Ervin N.

Hershberger
 SEEING CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT © 2010 by Vision Publishers.
All rights reserved. For permission to quote from this book, contact Vision Publishers.
No permission is needed for 50 words or less.
Copyright © 2000 by Ervin N. Hershberger

ISBN-13: 978-1-932676-04-4
ISBN-10: 1-932676-04-X

First Edition 1999

Second Edition 2000
Third Edition 2010
Fourth Printing 2010

Printed in the United States of America

Cover Design: Lonnie D. Yoder

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Digital Text entry: Elizabeth B. Burkholder

All scripture taken from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.

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Table of Contents
Dedication
Credits Due
Introduction
Author’s Preface

PART I
Seeing Christ in Eternity Past
1. In the Beginning
2. In the Creation

PART II
Section 1: Seeing Christ in Hebrew Names of God
3. Elohim and El
4. Jehovah
5. El-Shaddai
6. Adonai
7. Jehovah-jireh

Section 2: Seeing Christ in Names Revealed Enroute to the Promised Land

8. Jehovah-rophe
9. Jehovah-nissi
10. Jehovah-m’kaddesh

Section 3: Seeing Christ in Names Revealed in the Promised Land

11. Jehovah-shalom
12. Jehovah-rohi
13. Jehovah-tsidkenue
14. Jehovah-shamma

PART III
Glimpses of Christ Seen in Bible Characters
15. Adam and Abel
16. Enoch
17. Noah and the Ark
18. Melchizedek
19. Abraham and Isaac
20. Jacob
21. Joseph
22. Moses
23. Aaron and Eleazar
24. Two Joshuas
25. Boaz
26. Samuel
27. David and Solomon
28. Elijah and Elisha

PART IV
Seeing Christ in Eternity Future
29. The Real Hebrew Servant
30. The Fourfold Messianic Branch

Bibliography
 Dedication
I heartily dedicate this book to Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord, and Master.
He is the heart and fiber of the whole Bible.
Without Him even the Book of books could not offer a message of salvation.
Credits Due
To God the Father who gives to all men life and breath.

To Jesus Christ who died that I may live in and for Him.

To the Holy Spirit who motivates and enables for service.

To my faithful wife Barbara for helping to double-check references, and for

standing with me these fifty-nine years, understanding, undergirding, and
encouraging me as only a dedicated companion would or could.

To Marvin Yoder, Mildred Yoder, and Kenton Yoder (son-in-law, daughter, and
grandson) for editing my manuscripts and giving many helpful suggestions.

To Simon Schrock, Fairfax, Virginia, and others for their encouragement, prayer
support, and blessings.

May Christ be glorified by revealing Himself to us on page after page in the

Sacred Book of the Ages!
Introduction
Do you remember those favorite Bible stories from the Old Testament told
thousands of times and concluded with a brief “moral of the story”? These
stories are still being told. However, the Old Testament is often viewed as a
book of interesting stories from another era with a lesson to be learned. Although
this may be true, it is much more.
Seeing Christ in the Old Testament shows that an illuminating thread of Jesus
Christ is woven throughout the fabric of the entire Old Testament. The author
sees 69 reminders of Jesus flash across the “inspired screen” in the first 31
verses of the Bible. He sees Jesus show up on page after page of God’s inspired
Word.
The Lord Jesus Christ is very present in the Creation story. He is included in
every Hebrew name of God. There are types and shadows of Him in the
characters of those favorite Old Testament stories. Christ shows up where we
have not thought of looking for Him.
How could the colorful life of Moses foreshadow the ministry of Christ? Or
how could the reign of Solomon be typical of Christ at His second coming? How
could Christ be seen in the fascinating account of iron rising from the bottom of
the Jordan River? How could a shadow of Christ be in the ritual of the master
piercing the ear of his servant? Types of Christ can be seen throughout the Old
Testament, beginning with Adam and flowing on through to the prophets. It is an
enlightening experience to see Christ typified in the familiar accounts of Noah,
Abraham, Joseph, Samuel, David, Elijah, and many others.
Seeing Christ in the Old Testament infuses additional light and life into those
favorite stories. It affirms the value of reading and making the entire Bible a part
of the believer’s life. It affirms that all Scripture is given by the inspiration of
God and is profitable for our learning.
The author frequently refers to the German Bible. His ability to read and study
in German adds to the richness of the insights the Lord has given him. His
reference to the Greek meaning of words helps to clarify what sometimes seem
to be difficult passages.
This book nurtures an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. It shows Him
exalted to the position of King of kings to whom every tongue shall confess that
He is Lord. It has been a joyful experience to see Jesus Christ appearing again
and again in the names and accounts in the Old Testament. It is with joy that I
enthusiastically recommend this book.
—Simon Schrock
Preface
Christ is man’s greatest Treasure. Without Him our Bibles would be
skeletons. He is the frame and fabric of both the Old and New Testaments. The
Law and the Prophets pointed forward, whereas the Gospels and the Epistles
point back to Christ. He is the central focus of both.
The history of fallen man is included for our warning and instruction, to show
us how much we need Christ. Knowledge without the Savior would be like
dreams without substance, or husks without kernels. People speak of the Old
Testament as dry reading, and some even wonder why we have it. It was written
to prepare fallen man for the coming Messiah and to point us to Him.
I do not discuss Old Testament sacrifices or rituals in this book. That is a
study of its own, and Bible readers know that they point forward to Christ. I
choose to address the Hebrew names for God and the typology of Bible
characters because they have vital meaning for us today.
Types and shadows are like the parables of Jesus. His disciples asked Him
why He spoke in parables. He explained that to His disciples it was given to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to the disinterested it was not
given. If you ever feel that the shadows are dim, remember that the substance is
clear and the search is rewarding. We find treasures where our heart is.
Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) gives a glimpse of Christ in eternity past, in His
glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Christ is the very One
by whom God made the worlds. He is the express image of God’s person and
upholds all things by the word of His power (John 17:5; 1:1-3, 10; Hebrews 1:2,
3).
Part II (Chapters 3–14) shows Christ in perfect union with the Father in the
Hebrew names for God. The names for God are also used for Christ, who was
actively involved in the history of God’s people for about 4,000 years before His
virgin birth in Bethlehem. The names of God are full of meaning. They make a
fascinating and inspiring study.
This study is limited because I cannot read Hebrew or Greek, and finite minds
cannot fully comprehend infinity. We do have Bible concordances and
dictionaries that interpret these names in English, which most of us can read (see
Bibliography, page 221). Others may use different spellings for some of these
names. I used English letters and tried to follow the spelling used by Strong’s
Concordance. For example, instead of Yahweh or Jehovah I simply used the
English rendering, Jehovah. I assumed most of my readers would prefer it that
way. Anyone fluent in the Hebrew language may be frustrated by my limitations.
I trust Him who spoke through Balaam’s donkey somehow to bless these feeble
efforts.
Part III (Chapters 15–28) highlights various aspects of Christ in the flesh
foreshadowed in the many Old Testament Bible characters. Some types are very
obvious, whereas others may be debatable. It is my persuasion that God designed
to show us Christ in numerous types and shadows, figures of speech, and names
and titles where we have not even thought of looking for Him.
Part IV (Chapters 29–30) shows Christ in eternity future, committed to serve
forever, yet reigning in supernal glory as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”
(Revelation 19:16). He will then have at least one more name not yet revealed to
man (Revelation 19:13).
These studies have potential far beyond this writer’s ability to capture. The
book is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive. I only hope it may whet your
appetite for personal study and intensify your appreciation for Christ. To Him be
praise and glory!
 Part I

Seeing Christ in Eternity Past

 CHAPTER ONE
In the Beginning
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory, which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

In the beginning GOD

Nothing else — No earth — No sea
No sky — No sun — No moon
No stars — No people — Nothing but . . .

GOD
We bury our faces, and cry
HOLY HOLY HOLY!
God’s greatness far transcends the comprehension of the most brilliant human
mind! He “humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the
earth” (Psalm 113:6). Yet in His infinite love for mankind He stoops down to
reveal Himself to us by a multitude of illustrations, types, and shadows, so that
we may learn to know Him.
Being one God in three Persons, He created the universe with many triads and
trinities. This may be primer lesson number one toward understanding God as a
holy tri-unity. Then, as a climax, He created man a trichotomy of spirit, soul, and
body—in the image and as a dim shadow of Himself. The following are a few of
the trinities God created for our benefit.
A. The universe is a trinity of time, space, and matter. Each of these
fills everything, everywhere, all the time.
B. Time is a trinity of future, present, and past. The present always
flows out of the future, and moves on into the past.
 C. Space has length, breadth, and height (or depth). All are everywhere
all the time—never missing any place.
D. Matter exists as energy, motion, and phenomena. All are
omnipresent; and motion coming out of energy produces
phenomena (experienced by physical senses).1
E. The sun is light, heat, and energy. “There is nothing hid from the
heat thereof” (Psalm 19:6).
F. Man consists of spirit, soul, and body. He is made in the image and
likeness of the holy Trinity (Genesis 1:26).
Even the six creation days are set up in three related pairs: first and fourth,
second and fifth, third and sixth. On the first day God created light; on the fourth
day He created lights (sun, moon, and stars). On the second day He divided the
waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament (leaving just
enough moisture in the air to make a good breathing atmosphere); on the fifth
day He made fish to inhabit the waters and flying fowl to inhabit the atmosphere.
On the third day He made dry land, trees, and vegetation; on the sixth day He
made the creatures and man that inhabit the dry land and eat the vegetation.
The basic moral attribute of God is holiness, the theme song of heaven (Isaiah
6:3; Revelation 4:8). One of His most endearing attributes is love. We all agree
that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Love requires relationship, and without
plurality there is no relationship. Therefore it is self-evident that even when there
was nothing but GOD—before creation began—God was a plurality, for “God is
love.” There was the Lover, the Beloved, and the mutual Spirit of Love between
the Three.
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in
truth.” “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for
they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). All we really know about God is
what He has revealed to us of Himself.
God’s power and glory are revealed in what He has created (Psalm 19:1-6).
He reveals Himself more fully in His Word, the Bible. We learn little by little,
progressively, as we are able to receive it, but it must be spiritually discerned.
Finally, He revealed Himself to us most perfectly in Jesus Christ, “the express
image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). “He that hath seen me [Jesus] hath seen the
Father” (John 14:9).
By simple, trusting faith and humble obedience we learn more about God than
human reasoning could ever teach us. His Word is truth. It is more important to
believe His Word than to understand it fully. To learn about the universe we
begin with Him who made it all. He who was and is the beginning of it all has
introduced Himself through the prophet Isaiah.
Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the
beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he (Isaiah 41:4).
Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the LORD of
hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God (Isaiah
44:6).
Both verses reveal Christ as involved in the Creation from the very beginning.
Jesus Christ Himself, speaking to John from heaven after His resurrection and
ascension, interprets these Isaiah passages for us.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8). Saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last (Revelation 1:11). Fear not; I am
the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive
for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:17,
18). These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive
(Revelation 2:8). I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and
the last (Revelation 22:13).
Micah 5:2, in foretelling the incarnation of Christ, affirms that His “goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting” [defined by Strong as . . . the
vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future) i.e., practically
eternity]. Luther’s German translation and several others do say “from the days
of eternity,” or eternity past. The New Testament presents Christ in type through
Melchizedek as “having neither beginning of days, nor end of life” (Hebrews
7:3).
Jesus Christ is not a created being. Through Isaiah He revealed Himself as the
First and the Last. Through Micah He revealed His goings forth in eternity past.
His preexistence is declared by the Apostle John and verified in the Revelation
by the Alpha and Omega Himself. He was not only in the beginning, He was the
beginning.
The Holy Spirit has revealed through John that Jesus Christ the Word had
been with God, yea, even was God, jointly with the Father from the very
beginning (John 1:1-3).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God (John 1:1, 2).
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled, of the Word of life; . . . and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
 and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1, 3).
Then, approximately 4,000 years after the Creation, one-third of the Godhead
voluntarily condescended from infinity to infancy! Yea, “the mighty God El”
(Isaiah 9:6), who upholds “all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3)
“and hangs the earth [and other planets and millions of stars] upon nothing” (Job
26:7), reduced Himself to a tiny embryo in the womb of a humble virgin. He was
born in a lowly stable and fled for His life as a refugee to Egypt. He returned and
grew to manhood in the despised village of Nazareth (John 1:46), in a country
out of which the Pharisees mistakenly said “ariseth no prophet” (John 7:52).
(Jonah and Nahum both were from Galilee.)
Jesus condescended to reveal a holy God to fallen man and to redeem fallen
man to a gracious and holy God. His condescension and virgin birth are two
miracles that have never been superseded. Equaled? Yes, by His vicarious death
on Calvary and resurrection from the dead. They will be equaled in importance
once more when His own “shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-54; Philippians 3:21).
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive
and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [or precede] them
which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and
so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with
these words (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).
Then, in the Revelation, the Holy Spirit revealed this same Jesus as Master in
control of end time events. John, exiled to the lonely Isle of Patmos “for the
word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9), was used
of God to reveal these truths to us. Consider what he saw, and notice our Lord’s
five wonderful names, plus one that no man knows.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon
him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and
make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many
crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The
Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses,
 clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it he might smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,
KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:11-16).
Although we do not understand everything about the future, one thing we can
know: Christ is the alpha and omega—our hope and assurance from A to Z. He
is the first and the last, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). His
death, resurrection, and ascension confirm our faith. He is the beginning [the
architect of the Creation]; He is our Savior, Lord, and Master today, and will be
the ending [the engineer of the consummation]. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”!
(Revelation 22:20).

1 Nathan R. Wood in The Trinity in the Universe. With permission from Kregel Publications.
 CHAPTER TWO
In the Creation
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

“In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
Elohim is a plural noun, which we shall consider more thoroughly in the next
chapter. In this chapter we observe glimpses of the glory of Christ in the
Creation story. Some people think of God the Father as the sole creator. But the
New Testament sheds divinely inspired light on Christ’s involvement in the
Creation.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:3, 10, 14).
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him
(1 Corinthians 8:6).
God . . . created all things by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9). “For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10).
For by him [by our Lord Jesus Christ] were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him,
and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And
he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead [the Father was never dead]; that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him [in Christ] should all
fulness dwell (Colossians 1:16-19).
 God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds (Hebrews
1:1, 2). But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: .
. . And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth;
and the heavens are the works of thine hands: . . . and as a vesture shalt thou
fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail” (Hebrews 1:8, 10, 12).
Hebrews 1:8-12 is a quotation from Psalm 45:6, 7 and Psalm 102:25-27, but
the writer to the Hebrews, by divine inspiration, tells us both passages were said
to the Son. Therefore, every time the Bible says God created, we have another
glimpse of Jesus’ preincarnate glory, because we recognize by the Scriptures that
the work was done by the Father through the Son.
Both the Hebrew rosh and the Greek arche (here translated “beginning”) have
compound meanings. Strong’s definition includes beginning, captain, chapiter,
chief, head, ruler, principal; the first in place, time, order, or rank; the chief or
principal thing.
Webster says architect is from the Greek architekton (archi- [chief] + tekton
[worker]). The Bible plainly tells us that Jesus Christ is the one “by whom also
he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2), and that He is “the beginning [the arche] of
the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14). Therefore, we believe that rather than
being a product of creation, Christ was the chief worker, or architect, of the
creation (John 1:3, 10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:15-19;
Hebrews 1:8-12).
Genesis 1:2 briefly mentions the Spirit of God, who “moved upon the face of
the waters.” He is the third member of the Trinity. His role is not clearly defined
here, but it is evident that He also participated in the Creation. Perhaps His
protective presence hovering over the waters had a brooding effect, emitting life-
giving energy for the waters to “bring forth abundantly the moving creature that
hath life” (Genesis 1:20). According to verse 26, all three participated in making
man. The Spirit especially must have been involved when Elohim (the plural
word for God) breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, making Him a
trichotomy of spirit, soul, and body (Genesis 2:7).
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Ten
times in Genesis 1 our Creation teacher flashes across the screen those three
words, “and God said.” What did God use each time God said? He used the
Word, did He not? John says the Word was with God, and the Word was God....
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was
made” (John 1:1, 3). It was that Word who “was made flesh and dwelt among
us” (John 1:14). Obviously it was our Lord Jesus Christ!
Christ was the “true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world” (John 1:6-9). Therefore, because the sun, moon, and stars were not
created until the fourth day, the light created on the first day may have been a
special foreshadow of Christ, our spiritual light. Many passages speak of Christ
as the light of the world (Isaiah 9:2; John 1:4; 8:12; 12:35, 46; 2 Corinthians 4:6;
Ephesians 5:14; 1 John 2:8). Our sun today typifies Christ (Psalm 19:4-6), and
the Lamb (Jesus Christ) will be the light of the eternal heavenly city (Revelation
21:23).
“And God said, . . . Let the dry land appear: and it was so” (Genesis 1:9).
Where did it come from? It came up out of that watery mass. “And God said, Let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit
after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so” (Genesis
1:11). Every spring when the dead grass turns green and the bare trees put on
their foliage, they typify resurrection—life out of death.
Do you think it was merely a coincidence that this happened for the first time
on the third day? I am persuaded that God by design had carefully planned for
this to take place specifically on the third creation day. Ten times we read that
Jesus told His disciples He would rise from the dead on the third day (Matthew
16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:63; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7, 46). This
third-day resurrection figure is a vital reminder of Him who said, “I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live” (John 11:25). The Resurrection is beautifully illustrated in Genesis 1:9-
13.
On the sixth day God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”
(Genesis 1:26). He surely did not say that to he angels. They are the servants of
mankind, not their creators. Angels cannot create. In fact, they cannot even
procreate—reproduce their own kind. Much less could they have created a
species that eventually “shall judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:3). God must have
spoken to His co-creators, His co-partners in the Trinity. Those three plural
pronouns (Genesis 1:26) are three additional glimpses of Christ’s participation in
the Creation.
Another reminder flashes across the inspired screen when we read that “God
created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Genesis
1:27). Man at his very best is only a dim foreshadow of Christ, “who is the
image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Adam “is the
figure of him [Christ] that was to come” (Romans 5:14), but Christ is “the
brightness of his [God’s] glory, and the express image of his person (Hebrews
1:3).
 Instead of flash cards, Genesis 1 uses flash words—glimpses of Christ in
glory participating with the Father in the Creation. Let’s see how many such
flash words we have.
Beginning (Christ is the alpha) 1 time
Elohim (plurality includes Him) 31 times
Created (all things by Him) 5 times
God said (using the Word) 10 times
Made (all things made by Him) 5 times
Light (Christ is the true light) 10 times
Resurrection (typified) 1 time
Us, Our, Our (all three in 1:26) 3 times
Image (He is the express image) 3 times
69 words in Genesis 1 that reflect
Christ.
We find that 69 reminders of Jesus are flashed across the inspired screen in
the first 31 verses! Not every page has as many glimpses of Christ as Genesis 1,
but He shows up on page after page. Let us sit up and take notice of the glory
which He had with the Father before the world was.
 Part II

Seeing Christ in Hebrew Names of God

 CHAPTER THREE
Elohim and El
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory, which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

The Hebrew names of God recorded in our Bibles are a fascinating study.
They all apply to the same God, but each name especially emphasizes certain
attributes of His character.

ELOHIM THE GOD OF STRENGTH AND POWER

Elohim (#430 in Strong’s Concordance, see Preface and Bibliography) is the
first name by which God revealed Himself to us in the Bible. That name appears
35 times in the first 34 verses of Genesis. In the ordinary sense elohim is used
also for false gods: “that are no gods” (2 Chronicles 13:9), but “the work of
men’s hands” (2 Kings 19:18). Elohim is occasionally applied by way of
deference to magistrates as well.
But the true Elohim is strikingly distinguished from pagan gods by such terms
as “the God of heaven” 23 times, and “the God of Israel” 200 times
(compounded as LORD God [Jehovah Elohim] of Israel 108 times). “For the
LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God [El], a mighty,
and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward” (Deuteronomy
10:17).
Elohim, used specifically for the Supreme God, emphasizes His omnipotence
and sovereignty, His power to govern, to make long range plans and fulfill them,
to do whatsoever He wills. Elohim created the universe out of nothing, hung the
earth upon nothing (Job 26:7), set the planets in orbit as it pleased Him, and
controls them in their order to this day and forever.
“Power belongeth unto God [Elohim]” (Psalm 62:11), who “by his strength
setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power” (Psalm 65:6). “He divideth
the sea with his power” (Job 26:12). “Our God is in the heavens: he hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased” (Psalm 115:3).

Elohim Demonstrates Unity in Plurality

Elohim is the plural of El, just as Baalim is plural for Baal (#1168). El occurs
225 times in the Old Testament, and Elohim, 2,605 times. Eloah (#433), chiefly
found in poetry, is a singular form with the same meaning as El, and appears 56
times. Elahh (#426), the Chaldean form used in Ezra and Daniel, corresponds
with Eloah, and is found 49 times. The plural form (Elohim) is used nearly eight
times more often than the singular. The Trinity always functions in perfect unity.
Jesus always did what pleased the Father (John 8:29).
Elohim is found second in frequency to Jehovah (#3068), which occurs 6,528
times. The four main names beginning with El are all translated God. Jehovah is
translated either LORD or GOD (all capital letters in KJV, NKJV, and NASB).
The NIV uses Sovereign Lord instead of Lord GOD.
“The LORD our God is one LORD” (literally, Jehovah our Elohim is one
Jehovah) (Deuteronomy 6:4), meaning that there is no other. Strong defines the
word “one” (echad #259) as meaning something that is “properly united” (i.e.
one). It is a completely unified plurality. An example can be seen in husband and
wife: “and they twain shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:8). The Holy
Trinity is perfectly united, unified, and harmonized such as no two human beings
can possibly be. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal and co-equal,
the same in substance but distinguishable in subsistence, not a tri-theism (three
separate gods) but a tri-unity.

Elohim Is a Tri-unity
The Bible reveals the organizational functions of this tri-unity as follows:
The Father is essentially the source of the divine nature, the initiator and
general director, as we perceive from the following passages.
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into his hand (John 3:34, 35).
If I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father
that sent me (John 8:16).
He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me (John 12:44, 45).
 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave
me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak (John
12:49).
The Son is essentially the manifestation of God, and His administrator.
Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their
sins (Matthew 1:21).
They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with
us (Matthew 1:23).
The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth
(John 1:14).
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1:18; see also John 6:46; 1
John 4:12).
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, . . . To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19).
God . . . created all things by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9).
And he [Christ] is before all things, and by him all things consist [hold
together]. And he is the head of the body, the church (Colossians 1:17, 18).
For in him [in Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily
(Colossians 2:9).
Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high
(Hebrews 1:2, 3).
The Spirit is essentially the energy of divine nature, through whom the Trinity
works.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was
without form, and void; . . . and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the waters” (Genesis 1:1, 2). [Undoubtedly it was by the energy of the
Spirit that the waters brought “forth abundantly the moving creature that
 hath life, and fowl that may fly” (Genesis 1:20)].
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11).
[Paul did] mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God
(Romans 15:19).
And my speech and my preaching was . . . in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power (1 Corinthians 2:4).
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The above verses and others reveal the Holy Spirit as the energy by which the
marvelous works of God are accomplished.
Not only do the members of the Trinity work each in their own roles, but they
are capable of overlapping and working interchangeably as well, as we shall see
in the following verses.
Each of the Three is called God:
Father: “Peace from God our Father” (Romans 1:7).
*Son: “Emmanuel . . . God with us” (Matthew 1:23); see also Isaiah 9:6;
Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8.
Spirit: By lying “to the Holy Ghost . . . [Ananias lied] unto God” (Acts 5:3,
4).
Each of the Three is called Lord:
Father: “Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25).
Son: “God made Jesus . . . Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). “If thou shalt
confess . . . the Lord Jesus” (Romans 10:9).
Spirit: “Now the Lord is that Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
Each of the Three is called Creator:
Father: “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?”
(Malachi 2:10).
*Son: John 1:3, 10; Colossians 1:15-19; Hebrews 1:2.
Spirit: “The Spirit of God hath made me” (Job 33:4).
Each of the Three is called Comforter:
Father: “The Father. . . God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3).
 *Son: John 14:18; Philippians 2:1; 2 Thess. 2:16, 17.
Spirit: “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” (John 14:26).

