Jonathan Edwards · 308 of 409

XII. TYPES OF THE MESSIAH · Part 1

TYPES OF THE MESSIAH, &C.

That the things of the Old Testament are types of things appertaining to the Messiah and his kingdom and salvation, made manifest from the Old Testament itself.

WE find by the Old Testament, that it has ever been God’s manner from the beginning of the world, to exhibit and reveal future things by symbolical representations, which were no other than types of the future things revealed. Thus when future things were made known in visions, the things that were seen were not the future things themselves, but some other things that were made use of as shadows, symbols, or types of the things. Thus the bowing of the sheaves of Joseph’s brethren, and the sun, moon, and stars doing obeisance to him, and Pharaoh’s fat and lean kine, and Nebuchadnezzar’s image, and Daniel’s four beasts, &c. were figures or types of the future things represented by them. And not only were types and figures made use of to represent future things when they were revealed by visions and dreams, but also when they were revealed by the word of the Lord coming by the mouth of the prophets (as it is expressed). The prophecies that the prophets uttered concerning future things, were generally by similitudes, figures, and symbolical representations. Hence prophecies of old were called parables; as Balaam’s prophecies, and especially the prophecies of the things of the Messiah’s kingdom. The prophecies are given forth in allegories, and the things foretold spoken of, not under the proper names of the things themselves, but under the names of other things that are made use of in the prophecy as symbols or types of the things foretold. And it was the manner in those ancient times, to deliver divine instructions in general in symbols and emblems, and in their speeches and discourses to make use of types, and figures, and enigmatical speeches, into which holy men were led by the Spirit of God. This manner of delivering wisdom was originally divine, as may be argued from that of Solomon, Prov. i. 6. “To understand a proverb, (or parable,) and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings;” and from that of the psalmist, Psal. xlix. 3, 4. “My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. I will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark sayings upon the harp.” And Psal. lxxviii. 1, 2. “Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old.” By a parable is meant an enigmatical symbolical speech. Ezek. xvii. 2. and xxiii. 3. Hence speeches of divine wisdom in general came to be called parables, as the speeches of Job and his friends. Hence of old the wise men of all nations, who derived their wisdom chiefly by tradition from the wise men of the church of God, who spoke by inspiration, fell into that method. They received instruction that way, and they imitated it. Hence it became so much the custom in the eastern nations to deal so much in enigmatical speeches and dark figures, and to make so much use of symbols and hieroglyphics, to represent divine things, or things appertaining to their gods and their religion. It seems to have been in imitation of the prophets and other holy and eminent persons in the church of God, who were inspired, that it became so universally the custom among all ancient nations, for their priests, prophets, and wise men to utter their auguries, and to deliver their knowledge and wisdom in their writings and speeches, in allegories and enigmas, and under symbolical representations. Every thing that the wise said must be in a kind of allegory, and veiled with types: as it was also the mariner of the heathen oracles, to utter themselves under the like representations.

We find that it was God’s manner throughout the ages of the Old Testament, to typify future things, not only as he signified them by symbolical and typical representations in those visions and prophecies in which they were revealed, but also as he made use of those things that had an actual existence, to typify them, either by events that he brought to pass by his special providence to that end, or by things that he appointed and commanded to be done for that end.

