HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
THE MANNA FROM HEAVEN WAS A PICTURE OF CHRIST.
Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life ofthe world (John 6:49–51).
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that comes down from heaven” (John 6:51). The manna given to Israel in the wilderness was a picture—a type—of how God would send someone from heaven to satisfy the emptiness of man.
THE PASSOVER FESTIVAL WAS A PICTURE OF CHRIST.
The nation of Israel practised the Passover in remembrance of how God passed over Israel and judged Egypt instead. During the original Passover, they sacrificed a lamb and wiped the blood on the doorpost so the Angel of the Lord would pass over them. They also got rid of all the yeast in their house. However, look at what Paul said about this festival:
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:7–8).
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
In the Old Testament, Israel practised the Passover once a year, but figuratively we practice it every day. As we repent of sin and remove it from our lives, we are like the Jews getting rid of the yeast. Christ, our sacrificial lamb, died so that God’s wrath would pass over us and as an act of faith in him, we daily seek to get rid of our yeast—our sin. The Old Testament law was just a shadow of Christ.
ISRAEL WAS A PICTURE OF CHRIST.
In the Gospels, Matthew quotes the prophet Hosea saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Matthew 2:15 says, “Where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”
This initially looks like a prophecy of Christ fulfilled, but as we look at the original context in Hosea 11:1, we find that it is not. Look at what it says: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Hosea originally spoke about God calling Israel out of Egypt, but Matthew uses it in reference to Jesus when his family fled to Egypt to protect him from Herod. This wasn’t a prophecy at all; it was typology. Matthew was saying that Israel is an Old Testament shadow of Christ.
Matthew essentially says when you saw Israel, you saw a picture of the Son. The Son went to Egypt when Herod was seeking to kill him, just as Israel went to Egypt during the famine. The Son went into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days just as Israel went into the wilderness for forty years. The Son is a light unto the world and a blessing to all nations as Israel was supposed to be. Israel is a picture of Christ.
In fact, when you read the Servant Songs in Isaiah (Isaiah 42, 49, 50, and 53) in speaking about the suffering servant, many of the references have baffled scholars. Is he talking about Israel or the messiah? Isaiah 53 is clearly talking about the Messiah, but many of the other ones seem to be talking about both Christ and Israel. This is because Israel is a reflection of Christ.
Christ completely fulfilled the law and the Christian is no longer under it. Christ not only fulfilled it by his righteous life, but also by fulfilling the types—the pictures—that were given to represent his coming. When Christ came to the earth, died, and was resurrected, there was no longer any need for the pictures. The reality had come.
