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?”