06. Types of the Resurrection

THE STUDY OF THE TYPES BY ADA R. HABERSHON

CHAPTER 6 Types of the Resurrection THE types of the resurrection of the Lord JESUS CHRIST are not so numerous as those of His death; but it was clearly foreshadowed in the Old Testament. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, as part of his gospel, that CHRIST "rose again the third day according to the Scriptures"; and he evidently referred chiefly to the types in which it was foretold.

Some of these have already been alluded to, but it may be well to group them all together. If, as we have seen, the ark passing through the waters of the flood was a type of CHRIST’s death, the resting of the ark on Mount Ararat, and Noah stepping forth on to the new earth, would prefigure resurrection life. The types are all imperfect, and thus the ark fails; for, unlike Noah, we never leave our safe retreat - it is "a shelter in the time of storm," and there is no safety except in abiding there.

It is remarkable that the date is given on which the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat; and that date probably coincides with the morning of the resurrection. Was this an accident - a mere coincidence - or was it not rather an indication that the day was known to GOD on which He would say, "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee"?

We are told that the ark rested on the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month. The seventh month was the month Abib; but from the time of the first passover it became the beginning of months, and "the first month of the year" (Exodus 12:2). The lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the same month; and the third day after this was the seventeenth, the day on which the ark rested. Many therefore think that it was actually the day of the resurrection.

Another type - that of the waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits, to which reference has been made - clearly prophesied the day of the week on which the resurrection would take place. It was to be on the first day of the week; for we read in Leviticus 23:11, "on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it." The corn of wheat had fallen to the ground and had died: it had been sown "in the field" (Exodus 23:16), the field of the world; and the sheaf of the firstfruits was the earnest of the glorious harvest that was to spring from that corn of wheat - "Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming." The resurrection of CHRIST is the guarantee of the resurrection of His people, when, at His coming to the air, "the dead in Christ shall rise first"; and when at His coming to the earth, all others included in the first resurrection will be raised. But while the day of the week is clearly indicated in this type, we are not left in doubt as to which Sabbath was to precede the resurrection morning. It was the Sabbath after the passover; and this we know was actually the case, "that the Scripture might be fulfilled." In Numbers 17:1-13, we have a beautiful type of the resurrection of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, in the budding of Aaron’s rod. The twelve rods were laid up before the Lord. All were equally dead, and there was no sign of life in them; but when the morning came a wondrous miracle had taken place - one rod, that on which was inscribed the name of Aaron, had become full of life: buds and blossom and fruit had all appeared. No eye saw the change take place; but when Moses came in the morning there was abundant evidence of life, reminding us of that morning when the women came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun, and found that He whom they sought was not dead but was risen. The budding and blossoming rod was next shown to the people. The miracle was attested by many witnesses; and so we read in Acts that our risen Lord "shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs." "Him God raised up the third day, and shewed Him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God." The resurrection is one of the chief themes of the book of the Acts, for it was to this that the disciples gave witness.

They did not need to testify of His death, for that was known to all Jerusalem; but to believe the fact of the resurrection was to believe in the Messiahship of CHRIST, and in His finished work. Aaron’s rod was caused to bud, to prove that he was GOD’s chosen one; and JESUS CHRIST our Lord was "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4).

There could be no doubt that He was accepted by GOD, since He raised Him from the dead. After the rod had been shown to the people, it was laid up in the presence of the Lord; and so when GOD had raised CHRIST from the dead, "He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem," and then "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The rod of Aaron was "for the house of Levi"; and the resurrection of CHRIST, as we have seen in the previous type, was the guarantee that His people would be raised: for "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." The type fails in that the rod was to be kept as a token against the rebels. CHRIST’s resurrection does not remind of sin, but of justification; for He was "delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." The rod, although mentioned in Hebrews as among the contents of the Ark, was not found there in the time of Solomon; and the reason seems to be that in the temple, which prefigures CHRIST and His Church in resurrection glory, there was nothing to remind of wilderness failure.

There is probably a reference to Aaron’s rod in Numbers 20:1-29, when Moses was told to take the rod and to speak to the rock that it might give forth the water. The rock had been smitten previously, speaking to us of the death of CHRIST; and Moses was to hold in his hand the symbol of the resurrection, and the waters would flow - as we read in John 7:1-53 concerning the rivers of water: "This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

We read that Moses took the rod from before the Lord; and there is doubtless a connection between these types: the rock that had been smitten; the rod that had budded, and had then been in the presence of GOD; and the flowing waters.