EL, THE MOST HIGH GOD, THE ALMIGHTY

El (#410) is a singular name for the same God. That name first appears in
Genesis 14:18-22. In these five verses it appears four times, each time
compounded with the descriptive title El Elyon (#5945), meaning “most high.”
El Elyon (God most High), translated in reverse order, is “the most high God.”
That exact title is found eight times in the Old Testament and three times in the
New Testament. The adjective then became a superlative proper noun, “the most
High,” used 30 times in the Old Testament to describe God—11 times in the
Psalms. For example:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1).
Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most
High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague
come nigh thy dwelling (Psalm 91:9, 10).
It is God [El] that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect
(Psalm 18:32).
The heavens declare the glory of God [El]; and the firmament sheweth
his handywork (Psalm 19:1).
Strong defines the name El as “strength (adj.), mighty, especially the
Almighty.” The singular name does not deny His undivided tri-unity, but rather
emphasizes His unique position as “the most High.” He far transcends the
comprehension of natural man. That is why the cults deny His tri-unity.
In Genesis 21:33, He is called “the everlasting God [El].” In Genesis 31:13,
He said to Jacob, “I am the God [El] of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar,
and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land
[Haran], and return unto the land of thy kindred [Canaan].” God was telling
Jacob, “I, the Mighty God, yea, the Almighty God, will be with you.”

When Jacob’s whole family was migrating to Egypt,

God [Elohim] spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said,
Jacob, Jacob. . . . I am God [El,] the God [Elohim] of thy father: fear not to
go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go
down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and
 Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes (Genesis 46:2-4).
When the children of Israel had come through the Red Sea on dry ground,
they sang a song of victory, saying,
Lord [Jehovah] is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation:
he is my God [El,] and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God
[Elohim], and I will exalt him (Exodus 15:2).
El and Elohim are two descriptive names for the same God. El is definitely
used to identify both Jesus Christ and the Father.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God [El], The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
We all know that this El (translated the mighty God) was the Son.
Why is the Son called “the everlasting Father”? Luther’s German and at least
two other translations say “Eternal Father.” “Literally, the words mean the
‘Father of eternity,’ One who in His own being is eternal and thus able to give
the gift of eternal life to others” (The New Bible Commentary, 1963). On that
basis, it was very logical for Jesus to call His disciples, “little children” (John
13:33). From eternity past He was designated to be our Savior, our spiritual
Father. And, whereas the Old Testament is “the book of the generations [plural]
of Adam” (Genesis 5:1), the New Testament is “the book of the generation
[singular] of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1). He has no grandchildren.
Isaiah, by divine inspiration, very accurately foretold the virgin birth of Christ,
and called His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), approximately 740 years before
His first advent. Matthew reports the fulfillment of that prophecy and by divine
inspiration interprets the name for us:
“Call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew
1:23).
After the Babylonian captivity Nehemiah spoke of Israel’s frequent rebellion
against God. Then he added,
But thou art a God [Eloah] ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not (Nehemiah 9:17).
Pardon is available to fallen mankind only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In this chapter we have considered El, Eloah, El Elyon, Elohim, Jehovah,
and Emmanuel. These are six names of deity given to our Lord Jesus Christ by
divine inspiration. They declare some of the glory that Jesus had with the Father
before the world was.

* For the Son, there were too many references to quote them all. Look them up and read them.
 CHAPTER FOUR
Jehovah
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory, which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

Jehovah is perhaps the highest and most awesome of all the Hebrew names of
God. It also is the most frequent, occurring 6,528 times in the Old Testament.
The Jews considered this name so holy they feared to pronounce it. The name
Jehovah emphasizes His eternal self-existence (“having neither beginning of
days nor end of life”), as well as His moral attributes such as holiness,
righteousness, love, mercy, grace, and justice. Elohim, as indicated in Chapter
Three, denotes His sovereignty and strength, His ability to do whatsoever He
wills.
Jehovah (in the King James and several other English versions) is translated
Lord or GOD (all capital letters), to distinguish it from His other names. It
appears for the first time in Genesis 2:4, as LORD God (Jehovah Elohim). That
combination occurs 20 times in chapters 2 and 3, always in connection with
something Jehovah was doing especially for the good of man. In fact, the
combination “LORD God” (Jehovah Elohim) is found approximately 532 times in
the Bible.
The significance of the name Jehovah was not fully revealed to man until He
was preparing to deliver His people out of Egypt. At that time God said to
Moses,
I am the LORD: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob,
by the name of God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by my name JEHOVAH
was I not known to them (Exodus 6:2, 3).
The name Jehovah appears 160 times in Genesis, but we must realize that
Moses wrote Genesis after that revelation at the burning bush.
Jehovah is the God of revelation and redemption. That name certainly
includes Jesus Christ. He is God’s ultimate revelation of Himself to man, and the
very one through whom God redeems man to Himself. Christ is the bridge, the
connecting link, between God and man.
Satan, in tempting Eve, spoke of Elohim but not of Jehovah; and Eve did the
same in answering Satan (Genesis 3:1-5). But Jehovah Elohim is named eight
times when He came to clothe them, seeking their rescue (Genesis 3:8-23).
It was for their protection that God sent man forth from the Garden, “lest he
put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever [in
their fallen state]” (Genesis 3:22). Before He sent them out, He explained the
consequences of their disobedience, but promised them a Seed who eventually
would bruise the serpent’s head (Satan) and make salvation possible (Genesis
3:15).
It was Jehovah who accepted Abel’s offering and called Cain to account for
his sin. It was Jehovah who “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually” (Genesis 6:5).
Genesis 6:5 records the first time Jehovah is translated GOD. A few King
James publishers fail to show God in capital letters here. Several versions
translate it LORD (all capital letters). The New Jerusalem Bible uses Yahweh.
Strong and several other reliable sources indicate that the original word is what
we call Jehovah in English. It seems logical that Jehovah (the God of
redemption), seeing the overwhelming wickedness, would do something about it.
Jehovah and Elohim, applying to the same God, may at times be used
interchangeably. But sometimes they seem to be selected carefully because of
the specific attributes they emphasize. Elohim instructed Noah to make an
enormous boat and gather into it of every living thing, two of every sort, to
preserve animal life on the earth.
“Thus did Noah; according to all that Elohim commanded him, so did he”
(Genesis 6:19-22).
But it was Jehovah who said unto Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into
the ark” (Genesis 7:1). It was Jehovah who told him to bring in of every clean
beast and fowl, which were needed for their sacrifices.
“And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded him” (Genesis 7:2-
5).
Elohim, the mighty covenant-keeping God, remembered Noah and every
living thing, and assuaged the waters, until the earth became dry again (Genesis
8:1-5). Elohim blessed Noah, added meat to his vegetarian diet, prescribed the
penalty for murder, and established the rainbow as a sign of His covenant
(Genesis 9:1-17). Noah blessed Jehovah as the God of Shem, through whose line
Christ came in the flesh (Genesis 9:26), but said Elohim shall enlarge Japheth,
the father of the Gentiles (Genesis 9:27).
Jehovah found Abram among the idol worshipers at Ur of the Chaldees, and
set him apart for special blessings, as follows:
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy Father’s
house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Genesis 12:1-
3).
Concerning this, Paul says that the scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
saying, “In thee shall all nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8).
That unique blessing was Christ, brought into the flesh through Abraham.
In Genesis 18 Jehovah appeared unto Abraham. Abraham “looked, and lo,
three men stood by him” (v. 2). Quickly he prepared for them a meal, “and he
stood by them under the tree, and they did eat” (v. 8). “And the men rose up . . .
and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD” (vv. 16-22).
His pleading with Jehovah to spare the righteous in case He finds 50, or 40, or
30, or 20, or even 10 righteous persons in Sodom is a familiar story.
Throughout the chapter, five times (vv. 3, 27, 30, 31, 32) Abraham addressed
his heavenly visitor as Lord (Adonai); but Moses, in the same chapter, identified
him as Lord (Jehovah) 10 times (vv. 1, 13, 14, 17, 19, 19, 20, 22, 26, 33).
Abraham certainly saw this man face to face, whom Moses clearly identified as
Jehovah. Unless we recognize this and all other Old Testament theophanies
(appearances of God) as Christophanies (appearances of the preincarnate Christ),
we will have a real problem with those New Testament passages that declare
plainly, “No man hath seen God [the Father (John 6:46)] at any time” (John
1:18; 1 John 4:12).
I take it that no mortal man has ever seen the Father except in the person of
Christ. After all, Christ is “the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express
image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). That being the case, Jesus could well say,
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Truth is self-evident.
Elohim tested Abraham, requesting the sacrifice of his son Isaac (Genesis
22:1, 3, 8, 9). But just as Abraham prepared to strike the fatal blow,
The angel of the LORD [Jehovah] called out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham: . . . Lay not thine hand upon the lad, . . . for now I
 know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me (Genesis 22:11, 12).
“And the angel of the LORD[Jehovah] called . . . the second time” (Genesis
22:15-18), and renewed His Abrahamic covenant and promise. Jesus may well
have had that occasion in mind when He said, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day:
and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56).
Jacob, in a dream, saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven.
And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God
[Jehovah Elohim] of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac (Genesis
28:13).
Now who was this, knowing that “no man hath seen God [the Father] at any
time”? It was at least a foreshadow of what Jesus said to Nathanael,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51).
We come with Moses to the burning bush and find that “the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush” (Exodus 3:2). An
angel is a messenger sent, but we do not find that God the Father was ever sent
or is ever called an angel of the Lord. Yet verse 4 says when Jehovah saw that
Moses turned aside to see, Elohim called to him out of the midst of the bush. All
three names seem to identify one and the same person. If this was not the
preincarnate Christ, who was it?
When Moses asked for His name, God said, “I AM THAT I AM: . . . Thus
shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus
3:14). And Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I
AM” (John 8:58); and, “if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins”
(John 8:24). Notice in John 8:24, 28 and 13:19 that the pronoun he is in italics,
meaning it was added by the translators. Jesus Himself is the great I AM.
When God delivered Israel out of Egypt, “the Lord [Jehovah] went before
them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar
of fire, to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). And when the Egyptian army
pursued them in the Red Sea, “the angel of God, which went before the camp of
Israel, removed and went behind them” (Exodus 14:19). “And the LORD
[Jehovah] looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of
the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians” (Genesis 14:24). That
corresponds with what the Lord said further:
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring
 thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his
voice, provoke him not; . . . for my name is in him. . . . For mine Angel
shall go before thee (Exodus 23:20, 21, 23).
And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest
(Exodus 33:14).
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved
them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old (Isaiah 63:9).
For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock
was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).
And 1 Corinthians 10:9 says they tempted Christ. Christ was the Jehovah in
charge of God’s people.
Isaiah described John the Baptist as “the voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD [Jehovah], make straight in the
desert a highway for our God [Elohim]” (Isaiah 40:3). And the angel,
announcing John’s birth to Zacharias, said, “He [John] shall go before him
[Christ] in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord [Kurios, namely Jesus]” (Luke 1:17; Malachi 4:5, 6). We
know that John the Baptist prepared the way for our Lord Jesus Christ, the One
whom Isaiah called Jehovah and Elohim. It is clearly evident that the names
Jehovah and Elohim apply to both the Son and the Father.
 CHAPTER FIVE
El-Shaddai
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory, which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

When Abram was 99 years old and Sarai was 90, Jehovah appeared to him
again and announced, “I am the Almighty God [or God Almighty—El-Shaddai],
walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1). In other words, “Believe
My promise and trust Me”! El, like Elohim, is the strong covenant-keeping God.
Whatever He declares or promises He will certainly do.
Shaddai, however, was a new name which had not occurred before. It denotes
abundant sufficiency, regardless of how hopeless the circumstances may be, and
the capability of making exceedingly fruitful (Genesis 17:6; 28:3; 35:11; 48:3-4;
49:25). El-Shaddai is a combination of two great names: Shaddai (translated “the
Almighty”), preceded by El, the “strong” and “mighty” God. Combining the two
seems to intensify them both, like the “verily, verily” frequently used by Jesus.
Abram had long been a great man of faith, but even he suffered a few low
points in his life. According to Genesis 12:1-4, he had God’s promise of a son
even before he left Ur of the Chaldees. We are not told how long he and Sarai
lived at Haran where his father died, but we do know that Abram had already
lived in Canaan for ten years, with no apparent evidence of a son by Sarai.
Unfortunately, Abram yielded to Sarai’s ill-contrived plan to help God make His
promise good.
Their humanistic effort was a successful failure. Abram had a son, but he was
not the son of promise, nor of Sarai. It set the stage for family conflicts (Genesis
16:1-6; 21:9-21) and for a redounding series of international conflicts that rages
through the Middle East today. So God waited 13 more years, until Abram too
was “dead” (impotent). El-Shaddai fills empty vessels, just as Christ fills empty
lives with spiritual fruit!
Abram got the message, and his faith sprang to life again! Even his name was
changed from Abram to Abraham—“a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5).
Instead of continuing to focus on the “deadness” of their bodies, he now trusted
the life-giving power of El-Shaddai. From that time forth,
He considered not his own body now dead [impotent], . . . neither yet the
deadness of Sara’s womb: he [no longer] staggered at the promise of God
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God (Romans
4:19, 20).
Through [this revival of] faith also Sara herself received strength to
conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because
she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him [Abraham] as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in
multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable (Hebrews
11:11, 12).
El-Shaddai restored functions of nature that had been dead for perhaps more
than a decade. In fact, He made nature reverse itself and do what was contrary to
nature. Isaac, the long promised son, was born of Sarai, exactly as El-Shaddai
had declared. Even so, Christ reverses the fallen nature of man, enabling us to
bear spiritual fruit for God.
In the next generation, Isaac blessed Jacob (upon sending him to Padan-aram),
saying,
God Almighty [El-Shaddai] bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; and give thee the
blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest
inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham
(Genesis 28:3, 4).
And [when Jacob had returned to Canaan] God said unto him, I am God
Almighty [El-Shaddai]: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of
nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land
which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after
thee will I give the land (Genesis 35:11, 12).
Jacob, at the close of his life, blessed all his sons, each with his own peculiar
blessing. Joseph he especially endowed with those three mighty names of God.
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well: whose
branches run over the wall: . . . and the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; . . . even by the God [El] of thy
father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty [Shaddai], who shall bless
thee with blessings from heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth
 under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father
have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on
the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren (Genesis
49:22-26).
God said to Moses, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by
the name of God Almighty [El-Shaddai], but by my name JEHOVAH was I not
known to them” (Exodus 6:3). It is evident, however, that they used the name
Jehovah occasionally. Perhaps the meaning is that He had not yet revealed the
full significance of His name Jehovah.
Because Job may have been contemporary with Abraham, his book is older
than Genesis. In Job we find El 53 times, Eloah 40 times, and Elohim 17 times.
Here we are especially considering Jehovah, translated the LORD, and Shaddai,
translated the Almighty. Each appears 31 times in the Book of Job.
Why and by whom was that name Shaddai used so often when Job was
suffering so nigh unto death? Did Job’s friends use it to comfort Job, or to
reprimand him? Because Shaddai denotes abundant sufficiency, even in the most
dire circumstances, it could and should have been used kindly as a healing balm
for Job, who was broken beyond recognition (Job 2:12).
Eliphaz used it seven times (Job 5:17; 15:25; 22:3, 17, 23, 25, 26), Bildad
twice (Job 8:3, 5), Zophar once (Job 11:7), Elihu six times (Job 32:8; 33:4;
34:10, 12; 35:13; 37:23), and God once (Job 40:2). Job used it 14 times, a few
times indiscreetly. We must consider the pain and strain Job was suffering, so
that he described his own words as “the speeches of one that is desperate, which
are as wind” (Job 6:26).
Job’s “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2) all showed a high respect for the
Almighty [Shaddai], even when speaking quite harshly to Job. For example:
Doth the Almighty pervert justice (Job 8:3)? If thou wouldest . . . make
thy supplication to the Almighty; . . . surely now he would awake for thee
(Job 8:5-6). If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up (Job
22:23). Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty
of silver (Job 22:25). The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding
(Job 32:8). The breath of the Almighty hath given me life (Job 33:4). Far be
it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he
should commit iniquity (Job 34:10). Yea, surely God will not do wickedly,
neither will the Almighty pervert judgment (Job 34:12). Touching the
Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in
judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict (Job 37:23).
 Then we have the keynote from God Himself, “Shall he that contendeth with
the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it” (Job 40:2).
Notice a few statements by Job himself. Job 6:14 is variously translated in
different versions. Some say that he who withholds comfort forsakes godly fear.
Others see the afflicted as in danger of forsaking the fear of God because no one
comforts them. It may be both.
To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he
forsaketh the fear of the Almighty (KJV).
For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; lest he
forsake the fear of the Almighty (NASB).
Whoever holds back kindness from a fainting friend, he abandons his
reverence for the Almighty (Berkeley).
Job asks, “Will [the hypocrite] delight himself in the Almighty? will he
always call upon God” (Job 27:10). Job yearned for the former days: “When the
Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me” (Job 29:5). “Oh
that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer
me, and that mine adversary had written a book” (Job 31:35). Shaddai did
answer Job. When his unique calamity was over, Job’s emptied life overflowed
with double blessings (Job 42:12).
We do not find any of Job’s friends mentioning the name Jehovah (the God of
revelation and redemption). The name Jehovah appears 17 times in Job 1 and 2,
once in Job 12:9 by Job himself, and 13 times in chapters 38 through 42 in the
dialog between the Lord and Job. Job used the name Adonai once (Strong’s
#136, Lord, small o-r-d), in Job 28:28. Apparently, His name Jehovah was not
yet well known, nor was its significance well understood in Job’s day.
The name Shaddai was known to Balaam. Balaam sought to curse Israel
because he “loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:15), but he was
overruled by God. Four times he tried to curse them, but he could not. The last
two times he confessed that he “saw the vision of the Almighty [Shaddai],
falling into a trance, but having his eyes open” (Numbers 24:4, 16). Each time,
he could only bless and not curse. The Almighty (Shaddai) was in control,
watching over Israel. Certainly He was “that spiritual Rock that followed them:
and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
In the final analysis, we find the meaning of these Hebrew names for God
ultimately demonstrated and fulfilled in the very person of Jesus Christ. Christ is
the true vine, the divine source of spiritual fruitfulness (John 15:1-8). Without
Christ, we are as barren of spiritual fruit as Sarah was of physical seed until El-
Shaddai showered her with His blessings.
Moreover, as suggested earlier, any visible appearances of God probably were
appearances of the preincarnate Christ because “no man hath seen God [the
Father] at any time” (John 1:18; 6:46; 1 John 4:12). These Old Testament
Christophanies are shining glimpses of Christ’s preincarnate glory still reflected
from the pages of Old Testament history!
 CHAPTER SIX
Adonai
Glimpses of His preincarnate glory, which He had with the Father
before the world was.
John 17:5

The Bible uses more than a dozen different Hebrew names to reveal the all-
sufficiency of God. Each name emphasizes some specific aspect of His person,
character, or work. In the preceding chapters we have seen that Elohim denotes
His sovereignty and the power to do whatsever He wills. Jehovah emphasizes
His moral attributes such as holiness, righteousness, love, and redemption. El-
Shaddai depicts Him as the superabundant supplier of every need, the source and
controller of nature itself, even making nature do what is contrary to nature.
In this chapter we are considering Adonai, translated “Lord” (small o-r-d), or
“Sovereign Lord” in the New International Version. Either one emphasizes His
divine Lordship. Adonai is found approximately 432 times in the Old Testament.
Our Adonai is the divine, legal owner and master of all human beings, as well as
of the possessions He entrusts to us.
The Hebrew word for a human master is adon (#113). Adon occurs 331 times
in the Old Testament, frequently translated “master.” Adonai (#136), applied to
deity, is defined by Strong as “an emphatic form of 113; the Lord (used as a
proper noun for God only):—(my) Lord.” “Used of men it is always in the
singular form, adon. Only of God is it in the plural.”1
Adonai appears for the first time in Genesis 15:2. Four kings had overpowered
five kings and had taken captive all the people of Sodom, including Lot and his
family. Abram had undertaken a rescue, miraculously recovering everything.
Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of the most high God, brought bread
and wine and blessed Abram.
After Abram had rejected the rewards offered by the king of Sodom, the Lord
(Jehovah) appeared to him in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield,
and thy exceeding great reward.” Unflattered by earthly recognition, Abram
there revealed the inner yearning of his heart, pleading, “Lord God [Adonai
Jehovah], what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?” By addressing God as
Adonai, he submissively acknowledged Him as his sovereign master.
Abram understood well the role of a servant, as well as that of a godly master.
Just a few verses earlier (Genesis 14:14), we see that Abram had more than 300
“trained servants” of his own. He had a good relationship with his servants.
Many of them were “born in his own house” and permanent members of his
household. He provided and cared for them as though they were his own
children. One of them, “Eliezer of Damascus” (Genesis 15:2), was the steward
of Abram’s house.
Eliezer (intentionally unnamed) was undoubtedly the servant sent by Abraham
to bring a wife for Isaac. Typifying the Holy Spirit, he did “not speak of
himself” (John 16:13), but he spoke much, and very highly, of his master and his
master’s son. Eighteen times in this account (Genesis 24), Abraham is portrayed
as a highly esteemed master (adon). Abraham typifies God the Father providing
a bride for His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. (Discussed in Chapter 19, Seeing
Christ Typified in Abraham and Isaac.)
Moses, when called of God to deliver Israel from Egypt, felt inadequate and
fearful. He said, “O my Lord [Adonai], I am not eloquent, . . . O my Lord
[Adonai], send . . . whom thou wilt send [anyone else, but not me]” (Exodus
4:10, 13). Twice he confessed God as his master but resisted His orders, and
God’s anger was kindled (Exodus 4:14). However, when Moses yielded, Adonai
clothed him with miraculous power, used him marvelously in 40 years of active
service, and “Moses was faithful in all his house” (Hebrews 3:2). Jesus Christ
(Deuteronomy 18:15, 18) is called “a prophet . . . like unto Moses, whom the
Lord knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10).
The Psalmists rejoiced in Adonai! Sixty times they addressed Him by that
title, proclaiming Him as their assurance, hope, and joy. (Adonai is the Hebrew
word translated “Lord.”)
O Lord our LORD [Adonai], how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
(Psalm 8:1).
Thou art my LORD [Adonai]; I know of no good apart from Thee (Psalm
16:2, German translation).
For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God [Adonai
Elohim] (Psalm 38:15).
For I am poor and needy: yet the LORD [Adonai] th inketh upon me
(Psalm 40:17).
 Blessed be the LORD [Adonai], who daily loadeth us with benefits (Psalm
68:19).
For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah]: for thou art my
trust from my youth (Psalm 71:5).
I have put my trust in the Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah], that I may declare
all thy works (Psalm 73:28).
The Lord [Jehovah] said unto my LORD [Adonai], Sit thou at my right
hand, until I make thine enemies my footstool (Psalm 110:1).
The combination Lord GOD (Adonai Jehovah), in contrast to LORD God
(Jehovah Elohim), appears most often after Israel’s Babylonian captivity. Lord
God (Jehovah Elohim) occurs 226 times in the Old Testament but only 18 times
after the Psalms. Lord GOD (Adonai Jehovah) occurs 302 times in all, only 19
times before Isaiah, but 217 times in Ezekiel alone. See the columns at the end
of this chapter.
Adonai distinguishes God as owner and master of all people. Owning people
is known as slavery, which to us savors of tyranny. But every one of us is
servant (bond slave) to a master, whether we know it or not. Our eternal destiny
depends on whether we serve God or Satan.
Slave owners bought and sold their bond servants as personal property.
(Unfortunately, that is still practiced in some places.) Adonai Jehovah had made
an enormous investment in Israel. They were His “peculiar treasure” (Exodus
19:5; Psalm 135:4), “his special . . . peculiar people” (Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2;
26:18), “whom he hath [had] chosen for his own inheritance” (See also Psalm
33:12 and 1 Kings 8:53).
Israel was no longer content to be a unique theocracy. They requested to “be
like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and
fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:20). In addition to demanding a king, they also
forsook their Adonai and worshipped the gods of other nations. They “changed
their glory for that which doth not profit” (Jeremiah 2:11), “the work of their
own hands, that which their own fingers have made” (Isaiah 2:8). Because they
insisted on being like other nations, God sold them to Nebuchadnezzar, a mighty
king of many nations.
Israel and we are God’s personal property. He has the right to do with all of us
what He knows to be best for our spiritual welfare and for the fulfillment of His
eternal plan. We all are equally dependent on our triune God. He is our creator,
preserver, and redeemer.
Ezekiel had been carried to Babylon as a young man. He was called to the
prophetic ministry, and apparently the priesthood, five years later (Ezekiel 1:1-
3). He prophesied as a captive in Babylon, but his messages included conditions
and activities at Jerusalem. He denounced false doctrine and pled for repentance.
His frequent use of the name Adonai gives recognition to the Lordship of God,
even acknowledging God’s right to sell them to Nebuchadnezzar. But there is
more.
Ezekiel did not stop with Adonai alone. His use of Lord GOD (Adonai
compounded with Jehovah) 217 times, and LORD (Jehovah) separately 213
times, suggests that Ezekiel was looking beyond their captivity. Focusing on
Jehovah (the God who cleanses, pardons, redeems, and restores), he may have
foreseen the deliverance that surpassed their deliverance from Egypt as foretold
by Jeremiah, a contemporary with Ezekiel.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD [Jehovah], that I will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be
called, “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNES.” Therefore, behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD
liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of
the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and
they shall dwell in their own land (Jeremiah 23:5-8).
Jeremiah saw, with increasing intensity, that their captivity was not the end of
Israel. Three times in chapters 4 and 5 he declared that the Lord “will not make a
full end of [Israel]” (Jeremiah 4:27; 5:10, 18). Later, he became more emphatic.
For I am with thee, saith the LORD [Jehovah], to save thee: though I make
a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a
full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee
altogether unpunished (Jeremiah 30:11).
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for
I will make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee [that
includes the Americas]: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct
thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished (Jeremiah
46:28).
The captivity and slavery of Israel administered discipline and correction, but
not annihilation. God can do wonders with adverse circumstances. Adonai
Jehovah sometimes accepts detours, but He will never be defeated! The Mosaic
Law endowed purchased slaves with privileges that strangers and hired servants
did not have.
This is the ordinance of the passover: there shall no stranger eat thereof:
but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast
circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and an hired servant
shall not eat thereof (Exodus 12:43-45).
There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or
an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. But if the priest buy any
soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they
shall eat of his meat (Leviticus 22:10, 11).
Even some Christians in the early church were bond servants—a carryover of
early culture. Paul encouraged slaves to be faithful to their masters as a
manifestation of God’s grace in their lives, doing service, as to the Lord, and not
to men. See Ephesians 6:5-8, 1 Timothy 6:1, and Titus 2:9.
And, ye masters, do the same things unto them [your bond servants],
forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither
is there respect of persons with him (Ephesians 6:9) See also Colossians
4:1.
Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you; but
if a chance of liberty should come, take it. For the man who as a slave
received the call to be a Christian is the Lord’s freedman, and, equally, the
free man who received the call is a slave in the service of Christ (1
Corinthians 7:21-22, New English Bible).
Perhaps it was for symbolic reasons that Hebrew law admitted purchased
bond servants to the Passover. Only bond servants of Adonai experience a
freedom that others cannot know—freedom, not to follow their flesh to their
ruin, but to follow their Master to victory over Satan, sin, and self. Heaven is
reserved for the Lord’s bond servants.
The New Testament reveals clearly that our Adonai is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He is the One who purchased the church with His own blood (Acts
20:28).
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
 Every true Christian is the purchased possession of Jesus Christ, our Adonai
and our Jehovah. Ultimately, it was through Christ that God revealed Himself to
man (Hebrews 1:1-4), and it is through Christ that He redeems man to Himself.
Only through Christ do we obtain eternal life.
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).
The following columns show clearly where each combination of names is
most used.

