God uses historical events or persons
or things as “types” to prefigure the Messiah. The original occurrence is called
the “type” while the
fulfillment is called the “anti-type”.
The writer
of the Gospel of John uses a number of OT events as types to allow readers to
recognize that Jesus is the Messiah. For example, John
uses the “tabernacle” as a type to allow readers to recognize that Jesus
is the “tabernacle among us” (John 1:14; the word dwell is “to spread a tent”); he uses
“temple” to imply that Jesus is the one who replaces
the temple with his body (John 2:18–22; 4:20–24). Other “types” that John uses
are 1) the
Passover, prefiguring Jesus the Lamb of GOD (John 1:29, 36); and 2) the manna, Jesus
the bread of life (John 6:35; ref Ex16:35); and 3) the 24-hour lighted
candlestick in the tabernacle, Jesus the light of
the world (John 7: 12; ref. Ex 25:31-40) .
In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus used the event of Moses lifting up a brass-made serpent in the wilderness to heal those who were bitten by the poisonous serpent (Num 21:9) to
foretell that when the cross was lifted up, people would be attracted to it and
the effect of their belief is eternal life (John 3: 14,
15).
How amazing it is,
that in OT time, God uses many “types” to forecast about the Messiah to Jews of
different generations before Jesus came. However, until now, many Jews still fail
to recognize Him as the promised Messiah. It is amazing that we as Gentles can
learn to recognize Jesus is the “anti-type,” the Messiah, and understand the
relationship between the OT and the NT!