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 AND THE HAIL

Exodus chapter nine records the details of the plague of hail which God sent upon Egypt, “And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.  So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.  And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt.... And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.  Intreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.  And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s.... And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth,” Ex 9:23-33.

Egypt is a type of this world living in independence of God; and the plague of thunder, fire, rain, and hail are all types of God’s righteous anger.  We have noted also in other studies of biblical types that Moses is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ; and here, as in many places in Scripture, God has presented us with a typological picture of Calvary where the Lord, with His arms outstretched on the cross, died, and in dying stopped a far more terrible judgment than that of hail.  For everyone who trusts Him as Savior He has stopped the eternal judgment of God against sin, as it is written, “Who his own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed,” 1 Peter 2:24.

When Moses stopped the plague of hail it required only that he walk outside the city and stretch out his hands to God, but it was very different when the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the type and stopped the storm of Divine wrath against sin.  After a night of terrible abuse at the hands of the priests and the soldiers, that had left His face virtually unrecognizable as that of a man, see Isa 52:14, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men,” crowned with thorns, He was led out of the city to Calvary bearing His cross, being able to carry it only part of the way, so that it was given to another to carry the remainder of the way to the place of crucifixion.

Moses suffered nothing when he spread out his hands to God and stopped the plague of hail.  When Christ stretched out His hands to stop a far more terrible storm, the soldiers nailed them and his feet to the cross, and having lifted Him up between heaven and earth, watched as He endured the storm of God’s wrath against your sin and mine.  It cost the Lord His life to stop that terrible storm, the measure of His suffering being but faintly conveyed in His desolate cry of anguish, “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” Mt 27:46.  Why was He forsaken?  Why did He endure such agony?  Why did He die?  It was so that every believer might enjoy God’s blessing eternally, their sins being all atoned for by Christ’s death. 

Who can begin to measure the eternal torment that will have to be endured by everyone who rejects Christ as his Savior?  That question is propounded in another form in Hebrews 10:29, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God (i.e., refused to trust Him as Savior), and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


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