Jehovah Elohim used mostly in history.

Occurs first in Genesis 2:4 Jehovah Elohim translated
LORD God
Genesis 27 times
Exodus 12
Deuteronomy 8
Joshua 17
Judges 8
Ruth 1
1 Samuel 9
2 Samuel 4
1 Kings 22
2 Kings 12
1 Chronicles 17
2 Chronicles 51
Ezra 10
Nehemiah 1
Psalms 13
Genesis—Psalms 212 times

No more until Isaiah

Isaiah 4
Jeremiah 10
Hosea 1
Amos 1
Jonah 1
Jonah 1
Habakkuk 1
By prophers 1

Total in O.T. 230 times

Adonai Jehovah used mostly by the prophets.

Occurs first in Genesis 5:2 Adonai Jehovah translated
Lord GOD
Genesis 2 times
Exodus 2
Deuteronomy 2
Joshua 1
Judges 2
2 Samuel 6
1 Kings 4
Psalms 4
Genesis—Psalms only 21

No more until in Isaiah

Isaiah 25
Jeremiah 14
Ezekiel 217
Amos 21
Obadiah 1
Micah 1
Zephaniah 2
By prophets 281

Total in O.T. 320 times

Adonai sold them into bondage and the dispersion.

Jehovah will yet restore the remnant!

1 Taken from Names of God, by Nathan Stone, p. 44. Copyright 1944. Moody Bible Institute of Chicago,
Moody Press. Used with permission.
 CHAPTER SEVEN
Jehovah-jireh
The riches of His grace manifested at Calvary!
Ephesians 1:7

God is never taken by surprise. In the eternal past, the selected Lamb of God
had willingly agreed that in due time He would take on human flesh and become
man for the express purpose of dying to redeem sinful men. Divine plans are so
sure that they may immediately be spoken of as if they are already done.
Therefore, in God’s eternal plan, Jesus Christ was “the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world,” long before He was “made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
Jesus fully understood what it would cost Him. He sacrificed the glories of
heaven, condescended to be born in a lowly stable, and was “despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Finally, stripped
of all human rights, falsely condemned as an intruder and a blasphemer, He was
nailed to a cross to die the infamous death of a criminal slave.
These eternal plans, however, were progressively revealed to man over long
periods. When Satan through the serpent seduced Adam and Eve, God promised
that the seed of the woman would yet bruise Satan’s head. The first shedding of
blood we read of was the animals that died to provide suitable clothing for Adam
and Eve (Genesis 3:21). This, probably the first death they ever witnessed, was a
dim foreshadow of the Lamb of God dying for the sins of man. Abel’s offering
“of the firstlings of his flock” is the second recorded foreshadow of Christ
shedding His blood for our sins. Then followed countless offerings for nearly
4,000 years.
Some 2,000 years after Abel, God selected Abraham to typify Himself as the
Father of Him who would bruise Satan’s head. He promised Abraham a son
through whom that seed would come, but He withheld that reality until it was
humanly impossible for Abraham or Sarah to reproduce. Sarah had been barren
from her youth, and now she was also past childbearing age. Even Abraham was
“now dead” (Romans 4:19), or “as good as dead” (Hebrews 11:12) as far as
reproduction was concerned. Then El-Shaddai caused nature to reverse its
course, because Isaac, the “son of promise,” needed a miracle birth to
foreshadow the virgin birth of Christ.
Furthermore, God chose to share with Abraham the experience of sacrificing
one’s only son. First, Abraham had to give up Ishmael whom Hagar had borne to
him. Ishmael was not the promised son, and because he mocked Isaac (Genesis
21:9-12) he had to leave home. That left Isaac as the only son in the home. And
God said,
Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering, upon one
of the mountains which I will tell thee of (Genesis 22:2).
(For many of the details skipped here, see Chapter 19, Seeing Christ Typified
in Isaac.)
Surely the question had come up before, but we have no way of knowing how
it was answered. As Abraham and Isaac ascended the mount, Isaac brought it up
again: “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered honestly,
yet evasively, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
Doubtlessly, there on Mount Moriah, before Abraham bound Isaac, father and
son together had a warm and touching prayer meeting. They probably discussed
their faith and trust in a righteous and holy God, despite this unusual command.
Isaac by this time may have been in his early thirties. He was at least 36 when
Sarah died (Genesis 23:1). He must have been willing and fully agreed to be the
sacrifice. Otherwise, Abraham (being 100 years older) could not have bound him
and laid him on the altar. Isaac may not have known it, but there he
foreshadowed the role of Christ on Calvary.
As Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son, the angel of Jehovah
(probably Christ Himself) called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham: . . . Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou
any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast
not withheld thy son, thine only son from me (Genesis 22:10-12).
Then and there Jehovah provided a ram, instead of Isaac, for the burnt
offering (Genesis 22:13). What a message!
“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this
day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14)—or provided, as
several other versions say.
This is the only occurrence of Jehovah-jireh in the Bible. It is a compound
name (#3070) defined by Strong as meaning “Jehovah will see (to it).” We know
with certainty that Jehovah, the self-existent and eternal God, did provide the
one and only Lamb that could take away sin!
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins (Hebrews 10:4).
But this [the blood of Jesus] is the blood of the testament which God hath
enjoined unto you (Hebrews 9:20).
Imagine the joy of Abraham when the Lord intervened and provided the ram!
Jesus could well say, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was
glad” (John 8:56).
This event emphasizes two very vital truths. First, although Abraham was a
godly man of faith and Isaac was a faithful son, even the son of promise,
sacrificing Isaac could not have saved one soul—not even his own! Second,
Isaac at that moment needed a substitute. The ram served that purpose well,
temporarily.
But Isaac, like all of us, eventually needed more than a substitute. A substitute
is something that replaces the genuine and can again be replaced by another. The
ram was only a substitute, but Jesus is the genuine, which can never be replaced
by any other. That’s the bottom line of Jehovah-jireh! The LORD has seen to it
and provided.
 Part II

Section 2

Seeing Christ in Names Revealed

Enroute to the Promised Land
 CHAPTER EIGHT
Jehovah-rophe
The Lord that healeth thee.
Exodus 15:26

This was the first name of God introduced to Israel after their deliverance
from Egypt. All the basic names already discussed were used in the Genesis
account. Even His name Jehovah (translated “LORD” or “GOD,” all in capital
letters) occurs 163 times in Genesis. And God had not yet made Himself fully
known to them by that name (Exodus 6:3). There are yet seven more Hebrew
names compounded with Jehovah which we will consider.
I marvel at how these names progressively reveal the multiple aspects of
Christ. These new names are not greater nor more important than those already
studied, but each one adds some new dimension to our understanding of our
Savior, Lord, and King.
We can hardly comprehend the joy of Israel after they had crossed the Red
Sea on dry ground, while their pursuing enemies were consumed by the sea.
Thirteen times they applauded the name Jehovah (the God of revelation and
redemption) in their song of victory (Exodus 15:1-21).
Nor can we comprehend the intense trial that immediately followed. For three
days they traveled “and found no water” (Exodus 15:22). That is worse than
three days without food. Then they came to Marah and found water, but “they
could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (Exodus 15:23).
Bitter waters typify death without Christ. The third trumpet judgment includes
bitter waters wreaking death on Christless souls (Revelation 8:11).
In Israel’s distress, Moses cried unto the LORD, who showed him a tree that
would sweeten the waters. That tree (whatever it was) typified Jesus Christ, the
tree of life. To cast a tree into the water, it had to be cut. Cutting the tree
symbolized Jesus’ death, “for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the
transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isaiah 53:8). That tree, by contact,
sweetened the waters of Marah. Death is sweet when Christ is in it.
 There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved
them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy
God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his
commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases
upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord
[Jehovah-rophe] that healeth thee (Exodus 15:25, 26).
The combination Jehovah-rophe is found only once in the Scripture, but the
promise and incidents of healing occur frequently in the Old and New
Testaments. All healing comes from God, whether physical, emotional, mental,
or spiritual. Sometimes He uses natural means, and sometimes supernatural
means.
The following are a few Old Testament examples demonstrating a variety of
His healing powers: Healing barren women: Sarah and Rebekah (Genesis 18:9-
14; 25:21) Healing for bitter water at Jericho (2 Kings 2:19-22) Healing for King
Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-7)
Healing for their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Healing for all thy diseases (Psalm 103:3)
Healing for the broken in heart (Psalm 147:3)
Healing for your backslidings (Jeremiah 3:22; Hosea 14:4).

The New Testament shows that the Great Physician is Jesus Christ Himself.
He healed all manner of sickness, physical and spiritual: He healed all manner of
sickness (Matthew 4:23-24).
He healed several lepers (Matthew 8:1-4).
He healed the centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13).
He healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-15).
He healed many possessed with devils (Matthew 8:16-17).
He healed demoniacs exceedingly fierce (Matthew 8:28-33).
He healed a man sick of the palsy (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:3-12).
He healed the woman with an issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22).
He healed two blind men who followed Him (Matthew 9:27-31).
He healed the withered hand (Matthew 12:10-13).
He healed one blind and speechless (Matthew 12:22-30).
He healed perfectly all who touched Him (Matthew 14:34-36).
He healed a sorely vexed lunatic (Matthew 17:14-21).
He healed blind men by the wayside (Matthew 20:30-34).
He healed a man with an unclean spirit (Matthew 1:23-26).
He healed all who had divers diseases (Luke 4:40).
He healed many possessed with devils (Luke 4:41).
 He healed many possessed with devils (Luke 4:41).
He healed a woman’s infirmity of 18 years (Luke 13:11-17).
He healed ten lepers in one act (Luke 17:11-19).
He healed the nobleman’s son (John 4:46-54).
He healed a man blind from birth (John 9:1-7).
I’m sure this is not a complete list of His healings, but it is enough to show
that Jesus Christ is our Jehovah-rophe. He is the only remedy for sin—“the Lord
that healeth thee.”
 CHAPTER NINE
Jehovah-nissi
The Lord is my banner.
Exodus 17:15

Israel had just arrived at Horeb and again they were desperately in need of
water. This time God said,
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou
shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people
may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel (Exodus
17:6).
There was an abundant flow of fresh, clean water. Flowing water typifies the
Holy Spirit. The smitten rock, from which the water flowed, foreshadowed
Christ smitten and dying for our sins. Sometime in the eternal past, Christ had
committed Himself to become the atoning sacrifice for fallen man. He was
already sustaining Israel spiritually, “for they drank of that spiritual Rock that
followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
“Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8).
Amalek was a grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:12) who, when seeing the pottage
Jacob had prepared for himself, willingly bartered his birthright for one meal.
“Thus Esau despised his birthright” (Genesis 25:29-34). He lived for immediate
self-gratification. Later “he found no place for repentance, though he sought it
carefully with tears” (Hebrews 12:16, 17). He was not seeking repentance from
sin; he was only seeking to reverse the consequences of the bad deal he had
made by despising his birthright (Genesis 25:32).
Amalek was even worse than Esau. He was possessed with a fighting spirit.
When he saw Israel enjoying water from the rock in Horeb, he made war with
them to rob them of that treasure. Moses, near the end of his life, wrote a brief
account of that attack:
Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come
 forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of
thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary;
and he feared not God (Deuteronomy 25:17-18).
Amalek typifies our own natural (unregenerated) man. When a Christan is
born again, he receives the Holy Spirit. “He is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But there
will be conflict, because our carnal flesh will not fear God nor submit willingly
to the Holy Spirit. Only by the power of Jehovah-nissi will we be able to bring
our carnal nature under control.
Amalek “was the first of the nations [to attack Israel, thus also typifying the
world system]; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever” (Numbers
24:20). Our natural man and the world system wage perpetual warfare against
the new man in Christ. As long as we live here in this life we need to do as Paul
did.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have
preached to others, I myself should become disqualified (1 Corinthians
9:27, NKJV).
Amalek’s attack was the first instance in which Israel was called upon to do
battle. In their conflicts with Pharaoh, and when the Red Sea blocked their
passage or they were in distress for water, God always did everything for them.
But with Amalek (typifying our natural man), Israel was requested to do battle.
And unless Moses’ hands were lifted up (in prayer to God), Amalek prevailed
(Exodus 17:11).
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and
rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. . . . For he said, Because the LORD hath
sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to
generation (Exodus 17:14, 16).
Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from
all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it
(Deuteronomy 25:19).
After Amalek was defeated, “Moses built an altar, and called the name of it
Jehovah-nissi [the LORD my Banner]” (Exodus 17:15). A banner is the emblem,
such as a national flag, by which an army is identified. It represents and
designates the political powers behind that army. Jehovah-nissi designates our
Jehovah God as the spiritual power we need to control and conquer our fallen
nature.
God did not exterminate Amalek, just as He does not eradicate a Christian’s
flesh. But He commands us to mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body
through the Spirit (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).
Later, King Saul was commanded to destroy Amalek. The instructions were
explicit:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to
Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare
them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel and ass (1 Samuel 15:2, 3).
God gave him victory over the Amalekites and provided everything he needed
to complete the task. But Saul deliberately stopped short of what God had told
him to do. (If Saul had completed his assignment, there would have been no
Haman to seek the Jews’ destruction in the time of Esther.) God equips the
Christian with the grace to crucify the self-life, but He expects us to participate
in the crucifixion. We must reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11).
God can never make peace with our natural man (carnal nature), because
“flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50).
Therefore, we “must be born again.” With Christ as our captain, Lord, and King,
and by the power of the Holy Spirit within, we are requested to keep our body
under “and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27). But we in our own
strength cannot conquer our carnal nature, the flesh. We must align ourselves as
Christian soldiers under the banner of Jesus Christ, our Jehovah-nissi. In Him
there is victory.
 CHAPTER TEN
Jehovah-m’kaddesh
The Lord that sanctifies.
Leviticus 20:8

Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy: for I am the LORD your God.
And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the LORD
[Jehovah-m’kaddesh] which sanctifies you (Leviticus 20:7, 8, NKJV).
Sanctification requires our willingness, submission, and cooperation. We
cannot do it alone, and God will not sanctify an unwilling, unsubmissive,
uncooperative rebel.
Jehovah-m’kaddesh is not transliterated in our English versions nor identified
by capitalization like the name Jehovah, but He sanctifies those who commit
themselves to Him (Leviticus 20:8; 21:8, 15, 23; 22:9, 16). He cleanses from sin,
makes holy, and sets apart for holy purposes.
First, He sanctified (set apart) a day of rest, for worship (Genesis 2:3). Next,
He instructed Moses: “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, . . . of man and of
beast: it is mine” (Exodus 13:2). Their firstborn had been spared from death by
proper application of the blood (Exodus 12:12, 13). That blood fore-shadowed
the blood of Christ, without which no one can be sanctified or saved.
Without faith in the blood of Christ, neither Israel nor any of us could be
saved, sanctified, or made holy. He commands us, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”
This means that we must do our part (rightly believe in Christ, confess, repent,
willingly submit, respond, and receive). I repeat, He will not sanctify any of us
without our willingness, submission, and cooperation. He does not make puppets
of anyone!
That Christ is our means of sanctification is evident in His high priestly
prayer:
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world,
even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
 myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth (John 17:16-19).
Other Scriptures show that sanctification requires cleansing and holiness:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess
his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence,
even as the Gentiles which know not God: . . . For God hath not called us
unto uncleanness, but unto holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7).
Sanctification and holiness are available to us only through the atoning blood
of Jesus Christ. He is indeed our Jehovah-m’kaddesh—“the LORD who sanctifies
you” (Leviticus 20:8, NKJV).
Enroute from Egypt to the Promised Land the Lord presented Himself as
Jehovah-rophe—the great physician who offers healing for spirit, soul, and
body; Jehovah-nissi—the captain who offers strength for spiritual victory; and
Jehovah-m’kaddesh—the sanctifier who sets apart for holy purposes. Christ is
all of that to us, and more.
 Part II

Section 3

Seeing Christ in Names Revealed in the

Promised Land
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jehovah-shalom
Jehovah is our peace.
Judges 6:24

Joshua and all his contemporaries had died. “There arose another generation
after them, which knew not the LORD.” Israel plunged into idolatry, and peace
departed from them. Judges 1:19-34 lists eight instances in which Israel had
failed to drive out the idolatrous nations as God had commanded them.
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I
made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which
I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with
you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall
throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye
done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you;
but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto
you (Judges 2:1-3).
Judges 6 reports the fourth of the seven cycles of apostasy in the Book of
Judges. At that time the Lord had delivered Israel into the hand of Midian.
And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the
Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the
mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had
sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of
the east, even they came up against them; and they encamped against them,
and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left
no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up
with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for
multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they
entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished
because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD
 (Judges 6:2-6).
God, in His mercy, heard their cry and sent an angel of the Lord who
commissioned Gideon to deliver Israel. Study carefully Judges 6:11-23,
especially verses 12, 14, 16, 21-23. By comparing these verses with Exodus
23:20-23; 33:14 and Isaiah 63:9, I am persuaded that this was indeed the Angel
of the Lord—our pre-incarnate Jehovah—Christ Himself. (I commend the
publishers of the New King James Version, The New Jerusalem Bible, and The
Berkeley Version for capitalizing Angel in this passage. The Bible is our best
commentary available on such matters.)
Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah]! for because I have
seen an angel of the LORD face to face. And the LORD said unto him, Peace
be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the LORD, and called it Jehovah-shalom (Judges 6:22-24).
Gideon recognized our Lord Jehovah as the true peace of Israel. Therefore he
named his altar Jehovah-shalom (Jehovah is Peace).
And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take
thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and
throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove
that is by it: And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this
rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt
sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Then
Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto
him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of
the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night (Judges 6:25-
27).
Having received a double confirmation by the fleece he had laid (Judges 6:36-
40), Gideon was assured of victory over the hordes of Midianites and
Amalekites that encamped against them. When God said Gideon’s army was too
big and reduced it from 32,000 to 300 men (Judges 7:2-8), his faith did not
waver. Instead of weapons, God chose to use lamps, broken pitchers, and
trumpets to deliver Israel (Judges 7:1-25).
Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted
up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the
days of Gideon (Judges 8:28).
Their quietness and peace were vouchsafed in their Jehovah-shalom. It was a
physical foreshadow in Israel of the spiritual peace even Gentiles can have in
Christ Jesus.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For he is our peace [our Jehovah-shalom], who hath made both
one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, . . . for to make in himself of twain one new
man, so making peace (Ephesians 2:13-15).
 CHAPTER TWELVE
Jehovah-rohi
The Lord is my shepherd.
Psalm 23:1

As King David, perhaps in his latter years, reminisced about his walk with the
Lord, he must have recalled that God had always been there when he needed
Him and had always been sufficient for every need! As a boy, when he was
feeding his father’s sheep, “there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of
the flock.” Each time he was impelled by a shepherd’s heart and by faith in God
to rescue that lamb. God was with him and enabled him to kill both the lion and
the bear.
Later, although King Saul saw him as a mere “stripling,” he approached
Goliath armed only with a sling and five stones. By faith he saw more of God
than he did of Goliath, and he knew that Goliath was no match for God. With
full assurance he said to Goliath:
Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but
I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of
Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the LORD deliver thee into
mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will
give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the
air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there
is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth
not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you
into our hands (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
Still later, when King Saul, with an army of 3,000 men, sought David’s life,
the same God was with David and always delivered him. When the Amalekites
had burned Ziklag and taken all the people captive, including David’s wives, he
and his men “wept until they had no more power to weep. . . . And David was
greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, . . . but David encouraged
himself in the LORD” (1 Samuel 30:4, 6). And the LORD gave them grace to
overtake the Amalekites, to recover everything, and to gain much spoil.
God was always present, much more so than those Eastern shepherds who
virtually lived with their sheep day and night. They knew each sheep by name
and knew its characteristics. Much more, God knows each of His sheep better
than we know ourselves.
Therefore, with deep feeling David exclaimed, “The LORD is my shepherd.”
To David that meant He lives with me day and night. He knows not only my
every act, but my every need, my every ailment, thought, feeling, and every lack
of feeling. He knew that with the Lord as his Shepherd he would never be in
want of proper care.
David, by experience, knew very well the role of a shepherd. A phrase by
phrase and word by word analysis of Psalm 23 gives an excellent description of
the Lord as a divine shepherd.
The LORD is my shepherd [Jehovah-rohi]; I shall not want. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He
restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anoin-test
my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I
will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever (Psalm 23:1-6).

