Sunday Sermons
Types and Shadows - Part 2
Types and Shadows II
Jacob’s Ladder and Jesus: Genesis 28:10-17; John 1:50-51
“His use of stones for pillows seems strange, but in ancient times a pillow was more of a headrest than what we consider a pillow” (Davis p. 243). The dream which Jacob had is alluded to by Jesus in John 1:51. “The stairway (ladder) symbolized the genuine and uninterrupted fellowship between God in heaven and His people on earth. The angelic messengers reflect God’s constant care of His own. Whatever loneliness and despair Jacob may have felt, his dream certainly lifted and encouraged him”(Davis p. 244). This dream certainly contradicts the claims of Deism, which views God as distant, removed and uninvolved with His creation, reveals that God takes an intense interest in what happens on earth, and that at times angels are constantly coming and going (Hebrews 1:14). God confirms to Jacob, that he is the heir to the promises of Abraham (28:13-14). In addition, there is also the promise of protection and that God will bring Jacob back to the land of Canaan (15). Jacob felt a definite sense of awe and wonder following the dream. The pillar that Jacob set up (18), was not an idol or object of worship, rather it was a memorial, or a marker to remind him and his ancestors of this event. “Standing stones are different from altars. Memorials were set up to recall divine visitations so that others might learn about God when they would ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ (Joshua 4:6)” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 74). The name Bethel, means “house of God”. When Jacob returns to the land (35:7) he will build an altar here. While Jacob’s words in verses 20-22 might sound like he is trying to make a bargain with God, I am told that the word “if” in verse 20 can also mean “since”.
Jesus is saying that He is the antitype of Jacob’s ladder. He will reveal to Nathanael the Way to heaven (John 14:1-6). Jesus is the sole Mediator and avenue between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the perfect Mediator, because He is the Son of God (Deity) and the Son of man (experiencing and sharing in man’s humanity). Nathanael will also see the perfect relationship that exists between Jesus and Heaven, he and others will see that no bar exists between the Father and Jesus. Jesus will be that perfect link that exists between heaven and earth. While on the earth, the angels of God were at His command (Matthew 26:53). “He now learns that Jesus is the real ladder by which the gulf between earth and heaven is bridged. In Him the glory of heaven has come down to earth, made visible in One who is Himself man; and through contact with Him earthbound man is lifted up to heaven” (Tasker p. 54). “Nathanael I can do far more than read your heart. I can be for you and for all men the way, the ladder that leads to heaven” (Barclay p. 78).
The Brazen Serpent and Christ: Numbers 21:6-9; John 3:14-15
The event recorded in Numbers chapter 21 was a real historical event! The people really did speak against God and Moses, God really did send fiery serpents among them, He really did command Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard (flag-staff), and the people who looked at it after being bitten, did survive. In both cases: This was the only cure available! Jesus is the only cure for our sins. Faith was necessary, and faith had to do something, even if it was nothing more than “looking”. Man could not provide his own remedy. The cure was accessible to all, God did not require the impossible. One has to be very stubborn or very foolish to reject the cure, for it was so available. The cure is understandable, the language is clear. God did not give the Israelites a detailed medical explanation of how looking at the serpent could cure them. God does not answer every “how” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Nicodemus had been saying, “how, how, how”? “Did they demand an explanation of the scientific and medical relationship between a bronze serpent and cure of snake bite?” (Butler p. 109). There is a warning here to the person who will not obey God until they have all their questions answered. When God offers a cure, He does not necessarily answer all our questions concerning why this cure was selected. The person who was a skeptic, and who demanded that someone explain to them or prove to them the connection between looking at this serpent and a cure for snakebite would have died! In like manner, the person who wants every possible question answered to their satisfaction before they believe in God, will end up lost! The bronze serpent was never designed to be an object of worship (unlike Christ), but the Israelites did worship it, and it was not destroyed until the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4).
Notice the context of Numbers chapter 21, the people had been murmuring and complaining (21:4-5,7). “There is a pattern of complaining; it is habit forming. The tendency among people is to go beyond where one left off the last time, to become ever more egregious (extreme), ever more outspoken. Rarely does a complaining person become milder in his complaints”(Gaebelein p. 876). “Though Christ is lifted up in the sight of all, He does not save all” (Hendriksen p. 139). For some will refuse to believe. Like those who died in the wilderness, some mock the cure, some say it does not make any sense, some resent the fact that only one cure exists, others stubbornly refuse to ask for help, and so on.
