, as it was on the table and golden altar. Two golden rings, with a gold covered bar, on each of the two sides furnished a means of conveying it from place to place. [55]
The mercy seat was a slab of pure gold as wide and as long as the ark, and was laid on top of the ark, fitting down inside the crown as a sort of lid. On the ends of it, and of one piece of gold with it, were fashioned two angelic winged figures, called cherubim. These faced each other, looking down upon the mercy seat and stretching their wings out above and before them until the tips of the wings of the one touched the other's, making a sort of covering or canopy over this symbolic throne of the invisible God. "There," above the mercy seat, overshadowed by the wings of the cherubim, said the Lord, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." (Exod. 25:22). There shone the Shekinah, the glory of the Lord, according to Jewish tradition. There is some ground for this tradition in the pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness journey and in the glory of the Lord that at different times filled or was seen on the tabernacle. There on the mercy seat, on the great day of atonement, the atoning blood was sprinkled in the very presence of God. For only there in the presence of this blood could the holy God consistently commune with sinful men.
Typical Significance of the Ark and Mercy Seat.—We must view the ark and mercy seat together, as they were very closely related to each other, to get a clear idea of their typical meaning. The mercy seat was God's throne, with the ark for its base, the cherubim for sides and supports and their outstretched wings for a canopy above. It is doubtless here we get the beautiful expression, "throne of grace." (Heb. 4:16). It was a place of mercy.
The symbolic and typical significance can be better understood by first getting the force of the meaning of the name of the mercy seat. It is sometimes translated the propitiatory covering. But it was not this in the sense of a mere covering for the ark. According to Dr. Fairbairn, the Hebrew name, capporeth, which means covering, is [57] never used for covering in the ordinary sense. It is never mentioned precisely as the lid of the ark. It was a place where sin was covered. The translators of the Septuagint have, with this in mind, expressed the idea very well as a propitiatory covering. It was an atonement covering. Now Jesus is the true mercy seat or propitiatory. "Being just). fled freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." (Rom. 3:24, 25). The blood sprinkled by the mediating high priest on atonement day on that pure gold mercy seat was typical of the precious atoning blood of Jesus. The mercy seat must be considered with the blood upon it, as the altar with the sacrifice upon it. So also the ark should be regarded, with the symbolic law of God in it, as a type.
The ark was typical of God's righteous law which sinful man has violated. And the mercy seat was typical of Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of violating that law. The mercy seat was the same length and width as the ark; so Jesus' atonement is coextensive with man's sin in breaking God's holy law. It covers every sin. God's mercy through Christ is equal to his justice. What a beautiful symbol of the ground on which God offers pardon to those deserving of penalty. It is only in the presence of the propitiatory blood covering his violated law that the Holy One can commune with those who are unholy. Thank God for Jesus the "propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2).
But what do the cherubim represent? More or less mystery surrounds both the nature and symbolic meaning of the two golden cherubim. That they were winged creatures of the angelic order seems fairly clear. These had wings certainly. Probably these are not essentially different from those seraphim of Isaiah's vision which had six wings (Isa. 6:2). They are always represented as being closely connected with the throne or presence of God or as doing his work. Certainly the close relation of the golden cherubim to the mercy seat, as well as the cherubic [58] figures worked in the hangings of the walls and in the veil, signified the fact of the presence of the invisible God.
While we may be sure of this, yet there may be also fuller significance to them. They certainly can not symbolize agents, but must represent something different from yet analogous to themselves. When our fore parents were driven from Eden, cherubim were set at the gate to keep the way to the tree of life. They were closely connected with God's judicial government, executors of justice. Is it not possible that these beings that seem to belong to God's presence are hieroglyphs of his divine attributes such as justice and mercy? May not one of the golden cherubim of the mercy seat represent justice and the other mercy as they meet in the presence of the atoning blood of Jesus? There with eyes fixed upon the blood, justice and mercy come face to face and are reconciled together, yea, they become one, and one with the true propitiatory, the Lord Jesus Christ. [59] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER III
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE
(Exodus 25—27, 30, 35—38, 40)
The Antitypical Holy of Holies
We have already shown that the tabernacle as a house was a type of the New Testament church, and as a means of service typical of the way by which the sinner comes to God or obtains salvation. The two rooms were shown to represent the two degrees of Christian experience, regeneration and entire sanctification. However, the great facts of the atonement typified by the ark and the mercyseat, and also the intercession of the high priest on the great day of atonement, which in antitype belongs to heaven where God dwells, necessarily were represented in the holy of holies merely because He then dwelt there. But the holiest into which we are exhorted to enter by the blood of Jesus is the experience of entire sanctification, the fullness of Christian experience. Entire sanctification is simultaneous with the baptism of the Holy Ghost (Acts 15:8, 9).
There in that sacred place the redeemed soul dwells in closet communion with God. No veil now is needed to [59] bar him from the presence of the infinitely Holy One, because he is cleansed from the last remains of sin and is pure "as he is pure." He "dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High,' he abides "under the shadow of the Almighty." And under his golden "wings shalt thou trust." There, as on the stone tables, the law of God is perfectly written in the hearts of the sanctified by the restoration of the moral nature to primitive holiness. There their souls are satisfied with the hidden manna. And there the Shekinah light of the glory of God is their constant portion. In this heavenly condition they abide in God and God in them. And this blessed experience is the rightful heritage of all God's people.
"There is a blest pavilion,
A sacred inner court,
The place of God's own dwelling,
With all the world shut out.
Oh, holy resting place!
Oh, calm and pure retreat!
Where God unveils his face,
And life is only sweet.
"Within this greater temple,
Built by the Son of God,
We've found a full salvation,
And entered thro' the blood.
Here on the mercy seat,
Beneath the cherubim,
We dwell in love complete,
And heaven's glory hymn.
"First at the cleansing laver
We felt the blood applied,
Then on the golden altar
We're wholly sanctified.
Within the second veil,
Oh, holy, holy, place!
With joyful lips we tell
The fullness of his grace. [60]
"Oh, glory be to Jesus!
I've boldly entered in
The secret of his presence,
and triumph over sin.
My soul is hid away
In God, with Jesus Christ;
And here I'll ever stay,
In sweet eternal rest."
—D. S. Warner [61] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER IV
THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD
Priesthood, or an attorneyship in sacred things, is one of the most ancient of religious institutions, and has been characteristic of almost every known religion. The first mention of a priest in the Bible is that of Melchise. dec, king of Salem and priest of the most high God. To him Abraham paid tithes of the spoils from his battle with the kings. The priesthood of Aaron and his sons is the next mentioned of the true religion.
But the priests of heathen religions are often mentioned in the Bible and history. The priests of Egypt were a powerful and privileged class to whom Pharoah gave a special portion of the land (Gen. 47 :22). The king of Egypt honored Joseph, his prime minister, by giving him the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. Moses married the daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian. Four hundred and fifty priests of Baal ate at the table of the wicked queen Jezebel. Mention might also be made of the druids of Gaul and Britain, the Magi of Persia, the Sacerdotes of Greece and Rome, the califs of Mohammedanism, the medicine men of various savage tribes, and of the influential orders of priests in heathen lands today.
But why is priesthood thus coextensive with religion? Like the altar, that other most ancient religious institution, the priesthood is the answer to a fundamental need in man's religious nature as he is now constituted. The guilt of sin is upon his soul, and he feels himself unfitted to come into the presence of a holy God. Therefore he needs a daysman, an arbitrator, or a mediator to deal with his offended Creator for him. Not only do the ethnic religions ancient and modern have such a middleman, and of the true religion not only the Israelitish, but, thank God, Christianity has its great High Priest, our blessed Lord [62] Jesus Christ. He is the true mediator between God and men. He intercedes for us.
In the religion of the patriarchs no priesthood existed. Every man was his own priest for himself and family. Abel offered his own lamb. Noah officiated at the altar after leaving the ark. Nothing is more characteristic of the life of Abraham than his altar to Jehovah, on which he himself laid the offerings. Job also offered burnt offerings for his sons: this may be accounted for by the fact that they were either in an undeveloped state of society or sojourners among idolaters. Certainly God's original design was that every man should have personal acquaintance with him and worship him directly. In view of this it has been suggested that Mosaism was a step backward in religion in this particular. But may we not rather allow that the spiritual minded Israelite, like David, still had direct spiritual intercourse with God, and added to this and as an aid to it this typical priesthood to remind him of that true Priest greater than Aaron?
Also the existence of the priesthood would the more forcibly remind the sin burdened Israelite of that awful | truth which he already knew instinctively, that sin had I separated between him and his God. He is too sinful to | be looked upon by the holy eyes of God. He is not worthy to commune with his Lord. He is as the guilty criminal before the righteous judge. He is a fugitive fleeing before infinite justice. An impassable gulf yawns between him and his Maker, and he himself can not bridge it. He is a rebel against his rightful Sovereign and needs a friend of I that Sovereign to entreat for him. Like guilty Adam he would hide from God. He shrinks from the presence of the Holy One, and, like the terrified Israelites at the foot of Mount Sinai when the voice of God spoke the Decalog in tones of thunder, he tremblingly looks about for one who can approach the holy God for him, and says with them, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die."
On the other hand God also, desiring to become reunited to his sinful subjects, needs a middleman. He can not sacrifice his infinite dignity and righteousness to receive [64] to himself vile sinners. If he was ever to forgive his ungrateful, unworthy creatures one must be found who could serve as a connecting link and who could bring man to God by way of atonement for a broken law. To unite God and man there must be a spiritual attorney who can lay his hand upon both. There must be one such as is but dimly foreshadowed in those ancient priests, who shall reconcile God to man by making man holy as God is holy. [65] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER IV
THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD
The Levitical Priesthood
(Exodus 28, 29)
The priesthood in Israel is called the Levitical priesthood because the priests were from the tribe of Levi. The priesthood was the ministry of worship as the tabernacle was the place of worship for the Israelites. The priests had a very close connection with the tabernacle in its constitution and as a complement of it in that ancient religion of types and shadows. The tabernacle would have been useless and meaningless without a priesthood. So close was this relation that the inspired writer stops his description of the furniture of the tabernacle at the end of the twenty-seventh chapter of Exodus, before giving the description of the golden altar found in Exodus thirty, to devote the twenty eighth and twenty ninth chapters to the calling and consecrating of Aaron and his sons.
The command to Moses was. "Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office." (Exod. 28:1). Aaron was to be the high priest, and the sons common priests. Viewing the Israelitish priesthood in its broadest phase, it contained three classes:
1. The whole tribe of Levi was a priestly tribe, and the Levites were divinely appointed helpers of the priests proper, to assist them in caring for and transporting the tabernacle from place to place, and in teaching the law to the people. Because of these important duties the Levites were given no regular inheritance in the land of Canaan, but were scattered among the other tribes and made dependent [65] upon the tithes from the other twelve tribes for their living. Þ 2. The common priests were of the sons of Aaron, who was of the priestly tribe of Levi. These were conse. crated with Aaron to the sacred service of Jehovah, but it is worthy of notice that in the calling of them with Aaron it is said that "he" may minister in the priest's office. Aaron was the priest. They were priests only because of their relationship to their father the priest. They were merely his helpers in serving at the altar and in instructing the people in divine things. Þ
3. The high priest, whose office was the basis for those of the other class, was the real mediator of the Mosaic religion. He stood between the sinful people and their holy God. He it was only who entered once each year into the holy of holies to make atonement and to intercede before Jehovah for them. He bore their names ever upon his breast. As far as that ancient service is concerned, there would have been no other priests if he could have performed this service alone. Þ
Aaron and MelchisedecÞ
In the Old Testament we read of two great priests, Aaron and Melchisedec. Much is said of Aaron, of his ancestry, call, anointing, duties, descendants, and death. But to Melchisedec a very small niche is given in the annals of Old Testament history. Turning, however, to the New Testament, we find him given a place of more prominence than is given to Aaron, and he is shown to be superior to Aaron, and typical of Christ in a special way as Aaron was not. Þ
For but one brief instant Melchisedec appears on the scene of Old Testament history. He was a priest of Jehovah in the ancient city of Salem; and Abraham, the father of the priesthood of Aaron, therefore greater than Aaron, acknowledged that this extraordinary character was still greater than himself, as the writer of the Hebrew epistle reasons, by paying tithes to him. We do not know [66] how this devout priest of the true God happened to be dwelling there among those idolatrous people; neither do we know anything of his birth, death, parentage, nor descendants. For the Aaronic priests it was necessary that they be able to trace their ancestry back to Aaron. But Jesus, the great High Priest, is not of the family of Aaron. Consequently he is described in the epistle to the Hebrews, quoting from the prophecy in the Psalms, as being "a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec." Aaron died and so could not continue to mediate for his people, but we have no record of Melchisedec's death. In that his priesthood is apparently without beginning and without end, but perpetual, so it is reasoned that his priesthood is like that of Jesus. Christ is a priest of the order of Melchisedec, but he e exercises the office after the manner of Aaron. Melchisedec well typifies the fact of Christ's continuous priesthood, but Aaron is a more exact type of him as the true mediator between God and men.
The Antitype of the Priesthood
That our blessed Lord is the antitypical high priest is abundantly shown in the New Testament. "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, C h ri s t Jesus." (Heb. 3 :1 ). "We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." (Heb. 8 :1). As Aaron entered into God's presence with the blood of vicarious atonement, so Jesus intercedes for us by his own atoning blood. As Israel's high priest bore into God's presence the names of his people inscribed in the precious stones upon his breast and shoulders, so Jesus our "advocate with the Father" represents us every one before God's throne in heaven now. That ancient high priest resembled Christ in several particulars and yet was much inferior to him. He was divinely appointed, and so was Jesus (Heb. 5:5). He was ceremonially pure in that he was consecrated; must not defile himself by touching any dead thing; and must marry a wife in her virginity, not a divorced woman, a harlot, or a widow (Lev. 21:14): so Christ was intrinsically [67] holy (Heb. 7:26). The ancient high priest was to be physically perfect (Lev. 21:16 24); but Christ is morally perfect.
The common priests as assistants of Aaron in offering sacrifices were also typical of Christ, who offers the true sacrifice for sin. But in another sense they are represented as being typical of God's people. "Ye are . . . a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Pet. 2:9). "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests" (Rev. 5 :10). Believers are represented as priests by various New Testament writers, and it is not unreasonable to regard them as antitypical of those ancient common priests. Believers are holy as those priests were regarded by God as being more holy than others. Also as those priests entered that ancient house of God, so we have been admitted into the "house of God which is the church." Again we are analogous to them in that as they offered the sweet incense in worship to God, so we "offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." (Heb. 13:15). These offerings to God are acceptable to him because we are chosen of God as priests; we do not become priests by means of such offerings. As those Levitical priests had to wash at the laver before entering the sacred precincts of God's house, so we have become truly holy by the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost. Every Christian is a priest of God, and needs no priestly order such as exists in the Greek and Roman Churches to stand between him and God today; for he is made holy by the offering of our great High Priest. [68] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER IV
THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD
The "Golden Garments" of Aaron
The clothing commonly worn by Aaron in his priestly ministrations was made by a divinely given pattern, and was called by Jewish writers the "golden garments" because of the much gold used in them and to distinguish them from the plain white linen garments which he wore in token of humiliation during the solemn services of the great day of atonement. These golden garments are described as "holy" and "for glory and for beauty." And they were indeed beautiful. Probably the dress of no potentate [68] of earth has surpassed them for beauty and richness. The vestments of the pope of Rome on great occasions, though patterned somewhat after these and those of the pontifex maximus of pagan Rome, doubtless would dwindle into insignificance if compared with this imposing attire of the high priest of Israel. Probably no grander sight ever greeted the eyes of an Israelite than that of Aaron with hands uplifted to bless his people, while fourteen large jewels on his breast and shoulders glittered in the bright light of the desert sun and the gold o f h i s garments gleamed and blazed in its glory. It was such as became the dignity of the representative of him whose "face shone as the sun" and whose "raiment was white and glistening."