David knew the Lord to be all-sufficient for every need in this life and
forever.
Isaiah prophesied of the coming of Jesus Christ, saying,
Behold, the Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah] will come with strong hand, and
his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work
before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the
lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young (Isaiah 40:10, 11).
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep. . . . I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine”
(John 10:11, 14).
For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the
Shepherd and Bishop of your souls (1 Peter 2:25).
 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make
you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ [our Jehovah-rohi]; to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen (Hebrews 13:20, 21).
 CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jehovah-tsidkenue Jehovah our
righteousness!
Jeremiah 23:6

Jehovah-tsidkenue is the name by which the LORD revealed Himself through

Jeremiah. The Northern Kingdom had fallen more than 100 years before this was
written. Many from Judah already had been carried to Babylon, and Jerusalem’s
doom had already been pronounced. We will let the LORD our righteousness tell
us what He is going to do with His chosen people, now battered, shattered, and
scattered.
And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I
have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be
fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall
feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the LORD.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called,
“THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” [Jehovah-tsidkenue].
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more
say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the
land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the
seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries
whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land (Jeremiah
23:3-8).
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good
thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of
 Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of
righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem
shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The
LORD our righteousness (Jeremiah 33:14-16).
In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall
come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they
shall go, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with
their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD
in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten (Jeremiah 50:4, 5).
And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on
Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and
Gilead. In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve (Jeremiah 50:19,
20).
The phrase, “behold, the days come,” occurs 15 times in Jeremiah alone: three
times foretelling Israel’s punishment (Jeremiah 7:32; 9:25; 19:6); eight times
their restoration (Jeremiah 16:14-15; 23:5, 7; 30:3; 31:27, 31, 38; 33:14); and
four times judgment on their enemies. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, sorrowed
intensely for the spiritual sins and the national collapse of his people Israel. But
he also saw, by divine inspiration, some of the cleansing, redeeming, and
restoring power of Jehovah-tsidkenue—“THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
 CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jehovah-shammah
The LORD is there.
Ezekiel 48:35

The revelation that Ezekiel describes in chapters 40-48 came to him in the
25th year of his captivity in Babylon (Ezekiel 40:1), 14 years after the fall of
Jerusalem. Although we may have varied views on these chapters, I trust we all
agree that the Lord had brought Ezekiel in the visions of God into the land of
Israel (Ezekiel 40:1, 2), and showed him things that we do not fully understand.
Among them are the precise measurements of the temple, which he described,
and of the land surrounding it. Some things we need to accept with reverence
and with silence.
And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place
of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of
Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile,
neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their
kings in their high places (Ezekiel 43:7).
John the Revelator also describes a city that surpasses our comprehension:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the
holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and
be their God (Revelation 21:1-3).
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do [what He
asks of us] (Deuteronomy 29:29).
We let the unknown rest with the Lord, but we accept without question that
“the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD [Jehovah-shammah] is
there” (Ezekiel 48:35), emphasizing the personal presence of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
The Christian’s Jehovah-shammah is “Christ in you, the hope of glory”
(Colossians 1:27).

CONCLUSION
What impresses me most of all in considering the many Hebrew names of
God revealed in the Old Testament is that every name includes our Lord Jesus
Christ, and that Christ is the New Testament fulfillment of every one. If we
study deeply and sincerely, we are bound to see glimpses of Christ in the Old
Testament (hundreds of them) and their glorious fulfillment in the New
Testament.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the
LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6, 7).
 Part III

Seeing Christ Typified in Bible

Characters
 CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Adam and Abel
Glimpses of Christ and the church and our need for a second birth.

SEEING CHRIST TYPIFIED IN ADAM

God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Genesis 1:27, 28).
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis
2:7).
When the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) breathed into Adam’s nostrils the
breath of life, Adam sprang to life, a living soul. As a threefold being, consisting
of spirit, soul, and body, he represented the holy trinity. Created in the image of
God and given dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth, in the
sea, and in the air, he dimly foreshadowed Christ. For Christ is the express
image of God, the brightness of His glory, and upholds all things by the word of
His power (Hebrews 1:2, 3)! The substance is always superior to the shadow.
Fresh from the hand of God, Adam was perfect, pure, holy, righteous, and
flawless (“the figure of Him that was to come,” Romans 5:14). He was
thoroughly educated, well equipped with a language and an intelligence that has
not been matched, except by Christ, since the fall of man. Otherwise, he could
not have named “every beast of the field and every fowl of the air” on the first
day of his life!
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the
 rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken
out of Man (Genesis 2:21-23).
Adam’s deep sleep foreshadowed Christ’s death on the cross. The rib taken
out of his side to build1 a wife for Adam typified the pierced side of Christ from
which flowed the blood (John 19:34) for the purchase of His bride, the church
(Acts 20:28). Paul shows the figurative meaning of Adam’s “bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh.”
For we are members of [Christ’s] body, of his flesh and of his bones. . . .
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church
(Ephesians 5:30, 32).
Adam and Eve typified Christ and the church in several ways. As Adam is
the fountainhead of everyone born into the human race, so Christ is the
spiritual head of the church, which includes every born again believer in
Christ. The Old Testament “is the book of the generations [plural] of
Adam” (Genesis 5:1). The New Testament is “the book of the generation
[singular–there are no grandchildren] of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1).
Before his fall, Adam typified Christ primarily by similarities, but
typology is not confined to similarities. After the Fall, Adam typified Christ
mostly by contrasts. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the
last Adam was made a quickening [i.e. life-giving] spirit. Howbeit that
was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second
man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that
are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
The preceding references, along with Romans 5:12-21, give us a list of
contrasts between two one-man activities. Setting them in two columns
(Adam in the first column, Christ in the second column) will help to
amplify the contrasts.
Adam was made a living soul. Christ was made a life-giving Spirit.
In Adam all die. All in Christ are made alive.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second Man is the Lord from heaven.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second Man is the Lord from heaven.
We’ve borne the earthly image. We shall bear the heavenly image.
By one man sin entered. By one Man sin is taken away.
Death passed upon all men. Life is restored to all true believers.
By the Law sin is imputed. By faith in Christ sin is excluded.
By Adam’s sin death reigned. By salvation in Christ grace reigns.
By one offense many be dead. In Christ grace abounds unto many.
The violation was unto condemnation. Sinners are cleansed unto justification.
By one man death reigned. By one Man righteousness reigns.
Judgment came upon all men. Righteousness is unto justification.
Because of one disobedience, all are sinners. By the obedience of One, many are made
righteous.
The Law entered to reveal sin. Grace abounded and sin was repealed.
Sin reigns unto death. Grace reigns through righteousness.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [disciplinarian, according to the

German] to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But
after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For we are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:24-26).
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God (John 1:13).
As Adam and the Old Testament represent our first birth, so Christ and the
New Testament represent our second birth. We must be born again.

SEEING CHRIST TYPIFIED IN ABEL

The life of Abel was short but of worthy significance. As the second birth in
the human race, he seems to typify the second birth of all who are born again.
Born of fallen parents, he inherited their fallen nature. This he acknowledged by
bringing to the Lord an acceptable sacrifice (Genesis 4:4). But there is no record
of any sin or misdeeds in his life. Although he had a fallen nature, he must have
kept it under control by faith, which God expects of all born again Christians.
Because the Holy Spirit was not yet given, Abel could not have had an actual
new birth, but his faith, his life, and his death beautifully foreshadow born again
Christians.
Paul, in contrasting Adam with Christ, said, “The first man is of the earth,
earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” Can we not, in a figure, apply
part of that statement to Cain and Abel? That Cain was very earthy is abundantly
evident. Abel was not the Lord from heaven, but his “more excellent sacrifice,”
which he offered by faith (Hebrews 11:4), as well as his life and death appear
like a foreshadow of the life and death of Christ.
Jesus spoke of “all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, . . . [including] the
blood of righteous Abel” (Matthew 23:35). The Hebrew writer contrasts Abel’s
blood with Christ’s blood, “that speaketh better things than that of Abel”
(Hebrews 12:24). John testifies that Abel was slain because of his righteous
works (1 John 3:12). The shadow (Abel) bears witness to the substance (Christ).
One thing, however, we dare not overlook. Although Abel was an innocent
and a righteous man, the shedding of his blood could not save one soul! The
voice of his blood cried unto God out of the ground (Genesis 4:10), but guilt,
guilt, guilt was all it could say. Only the blood of Christ can offer pardon and
peace to those who receive Him!
Abel is set before us as a proper example, but Christ is set forth to be the
propitiation for sins. Abel offered to God a lamb as an atonement for his own
sins, but Christ offered Himself as the Lamb of God for our sins. “Neither is
there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.”

1 The King James Version says God made a woman from Adam’s rib. Both the Hebrew and Luther’s
German translation say He built a woman. Eve typifies the church; and the church is not created, but
built. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).
 CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Enoch
Glimpses of Christ in the flesh walking with God, then ascending into
heaven.

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch
walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat
sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and
five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him
(Genesis 5:21-24).
What a brief biography. What a powerful testimony! Of only two men does
the Bible say they “walked with God.” It is said once of Noah (Genesis 6:9) and
twice of Enoch. “Can two walk together, except they be agreed” (Amos 3:3)?
Enoch agreed with God, and God was pleased with Enoch.
Enoch was the seventh generation of the human race, in the Sethite line—
those who “began to call upon the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26). (Seven, in
Biblical numerology, is often called the number of perfection. It must be a very
important number, occurring 463 times in the Bible in addition to seventh, 120
times, and seventy, 61 times; for a total of 644 times.) Enoch had no Bible, no
Bible concordance, and no Bible dictionary. But he knew God. He had
developed a personal relationship with God by walking with Him. He
communed with God, agreed with Him, and fully trusted Him. Otherwise, he
could not have “pleased God,” as the Bible testifies of him.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not
found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had
this testimony, that he pleased God (Hebrews 11:5).
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Hereby we know
that Enoch was a man of faith. He walked with God by faith. When Enoch was
65 years old, he begat Methuselah, after which “he walked with God . . . three
hundred years, and begat sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:22). Evidently the birth
of a son intensified his intimacy with, and his reliance upon, God.
Enoch walking in close fellowship with God here on earth foreshadows Christ
incarnate, walking daily in even closer fellowship with His Father. Jesus in His
character reflected “the brightness of [the Father’s] glory, and the express image
of His person.” Therefore He could truly say, “He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father” (John 14:9).
As the first man to be taken up without dying, Enoch typifies two important
events. First, it typifies the ascension of Jesus Christ from the Mount of Olives
(Acts 1:9-11). Jesus, however, had died and risen again. “Death hath no more
dominion over him” (Romans 6:9), nor over Enoch. Second, it foreshadows a
great separation!
Enoch thus taken up typifies the redeemed who “are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord, . . . [who] shall be caught up [harpadzo, #726] . . . to meet
the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). It will be a separation. “One shall
be taken [paralambano #3880] and the other left [aphieemi #863]” (Matthew
24:40, 41; Luke 17:34-36).
Taken and left are opposites in these verses. “Taken” is from the same word
that Jesus used when He said, “I will come again, and receive [paralambano]
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:3). The angel
used the same word when he said to Joseph of Nazareth, “Fear not to take unto
thee [paralambano] Mary thy wife” (Matthew 1:20). “Left” means forsaken, for
example, “Then all the disciples forsook [aphieemi] him, and fled” (Matthew
26:56).
The word “took” (airo #142, Matthew 24:39) is not synonymous with
paralambano (Matthew 24:40, 41). Airo means to “remove, take away.”
Example: “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away” (Matthew 22:13).
Paralambano means “taken alongside,” like a wife, whereas airo means “taken
out of the way.”
When Enoch was taken, he broke the “he died” monotony (Genesis 5:5-19)
with a ray of hope and a spark of life. For six generations they all died. Physical
death is the usual gateway to eternal life. But in Enoch, the Lord chose to give us
a beautiful foreshadow of life without dying. One of these times, most surely in,
if not before, the seventh millennium, all true Christians will take the Enoch
route to heaven, the route that Jesus took when He ascended from the Mount of
Olives (Acts 1:9-11).
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Let’s not miss it!
 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Noah and the Ark
Glimpses of the church’s safety in Christ.

Noah was the tenth generation of mankind. Already the human race was so
corrupt that God saw it was best to cleanse the world with a universal flood and
make a new beginning.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And it repented [italics mine] the LORD that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart. . . . The earth also was corrupt before God,
and the earth was filled with violence (Genesis 6:5, 6, 11).
The repentance of God is not a change in purpose, but a change in
attitude. Such a change, when it occurs in man, usually implies a change of
mind; hence the word repentance in human speech represents such a
change. God, however, never changes His mind: His mind is constant, both
in love and holiness. When man changes in his behavior then God changes
His attitude. The expression it repented the Lord is simply an indication in
human language that God’s attitude to man sinning is necessarily different
from God’s attitude to man obeying.1

NOAH BUILDING THE ARK

Although God found it necessary to destroy the earth with a flood, “Noah
found grace in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). God told him to build an ark,
to save seed alive to replenish the earth. Without the ark, Noah could not have
saved one life, not even his own. Noah built the ark, and the ark saved Noah.
Both were essential. That is why we list them together as a combination. Each in
its own way typified Christ, who of course fulfilled everything they typified, and
more.
 Noah may have used many helpers to build that enormous boat, but there is no
mention in the text of one other person engaged in the work. Are his helpers kept
out of the record because in building Noah typifies Christ? Isaiah said of Christ,
“I have trodden the winepress alone; of the people there was none with me”
(Isaiah 63:3). Salvation was wrought on Calvary by Christ alone, and it saves
only those who believe and abide in Christ. The ark that Noah built saved only
those who stayed within the ark. Not one soul survived outside the ark.
The first step in building the ark was to cut down the trees for lumber. Cutting
those trees to save lives typified the death of Christ, “for he was cut off from the
land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isaiah
53:8).
Noah was instructed to pitch the ark with pitch inside and outside. This is the
only place in the Bible where the Hebrew word kaphar (#3722) is translated
“pitch.” Strong defines it as meaning “to cover (spec. with bitumen); fig. to
expiate or condone; to placate or cancel.” That same word kaphar is translated
“atonement” 70 times in the Old Testament. Therefore, the sealer that
waterproofed Noah’s ark symbolizes the atonement by which believers are
safely sealed in Christ.
All this took many years of labor, but there is no mention of any lapse of time
between the instructions and the completion of the ark. We assume that Noah
had 120 years to do it (Genesis 6:3), but all those years are summarized in one
sentence: “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he”
(Genesis 6:22). Those few words conceal 100 years of toil and sweat, plus the
untold scorn of ungodly neighbors. Then comes the following:
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark;
for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean
beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of the
beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of the fowls also
of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the
face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have
made will I destroy from off the face of the earth (Genesis 7:1-4).
That is the first occurrence of the word “come” in the Bible. God was already
inside inviting Noah to come, not go, into the ark. More than a year later, when it
was time to leave the ark, God told him to go forth of the ark, and of course the
LORD came forth with him.
Before the rain began “the LORD shut him in” (Genesis 7:16). Again, we
notice the singular personal pronoun “him.” It of course refers to Noah, as
elsewhere in these chapters, but it includes his whole family. Noah, as a type of
Christ, is here portrayed as the sole actor or participant of all that went on, even
as Christ is the sole activator of our salvation. Believers are His beneficiaries.
Twice we are told that “Noah did according unto all that the Lord
commanded him.” In that, he foreshadowed Jesus, who always did those things
that pleased His Father (John 8:29).

THE ARK TYPIFIES CHRIST

The ark typifies Christ in many ways. Some people think it typifies the
church. I admit that Noah building the ark may symbolize Christ building His
church. But the church is totally dependent on Christ for her salvation, even as
the lives of Noah and his family depended on the ark. Salvation is not
guaranteed by mere church membership, but by abiding in Christ. Therefore the
ark typifies Christ, whereas Noah and his family in the ark typify the church in
Christ.
The ark had only one door. That door typified Christ, who says, “I am the
door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9). That one door
was “set in the side thereof” (Genesis 6:16), typifying the opened side of Christ,
from which the pardoning blood gushed forth (John 19:34) for our salvation.
The ark had only one window. It was at the top, suggesting that we must look
up to Christ, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world” (John 1:9).
The ark was waterproof and buoyant. No matter how heavy the torrent nor
how turbulent or deep the water, the ark rose triumphantly above it. With no
propeller, rudder, or sail, the ark of the Lord was safely controlled by the Lord of
the ark. Even so, Christ rises above whatever the circumstance.

God Never Forgets His Own

And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that
was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and
the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of
heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; and the
waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the
hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the
seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of
Ararat (Genesis 8:1-4).
The Resurrection Prefigured
We are especially interested in the ark resting in the seventh month, on the
17th day of the month. The seventh month before Exodus 12 was the month
Abib. When the LORD instituted the passover, He revised the Hebrew calendar,
giving the last half of the year preeminence over the first half. We await full
revelation of what that signifies, but the transfer is clear.
This month [Abib, the seventh month] shall be unto you the beginning of
months: it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2).
Israel still has two calendars: a civil calendar beginning with Tishri and a
sacred calendar beginning with Abib. Legal documents such as property deeds
are dated by the civil calendar. Religious feasts and holidays are dated by the
sacred calendar.
Our all-wise and all-knowing God designed that the ark should land on the
mountains of Ararat on the 17th day of Abib and that this fact should be
recorded in Genesis 8:4. As the waters of the Flood receded, the ark (upheld by
the mountain) was lifted out of the water, typifying the resurrection of Christ on
the 17th day of Abib.
The Passover lamb was to be selected (identified) on the 10th day of Abib
(Exodus 12:3), kept under close observation for 4 days, and then killed in the
afternoon of the 14th day (Exodus 12:6). The name Abib (Exodus 13:4; 23:15;
34:18; Deuteronomy 16:1) was changed to Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1; Esther 3:7)
during the Babylonian captivity, and Nisan is the name in use today.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the 10th day of Nisan, on a donkey
colt “whereon [heretofore] never man sat.” “And the multitudes that went
before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9).
See also Matthew 21:1-8; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:29-39; John 12:12-19). This
identified Jesus as their Messiah King, selected by the Godhead to be the
ultimate Passover lamb.
Jesus was not only kept under observation, but was severely tested during
those 4 days. He was challenged by the chief priests and elders (Matthew 21:23–
22:14), the Pharisees with the Hero-dians (Matthew 22:15-21), the Sadducees
(Matthew 22:23-33), and the Pharisees with their lawyer (Matthew 22:34-46), all
in one day. Not one defect could they find. He proved Himself to be the perfect
Lamb of God!
All our calendars and most of our man-made books say Jesus was crucified on
Friday. It is true that “it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath”
(Mark 15:42), “and the sabbath drew on” (Luke 23:54). But this was a special
sabbath, more important than the weekly sabbath, “for that sabbath was an high
day” (John 19:31). The day after the Passover was always “an holy
convocation.” God had said, “Ye shall do no servile work therein” no matter
what day of the week it was. See Leviticus 23:5-7; Exodus 12:15-17. Therefore,
that special sabbath could well have been on Friday.
Jesus said plainly that “as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s
belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth” (Matthew 12:40). I trust Jesus further than any man-made book or
calendar, and I cannot find three days and nights between Friday evening and
Sunday morning. Therefore, I am persuaded that Jesus was crucified on
Thursday, the 14th day of Nisan, and rose on the third day as He had so often
said He would (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:63; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke
9:22; 18:33; 24:7, 46). That was the first day of the week, the 17th day of
Abib/Nisan, as typified by Noah’s ark landing on that very day.
It was 7 months and 10 days later before the earth was dry enough for them to
leave the ark, wherein they had been for 1 year and 17 days.
And Noah built an altar unto the LORD [the first altar on record]; and took
of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on
the altar (Genesis 8:20).
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I,
behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and
with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of
every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every
beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall
all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any
more be a flood to destroy the earth (Genesis 9:8-11).
And as a token of God’s covenant, He put a rainbow in the sky which testifies
today of God’s everlasting faithfulness. God cannot lie, and He never breaks a
promise!

1 Davidson, F., ed. New Bible Commentary, Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1963, p.83. Not copyrighted,
but used by verbal permission from Eerdmans
 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Melchizedek
Glimpses of Christ as the King of Peace and the eternal Priest.

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he
was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed
be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed
be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And he gave him tithes of all (Genesis 14:18-20).
Melchizedek has the distinction of being the first priest mentioned in the
Bible. He was not only a priest, but “the priest of the most high God.” We know
of no other priest in his day. He met Abraham more than 1,900 years before the
birth of Christ. By design, there is no record of his race, ancestry, descendants,
or successors, and this is the only recorded appearance of this remarkable man.
Melchizedek, by divine approval, is given the unique honor of foreshadowing
the Son of God as both king of righteousness and king of peace as well as priest.
And Christ’s eternal priesthood is named after him! For “the LORD hath sworn,
and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek”
(Psalm 110:4). This is the second and the last time Melchizedek’s name appears
in the Old Testament, but it occurs nine times in the New Testament—seven
times in direct association with the everlasting priesthood of Christ (Hebrews
5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15, 17, 21).
Melchizedek is the only man on record who typified Christ by actually serving
as both king and priest. The symbolic coronation (Zechariah 6:11) of Joshua, the
son of Josedech, the official high priest at Jerusalem when the temple was to be
rebuilt, was only a symbolic ceremony. It was a prophetic representation of “the
man whose name is The BRANCH.” It announced prophetically that Jesus
Christ “shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall
be a priest upon his throne” (Zechariah 6:12, 13). Neither of the Joshuas ever
reigned as king.
Moses typified Christ as mediator and prophet; Samuel as prophet, priest, and
judge; and David as prophet and king. Under the Mosaic Law, there were dire
consequences for kings who invaded the priesthood. King Saul lost the kingdom
(1 Samuel 13:11-14), and King Uzziah became leprous for the rest of his life (2
Chronicles 26:16-21). Many have prefigured Christ as either priest or king, but
only in Melchizedek were both offices actually realized by one man.
For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who
met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to
whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation
King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of
peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God;
abideth a priest continually (Hebrews 7:1-3).
Melek is a Hebrew word for “king,” and tsedeq is a Hebrew word for
“righteousness.” Therefore, Melchizedek means first “by interpretation king of
righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace.” Shalom
is the Hebrew word for “peace.” “In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his
dwelling place in Zion” (Psalm 76:2). Zion is a part of Salem, now Jerusalem,
the most beseiged and coveted city in the world.
Melchizedek was not literally without father or mother, nor without beginning
or end. Eleven times in the Old Testament we read of camels, people, things, or
days said to be “without number,” because of their number being untold.
Likewise, the brass at Solomon’s temple “was without weight” (2 Kings 25:16).
And David had “prepared . . . brass in abundance without weight” (1 Chronicles
22:3, 14, 16), “for the weight of the brass could not be found out” (2 Chronicles
4:18).
Melchizedek “was made like unto the Son of God” by the leaving of his
record “without father, without mother, without descent, . . . [and as though he
had] neither beginning of days, nor end of life.” Thus he typifies Jesus who had
no beginning, “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting”
(Micah 5:2). Melchizedek was both king and priest, but his lineage, his subjects,
and his parishioners all are kept out of the record to typify better the Virgin
Birth, the universality of Christ’s universal kingdom and His universal
priesthood.
Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of
Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take
tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though
 they come out of the loins of Abraham: but he whose descent is not counted
from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the
promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better
(Hebrews 7:4-7).
Although Abraham typifies the Father (Genesis 22:1-17), and although “he
was called the Friend of God” (James 2:23), this passage puts Melchizedek
above the patriarch Abraham. Melchizedek may have been “the priest of the
most high God” even before Abraham was called out of idolatry. Why did God
not choose Melchizedek instead of Abraham? That would have violated God’s
promise and marred the type. Both men filled vital positions in God’s eternal
plan and purpose. Eight times the Bible speaks of Christ’s priesthood being
“after the order [or the similitude] of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 7:11-28 goes on to show how much the priesthood of Christ
surpasses, yea supersedes, the Levitical priesthood.
If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the
people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest
should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order
of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a
change also of the law.
For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of
which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord
sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning
priesthood.
And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec
there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal
commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth,
Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh
unto God.
And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those
priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said
unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchisedec:) by so much was Jesus made a surety of a
better testament.
And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to
continue by reason of death: but this man, because he continueth ever, hath
 an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them.
For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not
daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and
then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For
the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the
oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for
evermore (Hebrews 7:11-28).
Melchizedek was greater than Abraham (Genesis 7:4, 7), but it is evident that
Melchizedek was only a shadow of the substance. It is Christ who ever liveth to
make intercession for the saints.
 CHAPTER NINETEEN
Abraham and Isaac
Glimpses of Christ, the beloved son of the Father, willingly laying
down His life for us.

