Typology, where have you been my whole life?
I was 42 years old when I learned about typology in the Bible. What?
Typography
the style and appearance of printed matter.
the art or procedure of arranging type or processing data and printing from it.
Typology
classification according to general type, especially in archaeology, psychology, or the social sciences
the study and interpretation of types and symbols, originally especially in the Bible.
I have never connected the old testament of the Bible and the new testament together. I have always read and understood the evolution from the old to the new as a story in time that unfolds into the more important and relevant gospels. The gospels are easy to read and they are filled with the heart of the Father.
I would have been quick to agree with the Bible as the word of God but only infallible and inerrant in the new testament. The old testament is a figurative and loose literal translation that is God-breathed. It was like a poem to help us get to the new testament.
That doesn't make sense though if you think about it. Here I am standing on the Bible as the Word of God, yet I have a hard time believing that the Holy Spirit could make the old testament as clear as the new testament. I was falling prey to my own fallible interpretation of the Bible as a whole.
Enter typology. Applying this understanding to scripture was life-changing. I lost count of the number of times my brain exploded from the correlations between the old testament and the new testament. I had no idea that the Roman Catholic Church has been teaching typology since it was established in the times of the Apostles.
Typology applied to the scriptures is the process in which the new testament is revealed in the old testament, and where the old testament is fulfilled in the new testament. The new is concealed in the old and the old is revealed in the new. What a mind-melting concept. This wasn't new science. This wasn't the plot of a Dan Brown novel, it was real.
If you want to feel like Indiana Jones at the reigns of a mega discovery that will change the world, learn about typology and how the Bible is full of it. I have always been fascinated with the fulfillment of prophecy in the scriptures. We are talking about hundreds of years of history, separating a prophet saying that something is going to happen, and that prophecy being fulfilled in meticulous detail. The odds are astronomical.
Those same odds can be applied to scripture connecting thousands of years. The Bible wasn't written like a George R.R. Martin novel, where we never get a finish to the story and we have to wait to tie everything together. Scripture was handed down and transcribed over thousands of years. The odds that writers could compile typology as intricately as they did in the Bible are also astronomical. The symbolism carried throughout scripture is greater than any Hollywood screenplay in existence. There has been no other historical document in the history of the world that has survived with such accuracy as the Holy Bible. It has never been refuted. The existence of the Bible itself as a historical document defies logic. I haven't introduced numerology yet, but my consciousness can't write a blog post that contains both. I might get sucked into a black hole. I will reference numerology a few times in my post about typology, but I am going to try to keep my distance from that topic for now.
You should tiptoe into typology because it will melt your face off. Here are some examples:
A covenant is a promise made by God to His creation. God can't break promises. We do. If God makes a promise, it's big. They are bound by more than a handshake. Covenants are bound by blood because if one party breaks a covenant, your life is on the line as payment of that agreement. Here is a list of the major covenants in the Bible.
Covenant Forms and Signs:
Adam (Husband) - Marriage - Sabbath
Noah (Father) - Household - Rainbow
Abraham (Chief)- Extended Family or Community - Circumcision (3 separate covenants made with Abraham)
Moses (Judge) - Nation - Passover
David (King) - Kingdom - Throne (Ark of the Covenant in Temple)
Jesus (Royal High Priest, King, Messiah) - Universal Church - Eucharist
How many covenants do we have here? Eight. There were 6 days of creation and on the 7th day, God rested. On the 8th day, Christ came to redeem mankind. We find the number eight associated with Christ throughout scripture. Eight is the finishing number to God's perfect number in creation "7". It just so happens to also be the infinity sign... if you want to stretch a bit here.
The covenants each stair step up to Christ. God, in His infinite wisdom and glory, knew that we couldn't receive Him in flesh without first preparing us for it. Look at all signs today, people rarely recognize miracles when they occur, and often move on quickly after they do. We are a creation that has devolved ourselves into the attention span of a goldfish.
Each covenant reveals the next and all prophesize Jesus as the crescendo of a great symphony.