These holy vestments of Aaron are regarded by God as very important doubtless because of their typical significance. They are minutely described; almost two entire chapters of Exodus, twenty eight and thirty nine, being devoted to them. They consisted of seven pieces. In the order in which they were put upon him when he was consecrated they were: the linen breeches, the broidered coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, the curious girdle, the breastplate, and the miter.
The White Linen Garments. —The linen breeches or drawers for Aaron are not listed in the Bible with the other articles of the high priest's garments, but with those of his sons, because they were similar to those of the common priests. The broidered coat was of fine white linen, having sleeves, and reaching probably nearly to his feet. It was embroidered with needlework, but this was likely also in white. It seems to have had a linen girdle other than the curious girdle or belt of the ephod (Lev. 8:7; 16:4). These white garments were similar to if not the same as those worn by the common priests. Also the white linen miter of Aaron was of the same material if not of the same shape as the bonnets made for his sons. These pure white linen robes, which were worn next to the flesh, were symbolic to them of purity, and probably typify the fine linen which is the righteousness of saints [69]—God's spiritual priests of the present. They are called the "holy garments." (Lev. 16:4).
The Robe.—Of the robe it is not mentioned what kind of material was used, but its color was to be blue, and it was to be woven in one piece with a hole for the head and doubtless holes for the arms. It reached probably somewhat below the knees, and it had hanging from its border pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet. Alternating with these were golden bells, the sound of which was heard as Aaron entered or came out of the sanctuary. The sound of these bells indicating the mediation of the high priest typified the proclamation of the gospel tidings, that Christ is now making intercession for our salvation before the Father. These are the antitypical gospel bells.
"The gospel bells in music tell
The story that we love so well,
Of 'Peace on earth good will to men;'
Ring out, sweet bells, ring out again."
The Ephod.—The ephod was of special importance. It was made of the kingly colors of blue, purple, and scarlet, because though the Israelitish high priest was not a king, yet he typified him who is Prophet, Priest, and King. Threads or wire of pure gold were woven into the ephod. It consisted of two pieces of such cloth, one of which covered the back and the other the front, being fastened together by the gold settings of the onyx stones on either shoulder. It was fastened together below by the belt or "curious girdle," which was made of the same material. But the two large gems, one on either shoulder, which were attached to it ( or rather to which it was attached, because it existed for them, not they for it), were the important part of it. These were held in place by settings of gold, and on them were engraved in raised letters the names of the twelve sons of Israel, six on the stone of the right shoulder and six on the left. These are said to have been for a memorial that Aaron might bear the names of the children of Israel before the Lord for a memorial. Aaron was their representative in [70] intercession for them. These stones with the names on them remarkably typify Christ's bearing his people before the Lord as their advocate with the Father today. On his mighty shoulders they rest. They trust in his unfailing power to save them, and they need not fear.
"Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on his hands."
The Breastplate.—The breastplate was attached to the ephod and seems sometimes to be reckoned as a part of it. It was made of cloth similar to that of the ephod, and was a span, or about nine inches, square when doubled. On this were fastened by ouches, or settings, of gold twelve costly gems of as many different kinds arranged in four rows, one above another, with three in a row. On these were inscribed in raised letters the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The names differed from those of the stones of the ephod only in naming the twelve tribes instead of the twelve sons of Israel. The names of Levi and Joseph, which appeared on the stones of the ephod, were omitted from the breastplate and the n a m e s o f Ephraim and Manassah, Joseph's sons, were substituted. But as Levi, the priestly tribe, belonged to all the tribes it was represented on the breastplate.
It was important that all the Israelites be represented by the priest. And this was done by this double enumeration of them, so none needed to feel he was missed. The names on the breastplate were connected to those on the stones on the shoulders by golden chains, made of twisted threads of gold, which furnished a support for the breastplate, which was also tied to the ephod with blue ribbon below. As Aaron, Israel's representative before God, bore their names on his breastplate and on the stones on his shoulders, so our Representative before God ever bears us on his heart of infinite love and upon his shoulders of almighty power. Our cause is safe in his care. He will not fail as our Advocate because of lack of interest nor because of lack of ability. And all the [71] people of God are represented there. Reuben, "unstable as water," is represented as well as lion like Judah. Thanks be to God, each of us is there; our High Priest pleads my cause and yours, and all who will may have the benefits of his intercession for them.
The Miter and Crown.—The head covering of Aaron was not a deeply cleft high cap such as has been worn by the Pope or other modern ecclesiastic, but rather a white linen turban, according to Josephus. But the important feature of Aaron's head covering was the holy crown, the plate of pure gold which was fastened to the miter by a band of blue cloth. On this plate of shining gold was engraved in raised letters, "Holiness to the Lord." Aaron not only represented the sinful people to God, but he also represented their holy God to them. He not only represented them by bearing their names on his breast and shoulders, but he represented God by the golden inscription that was so prominent on his forehead.
Likewise our High Priest is both God and man. He partakes of sinful flesh to identify himself with us; but he retains the holy and divine nature of God, which identifies him with the Godhead. In interceding for the forgiveness of the sinner he does not ask God to disregard his own holiness. He upholds God's holiness and at the same time consistently asks pardon for the guilty. He reconciles justice and mercy. How wonderful! God's marvelous plan of saving sinful men is worthy of the infinite wisdom and perfection of Him who cloth all things well. And the typification of these wonderful Christian truths in those ancient vestments of Aaron likewise bear the same mark of divine wisdom in their remarkable resemblance to these truths.
The Urim and Thummim.—What the Urim and Thummim were is not known. Some have supposed they were merely the stones of the breastplate. A more probable theory seems to be that they were objects separate from the breastplate that were deposited in the pouch formed by the doubling of the cloth of the breastplate. They [72] may have been similar to or identical with seraphim, which were images or other objects used in divination. Some ground is furnished for this view by those texts which connect seraphim with ephods (Judg. 17 :5; 18 :14, 17, 20) and also by the statement that Israel's desolation should consist partly in being deprived of the ephod and seraphim (Hosea 3:4). Also if the evil spirits can make things known through such means, there is no reason why we should not allow that God used such a device in connection with his chosen priest. While we may not be certain concerning the nature of the Urim and Thummim, we do know they were for the purpose of revealing the will and mind of God. David and others often applied to them for this purpose. And here again the high priest is like Christ, who reveals to us God's mind and will. [73 middle] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER IV
THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD
Consecration of Aaron and His Sons
(Exodus 29, Leviticus 8)
Almost a year had passed since the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the tabernacle had just been set up, when, at the divine command, the vast host of Israel were gathered at the tabernacle to witness the elaborate rites of the consecration of the priestly family to their important office. Of course, not more than the elders of the tribes could crowd into the court, but doubtless the common people gathered about the door and probably thronged the surrounding mountain sides. We may well imagine, when all were thus gathered, a small procession issuing from the tents of the priests and, while a solemn hush rested upon the gathered multitude, passing into the court before the door of the sanctuary. First in the procession is Moses, the giver of the law—the meek man of God. Next is Aaron, whom God had chosen for the high priesthood. Following their father come his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Next come four Levites with the offerings, one leading a bullock, a second and third each leading a ram, and a fourth carrying a basket containing unleavened bread, [73] unleavened cakes, and unleavened wafers with oil poured over them.
The rites of priestly consecration, like others of the shadows of good things, held great typical significance, and were performed in the exact order of the antitype. Aaron's dedication represents that of Christ to his great work, while that of his sons is typical of our consecration—as priests of our God. Of course, Aaron had to be made ceremonially clean to become a type of Christ; but Jesus needed no such cleansing, for he was intrinsically pure from the beginning. With this exception the type and antitype are parallel.
Their Washing.—First Moses washed them, probably at the laver. The laver represented regeneration, as we have already shown. So, likewise, those who believed upon Him whose coming John the Baptist announced, were regenerated (Luke 16:16 and John 3 :3). Logically the sin offering belongs here also, but historically, as it was in Jesus' ministry, the great sin offering must come after the anointing of the high priest and immediately before the consecration and anointing of the common priests. So it was in the type. Men were regenerated and in the kingdom long before Calvary.
Robing and Anointing of Aaron.—Next the holy garments, already described, were put upon the high priest, after which came the holy anointing oil. This anointing of Aaron was highly significant. The oil was made by God's special formula as described in Exodus 30 :22-33. God had a patent on it, and penalty was death for infringement by making it for any secular use. This is "the precious ointment" that was poured out "upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments" (Psa. 133: 2). Its pleasant odor reminded the Psalmist of the sweet fellowship of brethren in unity.
This specially compounded ointment was a type of the Holy Spirit. This is made clear in the first epistle of John, chapter two, verse twenty seven: "But the anointing [74] which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things." And it is the Holy Ghost that teaches. That this is the antitypical meaning of that holy oil is shown by the plain statement of the New Testament that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" ( Acts 10 :38) . From this verse it is certain that the holy chrism on Aaron's head typified the Holy Spirit's coming in bodily form like a dove and resting upon Jesus as he ascended from the baptismal waters of the Jordan. There was fulfilled Daniel's prophecy, "To anoint the Most Holy" (Dan. 9:24). As Aaron's anointing was before the sin offering was offered, and his sons did not receive the oil until after, so our great High Priest, Jesus, received the Holy Ghost three years before the cross, and the disciples, the common priests, not until fifty days after the crucifixion and resurrection, on the day of Pentecost. Jesus fully predicted on the night of his betrayal that he would send the Holy Ghost to them later. This was fulfilled when with a sound as of a mighty wind he came on them as tongues of fire. The prophet Isaiah predicted Christ's anointing long years before. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings" (Isa. 61:1). Jesus said in the beginning of his ministry and before his crucifixion that this prediction was fulfilled (Luke 4).
The oil was poured upon Aaron, while it is said to have been merely sprinkled upon his sons. Aaron received a copious measure of it so that it ran down over his person. So of Jesus it was said, "God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Heb. 1:9). And he said of himself, "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (John 3:34). The Spirit is given by measure to men so they may constantly become more filled with his working; but Jesus had him in unlimited [75] measure for power, wisdom, and knowledge. Jesus was infinite in all his capacities.
The Sacrifices at the Altar.—The bullock was first offered for a sin offering for all the priests. It was like an ordinary sin offering of a priest except that the blood was put upon the horns of the brazen altar instead of the golden altar, as was ordinarily done. This was doubtless because they were not yet priests, but only being made such. Next the first ram was offered for a burnt offering, a symbol of acceptable worship only through atonement. Then the second ram was offered for a peace offering, and the meat offering of bread and cakes accompanied it. The peace offering was also the consecration offering. Otherwise these offerings were simply the various kinds of sacrifices of the Levitical system. These will be considered in detail in our next chapter.
The Blood of Consecration Applied to the Priests.— When the ram of consecration was slain, some of its blood was taken and applied to the person of Aaron and of each of his sons. It was put upon the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot. It was to consecrate them. The blood stained ear signified that they were consecrated to listen faithfully to God's commandments, the blood stained hand that they were to do diligently the duties God had assigned to them, and the blood marked foot that they should tread the courts of God's house and walk in his way. This shadow of good things contains an important lesson for us today who are of God's holy priesthood. Too often there is a failure of this complete consecration of every power of the being to God's service. While many see only this consecration in sanctification, others see only cleansing. But God had both in the type, and intends it so in the antitype. The cleansing is in order to the devotion of our powers to God's service. God saves us that we may obey him, serve him, and follow him.
The Anointing of Aaron's Sons.—We have already seen Aaron himself anointed before the bloodshedding as [76]
Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER IV
THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD
Consecration of Aaron and His Sons
(Exodus 29, Leviticus 8)
the great High Priest was anointed by the Holy Spirit. Now we come to the anointing of the sons. Aaron was anointed as typical of Christ with pure ointment because Christ was holy and needed no cleansing by blood, but the only anointing the sons received was by the oil mixed with the blood from the altar. That this was the blood of the ram of consecration is evident, because the blood of the sin offering had been poured out at the foot of the altar and not sprinkled upon it, the blood of the burnt offering was sprinkled upon the altar but had been burned with the burnt offering, and the ram of consecration is being dealt with at the time this anointing is enjoined. Fairbairn and Moorehead both understand it this way. Moses mixed this oil and blood together and sprinkled it upon them. This was applied to Aaron as well as his sons, as the sin sacrifices were. Because he was a sinful man, this had symbolic meaning, but not typical meaning as did his anointing with the pure oil without blood and as the oil and blood did of his sons.
But why the blood in the oil for anointing the sons? It has already been shown that the oil was typical of the Holy Ghost and that believers, the common priests of this dispensation, first received the anointing of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Does the blood of Christ have a part in our anointing with the Holy Ghost ? On the same occasion as Jesus promised the Holy Ghost to his disciples who had believed on him, had been regenerated, had been sent to preach, and whose names were written in heaven, he prayed that they might be sanctified, that they might be kept from the evil. We showed in the preceding chapter that the New Testament teaches a cleansing of the heart from native depravity after conversion, also that the Holy Ghost baptism is subsequent to conversion, as shown by every example recorded in the New Testament. As further proof that a cleansing of the heart takes place in connection with the Spirit's baptism, we quote Acts 15 :8, 9 where Peter is describing the experience which Cornelius and his household received at the time he visited them. "And God, which knoweth [77] the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
The blood is the means of sanctification (Heb. 13:12), and the Spirit is the agent who applies it (Rom. 15:16). Is it not reasonable, therefore, to believe that in this anointing of Aaron's sons with oil mixed with blood, after the sin offering had already been offered for their justification, we have a remarkably accurate type of the fact that a cleansing is wrought when we are anointed by the Holy Ghost, which second cleansing is also typified by the two rooms of the tabernacle?
The Eating of the Ram of Consecration.—The eating of the ram of consecration being a part of the regular rite of the peace offering, its typical meaning will be discussed in that connection. The continuation of these rites of consecration of Aaron and his sons for seven days indicates doubtless the completeness of their consecration, seven being the number of perfection. When the consecration was ended on the eighth day, and Aaron with Moses had entered the sanctuary, then Aaron came out and lifted up his hands and blessed the people. So Jesus, when he had accomplished the antitype of the ancient shadows we have been considering, ascended into the presence of God, from where he has ever blessed his people as a merciful and faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of their infirmities. [78] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER V
THE OFFERINGS THE ALTAR
(Leviticus 1—7)
Sacrificial offerings did not have their origin with the Mosaic law. It merely directed specifically how such offerings should be made by those under it. Like the altar on which they were offered, they date from the earliest dawn of human history, and have characterized religion in almost all ages and countries.