ABRAHAM
Abram was born and raised in idolatry, in a city where “they served other
gods” (Joshua 24:2, 14). Collective evidence1 suggests that he was nearly 70
years old when “the God of glory appeared unto him” (Acts 7:2-4), calling him
to a fourfold separation.
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s
house, [and] unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a
great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt
be a blessing (Genesis 12:1, 2).
Biblical separation is always twofold: something to be separated from, and
someone to be separated unto. God wanted Abram to be separated from an
idolatrous environment, but that alone is never enough. He wanted him to be
fully set apart for God. It took about 30 years for that to be accomplished. But
finally Abraham was so rapt with submission and obedience to God that God
Himself called him “Abraham my friend” (Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7; James
2:23). No other mortal is given that title. His final relationship with God
uniquely typified Christ incarnate.
Abram’s wife, Sarai, was barren, and considering the ages of both, it looked
hopeless for them ever to have children. Yet God promised to make of Abram a
great nation, which would require many descendants. But Abram would first
need to settle in the country that God would show him. We do not know whether
they started the next morning or the next year. We only know that Abram, Sarai,
his father Terah, and his nephew Lot departed from Ur, “and they came unto
Haran, and dwelt there” (Genesis 11:31).
That was only partial obedience (about 25%). Abram had gotten out of his
country, but he was not yet separated from his father’s house, nor from his
kindred, nor was Haran the country to which he was to go. It is uncertain, but
generally believed, they may have lived in Haran about five years. Abram did
not leave Haran to go on into Canaan until his father Terah had died (Acts 7:4).
And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of
Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in
Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land
of Canaan they came (Genesis 12:4, 5).
What they had gathered and gotten in Haran undoubtedly took several years.
When Abram had lived in Canaan for several years and still had no son, we can
almost hear the pleading tone of his voice as he said,
Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah], what wilt thou give me, seeing I go
childless, . . . to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house
is mine heir (Genesis 15:2, 3).
At that point the LORD renewed His promise (Genesis 15:5-7), adding several
details and confirming it with a ceremonial oath (Genesis 15:8-17).
After 10 years in the land of Canaan (Genesis 16:3), Abram being 85 years
old and Sarai possibly 76, their patience was wearing thin. They therefore tried
to help God make His promise good. They definitely understood that Abram was
to have a son, but they did not yet understand that he also had to be the son of
Sarai.
And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me
from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain
children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. . . . And he
went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto
Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and
when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD
judge between me and thee (Genesis 16:2, 4, 5).
A son was born, but he was not the son that God had promised. Their
humanistic effort sparked a conflict that surfaced first on the marital level
(Genesis 16:5), grew into a family conflict that brought suffering to their whole
family (Genesis 21:9-21), and finally mushroomed into an international conflict
that probably will rage in the Middle East until Jesus Christ returns.
Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born (Genesis 16:16). There is no
evidence of any further word from the Lord until Abram was 99 years of age
(Genesis 17:1). Apparently God withheld all communication during those 13
years until Abram and Sarai learned to lay hold on God’s promise by faith, with
no evidence in sight. Then, for the first time, God introduced Himself to Abram
as the Almighty God (El-Shaddai, discussed earlier in chapter 5).
And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me,
behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many
nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name
shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will
make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings
shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and
thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant,
to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee,
and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land
of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Genesis
17:3-8).
God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah, then
instituted circumcision as a token of His covenant with the nation He was about
to establish (Genesis 17:9-14). Ishmael was 13 years old, and Abraham had
become so attached to him that he pleaded, “O that Ishmael might live before
thee” (Genesis 17:18). Abraham, Ishmael, and every male of Abraham’s house
were circumcised in the selfsame day (Genesis 17:23-27). It was their token of
God’s covenant with them.

ISAAC
Isaac’s resemblance of Christ sprouted roots in Abram’s call to separation 30
years before Isaac was born. His early types of Christ involved Abram as much
as Isaac. The promise of his birth, the waiting, and the required preparation all
fell upon Abram. Isaac’s primary role the first 40 years of his life was
submission, and Abram certainly shared in that as well. I combine both men in
one chapter because as a father and son team they typified God the Father and
Christ the Son, especially in the offering of Isaac and in the acquisition of a bride
for Isaac.
Named Before Birth
And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt
call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an
everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I
have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful,
and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will
make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which
Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year (Genesis 17:19-
21).
The details were spelled out explicitly. Then they knew that the promised son
would be born of Sarah. God Himself named him Isaac a year before his birth.
That foreshadows God’s own long-promised Son named more than 700 years in
advance (Isaiah 7:14).

His Miraculous Birth

Apparently God had been waiting for two things: (1) for Abraham to become
impotent, so that Isaac would be a double miracle, (2) and for the faith of
Abraham and Sarah to become strong enough to rest in God alone, when there
remained no more hope in the flesh! (This, and its confirmation in the New
Testament, are also discussed in chapter 5 on El-Shaddai.)
God had designed that Isaac should have a miraculous birth (one that was
humanly impossible) to typify the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. As for Ishmael,
despite the fact that he was brought in apart from God’s initial plan, God blessed
him greatly and made ample room for him and his descendants. That did not
undo the consequential reaping for man-made errors of the flesh, but in the New
Testament God used the account of Ishmael and Isaac to illustrate the
importance of being born again.
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the
other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after
the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an
allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in
Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with
her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it
 is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath an husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the
bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir
with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the
bondwoman, but of the free (Galatians 4:22-31).
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the
flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the
things of the Spirit (Romans 8:3-5).

Offered up by His Father

Nowhere did Isaac typify Christ more beautifully than when he was “offered
up” (Hebrews 11:17) by his father “in the mount of the LORD” (Genesis 22:14),
and in what followed thereafter. God was voluntarily committed to offering the
greatest of all sacrifices on Mount Calvary. But He wanted Abraham (a type of
God the Father) and Isaac (a type of Christ) to experience a preview of that great
event. Therefore, He called Abraham and said,
Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains [unnamed] which I will tell thee of (Genesis 22:2).
By that time, Abraham had learned to do whatever God asked of him,
“accounting that God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead” (Hebrews
11:19). So he rose up early, split the wood (prefiguring the death that was
supposed to follow), presumably loaded it on the donkey, took Isaac and two
young men, and departed for that unnamed mountain God would show him. On
the third day he saw the place afar off (far enough away that the young men
would not witness the scene).
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I
and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you (Genesis
 22:5).
Notice Abraham’s confidence that “the lad” would come home with him. The
age of “the lad” is not given, but I am convinced he was fully grown, perhaps
comparable in age to Jesus when He became the ultimate “offering for sin.”2
Observe that Abraham laid the wood on Isaac. Wood often typifies the
humanity of Jesus (as in the Ark of the Covenant). Here it may typify both His
humanity and His bearing the cross. Therefore it was appropriate for Isaac to
carry the wood. Abraham, who represents the Father, took the fire in his hand,
and a knife. Fire symbolizes Spirit (Matthew 3:11; John 4:24), divine judgment
(Genesis 3:24; 19:24), and acceptance of the sacrifice (Leviticus 9:24; Judges
6:21; 1 Kings 18:38; 1 Chronicles 21:26; 2 Chronicles 7:1). The knife, like the
flaming sword (Genesis 3:24), also implies judgment, perhaps on a more
intimate (father–son) level. For Abraham to have carried the wood, and Isaac to
have carried the fire and knife, would have marred the type.
“So they went both of them together” (Genesis 22:6, 8). What transpired on
that mount was a sacred transaction between father and son alone, yet with both
of them together! It prefigured that greater transaction that Father and Son
wrought together on Calvary, when “God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham
built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and
laid him on the altar upon the wood (Genesis 22:9).
That verse leaves more untold than is verbalized! It depicts that moment in
eternity past when our preincarnate Savior freely committed Himself to be the
sacrificial Lamb of God. We can rest assured that when Abraham had the altar
prepared, he and Isaac had a tender and touching discussion and a mutual
agreement about their commitment to the will of God.
Isaac was in the prime of his life. If he had shown resistance, his aged father
could not have bound him. A physical tussle would have ruined the picture! As a
type of Christ, Isaac must have demonstrated a willingness similar to that of
Christ. The binding of Isaac symbolized the binding of Jesus (Mark 15:1; John
18:12). Both were controlled by heart ties far superior to handcuffs. External
bonds were unnecessary—utterly powerless in Jesus’ case (Matthew 26:53).
The Bible says Abraham “offered up Isaac” (Hebrews 11:17). In his heart and
in the eyes of God, he had done so. Therefore, right up to the time when the
upraised knife was stayed by “the angel of the LORD” calling out of heaven
(Genesis 22:11), Isaac typified Christ being offered by His Father. At that
moment, by his release and the ram being offered in his stead, he also became a
type of believers released and redeemed by the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.

Typifying the Ascension and Second Coming of Christ

Isaac continued to typify Christ in another aspect. Notice that his return to
Beersheba is kept completely out of the record (obviously by design). Of course,
he returned as Abraham had suggested he would (Genesis 22:5). Surely Isaac,
Sarah’s only son, was a prominent figure at her funeral (Genesis 23). Surely
Abraham had Isaac’s consent to send his eldest servant to find a wife for Isaac
(Genesis 24:2).
But following the time when Abraham had not withheld his son (Genesis
22:16), Isaac is kept (as it were) unseen. We read nothing of Isaac until he came
“at the eventide . . . and, behold, the camels were coming” (Genesis 24:62-63).
Abraham’s most trusted servant, “that ruled over all that he had,” had brought
Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife.
Christ also was offered “on the mount of the LORD” (Genesis 22:14), where
“the LORD beheld, . . . and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now
thy hand.” See 1 Chronicles 21:14-16. That is also where Solomon built his
temple, “in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David . . . in the
threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chronicles 3:1).
Christ rose from the dead on the third day (verified 10 times in the Scriptures),
and in the next 40 days He was seen by believers on 10 or 11 different
occasions. After that, He was taken up to heaven, never again to make a public
appearance until the evening of time. The Holy Spirit (typified by Abraham’s
unnamed servant) has been sent to obtain a bride for Christ (Matthew 9:15; 25:1,
6, 10; John 3:29; Romans 7:4; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27;
Revelation 19:7). The Holy Spirit will bring Christ’s bride (the church) at the
eventide of time, and Christ will reappear to receive His bride to Himself, “and
so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)!
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,
when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and
he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the
heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began
(Acts 3:19-21).

Isaac Typified Christ in Other Ways

• Both Isaac and Christ were appointed heir of all their father’s possessions
(Genesis 24:36; 25:5. Cf. Hebrews 1:2).
• Isaac alone of the patriarchs is never seen beyond the borders of the promised
land. This may typify Jesus never venturing outside the border of His Father’s
will.
• Eight times Isaac appears in connection with wells of water. Genesis 24:62;
25:11; 26:18-22, 25. One flowed with “springing water” (Genesis 26:19),
evidently an artesian well. Other translations say, running or flowing, and
Luther’s German says “living water.” As the man of wells, Isaac typifies
Christ, who is indeed the source of living water (John 4:10, 11; 7:38).

Human Error Never Typifies Christ

Abraham typified God the Father and Isaac typified Christ the Son only in
certain aspects. In other aspects, they had the natural signs of fallen men. Each
lied to Abimelech, presenting his wife as his sister. “Isaac loved Esau because he
did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob” (Genesis 25:28). Partiality is
incompatible with Christ, and its wedges brought many heart-aches upon this
family.
May we learn from their mistakes and be instructed by their virtues.

1 Terah died in Haran at the age of 205 years (Genesis 11:32), after which Abram was 75 years of age
(Genesis 12:4).
2 When Benjamin was in his thirties, his brother Judah referred to him as “a little one” (Genesis 44:20).
Less than a year later that “little one” took his ten sons along to Egypt (Genesis 46:21). In Genesis 24
Isaac took Rebekah as his wife, at which time he was 40 years old (Genesis 25:20). So he could easily
have been in his early thirties when he was “offered up” (Genesis 22:12). That would compare with
Jesus’ age when He was offered up.
 CHAPTER TWENTY
Jacob
Glimpses of Christ’s sufferings in the flesh and the glory to follow.

Abraham, “the Friend of God” (James 2:23; Isaiah 41:8), typified the Father
offering His Son. Isaac, in his miraculous birth and the first forty years of his
life, typified the birth, crucifixion, ascension, and second coming of Christ. But
Jacob was different. He demonstrated the natural man’s need for Christ, the law
of sowing and reaping, and Christ’s faithful persistence in transforming death
traps into life. God knows how much we need that lesson!
Jacob was the second-born son of Isaac. There are a number of occasions in
which the second son was given preeminence over the first: for example, Abel,
Isaac, Jacob, and Ephraim (Genesis 4:4; 17:21; 25:23; 48:18, 19). These
examples impress upon us our need for a second birth. Our first birth was a
physical entry that brought us into this world. But if adults are to be children of
God, they “must be born again,” . . . “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 3:5-7; 1:13). Consider also 1
Corinthians 15:45-50.

The Natural Man

“Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.” Other translations use adjectives
such as mild (NKJV), quiet (NIV), peaceful (NASB). He was conscientious,
prayerful, and gentle, but also self-willed and self-centered, frequently looking
for personal gain. He was a living demonstration of our two natures, both bad
and good—our old and new natures.
When his brother Esau was hungry and faint, Jacob bargained with him for the
birthright and got it. Later, he violated his own conscience by helping his mother
to deceive his father, and even lied to obtain his father’s major blessing (Genesis
27:5-24).
 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing where-with his father
blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father
are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob (Genesis 27:41) (emphasis
added).

Sowing and Reaping

Jacob’s self-centered aggressiveness could not bypass the law of sowing and
reaping. The bitter hatred of Esau cost Jacob 20 years in exile from the promised
land, in a land that cherished idols. There he was deceived by Laban, who gave
him Leah instead of Rachel, based on what Laban called the rights of the
firstborn. With a tinge of bitterness, Jacob spoke later of Laban having “changed
my wages ten times.” He also suffered from family conflicts between Rachel and
Leah, and later between his sons. His most bitter harvest came when his sons,
with the blood-stained coat of Joseph, deceived him even more craftily than he
had deceived his father.
While serving Laban, Jacob tried various schemes in an effort to increase his
own flock. God certainly blessed him, not because of, but in spite of his
scheming. However, he lost the favor of Laban’s sons. When Jacob received
word from the Lord to go back to Canaan, he took his family and flocks and
“stole away unawares to Laban” (Genesis 31:20). When Laban learned that
Jacob had fled, he and his brethren pursued him seven days journey, and
overtook him.
Unknown to Jacob, Rachel had stolen Laban’s gods, and Laban intended to
recover them. But God had warned Laban in a dream not to speak evil to Jacob.
Laban searched every tent but found them not. Rachel, by deception and lying,
outwitted them both.
Jacob was wroth, and chided with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to
Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued
after me? Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of
all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that
they may judge betwixt us both (Genesis 31:36, 37).
Rachel had hidden those images “in the camel’s furniture, and sat upon them”
so that Laban did not find them. Now Jacob had said to Laban, “With
whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live.” Then we wonder why
Rachel died so young (Genesis 35:16-19).
When Laban and Jacob had made a covenant of peace, Laban departed, and
Jacob’s thoughts turned toward the 20-year estrangement between him and his
twin brother. He sent messengers to Esau, saying,
I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. The
messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and
also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob
was greatly afraid and distressed (Genesis 32:5-7).
Jacob sent another delegation, with a present of 580 head of livestock for
Esau, to obtain grace in his sight (Genesis 32:13-20). Jacob divided his people,
flocks, herds, and camels into two groups and prayed earnestly that if Esau
smote one group the other would escape. Obviously, Esau was not bringing 400
men as a welcoming committee! That night was Jacob’s Gethsemane.

Transforming Jacob
The man who wrestled all night with Jacob (Genesis 32:24-32) was
undoubtedly Christ Himself (cf. Hosea 12:3-6). He could have disabled Jacob
totally with one word of His mouth, but His purpose was spiritual. Christ does
not want puppets, but people who obey willingly. Therefore He dealt gently with
Jacob’s physical body, but wrestled vigorously with his stubborn self-will. The
spiritual contest towered far above the physical.
At daybreak, seeing that Jacob’s will remained unconquered, He simply
touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and put his hip out of joint. No longer did
Jacob walk like a soldier ready for battle, but with a limp that mellowed the heart
of Esau. His limp was the blessing he needed that day.
Recognizing the divine nature of his “antagonist,” Jacob clung to Him in
desperation, saying,
I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” The LORD blessed him,
saying, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob [supplanter], but Israel
[prince]: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed. . . . And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the
place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved
(Genesis 32:28-30).
In all of these experiences, Christ was working to transform the character of
Jacob. In John 1:51, Jesus identified Himself as the one represented by the
ladder in Jacob’s dream at Luz (Genesis 28:12-19). Jacob did not know it, but
Christ actually had watched over Jacob every day of his life.
 Although saints of God did not really experience the new birth before
Pentecost, Jacob’s experience at Peniel was a beautiful foreshadow of the new
birth. From that time forth he was a different man. The work of Christ was more
evident in his life, as the touching scene of his personal reconciliation with Esau
shows. Prevailing by servitude, he now was rightly called Israel.
Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with
him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto
Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their
children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph
hindermost. And he [limping] passed over before them, and bowed himself
to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and
kissed him: and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women
and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The
children which God hath graciously given thy servant.
Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they
bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed
themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed
themselves.
And he [Esau] said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met?
And he [Jacob] said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord. And
Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself.
And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight,
then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as
though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. Take, I
pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt
graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he
took it.
And he [Esau] said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go
before thee. And he [Jacob] said unto him, My lord knoweth that the
children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if
men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I
pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according
as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I
come unto my lord unto Seir.
And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with
me. And he [Jacob] said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of
my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. And Jacob
 journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house (Genesis 33:1-17).
Jacob bowing himself to the ground seven times, and limping every time he
rose, melted the bitterness in Esau’s heart. The death trap was closed. Jacob’s
life was preserved and enhanced. What a sad ending this story might have had if
our preincarnate Christ had not wrestled with Jacob’s will the previous night!

Still Reaping
But the personal reconciliation of Jacob and Esau could not undo all the
widespread damage. Those 20 years of bitterness (Hebrews 12:14-17) had taken
root in Esau’s extensive family. After all, Esau had taken two wives when he
was 40 years old (Genesis 26:34), the third one when he was in his seventies
(Genesis 28:9), and by this time he must have been 97.1 With possibly scores of
grandchildren, his animosity had already spread to tribal dimensions. That tribal
enmity, with 3,500 years of growth, has developed into international conflicts
that will not find permanent peace until Jesus comes!

The Founding and Future of Israel

When the name Jacob (supplanter) was changed to Israel (prince of God), the
Lord said, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.” That is the first
occurrence of the name Israel, after which the name Jacob still appears 237 times
in the Old Testament. Frequently, it applies to his descendants, national Israel
(unregenerate, and often disobedient). Israel appears 2,491 times in the Old
Testament, and 75 times in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jacob
means either the man Jacob or his offspring, and Israel means either the people
or the land.
At this writing, God is still wrestling with national Israel—called Jacob in this
passage:
For there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall
take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your
sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained
mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that
through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded
them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out
(Romans 11:26-33).
Not until they find their hips out of joint and see Him whom they have pierced
will they collectively acknowledge Him as Lord and Master. Then, says the
Lord,
I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is
in bitterness for his firstborn (Zechariah 12:10).
A careful and prayerful study of Zechariah 12, 13, and 14 gives glimpses of
Christ still wrestling with Israel. “That day,” repeated 17 times in those 44
verses, is of major importance. God often is grieved but never defeated. His
eternal purposes may even be delayed and reprogrammed (Numbers 14:26-45),
but never cancelled. His promises never fail.

1 The age of Esau, Jacob’s twin, can be calculated by information we have about Joseph. Joseph was born
at the end of Jacob’s 14 years of service with Laban, his dowry for Leah and Rachel (Genesis 30:25, 26).
He was 30 years of age when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams (Genesis 41:46). Then after 7 years of
plenty (41:29), plus 2 years of famine (Genesis 45:11), Joseph was 39. At that time Jacob was 130
(Genesis 47:9). Subtracting 39 makes Jacob 91 when Joseph was born. Then he served 6 more years for
the flock (Genesis 31:41) before returning to Canaan. Thus Jacob and Esau were about 97 years of age
when they were reconciled.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Joseph
Glimpses of Christ’s sufferings in the flesh and the glory to follow.

