The Meaning of Type and Symbol
By Geo. A. Snyder
THE types and symbols among God's ancient people were not given merely as images to be revered, or as possessing spiritual virtue in themselves. Speaking especially of the tabernacle and its service, the apostle says, in Heb. 9:8-12, that it was "a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; . . . but Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
From this scripture it is evident that the whole typical system prefigured the actual work of our great High Priest, "who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man." Heb. 8:1, 2. Without attempting to enter into the details showing the strict conformity of type to antitype, we will briefly consider a few of the wondrous provisions of divine grace foreshown in the symbolism of the sanctuary. The sinner needed some continual reminder, not only of his lost condition, but especially of the eternal redemption thru Him who came "to seek and to save that which is lost." The typical sanctuary was pitched in the midst of the camp of Israel. Even so the Saviour tabernacled in the midst of men by taking human nature upon Him, and meeting and overcoming, under the same conditions and environments, all the temptations to which men are subjected. The court of the typical sanctuary was open to the whole congregation; the holy place was for the priesthood only; but into the most holy place only the high priest could enter. So our lives are divided, as it were, into three circles: the outer circle is open to all, the inner circle is limited, as it were, to the priesthood of our own families; but into the inmost circle—the secret sanctuary of the soul—none may enter but our great High Priest. He alone is able fully to furnish the sympathy and succor for which the heartbeat of humanity is throbbing. Inside of the ark of the covenant, written on tables of stone, were the Ten Commandments. So4when we are willing to let the Saviour in, He will write the same law "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." The Visible Manifestation of God’s Presence.
Directly above the tables of the law hovered the visible manifestation of God’s presence in the shekinah. The mercy-seat was the cover of the ark, in the center of which the shekinah glory rested. So the propitiatory office of Christ is the mercy-seat, where God dispenses mercy and at the same time upholds the majesty of His law. On either end of the mercy-seat in the typical sanctuary were two cherubim with their faces turned attentively toward the center of the mercy-seat where God’s glory rested. So the mediatorial work of Christ thru which it is possible for God to "be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" constitutes the center of attraction toward which all the angels turn their faces with ever increasing interest and attention. O, it is wonderful! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son," so that poor, weary sinners may believe in Him, and have His perfect, sinless life credited to their accounts, just as all our sinful lives were charged to His account. He paid the full price charged against Him for our transgressions, and offers us the full value of His obedience free except for the believing, "which things the angels desire to look into." Shadows of Heavenly Things.
In Heb. 8:5, we are told that the earthly sanctuary and its service were a "shadow of heavenly things." If we should see the shadow of a building on the ground, we would know that the building itself existed somewhere, and that it must correspond in general outline with the shadow cast on the ground. So we know there is a sanctuary in heaven corresponding with the shadow-temple of God’s ancient people. In the shadow, God’s presence in the shekinah rested just above His law; in the temple on high the law of Jehovah constitutes the basis of His throne. In Ps. 99:1, David says that the Lord "sitteth between the cherubim," just as God’s presence in the shadow was between the cherubim. In Rev. 11:19, we read: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament." In the temple of heaven, God’s law and His presence on the mercy-seat are related to each other just as they were in the earthly shadow. The dispensing of mercy from above the law in such a way as to satisfy the law’s demands is the crowning feature of the Gospel, just as the visible manifestation of God’s presence on the mercy-seat was the crowning feature of the shadow. Let us look for a moment at the wonderful administration of justice crowned with mercy. The law of Jehovah, which constitutes the very basis of His throne, is violated; the penalty is death; the majesty of the law must be upheld before the beholding universe. It might have been upheld by the summary execution of all violators, and justice would have been satisfied; but justice must be crowned with mercy; so, instead of beholding the violators of the law executed, the universe beholds the divine Son of God, upon whom the law has no just claim, voluntarily taking upon Himself human nature, and suffering the extreme penalty of humanity’s lawlessness, so that the violators, by accepting His sacrifice, may go free, and justice still be satisfied. How could the law of God be set on higher ground before the universe than by this sublime spectacle of the Law-giver freely suffering the penalty due to the violators of His law, so that the law might be vindicated and its violators saved? O, how our hearts ought to swell with gratitude to such a Saviour! It pleased God to foreshadow the work of our great High Priest in type and symbol, so that in whatever direction we look we may see Jesus Christ and Him crucified. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." If we could have stood in the camp of Israel when the brazen serpent was lifted up high in the midst of the camp, it seems to me that we would have been impressed most of all by its conspicuousness. As it glistened in the sunshine it would have been hard to avoid seeing it without deliberately closing the eyes or averting the gaze. Even so the wonderful saving power of the Gospel of Christ is lifted up so high thru type and symbol, converging and culminating in the great climax of Calvary, that the only way we can escape its remedial power is to deliberately close our eyes or avert our gaze. All of the shadow, symbolism, and prophetic imagery of the whole Bible is intended to assist us more clearly to "behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 2276 Market Street, Oakland, Cal.