TYPES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
ACACIA
WOOD
Acacia (known also as
shittim), the wood used in the construction of the tabernacle boards and furniture,
is very clearly a type of the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It grows in the desert,
reminding us that He Whom it portrays is described as “... a root out of a dry
ground,” Isa 53.2. As the acacia grew
in the desert and was cut down to furnish an essential material for God’s earthly
house, the tabernacle, so did Christ grow up in the spiritual desert of this world,
and was “cut down” in death to be the very basis of God’s spiritual house, the
Church.
In its being virtually
impervious to decay or attack by insects, it depicts the Lord’s incorruptible
humanity. There was neither sin in Him,
nor was there even the possibility of his ever being tempted to commit sin.
The testings He endured were not to reveal any possibility of sin, but rather
the spotless holiness for which sin held no attraction.
The acacia wood was the
foundation of all the tabernacle furniture except the laver and the lampstand; and
inasmuch as each article consisted of acacia wood and a metal overlay of either brass
or gold, the truth being set before us is that He combines in Himself perfect
humanity (the wood) and perfect Divinity (the metal).
In the boards which formed
the walls of the tabernacle, all exactly
the same size, each standing on a foundation of silver, we have a picture of
believers as the mystical body of which Christ is the head.
But since those boards were of the same acacia wood as that which formed the
brazen altar, the table, and the golden altar, we are reminded that each believer has
the very same nature as the Lord Himself. The
new nature obtained at the new birth, is as holy and sinless as that possessed by the
Lord, for the simple reason that it is His nature.
Whenever therefore we read
of acacia wood, let us remember that God is pointing symbolically to some truth
relative to the sinless nature of Christ, or to truth relative to the new nature
possessed by every believer.