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This study may be freely posted on other bbs' and distributed to others provided this leader remains with the study text at all times. ********* THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A PICTURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ******* (NOTE TO THE READER...This is part of this chapter which is taken from our book on Revelation. Let's look at an easily proven "type" from the Old Testament period writings. I realize that by now many readers may be thinking that we have completely forgotten that our main subject is the book of Revelation. However, as we showed at the beginning of the study, REVELATION is for the purpose of "REVEALING JESUS CHRIST" or revealing the WHOLE of the "word of God". Jesus was the "Word" manifest, and therefore NO MATTER WHERE WE STUDY IN THE SCRIPTURES, as long as we are revealing the SPIRITUAL pictures, we are "revealing Jesus Christ". Let's look at Jesus as the "BRAZEN SERPENT". John 3:14-16: 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Whenever the New Testament writings make a reference to an Old Testament occurance, it is to point out the "typical" picture. Numbers 21:5-9 describes this type: 21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for [there is] no bread, neither [is there any] water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Modern religion tells people, "You get saved and all your troubles will be over." Friend, that only happens when the devil "saves" you to his service! When you serve the true and living God, He is going to let you go through your reaping time here in this life. God's law of sowing and reaping will never be broken. If we have sown after the flesh before we are saved, or if as Christians we have failed to fully understand and live the will of the Lord, we are going to reap here in this life rather than in eternity. Discouragement ALWAYS produces murmuring and complaining. Verse five says that the people began to say things that were against God and His appointed messenger. Since Israel forgot that God knows best, they began to murmur and complain. They even complained about the bread that God was giving them. They had the very best bread they could possibly get (Psalms 78:25), yet they said, "our soul loatheth this light bread." The word translated "light" comes from a Hebrew word which means "despised." They were saying, "We hate this despicable bread". Why did they think it was despicable? Because it was good for them but it was not what their flesh wanted! There are many people today who serve the Lord for awhile, then get discouraged because of the long hard road that they have to walk as the people of God. After they are discouraged, they begin to murmur. They may only murmur about the preacher, but in God's sight they are complaining about Him as well. They will finally begin to question, "Why did God let this happen to me?" The next step is that they are not going to like the food that God provides anymore. Suddenly, they are going to lose interest in the truth. They will say, "That preacher is all messed up. He has changed. The congregation has changed. I do not enjoy the "food" anymore." It is strange how that everybody else goes bad all at once in the sight of such individuals! When a person gets such an attitude, they are actually saying, "I do not like this bread!" They do not want to come right out and say, "I do not like the Word of God," so they begin to make excuses and say, "This can not be from God!" How many of the children of Israel do you think probably sat back and thought, "I do not think God "cooks" His food this way! Moses has his hands in this some way or another. This must be Moses doings! If it were from God, it would be different than what I am being served. It surely would be fish and meat, with cucumbers and leeks and garlics!" The Bible says they were hungry for the foods from Egypt. Their hearts were crying out for flesh! It is the same today. People begin to desire something other than the Word of God. They want to have other things to mix with God's food. It is "Babylon"; it is false religion! When Israel rebelled against God, the Lord sent "fiery serpents". The word "fiery" comes from a Hebrew word which means, "burning" (with poison). God is not going to put up with rebellion! God is not going to put up with people who do not love His word! Many of the children of Israel DIED. The main cause for the bite of the "serpent of sin" today is still the result of people failing to love God's "MANNA"! Serpents generally bite on the foot or on the leg. What do the feet symbolize in the word of God? They picture (spiritually) our walk! John tells us in 1 John 1 that we MUST "walk in the LIGHT" or in other words, we MUST LIVE BY THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD. When a person is bit by the "serpent of sin" today, their SPIRITUAL "walk" is affected! If your foot is bitten by a poisonous serpent and the poison begins to swell it up, it affects your walk doesn't it? It is the same spiritually; the way that we walk and the way that we live is affected by sin! The main thing that causes sin is the rejection of God's word! Someone might say, "I can't believe that". If you'll study you'll find that even the terrible sin of homosexuality is caused primarily because people are given light (TRUTH) through the things of nature, and they reject that light! God would have given more to them, if they would have shown interest! Man's rejection of light has caused the fiery serpent of sin to be sent forth, and his "walk" has been poisoned. Do you know why it is that people today live in such a way as to demonstrate the "bite of the serpent of sin" in their life? It is because God has turned them over to sin seeing they do not LOVE THE MANNA OF HIS WORD. The wonderful thing about this "type" is that it will show us a simple cure for the "bite of sin"! If you don't want to get bitten by a snake, what do you do? You just stay away from places where snakes are. The best way for us to keep from being dragged into sin, is to stay away from it! Too many people say, "how much of