Covenant - God and Adam
God created everything in six days. On the seventh day, he rested. The word for seven comes from the Hebrew word "sheba" which means "to swear an oath". We see original sin rooted in disobedience and lack of trust. All subsequent sin comes from our inability to trust God. God created man in a perfect image of Himself and gave Him dominion over all of creation, he also gave man the ability to experience love (God) through free will. The covenant return was Adam trusting in God and walking with Him in communion (receiving that love). It was a perfect marriage until the fall.
The covenant is broken and the penalty for sin is spiritual death. Adam can no longer be in communion with God. He has essentially cheated on God in marriage and because he is no longer connected to God (by his own free will), the opposite of love and life enter his being. This is the absence of love and death. The knowledge of good and evil allows Adam and Eve to be severed from God.
Typology
Genesis to 1 Corinthians 15:45
"Just as it was written that the first man, Adam was made with a living soul, so shall the last Adam be made with a spirit brought back to life."
Genesis to Romans 5:14-19
"Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses, even in those who have not sinned, in the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of him who was to come. (Christ) But the gift is not entirely like the offense. For though by the offense of one, many died, yet much more so, by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, has the grace and gift of God abounded to many. And the sin through one is not entirely like the gift. For certainly, the judgment of one was unto condemnation, but the grace toward many offenses is unto justification. For though, by the one offense, death reigned through one, yet so much more so shall those who receive an abundance of grace, both of the gift and of justice, reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Therefore, just as through the offense of one, all men fell under condemnation, so also through the justice of one, all men fall under justification unto life. For, just as through the disobedience of one man, many were established as sinners, so also through the obedience of one man, many shall be established as just."
Jesus is the new/last Adam. He obeys (Gen 3:14 / Adam disobeys) and trusts in the Father. He crushes the head of the serpent in the garden of Gethsemane where he sweats (Gen 3:19 / Adam by the sweat of his brow will eat bread) blood and is crowned with thorns (Gen 3:18 / Adam will work in the cursed land), stripped naked (Gen 3:21 / God clothes man), crucified on a tree (Gen 3:22 / The tree of life), he takes the curse of death on a Friday (the same day of the creation of man), rests on the Sabbath (7th day) and rises to life on Sunday (the new 8th day of creation). From the side of Jesus on the cross, we see flowing water and blood to the Church. We have the sacraments of Baptism (water) and Eucharist (blood). Whoever eats the fruit from this tree (tree of life) (cross) will live forever (God's original covenant with Adam).
We also receive a "new Eve", Mary, who listens to an angel of God (Gen 3:13 /Eve listened to the serpent) and obeys and gives us the fruit of her womb, Jesus. She will have enmities between her offspring and those of the serpent and she will crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15)
Amazing.
Typology helps us see the patterns that occur in God's plan. Everything is intentional and perfect. God's plan is to continue to prepare the world for Jesus. Following the ascension, God's plan repeats on an even larger scale to prepare us for the return of Jesus. The marriage supper of the lamb. The fulfillment of the Father's complete and perfect plan of creation is to live in marriage and communion with His creation as He lives in unity with the Son and the Holy Spirit. The typology makes the Eucharist seem natural and necessary to the plan of God. Why would we not want to partake in communion with the actual body, spirit, and divinity of Christ? Why would God's plan not include the continual feeding of His Church through the Eucharist as He did in Exodus with His chosen people? Jesus even references this moment with intention, as He describes the Eucharist in John chapter 6.
Our spiritual washing with water. Our exodus from the world. Our adoption into the Church and as children of God. We become the bride of Christ. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God. He is without sin, and unblemished. Everything in scripture is a perfect love story of God reaching out to save us from spiritual death and reunite with us.
We can continue to analyze each covenant. There is so much depth.