We find future things typified by what God did himself, by things that he brought to pass by his special providence. Thus the future struggling of the two nations of the Israelites and Edomites was typified by Jacob’s and Esau’s struggling together in the womb. Gen. xxv. 22, 23. “And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord; and the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.” And the prevalence of Jacob over Esau, and his supplanting him, so as to get away his birthright and blessing, and his posterity’s prevailing over the Edomites, was typified by Jacob’s hand taking hold on Esau’s heel in the birth. Gen. xxv. 26. “And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob, or, supplanter. Chap. xxvii. 36. “Is he not rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold now he hath taken away my blessing.” Hosea xii. 3, 6. “He took his brother by the heel in the womb Therefore, turn thou to thy God,” &c. And as the Israelites overcoming and supplanting their enemies in their struggling or wrestling with them, was typified by Jacob’s taking hold on Esau’s heel, so Jacob’s and his seed’s prevailing with God, in their spiritual wrestling with him, was typified by his wrestling with God and prevailing. Gen. xxxii. 28. “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Hos. xii. 4. “Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us, even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial. Therefore, turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.” The prevalence of the posterity of Pharez over Zarah, who first put forth his hand, was typified by his unexpectedly breaking forth out of the womb before him. Gen. xxxix. 29. So by Moses’s being wonderfully preserved in the midst of great waters, though but a little helpless infant, and being drawn out of the water, seems apparently to be typified the preservation and deliverance of his people, that lie was made the head and deliverer of, who were preserved in the midst of dangers the; were in in Egypt, which were ready to overwhelm them, when the prince and people sought to their utmost to destroy them, and root them out, and they had no power to withstand them, but were like an helpless infant, and who were at last wonderfully delivered out of their great and overwhelming troubles and dangers, which in scripture language is delivering out of great waters, or drawing out of many waters. 2 Sam. xxii. 17. “He sent from above; he took me. he drew me out of many waters.” And Psal. xviii. 16. It is the same sort of deliverance from cruel and blood-thirsty enemies that the psalmist speaks of, that the Israelites were delivered from. And so he does again, Ps. cxliv. 7. “Send thine hand from above; rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children.” And Psal. lxix. 2. “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me;” with verse 14. “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.” That the king of Israel smote three times upon the ground with his arrows, was ordered in providence to be a type of his beating the Syrians three times. 2 Kings xiii. 18, 19. The potter’s working a work upon the wheels, and the vessel’s being marred in the hand of the potter, so that he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to him to make it, at the time when Jeremiah went down to the potter’s house, was ordered in providence to be a type of God’s dealing with the Jews.Jer. xviii.

The twelve fountains of water and the threescore and ten palm-trees, that were in Elim, Exod. xv. 27. were manifestly types of the twelve patriarchs, the fathers of the tribes, and of the threescore and ten elders of the congregation. The paternity of a family, tribe, or nation, in the language of the Old Testament, is called a fountain. Deut. xxxiii. 28. “Israel shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine.” Psal. lxviii. 26. “Bless the Lord from the fountain of Israel.” Isa. xlviii. 1. “Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah.” And the church of God is often represented in Scripture by a palm-tree or palm-trees. Psal. xcii. 12. Cant. vii. 7, 8. And therefore fitly were the elders or representatives of the church compared to palm-trees. God’s people often are compared to trees. Isa. lxi. 3. and lx. 21. and elsewhere.

We find that God was often pleased to bring to pass extraordinary and miraculous appearances and events, to typify future things. Thus God’s making Eve of Adam’s rib, was to typify the near relation and strict union of husband and wife, and the respect that is due, in persons in that relation, from one to the other; as is manifest from the account given of it, Gen. ii. 21-24. “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.” And when God spake to Moses from the burning bush, concerning the great affliction and oppression of the children of Israel in Egypt, and promised to preserve and deliver them, what appeared in the bush, viz. its burning with fire, and yet not being consumed, was evidently intended as a type of the same thing that God then spake to Moses about, viz. the church of Israel being in the fire of affliction in Egypt, and appearing in the utmost danger of being utterly consumed there, and yet being marvellously preserved and delivered. Such a low and weak state as the people were in in Egypt, and such an inability for self-defence, we find in the Old Testament represented by a bush or low tree, and a root out of a dry ground, as was that bush in Horeb, which signifies a dry place. Isa. liii. 2. Ezek. xvii. 22-24. Affliction and danger in the language of the Old Testament, are called fire. Zech. xiii. 9. “I will bring the third part through the fire.” Isa. xlviii. 10. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” And God’s marvellously preserving his people, when in great affliction and danger, is represented by their being preserved in the fire from being burnt. Isa. xliii. 2. “When thou passes! through the waters I will be with thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shall not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” And God’s delivering the people of Israel from affliction, and from the destruction of which they were in danger, through bondage and oppression under the hand of their enemies, is represented by their being delivered out of the fire. Zech. iii. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Yea, that very thing of the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, is often represented as their being delivered out of the fire. Psal. lxvi. 12. “We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us into a wealthy place.” Deut. iv. 20. “The Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt” So 1 Kings viii. 51. and Jer. xi. 4.