BOTH SUFFERED IN THE FLESH

Joseph is the last of Israel’s patriarchs recorded in Genesis, and to him is
given more space than to any of his predecessors. Joseph’s background was
adorned with much prenatal prayer. His great-grandmother Sarah had been
barren until she was 90 years old. His grandmother Rebekah was barren the first
20 years of her married life; and his mother Rachel, for six years. Although
Rachel’s suffering for lack of children was much the shortest, she expressed it
more intensely. “Give me children or else I die” (Genesis 30:1) shows the
intensity of her cry!
God remembered Rachel, heard her prayer, and gave her a son. She named
him Joseph, and said, “The LORD shall add to me another son” (Genesis 30:24).
God gave her Benjamin after she had waited another six or seven years, but she
died while giving birth to him (Genesis 35:18).
Thus Joseph, who never saw his grandmother Rebekah, was left motherless in
his early childhood. Is that why Jacob lavished so much love on Joseph? Another
less legitimate reason was that Joseph was the firstborn son of Jacob’s favorite
wife.
Favoritism and competition, very evident in this family from its very
beginning, are problems that naturally accompany polygamy. Out of this turmoil
God raised up Joseph to typify His own beloved Son in more ways than any
other Bible character. Joseph’s name leads the list of the generations of Jacob.
These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old,
was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of
Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought
unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his
 children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of
many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more
than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto
him (Genesis 37:2-4).
What Jacob meant for Joseph’s benefit became the source of his severest tests,
preparing him for future fame. Joseph’s prophetic dreams, which in his youthful
innocence and sincerity he shared with his brothers, greatly agitated the already
tense situation (Genesis 37:5-11). Joseph could have avoided some of this
agitation by keeping his dreams to himself, but possibly God meant for his
brethren to know about them, too. At least his father pondered the matter.
Moreover, in Egypt, when the dreams were finally fulfilled, his brothers
remembered them effectively.
Undoubtedly, Joseph often pondered those dreams during his 13 years of
bondage, first as a slave and then as a prisoner. We may wonder whether they
served as a source of inspiration and comfort to him, or a source of frustration. I
like to think the Lord used them as a ray of hope and encouragement. We know
not how many secret messages God may have conveyed to Joseph in his most
trying hours.
Joseph’s last assignment given by his father Jacob was an errand of concern
for his brothers. Apparently, the ten oldest sons had taken their father’s flock to
feed at Shechem. That is where Simeon and Levi had earlier smitten all the
males in the village (Genesis 34:25-30), and the sons of Jacob had taken all their
possessions. Even their little ones and their wives they had taken captive, and
spoiled the whole village, because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah. At
that time Jacob was troubled, fearing retaliation from the inhabitants of the land.
He had reasons to be concerned about how his sons were faring at Shechem.
Joseph may have been apprehensive, too, not so much because of the
inhabitants of the land, but because he knew how his brothers hated him.
Nevertheless, his immediate response was, “Here am I” (Genesis 37:13).
Submissive and dutiful, he went most willingly.
Joseph was, of course, surpassed by the great Antitype. Jesus also willingly
submitted to His Father sending Him and came seeking His brethren.
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God (John 1:11,
12).
Joseph’s brothers saw the day when God used Joseph to save their lives.
When Joseph got to Shechem, his brothers were not there. To a man he met in
the field, Joseph said, “I seek my brethren” (Genesis 37:16). Informed that they
had gone to Dothan, he went and found them there. What a disappointment
awaited him when he met them! They conspired against him, stripped him of his
treasured coat, and most of them wanted to slay him.
And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that
is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of
their hands, to deliver him to his father again (Genesis 37:22).
Consenting to Reuben, their oldest brother, they cast Joseph alive into the pit,
“and they sat down to eat bread.”
But Judah, foreshadowing Judas Iscariot, said, “What profit is it if we slay our
brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and
let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh” (Genesis
37:26, 27). The brothers agreed. They lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold him to
the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And the Ishmaelites took him down to
Egypt.
And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit;
and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The
child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the
coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought
it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy
son’s coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast
hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent
his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many
days (Genesis 37:29-34).
The law of sowing and reaping did double duty. Jacob had deceived his father
to obtain the major blessing, then had spent 20 years reaping with Laban and
practicing more deception. He was reaping when Laban gave him Leah to wife
instead of Rachel, for whom he had bargained.
He was sowing when he sought to gain more cattle by laying striped poplar
and chestnut rods in the watering trough when the flock came to drink (Genesis
30:37-43). He reaped bountifully when his sons deceived him with the blood-
stained coat of Joseph. For 20 years, his sons suffered a guilty conscience for
having sold their brother and deceived their father. They confessed it among
themselves during their dilemma in Egypt, and it all came to light when Joseph
revealed himself to them.
 Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the
Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither. And the LORD was with
Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master
the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the
LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in
his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and
all that he had he put into his hand.
And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his
house, and over all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house
for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in
the house, and in the field. And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and
he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was
a goodly person, and well favoured (Genesis 39:1-6).
Joseph, serving as a bond servant to the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, proved
himself faithful and trustworthy in every way. Even the Egyptian’s household
was blessed for Joseph’s sake. He typified Jesus, whose very presence is an
innate blessing to everyone with whom He abides. Whatever Joseph did, the
Lord caused it to prosper in his hand. He was honest, true, and unblamable in his
moral life, and very efficient in his assignments.
Even his master’s wife (despite whatever authority she had, and although she
tried day by day) could not seduce him to sin. He steadfastly refused to “do this
great wickedness, and sin against God.” When “she caught him by his garment”
in an effort to force him, he left the garment in her hand and fled out of the
house. In frustrated anger, she lied to her husband, and by false accusation
caused Joseph to be cast into prison (Genesis 39:7-20).
But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him
favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and
whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison
looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with
him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper (Genesis 39:21-
23).
Friction that would frazzle the toughest fabric only polishes a diamond. God
was certainly polishing Joseph to be a jewel of the highest quality. Every test
brought out a new luster in his character and prepared him for higher service. As
a prisoner, he impressed the keeper of the prison with his impeccable integrity,
so that he committed “to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison.”
That was quite an order for a slave boy in his mid-twenties.
Sometime thereafter the chief of the king’s butlers and the chief of his bakers
also were incarcerated in this same prison. “And the captain of the guard charged
Joseph with them, and he served them: and they continued a season in ward”
(Genesis 40:4).
One morning they looked sad, and Joseph inquired as to the cause of their
sadness. They each had dreamed a dream and were troubled for lack of an
interpreter. “And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God?
tell me them, I pray you” (Genesis 40:8). They told him their dreams, and he
interpreted them with God-given accuracy. The butler’s dream meant that in
three days he would be restored to his former position. The baker’s dream,
despite its apparent similarity, meant that in three days he would be hanged and
the birds would eat of his flesh. It all happened precisely as Joseph had
interpreted.
Now Joseph had requested of the butler that when he was restored to his
former office, he should remember Joseph to Pharaoh, hoping that he too might
be released. We can visualize Joseph’s hopeful anticipation for several days, or
weeks—followed by two full years of disappointment. The butler, when it went
well with him, forgot about Joseph. How ungrateful!
Many people forget about Jesus as long as things go well for them. Then
when trouble strikes, they call on Him for help. Am I (are you) a forgetful
“butler” today? Our destiny depends on remembering Jesus as our hope of
salvation!

BOTH OBTAINED EXCELLENT GLORY

And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed:
and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the
river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow.
And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill
favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the
river. And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well
favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the
second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank
and good. And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind
sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and
full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream (Genesis 41:1-
 7).
God was working, and Pharaoh was troubled. “He sent and called for all the
magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof,” but none of them could
interpret his dreams. Then the butler remembered Joseph, and with a guilty
conscience he confessed his faults [Luther’s German translation says, sins]
(Genesis 41:9).
Joseph, the man of the hour, was brought “hastily out of the dungeon.” Of
interpretation he humbly confessed, “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an
answer of peace.” Pharaoh told his dreams, the Lord revealed the interpretation,
and Joseph said, “God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do.” In
recognition of Joseph’s wisdom and ability, Pharaoh made him second in
command over all Egypt.
In a few short hours, at the age of 30 years, Joseph rose from the status of a
lowly prisoner to be the exalted governor of all Egypt. Throughout the seven
years of overflowing plenty, he supervised the storage of an immeasurable
volume of grain, symbolic of “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians
3:8). During the seven years of famine, he supervised the distribution of the
corn. “And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that
the famine was so sore in all lands” (Genesis 41:57).
Joseph was a human foreshadow of Jesus Christ, who after 18 silent years
began His earthly ministry, also at the age of 30. But Jesus, instead of opening
earthly storehouses, opened the windows of heaven, fed 5,000 men with five
loaves and two fishes, and had 12 basketsful of fragments left over (Matthew
14:17-21). The substance (antitype–the person or thing foreshadowed) is always
superior to the shadow! “For in him [in Christ Jesus] dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
Nor did Jesus rise merely from an earthly prison to a temporary throne, but
from literal death in a tomb to an endless universal reign.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder: and . . . of the increase
of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even for ever (Isaiah 9:6, 7).
He is “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16).
Joseph’s ten brothers came down to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph knew them,
but they did not know him. With not a word from home for 21 years, Joseph
must have been chock-full of questions. To learn all he could about their present
attitudes and family affairs without revealing his own identity, he questioned
them through an interpreter. Treating them as though they were spies, “he put
them all together into ward three days.” Did he have a secret means of listening
to their conversations during that time? What a fruitful source of information
that could have been! By the third day Joseph had his strategy planned. Keeping
Simeon as a hostage, he released the others to take food to their families,
demanding that the next time they must bring Benjamin (Genesis 42:18-20).
Furthermore, Joseph commanded his servants “to fill their sacks with corn,
and to restore every man’s money into his sack, and to give them provision for
the way.” Enroute home one discovered his money in the mouth of his sack. The
others found theirs deeper down when they emptied their bags at home. All were
alarmed, but it foreshadowed God’s Messianic plan: “Come ye, buy, and eat;
yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).
Salvation through Christ cannot be bought with money!
After a while, the need for more grain pressed upon them. Jacob was very
reluctant to send Benjamin with them, but his sons knew that unless they brought
Benjamin they could buy no grain. Judah committed himself to be surety for
him, and to bear the blame for ever if he did not bring Benjamin again and set
him before Jacob.
And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take
of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a
present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and
almonds: and take double money in your hand; and the money that was
brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand;
peradventure it was an oversight: take also your brother, and arise, go again
unto the man: and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he
may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my
children, I am bereaved (Genesis 43:11-14).
We do not have space for all that transpired when they met again with Joseph:
their anxieties and fears when they were brought into Joseph’s house, how they
ate with him, and the honors bestowed upon Benjamin. Joseph commanded his
steward to:
Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every
man’s money in his sack’s mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the
sack’s mouth of the youngest (Genesis 44:1, 2).
The next morning at daylight the 11 sons of Jacob were sent away, loaded
with food, rejoicing to all be together and homeward bound.
Joseph was making sure that his brothers did not envy Benjamin as they had
envied him. He sent his steward after them to bring back to him the one who had
stolen his silver cup. And sure enough, he found the cup in Benjamin’s bag! The
brothers rent their clothes, and with heavy hearts they all came back to Joseph’s
house, “and they fell before him on the ground.”
Judah, the very one who had suggested selling Joseph, in a touching plea 20
verses long, presented himself as surety for Benjamin. He finished with, “For
how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I
see the evil that shall come on my father” (Genesis 44:34). The test was
completed. They did not envy Benjamin. The time was ripe for them to discover
that the man before whom they bowed in fear and anguish was Joseph whom
their father loved so dearly, and whom they, with bitter hatred, had sold into
Egypt!
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him;
and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man
with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he
wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?
And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his
presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you.
And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold
into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that
ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life (Genesis
45:1-5).
“They were troubled at his presence” because they recognized that Joseph had
the power to do with them what their cruelty to him deserved. But Joseph
assured them of his pardon and his kindness. A touching scene followed.
Here again we see a double and marvelous foreshadow of Christ. “He was in
the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not,” even
as Joseph’s brothers did not know Joseph. “But Jesus . . . knew all men [better
than Joseph knew his brothers] and needed not that any should testify of man:
for he knew what was in man” (John 2:24, 25).
He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name (John 1:11, 12).
The Bible speaks of a time when Jesus will make Himself known to His
brethren in the flesh, and they will be troubled by His presence. Like Joseph, He
 will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon
me [Christ] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is
in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in
Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon
(Zechariah 12:10-14).
This is by no means an exhaustive study of Joseph, but I trust it may be
enough to help us appreciate his prominent role in Holy Writ. Bear in mind that
all types only foreshadow an antitype, which most often is Jesus Christ. The
substance is always superior to the shadow. The purpose of this study is to help
us see Christ more clearly in the Old Testament. Joseph, more than any other
character, typified Jesus’ suffering in the flesh, climaxed by His future reign and
glory.
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

Summary of Major Highlights

Joseph, Jacob’s 11th son, was given the birthright by his father (Genesis 49:3,
4; 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2). Jesus, by His Father, is “appointed heir of all things”
(Hebrews 1:2), “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans
8:29).
“Joseph is . . . a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall”
(Genesis 49:22). Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches. Without Him, we
can do nothing (John 15:1-7).
Joseph, at the suggestion of his brother Judah, was sold for 20 pieces of silver.
Jesus, by the treachery of His disciple Judas Iscariot, was betrayed (sold) for 30
pieces of silver.
Joseph was sent into Egypt to save lives “by a great deliverance.” Jesus
“delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he
will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).
Joseph said, “God did send me before you to preserve life.” But “God sent his
only begotten Son into the world [to give life], that we might live through him”
(1 John 4:9).
Joseph bought all the people of Egypt for Pharaoh (Genesis 47:13-23). Jesus
bought with His own blood all those who trust in Him (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians
6:19, 20).
Joseph, in a Christlike way, freely forgave his brothers. That settled the
account between him and his brothers, but only Christ could settle the account
between them and God.
Joseph told his brothers that he would nourish them in Egypt (Genesis 45:11).
Jesus said, “I am the living bread . . . which I will give for the life of the world”
(John 6:51).
Joseph’s position in Egypt made the best of the land (Genesis 47:6) available
for his family. Jesus’ position in heaven enables all faithful believers to be joint-
heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).
Joseph gave them seed with which to sow the land (Genesis 47:23). God
through Christ “ministereth seed to the sower, ... bread for your food, and [will]
multiply your seed sown” (2 Corinthians 9:10).
Ada Habershon, in The Study of the Types, lists 129 similarities between
Joseph and Jesus. Joseph may have typified Christ in a hundred different ways,
but only Christ can take away sin.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Moses
Glimpses of the incarnate Christ ministering in the flesh.

Moses was born at the time of Pharaoh’s order that all Hebrew male babies be
cast into the river (Exodus 1:22). But God intervened. Moses was saved alive
and became a royal prince in Egypt. Likewise, when Jesus was born, Herod
undertook to slay all the children 2 years old and younger, in and around
Bethlehem (Matthew 2:13-16). But God instructed Joseph to take the Baby Jesus
and flee into Egypt, where Jesus too was saved alive. In contrast to Moses who
was adopted into royalty, Jesus was a prince from birth and remains a prince in
the House of David.
Moses, at age 40, sacrificed his adopted royalty. He chose “to suffer affliction
with the people of God, . . . esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:25, 26). In so doing he beautifully
foreshadowed Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, . . . took upon him the form of a servant,
. . . humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
For 40 years “Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of
Midian.” As a servant and shepherd, he “kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-
law, the priest of Midian.” For 33 years Jesus gave up His prerogatives as God’s
equal in heaven and voluntarily condescended lower than Moses ever did. He
was born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem. As a child, He fled for his life as a
refugee to the land of Moses’ birth. Later, He returned and grew to manhood in
the despised village of Nazareth. He dwelt on earth and kept His Father’s flock
(John 17:12), which would become the church, “which he hath purchased with
his own blood” (Acts 20:28).
“And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his
friend” (Exodus 33:11). Through Moses, God wrought many miracles in Egypt
before Pharaoh relinquished his grip on the Israelites. But that is only a shadow
of how Jesus continues to deliver captives of Satan in every era: past, present,
and future. Moses delivered the Israelites from bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, but
Jesus delivers faithful believers worldwide and from age to age from their
bondage to Satan. However beautiful a type may be, the substance (or antitype)
always outshines the shadow.
Moses was a great intercessor. The Israelites were a stiff-necked people,
repeatedly testing the patience of Moses. Four times God threatened to destroy
them utterly. Twice He offered to consume them and make of Moses “a great
nation” (Exodus 32:10), “a greater nation and mightier than they” (Numbers
14:12). Twice more He told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the
congregation “that I may consume them in a moment” (Numbers 16:21, 45).
Each time Moses interceded mightily.
And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy
wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the
land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should
the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay
them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?
Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest
by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the
stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your
seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil
which he thought to do unto his people (Exodus 32:11-14).
And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for
thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) and they
will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD
art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy
cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a
pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.
Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which
have heard the fame of thee will speak saying, Because the LORD was not
able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore
he hath slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let the power
of my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The LORD is
longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and
by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation. Pardon, I beseech thee, the
 iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as
thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now (Numbers 14:13-
19).
The most important promise God made to Moses was that of a successor like
unto, but greater than, Moses. He said,
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee,
and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I
shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not
hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it
of him (Deuteronomy 18:18, 19).
God distinctly likened Moses unto Christ. The New Testament, however,
indicates that Christ not only surpasses but supersedes Moses. “For the law was
given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Six
times in Matthew 5:21-48 Jesus raised Mosaic standards to new and higher
levels. Their comparison and Christ’s preeminence are both emphasized in the
Book of Hebrews.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to
him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.
For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as
he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every
house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And
Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of
those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over his own
house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end (Hebrews 3:1-6).
. . . 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 showed to thee in the mount. But now hath [Christ] obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better
covenant, which was established upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have
been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to
 lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my
covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord (Hebrews 8:5-9).
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that
which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13).
For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to
the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet
wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying,
This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you
(Hebrews 9:19, 20).
It was therefore necessary that the patterns 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 of the true; but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 9:23, 24).
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 (Hebrews 10:1).
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take
away sins. Wherefore when [Christ] cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure (Hebrews
10:4-6).
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first
that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:9,
10).
Moses further foreshadowed the ministry of Christ in the following instances:
• Both fasted 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy 9:9, 25; Luke 4:2).
• Both confronted and defeated Satan (Exodus 7:11, 12; Luke 4:2).
• Both had power over the sea (Exodus 14:21; Matthew 8:26).
• Both fed multitudes of people (Exodus 16:35; Numbers 11:31; Mark 6:41, 42).
• Both were discredited by their siblings (Numbers 12:1; John 7:3-5).
• Both were famous teachers (Deuteronomy 4:5; Mark 10:1).
• Both were great prophets of God (Deuteronomy 34:10; Luke 7:16).
• Both foretold many future events (Deuteronomy 28-30; Matthew 24).
• Both were sent to save their own people (Exodus 3:10; Matthew 23:37).
• Both were rejected in their first attempt (Exodus 2:14; John 1:11).
• Both were divinely appointed judges (Exodus 18:13; John 5:22).
• Both were destined to glorious success (Exodus 12–15; Revelation 19:11-16).
• Both had 70 helpers (Numbers 11:16, 17; Luke 10:1).
• Both endured the contradiction of sinners (Numbers 16:2, 3; Hebrews 12:3).
• Both endured unjust accusations (Numbers 16:12-14; Matthew 9:34).
• Both spoke the Word of God with power (Numbers 16:23-32; Luke 4:32).
• Both encountered bitter envy (Psalm 106:16; Mark 15:10).
• Both established memorials (Exodus 12:14; Luke 22:19).
• Both reappeared after death (Matthew 17:3; Acts 1:3).
Moses, the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3), fell in his strongest virtue.
He had for 40 years endured Israel’s murmurings and strife with patience, then
lost it at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20:10-13; Deuteronomy 3:23-27).
They angered him, . . . so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes:
because they provoked his spirit, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips
(Psalm 106:32-33).
And for our sakes it went ill with Jesus, the great antitype of Moses.
Before Moses died, at the age of 120 years, he blessed Israel tribe by tribe
(Deuteronomy 33). Then, alone, he climbed mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah.
The Lord caused him to see all the land, but he could not enter in. No one knows
what their last conversation may have been before God put Moses to sleep. Nor
has anyone ever found the secret burial plot where God Himself laid the body of
Moses to rest (Deuteronomy 34).
Six times the Bible gives him the honorable title, “Moses the man of God.”
“And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD
knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10).
 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Aaron and Eleazar
Glimpses of Christ’s earthly ministry, His ascension, His headship of
the church, and His second coming.

AARON TYPIFIED CHRIST’S FIRST ADVENT

Aaron, offering thousands of sacrifices, typified Christ’s first advent. There
were the twice daily burnt offerings. There were weekly, monthly, and annual
sacrifices for the whole congregation to be repeated over and over at regular
intervals. In addition to the routine, there was a constant flow of special and
personal sacrifices for two million people. Every offering prefigured certain
aspects of what Christ did for us when He offered Himself—the ultimate
sacrifice.
Christ, in His first advent, offered the one and only sacrifice that could take
away sin. All the others were symbols of that one sacrifice. They were reminders
of man’s need and of the enormous ransom Jesus voluntarily paid. Man needs to
be reminded of sin’s terrible cost. The multiple thousands of animals thus
sacrificed were merely a shadow—not even a downpayment—of what our sins
have cost our Savior. In addition to His sacrifice, He has already invested six
thousand years in our salvation.

Christ’s High Priesthood Foreshadowed in Aaron

Aaron’s call to the priesthood lacks no certainty (Exodus 4:14-16; 28:1).
When Korah and his men challenged it (Numbers 16:1-19), God reconfirmed
Aaron’s appointment fourfold.
• The earth opened up and swallowed alive the initiators of the rebellion
(Numbers 16:29-34).
• Fire from the LORD “consumed the 250 men that offered incense” (v. 35).
• Altogether 14,700 murmurers died of the plague (Numbers 16:41-49).
• Aaron’s rod “brought forth buds, and blossomed and yielded almonds”
(Numbers 17:1-8).
 There is something special about “Aaron and his sons,” a phrase that occurs
29 times in the Old Testament. Earlier priests were alone in their office. All of
Aaron’s sons were priests by virtue of Aaron’s anointing and because they were
his sons. Together they typify the priesthood of all true Christians. Jesus Christ
“hath made us kings and priests unto God” (Revelation 1:5, 6; 5:10; 20:6).
Christians have “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) by virtue of being born of God
(John 1:13).
“High priest” is a title found only 21 times in the Old Testament, but 54 times
in the New Testament. Its use in the Old Testament, the Gospels, and Acts may
be confined to the Levitical priesthood. But the Book of Hebrews applies that
title to Christ 11 times. He is the High Priest of all true believers. No one has
access to God except through Christ our High Priest.
Before Aaron and his sons assumed their priestly duties, they had a
consecration ceremony, repeated each day for seven days. First of all, Moses had
to wash their bodies daily for seven days. That washing foreshadowed a New
Testament imperative— “the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5), which only
God can do. The Lord had said Moses shall be to Aaron “instead of God”
(Exodus 4:16). Moses was God’s proxy, doing physically what only God can do
spiritually.
Throughout the seven days of their consecration, Moses did everything for
them. He washed them, clothed them, and did the anointing and all the
sacrificing (Exodus 29:1-37; 40:12-16; Leviticus 8:1-36). Aaron and his sons
were passive, like children who cannot clothe themselves. The only thing they
did was lay their hands on the head of the bullock for the sin offering, the ram
for a burnt offering, and the ram of consecration (Exodus 29:10, 15, 20).
Then Moses killed the animals in their respective order and did with the blood
of each what God had commanded. Moses said,
And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle . . . in seven days,
until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he
[Moses] consecrate you. . . . Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the
tabernacle . . . day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD,
that ye die not: for so I am commanded (Leviticus 8:33, 35).
Not until the eighth day (Leviticus 9:1) did Aaron begin to offer the sacrifices.
What Moses did each day for seven days symbolized what man cannot do for
himself. Continuation of the process for seven days suggests that God continues
the cleansing and consecrating process for each child of His as long as we abide
in Him. Even as Aaron and his sons abode in the tabernacle, so must we abide in
Christ day and night continually, that we die not. God always has to do
something to us and for us before He can freely work through us.

Christ’s Ascension Typified by Aaron

Aaron, even in his death, typified Christ in His first coming. When Aaron’s
time came to die, God said to Moses,
Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: and
strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron
shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.
And Moses did as the LORD commanded: and they went up into mount
Hor in the sight of all the congregation. And Moses stripped Aaron of his
garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there in the
top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount”
(Numbers 20:25-28).
We read nothing about Aaron’s burial. Evidently that was kept out of the
record by design. Aaron ascended Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation
and disappeared from the record. This beautifully symbolizes Jesus literally
disappearing when He ascended from Mount Olivet back to heaven (Acts 1:9,
10).

ELEAZAR TYPIFIED CHRIST’S PRESENT MINISTRY AND HIS

SECOND COMING
Notice Eleazar coming down from Mount Hor. He bears the same office and
wears all the high priestly robes in which Aaron ascended. Eleazar descending in
his new role typifies Christ descending in His second coming. When Jesus
comes again, He too will descend bearing a new and greater role than He did
while living here in the flesh.
For years, while Aaron still lived, Eleazar typified Christ’s high priestly
ministry in the present Holy Spirit age. Eleazar was “chief over the chief of the
Levites,” and had “the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary”
(Numbers 3:32). The Levites typified the New Testament church, and the
tabernacle typified Christ and His church on earth (described in the author’s
previous book, Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle).
To Eleazar pertained “the oil for the light [denoting the Holy Spirit age], and
the sweet incense [prayers of the saints], and the daily meat offering [uniform
perfection of Jesus’ life and character], and the anointing oil [divine unction],
and the oversight of all the tabernacle [church of Christ on earth], and of all that
therein is, in the sanctuary, and in the vessels thereof” (Numbers 4:16).
 All that was symbolized while Aaron still lived. Eleazar, as the oldest survivor
of Aaron’s sons, was in line to be the second high priest. His duties already
typified Christ as head of the church from His position in heaven during the
present Holy Spirit age.
But Eleazar ascended Mount Hor in white linen garments as an assistant
priest. He was not yet eligible to wear the robe of blue, the ephod, the curious
girdle, or the breastplate of judgment (the last three interwoven with gold). Nor
did he wear the mitre with the plate of gold (Exodus 28:4-8, 36). All that
changed on Mount Hor, depicting the end time promotion of Jesus.
Eleazar descended Mount Hor endued with the highest priestly office the
Mosaic Law could offer. When Christ returns again from heaven, He will be
endued with the highest offices that ever descended upon this earth. His
priesthood and His kingdom will both be universal and insuperable. He will
come with royal splendor, to assume with invincible power all the offices that
pertain to the Lord of glory and King of kings, for “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Two Joshuas
Glimpses of Jehovah’s salvation as depicted in the lives of two
Joshuas.

These two Joshuas lived nearly 1,000 years apart, but each in his own role
foreshadowed Christ. The name Jehoshua meant “Jehovah saves” or “Jehovah is
salvation” (Numbers 13:16). The name itself denotes a foreshadow of Jesus. The
shortened form (Joshua) still means the same, which in Greek translates to Jesus.
“And thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins”
(Matthew 1:21).