Cain and Abel, Noah and Abraham offered sacrifices. The priests of Baal did likewise in the days of Elijah, and the devotees of the ancient fire god Moloch placed their infant children in the extended hands of the great brass image of their god to be burned to death by the flames of a roaring fire kindled on the altar beneath, while the cries of the little victims were drowned by the beating of the drums and the blowing of trumpets. Human sacrifice has been common in different heathen religions. At one time the bloody goddess Kali of India was worshiped by the sacrifice of many thousands of human lives each year. When Europeans first visited Mexico, the Mexican Indians offered human sacrifice by placing the living victim on the altar before the idol, cutting a slit in his left side, pulling the heart out and pressing it against the idol.
How men first got the idea of offering sacrifices we can not be certain. If it was originally by a direct injunction of God, as some suppose, it must still be allowed that a deep need of man's nature has impelled him to continue the practice. Serious minded men in all places and times have had a tendency to worship a higher being. A bent to religion is deeply implanted in human nature. Also as at present constituted men feel estranged from God by sin. They therefore seek by these sacrifices to obtain favor with him. [79]
Sacrifices by Blood
At first thought it seems strange that the kind Creator should appoint such rites that his holy sanctuary should have the appearance of a solemn slaughter house. But such must have been the general aspect around that ancient altar of Jehovah. The grand reason for such an arrangement was that "without shedding of blood is no remission," as a New Testament writer has put it. And unless sins were remitted, the Holy Lord could not associate himself with a sinful people. God's holiness and man's sin lie at the bottom of all that ancient bloodshedding on God's altar.
But why must blood be shed? Would not a live lamb placed upon God's altar answer as well ? Or why might not the agriculturist bring an offering of the fruits of the field, as did Cain, and be accepted of God? The answer to these questions is quite clearly given in Lev. 17:11, where the eating of blood is forbidden and the reason is given why it must not be eaten: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." The full force and exact meaning of this text is often missed because of the last three words, "for the soul." According to Fairbairn the Hebrew preposition here translated "for" is much better rendered as in the American Standard Version, where the last clause reads, "for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life [soul, margin]." The reason, then, why the blood is appointed to atone for the soul of the guilty is because of the life of the animal that resides in the blood, as is brought out in the first clause of the verse.
Moses told us more than three millenniums ago a truth which by modern science has not been discovered and announced until in recent years—that the physical seat of animal life is in the blood. Harvey, the discoverer of blood circulation, says of the blood, "It is the fountain of life, the first to live, the last to die, and the primary [80] seat of the animal soul." Now, the sinner had forfeited his life by sin, for "the wages of sin is death." Justice demanded that the penalty be paid. But God, desiring to forgive the sinner, made an arrangement so that His holiness could be maintained and His good law respected by the sacrificing of another life, one that had not been forfeited, instead of the life of the sinner so the sinner might go free. Therefore the blood, the physical seat of life, is chosen as the most appropriate symbol of that intangible life that must be laid upon the altar of God to cover from his holy eyes the guilt of the sinner.
Inefficiency of Animal Sacrifices
Because the souls of those dumb animals sacrificed for sin were unforfeited unstained by guilt they were in this particular a fit substitute for men, but in almost every other point they lacked the requisite qualities to atone for sin. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Heb. 10 :4). The penalty for sin is represented as being infinite everlasting. Then how could the suffering of mere physical death by a finite creature be a proper substitute for that penalty ? Especially is this not possible when we consider that those creatures, unlike the sinner, were irrational and non moral, and so incapable of sin or holiness. Also they could not constitute a proper sacrifice for sin because their offering was unlike the sin to be atoned for—by voluntary choice. They suffered, not willingly, but by the hand of another. The priest and the offering were divided, which cannot be true in a proper atonement for sin. Passing by the question of whether the suffering of atonement must equal in extent the suffering of the sinner, it is clear that the putting to death of an irrational animal was insufficient to represent to men the extreme sinfulness of sin, and the awful holiness of God and of his commandment that has been violated.
A nobler sacrifice must be sought. These might serve as a temporary basis for the pardon for sin, but even as such only on the ground of an adequate sacrifice being [81] provided in God's plan. Those animal sacrifices had no intrinsic value in themselves, but only as they represented the true sacrifice, much as paper money—a one dollar silver certificate has value only because of the silver dollar that is deposited in the treasury of the government issuing it. The silver dollar has intrinsic value, the paper dollar merely representative value.
But we need not therefore conclude that the Israelite must have clearly comprehended the nature of the true atonement to be accepted by his animal sacrifice, as one need not understand the nature of the value of paper money to be benefited by it, or as one today need not comprehend the philosophy of Christ's atonement in order to be saved. Doubtless it was enough that he should have faith in the mercy of God according to the plan by which he had chosen to show his mercy. However, it is very probable that the more spiritual minded of the Israelites saw dimly the real sacrifice for sin, the Lamb of God, in the distant future that was foreshadowed by the lamb they offered.
The Antitypical Sacrifice for Sin
It scarcely needs to be stated here that Christ in his sacrificial death is the true atonement for man's sin and the antitype of all those Levitical offerings. He is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). We are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Pet. 1.19). "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:14). Each of the various kinds of bloody sacrifices points to him and represents different aspects of his sacrifice, as the different parts of the tabernacle were needed to symbolize various phases of his saving work, or elaborate priestly attire and services were required to show him as mediator in various ways. [82] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER V
THE OFFERINGS THE ALTAR
(Leviticus 1—7)
Only Christ could be fit sacrifice for sin. When the sad news reached heaven that the two holy beings whom God had created and placed on probation in the Garden of Eden had broken the divine commandment and must be forever banished from himself, God began at once to seek for their recovery. In the fifth chapter of Revelation he is described as sitting upon his throne with a book in his hand sealed with seven seals. This book which symbolized the plan of salvation, "no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open." Then it was said, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." No man nor any angel was qualified to save a world of sinners. Only he who is infinite, who could combine in his own person divinity and humanity, who could make an infinite sacrifice could redeem sinful men.
He it was who laid aside his royal robes and kingly crown, stepped down from his exalted throne before which cherubim and seraphim bowed in adoration and worship, and came from that world of bliss to this world of sin, sorrow, and death. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. He "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."
Classes and Quality of Sacrifices
The Levitical sacrifices, excluding those of a special nature such as the Passover, were of five kinds, which are Scripturally divided into two main classes:
Sweet savor Offerings:— Burnt, Meat, and Peace.
Sin Offerings:— Sin, Trespass.
The main idea of the sweet savor offerings was acceptance and worship. The latter class had for its primary purpose the expiation of sin. In the detailed description of all these sacrifices in Leviticus 1—7 the sweet savor sacrifices are described before the sin offerings, but [83] in practice the sin offering, came first and the worship offerings afterward as in the consecration of the priests. (See also 2 Chronicles 29.) Worship can not be acceptable until atonement is made for sin.
The offerings consisted of animal and of vegetable offerings, although the vegetable sacrifices were never offered except in connection with a bloody offering or as its substitute. The bloody offerings were bullocks, sheep, goats, turtle doves, and pigeons, the fowls being acceptable from those too poor to provide a more expensive sacrifice (Lev. 5:7). The vegetable sacrifices were fine flour, oil, unleavened bread, cakes, wafers, or green ears of corn. No leaven was to be burnt upon God's altar because its decayed condition was symbolic of sin. Also no honey was to be offered there. But salt must accompany every sacrifice (Lev. 2:13). Also frankincense was offered with the meat offering.
The animals brought for the "bread of God" must be the best of their kind. They must be without physical blemish, because they were typical of him who had no blemish of sin. The prophet Malachi severely reproved and pronounced a curse on the Jews of his time w h o brought the torn, the lame, the sick, and the blind. As was stated in our consideration of the nature of types, an unholy thing can not typify a holy thing. An essential quality of the true Sin offering was that he himself should be sinless, that his own life should not have been forfeited by sin. The typical sin offering must be like him "who was a Lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Pet. 1:19). He "offered himself without spot to God." (Heb. 9 :14). Both priest and offering in the type must be physically perfect properly to represent him who was combined Priest and Offering—the sinless Son of God.
The Burnt Offering
(Leviticus 1)
The holocaust or whole burnt offering was the most common of all the bloody sacrifices and the most comprehensive in its significance. Probably this is the reason [84] why it is described first in the law of the offerings contained in Leviticus 1—7. The burnt offering was the most ancient variety of bloody sacrifices and was the sort offered by the devout patriarchs, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Job. It was the one composing the Israelitish daily sacrifice each morning and evening (Exod. 29:42).
Kinds of Victims.—For a burnt offering the worshiper might bring of the herd, flock, or of fowls. It might be a bullock, a sheep, or a goat, in each case a male without blemish; or if the worshiper be very poor, as were evidently Joseph and Mary when they offered a burnt offering for the child Jesus (Luke 2 :22 24), he may substitute for these animals a turtle dove or a young pigeon (Lev. 5:7). But for this important sacrifice, observe that the victim must be a male for superior dignity, and without blemish to symbolize perfection, that it might be a proper type of the true Atonement for men's souls.
Nature of the Ceremonial.—Whether the offering was of the flock or of the herd the details of the ceremony were practically the same. Come with me in imagination to the ancient brazen altar and witness the observance of the elaborate details of this offering. Let us stand here at the east side of the altar just inside the gate of the court. Here comes an earnest appearing Israelite leading a bullock by a halter. A priest robed in white linen garments approaches him and directs him with his animal to the north side of the altar.
The offerer here solemnly places his hand upon the bullock in token of his identifying himself with it that it may suffer in his stead, that it may die for his sins, that its life may be poured out that his may be retained. Then he slowly reaches for and unsheathe a large knife provided for the purpose. With one quick stroke he cuts the bullock's throat and it falls prostrate and quivering upon the ground. While it struggles in the throes of death, the skillful hand of the priest holds to the wound a vessel provided for the purpose to catch the blood, while it spurts and gurgles from the cruel, ugly wound of the poor, suffering animal as its struggles grow weaker. [85]
But I hear a kind hearted reader saying, "I can not bear this sight of suffering, and must turn my face away." But, reader, let me direct your view to a sight infinitely more awful—the dreadful scene of Calvary. There is dying, not a dumb animal, but the Son of God, the Creator of the universe. He is not dying the sudden, easy death of the bullock, but the slow, torturous death of crucifixion. His awful agony is not physical pain merely, and that the result of the clean stroke of a knife. His physical suffering is the result of four large spikes heartlessly driven through the quivering flesh of his hands and feet and which tear the tender flesh still more as the weary hours drag by. But especially does he suffer because of the awful weight of the sins of all mankind weighing down his spotless spirit. And, not like the animal, which is an involuntary victim, he willingly suffers all this because of his boundless love for you and me— oh, matchless mercy!
But let us turn back to the shadow, the gory spectacle at the altar. When the blood has ceased to flow, the priest carries the blood to the altar, where it is dashed or sprinkled over the altar to symbolize the important fact that this life is given to God for atonement. The most important parts of the ceremony have already been performed. The laying on of the hand, the killing, and the sprinkling of the blood are characteristic of every kind of the animal offerings.
Next the offerer flays or skins the animal and gives the skin to the priest, whose property it becomes (Lev. 7 :8). Then, while the priest arranges the fire and the wood upon the altar, the offerer cuts into proper pieces the victim, and after washing the legs and inwards with water delivers all to the priest, who lays it on the wood on the altar. And as the wood crackles in the fire and the flames leap up more fiercely, amidst the smell of burning flesh the offering ascends a sweet savor unto the Lord, while the happy offerer turns homeward with the blessed assurance that he is accepted of God. [86] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER V
THE OFFERINGS THE ALTAR
(Leviticus 1—7)
Typical Meaning.—Very definitely is the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 said to be to make atonement for the offerer. Therefore it is certainly typical of Christ, the true Atonement for God's people. That this is so is doubtless shown by Eph. 5:2: "Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor."
The bullock, sheep or goat offered there typified him who is the Prince of the pasture, the choicest of offerings. The burnt offering represented the atoning work of Christ in its broad aspect, not as the sin , trespass , or peace offering, which made prominent certain particular aspects of his atoning work. Various kinds of sacrifices were needed to set forth the different phases of Christ's propitiation. Some of these were represented very definitely in certain of these offerings. But the burnt offering, the most general one, both before and after Moses, was typical of atonement in its general effects. It set forth, not especially the idea of remission of particular sins, but rather of atonement for the offerer's sin generally so that he and his worship were accepted of God. It was a sort of worship offering. Because of this it was usually offered after the sin offering, which was especially for expiation.
So it is only through Christ that we today can worship God acceptably. Only after the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled upon our hearts can our worship and service be a "sweet savor unto the Lord." Those who reject the precious blood of Jesus and yet attempt to worship the holy Lord, ignore the great truth of the burnt offering, and their prayers and service are rejected by God as was that of Cain, whose followers they are.
Another fact worthy of mention concerning this offering is that it was voluntary. No particular juncture of affairs was needed, as with the sin offering, to require it. It was free and possible to all at any time. So Jesus is not only the lamb for the rich, but also the dove for the poor. And here is illustrated the great word "whosoever," so prominent in the gospel. [87]
The Meat Offering
(Lev. 2; 6:14 18)
The meat offering was entirely different in its nature from the burnt offering, which precedes it in the sacred record. That was an animal sacrifice, this is a vegetable oblation. There blood was offered, here it was not. That was wholly burned, this was but partly burned. That was for atonement, this unbloody oblation must necessarily have represented another idea.
The most natural sense of the name of this offering according to modern usage would lead one to think of it as an animal sacrifice rather than as being a vegetable oblation as it is described. When our common English translation of the Bible was made, the word "meat" signified food in general and not merely flesh, as with us. The Revised Version translates it "meal offering," which is better.
The meat offering was not an uncommon kind of sacrifice in Israel, and it was probably offered in connection with the burnt offerings of the patriarchs, before Moses' time. Each morning and evening a meat offering was offered by the priests in connection with the lamb of the daily burnt offering (Exod. 29:40). In fact it seems usually to have been offered as a complement of the burnt offering (Lev. 23:18; Ezra 7:17; Num. 28:7 15, 29; Judg. 13:19). A careful study of these and other texts bearing on this subject has led students generally to believe the meat offering was never offered alone. Cain attempted offering it alone and was not accepted.
Materials Used.—According to the detailed description given in Leviticus 2, there were three varieties of meat offerings: first, unbaked flour; second, cakes or wafers, third, green ears of corn parched or dried by the fire. Oil was to be offered with each of these varieties. With the first and third and sometimes with the second it was simply poured on, but in some forms of the second the flour was mixed with the oil before it was baked. [88]
Besides the flour and oil of the meat offerings, salt was to be added, as with all the sacrifices on Jehovah's altar (Lev. 2 :13; Mark 9 :49). A fourth ingredient was frankincense, which was laid upon the flour, oil, and salt. This was somewhat like a resin or gum, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, from a tree of the turpentine bearing species. When burned it gave out a very fragrant odor, and, as incense, was called "frank" because of the freeness with which it gave out its aroma.