So Moses’s rod’s swallowing up the magicians’ rods, Exod. vii. 12. is evidently given of God as a sign and type of the superiority of God s power above the power of their gods, and that his power should prevail and swallow up theirs. For that rod was a token of God’s power, as a prince’s rod or sceptre was a token of his power. Thus we read of the rod of the Messiah’s strength, Psalm cx. So the turning of the water of the river of Egypt into blood, first by Moses’s taking and pouring it out on the dry land, and its becoming blood on the dry land, and afterwards by the river itself, and all the other waters of Egypt, being turned to blood, in the first plague on Egypt, was evidently a foreboding sign and type of what God threatened at the same time, viz. that if they would not let the people go, God would slay their first-born, and of his afterward destroying Pharaoh and all the prime of Egypt in the Red sea. (See Exod. iv. 9. and Chap. vii.) God’s making a great destruction of the lives of a people is, in the language of the Old Testament, a giving them blood to drink. Isa. xlix. 26. “And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood.” Aaron’s rod budding, blossoming, and bearing fruit, is given as a type of God’s owning and blessing his ministry, and crowning it with success. His rod was the rod of an almond-tree, Num. xvii. 8. which God makes use of in Jer. i. 11, 12. as a token and type of his word, that speedily takes effect, as Moses’s rod of an almond-tree speedily brought forth fruit.

God caused the corn in the land of Judah to spring again, after it had been cut off with the sickle, and to bring forth another crop from the roots that seemed to be dead, and so, once and again, to be a sign and type that the remnant that was escaped of the house of Judah should again take root downward, and bear fruit upward, and that his church should revive again, as it were out of its own ashes, and flourish like a plant, after it has been seemingly destroyed and past recovery: as 2 Kings xix. 29, 30. and Isa. xxxvii. 30, 31.

God wrought the miracle of causing the shadow in the dial of Ahaz to go backward, contrary to the course of nature, to be a sign and type of king Hezekiah’s being in a miraculous manner, and contrary to the course of nature, healed of his sickness, that was in itself mortal, and brought back from the grave whither he was descending, and the sun of the day of his life being made to return back again, when according to the course of nature it was just a setting. 2 Kings xx.

The miraculous uniting of the two sticks, that had the names of Judah and Joseph written upon them, so that they became one stick in the prophet’s hand, was to typify the future entire union of Judah and Israel.

Also God miraculously caused a gourd to come up in a night, over the head of Jonah, and to perish in a night, to typify the life of man. That gourd was a feeble, tender, dependent, frail vine. It came up suddenly, and was very green and flourishing, and was pleasant and refreshing, and it made a fine show for one day, and then withered and dried up. Jonah iv. 6,. &c.

God reproved Jonah for his so little regarding the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh, by the type of the gourd, which was manifestly intended as a type of the life of man; or of man with respect to his life, being exactly agreeable to the representations frequently made of man, and his present frail life, in other parts of the Old Testament. This gourd was a vine, a feeble, dependent plant, that could not stand alone. This God therefore makes use of to represent man, in Ezek. xv. This gourd was a very tender, frail plant. It sprang up suddenly, and was very short-lived. Its life was but one day; as the life of man is often compared to a day. It was green and flourishing, and made a fine show one day, and was withered and dried up the next. It came up in a night and perished in a night; appeared flourishing in the morning, and the next evening was smitten, exactly agreeable to the representation made of man’s life in Psalm xc. 6. “In the morning it flourished! and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth.” The worm that smote the gourd, represents the cause of man’s death. The gourd was killed by a worm, a little thing; as man is elsewhere said to be crushed before the moth. It was that, the approach of which was not discerned; it came under ground: as elsewhere man is represented as not knowing the time of his death, as the fishes are taken in an evil net, &c. And as being smitten by an arrow that flies unseen. That this gourd was intended by God as an emblem of man’s life, is evident from what God himself says of it, and the application he makes of it. God himself compares the lives of the inhabitants of Nineveh with this gourd, verse 10, 11. Jonah had pity on the gourd, i. e. on himself for the loss of it; for it was very pleasing and refreshing to him, while it lasted, and defended him from scorching heat. So life is sweet. The Ninevites by its preservation were held back from the wrath of God, that had been threatened for their sins. How much more therefore should Jonah have had a on the numerous inhabitants of Nineveh, when God threatened them with the loss of life, which was an enjoyment so much more desirable than the gourd was to him! And if he found fault with God, that he did not spare to him the shadow of the gourd; how unreasonable was he in also finding fault with God that he did spare the Ninevites their precious lives?