JOSHUA THE SON OF NUN

Joshua the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, first comes on the scene in
Exodus 17:9-16. Israel was enjoying tremendous blessings from the smitten
Rock of Horeb. Their chiding with Moses had just been silenced by the water
gushing forth from the smitten rock.
Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said
unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I
will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.
So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and
Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass,
when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down
his hand, Amalek prevailed.
But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under
him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on
the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until
the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword (Exodus 17:8-13).
 This was the first time Israel needed to fight. In Moses’ encounters with
Pharaoh, God did everything for them. When they were trapped with the Red
Sea in their path, God parted the waters, took Israel through on dry ground, and
drowned the Egyptians behind them. When they feared death from lack of water,
God opened the rock in Horeb and supplied water in abundance. But when
Amalek came, Israel had to participate in the fight.

Joshua at War With Amalek

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and
rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance
of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the
name of it Jehovah-nissi: for he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the
LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation (Exodus
17:14-16).
Amalek was a grandson of Esau (Genesis 36:12). Both typify natural
(unregenerate) man. God is at war with our Amalek (carnal nature), and He
expects us to participate in the fight. Jesus (our Joshua—our Jehovah-nissi) will
help us, but we must cooperate and do our part.
God did not back off, but He made victory contingent upon cooperation from
Israel. He also made them responsible for continued cooperation in the future.
The Lord did not annihilate Amalek, just as He does not eradicate the flesh of a
Christian. But He warned Israel not to forget that eventually they are to “blot out
the remembrance of Amalek” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19), just as we are to
“mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).
“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50). “Ye
must be born again” (John 3:7).

Joshua the Servant of Moses

Next we see Joshua as Moses’ minister (Exodus 24:13), accompanying Moses
and 70 elders part way up Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1, 2). We are not sure where
Joshua was during the 40 days that Moses alone communed with God in the
glory cloud. But I suspect that, as “the servant of Moses,” he may have stayed
close by, keeping watch in prayer. Apparently, he alone descended with Moses.
When they heard Israel singing and dancing around the golden calf, Joshua
mistook it for the noise of war in the camp” (Exodus 32:17). That suggests his
absence from the camp during those 40 days.

Joshua As Moses’ Successor

And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man
in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; and set him before
Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in
their sight (Numbers 27:18, 19).
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses
had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him,
and did as the LORD commanded Moses (Deuteronomy 34:9).
The time had come when “Moses the man of God” needed to be replaced with
a divinely chosen successor. Moses had typified Christ as God’s chosen
instructor and prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18). Through him, God gave the
Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law to teach how man should live. “This
do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:28).
The Law was good, but fallen man is incapable of living by the Law. Every
man needs a personal Savior. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
[“disciplinarian,” according to the German] to bring us unto Christ, that we
might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). So God chose Joshua, a man whose
name means “Jehovah saves.” As Moses represented the Law, so Joshua
represented the Savior. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
Moses taught this people the way and led them all the way through the
wilderness. But it took Joshua (typifying our Jehovah Savior) to bring Israel over
the Jordan and divide unto them the promised inheritance.
And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days
of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the
LORD, that he did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the
LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old (Judges 2:7, 8).

JOSHUA THE SON OF JOSEDECH

Some 900 years later (after the Babylonian captivity), we find Joshua the son
of Josedech. He was high priest at Jerusalem while the returned captives were
rebuilding the temple. His name appears five times in Haggai, chapters 1 and 2,
and six times in Zechariah, chapters 3 and 6. He was known as Jeshua the son of
Jozadak in Ezra and Nehemiah, where he appears twice as often.
We are confining our observations of this man to the visions of Zechariah,
where the Lord used him in a unique way to foreshadow Jesus Christ. We will
let Zechariah tell the story and let the Lord give the basic interpretation by His
written Word.
And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the LORD
said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath
chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the
angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying,
Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I
have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with
change of raiment (Zechariah 3:1-4).
In these verses, Joshua the high priest in his filthy garments symbolized the
corruption of the nation of Israel, as well as of Jerusalem and their priests, of
which Joshua was one. Satan stood there at his right hand to resist, or accuse
him. But the Lord rebuked Satan, suggesting that this was a brand plucked out of
the fire, and proceeded to illustrate what He was going to do with this brand.
Then He introduced the BRANCH (the Lord Jesus Christ), and Satan’s mouth
was stopped.
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair
mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the
LORD stood by. And the angel of the LORD protested unto Joshua, saying,
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt
keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep
my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before
thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my
servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua;
upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving
thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land
in one day. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall ye call every man his
neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree (Zechariah 3:5-10).
Chapter 6 shows a symbolic coronation of Joshua, typifying The BRANCH
introduced in chapter 3, and describes what He will do. Joshua was a high priest,
but he was not a king.
 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Take of them of the
captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from
Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the
son of Zephaniah; Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set
them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest; and
speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold
the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: even he shall build the
temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon
his throne; and he [The Branch] shall be a priest upon his throne: and the
counsel of peace shall be between them both.
And the crowns shall be to Helem, and to Tobijah, and to Jedaiah, and to
Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the LORD. And
they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord, and ye
shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall
come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God
(Zechariah 6:9-15).
The crowning described in these verses did not make Joshua a king. He was a
priest, required to be of the tribe of Levi. On the other hand, their kings had to be
of the tribe of Judah. Invasion of the priest’s office by an Israelite king brought
dire consequences (1 Samuel 13:9-14; 2 Chronicles 26:16-21). And it was
unthinkable for a Levitical priest to usurp the throne. Only Melchizedek, 140
years before Levi or Judah were born, typified Christ as king and priest by
actually holding both offices. Joshua did not wear those crowns. They were to be
kept for a memorial in the temple of the Lord (Zechariah 6:14, 15).
For more about The Branch, see Chapter 30, The Servant Branch.
 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Boaz
Glimpses of the riches of God’s grace to both Jews and Gentiles.

Moab was not in good standing with the Lord (Numbers 21:29). They hired
Balaam to curse Israel, but God overruled (Numbers 22–24). When Balaam
could not curse Israel, they lured Israel to the sacrifices of their gods. “Israel
joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against
Israel” (Numbers 25:1-3). As a result 24,000 Israelites died in the plague. And
God said, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the
LORD; . . . for ever” (Deuteronomy 23:3).
Centuries later, during one of the seven cycles of apostasy recorded in the
Book of Judges, there was a famine in the land of Israel (a result of apostasy).
Elimelech (which means “God is King”) and Naomi (which means “pleasant”),
with their two sons, Chilion and Mahlon, departed from Bethlehem (house of
bread), and went, of all places, “into the country of Moab, and continued there . .
. about ten years” (Ruth 1:1-4). Their sojourn in Moab typified Israel’s
dispersion among the Gentiles. Elimelech and both sons died in Moab, leaving
Naomi to typify the remnant of dispersed Israel.
Naomi “heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people
[Israel] in giving them bread” (Ruth 1:6). But she, in her widowhood, was still
pining away in Moab (like Israel destitute in the Dispersion). So Naomi, with her
daughter-in-law Ruth, returned to Bethlehem.
All the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And
she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty
hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought
me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath
testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me (Ruth 1:19-21).
That sounds quite negative, but it is not the end of the story. The affliction
undoubtedly was a long-term result of Israel’s apostasy. But now the Almighty
(Shaddai) brought her back to Bethlehem (house of bread). There He restored
both Naomi (the remnant of Israel) and Ruth (the Moabitess) through the good
graces of Boaz (a manifold type of Jesus Christ).
What about God’s verdict that a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation
of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:3)? That commandment, apparently, did not apply
to women. Often when Israel encountered an enemy in battle, God said, “Smite
every male thereof with the edge of the sword: but the women and the little ones,
. . . shalt thou take unto thyself [as a spoil]” (Deuteronomy 20:13-15; cf.
Numbers 31:7-18).
Ruth’s situation, however, afforded a special revelation of God’s marvelous
grace, available only through faith in Christ. All of us were born sinners by
nature. But by faith in Christ our enmity toward God is transformed into
adoption. Ruth had been a Moabite by birth. But she thoroughly denounced her
pagan heritage and embraced the saving faith that still lingered dimly in her
mother-in-law. To Naomi, she voiced her decision and lived up to her
commitment.
Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for
whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy
people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I
die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if
ought but death part thee and me (Ruth 1:16, 17).
Ruth was sincere and steadfast in her decision. God knew her heart and
provided for her a legal adoption into the household of faith, by virtue of her
redeemer, Jesus Christ. Boaz was a near kinsman and a beautiful foreshadow of
Christ. Both Boaz and Christ were:
• Israelites from Bethlehem (Ruth 2:4; Matthew 2:1)
• near kinsmen of Naomi (Ruth 2:1, 3, 20; John 4:22)
• mighty men of wealth (Ruth 2:1; Hebrews 1:2)
• owners of the field (Ruth 2:3; John 4:35)
• masters of the harvest (Ruth 2-9; Luke 10:2; John 4:35)
• channels of grace to strangers (Ruth 2:10, 11; 2 Corinthians 8:9)
• comforters of the needy (Ruth 2:12, 13; John 14:18)
• suppliers of every need (Ruth 2:14-17; Philippians 4:19)
• gracious givers of rest (Ruth 3:1; Matthew 11:28)
• redeemers of their inheritance (Ruth 4:4-9; Acts 20:32)
• purchasers of a Gentile bride (Ruth 4:10; Acts 20:28)
• restorers of life (Ruth 4:15; Acts 3:20, 21)
• nourishers of old age (Ruth 4:15; Isaiah 46:3, 4; Malachi 3:6)
 It was the duty of near kinsmen to attend to the needs of widows. When a man
died childless, his brother was to marry his widow, and their first son was to be
reckoned as the seed of her first husband, “that his name be not put out of Israel”
(Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Naomi and Ruth had one kinsman nearer than Boaz, but
he declined to marry Ruth, lest he mar his own inheritance (Ruth 4:6). Therefore,
Boaz, the redeemer of their inheritance, “bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all
that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s at the hand of Naomi” (Ruth 4:9).
Boaz said, “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess . . . have I purchased to be my
wife” (Ruth 4:10). Thus, by God’s grace, Ruth became the wife of Boaz and
gave birth to a son whom they named Obed. Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat
David.
And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not
left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old
age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than
seven sons, hath borne him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her
bosom, and became nurse unto it (Ruth 4:14-16).
Ruth, a great-grandmother to King David, has the honor of being one of the
five women named in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). What a beautiful
portrait of divine redemption!
Boaz did not marry Naomi, but she was fully accepted as an important
member of the home. Her every need was provided for and supplied. What Boaz
became to Naomi, foreshadows what Christ is to the Jews today. Christ (like
Boaz) purchased a Gentile bride (Acts 20:28), but He has not cast away His
people (Romans 11:1). When Jews (as well as Gentiles) receive Jesus Christ into
their heart (as Naomi embraced the child that Ruth had borne), He becomes their
Savior as well.
Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of
them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak
to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify
mine office: if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are
my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be
the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life
from the dead? (Romans 11:12-15).
For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert
grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall
these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to
Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Romans 11:24, 25).
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how
unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33).
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Samuel
Glimpses of Christ as prophet, priest, and judge.

Melchizedek typified Christ as priest and king. David typified Him as king
and prophet. But Samuel typified Him as prophet, priest, and judge. I know of no
other man who prefigured Christ in those three offices. And I know of no other
Bible character named Samuel. Yet his name occurs 142 times in the Bible.
Scores of Bible names begin or end with El, the shortest name for God. I
know of none that have it elsewhere in the name. Those two letters in a proper
noun usually denote the Mighty El, or God Almighty.
Samuel’s father, Elkanah, had two wives, Hannah and Penninah. Penninah
had both sons and daughters, but Hannah had no children. Every year they went
to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. Penninah kept taunting Hannah
about being childless, just to provoke her. Finally, after eating at Shiloh, Hannah
went into the house of the Lord in bitterness of soul. There she prayed
desperately for a son, committing herself to give him to the Lord all his life.
And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed
look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget
thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will
give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor
come upon his head (1 Samuel 1:11).
The Lord answered her prayer with a healthy son, whom she named Samuel,
because she had asked him of the Lord. When she had “weaned him” (perhaps
weaned him of his childish ways and trained him for adolescent responsibilities),
she brought him to Eli the priest and left him there.
But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a
linen ephod. Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to
him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the
yearly sacrifice (1 Samuel 2:18, 19).
 Imagine all the love Hannah sewed into those coats year after year! She may
have measured a boy his age to calculate Samuel’s growth. She had committed
him to the Lord, resting assured that the Lord would guard him with special care.
He did.
And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, The LORD give thee seed
of this woman for the loan which is lent to the LORD. And they went unto
their own home. And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and
bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the
LORD (1 Samuel 2:20, 21).
And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the LORD,
and also with men (1 Samuel 2:26).
In this he typified Jesus.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and
man (Luke 2:52).
And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his
words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew
that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD
appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in
Shiloh by the word of the LORD (1 Samuel 3:19, 21).
He was Their prophet
Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, telling them to put away their strange
gods and to serve God only. He called them together to Mizpeh, “and Samuel
judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh” (1 Samuel 7:6).
And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering
wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the
Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the
Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and
they were smitten before Israel (1 Samuel 7:9, 10).
He Was Their Priest
So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of
Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of
Samuel (1 Samuel 7:13).
And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year
to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all
 those places. And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and
there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the Lord (1 Samuel
7:15-17).
He was their judge.
When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. That was a
mistake, for “his sons walked not in his ways.” Therefore the people requested to
have a king “like all the nations.” That displeased Samuel, but the Lord told him
to give them a king (1 Samuel 8:1-9).
God chose the man (1 Samuel 9:15-17), and Samuel anointed him privately (1
Samuel 10:1). Later, he called a public meeting, and revealed by lot that God
had chosen Saul (1 Samuel 10:17-25). Their kings were to be from the tribe of
Judah (Genesis 49:10). But God, possibly for some typological reason, chose
Saul of the tribe of Benjamin to be their first king.
In a few short years, Saul violated his assignment by invading the priesthood
(1 Samuel 13:8-13). Therefore, God sought a young man, evidently a teenager,
who would eventually replace Saul (1 Samuel 13:14).
Samuel commissioned Saul to destroy the Amalekites, man and beast (1
Samuel 15:1-3) as God had decreed (Exodus 17:14, 16). Saul deliberately
deviated from God’s instructions (1 Samuel 15:8, 9) and “turned back from
following” the Lord. “It grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night” (1
Samuel 15:11).
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin
of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou
hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being
king (1 Samuel 15:22, 23).
And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death:
nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had
made Saul king over Israel (1 Samuel 15:35).
God asked Samuel to quit grieving for Saul. He was to take with him a heifer
for a sacrifice, go to Bethlehem, and anoint one of Jesse’s sons to be king (1
Samuel 16:1-13).
Samuel, as Israel’s prophet, priest, and judge, anointed both Saul and David.
But as long as Samuel lived, he continued his official duties.
The comparisons by which Samuel foreshadowed Christ are worthy of note:
• Both were wholly dedicated to God (1 Samuel 1:11; John 17:19).
• Both were born by divine intervention (1 Samuel 1:20; Luke 1:35).
• Both testified in their adolescent years (1 Samuel 2:18; Luke 2:46).
• Both grew in favor with God and men (1 Samuel 2:26; Luke 2:52).
• Both heard and spoke the word of God (1 Samuel 3:11; John 17:8).
• Both were endowed with profitable words (1 Samuel 3:19; Luke 4:22).
• Both were God-ordained prophets (1 Samuel 3:20; Acts 3:23).
• Both were God-ordained priests (1 Samuel 2:35; Hebrews 5:6, 10; 7:11).
• Both were God-ordained judges (1 Samuel 7:15-17; John 5:22).
• Both were given to intercessory prayer (1 Samuel 12:23; Mark 1:35).
• Both were highly respected leaders (1 Samuel 16:4; John 7:46).
• Both spoke to men named Saul after their death (1 Samuel 28:15; Acts 9:5).
And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah (1 Samuel 25:1).
 CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
David and Solomon
Glimpses of Christ in His first and second advents, respectively.
Luke 4:24-27

DAVID TYPIFIED CHRIST IN HIS FIRST ADVENT

David was the youngest of eight sons in an ordinary family in the village of
Bethlehem. His outstanding characteristics were sincere love for God and a
profound trust in Him. In his early youth he bravely demonstrated this trust by
slaying both a lion and a bear in defense of his father’s sheep. God chose him to
replace King Saul. He knew that David’s heart was firmly anchored in God.
The Prophet Samuel may not yet have known anything of David. But God
informed him that He had found “a man after his own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14),
and had chosen him to be captain over His people. Later, the Lord told him, “Fill
thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have
provided me a king among his sons” (1 Samuel 16:1).
And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the
LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the
LORD. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show thee what thou shalt
do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee (1 Samuel
16:2, 3).
It was announced in Bethlehem that Samuel had come to sacrifice to the Lord,
but the anointing was kept secret for safe-ty’s sake. Samuel sanctified Jesse and
his sons and called them to the sacrifice—all but David. He was out in the field
taking care of the sheep. Samuel looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the
one.”
But God said, “I have not chosen him.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab, but God had not chosen him. He brought
Shammah. Wrong again. Jesse made seven sons pass before Samuel, but none of
them had been chosen. Now what?
 Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
Jesse said, “This is all I have, except the youngest. He’s out with the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Fetch him. We will not sit down till he comes.” Ceremonially
sanctified or not, David was the one God had chosen.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his
brethren: and the spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward
(1 Samuel 16:13).
David’s promotion was not announced in the Bethlehem Post. It was not
displayed on banners across the village streets. The neighbors were not
informed. His brothers were not impressed.
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the
Lord troubled him” (1 Samuel 16:14). He requested music to numb the pain of
his guilt. Someone recommended David. David came. It worked. Saul loved
him, and he became Saul’s armor-bearer. But if Saul had known that God had
chosen David to be king, he would have killed him. Once he sensed that, he tried
most desperately to kill him.

David and Goliath

David had “returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep.” The three oldest
sons of Jesse were serving in Saul’s army, and Goliath was on the scene. Jesse
sent David with some food supplies and to see how his brothers were faring.
David was disappointed that the army of the living God was afraid of this
uncircumcised Philistine. Eliab’s reaction reveals his misconception of David.
Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou
down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the
wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou
art come down that thou mightest see the battle (1 Samuel 17:28).
David’s focus was on God. He could not stand by and see reproach brought
upon God’s holy name by Goliath. David said to Saul,
Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with
this Philistine. The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and
out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine.
And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him:
for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. And the
 Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to
David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and
to the beasts of the field.
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and
with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day
will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take
thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the
Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the
earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this
assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the
battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands (1 Samuel 17:42-
47).
And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it,
and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his
forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the
Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew
him; but there was no sword in the hand of David (1 Samuel 17:49, 50).
Never were two warriors so unequally matched—both physically and
spiritually. Physically, it was a 10-foot giant with massive armor, shield, and
spear defying a stripling shepherd boy armed only with a sling and a few stones.
Spiritually (the way David saw it), it was the Eternal God, the Omnipotent, the
Great Almighty One coming against the lifeless little gods of wood and stone
that could neither speak, nor hear, nor see, nor move. David gave God the glory.

David and King Saul

Saul took David that day and would not let him go home to his father’s house.
He set David over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the
people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants (1 Samuel 18:2, 5). But when the
women celebrated, ascribing thousands to Saul, and ten thousands to David, Saul
was very angry. From that day forth he was suspicious of David and sought by
all conceivable means to kill him.
“And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with
him” (1 Samuel 18:5, 14, 30). Wherefore, when Saul saw that [David] behaved
himself very wisely, he was afraid of him. . . . And Saul saw and knew that the
LORD was with David, . . . and Saul became David’s enemy continually” (1
Samuel 18:15, 28, 29). He sent messengers to kill him, “and Saul sought him
every day, but God delivered him not into his hand” (1 Samuel 19:11; 23:8, 14).
He pursued David with an army of 3,000 chosen men. Twice Saul fell into the
hands of David and his men (1 Samuel 24:2-7; 26:7-12), but David firmly
refused to let his men harm “the Lord’s anointed.”

David Portrayed Christ

In all these struggles David exemplified and portrayed Christ in His first
advent. The following similarities add beauty to the story.
• Both were born in the humble village of Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17:12;
Matthew 2:1).
• Both shepherded their father’s flock (1 Samuel 17:15; John 17:12).
• Both were obedient sons, of lowly estate on earth (1 Samuel 17:17; Luke
2:51).
• Both were misunderstood by their brothers (1 Samuel 17:28; John 7:5).
• Both were sorely mistreated by high officials (1 Samuel 19:1; Mark 15:15).
• Both fled as refugees from a king who sought to slay them (1 Samuel 21:10;
Matthew 2:14).
• Both had many enemies and suffered many conflicts (1 Samuel 23:8; Luke
4:29).
• Both were men after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; John 8:29).
• Both were anointed long before they reigned (1 Samuel 16:13; John 18:37).
• Both were assured of their throne in spite of opposition (1 Samuel 24:20;
Revelation 19:16).
• Both were prophets (Acts 2:29, 30; Deuteronomy 18:18) and kings (2
Samuel 5:4, 5; John 18:37).
• Both wept over Jerusalem (David going out, 2 Samuel 15:30; Jesus coming
in, Luke 19:41).
• Both had the promise of a house from the Father (2 Samuel 7:11-16; John
14:2).

David Typifies a Greater David

Both the house and kingdom of David have been extended into an eternal
dimension in and by the greater David. The following passages were written
more than 300 years after David the son of Jesse had died. Obviously, they speak
prophetically of an eternal David.
But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I
will raise up unto them (Jeremiah 30:9).
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even
my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I
the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I
the Lord have spoken it (Ezekiel 34:23, 24).
Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God,
and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter
days (Hosea 3:5).
This is not an exhaustive study of the life of David. We are looking primarily
at the struggles in his early life which seem to typify Christ in His first advent.
The Bible gives a much better report of David than it does of Solomon.
David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not
aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save
only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5).
However, David was a man of war. For him to build the temple would have
marred the type. The temple was to be built by a man of peace in a time of
peace.
David was not a sinless man. He fell grievously, repented deeply (Psalms
32 and 51), and the Lord forgave him (2 Samuel 12:13). But for typological
reasons Solomon, instead of David, needed to build the temple.