No leaven nor honey was to be offered on God's altar (Lev. 2:11). Leaven is a form of decaying matter, and honey is fermented by heat. No corruption must come on God's altar; but only that which is holy. Leaven is commonly used as a type of sin. Jesus uses it as a symbol of corrupt doctrine—"the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees" (Matt. 16 :12). "The leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (Luke 12:1). "The leaven of malice and wickedness" (1 Cor. 5 :8). Leaven, the symbol of corruption, was excluded from the offerings; but salt, the symbol of incorruption, was always to accompany them.
Its Ritual.—The offerer brought the meat offering to the altar. The priest took a portion of the flour, cakes, or corn, and a portion of the oil, and all the frankincense, and laid it on the fire on the altar to be burned as a "memorial" of the whole. This was God's part. The remainder was to be eaten by the priests. The offerer ate no part of it. When it was offered by the priests for themselves all was burned (Lev. 6:23).
Symbolical and Typical Significance.—Of all the Levitical sacrifices, probably the typical meaning of the meat offering is most difficult to determine. Able exegetes have differed here both as to its primary meaning and as to what is represented by its details. The New Testament scriptures give no definite clue to the typical meaning of this offering. In view of these facts it would probably be unwise for us to be very dogmatic as to what Christian truth is set forth in this shadow of good things. Yet some great truth must be contained in this minutely [89] described rite, and may we not venture to discover it by the aid of God's Spirit and a careful following out of those principles of typical interpretation that have been set forth and referred to several times in foregoing pages ?
To begin, it is well to notice certain limitations that must be observed. First, it was not a bloody sacrifice, so probably did not have to do with cleansing from sin. Second, it was always to be offered in connection with and immediately following a bloody sacrifice for atonement which was to furnish a ground for, and to make acceptable, the meat offering. It must never be offered without that bloody offering preceding it. Third, it was to be offered without any of the leaven of sin in it. Other similar points might be mentioned.
Then where shall we look in the work of our salvation for that which is analogous to the meat offering? Notice first that the meat offering was to be of flour or bread, the staff of life, the daily common food of the offerer. It was equivalent to his offering himself to God. Though he could not give his own body to God on the altar, yet the offerer by this sacrifice gave that which otherwise would go to compose his body if he ate it. A1so the original word for meat offering, minchah, means offering or tribute, according to Dr. Moorehead, and expresses the idea of devotedness.
The meat offering, then, typifies the Christian's consecration, devotion, or dedication to God after he has been accepted on the merits of the atonement by the sprinkling of Jesus' blood that was typified by the burnt offering that immediately preceded the meat offering. Mere forgiveness of sin is not enough. The pardoned sinner must keep holy, by a practical consecration of himself and his life to God's service. He must no longer live for himself. Therefore, the meat offering followed the burnt offering for atonement and acceptance. This is in remarkable accord also with Paul's exhortation to the Roman brethren, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a [90] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER V
THE OFFERINGS THE ALTAR
(Leviticus 1—7)
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed" (Rom. 12:1, 2). In other words, these to whom God had so graciously extended pardon of sin through Christ, should now devote themselves and their service to God by refraining from worldliness and by living according to the will of God.
And the details of the meat offering are also easily shown to be in perfect accordance with this view of its typical significance. Besides the analogy already shown between the food and the offerer himself, the oil poured over and mingled with it was symbolic. We have already shown that oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Therefore that oil is evidently typical of the working and regenerating power of the Spirit, by whom we become acceptable to God in our consecration. The apostle Paul beautifully expresses this thought as follows: "That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 15:16).
Also to be an acceptable meat offering to God we must be free from the leaven of sin—hypocrisy and wickedness, and the pride that puffs up. As certainly as no leaven was permissible in the meat offering, so also it is not permissible in the hearts or lives of believers notwithstanding the not uncommon teaching that all Christians sin more or less every day (1 John 3 :8 10). Not only must God's people be free from the leaven of corruption, but must also have the salt of incorruption in them, or the keeping power of God indwelling. "Have salt in yourselves" (Mark 9 :50). "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt" (Col. 4 :6). "Ye are the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5 :13). The frankincense of this offering, like that on the loaves of shewbread, was all God's. Its sweet fragrance represents the pleasure God has in those who are dedicated fully to his blessed service.
Before passing from our consideration of the meat offering, notice again that it was a proper complement of the atonement offering that preceded it. Too often [91] in our modern religious life this idea of devotion of ourselves and service to God is not properly taught and practiced. Not only must we be pardoned of past sins, but we must keep ourselves from sinning again else past pardon becomes ineffectual. And not only must we avoid doing evil, but, as dedication implies, we should do positive good. While we trust in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, let us not forget the meat offering—the giving of ourselves to God. Let us keep out the leaven of sin, and have in us the keeping salt of divine power that we may be an offering well pleasing to God.
The Peace Offering
(Lev. 3; 7:11-21, 28-34)
The name suggests the nature of this offering. In Scripture, peace means not mere tranquility or absence of hostilities or disturbance, but joy, happiness, prosperity, welfare, or blessing. This then was the joy offering. It was sometimes in connection with a vow, and sometimes a voluntary offering, but always a time of rejoicing.
The religion of Jehovah has ever been a religion of joy for his devout worshipers. Heathen religions contain much fear and sadness. Some well meaning but misinformed professors of Christianity have tried to bind upon Christians such fear and burdens, including penance in many forms, asceticism, and other such things; but the gospel announces to us the unspeakably glad news that Jesus bore all that for us and we may now have "all joy and peace in believing." God intends religion to be a source of gladness, not of gloom. Again and again the apostle Paul exhorts those to whom he writes to rejoice, "and again I say rejoice." And though, like Paul we have sorrow, we should in the midst of it be always rejoicing.
Materials Used.—The peace offering was a bloody offering and of the sweet savor class. It might be taken from the herd, the sheep, or the goats, as was the burnt offering, but unlike it, the peace offering might be not [92] only a male but a female. Yet it must be without blemish, for it is a type of Christ. If it was of the thank offering variety of peace offerings, then with the animal were brought also "unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, of fine flour, fried." Also leavened bread was brought.
How Offered.—The animal was brought "before the Lord" to the altar where the offerer, as in the burnt offering, laid his hand upon it to identify himself with it, killed it, and the priest sprinkled its blood over the altar. Then certain portions were taken for the Lord to be burned upon the altar. They were all the fat of the inwards, or the suet (and in the case of a sheep the rump or broad, fat tail, which is common to the Syrian sheep, and which often weighs fifteen pounds or more), the two kidneys, and the caul above the liver (what is meant by the "caul" so often mentioned in this connection is a matter of much uncertainty among students of the subject). These, the richest parts of the animal, were burned on God's altar, with the blood containing the life. which had been sprinkled there. Why the two kidneys should have been especially offered to God in this and the sinoffering is not clear. Some modern writers have supposed the ancient Hebrews located the seat of intelligence there, as the Chinese locate it in the stomach, and as we locate it in the head.
After these were burned, the breast was brought for a wave offering. This was offered by waving it first backward and forward and then from right to left, or toward the four corners of the heavens, according to Jewish writers. Then it was given to the priests to eat. Next the right shoulder or leg was brought for a heave offering, which was offered by raising it up and down in dedication to God. Then it was given, to be eaten by him, to the particular priest who sprinkled the blood and burned the parts for the Lord. With this was also heaved and given to the officiating priest one of the leavened loaves. This leavened bread in no case was burned upon the altar. [93]
What remained of the animal was to furnish a feast for the offerer, his family, friends, and any Levites he might invite. They also ate the vegetable part of the offering. The flesh of the animal was to be eaten on the day offered if a thank offering, and if another kind not later than the second day. What was not then eaten must be burned.
What It Typified.—According to all our records of the peace offering, it always followed the sin , burnt , and meat offerings. What they effected was assumed as accomplished before this one was offered. The spiritual import of this feast is evident at once. It was a communion feast. In it God, the priest, and the offerer had a portion, which typifies the communion together of God, Christ, and the believer. Much the same thought is presented here as in the eating of the shewbread in the holy place and the burning of its frankincense on the golden altar, and the Christian's Lord's Supper, except that in this another member, Christ, partakes of it besides the offerer and God. Through Christ's atonement, not only do we commune in most intimate friendship with God, but also Christ 'sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied,' and enters with us into this blessed communion.
In the sprinkling of the blood of the peace offering the idea was not expiation, as in the sin offering, nor acceptance, as in the burnt offering, which had already been offered, but rather that communion with God could be only through Christ's blood. The peace offering coming after the meat offering signified the other great truth that only those can have communion with God who have dedicated themselves to him. Christian, do not miss the point. If your soul longs for a closer walk with God, if you hunger for more of his love and Spirit, look to see if you are giving him first place in your heart and life. Consecration is the basis of communion. Do not try to put the peace offering before the meat offering.
The peace offerings were praise and thank offerings. God seems to come nearest us when we give him our thank offerings. As human beings we feel especially [94] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER V
THE OFFERINGS THE ALTAR
(Leviticus 1—7)
drawn to those who appreciate us and what we do for them. How much more must our provident Father? Let us offer more peace offerings, and God will give us more of his peace and blessings.
The Sin Offering
( Lev. 4—5 :13 )
The sin offering and also the closely related trespass offering were very different in their aim and purpose from the sweet savor offerings already considered. Those had for their primary object worship, these expiation of sin; those made atonement a means to an end, in these covering of sin is the end; there sin was viewed in its general aspect, but here in a very definite act; those offerings were voluntary on the part of the offerer, but these are demanded by God to cover sin; there the offerer came as a worshiper, here as a sinner.
The sin offering was not offered for every sin. Some sins under the law of Moses were unpardonable and punishable by death. But the sin offering might be offered for other than unpardonable sins whether they were ceremonial or actual, sins done intentionally or unintentionally. To suppose, as some have done, that it was to be offered only for unintentional ceremonial defilement is probably taking a narrower view of it than that described in the Scriptures. It was to be offered for these, as described in Leviticus 4, but it was also to be offered by witnesses who failed to tell the truth (5:1), and the trespass offering, which was one variety of the sin offering, for lying, violence, deceit, stealing, swearing falsely (6:2, 3), or adultery with a betrothed slave (19:20).
It seems it was to be offered for the easing of the conscience of any who had intentionally or unintentionally violated God's commandments, that he might again feel himself right before God. We need not suppose, however, that God never forgave sin without a sin offering. Doubtless it w a s n o t essentially necessary to God's pardon of sin, but was necessary to clear the [96] conscience of the sinner because of God's command to offer it. It was intended to help the sinner to comprehend more vividly the ground on which God pardoned him, and to point him to the great antitype Sin offering, the coming Messiah.
The Animals Offered.—The sin offering had a larger variety of definitely required offerings than had any other of the Mosaic sacrifices. For the high priest was offered a bullock, and also the same for the congregation collectively; for a ruler a male kid; and for one of the common people a female kid or female lamb. In every case the animal must be free from blemish physically as was Christ the true sin offering morally. The various animals were graded to denote the sinfulness of sin according to the dignity of the one who sinned. So today God rates sin according to the enlightenment of the worshiper rather than according to the act committed. If one were too poor to provide a kid or lamb, two turtledoves or two young pigeons might be brought, and in extreme poverty a small portion of fine flour would be accepted as a lower grade offering, which of course much less perfectly typified the true Sin offering. No meat offering was to accompany the sin offering because the sinner is not fit to consecrate himself to God until he is first made holy through the atonement. Neither was oil and frankincense to accompany the fine flour sin offering because the sinner is void of the Holy Spirit and cannot properly offer the sweet incense of praise to God.
How It Was Offered.—The laying on of the hand and the slaying were the same as in all the other bloody offerings, but the action with the blood was different. For a ruler or one of the common people some of it was put upon the horns of the brazen altar; but if the offering was for the priest or for the congregation collectively it was put upon the horns of the golden altar and sprinkled in the holy place before the veil seven times. In every sin offering the remainder of the blood was poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. Next [96] the fat, the kidneys, and the caul were burned upon the altar. If the offering was for the priest or the whole congregation the remainder of the animal was to be burned outside the camp in a clean place, but if for a ruler or one of the common people the priests ate it (Lev. 6 :24 30). The flesh of the slain sin offering is said to have been most holy. The sin for which it was offered had been expiated, therefore it was holy as the offerer was before he sinned. The eating of it by God's priests symbolized the great fact that the offerer was acceptable to God because expiation had been made. How remarkable, even in minute details, are the great facts of redemption symbolized in these ancient shadows! How can any devout student of them fail to see in them the proof of the divine authority of the Bible. and that they are not mere "expressions of natural religion"?
Antitypical Sin Offering.—As already mentioned, the true sin offering, typified by those ancient sacrifices for sin, is the Lord Jesus Christ as the bearer of our sin. This need scarcely be stated as it is clear from the very name of the offering. It definitely sets forth the idea of substituted suffering for sin—the wonderful truth that he atoned for our sin and by the sprinkling of his blood we may be as free from sin as was Adam in his primitive purity. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities." (Isa. 53 :5). "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. 5:21). The word here translated "sin," some versions give "sin offering," which is a better translation.
The Trespass Offering
(Lev. 5 :14—6 :7)
The trespass offering, like the sin offering proper, belongs to the general class of sin offerings. It does not have various grades of animals to suit the dignity of the offerer. A ram is the only animal to be sacrificed for a trespass offering. It is introduced with the words, "The Lord spake unto Moses" (Lev. 5 :14), not at the [97] beginning of the chapter, as some have held. We are told in Lev. 7 :1 7 how it was to be offered. It was to be killed the same as the sin offering and the same parts burned and eaten, but the blood was to be sprinkled or dashed on the altar as in the burnt and peace offerings and not put upon the horns as in the sin offering.
The principal peculiarity of the trespass offering was that the restitution must accompany the bloody sacrifice. This restitution must be the principal and a fifth part added, and given to the person wronged.
God requires that those who do wrong to others shall make that wrong right as much as is in their power. It is not enough that he who stole steal no more. He must also "give again that he hath robbed." This requirement in connection with the trespass offering like many other of the ceremonial requirements served an immediate practical purpose. It served the Israelites a beneficient purpose in upholding righteousness among them. But along with this, the required restitution was typical of a great Christian truth in the work of our salvation.
This, like the other bloody offerings, found its antitype in Christ, and like each of them it set forth a particular phase of his atoning work. The sin offering made prominent the idea of expiatory suffering for sin, the trespass offering compensation for the evil done. The sinoffering represented Christ as saving us from the penalty for sin, the trespass offering typified the other phase of his work—the undoing of the wrong in its effects as pertain to God and his holy law. These two classes of sin offerings showed remarkably these two aspects of the effects of atonement that make possible God's free pardon of our sins. Of course the restoration of what was taken wrongfully from another is a principle of right that applied then and also now, but we should not suppose that that restoration to one's fellow men was typical of a similar restoration to those we have wronged. But it was properly a type of that higher making right of wrong done against God, which Christ did in his sacrificial death. [98]
"Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
"But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
"My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin."
—Isaac Watts.[99] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
The term "feast" where used in our common English Bible to designate the set sacred seasons or stated solemnities of the Israelites is somewhat misleading because of the sense in which feast is often understood by many today. These seasons were not all times of banqueting or of elaborate meals, for one called a feast was really a fast. They were principally times of religious rejoicing. Probably a better name for these holy festivals is "sacred seasons." This designation includes the great annual "set feasts," other holy days, and the various holy years.