God miraculously enabled David to kill the lion and the bear, and to deliver the lamb out of their mouth, plainly and evidently to be a type, sign, and encouragement unto him, that he would enable him to destroy the enemies of his people, that were much stronger than they, and deliver his people from them. David did this as a shepherd over the flock of his father; and his acting the part of a shepherd toward them, is expressly spoken of as a resemblance of his acting the part of a king and shepherd towards God’s people from time to time. 1 Chron. xi. 2. Psalm lxxviii. 70, 71, 72. Jerem. xxiii. 4, 5, 6. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24. Chap. xxxvii. 24. And God’s people in places innumerable are called his flock, and his sheep, and their enemies, in David’s Psalms and elsewhere, are compared to the lion and other beasts of prey that devour the sheep: and David himself calls his own deliverance, and the deliverance of God’s people, a being saved from the lion’s mouth. Psalm vii. 1, 2.and xvii. 12, 13. and xxii. 20 and xxxv. 17. and lvii. 3, 4. And David himself thus understood and improved God’s thus miraculously enabling him to conquer these wild beasts, and deliver the lamb, as a representation and sign of what God would enable him to do for his people against their strong enemies; as is evident from what he said to Saul, when he offered to go against Goliath.

The accidental rending of Samuel’s mantle, 1 Sam. xv. 27, 28. signified the rending of the kingdom from Saul. It was a common thing for God to order and appoint things to be done by men, in order to typify future events; so Samuel poured out water in Mizpeh,1 Sam. vii. 6. to signify their repentance. See Pool’s Synopsis. Ahijah’s rending Jeroboam’s garment in twelve pieces, and giving him ten, was to testify the rending the kingdom of Israel, and giving him ten tribes. 1 Kings xi. 30,. &c. So see 1 Kings xx. 35,. &c. and 2 Kings xiii. 14-20. The prophet’s assisting the king of Israel, in shooting an arrow eastward, towards Syria, was appointed of God to signify that he would assist the king of Israel in fighting with the Syrians. 2 Kings xiii. 15,. &c. The prophet Isaiah by God’s appointment went naked and barefoot, to typify the Egyptians and Ethiopians going naked and barefoot in their captivity. Isaiah xx. Jeremiah by God’s appointment typified the captivity of the Jews into Babylon, with many of its circumstances, by taking a linen girdle and putting it on his loins, and hiding it in a hole in a rock by the river Euphrates, and returning again to take it from thence. Jer. xiii. He was commanded to typify the destruction of the people by breaking a potter’s vessel. Chap. xix. By taking a wine cup and offering it to many nations agreeably to God’s appointment and direction, he typified God’s causing them as it were to drink the cup of his fury. Chap. xxv. And he was commanded to make bonds and yokes, and put them upon his neck and send them to the neighbouring kings, to typify the yoke of bondage under Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to bring upon them. Chap. xxvii. Nehemiah shook his lap, Neh. v. 13. to signify the shaking of every man from his house who should not perform the oath which they had taken. Ezekiel very often typified future events, by things that he did by God’s appointment; as by his eating the roll, &c. Ezek. iii. And by lying on his side, and many other things that he was to do, that we have an account of, Ezek. iv. And by shaving his head and beard, and burning part of the hair in the fire, &c. chap. v. and by making a chain, chap. vii. 23.; and by his removing, with the many circumstances that God directed him to, chap. xii. 1,. &c.; and by his eating his bread with trembling, verse 18.; by filling a pot with the choice pieces of flesh on the fire, &c.; and by his not mourning for his wife, chap. xxiv. The prophet Hosea typified the things he prophesied of, by taking a wife of whoredoms, Hos. i. and by marrying an adulteress, with the circumstances of it, chap. iii. The prophet Zechariah was commanded to typify the things he predicted, by making silver and golden crowns on the heads of those that returned from the captivity, Zech. vi.; and by the two staves called Beauty and Bands; and by his casting money to the potter in the house of the Lord; and his taking the instruments of a foolish shepherd. Chap. xi.

It was so common a thing for the prophets to typify things that were the subjects of their prophecies by divine appointment, that the false prophets imitated them in it, and were wont to feign directions from God to typify the subjects of their false prophecies. See 1 Kings xxii. 11. and Jer. xxviii. 10. Things in common use among the Israelites were spoken of by the Spirit of God as types. Thus the vine-tree is spoken of as a type of man, especially of God’s visible people. Ezek. xv.

It being so much God’s manner from the beginning of the world, to represent divine things by types, hence it probably came to pass, that typical representations were looked upon by the ancient nations, the Egyptians in particular, as sacred things, and therefore called hieroglyphics, which signifies sacred images or representations. And animals being very much made use of in the ancient types of the church of God, so they were very much used in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, which probably led the way to their worship of all manner of living creatures.

