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.