Typology
Old Testement to New Testement
In Genesis 14, Abram encounters the high priest and King of Salem (eventually becomes Jerusalem). This is a unique role in Biblical history. It's rear to find a high priest and King. Melchizedek brings out bread and wine (Eucharist). He blesses Abram and Abram tithes to Melchizedek. Jesus is of the priestly line of Melchizedek, and not of the Levites. King David later writes about the messiah in the Psalms:
"The Lord has sworn and will not waver: "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek." (Psalm 110)
Melchizedek uses bread and wine to make a covenant with Abram. The name of Melchizedek means "righteous king" and he was the "king of Salem", where Salem means "peace". He was the "king of peace". Melchizedek had no father, no mother, or ancestry, without the beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. He was a high priest, a prophet, and a king. Abram must have recognized the significance because he gave a tenth of everything. That's a big deal.
Covenant - God and Moses
I want to be aware of the length of this post, so I am going to skip ahead through the covenants of Abraham (circumcision - baptism) and move to one of the big ones. The covenant with Moses.
The covenant between God and man through Moses was through the Passover. The people of Israel are in bondage in Egypt. To force Pharaoh to set the people free, God sends 10 plagues. The tenth plague is the death of all firstborn sons. To be saved from this God gives the people of Israel the Passover ritual so that the angel of death passes over them. Each family must procure a male lamb without blemish, no bones of it are to be broken. Once slaughtered, the blood is applied with a hyssop branch to the doorframe of the home, and the flesh is eaten that night with unleavened bread. The Passover was to be a day of "remembrance" celebrated forever after this time.
Typology
Jesus is the Lamb of God, the firstborn (only son) of God who dies for us so that death can pass over us (pascal/Easter comes from Passover). We see the Lamb of God on the throne in Revelation. Jesus has no blemish, no bone is broken on the cross, hyssop was used to offer wine to Jesus on the cross, and the night before (during the feast of Passover) Jesus had taken bread and said "This is my body" and wine "This is my blood of the new covenant." The apostles were to eat and drink in "remembrance". Jesus sets the stage for the significance of this moment and the literal sense of eating the Lamb from Passover through His earlier presentation of the manna from heaven (Moses in Exodus) in John 6 when he says,
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life."
Pharaoh lets the Israelites go and they pass through the water (baptism) of the Red Sea. Through the water of the sea, they are set free from slavery, sin, and death. In the desert we see the people grumble because they have no food, but God provides bread from heaven called manna. Jesus says,
"I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
God creates a covenant with Moses through the Law of the 10 commandments. They are to obey the commandments of God. Moses stays on the mountain for 40 days, the people fall into see by worshiping idols. Jesus is the new Moses (both were threatened as babies), and both fast for 40 days. Jesus gives the new law on the mountain (Sermon on the mountain) with the eight beatitudes (blessings) instead of curses. Eight is a holy number tied to Jesus again. Instead of the 12 tribes of Israel, Jesus gathers 12 Apostles.
The Israelites continue to grumble under Moses, even after all God has done for them, so as a consequence, serpents (snake of Genesis) bite and kill the people. The people repent and go to Moses (Jesus) who prays for them. God tells Moses to "make a bronze snake image and mount it on a pole (tree), and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover." (Num 21:6-9) Jesus tells us that he will do the same when speaking to Nicodemus (John 3:14-15) "and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
We can go much deeper into the ark of the old covenant, what was contained within it, and the ark of the new covenant, but that is for a different post and a different time (cough, Mary, cough). 🙂
There is so much more typology where that came from and I am astounded the more I see it now in scripture. It is completely amazing and at times, breathtaking.
I have heard people say, "Well if God was all-powerful, why didn't he stop us from sinning? Why didn't he just wipe the slate clean and start over? Why did God allow sin to exist?" Sin is the absence of God. With free will, the only way to experience love is to give and receive it. If we didn't have the choice to receive it, we couldn't really experience it. With choice, we can also choose to reject it. Rejection of love doesn’t create an absence of love itself, just the absence of love in the recipient. We still have two parties, one giving and the other receiving, even if the person on the other end chooses not to receive it.
God loved us so much that before we existed and before creation, he knew us. Outside of time, God created you with a purpose. He loved us so much that he saved us even when he didn't have to. There can be no greater love. We exist because God wanted us to.