These sacred seasons are referred to many times in the Pentateuch, but are more formally described in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28, 29. One weekly and six annual feasts are described in Leviticus 23. T h e y a r e: (1) Sabbath, (2) Passover (including Unleavened Bread), (3) First fruits, (4) Pentecost, (5) Trumpets, (6) Atonement, (7) Tabernacles. To these must be added the Sabbatic Year, which occurred each seventh year, and the Jubilee Year, each fiftieth year. Besides these the new moon was a time for special observance by offering special sacrifices.
Every day, in fact, was sanctified in a sense by the daily burnt offering, or the morning and evening sacrifice. This consisted in offering a lamb each morning and another each evening as a continual burnt offering. This was a national offering for general acceptance and worship and was offered after the manner of the ordinary b u r n t offering. With it was offered a common meat offering of one tenth ephah of fine flour and one fourth part of an hin of oil, also a drink offering of wine equal [100] in quantity to the oil. Each Sabbath this daily sacrifice was doubled in number of animals and in quantity of other materials.
On each new moon besides the regular burnt offering nine other animals were offered for burnt offerings, with meat offerings for each, besides a sin offering. On every day the great annual feasts several animals were offered in addition to the regular offering, amounting to no fewer than thirty two on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles were the three great feasts. At these each of the male Israelites was required to gather at the national sanctuary. "Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God" (Exod. 23 :17; Deut. 16 :16). The first and last days of the Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles, also Pentecost, Trumpets, and Atonement, were to be observed as "holy convocations," or solemn assemblies. No work was to be done in them. They were special sabbaths in addition to the weekly Sabbaths. These assemblies were not necessarily at the tabernacle, but, except in the great feasts, in the communities where the people lived.
Though these were religious occasions, yet they had great value socially, politically, and commercially. These national gatherings were a wise provision of God for the general good of Israel, so far reaching in their effects were they that it is difficult to believe they could have been so well thought out in their various aspects by any other than the infinite mind. They were observed at the seasons of the year when travel was easiest and when most convenient for an agricultural people to be absent from their work.
At the house of God in a season of rejoicing, a place and time most favorable to the development of friendship, Israel met three times each year. The males only were required to attend, but often women such as Hannah the devout mother of Samuel went. Also families, like that holy family of Nazareth, "went to Jerusalem every [101] year at the Feast of the Passover." (Luke 2:41). There old friendships were renewed. There under the benign influence of the worship of the Lord new and wider circles of friendships were formed. There those of near kin, like Mary and Elizabeth, living at widely separated points could greet each other and converse of things of mutual interest. And men who had fought the Lord's battles under Joshua or David met again and talked of the events of long ago.
These gatherings could not fail to have great educational value. They required those living in remote places to get out of their own little corner and to see somewhat of the world. In a day when newspapers were unknown and means of communication and travel were most primitive, these feasts could not fail to be a place for general exchange of news. Those coming from distant Beersheba in the south not only would tell of their events, but would doubtless bring somewhat of the doings and culture of the Egyptians, their near neighbors. Worshipers from distant Dan would have the latest news from Damascus and the east. Others from the northwest and southwest would tell of the discoveries or newly planted colonies of the Phoeniceans or the conquests of the Philistines. And especially would there be an exchange of intertribal news.
Politically these gatherings did much to mold the nation in one. Thrice yearly tribal jealousies must be laid aside for a national meeting. They developed the spirit of nationalism by this reminder that all who gathered were one nation of a common ancestry, with a common history, a common religion, and different from all the surrounding nations.
The internal commerce of the people could not fail to be built up by these gatherings at the feasts. They opened the ways for trade and business between the different parts of the country. Commercially these feasts had a value not very different from that of modern fairs. Such religious festivals have always had much value commercially. Mecca, because of the annual pilgrimage of [102] the Mohammedans there, has become one of the greatest markets in the Eastern world. Doubtless this simple requirements of all males attending the feasts at Jerusalem three times each year had a tremendous influence in developing the nation of Israel commercially, socially, intellectually, politically, and especially religiously. He who can attribute this and other equally wise laws to the semi-barbarous people which lived under them certainly possesses a credulity far exceeding that necessary to believe they were divinely given.
The religious influence of these feasts was very great. The very fact that they furnished set times for worship was of importance in making it easier for a man to break away from his daily routine. Similar set times are equally important now. Then the association with others in worship could not help but fan one's zeal for God and warm the heart. Inspiration to worship would naturally be the result of many worshipping together. Men more easily move with the mass than singly. Also there the isolated Israelite would be impressed with the holiness of Jehovah as he gazed from a distance upon His holy house. He would be impressed with the reality of the unseen God as he saw His representative the high priest performing his solemn duties there. The sinfulness of sin and that most glorious truth of pardon through vicarious suffering would grip him as he beheld the bleeding sacrifices at the altar of God. He would hear the priests and Levites teaching God's holy law and go home with a renewed zeal for his most holy faith.
Times of the Feasts.—To know the time of those ancient Jewish feasts it is necessary to do more than name the month and date. They all varied several days each year, as our modern observance of Easter varies according to the common solar calendar. The Jews used the lunar calendar, counting the month by the moon and twelve moons to the year. This meant an average of 291/2 days to the month and 354 days to the year. This falling short of the full year by eleven days meant that about every three years, or, to be exact, seven times every nineteen years, an extra moon must be added. [103] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
Thus, there was a constant shifting of the beginning of the year, which makes confusion for us in determining the date in our year for these feasts. The Israelites had the civil year, beginning near the time of the fall equinox, and which was common in the Eastern nations of the time. And they also had the sacred year, instituted by Moses, which was peculiar to themselves and which began six months prior to the civil year, about the time of the spring equinox. This sacred year calendar is the one that determined the time of the feasts. It properly began with the first new moon before the first full moon after the twenty first of March. But the Israelites, not having the latter date established, began it, ordinarily, with the moon following the twelfth. If, however, it was seen that on the sixteenth of the moon following Adar, the twelfth, the barley would not yet be ripe, the intercalary month, Veadar, was inserted as a thirteenth moon. But two intercalary years were not allowed in succession. The Jewish month and date of each feast we will give in connection with its discussion.
The Sabbath
(Lev. 13 :1-3)
In the text referred to above God himself names the Sabbath first in his enumeration of the feasts of the Lord. It was most frequently observed, and more often enjoined than any of the other sacred seasons. Yet we are compelled to differ with those who hold that this primacy of the Sabbath among the feasts was because it was pre-Mosaic in its origin and observance. It is true that in Leviticus 23 it is not first mentioned, but as much may be said of the Passover, the observance of which was prior to the exodus and before any observance of the Sabbath by men. Not one text in all the Bible enjoins the observance of the Sabbath upon any man before the exodus, nor since Pentecost. Its first recorded observance was at the time of the giving of the manna. (Exod. 16 :23). Objection is sometimes made to this position on the ground of Gen. 2:3, but it is well to remember in reading that text that it was written, not at creation, but by Moses after [104] the Sabbath was commanded to Israel at Sinai. When God wanted to set apart a day each week for himself, he chose the seventh, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Observe that the sanctifying of the day was subsequent to the resting—"he had rested." God's resting was at creation; the setting apart of the day for men's observance was at least twenty-five hundred years after man's creation—after the exodus. This is positively stated in Neh. 9 :13, 14 and Deut. 5: 2, 3, 12.
Its purpose was for a memorial or a sign (Exod. 31.17) of their deliverance from Egypt and that they were the special people of God (Deut. 5:15; Ezek. 20:12). It was observed in commemoration of the beginning of their nation at the exodus, as Americans observe the fourth of July for a similar purpose. It was a weekly reminder of their peculiar relation to Jehovah. When the father failed to go to the field to work on the Sabbath he answered his little son's inquiry of, "Why?" with the explanation that it was in commemoration of God's mighty deliverance of their fathers from Egypt. Thus it always had great value as a memorial besides the physical benefit that can not but result from that wise practice of resting from toil on one day of each seven.
It was observed by a complete cessation from work (Exod. 20:10; 35:2; Lev. 23:3). The law was very strict in its requirement of Sabbath observance. No fire was to be kindled and no cooking done. This could easily be observed in Palestine, where fire is not needed for heating purposes. The violation of the Sabbath was punishable by death. But the Sabbath was not merely negative, it was also positive. It was not to be spent listless idleness. It was set apart for a holy convocation or assembly, doubtless for the reading of the law and worship. We are not told exactly what was the nature of these holy convocations prior to the Babylonish captivity, but we know after that and in New Testament times the [105] Jews met for worship on the Sabbath, and our blessed Lord himself read the law and taught in the synagogues. The object, then, of the Old Testament Sabbath was (1) for a memorial, (2) for needed physical rest, (3) for divine worship, (4) for a type of good things now the heritage of Christians.
The Antitypical Sabbath.—That the Sabbath was a type, one of the shadows of good things, is clear from various New Testament texts. "Let no man therefore judge you . . . in respect'. . . of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2 :16, 17). It was a type or shadow of a body or substance which we obtain in Christ. The main idea of the Sabbath was physical rest. That physical rest therefore must have been typical of some higher rest to be found by the Christian. The strict observance of the Sabbath which God required of the Jew, like the requirement of strict adherence to the divine pattern for the tabernacle, was because it was to typify a perfect soulrest of the Christian.
Centuries before Moses, the patriarch Jacob predicted Christ's coming under the name "Shiloh," or Rest giver. (Gen. 49 :10). Jesus himself said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28). He is the rest giver, and the rest he gives from the burden and bondage of sin is the Christian's Sabbath foreshadowed by that ancient Mosaic rest day. It was predicted that "his rest shall be glorious," and, thank God, it is so. That this is the true Sabbath keeping is argued by the inspired writer to the Hebrews (chap. 4:3 11). He who ceases from his own works to obtain righteousness and trusts in the mercy of God for pardon of sin has entered the true Sabbath. The Sabbath, like the other ceremonial requirements of the law of Moses, is abolished (Col. 2:14 17; Heb. 8:6 13), but the blessed soul rest it prefigured remains for the people of God. [106] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
The Passover and Unleavened Bread
(Exodus 12; Lev. 23:4 14)
The Passover was the first of the great annual feasts both in significance and time. It was held in the first month, Abib, or Nisan, (March April), 14 21. It was originally instituted in Egypt on the eve of the exodus. The Egyptian or first Passover is to be distinguished from that of subsequent years because of the difference in the manner of observance.
Imagine ourselves in a Hebrew home in ancient Goshen at the time of that awful crisis in Israelitish history when the great contest between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt was approaching its climax. The father of the family comes toward the little hut he calls home leading a yearling lamb, which has been kept apart for the last four days. The man's coarse, rough hands bear signs of hard toil and his body the marks of a cruel slave driver's lash. But despite his weariness from the day's toil and the droop of his shoulders from a lifetime of slavery, hope gleams from his eyes this evening. He knows that Jehovah has heard and is answering his prayer for deliverance. As the sun sinks low over the western desert the lamb, probably a pet of the family, is killed, and with a sprig of hyssop its blood is spattered on the door frame at either side and above.
Later, when darkness has settled over the land and the early hours of the night have passed, we see the family all astir. They are dressed for a journey. Their sandals, not usually worn in the house, are on their feet. They hold walking staves in their hands. But their immediate purpose is not a journey. They gather about the table and the roasted lamb is brought. Also thin loaves of unleavened bread are distributed among them and a dish of endive, or wild lettuce, is placed in the center of the table. As they eat their feelings are mingled of hope and fear. The father describes to his children the bitter bondage they have endured these many years. He refers to the promises of Jehovah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, [107] and speaks of the mighty miracles lately worked for their salvation, and of the awful blow about to fall upon their hard hearted oppressors. As he ceases speaking, the children look about with fearful eyes and draw a little closer to their parents. The anxious mother steps to the door once more to see if the blood of the slain lamb is plainly evident there, lest her own beloved first born child should perish at the near at hand hour of midnight.
Not long after the last of the lamb has been eaten a distant wail of grief is heard, which soon grows into a mighty cry throughout all the land. They wait, and midnight passes. Their own first born is yet alive. God's angel, sent forth to destroy the first born of Egypt, has seen the sprinkled blood and has passed over their home. Their bondage is passed and their deliverance has come. Such was the first Passover.
Though the first Passover had greater typical significance than the subsequent ones, yet it is well to know the ceremonial as it was commonly observed. The passover might be a lamb, a kid, or a bullock. After the first Passover the animal was no longer killed at their own homes, but at Jehovah's sanctuary (Deut. 16:6). Its blood was not put upon the door posts any more, but poured out at the side of God's altar. It was a sin offering in reality, though not the common one. Its observance was no longer obligatory except upon the men, although the women and children were not excluded. The Passover was followed by the seven day feast of unleavened bread, when leaven must not be found in their houses. This feast was to be a continual reminder to them of their deliverance from Egypt. The slain lamb was to remind them of the sparing of their first born in Egypt on that dreadful night of their deliverance, and that the first born as representatives of all the Israelites therefore belonged peculiarly to God. The unleavened bread, called the "bread of affliction" in Deut. 16 :3, would remind them of the affliction they endured and the bitter herbs of that bitter bondage. [108]
Typical Significance of the Passover—The typical significance of the Passover is very clear in the New Testament writings. Probably no Mosaic institution is a more perfect type than this. Of the Passover lamb it was said that "a bone of him shall not be broken" (Num. 9:12), which the apostle John quotes of Christ himself (John 19:36). He plainly implies that Christ is the antitypical Passover. The apostle Paul states this plainly as follows: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5:7, 8).
Christ died on the cross during the Feast of the Passover. He was the Lamb of God which the ancient Passover lamb typified. He died to save us from God's judgments as that lamb died instead of the firstborn. As those ancient first born redeemed by the blood of that lamb therefore belonged peculiarly to God, so we redeemed through Christ belong to God in a special sense. We are saved by his death, not merely by his life. A live lamb tied at the door of one of those Hebrew homes in Goshen would not have been sufficient to shield the first born from wrath. It must die. Those who deny the vicarious death of Christ and teach salvation through his beautiful life alone, disregard the lesson of the Passover. Nor should the equally important truth be overlooked that the blood must be applied as well as shed. The blood was to be applied to the door posts and lintels. The blood thus applied was the means of salvation then. So now the mere fact that Christ died for sinners does not save them. The blood must be applied to them individually for their salvation from sin's guilt and penalty. Reader, has the blood of Christ been applied to your heart? As they ate as food of the flesh of that lamb by whose blood they were saved, so we have our spiritual life only by partaking of the flesh of the Son of God (John 6:53).
But as the Passover lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, so we can partake of the benefits of Christ our Passover [109] only with the bitter herbs of repentance of sin. And as they must eat only unleavened bread, so we must reject malice, wickedness, and all other forms of sin and live a holy life. So Paul interprets the unleavened bread. And it is well to note that the bitter herbs were eaten only at the Passover meal, but they ate unleavened bread for seven days or a complete period of time following, thus signifying that our repentance is to accompany our first partaking of Christ, but the holy life must continue on throughout life. Those who teach we must sin more or less every day have utterly failed to grasp the significant truth of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. [110] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
Feasts of First Fruits and Pentecost
(Lev. 23 :9 21)
These two feasts may properly be considered together because they were similar in their nature, and also because they are connected in the Bible. The time of the second was determined by measuring from the first. A close study of their description in Leviticus 23 shows that God regarded them as being closely connected. Though the Feast of First fruits was observed during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, being a feast within a feast, yet it is introduced in Lev. 3:9 with the words, "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying," which is commonly used to introduce a new institution. Therefore it should not be regarded as a part of the Passover or of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But it is worthy of notice that when the inspired writer introduces the Feast of Pentecost the usual formula is omitted. This, as the Bible Commentary observes, is because of its close connection with the Feast of First fruits.
