18. Typical Verbs
THE STUDY OF THE TYPES PRIESTS AND LEVITES - A Type of the Church BY ADA R. HABERSHON APENDIX I Typical Verbs
EVEN in the minute details of the various typical ceremonies which GOD enjoined, we may recognise many foreshadowings of the Cross by the very verbs which are employed. For instance, it is not by accident that, in connection with the offerings, blood was to be poured out; certain things were to be pierced, or parted in pieces; or again, that the rock was to be smitten, and the serpent lifted up.
Attention has already been called to the bruising or beating of many substances (pp. 29, 30), but many other typical verbs may be studied.
One such gives us the key to an important truth in connection with the Meal-offering, which has not generally been noticed.
While it is quite true that there was no shedding of blood in this offering (p. 90), the death of the Lord JESUS is clearly foreshadowed. It does not merely typify His spotless life, though this is the most prominent characteristic. At the end of the chapter (Leviticus 2:1-16), the oblation of the first-fruits is included with the Meal- offering.
Surely there must be some mention of His death between the description of His life in verse 11, and of the resurrection, typified by the first-fruits in verse 14 (see chap. 6). In verse 6 we find it shining forth in one little verb. The cake or loaf of fine flour, unleavened and mingled with oil, was to be parted in pieces. Broken bread! Where could we find a clearer type of His death? Can we not hear Him saying, as He did long years after, when He broke the bread at the institution of the memorial feast, "This is My body, which is given for you"? The usual interpretation of the Meal-offering, as stated on the Study of the Levitical Offerings in Chapter 10, is that it is "Typical of the Lord JESUS as Man, presenting to GOD an unblemished life." This is true, but it is not complete. It would be better to state it thus, "The Lord Jesus, in life, death and resurrection, presenting to GOD an unblemished manhood." * In the same way the word used for the cakes in Leviticus 2:4 is derived from the verb pierced or wounded (see Newberry’s Bible); and thus we have another foreshadowing of the death on the Cross.
It was in view of the coming crucifixion that the words of Deuteronomy 21:23, quoted in Galatians 3:13, were written; "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree"; "the Scripture foreseeing" the very "death He should die," when He was "hanged on a tree" (Acts 5:30; Acts 10:39), that He might be "made a curse for us." With terrible appropriateness "Judas, which had betrayed Him . . . went and hanged himself"
(Matthew 27:3-5); for the very method by which he thus committed suicide was but a symbol of his spiritual death, as he brought himself under the curse. He became, as it were, a forerunner of that company of all who, by rejecting the substitutionary death of CHRIST, refuse to have any share in the blessing. By overlooking these important typical verbs, some have failed to see the completeness of the picture, and have even denied that the Cross was in the Old Testament. But when we put the various verbs together, we see how accurate are the smallest details. It is not by accident that each word is used in its place by the HOLY SPIRIT, when He would "signify" (Hebrews 9:8) something fresh about the very form of the death which the Lamb of GOD would suffer.
* As revised in Outline Studies of the Tabernacle.
~ end of chapter 18 ~