Peter tells us in Acts 2:23 of the smiting of the rock: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." In verses 24, 31, 32 he speaks of the Antitype of the rod that budded and was laid up before the Lord, and of the rivers of water: "This Jesus hath God raised up; . . . therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." In the cleansing of the leper, as we have already mentioned, there is a foreshadowing of the resurrection.

Two birds alive and clean were to be presented for the man whose leprosy was healed. One bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and the live bird was to be dipped in its blood and let loose into the open field. The shed blood of the first bird speaks to us of CHRIST’s death; and the second bird of the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST, who is "gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God." The bird flew away heavenward with blood on its wings; and the Lord "by His own blood . . . entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." In grouping together the types of the resurrection there is one to which we have already referred, but which we cannot omit here, viz., the entrance of the children of Israel into the land after passing through the river Jordan. The Jordan speaks to us of the death of CHRIST, and the passage through it of the oneness of believers with CHRIST in death and resurrection.

Colossians 3:1-25 gives us the two truths: "Ye are dead," was typified by the twelve stones placed in the Jordan over which the river flowed immediately after the people had crossed. "They are there unto this day." Our union with CHRIST involved a union with His death which can never be changed; but there is the other side of the truth: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." This was typified by the stones taken up out of the Jordan and set up in the land; as we read in Ephesians 2:1-22, "God . . . hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

These stones represent the standing of every believer - dead with Christ, and raised with Him. Our place in GOD’s sight is in the land; for He "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

While it is true that we must not be satisfied unless our experience correspond with our standing, the teaching of the Bible does not seem to warrant, as is sometimes taught, that these things are necessarily a gradual experience, or take place as a second blessing apart from conversion. If through want of teaching we have failed to see our position, it does not alter the fact that when we were united by faith to CHRIST we were partakers of His death and resurrection, because in CHRIST. Our standing from henceforth was in the land; and the fighting commenced that we might take possession step by step of what GOD had given to us. We have not to put ourselves to death or into the grave, as some teach; but to recognise that in CHRIST we have died, and have been raised that we may walk in newness of life.

Three days and three nights are often typical of death and resurrection; as for instance in the history of Jonah, whose "three days and three nights" are mentioned by the Lord as typical of the time which He Himself should spend in the heart of the earth.

Death and resurrection are probably signified in Moses’ answer to Pharaoh, "We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God." Pharaoh wanted them to sacrifice in the land; or, if they did leave it, not to go "very far away": but GOD’s purpose is that there shall be a complete break with the god of this world, which can only be made when we take our place on resurrection ground. The ark of the covenant of the Lord, on one occasion, went before the children of Israel in a three days’ journey to search out a resting-place for them. In Hebrews 11:1-40 we see that Isaac being received back by Abraham after he had willingly offered him up, was a figure of resurrection; and as we know that Abraham is a type of the Father who spared not His Son, and Isaac of the Lamb provided by "Jehovah Jireh," we cannot be wrong in looking at the scene as foreshadowing both the death and resurrection of the Lord JESUS CHRIST. Nor is it without significance that the account is followed in Genesis 24:1-67 by the beautiful picture of the faithful servant going forth to seek a bride for the son, who has thus in figure passed through death and resurrection.

There is a prophetic scene in the book of Kings in which there seems to be a reference at least to the resurrection.

Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah, had attempted to destroy all the seed royal; but though she thought she had succeeded, one "from among the... slain" was taken and hidden in the temple of the

Lord till the time for his proclamation as king. He was the heir to the throne, but a usurper reigned; just as now the heir to the same throne, the throne of David and the throne of Jehovah (1 Chronicles 29:23), is hidden for a time in the presence of GOD, and will not be seen by the world till "the crowning day that’s coming by-and-by." The usurper thought to have destroyed Him on Calvary; but He rose from the dead, and will soon take His power and reign. We see from Revelation 2:20, Revelation 2:23, that Jezebel and her children are evidently types of Satan’s power and the evil systems which he has introduced; and Athaliah’s reign is a striking picture of Christendom just now. The position of the Levites, who are a type of the Church, on this occasion illustrates our attitude as waiting for the signal that shall call us to the side of the King’s Son who "shall reign," that we may be "with the King when He cometh in, and when He goeth out." The Levites of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, were by the high priest let into the secret that changed their lives. He "shewed them the king’s son."

They learnt that he was not dead, but that he was alive; and that when the right time had come he would be proclaimed king.

Faith in the resurrection of the Lord JESUS has changed men’s lives ever since that resurrection took place; for we read, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." No longer the servants of the usurper, but knowing that his dominion will soon cease, we wait for the Son from Heaven, when we shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and afterwards shall come with Him in His glory. "Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"

~ end of chapter 6 ~