Among the abundance of redemptive types that God gave Israel
throughout the exodus experience, wilderness pilgrimage and the conquest
of Canaan, I find none so fascinating as the Gospel-symbols that God
gave them in the wilderness. In addition to the Tabernacle, the
sacrificial system and the priesthood, the Lord intervened at specific
points in time to bring about supernatural provision for their physical
needs. These provisions were ultimately given as typological pictures of
the coming Christ and the redemptive provisions that would come through
His saving work. We know this because our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus
that the bronze serpent on the pole was a picture of His being lifted up
on the cross (John 3:14-15). He also taught the Jews who followed Him
that He was the anti-type of the manna that their forefathers ate in the
wilderness (John 6:41, 48, 51). The apostle Paul explicitly taught the
Corinthian church that the rock in the wilderness–from which the waters
came–”was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:3). We can add the account of the bitter
water healed by the tree thrown into it (Ex. 15:22-27) to the account of
the rock, the bronze serpent and the manna. Nevertheless, the question
remains: How are we to understand these types
without inappropriately spiritualizing or allegorizing them? A few
considerations of each one will help guide us in a process of
biblical-theological interpretation.
The Serpent on the Pole
The most explicitly cross-centered wilderness type in the Scriptures
(see John 3:14-15) was the serpent on the pole (Numbers 21:4-9). Like
all the other miraculous redemptive typical provisions, the serpent on
the pole was given in response to Israel’s sinful complaining and in the
face of the judgment they deserved. There are a series of parallels
that can be drawn between the Israelites being bitten by the serpents
and then given a means of healing through the serpent on the pole, and
the theological truth of the redemption we have through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Consider the following: Continue at Nicholas T. Batzig
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