The Feast of First fruits was observed on the sixteenth day of Nisan, which was the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, "the morrow after the Sabbath," which "morrow" was the special sabbath of holy convocation. It was kept by the waving of a sheaf of barley before the Lord as a special sort of meat offering, and the sacrificing of a lamb for a burnt offering with [110] a common meat offering of flour. This sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest was to be offered before any of the new grain was eaten.
Pentecost, usually called in the Old Testament the Feast of Weeks or of Harvest, was kept fifty days after the waving of the barley sheaf. Therefore after the translation of the Old Testament into the Greek language, it was called "Pentecost," from the Greek word for fifty. It was kept about the last of May or first of June. It was observed by the bringing of two loaves of leavened bread made of the new wheat of the harvest, which was then supposed to be all gathered. These were waved before the Lord as was the sheaf of the first fruits, and with it they represented the consecration of the entire harvest to God. This was also a special kind of meat offering and was accompanied with seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams for a burnt offering with their accompanying meat offerings and a sin offering.
Pentecost was one of the three great feasts when all male Israelites were to appear before the Lord. It was originally a one day feast, but among the later Jews it came to be an eight day feast. It was to this feast that every Israelite was commanded to bring with him "a tribute of a free will offering of shine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." (Deut. 16:10). Some of the Jews regarded the Feast of Pentecost as being commemorative of the giving of the law, but such a view has no ground in Scripture nor reason.
Antitype of the Feasts of First fruits and Pentecost.— A variety of opinions have been set forth concerning the meaning of the Feasts of First fruits and Pentecost. Some interpreters see nothing in them but thanksgiving and an acknowledgment of God's providence. We believe these ideas were comprehended in them, but also that they had much deeper significance.
They combined the idea of feast and offering. The various feasts set forth practically the same great truths of religion as were contained in the offerings. These two [111] feasts with their wave sheaf and wave loaves typified the same thing—the consecration or dedication by the believer of himself to God. The two feasts with the intervening seven weeks were necessary to include the entire harvest— the beginning and the end. It has already been pointed out that these were a special class of meat offerings. Also in our consideration of the meat offering we found it was typical of this dedication of ourselves to God.
But more direct evidence that this is the typical meaning of these feasts is evident from the nature of them. The offering of the first fruits of the harvest in the sheaf and in the loaves was representative of the entire harvest being given to God. This harvest was their food, which in turn was a fitting symbol of themselves. In eating their food it became themselves, so in offering it to God in its entirety as they did it was an entire giving of themselves to God. This food was analogous to themselves. The Passover typified salvation through the blood of Christ, the unleavened bread holiness of life, and these feasts consecration. These truths are almost parallel with those typified by the general class of offerings.
God certainly considers this self dedication important or he would not have repeated it so often in these types and made it as prominent as salvation itself. Doubtless it should serve as an admonition to us that we, in stressing our being saved from the penalty of sin by Christ, do not forget that it is equally important that we give ourselves to him. God wants us to be so devoted to his service that we will be willing to work or to wait, to go where he wants us to go or to stay where he wants us to stay, to fight in the front of the battle or to "stay by the stuff." Perfect submission to the divine will is the secret of soul satisfaction and the peace that passeth understanding.
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all." [112]
Observe also that as Christ, the true Passover, died on the same date that the Passover lamb was eaten, so on the "morrow after the Sabbath," the first day of the week, when the sheaf of the first fruits was waved, he arose from the dead, "the first fruits of them that slept." (1 Cor. 15:20). And as the wave loaves, the completion of the harvest, were offered at the Feast of Pentecost fifty days after the waving of the first fruits, so on that great day of Pentecost which was fifty days after Jesus arose from the dead, the Holy Ghost came, and a new order of things began.[113] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
Feast of Trumpets
(Lev. 23:23 25)
The Feast of Trumpets fell on the first day of the seventh month of the sacred year, which was the first month of the civil year. It came in the latter part of September or early October. The significance of this day is due to its place in the calendar. As related to the civil year it was the beginning of their time. As related to the sacred year it had all the significance of a new moon, and more, it began the seventh or sabbatic month, the most sacred month of all. It was not only the month of the joyful Feast of Tabernacles, but also and especially the month of the great day of atonement, at which time the sabbatic year was ushered in (when slaves went out free, when broken families were reunited, when debts were canceled), and also the year of jubilee (when unfortunates recovered their lost inheritance and when rest and joy were ushered in).
The opening of such a month deserved special recognition and religious observance. This day was observed by resting from labor, by a holy convocation, and by appropriate sacrifices. But its chief peculiarity was the continual blowing of trumpets from morning until evening.
This announcement that at last had come the glorious month of atonement with all its benefits was a beautiful symbol of the preaching of the gospel. When the priests [113] blew the two silver trumpets over the burnt offerings for atonement at God's altar, and their joyful sound reverberated over the hills and valleys of the land of Israel, the same great truths in type were proclaimed that are now set forth in the preaching of the glad tidings of salvation through the perfected atonement of Christ. The blowing of these silver trumpets on this occasion foreshadowed practically the same glorious truth as did the tinkling of the golden bells on the border of Aaron's garment when acting as Israel's mediator with God.
It was to be a "memorial of blowing of trumpets." A memorial is a reminder of an event past or present. This was the announcement of the grand truth that the time of atonement and salvation had come. It was a time of rejoicing because of the proclamation of a blessed truth. And as those ministers of God of that ancient system of types and shadows blew those literal trumpets, so God would have his ministers today sound out to all the glorious gospel trumpet, the good tidings of salvation to men.
"Blow the gospel trumpet, brother, over land and sea,
Sound the news to all creation, 'Christ will set you free,
Free and happy every moment, though by Satan bound,
He is able, do not doubt him, let his grace abound."'
Day of Atonement
(Lev. 16; 23:26-32)
The Day of Atonement was in its typical significance probably most important of all the sacred seasons of the Mosaic law. Its services and offerings are frequently referred to in the Epistles to the Hebrews, especially in the ninth and tenth chapters.
It was observed in the seventh month, called Tisri, on the tenth day, which would usually correspond with an early date in what is now our October. It was kept as a day of rest from work, as a holy convocation, and as a time to afflict their souls. This afflicting their souls is not specifically stated to be by fasting, but such was [114] the usual method of showing contrition, as did the Ninevites and as is intimated in Isa. 98 :3, 5. It is certain from Acts 27 :9, "The fast was now already past," that this was a day of fasting at a later period. It was a day of national humiliation when the sense of sin was to be deepened to its utmost intensity in the mind of the Israelites, and especially when the idea of atonement by sacrifice for sin was to be set forth in its highest expression by the elaborate ritual then observed. This atonement was to be, not for particular sins that had been unatoned for, but especially for sins generally, which were remembered again each year, even though they had been atoned for the year before or by special offerings (Heb. 10 :3).
The high priest alone was to perform almost all the services of the day. According to later Jewish writers he was also to offer the regular daily burnt offering, not only on this day, but for the week preceding. During that whole week, according to Edersheim, he, in preparation for the coming event, was to eat but little, and none on atonement day, and was to spend the night preceding that day without sleep in hearing or expounding the Scriptures. He was to lay aside his beautiful garments and clothe himself in plain white linen, for the entrance into the holiest place on this occasion. He was to bathe himself with water or wash his hands and feet frequently during the solemn services of the day.
So our great High Priest humbled himself as a servant and became a "man of sorrows." He accomplished the great work of atonement alone. His disciples slept while he agonized in Gethsemane. None stood by to comfort him while he died on the cross. The services of the day were without doubt typical of Christ's atonement for us.
But the important feature of the day was the elaborate ritual. The animals to be offered were a bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering for Aaron, also two kids of the goats from the whole congregation for a sin offering and also a ram for a burnt offering [115] for them. The ritual of these offerings was that which belonged to offerings of these classes except in the application of the blood and concerning the scapegoat which was wholly irregular.
The order of the rites was somewhat as follows: (1) Aaron bathed himself and put on the holy linen garments in the holy place. (2) He cast lots on the two goats to determine which was to die and which was to become the scapegoat. (3) He killed the bullock. (4) He took a censer full of live coals and his hands full of incense into the holiest place and burned the incense upon the fire in the censer, making a cloud of smoke over the ark and filling the room with a sweet odor. (5) He went back to the brazen altar and took a vessel containing the blood of the bullock and returned to the holiest place, where he sprinkled the blood seven times on the east side of the mercy seat and seven times on the ground before the ark to make atonement for himself as priest. (6) He killed for a sin offering for the congregation the one of the two goats that was chosen for the Lord, and sprinkled its blood as he had that of the bullock on and before the mercy seat, to atone for the people. (7) He made an atonement for the holy place (which here evidently means the holiest place), and for the tabernacle or first room, probably by sprinkling blood in each. (8) He made atonement for the brazen altar by putting of the blood of each animal on its horns and by sprinkling of the blood upon it seven times. (9) He laid both his hands upon the second goat, the "scapegoat" as our version translates this difficult word, and confessed the sins of himself and of the people, "putting them upon the head of the goat," after which the goat was sent by a fit or responsible man into the wilderness where no one dwelt. (10) He went into the holy place, removed the linen clothing, bathed himself in water, and put on again the golden garments. (11) He offered the two rams for burnt offerings for himself and the people, burned the fat of the sin offerings on the altar, and had some one carry the remainder of them outside the camp and burn it. [116] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
Day of Atonement (cont.)
(Lev. 16; 23:26-32)
The sprinkling of the blood of the sin offerings upon the mercy seat had special typical significance and is deserving of further notice. This action was peculiar to this day and these two sin offerings and was the most impressive and significant sprinkling of atoning blood of all those ancient shadows. It was done by him who typified our Savior. It was done with the blood that typified the all atoning blood of Christ. It was done in the very presence of God. It typified Christ's intercession for us in heaven. The blood was sprinkled seven times to represent the completeness of the atonement of Christ. It was put upon the mercy seat or propitiatory, which existed for the very purpose that it with the atoning blood upon it might cover from God's holy eye the broken law in the ark beneath. The mercy seat, this atonement covering which covered and was coextensive in size with the ark which represented God's law, was the culmination of all the Levitical institutions and services in all that ancient sanctuary, and was sprinkled with the blood on this greatest of the sacred seasons. This blood on the mercy seat symbolized the greatest and grandest truth of the Mosaic religion, and typified the most important and glorious fact that ever entered men's minds, that Jesus has atoned for the broken law of God and made possible the salvation of a world of sinners from the wrath of God.
The other great typical feature of this day was the scapegoat. The two goats together constituted one offering, not two (Lev. 16 :5). The goat that died was typical of Christ dying to atone for your sins, but the scapegoat was typical of him to take away our sins. The first exhibited the means of atonement, the second the effect of it. They are both typical of Christ, and except for the impossibility of one goat typifying both phases, but one goat had been employed. Two goats were here used in the type of Christ and his work as it was necessary to have various articles of furniture to represent the different phases of his saving work.
Concerning the goat for Jehovah which was to die, nothing is said of the confession of sins over it. Doubtless [117] the usual requirement of the bloody offering was observed, the laying on of the hand of the offerer to signify that he identified himself with the offering. But on the head of the scapegoat Aaron was to lay both his hands, "and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat: . . . and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited" (Lev. 16 :21, 22). The prayer which he prayed on this occasion is given by the Mishna as follows: "O Lord, thy people, the house of Israel, have transgressed, they have rebelled, they have sinned before thee. I beseech thee now absolve their transgressions, their rebellion and their sin that they have sinned against thee, as it is written in the law of Moses thy servant, that on this day he shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins, and ye shall be clean."
This symbol is very clear. It shows our Savior, not propitiating God, but removing our sins from us. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Christ not only died to atone for sin and procure God's favor for us, but he lives now to bear our sins by actual forgiveness of us individually. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" (Psa. 103 :12). "Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Mic. 7 :19). "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows . . . The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:4, 6).
In Heb. 9:1—10:18 the inspired writer contrasts and compares that symbolic sin offering with the true. Aaron took the blood of that goat into the most holy place, but Jesus enters into heaven itself with his own blood to appear in the presence of God for us (Heb. 9:24, 25). Its blood availed only for the purifying of the flesh; but Christ's blood is effectual in purifying the conscience (vs. 13, 14). That sin offering availed for but one year, when remembrance was again made of all the sins of the past; but Christ's blood avails for "eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:25,12; 10:3,4,14). [118] Surely these two goats are a remarkable type worthy of being given by the Author of the glorious truth which they typify.
The Feast of Tabernacles
(Lev. 23:33-43)
The Feast of Tabernacles is also called "the Feast of Ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field" (Exod. 23 :16). Both names are descriptive of the nature and purpose of the Feast. It was the third of the three great yearly feasts at which all male Israelites were to meet at Jerusalem. It was observed 15-22 of the seventh month, Tisri, in the autumn, beginning five days after the Day of Atonement. It was held after the corn and wine was all gathered in.
It was celebrated by the Israelites dwelling for seven days in temporary booths (Lev. 23:42), or tabernacles, made of boughs of trees—hence the name of the feast. These booths were built on the housetops, in the open courts of the homes or of the temple, or in the streets (Neh. 8 :16). The purpose of the booths was to remind the Israelites of their dwelling in tents during the forty years in the wilderness (Lev. 23:43).
It was a national festival of thanksgiving for the bounteous harvest, not very different in this aspect from the thanksgiving season now observed by Americans for a similar purpose. "Because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all shine increase, and in all the works of shine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice" (Deut. 16:15). It was a time for rejoicing before the Lord (Lev. 23:40), and of feasting (Neh. 8:10). Probably at this feast the second tithe for festive purposes was used in special feasting before the Lord. It was the gladest of all the seasons of the year. A later Jewish writer has said of this feast that "he had never seen joy who saw not the joy of Tabernacles."
A third important feature of the observance of this feast was the many sacrifices (Num. 29:12-38). On the [119] first day the burnt offering was to consist of thirteen bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs. The same number of rams and lambs was to be offered each day of the seven, but one less of the bullocks each day until on the seventh day but seven were to be offered. Also a kid for a sin offering was sacrificed each day besides the regular daily burnt offering. With each animal for a burnt offering were offered large meat offerings of flour, oil, and wine. A total of 203 animals was sacrificed during the seven days. The eighth day, which was not of this feast, and when the people ceased to dwell in booths, was to be observed as a sabbath with an offering of nine animals besides the regular daily offering. Also the whole law of God was to be read publicly at this feast each seventh year.
