SYMBOLS, FORESHADOWS, AND TYPES - 1

The Old Testament reveals the Messiah through prophecy. It also reveals Him through types, or symbols and foreshadows. Typology, the study of types, refers to Old Testament people, places, objects, or events which point forward to Jesus, the Messiah.

One of the most obvious and powerful types is the bronze serpent found in Numbers 21.

When the wilderness-wandering Hebrews sinned, “the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit them so that many Israelites died” (Numbers 21:6).

God’s gracious remedy came in an odd form. God instructed the rebellious nation to fashion a snake from bronze and then attach it to a pole. I can imagine that the slender serpent was lashed perpendicularly to a pole and lifted high above the camp. God promised, “when anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover” (Numbers 21:8).

Talking to Nicodemus, Jesus makes the connection between the Old Testament type and the New Testament fulfillment. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14).

For the sinful Hebrews, salvation came by faith as they gazed upon the cross-shaped type. For us, salvation comes as we faithfully trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). “And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13–14).

Lord, thank you for the cross!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).