TYPES
OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
Elon
“And after him (Izban) Elon, a
Zebulonite, judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years,” Jgs 12:11.
Elon, meaning might, is
connected also with an oak, so that the combined thought is of might in
relation to a tree, and no spiritual mind will have difficulty in seeing the
application to Christ, for He is the true “Elon,” His mighty power to save and
judge His people, being directly related to the tree upon which He was hanged
at Calvary when He made atonement for sin. It is not in His death, however,
but in His resurrection that we see His mighty power displayed, for His rising
from the tomb on the third day revealed Him to be the Conqueror of death and
of Satan, as He Himself declared to John in Re 1:18, “I am he that liveth, and
was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of
hell and of death.”
He is declared to have been a
Zebulonite, which means dwelling. This speaks of constancy, of
dwelling close to God, and of Christ alone can it be said that He dwelt always
in perfect communion with His Father, there never being even the thought of
sin to interrupt that communion.
His judging Israel for ten
years indicates that his term of office was one in which the Divine will was
carried out in that part of Israel over which God had appointed him as judge,
for ten is the biblical number which speaks of God as the Supreme Governor of
all creation. Elon’s ten-year rule, however, points to the millennial reign
of Christ, during which God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
“And Elon the Zebulonite died,
and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun,” Jgs 12:12.
As with Ibzan, everything
recorded of Elon also points to constancy: Zebulun is associated with his
death, as it was with his birth. His burial place, however, is specifically
Aijalon, meaning deer field: a large stag; and as noted in other
studies, the deer is one of the Biblical symbols both of Christ and of
believers, see for example Ps 42:1 and Ca 2:9,17: 8:14. Elon’s being buried
in Aijalon therefore, speaks of his being buried in the domain of faith, i.e.,
the realm over which Satan has no control. Like every other believer, Elon
will rise again at the resurrection of life, so that his burial is itself a
type of Christ’s, He having risen on the third day as the Firstfruits of them
that slept, His resurrection being the guarantee that all who die in faith
will also rise again at the resurrection of life, see 1 Cor 15:20-23, “But now
Christ is risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that
slept.... But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward
they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
Relative to the day of His
resurrection, when the Lord walked with the two disciples on the way to
Emmaus, we read that, “... beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he
expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself,” Lk
24:27. The Scriptures were the Old Testament, for the New Testament hadn’t
then been written. The record of Elon’s life and death is just one of many
parts of the Old Testament to which the Lord might have turned that day as He
showed those two disciples what is written concerning Him literally and also
typologically in the Old Testament.