this can I do, and still be saved"? It's like the question of how close can you get to a snake and not get bit? The best way to stay out of his reach is to stay clear out of his territory! The sixth verse of our text says that many Israelites died! This shows us that the "type" has to do with the following: (1) The people were Israelites, and therefore picture to us people who are children of God. Many people believe that this "type" is a picture of INITIAL salvation, but that is not so. This is not a picture of dead people being brought to life, but rather LIVING people of God being spared FROM DEATH which would normally have resulted from their SIN (in type). (2) The people who were bitten and did not "look" upon the brazen serpent DIED. This shows us that it is possible to die spiritually. This same truth is demonstrated in many texts in the Bible, including the parable in Matthew 13 where Jesus spoke of the seed springing forth into LIFE in the "stoney ground" and in the "thorny ground". Both kinds of LIFE were destroyed by various influences. Usually, when a person is bitten by a poisonous snake their first actions are to try to save themselves. Immediately they begin to try to stop the flow of the poison! They try to restrain sin in their life! However, you can't stop the spread of poison no matter how hard you try! You might slow it down for awhile, but it will work its way through sooner or later! Sin is a poison you can NEVER save yourself from! If Israel couldn't save themselves, was there any hope for them? Yes, but there had to be something to take the place of the wrath of God falling upon the people of Israel. That's why there had to be a brazen serpent, symbolizing that which could take the "fire" of God's judgement! God would symbolically pour out his judgement upon that brazen serpent, so that those who would trust in it could have the judgement of God removed from themselves have it imputed to the brazen serpent! Just having the brazen serpent upon the pole was not sufficient! The person who had been bitten must come by faith and look upon the serpent! In like manner today, it is not enough that Jesus has died on Calvary's cross! If we want to be healed of sin we must come to Him by faith and look upon Him for our substitute (even as Israel did the "brazen serpent")! Many people seem to get the idea that these folks were just standing around getting bitten by snakes and then glancing over towards a brass serpent on a pole. It didn't work that way! If you will do a little research you will find the children of Israel at this time numbered at least two or three million people. That many people dwelling in tents would cover a large area! Right in the middle of the camp was the tabernacle, and around the tabernacle area was the camp of the tribe of Levi. Outside of that area were the camps of the 12 tribes! If you had lived in one of those 12 tribes you could have been located several miles from the tabernacle area. There was a court of the Gentiles outside of the tabernacle with a fence around it. That is the area where the brazen serpent would have been! Friend, there is only one place today that Jesus is lifted up as a brazen serpent that the people of God might look upon him. That is in the true church which the tabernacle symbolizes (study the book of Hebrews for proof of this). Let's try to picture the setting: _____________________ _____________________ _____________________ | Tribe of DAN | | Tribe of ASHER | | Tribe of NAPHTALI | | | | | | | | | | | | | |___________________| |___________________| |___________________| _____________ ______ _____________________ _____ _________________ | Tribe of | | G | | Merarite branch | | M | |Tribe of JUDAH | | BENJAMIN | | E | | of the LEVITES. | | O | | | | | | R | |___________________| | S | | | | | | S | | E | | | | | | H | ********************* | S | | | | | | O | * _________ * | / | | | | | | N | * |_______| * | A | | | | | | I | * TABERNACLE COURT * | A | | | | | | T | ********************* | R | | | | | | E | ____________________ | O | | | | | | S | | Kohathite branch | | N | | | | | | | | of the LEVITES | | | | | |___________| |____| |__________________| |___| |_______________| _____________________ ____________________ _____________________ | Tribe of GAD | | Tribe of SIMEON | | Tribe of REUBEN | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |___________________| |__________________| |___________________| Try to picture the many multitudes of people in these various camps, and then you will realize that it was NOT an easy thing for the people to go to the place where the BRAZEN SERPENT would have been placed. How much effort will people expend when their PHYSICAL LIVES ARE AT STAKE? Surely our spiritual lives are WORTH FAR MORE than our physical lives. What are we willing to do to maintain a good healthy "walk" with God? Will we go to the trouble to LOOK UPON THE BRAZEN SERPENT? If someone were going to look upon the brazen serpent they had to put forth some effort! Imagine yourself holding very still while some friend is putting a tourniquet on your leg or is trying to draw the poison out. Can you picture what it would be like to have someone come by and say that if you want to be healed, all you have to do is get up and walk a certain distance to look at a brazen serpent that is up on a pole? Can you imagine what it would be like to rest in faith and be willing to do that? You are laying there knowing that any poison that goes through your system is going to kill you, and that to walk any distance would increase your blood flow and possibility of death! It would be quite a battle wouldn't it? It is the same faith required to keep God's people spiritually alive today! People must cease from trying to trust in their own works and the works of their friends! They must be willing to get up and go LOOK UPON JESUS THROUGH HIS WORD (as a spiritual "BRAZEN SERPENT"). Too many people today say, "I'm trusting in Jesus plus..."