A Biblical Vision, Part I: Mastering the Old Testament Witness to Christ

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A B i b l i ca l Vi s i on, Par t I : Mas ter i ng the Ol d Tes tament Wi tnes s to Chr i s t

I. The Study of Character Types and the Old Testament Witness to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom

A. Importance of character types

1. They show how the stories and characters of Israel provide us with a rich and full presentation of the truth about Christ, 1 Cor. 10.1-6 – I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, [2] and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, [3] and all ate the same spiritual food, [4] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. [5] Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. [6] Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

2. They cause us to look with greater interest and intensity at the Old Testament narratives and characters.

3. They cause us to worship God and marvel at the richness of God’s plan and the unity of his biblical revelation, Matt. 12.39-41 – But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. [40] For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. [41] The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

4. They enable us to transcend overly atomistic treatments of Bible study; they encourage us to look for the inter connections between the testaments even in its most basic images and stories.