This feast had value to the Israelite especially in awakening in him gratitude to God for his multiplied blessings in a rich harvest and prosperity. The dwelling in booths was a memorial of the wilderness life, it is true, but the Israelites were to remember that life, not for its own sake, but that they might contrast it with their present blessings and thus more clearly recognize God's goodness. Then they dwelt in tents, in Canaan they dwelt in houses; then they had only manna, but in Canaan they had food in great variety and plenty.
The typical meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles is more difficult to determine than that of any other of the feasts. But a careful consideration of its nature and significance to the ancient people of God in the light of the general principles of typical interpretation, to which we have already referred, will doubtless assist greatly in understanding what is the good thing we now have that was foreshadowed by that feast of rejoicing. The dwelling in booths was but a means to the end of emphasizing the then present blessings of the Israelites, and therefore did not have a large place in typical significance. The ingathering of the harvest merely furnished the occasion for the feast, and was not a part of it. Therefore the typical element must consist in the rejoicing and feasting [120] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VI
THE SACRED SEASONS
(Leviticus 23; Numbers 28, 29)
Feast of Tabernacles (cont.)
(Lev. 23:33-43)
together before the Lord and in themany sacrifices offered to God.
It was a feast of communion. The people ate their good things together and offered abundantly to the Lord, of flesh, flour, oil, and wine. God had a part of their food. This is the reason why burnt and meat offerings
I were to be offered so profusely at this time. During these seven days God and his people rejoiced and feasted together to typify that holy communion which now exists between God and believers, and between Christians, today. To those who open the heart's door to God, he comes in to sup with them and they with him (Rev. 3:20). This communion expressed friendship in its highest form. It is the unspeakably blessed intercourse that God always craved with his creatures, but from which he was shut away because of their sinfulness until the Day of Atonement, which then represented the glorious truth that since the atonement of Christ true communion between God and men is possible.
God considers this communion of much importance. It is the great end for which he originally created man. It was set forth in these shadows of good things again and again. Like salvation from sin, it was typified in three of the main classes of Mosaic institutions. In the tabernacle it was set forth by the priests eating the loaves of the shewbread while the frankincense, the memorial of them, was burned upon God's golden altar. It was typified in the sacrifices by the peace offering, a part of which was the priest's food, a part the offerer's and a part the "food of God" by being burned on the altar. It is not strange therefore that we should have it typified in this complex system of typical feasts.
As the peace offering was principally for thanksgiving, so this communion feast was a thanksgiving feast. The attitude of heart most conducive to communion with God is that of gratitude for blessings received. Therefore let us not fail to be thankful to God for all his benefits. [121]
Jubilee and the Sabbatical Year
(Leviticus 25)
The two longer sacred seasons of the year of jubilee and the sabbatical year are not included in the list of feasts given in Leviticus 23; but inasmuch as they were similar to the stated feasts in their nature and typical significance, we may properly consider them at this point. Because both in their appointment and nature the sabbatical and jubilee years were very closely related and jubilee was really an intensified form of the former, we give principal attention to jubilee as a type.
These unique enactments were the arrangement of a wise Providence for the protection of the Israelites from those evils of greed and oppression that have menaced society in every age and country. "Had these laws been observed, they would have made the Jewish nation the most prosperous and perfect that ever existed."— Peloubet. But the constant neglect of the sabbatic years from the very first was one of the national sins for which God punished the Jews in the Babylonish captivity—"until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths" (2 Chron. 36:21). The sabbatical year was observed, however, after the captivity, according to 1 Macc. 6:49.
The Sabbatic Year.—After Israel came into possession of Canaan, they were told to till the land six years, but in the seventh year they were to give the land rest. They were not to sow the fields nor to prune the vineyards. They might eat direct from the fields and vines that which grew of itself; and to this the poor and the stranger also had access. But they were not dependent upon this for food, for God promised to make the yield of the sixth year so abundant that it would supply their needs for the remainder of that year, all the seventh, and until the harvest of the eighth year. It was a wonderful provision in which God would intervene as he did in giving the double amount of manna on the sixth day so that the Sabbath day might be kept. All debts of Hebrews were then to be freely forgiven (Deut. 15:1-11). [122]
However, they were not to spend the year in idleness. They still had the care of their flocks and herds, also they might do their building work, repair their homes and furniture, make their clothing, and especially devote themselves to God's service and worship as was indicated by the fact that the law was to be read at the Feast of Tabernacles of this year. It was beneficial especially in giving the land a chance to become built up after the six years of cultivation. It typified soul rest in Christ as does the seventh day Sabbath and the rest of jubilee year.
The Jubilee Year.—The year of jubilee was named from the Hebrew word meaning the joyful shout of trumpets, by which the year was announced. It was celebrated each fiftieth year. When seven sabbaths of years were completed, then the jubilee began. Seven was the perfect number, and seven times seven was the most emphatic expression of completeness. It began, not at the first of the year, but on the tenth day of the seventh month, atonement day, in the afternoon, probably when the rites of the day were past, and was announced by the blowing of the silver trumpets of the sanctuary.
Then began the year of rest and joy. (1) The soil had rest as in the sabbatic years. God promised to make the produce of the forty eighth year sufficient for the seventh of the seven sabbatic years, the jubilee, and for the year following until the harvest. (2) Also with the jubilee, those who had been compelled to sell their property because of poverty, or for any other reason had lost it, received it back again. All land reverted to its original owner of his heirs. It was a grand provision for the poor; and it was no injustice to the prosperous person who had temporarily gained possession, because in buying it the price of the land was much or little according as there were many or few years until the jubilee. There was no such thing as a permanent transfer of real estate except of that in walled cities not belonging to the Levites. It was a grand arrangement which tended to equalize wealth and abolish poverty. (3) It [123] also was a time when every Hebrew slave was set free and allowed to return to his possessions and his family At other times than this the Hebrew servant went out free after he had served six years, unless he voluntarily chose to remain with his master. But in the jubilee all alike, male and female, were freed, even though they her not served the full six years.
Typical Significance of Jubilee.—Though the temporary and material benefits of the jubilee were important, yet the typical value of it was still more important. Glorious realities of present day blessings were there depicted. As that year of jubilee began with the completion of the solemn rites of the Day of Atonement, so the true jubilee is the result of Christ's great atonement. As the sounding of the silver trumpets announced the blessings of that time, so the proclamation of the gospel of salvation is the announcement of the good things those benefits foreshadowed.
(1) Then slaves were set free to typify that glorious freedom from the burden and bondage of sin that Jesus promised: "If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8 :36). Thank God, those whose lives are blighted, ruined, and made bitter with the hard bondage of sin, may be freed, through faith in Christ, from its guilt and power. (2) Then every man received back again his lost inheritance, so in Christ we receive back that glorious inheritance of the sons of God which has been forfeited by sin. We become "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8 :17). Christ restores to us the joy and peace, the moral purity and divine presence, that Adam lost in Eden. In Christ we have eternal life and hope of resurrection of our bodies, that die because of sin. (3) Then broken families were reunited. "Ye shall return every man unto his family." So in Christ those who have been alienated by sin are made "one" as Christ and the Father are one. Their hearts are "knit together in love," and they have blessed fellowship together. (4) That was a season of rest and joy, which foreshadowed the soul rest Jesus gives and [124] the " joy unspeakable and full of glory" which is the portion of the saved in Christ.
The real jubilee is here. To those who will accept the blessings, they are now available. The year of jubilee was referred to in that which Isaiah predicted and which Jesus quoted as being fulfilled with his coming; "He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18, 19). [125] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VII
OTHER RITUAL TYPES
In addition to the greater and more important ceremonial institutions or types hitherto considered, a number of other ritual types are set forth in the Pentateuch which also are shadows of good things. We purpose in this chapter to bring together the more important of these miscellaneous types. These were given for our learning, and doubtless God intends we should get the lessons they contain for us. As we have already dealt with the principles of truth set forth by most of these, they will be treated only in those particulars that belong especially to them.
Clean and Unclean Meats
(Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14)
The distinctions of the Mosaic law between clean and unclean foods might seem puerile were it not for their manifestation of profound knowledge of the animal kingdom, of wholesome dietetics, and their far reaching influence as types of great moral and spiritual realities. That these distinctions belonged to that great system of types hitherto considered there can be no doubt.
The clean animals were those which both divided the hoof and chewed the cud. These were especially the ox, sheep, goat, and deer species. The swine was unclean because, though it divided the hoof, yet it did not chew the cud. The camel, coney, and hare on the other hand, were unclean because they did not part the hoof, though they chewed the cud. Of fish only those were clean which had both fins and scales. Of fowls no general rule was given by Moses; but from his long lists of clean and unclean fowls the general principle usually applies that, as with animals, carnivorous birds as the eagle, vulture, raven, and owl were unclean. [126]
In these distinctions and restrictions there were probably a number of aims and advantages, though the chief one was typical and moral. Along with this chief idea were certain secondary benefits accruing to Israel, as we found to be true of the Sabbath and other feasts, which though they were principally beneficial in their lessons of spiritual truth, yet they brought physical, social, political, and commercial benefits.
In these distinctions between meats God gave a system of wholesome dietetics. The clean animals were generally the very best and most nutritious for food, although we must allow that some pronounced unclean were almost if not entirely as wholesome as those called clean. The distinctions were somewhat arbitrary because typical. So likewise in the feasts, though there were temporal benefits in the times and nature of their observance, yet there was more or less of the arbitrary element in their appointment. Science has allowed and the facts of experience demonstrate that as a class the clean animals are very healthful. Swine's flesh is said to be especially unhealthy in warm climates where such diseases as leprosy are common. It has been asserted that during epidemics, plagues, etc., Jews do not suffer to the same extent as do those who eat swine's flesh. Since God chose to make this distinction in meats, wisdom and mercy are shown in the choice of those for food that are best adapted to man's needs.
Another great temporal benefit to Israel from these distinctions in food was that it made a wall of separation between them and their heathen neighbors socially. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego demonstrated this when they refused to defile themselves with the king's food in Nebuchadnezzar's court. By eating the ox, which the Egyptians regarded as sacred, the Israelite separated himself from the subtle influence of his idolatrous neighbors to the south, and in refusing swine's flesh, which was eaten by the Canaanites, we would not be very liable to social intercourse with these wicked neighbors. [127]
But the more direct purpose of these restrictions on food was to teach that important fact of moral distinctions and to educate men to the idea of holiness. As the washings of the body are a proper type of the cleansing of the soul, so the food that furnishes nourishment and pleasure to the body is a fit symbol of those things of which the soul partakes. As holiness requires careful discrimination in what is given place in the heart, so in this type God made discrimination as to clean and unclean foods for the body.
Because of natural depravity and perverse teaching, men without the influence of God's revelation have very confused ideas of holiness and sin. And except for these ceremonial distinctions and what has them for its basis, we might be as mixed in our ideas of morals as are the Turks and Hindus at this day. It is an elementary lesson in holiness. It, along with similar lessons from the tabernacle, priesthood, offerings, and feasts, goes to make up the Christian conception of holiness. The veils, consecrations, sprinklings of blood, and washings with water constantly witness to us, as well as do these distinctions in meats, that God is holy, man is sinful, and that fellowship between God and men is possible only by men being cleansed from sin and made holy. Opposers of holiness today among professors of Christianity have missed the most important fact of true religion—that God desires to make men holy.
Defilement of Childbirth and Issues
(Leviticus 12, 15)
A perusal by the reader of the chapters to which reference is given beneath the title of this paragraph will doubtless be profitable, especially since, for obvious reasons, we refrain from giving the details of these impurities. The defilements of this class were all related to the production of life—the giving birth to children or issues in the organs connected therewith. That these impurities were viewed not primarily as of a physical but [128] as of a ceremonial nature is certain from the fact that burnt and sin offerings were required for their purification. This is further proved by the fact that a woman who had given birth to a male child was disqualified from entering the court of the sanctuary for thirty three days after she was clean to enter society; also by the period of uncleanness for a female child being twice as long as for a male child.
Here then we again have a rite that typifies a great moral fact. But how do production and birth have connection with moral defilement ? What is this birth sin that is here typically depicted ? The "sweet singer of Israel" answers, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psa. 51:5). In this ceremonial defilement and cleansing, as well as in certain other forms of uncleanness and their cleansing, God has been pleased to set before us the awful fact of the inborn depravity of men's natures that causes them to "go astray as soon as they be born" (Psa. 58:3). This view has been held by such modern writers as Seiss and Fairbairn as well as by some of the Jewish doctors. This depravity of the nature here typified is probably that uncleanness for which that fountain was opened in the house of David, as both sin and uncleanness are mentioned ( see Zech. 13 :1).
Neither is it unreasonable that a truth so significant to religion should be given such typical recognition as to its existence and removal. That ceremonial defilement was cleansed by the offering of a lamb for a burnt offering and a fowl for a sin offering forty days after the child's birth if a male, or eighty days after if a female. The blood of those animals was typical of the precious blood of Christ, who, "that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13 :12). This typical rite teaches, contrary to the Pelagian theory, that native depravity exists, and, contrary to a more common theory, that it may be removed not by a growth process but by the blood of Jesus in full salvation. [129] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VII
OTHER RITUAL TYPES
Leprosy and Its Cleansing
( Leviticus 13, 14 )
The description of leprosy given in Leviticus 13, 14 is said to be the oldest description extant of any disease. It was not given here, however, for medical purposes, nor were the regulations concerning it for effecting a cure. This is clear because the rites of the cleansing were for him who had become clean already. He was to go to the priest, not to the physician.
Doubtless the restrictions on the leper in separating him from society were beneficial in preventing the spread of the disease at the time of the exodus, when the mode of life would make the Israelites especially liable to it. But as with temporal benefits from other Mosaic institutions, that was not the primary purpose of Moses' writings on the subject. Other diseases more deadly, equally difficult to cure, and more contagious are not mentioned. No sacrifices were prescribed for those who had recovered from them. To have required elaborate rites for every form of disease would have made a great burden upon the people. God chose this particular disease because of its general nature to be a type of that most awful of all diseases—sin. In several respects it is parallel with sin and its effects in men.
It is a loathsome, defiling disease in its developed stages. It begins with a white spot in the skin which slowly and gradually spreads over the entire body "bleaching the hair white wherever it showed itself, crusting the affected parts with shining scales, and causing swellings and sores. From the skin it slowly ate its way through the tissues, to the bones and joints, and even to the marrow, rotting the whole body piecemeal." And as leprosy affects the body, so sin affects the soul. This loathsome, corrupting, degrading disease of the body, as some one has remarked, "is God's language by which he describes sin as it appears in his sight."
Leprosy is like sin also in that it is seemingly not serious in its earlier stages. It may be scarcely visible [130] to the eye, only a small rising in the flesh, a slight red spot, like the puncture from a pin. An expert may be necessary to detect it. But it spreads gradually and deepens until the subject becomes horrible to behold; fingers are eaten away, ears drop off, and he becomes a mass of putrefying corruption indescribable. So sin, so awful in its consequences, is very harmless in appearance in its beginning. That shocking crime of which you recently read in the newspaper doubtless had its beginning in what appeared a very harmless thought. All the sin that has stained the world throughout man's history began with one admiring look of our mother Eve at the forbidden fruit. Beware of sin. It is terrible in its consequences.
