For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


TYPES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

 A Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough

Copyright 2001 James Melough

MOSES. AARON, DAVID

Much of what we know of Moses is derived from the OT, but a significant piece of information is supplied in Acts 7:20, “In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair....”

We tend to think of Moses as a great prophet, as indeed he was, “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear,” Acts 7:37; but we seldom think of him as being “exceeding fair.”  God tells us he was.

Turning now to Le 21:17 we read, “Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God,” with the proscription repeated in verse 21, “No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.”

Since Aaron did “offer the bread of his God,” the inference is that he was unblemished, i.e., he was free from any physical imperfection.

A third man of remarkable beauty is presented to us in 1 Sa 16:12, “Now he (David) was ruddy, and withal, of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to.  And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.”

In these three, Moses, the prophet; Aaron, the priest; and David, the king - all marked by physical perfection and beauty - God of course is bidding us behold the moral perfection and beauty of the One Who combines in Himself the three offices of Prophet, Priest, and King - the Lord Jesus Christ.  Of Him it is written that He is “the chiefest among ten thousand .... altogether lovely,” Ca 5:10-16.  The Psalmist writes of Him, “Thou art fairer than the children of men,” Ps 45:2.

Yet we turn to Isa 52:14 and read, “... his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men;” and in 53:2-3 it is written, “... he hath no form nor comliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

It is incredible that man’s view of Christ should be so different from God’s.  It can be explained only by the fact that man’s perception is the result of a fallen, ruined, corrupted intellect, emotion, and will - that marred state being the result of the fall.

Why was this perfect One so marred?

We are confronted by an inexplicable mystery when we read that it was God’s love for fallen, ruined men that led Him to mar and bruise that One of matchless beauty, in order that the ruin wrought by man’s rebellion might be undone, and man restored to the Divine image.  “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his tripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isa 53:5-6.

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” Jn 15:13.  “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Ro 5:8.

A further inexplicable wonder is that that perfect One should have been willing to submit to such marring.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


     Scripture portions taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version
© 2000-2005 James Melough
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________