SOLOMON’S REIGN OF PEACE

Solomon’s reign of peace and glory seems to have been designed and planned
to typify Christ in His second coming. When he began to reign, he first cleaned
house. He executed Joab who had offended David (1 Kings 2:5, 28-34) and
Adonijah who had defied Solomon by usurping the throne of David (1 Kings
2:22-25). Shimei, who also had offended David (2 Samuel 16:5-9), Solomon
restricted and later executed (1 Kings 2:8, 36, 41-46). And Abiathar the priest,
who had been a friend to David but later participated in Adonijah’s conspiracy to
the throne (1 Kings 1:7, 19, 25), he thrust out of the priesthood (1 Kings 2:26,
27). Then Solomon reigned in peace with royal majesty and glory.
Notice the similarity with what Christ will do when He comes again.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in
 the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew
13:40-43).
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume
with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his
coming (2 Thessalonians 2:8).
Solomon’s reign began as a Utopia. No other king ever had so much going for
him when he began to reign. His father, the greatest of Israel’s earthly kings, had
laid up with all his might enormous stores of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood,
precious stones and marble stones (1 Chronicles 29:2). David had encouraged all
the people to give. The people were enthusiastic and they offered willingly.
Moreover, God Himself had planned, even before Solomon’s birth, that his
reign should be free from war. God told David,
Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest [cf.
Matthew 11:28]; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about:
for his name shall be Solomon [peace], and I will give peace and quietness
unto Israel in his days (1 Chronicles 22:9).
Solomon’s reign of peace was guaranteed before he was born. Not one king or
nation rose up against Israel during the 40-year reign of Solomon,
foreshadowing the reign of Christ (Isaiah 9:7).
To Solomon God said,
Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee: and I will give thee riches
and wealth and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been
before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like (2 Chronicles
1:12).
Heaven and earth poured out their blessings upon Solomon. His name was
better and his throne greater than that of David (1 Kings 1:37, 47).
Solomon loved the Lord (1 Kings 3:3), and he “was beloved of his God”
(Nehemiah 13:26). His God-given wisdom and glory have not been matched by
mortal man. Everything was superlative. “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely,
every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all
the days of Solomon” (1 Kings 4:25). It typified what Messianic prophecies
predict:
 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house
of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be
exalted above the hills; and people shall flow into it. And many nations
shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and
we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of
the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and
rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall
sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make
them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it (Micah 4:1-
4).
Solomon’s early responses seemed flawless. He made wise choices that God
could bless (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). He communicated well with the people, and
they highly respected him (2 Chronicles 6:1-11). His fervent prayer was
significantly inclusive (2 Chronicles 6:12-42). “The fire came down from
heaven, and consumed the burnt offering, and the sacrifices; and the glory of the
Lord filled the house” (2 Chronicles 7:1).
People came from far and near to hear Solomon’s wisdom and to see his
glory. They found both his wisdom and his glory to surpass what they had
expected. He wrote 1,005 songs and 3,000 proverbs. Thus far, he typified our
marvelous, invincible, adorable Christ. But there the typology ends—and the
tragedy begins.
Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh and married his daughter (1 Kings 3:1).
He married women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians,
and Hittites; of the nations concerning which the Lord said . . . Ye shall not
go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn
away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love (1 Kings
11:1, 2).
He gathered women as collectors’ items.
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when
Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and
his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David
his father.
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after
 Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the
sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his
father.
Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of
Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination
of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives,
which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned
from the LORD God of Israel (1 Kings 11:3-9).
Marriage is a sacred institution designed of God for one man and one woman.
To multiply wives for self-gratification or political power is an abomination to
God and a curse to man. The Mosaic law said a king “shall not multiply horses
to himself, . . . Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not
away: neither shall he greatly multiply silver and gold” (Deuteronomy 17:16,
17). Solomon multiplied all three beyond reason—and enjoyed none. Nor do we
have any record of his repentance, like that of his father.
The genealogy of Jesus bypasses Solomon. He is truly the Son of David
(Matthew 1:1; 12:23; 21:9, 15; 22:42; Mark 12:35), but He is not a son of
Solomon. Matthew traces the royal line down to “Joseph the husband of Mary,
of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16). But Luke traces
the ancestry of Mary through her father Heli (the father-in-law of Joseph) back
40 generations to Nathan, the son of David (Luke 3:23-31), a brother to Solomon
(2 Samuel 5:14). This also explains why Jeremiah could say of King Jehoiakim,
that “no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and
ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30; 36:30).
The life of Solomon has a sad ending. We will let him close the story with his
own testimony.
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is
grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Yea, I hated all my
labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the
man that shall be after me (Ecclesiastes 2:17, 18).
 CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Elijah and Elisha
Glimpses of Christ in His first and second advents, respectively.
Luke 4: 24-27

ELIJAH, SINGLE AND HOMELESS

The Prophet Elijah, like Jesus in the flesh (Matthew 8:20), had no home of his
own. Elijah’s ministry was primarily prophetic and corrective. Like Jesus in His
earthly ministry, Elijah encountered bitter enemies among the ruling classes.
Elijah came suddenly upon the scene with a message of judgment from God
upon the wicked King Ahab. “As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I
stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1
Kings 17:1). His message was brief, pointed, and powerful. Then, by divine
guidance, he went into hiding for three years, like Jesus, when they wanted to
stone Him. “Jesus hid himself . . . and so passed by” unharmed (John 8:59;
12:36). The Lord directed and miraculously provided for Elijah. God said,
Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook
Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the
brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and
dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought
him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and
he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while, that the brook
dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to
Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have
commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to
Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow
woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch
me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I
 pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the LORD thy
God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little
oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and
dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make
me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee
and for thy son. For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord
sendeth rain upon the earth.
And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he,
and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not,
neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he
spake by Elijah (1 Kings 17:3-16).
In the meantime, the widow’s son fell sick and died.
Elijah cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let
this child’s soul come into him again. And the LORD heard the voice of
Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived (1
Kings 17:21, 22).
And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of
God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth (1 Kings 17:24).
Jesus also did many miracles by which multitudes believed on Him (John
2:23; 4:39-42; 11:45; 12:42).
After 3½ years (Luke 4:25) with neither rain nor dew, the famine in Samaria
(the Northern Kingdom) was indeed very severe. Ahab blamed Elijah for it, but
he could not harm him because he could not find him (1 Kings 18:10).
Finally God told Elijah, “Go show thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon
the earth.”
And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art
thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel;
but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the
commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and
the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves
four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table. So Ahab sent unto all the
children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between
 two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word (1 Kings 18:17-21).

Elijah’s Victory on Mount Carmel

The prophets of Baal were 450. Elijah said they should slay their bullock first.
Twice he warned them to “put no fire under,” but to call upon Baal to send fire.
They “called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal,
hear us. . . . And they cried aloud, and cut themselves . . . till the blood gushed
out upon them. . . . And they prophesied until the time of the offering of the
evening sacrifice,” but Baal answered neither by voice nor by fire.
Then Elijah prepared his bullock, “and put no fire under.” As double proof, he
dug a trench around his altar and soaked his sacrifice with 12 barrels of water.
Elijah prayed,
LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel, . . . Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may
know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back
again.
Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the
wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the
trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they
said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God. And Elijah said
unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they
took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew
them there (1 Kings 18:36-40).
Elijah was sure, before there was any visible evidence, that the Lord would
hear and answer his prayer (1 Kings 18:36, 37, 41-46). Jesus, likewise, at the
tomb of Lazarus, before Lazarus showed any signs of life, said,
Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may
believe that thou hast sent me (John 11:41, 42).
Samaria acknowledged the Lord, and the drought was ended. In answer to
Elijah’s prayer, the Lord sent a great rain.
And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the LORD was on
Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of
Jezreel (1 Kings 18:46).
Elijah’s Wilderness Temptation and His 40-Day Fast
When Jezebel heard what Elijah had done, she sent him a message, binding
herself with an oath, to slay him before the end of another day. Elijah fled for his
life to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah (the Southern Kingdom), and left his
servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, sat under
a juniper tree, and requested that he might die (1 Kings 19:1-4).
From his mountaintop experience he plunged into a valley of despair. That
night, as Elijah slept, he was awakened twice by an angel of the Lord, who said,
“Arise and eat.” Each time, food and water were providentially provided for
him. And he “went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto
Horeb the mount of God,” into a cave and lodged there.

Elijah’s Rejuvenation on Mount Horeb

The Lord gave Elijah a threefold demonstration of His power: a mighty wind
that broke the rocks in pieces, an earthquake, and a fire. Then He manifested His
presence and revealed His will with a still small voice, saying, “What doest thou
here, Elijah?” Elijah said,
I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children
of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain
thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my
life, to take it away (1 Kings 19:14).
The Lord sent Elijah back to Samaria. He commissioned him to anoint Hazael
to be king over Syria, Jehu to be king over Israel, and Elisha to be prophet in
Elijah’s stead. The first two were risky assignments, with the former kings still
on the throne. But in the strength of the Lord, Elijah completed his work without
flinching.
He confronted King Ahab face to face in the vineyard of Naboth, saying,
Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? Thus saith the LORD, In the
place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even
thine. . . . Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy
posterity, . . . Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him
that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat (1 Kings 21:19-24).
When Ahab heard those words, he humbled himself sincerely. And the Lord
said to Elijah,
Because [Ahab] humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in
 his days: but in his son’s days I will bring the evil upon his house (1 Kings
21:27-29).
Elijah in his struggles, homeless wanderings, absolute assurance in prayer,
40-day fast, and then in his ascension to heaven, symbolized Christ in His first
advent.

ELISHA COMPLETES WHAT ELIJAH BEGAN

Elisha first appears when Elijah comes to anoint him. He must have been a
well-to-do farmer. Elijah found him
plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth:
and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the
oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and
my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back
again: for what have I done to thee (1 Kings 19:19, 20).
I prefer Luther’s German rendering: “Go back [home], and come again;
consider what I have done to you.” Elijah gave Elisha permission to go back to
his father, and come again, typifying Jesus who has gone back to His Father and
will come again. By asking, “What have I done to thee,” Elijah surely intended
Elisha to consider the meaning of Elijah’s mantle cast upon him.
Elisha responded instantly, wholeheartedly, and with all seriousness.
And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them,
and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the
people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and
ministered unto him (1 Kings 19:21).
The day of Elijah’s departure (2 Kings 2) was an interesting day. All the
prophets seemed to know that Elijah would be taken away that day. Three times
Elijah said to Elisha, “Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to . . .”
(from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel back to Jericho, and from Jericho to the
Jordan). Each time Elisha said, “As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will
not leave thee.” Elisha proved to be firmly committed to his assignment.
At Bethel and at Jericho, the prophets asked Elisha, “Knowest thou that the
LORD will take away thy master from thy head today?” And he said, “Yea, I
know it; hold ye your peace.”
And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar
off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped
 it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither,
so that they two went over on dry ground.
And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto
Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And
Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And
he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I
am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.
And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there
appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder;
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he
cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.
And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent
them in two pieces (2 Kings 2:7-12).
Elisha took up the mantle that fell from Elijah, and very solemnly returned to
the River Jordan. Minutes before, the two had crossed that river together, the
river that often symbolizes the victorious death of saints, this time, the death of
Christ, followed by ascension. Like Eleazar descending from Mount Hor,
wearing the high priestly garments in which Aaron had ascended (see chapter
23), even so Elisha carried the mantle that fell from Elijah. His return prefigures
the return of Christ.
In his musings, Elisha remembered their last recorded words before Elijah
rose out of his sight. “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from
thee,” Elijah had offered.
Elisha requested, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.”
“If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee,” said
Elijah.
Elisha did see him go. His request was granted.
And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the
waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had
smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw
him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to
meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him (2 Kings 2:14,
15).
We have record of only one man falling on his knees before Elijah (2 Kings
1:13). When Jesus comes again,
every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
 under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10, 11).
After Elijah and Elisha had crossed the River Jordan (a symbol of death),
“Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). Elisha “took up
also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him” (assuming the office of Elijah, with
a double portion of Elijah’s spirit) and returned (typifying the second coming of
our resurrected, ascended, and returning Savior and Lord). When Jesus comes
again, no one will withstand Him. This was typified in the life and power of
Elisha, whom no one threatened or withstood in his peaceful and powerful
ministry.
The Life of Elisha a Foreshadow of Christ
We need not look for a specific type of Jesus in every act of Elisha, and we
realize that some of his works are equally typical of Jesus’ first advent.
However, he was the direct successor of Elijah who had gone to heaven. He had
received “a double portion of [Elijah’s] spirit,” and we have no indication that he
was ever challenged by enemies. These unusual features are more typical of
Christ in His second coming than in His first advent. Some of the 20 miracles of
Elisha foreshadowed Christ’s life and work when He was here in the flesh.
Others will be fulfilled in the regeneration when He comes again!

Twenty Signs Recorded in 2 Kings

1. Elisha parted the waters of Jordan like Elijah had done (2:14).
2. The prophets bowed to the ground before him (2:15).
3. The waters at Jericho were healed through Elisha (2:19-22).
4. Without rain, ditches were filled with water (3:16-18).
5. A widow’s oil was multiplied to pay her debt (4:1-7).
6. A barren couple at Shunem had a miracle child (4:16, 17).
7. A child was restored to life after death (4:18-35).
8. Poisonous pottage was fully healed (4:38-41).
9. Elisha fed 100 men with 20 barley loaves (4:42-44).
10. Naaman was healed of leprosy (5:14).
11. Gahazi incurred the leprosy of Naaman (5:20-27).
12. Iron was made to swim (6:1-7). The dead will rise when Jesus comes.
13. Elisha gave divine counsel to the king of Israel (6:8-12).
14. The Syrian army was blinded (6:13-21).
15. Elisha foretold the coming of Joram’s messenger (6:30-33).
16. Elisha foretold there would be food aplenty the next day (7:1-18).
17. Elisha foretold seven years of famine (8:1-6).
18. Elisha foretold Benhadad’s death and Hazael’s brutality (8:7-15).
19. Elisha foretold Joash’s limited victories (13:14-19).
20. A dead man was revived upon touching Elisha’s bones (13:21).
The following numbers from the previous list show which of the preceding
signs especially prefigured Christ.

Types of Christ’s Second Advent

(1) Coming back after crossing the Jordan (a type of death), typifies Jesus
coming again.
(2) Every knee will bow to Jesus when He comes (Philippians 2:10).
(3) Jesus was and still is “the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26;
Revelation 22:2).
(4) Jesus was and will be the water of life to every Christian (John 7:37;
Revelation 22:1).
(7) Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
(10) Jesus healed and still heals our spiritual leprosy (Acts 4:12).
(12) The “stick” that was cut (2 Kings 6:6) typifies Jesus “cut off out of the land
of the living” (Isaiah 53:8); and the iron rising from the bottom of the
Jordan typifies the resurrection from the dead when Jesus comes again (1
Thessalonians 4:16; Philippians 3:11).
(14) “In that day I will . . . smite every horse of the people [or nations] with
blindness” (Zechariah 12:4).
(20) Only Jesus and the bones of Elisha have effected resurrection by their own
death.
Elijah and Elisha each restored a corpse to life, but the bones of Elisha
restored one man who touched them after Elisha’s death. Christ by His death has
already restored and will yet restore countless multitudes to life.
 Part IV

Seeing Christ in Eternity Future

 CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The Real Hebrew Servant
Committed forever.
Exodus 21:6

Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou
buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall
go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself:
if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have
given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and
her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. And if the
servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will
not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall
also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore
his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever (Exodus 21:1-
6).
I often wondered why the master should pierce the ear of a bond servant who
thus declares his love and loyalty, first for his master, then for his own wife and
children. A friend explained to me that it typifies Christ’s commitment, first and
above all to God, then to His church. Immediately I appreciated his analogy, but
at first thought I had one problem. How could Jesus, who was perfectly one with
His Father (John 14:8-11), be a bond servant “for ever”?
On second thought, I recalled that Jesus, “who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation,
and [voluntarily] took upon him the form of a servant, . . . he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
That solved my problem.
There we have both facts plainly stated in New Testament doctrine. Each time
the word “form” is translated from morphe (#3444) in Greek. It is the central
part of our English “metamorphosis” (the process which transforms a caterpillar
into a butterfly). Morphe is found only three times in the Bible (Mark 16:12;
Philippians 2:6, 7), and is used only of Jesus incarnate. From eternity past He
had been in the form (morphe) of God, but in His incarnation, He voluntarily
took upon Him the form of a slave, deliberately condescending to the role of a
bond servant. Isaiah had foretold the fulfillment of that commitment 700 years in
advance.
The Lord God hath opened mine ear [as with an awl], and I was not
rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my
cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and
spitting (Isaiah 50:5, 6).
The Psalmist likewise depicts the Messiah as saying,
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened
[in keeping with Exodus 21:6]: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not
required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of
me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart
(Psalm 40:6-8).
Both passages correspond with those quoted earlier from Exodus and
Philippians. Jesus did not turn back from cruel torture, nor did He hide His face
from shame and spitting. He submitted willingly, even unto crucifixion, the
execution used for a criminal slave. He made that commitment and never
deviated from it.
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of
him that sent me (John 6:38).
For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he
that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth (Luke 22:27).
The wood of the furniture in the Tabernacle is considered to typify the
humanity of Christ. The piercing of a servant’s ear was done at a [wooden] door
or post, the place where the blood of the passover lamb was applied (Exodus
12:7). Jesus gave His life on a wooden cross. The law could not demand it,
because He had fully met every requirement of the law. Legally, He could have
gone out by himself, free for nothing. Was not that the agonizing cry of His flesh
in Gethsemane?
And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it
were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not
what I will, but what thou wilt (Mark 14:35, 36).
 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it
were great drops of blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:44).
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Mark 14:38).
Did Jesus say that solely of His disciples? Was He not also disclosing the
struggle of His own flesh? He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save Me from
this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour (John 12:27, NKJV).
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then
shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my
Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me:
the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please
him (John 8:28, 29).
When mortal bond servants committed themselves to serve their master “for
ever,” there was after all a time limit set by the brevity of life. Not so with Jesus!
His resurrection provides an eternal dimension to His commitment. That was not
true of any other Hebrew servant.
The text quoted from Exodus speaks of the master having given the servant a
wife. Jesus abundantly proved His love, first for His Master, then for His bride
and children, whom the Father gave Him.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out (John 6:37).
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of
the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept
thy word. . . . I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are
mine; and I am glorified in them. . . . Those that thou gavest me I have kept
(John 17:6, 9-10, 12).
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end (John 13:1).
No mortal servant ever loved his master or his wife and children like Jesus
loved those whom His Father gave Him. Nor has any mortal servant ever served
his master as faithfully as Jesus serves the Father who sent Him. All others are
only a shadow of which Jesus is the substance.
Jesus refused to go out by Himself, free, because He loved His Master (the
Father).
Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians
5:25-27).
Christ is the true Hebrew Servant, committed to serve the Father for ever.
Ever since His ascension to glory His intercessory ministry has never ceased.
Even when He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, yea, in eternity future,
He will be serving His Father forever.
 CHAPTER THIRTY
The Fourfold Messianic Branch
THE ROYAL BRANCH
Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born.
John 18:37

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch
shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and shall make him of
quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: but with
righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek
of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with
the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins (Isaiah 11:1-
5).
Isaiah reconfirmed the promise God had made to David more than two
hundred years earlier.
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before
thee: thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:16).
“The stem of Jesse” identifies the Davidic dynasty, and thereby the royalty of
the Branch, the unique Son of David. That promise can be fulfilled in none other
than our Lord Jesus Christ, the Royal Branch of whom Isaiah spoke. On Him
rest the seven Spirits of God. No other kingdom will endure for ever.
The royalty of Christ is unique. He is not only the Son of David, but the Son
of God as well. The Davidic dynasty is unique. David’s name frequently is
attached to Christ. Jesus is identified as the Son of David 13 times in the
Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30, 31; 21:9, 15; 22:42; Mark
10:47, 48; 12:35; Luke 18:38, 39). And the name David is used for Christ
Himself at least four times in Messianic prophecies, written more than 300 years
after King David had died (Jeremiah 30:9; Ezekiel 34:23, 24; Hosea 3:5). Christ
is the greater David.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an
ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall set his
hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which
shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from
Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall
assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:10-12).
Christ is a “root of Jesse” as well as “a Branch that shall grow out of his
roots” (11:2). Normally, the root bears the tree, whereas the tree bears the
branches. But spiritually, Christ is the root and the branch that bears up and
enhances with special meaning His entire ancestral tree.

THE RIGHTEOUS BRANCH

The Lord Our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6)
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called,
“THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:5, 6).
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good
thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of
Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of
righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem
shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The
LORD our righteousness (Jeremiah 33:14-16).
In both passages Branch is capitalized. Both speak of His royalty, but their
main emphasis is on His righteousness. He is “THE LORD [Jehovah] OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23:6). As for man, “There is none righteous, no,
not one” (Romans 3:10). “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses [plural] are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Therefore, we are
totally dependent upon His righteousness [singular] for our salvation.
That truth of the gospel is what unbelievers fail to recognize.
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God (Romans 10:3).
Luther’s German translation says they are not obedient to the righteousness
that counts with God. Our righteousness is tainted with sin, contaminated, and
far too anemic to count with God!
The righteousness of Christ is doubly unique. First, He lived in the flesh for
33 years, “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews
4:15). He did no sin, knew no sin, and in him was no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1
Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5). He is righteousness personified, yet He willingly died on
the cross to atone for our sins! Second, His is the only righteousness that can be
transmitted to another, and that only to believers who trust in His blood for their
salvation.
“By faith Noah . . . became heir of the righteousness which is by faith”
(Hebrews 11:7). Abraham “believed in the Lord,” and the Lord counted his faith
“for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3). The righteousness of Christ
was credited to their account because they believed God’s promise of a coming
Savior.
Christ is the One 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 justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Romans
3:25, 26).
The righteousness of Christ is the only way to heaven!

THE SERVANT BRANCH

I am among you as he that serveth (Luke 22:27)
Behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. For behold the stone
that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I
will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will remove
the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts,
shall ye call every man his neigh-bour under the vine and under the fig tree
 (Zechariah 3:8-10).
In the Jeremiah and Zechariah passages, branch is translated from the Hebrew
tsemach (#6780), meaning “sprout.” It prefigured the lowly birth of Christ
incarnate, springing forth from the Davidic line and far surpassing all human
ancestry or royalty.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).
I am among you as one that serveth (Luke 22:27).
These verses all speak of His royal servanthood. He came to render a service
to man that no other being could possibly have accomplished. Although His
deity remained unchallenged and His royalty exceeds all others, enroute to the
throne He willingly embraced the cross—to die for us!
Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out
of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build
the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule
upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of
peace shall be between them both (Zechariah 6:12, 13).
The crowns placed upon Joshua the priest did not make him king (Zechariah
6:11-13). His was only a symbolic coronation, prefiguring Christ as both king
and priest. Those crowns were then kept “for a memorial in the temple” (v. 14).
Other than this brief coronation, only Melchizedek typified Christ as both king
and priest. Others suffered dire consequences from seeking to combine those two
offices. King Saul lost his kingdom (1 Samuel 13:11-14) and King Uzziah
became leprous for life (2 Chronicles 26:16-21). The royal priesthood of Christ
spiraled to a climax at Calvary and continues with His intercessory ministry ever
since. Both are integral aspects of His royal servanthood.

THE MOST HIGH BRANCH

He shall grow up before him as a tender plant
(Isaiah 53:2)
 (Isaiah 53:2)
Thus saith the Lord GOD [Adonai Jehovah]; I will also take the highest
branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his
young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain [probably
Mount Zion] and eminent (Ezekiel 17:22).
The highest branch, in this case uncapitalized, apparently refers to the royal
lineage of David, the highest, most eminent dynasty of “the high Cedar”
(undivided Israel). Christ, in His lowly birth, was indeed a tender one, cropped
off from the very top of Israel’s young twigs. He came to earth as a tiny twig,
but has certainly surpassed all others! Look what the Lord God [Adonai
Jehovah] is doing with that Select Twig. He already is, and forever will be, the
Most High Branch.
In the mountain of the height of Israel I will plant it [the tender One]: and
it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under
it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof
shall they dwell. And all the trees of the field [every nation on earth] shall
know that I the LORD [Jehovah] have brought down the high tree, have
exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry
tree to flourish: I the LORD have spoken and have done it (Ezekiel 17:23,
24).
For unto us a child is born [the tender One], unto us a son is given: and
the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be
no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6, 7).
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they
brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve
him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13, 14).
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
 of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).
And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS (Revelation 19:16).
Eternity future will prove Christ to be superlative in royalty, inherent
righteousness, faithful servanthood, and perfect, inseparable union with the
MOST HIGH GOD. “For in him dwell-eth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
Bibliography
Davidson, Professor F., ed. The New Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963.
Douglas, J. D., ed. The New Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, Habershon, Ada R. The Study of the Types.
Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1974.
Lockyer, Herbert. All the Men of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1958.
Pink, Arthur W. Gleanings in Genesis. Chicago: Moody Press. Copyright by The
Moody Bible Institute, 1922.
Pink, Arthur W. Gleanings in Exodus. Chicago: Moody Press. No copyright
indicated.
Stone, Nathan. Names of God. Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute, 1944.
Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. New York:
Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951.
Tenney, Merril C., ed. Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1963.
Wood, Nathan R. The Trinity in the Universe. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel
Publications, 1984.
Young, Robert. Young’s Analytical Concordance. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Associated Publishers.

Although I used very few quotes (none without permission and proper
acknowledgment), these books were used in my research and study. I am
especially indebted to Strong’s and Young’s Concordances, and Names of God
by Nathan Stone for their help with Hebrew names for God. Without their help
and confirmation, this book would not have been written.
More From Ervin N. Hershberger
The late Ervin N. Hershberger condensed a lifetime of Old Testament study and
teaching into three succinct books: Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle, Seeing
Christ in the Old Testament, and God at Work in Saints of Old. Hershberger also
penned a fourth book, God’s Wake-up Call which is a wake-up call from the
New Testament. If you enjoyed Seeing Christ in the Old Testament you will
want to make sure and get your hands on the other three books. You can order
them by using the convenient order form in the back of this book.

Seeing Christ in the Tabernacle

The Mosaic tabernacle is God’s masterpiece of types pointing to Christ. As

readers tour this amazing interpretive construction with Hershberger, they will
be delighted to see figures of Christ where they least expected to find them. The
smallest details are given significance in this great symbolic foreshadowing of
Christ and His Church.