! They are going to have to get rid of the "plus", before they can be saved! I am not talking about just trusting in a "MYSTICAL" mental picture of JESUS or even the mention of the WORD "Jesus". I am talking about trusting totally in HIM AS we RECEIVE HIM THROUGH HIS WORD OF TRUTH. Alot of people will say, "don't you believe in good works"? Certainly I do friend, but it will be the RESULT of Christ's indwelling and NOT THE MEANS OF KEEPING HIM THERE (Ephesians 2:8-10)! I believe there were possibly children of Israel that began to walk to the place of the brazen serpent, and as they went along they were thinking of what God had done for them, and what God had provided as a means of healing for them. Their trust and their faith were already in the brazen serpent, even though they hadn't yet LOOKED upon it! However, as they walked along things happening along the road affected their faith. Perhaps they saw someone laying dead from the bite of the serpent. Doubts and discouragement begin to work again, and they fell by the wayside! Verse 8 of our text tells us that God told Moses to set the brazen serpent on a pole. If the brazen serpent pictures Christ (and thus in type is a picture of the WORD OF GOD), then the "pole" must represent those of God's people who truly lift up Jesus (manifest in the TRUE WORD OF GOD) before the people of God! Remember, the brazen serpent was not set up among the GENTILES or in type, the LOST people. It was lifted up in the camp of ISRAEL; the people of God. The scripture doesn't tell us much about the pole, but it does show us its task! Are our lives fulfilling this job that the Lord has given us? Too many Christians today are living as though they believe that Jesus (ie: the brazen serpent) just "floats around in the air"! They seem to feel that he (through HIS WORD) is lifted up before the people of God without any effort on their part. The process of lifting up the "brazen serpent" today (the WORD OF GOD) begins when God delivers the TRUE WORD OF GOD to the "body" of Christ by a true God sent PASTOR. Then God expects those who receive the WORD to be a part of the "pole" (lift up truth). I would like to use this short illustration that Jesus gave us from the Old Testament types to portray a truth that is missed by most Bible students. Notice carefully Jesus' words when he mentioned this particular "type" of the BRAZEN SERPENT: John 3:14-16; 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Compare these words with the following scriptures: Psalms 5: 5:4 For thou [art] not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Hebrews 12: 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. We could give many more proof texts, but this should be enough for the honest hearted reader. There APPEARS to be a contradiction at first glance, but when all things are considered in the contexts we can see there is NO CONTRADICTION AT ALL. Notice the following: (1) To understand John 3:16 more clearly, we must first realize that the term "world" does not always refer to people! If that were the case, then the same writer in 1st John 2:15 would be telling us that if we love people, then God's love is not in us! 1st John 2:15: "Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him." John 3:14-16 speaks of Jesus being "lifted up" in the same manner illustrated by the "brazen serpent". We have already shown that the brazen serpent was ONLY LIFTED UP FOR ISRAEL. The word translated "world" in the GREEK means the "arrangement of things". It is easy to see the "arrangement" or "group" that God sent the "brazen serpent" to benefit was the Israelite nation. Therefore, we could say that in the Old Covenant, "God so loved the world (the Israelite nation..His people) that he gave the brazen serpent, that whosoever believeth and looketh upon it might not perish (physically), but continue to LIVE". Jesus was saying that in the same manner HE WAS LIFTED UP FOR NEW TESTAMENT "ISRAEL" OR GOD'S PEOPLE TODAY. THE "WORLD HE WAS SPEAKING OF WAS NOT THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE HUMAN RACE. God spoke outright saying that HE hated Esau before he was even born or had done good or evil (Romans 9:11-13). If God hated Esau, and He hates ALL WORKERS of iniquity as Psalms 5:5 states, then it is easy to see that the "world" or "group" of people that God loves (John 3:16) is those whom HE foreknows to be HIS ELECT (Revelation 17:8, Romans 8:29-, 1 Peter 1:2, etc.). (2) Hebrews 12 shows us quite plainly that God ONLY CHASTISES those whom He loves. It also says that those whom HE LOVES are His SONS, and those whom He doesn't chastise (since they are not His sons) are bastards. That tells us that GOD DOES NOT LOVE "BASTARDS", or in other words, those who are not His sons. Someone might argue and say that Hebrews 12:8 tells us that "all" are partakers of chastisement. However, the word "all" refers to all of God's sons! The context easily proves this! Someone might say that just because God doesn't love a lost person does not mean that he hates them. However, if you will notice Proverbs 13:24, it will show you God's principle. If God spares his rod of chastisement, it is only because he hates the one whom he spares! Proverbs 13:24 "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Revelation 3:19 "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. This shows us God DOES chastise all those that he loves! Hebrews 12:8 says God does not chastise those who are bastards and not his sons! Some people believe that all mankind are sons of God. However, this is another of Satan's false doctrines! In John 8:44, Jesus told some religious Jews who were not truly saved that they were of their father the devil! Also, in Matthew 13:38, Jesus made a definite distinction between those who are the children of God and those who are the children of the devil! Friend, you may not like this truth, but you are either a spiritually conceived son of God, or else your father is the devil!!! If you fit the latter description, then GOD HATES YOU!!! We must be conceived by the true WORD OF GOD and have the resulting spiritual life in order to be loved by God. Psalms 11:5 "The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth." John 14: (21) He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (23) Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.