Leprosy is contagious by intimate contact. For this reason the leper must dwell in a house apart, as did Uzziah king of Judah, whom God smote. The leper was to go with rent clothes and bared head as a sign of sorrow, to wear a bandage on the lip or chin as a badge of his uncleanness, and to cry to any who approached him, "Unclean, unclean." If God chose such an awful spectacle to symbolize sin, how hateful to his holy eyes must sin itself appear! The sinner, like the leper, is unfit to associate with his fellows—a menace to society, spreading his awful malady wherever he goes—is an object of abhorrence to the holy; and himself is filled with dread of the awful consequences awaiting in the future.
Finally leprosy is almost incurable and was probably entirely so by human means in Bible times. Only when God in pity heard the prayers of the meek Moses was Miriam made clean. Only the God of Israel by the word of his prophet Elisha could heal the great man Naaman of his disease. But, thank God, he who said to the suppliant leper, "I will, be thou clean," can say as effectually to the moral leper, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." How remarkably parallel are leprosy and sin! No human remedy availed for either; but he who healed the lepers also saves from sin. And here we have the most glorious part of this type in the rites for the [131] cleansing of the leper, which foreshadowed God's work of cleansing men from sin.
When the leper became clean he was to present himself to the priest. If the priest found him clean, two birds were taken "alive and clean." One of these was killed in a vessel containing some fresh water, that its blood and the water might be mixed together. Then the live bird was dipped in the mingled water and blood and released to fly away clean, while the priest took the scarlet wool and hyssop on the handle of cedar wood to sprinkle the bloody water seven times on the cleansed leper. What a beautiful type of our cleansing from sin! Cleansing was by blood and water, water the symbol of God's word. One bird died that his fellow might through his life's blood be made clean and go free. No comment is needed here. The sprinkling of the bloody water seven times was symbolic of the cleansing of the leper, while the freed bird represented his release from sin's consequences. But the atonement also had to be made. After eight days he had to appear at God's altar with a trespass offering, a sin offering, a burnt and a meat offering, also a log of oil. The blood of the trespass offering was to be placed upon his ear, thumb, and toe to signify complete cleansing, and likewise of the oil to typify the making holy of the sinner by the presence of the Holy Spirit coming upon him.
Reader, if spots of sin mar your soul, behold in this vivid type of sin the awful picture God has here given of your condition. Your sin will "eat as cloth a canker," and finally destroy your soul forever. Flee to the cleansing blood of Jesus, which can cleanse you from every spot of sin's awful malady and even remove its taint from your inmost nature. Bow before your Lord as one of old with the earnest prayer, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean," and hear his voice saying in accents of infinite pity, "I will, be thou clean." [132]
The Nazarite
(Numbers 6)
A Nazarite, according to the meaning of the name, is one who is separated. He was one who made a vow, devoting himself to a life of special holiness. This separation was to continue for a definite period, after which certain sacrifices were to be offered. We have record, however, of three persons who were Nazarites for life, having been devoted to God by their parents—Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist.
This special holiness consisted in three things: (1) total abstinence from wine, or grapes in any form, and from other strong drink; (2) keeping from ceremonial defilement caused by coming in contact with a dead body; ( 3 ) leaving the hair of the head unshorn during the period of separation. Intoxicants in all forms, and to make the separation more complete, grapes, in every form, from which intoxicants were usually made, were forbidden. This was doubtless, as with the priests, who were forbidden to drink wine during their ministrations (Lev. 10 :8, 9), that their faculties might not be stupefied or benumbed. The effects of wine on the mind well represent the benumbing effects of sin generally upon the soul's devotion. Of the unshorn hair it is said, "The consecration of his God is upon his head." Here the sign is called by that which it signified—consecration, separation. As the hair upon the woman's head is described by the apostle PauI as the token of subjection to her husband—"For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head" (1 Cor. 11:10)—so the badge of the Nazarite, his long hair, signified his special subjection to God. That this is the meaning of the unshorn locks is shown also by the fact that if he accidentally touched a dead body he had to remove his sign of dedication, because he had failed to keep consecrated.
In the Nazarite we have a very exact type of consecration. We have already found this great truth set forth in the meat offering, and in the Feasts of First [133] fruits and Pentecost. Here we have another proof that God attaches much importance to our consecration. And this consecration is to consist, not merely in our abstinence from that which is evil, as signified by the Nazarite keeping himself from wine and dead things, but it is to have a positive aspect, a doing of that which is good, as shown by the unshorn locks. Every Christian who fails in the life of consecration to God will, like Samson when shorn of his hair, find himself weak like other men, void of the power of God in his life for personal holiness and divine service in building up God's kingdom.
God did not repeatedly set forth consecration in these types for nought. He intends that those who serve him be consecrated. And we dare to say consecration is essential to Christian discipleship. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). He whose love for money or fame hinders him from doing what God gives him to do is not a true Nazarite. He who loves parents, wife, children, or friends more than the will of God needs the lesson this type taught. God needs more Nazarites for life, like Samuel and John the Baptist.
Lack of space forbids a full discussion of these different ritual types. A few of the less important types have not been mentioned, but we have presented the principal Mosaic types and their meanings. The reader will probably be able, from what has been written, to apply the same general principle of interpretation to those not discussed here. [134] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VIII
HISTORICAL TYPES
A type, as already shown, may be either an institution or an action. Types are of two classes—ritual and historical. Thus far in our consideration of types we have dealt almost exclusively with the former class. Now we shall undertake a brief discussion of historical types. It is not unreasonable that God should choose to order events in such a manner that they as well as the institutions which he ordained should foreshadow the grand truths of true religion.
But let us remember that a real type must not only resemble a particular Christian truth, but must have been designed to resemble it at the time of its institution or occurrence. He whose controlling hand governs all things is well able to so order events of history that they will typify great truths of the gospel. That he has done so is clear from the plain statements of Scripture and also from the nature of certain historical facts that bear all the marks of types. But caution is needed in determining which of these events are typical and which merely possess a superficial resemblance. Because of lack of clearness on this point some of these events have more value as illustrations of Christian truths than as proofs of them. But the opposite danger must also be avoided of laying down a rule for determining types, as did Bishop Marsh, that excludes many of the real types that God gave. The reason many historical happenings are so remarkably parallel with Christian truth is because God caused them to occur as they did with that very Christian truth in view when they took place. They are parallel because designed to be parallel.
Examples of Historical Types
The brazen serpent as a means of salvation for the Israelites was a most remarkable type of Christ as a [135] means of our salvation through him. The Israelites murmured against Moses and God, and as a punishment God sent fiery serpents among them to bite them, so that many of the people died. When, at the request of the people, Moses prayed for their deliverance, he was told to make a brazen serpent and place it upon a pole so that those looking upon it might live and not die. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3 :14). Jesus did not here merely find an apt illustration of his means of saving men by dying on the cross; it was a remarkable divinely ordained type of salvation from death and the punishment for sin by a God appointed means. As they looked at that serpent and lived, so we believe on Christ and live. It very beautifully set forth salvation through Christ. We need not suppose that God ordained that the Israelites should sin that he might present a type of New Testament salvation; but when they did sin he took advantage of the occasion to give this type. So usually the historical types seem to be incidental; but that is God's ordinary method of doing things. The institution of the Lord's Supper seemed at the time to be incidental.
The salvation of Noah and his family in the ark at the time of the deluge was another remarkable type of our salvation through Christ. Of course there was a more immediate and practical purpose in the preservation of Noah and his family from drowning; but that was true in the case of the brazen serpent, and practically every other typical institution or event. The flood was a divine judgment on sinners. As Noah, a just man, accepted the divinely appointed means of salvation by entering the ark, so we who are in Christ are saved from the penalty of sin. In 1 Pet. 3:21 the apostle describes that salvation of Noah as well as Christian baptism as being a figure of the salvation we have in Christ. Other historical types, such as the offering of Isaac, the suffering of Joseph in Egypt that his people might be saved, cannot be described for lack of space.
But probably the most important point to be noticed in this class of types is that the people of Israel themselves were a type. We have already shown that their worship in its various aspects was typical. It is just as clear that the nation itself as God's special people was typical of the true people of God. It was literal Israel, but Paul describes Christian believers as spiritual Israel. Except for the spiritual Israel which was to be and whom God foreknew there had been no literal Israel. Literal Israel was divinely ordained to resemble spiritual Israel. The literal seed of Abraham typified the spiritual seed of Abraham, and some of the promises made to his seed were not fulfilled at all to his literal seed, but, as Paul teaches in Romans 4, only to his spiritual children. Literal Israel as a type of spiritual Israel is constantly set forth by Paul in the Roman and Galatian letters. And with the fact before us of the nation of Israel as a type we need not be surprised to find that some of the great facts of the history of literal Israel also had typical significance.
Journey from Egypt to Canaan
Typologists commonly allow that Israel's extraordinary, divinely directed journey from Egypt to Canaan, full of miraculous dealings, during which God led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, was typical of Christian experiences. Egypt, the land of oppression, well typified the state of sin. The bitter bondage was like the slavery of sin, in which sinners are held and compelled by sinful tendencies within to serve sin and bear the consequences even though they should like to do otherwise. Pharaoh was like Satan, who strives so hard to keep people in bondage and from obeying God. Moses was like Christ, who through the Holy Spirit leads men out of sin.
The crossing of the Red Sea was a beautiful type of salvation from sin. Deliverance from sin's bondage, like theirs, is not possible by human means. Like them, the sinner trying to get out of sin finds himself helpless [137] and hopeless except as God is pleased to aid him. As the crossing of the Red Sea was by a miracle of God's power, so the conversion of every sinner who is saved is a miracle. When the Red Sea was crossed, and the people found themselves free, they sang the "Song of Moses," a song of praise for salvation and deliverance. Even this seems to typify the joy which, times without number, has come to the newly converted soul with the first realization of freedom from the bondage of sin.
The Israelites seemed to think, when once out of Egypt, as some newly converted Christians think today— that it will be all singing, and no trouble or trials. But their very next move brought them to the bitter waters of Marah, of which they could not drink. The circumstance discouraged them greatly. They doubtless felt much as does the new convert when he meets his first adversity in the service of God. But He who made the waters of Marah sweet for Israel through Moses' faith and obedience to God's command makes the bitter sweet for us.
The next important type was the manna. God sent the people food from heaven. This was a remarkable miracle. It meets every requirement of a true type. Jesus makes it to represent the "true bread from heaven" (John 6:31 51), which is himself. "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." As God gave Christ for the life of the soul, so he gave the manna for the life of the body. As the manna was given daily, and could not be kept until the morrow, so we must continually partake of the life of Christ. Our souls must be divinely fed daily with food fresh from God. The manna was enough for every man. If one gathered much, he had but an omer full when measured. If he gathered little, he had the same amount. It was enough for all and alike to all, as God's gracious provision for the sustenance of our souls.
Shortly after the manna was given, the people found themselves without water, at Rephidim. Again through [138] Church of God, Carmichael, CA
Shadows of Good Things
Or the Gospel in Type
Russell R. Byrum, 1922
[Original Page Numbers]
CHAPTER VIII
HISTORICAL TYPES
prayer and obedience God gave them water out of the smitten rock, in Horeb. Paul makes this rock representative of Christ (1 Cor. 10:4). Christ gives the water of which if one drink he shall never thirst. He it was who said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." His blood "is drink indeed." Christ both gives life to and satisfies every want of the redeemed soul.
The battle with Amalek in Rephidim is a good illustration of the Christian's spiritual conflicts. The victory was gained by the holding up of Moses' hands. That act on Moses' part symbolized prayer to God. Through prayer our victories are won today.
The crossing of the River Jordan into the promised land was another highly miraculous event which evidently was full of typical meaning. No other reason can well be given for God's leading the Israelites to the eastward of the Dead Sea and the Jordan that they might enter by crossing the River than that Christian truth might the better be typified. But what does this crossing of Jordan typify? The answer to this question can be known only by first learning what Canaan itself typified. Interpreters have often regarded it as being typical of heaven. So it has been represented in both sermon and song. But with this as with the holiest place of the tabernacle, we believe the Scriptures clearly show that it does not typify heaven as a place, but the fullness of Christian experience in this life.
In the third and fourth chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews the inspired writer gives a discussion of this very matter. God said of those who did not believe that "they shall not enter into my rest." That rest was the rest from journeying, or the settled home they should have in Canaan, according to Heb. 3:8 19 and 4: 1 11. Next he shows that another rest than that in literal Canaan remains for the people of God, by quoting from David, who promises another rest than that in literal Canaan (chap. 4:7). Therefore the writer to the Hebrews says that Joshua, who led the Israelites into Canaan, failed to give them the promised rest (v. 8). [139]
He spiritualizes that promised rest and locates it, not in literal Canaan, but in Christian experience, of which Canaan was a type. Here is positive proof that God attached typical meaning to that journey of the Israelites.
Throughout the discussion of this matter the inspired writer shows that the reason those ancient Israelites failed to enter into God's rest was because of their unbelief, and that we today may enter in by faith in God's promises through Christ. "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest" (Heb. 4:10, 11). "For we which have believed do enter into rest" (v. 3). Then this rest typified by Canaan is a present experience in this world, not merely in heaven. We do enter it now. He "is" entered who trusts in the mercy of God through Christ for salvation, and not in his own works.
That Canaan is used in Scripture to typify the state of perfect holiness attainable in this life, rather than of heaven as a place, is further shown by the apostle Paul's explanation of the Abrahamic covenant given in Romans and Galatians. The covenant of Abraham promised two things in particular: a numerous seed, and an inheritance in Canaan. There was a literal fulfillment of this promise under the law to Abraham's descendants, but Paul clearly shows that the main application of that covenant promise is spiritual. In Rom. 4:13 16 he says: "For the promise, that he [Abraham] should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect . . . Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all." The Abrahamic promise, therefore, has a spiritual fulfillment.
In the Galatian letter Paul gives explanation both of the seed of Abraham and of the inheritance promised to that seed. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the [140] promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of man; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (chap. 3:16). The seed of Abraham, then, in the spiritual fulfillment of the promise, refers directly to Christ. "And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (ver. 29) . Hence Christians constitute the spiritual seed of Abraham, "the Israel of God," and they are heirs. Heirs of what? The Israelites inherited Canaan literally, yet Paul adds, "If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise" (ver. 18). The real Canaan inheritance was therefore reserved for Christians "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT through faith" (ver. 14). There was no inheritance promised except Canaan, and this Paul identifies with the baptism of "the Spirit," which Jesus elsewhere terms 'the promise of the Father' (Luke 24:49).
In view of these facts and what we have already shown of the fullness of Christian experience one can scarcely avoid the conclusion that if Egypt typified the state of sin, the wilderness must have typified justification, and Canaan entire sanctification. As the crossing of the Red Sea typical of conversion admits to the state of salvation, so crossing the Jordan admits to the blessed soul rest of entire sanctification, where the last remains of inherited sin are removed by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. It is reasonable that this Spiritfilled experience should have been portrayed in such a system of types as this journey presented. Also this interpretation is in harmony with the Scriptures and every law of typology. This experience of perfect rest God wants all his people to have. Too many of those who have left Egypt spend their lives wandering in the wilderness. Of course that is much better than the bitter bondage of Egypt, but God intends that all his people by faith in God, like the priests who walked out into Jordan with the ark, boldly cross over to the promised inheritance.[141]
— END —
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Justification, Sanctification, Unity
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