Now since it was, as has been observed, God’s manner of old, in the times of the Old Testament, from generation to generation, and even from the beginning of the world to the end of the Old-Testament history, to represent divine things by outward signs, types, and symbolical representations, and especially thus to typify and prefigure future events, that he revealed by his Spirit, and foretold by the prophets; it is very unlikely, that the Messiah, and things appertaining to his kingdom and salvation, should not be thus abundantly prefigured and typified under the Old Testament, if the following things be considered.

It is apparent from the Old Testament that these things are the main subject of the prophecies of the Old Testament, the subject about which the spirit of prophecy was chiefly conversant from the beginning of the world. It was the subject of the first proper prophecy that ever was uttered: and it is abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it is every way the chief of all prophetical events. ‘Tis spoken of abundantly as the greatest and most glorious event, beyond all that eye had seen, ear heard, or had entered into the heart of man; at the accomplishment of which not only God’s people and all nations should unspeakably rejoice, but the trees of the field, the hills and mountains, the sea and dry land, and all heaven and earth, should rejoice and shout for joy; and in comparison of which the greatest events of the Old Testament, and particularly those two most insisted on, the creation of the world and the redemption out of Egypt, were not worthy to be mentioned or to come into mind, and in comparison of which the greatest and most sacred things of the Mosaic dispensation, even the ark itself, the most sacred of all, was not worthy of notice. And it is also abundantly evident from the Old Testament, that it was the grand event that, above all other future events, was the object of the contemplations, hopes, and raised expectations of God’s people, from the beginning of the world.

And furthermore, the introducing of the Messiah and his kingdom and salvation, is plainly spoken of in the Old Testament, as the great event which was the substance, main drift, and end of all the prophecies of the Old Testament, to reveal which chiefly it was, that the spirit of prophecy was given, in that the angel, in Dan. ix. 24. speaks of this event, as that in the accomplishment of which prophecies in general are summed up, and have their ultimate confirmation, in which the vision and prophecy, or all prophetical revelation, has its last result and consummation. Dan. ix. 24. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city; to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.” That what has been expressed is the import of the phrase of sealing up the vision and prophecy, is evident from the drift and manner of expression of the whole verse, and also from Ezek. xxviii. 12. “Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” Mr. Basnage, in his history of the Jews, observes, that the rabbies among the Jews still agree to this day, that all the oracles of the prophets relate to the Messiah. Page 371. Col. 1.

And besides, it is to be considered, that this event was that in which the people of God, from the beginning of the world, were most nearly and greatly concerned: yea, was of infinitely the greatest concern to them of all prophetical events; for ‘tis evident from the Old Testament, that the Messiah was not only to be the Saviour of God’s people, that should be after his coming; but that he was the Saviour of the saints in all ages from the beginning of the world, and that through his coming, and what he should do at his appearing, they all should have the only true atonement for their sins, and restoration from the curse brought upon them by the fall of Adam, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal life.

’Tis much more reasonable to suppose, that many things pertaining to the state and constitution of the nation of Israel, many things which God ordered and appointed among them, should be typical of things appertaining to the Messiah; because it is evident from the Old Testament, that the very being of that people as God’s people, and their being distinguished and separated from the rest of the world, was to prepare the way for the introduction of that great blessing into the world of mankind, of the Messiah and his kingdom. It seems to be pretty plainly intimated by God, at the first planting of the tree, or founding that ancient church, and separating that people from the rest of the world, in the call of Abraham, in the three first verses of Gen. xii. “Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” It here seems to be manifest, that the introducing that great good, which God had in view, to all the families of the earth, was what God had in view, in thus calling and separating Abraham, to make of him a happy nation. It is therefore much the more likely, that many things belonging to them should be typical of the great future things appertaining to this great blessing, which was the great end God designed by them: and especially considering that we find it to be God’s manner under the Old Testament, in both persons and things, to signify and represent beforehand, that which God made or separated them for, or the special use or design God had in view with respect to them. It was God’s manner beforehand to signify and represent these things, in what appertained to them, or happened concerning them. So he often did in the signification of the names that he gave them, as in the names of Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Israel, Judah, Joshua, David, Solomon, &c and in things which they saw or did, or which came to pass concerning them; as Moses’s being drawn out of the water, and what God showed him in Horeb, before he went into Egypt from Midian, in the burning bush; and in David, in his slaying the lion and bear and delivering the lamb.