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Types of Christ, Part 11, Combinations (final)

Most of the Old Testament types of Christ show elements that reveal Christ in both of His comings. However, these usually focus on just one aspect, and the other is revealed only a little. Joseph, for instance, is primarily a type of Christ in His second coming as the holder of the birthright, and yet he also portrayed Christ’s first mission when he was cast into the pit and again when he was cast into prison. The pit and the prison both represent Christ’s death.

David primarily was a type of Christ in His first coming, in that he was persecuted, rejected, and even overthrown for a season by his antichrist son, Absalom. Yet at the end of the story, David returned from exile, overthrew Absalom, and regained the throne that was rightfully His.

Joshua was almost exclusively a type of Christ in His second coming. In this case, Moses was the type of Christ in His first mission to redeem us from the house of bondage, while Joshua was a type of Christ to bring us into the Kingdom.

More than any other prophet, Jonah was clearly a type of Christ in both of His appearances. Jonah was called twice. The first time he was swallowed by the whale and thus became like Christ in His death and resurrection. When God called him the second time, he preached the word successfully and with boldness to the people of Nineveh.

Jonah’s two commissions are again suggested in the book of Acts, especially in the two big outpourings of the Holy Spirit. The first was on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:2-4, where they spoke the word of God “with other tongues”; the second was later, as recorded in Acts 4:31,

³¹ And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

When Jonah went to Nineveh, he preached with boldness. He did not want to issue a call to repentance in Nineveh, because he preferred that the city would be destroyed. Perhaps he hoped that the Assyrians would be destroyed, so that they would not conquer Israel and bring them into exile. However, his very success prophesied of our situation today, where the nations will be converted as a result of this second outpouring of the Spirit.

This success contradicts what many people believe today. Many think that the nations will be destroyed by Christ’s second coming, but Jonah’s experience proves the opposite. When Mystery Babylon falls, it is the oppressive system of debt-slavery that will be overthrown, so that the people themselves can be set free by the power of the word of the Jubilee. Hence, as in the battle of Jericho under Joshua, the city’s assets (gold, silver, bronze, and iron) are not destroyed but put into the treasury of the Lord.

Jonah first resisted and later complained when Nineveh repented and when God spared the city. Achan disagreed with God as well when he buried some gold and silver in the ground under his tent (Joshua 7:20, 21). These two examples suggest that some believers disagree with God in our time, preferring to see the destruction of nations, rather than their redemption. Hence, we see both good and bad examples, which instruct us even today. These types are prophetic, showing us the divine plan, and we are responsible to adjust our beliefs accordingly.

When God told Abraham to offer up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, God wanted Abraham to understand the pain that He Himself was to suffer in offering up His Son as the sacrifice for sin. Isaac, then, was another prominent type of Christ who came the first time to die on the cross as “the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Yet when we compare Isaac with Ishmael, as Paul does in Galatians 4, Isaac represents the child of promise, while Ishmael represents the child of the flesh, born through natural means. In this view, Isaac, the son of Sarah, primarily represents the body of New Covenant overcomers, whereas Ishmael, the son of Hagar, primarily represents the children of the flesh. Both Isaac and Ishmael are thus archetypes that prophesy of two groups of people who would come afterward.

Jeremiah, who prophesied during the time of the fall of Judah and Jerusalem, was primarily a type of Christ in His first coming. So we read in Jeremiah 11:19,

¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living.”

This is very similar to Isaiah’s revelation of the suffering Servant, who is likened to “a tender shoot” (Isaiah 53:2) which was cut down by those plotting against Him. Again, we read in Isaiah 53:7 the Messiah is “like a lamb that is led to slaughter.” Again, as with Jeremiah, “He was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8). Jeremiah 11:19 is like a summary of Isaiah 53, both referencing Christ’s work in His first appearance, along with the tribulation of the body of Christ in the aftermath of His crucifixion.

As we study the types in Scripture, we see the divine plan in prophecy. But these types cannot be understood properly unless we account for two comings of Christ. To try to lump them together into a single messianic experience is to misunderstand the word of God. For this reason, the book of Hebrews urges us to grow from spiritual infancy so that we can assimilate solid meat (Hebrews 5:14). The book goes on to provide us with that meat through a study of types and shadows.