Teaching tools in the OT - types, copies, and shadows

If you've spent any time at all reading my blog, one thing you might notice is my emphasis on the importance of having a "more-than-cursory" understanding of the Old Testament. The reason is because I see the apostles placing such marked attention on the writings of the prophets of old. Paul says to the Roman Christians, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4). The "former days" were the days of the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets. They were Spirit-inspired men who "searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories" (1 Peter 1:10b-11). How important these writings were for the New Testament Christians and still are for us today! Paul goes so far as to say they were recorded for our instruction, endurance, and encouragement, that we might have hope. In this post, I'd like to discuss how the Old Testament rituals, stories, and institutions were established as a teaching tool for both Israel and for us today, that we might come to grasp the mystery of Christ, his judgment on sin, and the coming of his kingdom into this world.

In this post-resurrection era, we have the privilege of having the complete canon of Scripture, describing the incarnation of the Son of God, the fulfillment of promises, and the further predictions about the consummation of the kingdom of Christ. But the Old Testament believers were not given such things, because they had not been revealed in history yet! The extent of their vision of the revelations provided them were more shrouded in mystery. Like the veil that covered Moses face, they could only see the form of Christ in the Law, the prophecies, and the institutions and rituals. They had what the New Testament authors called types, patterns, copies, and shadows of the reality that would be revealed in Christ.

For example, Paul in Colossians 2 says that the institution of the Sabbath and the Old Testament rituals "are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:17). The shadow is the not real thing - rather, the "substance" casts a shadow, giving an idea to the people viewing the shadow what the actual "substance" might look like when it comes. When the people of Israel saw and experienced the Sabbath and the Old Testament rituals, they were given a small understanding of what the reign of Christ might be like when he came in the future. The idea of copies and shadows is mentioned again in the book of Hebrews as the author describes the gifts offered by the priests according to the Law serving as "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things" (Hebrews 8:5). The people of Israel viewing the gifts served in the tabernacle understood that these were copies of heavenly realities, given in the Temple not made by hands.

In his letter to the Roman Christians, instead of establishing a connection between institutions and rituals and that of Christ's reign, Paul draws a link between two persons - namely, Adam and Christ. He says that "death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come" (Romans 5:14). Adam was an example (a "type") of the one who was to come, Jesus Christ. One of the many things that we can learn from Adam is that he served as an example for us of what Christ would look like - Adam was a federal representative of mankind. When he sinned, all "under him" fell into sin and died. This is similar to Jesus in that he also would stand as a federal representative of the new mankind, through his act of righteousness all under him would be saved.

Finally, one last instance I can think of where instruction is given us from the Old Testament is in stories of judgment. This idea is teased out by many of the apostles in their writings. Take Paul for example in 1 Corinthians 10, where he says that the sins of Israel and the judgment of Christ upon them "happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). Again, in 2 Peter, the apostle says that the condemning of the rebellious demonic angels, the flood judgment, and the fire sent down upon Sodom and Gomorrah were all "an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:6). Again, Jude making a similar statement concerning these same judgment stories says that all of these angels and people "serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 1:7). What the apostles mean to say by establishing these connections between the Old Testament judgments and the ultimate judgment of Christ at the end of the age is that we should learn from their mistakes, understanding why they incurred such terrible judgment from God, and move forward to live godly lives and abide in Christ.

There are so many more examples of this type, copy, pattern, and shadow language in the Bible, but I hope this serves as a sufficient introduction to one small aspect of how important of a role the Old Testament plays in our understanding of Christ and his kingdom today and in the future.