Typology can be abused or ignored. Be careful and prayerful, but don’t ignore the types!
We concluded our last episode by commenting on the minute details of the tabernacle and its furnishings and asked, “Why was God so particular?” We have already seen how the New Testament uses the stories and characters in the Old Testament, like Abraham offering Isaac and God sending manna, as word pictures to illustrate New Testament ideas. We do this all the time in everyday speech. When we sing, “You are my sunshine,” we’re illustrating by the sun’s rays the abstract idea of the warming influence of love. Bible students use the word typology to name this tactic of using concrete events, things, people or institutions—even numbers—to explain abstract ideas. The first time the Greek word tupos is used in the New Testament (from which we get our word type), Thomas says, “Unless I see in His hands the print [tupos] of the nails…I will not believe” (Jn 20:25). What is a nail print? Proof that a nail was there! Thomas knew there was a one-to-one relationship between the nail and the wound it would leave. So that’s the idea. There is one point to a nail and one point to a type. When the writer to the Hebrews quotes the Lord speaking to Moses, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Heb 8:5), again the word pattern is tupos. When we read “that Rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4), we don’t think Jesus was hard or gray or unfeeling like a rock; He was only like that particular rock in one way: when smitten by the rod of God, blessing flowed. A type can’t be just anything we like; it has a divinely intended likeness. We must be careful with types, but we will miss a great deal if we don’t benefit from these beautiful, Spirit-drawn pictures provided to help us grasp God’s truth.