Jonah and Christ: Jonah 1:17; Matthew 12:39-40
Of course skeptics ridicule this account, but ironically they will be condemned by the very generation that lived when these things took place (Matthew 12:41). The great sea monster that God used may have been a fish already in existence, like a sperm whale, which has a mouth large enough to swallow a man. In addition, at least two species of shark have been known to swallow men. Or, God may have prepared a specific fish for this occasion. “G. Campbell Morgan observed that ‘men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God’ which is the main burden of the book” (Smith p. 108). The phrase three days and three nights need not be understood as a 72-hour period, but as one 24 hour day and part of two other days (Esther 4:16; 5:1). Jesus pointed out that this occasion actually did happen; in addition, it was a prefiguring of His own death, burial, and resurrection (Matthew 12:38-40).
We should note that all the miracles that Jesus had been performing (12:22-24) were not enough evidence for many in Jesus’ generation, even after seeing one healing or miracle after another, they still demanded a “sign” from heaven (12:38). In like manner, the world around us is filled with evidence that God exists (Psalm 19:1-2; Acts 14:15-17 “He did not leave Himself without witness”), including the existence of the Scriptures and yet still people complain that there is not enough evidence to believe. The expression, “heart of the earth” does not mean its center. The Jews used the word “heart” to denote the interior to anything. “The phrase is here used as one which would emphatically indicate the actual burial of Christ” (McGarvey pp. 306-307).
We should also note that following the deliverance of Jonah, the message of repentance was preached. In like manner, a message of repentance follows the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Luke 24:47; Acts 17:30-31; Acts 2:38). Unlike Jonah, who did not want the people of Nineveh to be given an chance to repent (Jonah 4:1), and who stubbornly sat outside the city, Jesus desires that men would repent, and actually wept over the unrepentant city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44).
We also learn something about repentance from how the people of Nineveh reacted to Jonah’s preaching: The Assyrians were a ruthless and warlike people, and yet they could still humble themselves and manifest genuine repentance. Background does not prevent a person from repenting, for these people immediately changed their ways, even though they had been raised in a very ungodly environment. Jonah did not come into town working any miracles, yet the people believed his preaching. They believed the message, even when the heart of the prophet was not really in preaching that message (Jonah 4:2-4).
Isaac and Christ: Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17-20
Even though Abraham had another son, Ishmael, Isaac was the only one of his kind, that is, the unique child of promise born of Abraham and Sarah. Thus the term “only begotten” does not mean “only child” but rather the only one of his kind or class, one who is totally unique. In like manner, Jesus is the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14,18; 3:16,18; 9:38).
Isaac was the unique heir to whom the promises applied and through whom the promises would be finally fulfilled. “Thus we can see Abraham’s struggle to keep his faith firm, for the command of God to sacrifice Isaac seemed contradictory to the previous promise God had made” (Kent pp. 230-231). “We are apt to see this as a conflict between Abraham’s love for his son and his duty to God. But for the Hebrew writer, the problem was Abraham’s difficulty in reconciling the different revelations made to him. God had promised him a numerous posterity through Isaac; yet now God was calling on him to kill Isaac as a sacrifice. How then could the promise be fulfilled?” (Reese p. 202). Abraham knew that all things were possible with God, even a resurrection. Abraham also knew that God could clear up any thing that seemed like a contradiction to him and that it was not Abraham’s job to fix what looked like a contradiction, but to obey. Thus Abraham was able to tell his servants, “We will go yonder and worship and we will return to you” (Genesis 22:5). “Abraham’s anticipated solution to the problem is all the more remarkable when it is remembered that he had no precedent to appeal to. As far as the record is concerned, there had never been any such thing as a resurrection of the dead” (Reese p. 203).
There is a great lesson here for us. Faith does not give up when it encounters a difficult theological problem, but rather faith will work through such a problem and have absolute confidence in God’s ability to do all things. Do we become discouraged too easily? God is not being cruel by testing Abraham; rather God will intercede with mercy and spare Isaac. In addition, while God spared Isaac, God did not spare His own Son, so that we (including Abraham and Isaac) could be saved.
Even though God did not allow Abraham to literally sacrifice Isaac, Abraham was fully prepared to do this. “He had given his son unreservedly to God, and got him back again. It as not a literal resurrection but a type of one” (Kent p. 232). This could also be a “type” of the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Faith does not argue with God. Faith does not stumble over what might seem to be a moral dilemma rather faith finds an answer that leaves the integrity of God and His Word in tact(Romans 3:4 “let God be found true, though every man be found a liar”). Abraham’s attitude was since God had given Isaac to him, had hinged all the promises for the future on Isaac living (Hebrews 11:18), God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if necessary. We need to have the same attitude. We know that God will take care of us (Matthew 6:25-34), even when the house burns down, a spouse or child dies, or a son is set off to war. God can still take care of us!
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
