Types and Shadows in the Prophets

When the prophets spoke to do something, they spoke of the types and shadows of which was to come, which was Christ.  In most all of the acts that they did, and others did at their commands, they acted out the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so, by faith looking forward to what they didn’t know, entered into the Kingdom, before it was brought forth to “all flesh”.  The fleshly act was not the power, but in the Holy Spirit that anointed the prophet.  Today, that same power is available to all of us, through the Holy Spirit.

In this way, the Kingdom that Christ brought (Mark 1:15) is the same Kingdom that operated through the word of the prophet.  Today, it is unscriptural for a person to go to a prophet for guidance, because the Holy Spirit has been given to every believer.

In the 2 Kings 3, the prophet instructed the army to dig the valley full of ditches, and, in the morning, they were filled with water.  The enemy army saw the ditches as full of water, and thinking their enemy spoiled by some other thing, charged in unprepared and unexpecting a fully alive, ready army that quickly defeated them.

This was looking forward to the stripes of Christ.  In this way, through the Word of the prophet, the Kingdom of God came upon the children of Israel.

In earlier times, Moses built the tabernacle after the pattern he had seen on the mountain of God.  He built a tabernacle, which was a picture of a man, Jesus Christ.  God was not interested in tabernacle worship.  He was interested in a pure heart, a living man, like He made in the garden.  The fleshly was merely the shadow of a pattern, which was a living relationship with Christ.

Yet, in this way, in walking out the pattern at the word of the Spirit, the Israelites entered into the covenant of the blood of Christ, after a manner.  Yet, in the same way that Matthew 7:21 says that not all who call Christ Lord will see life, but only those who do the will of the Father, it is not those who say “Lord, Lord!”, but those who truly believe in their heart, which demonstrates itself in the life of the believer.

Of all the types and shadows of the Old Covenant, the Israelites entered into a Spiritual Reality they did not understand.  Through the Spirit of God in the word of the prophet, the Kingdom came upon men, through the prophet’s faith, and the faith of those who came into contact with it.

In such a way, through faith and operation of the Kingdom through the Spirit on the prophet, Naaman was healed, Elijah’s miraculous provision by the widow occurred, the children of Israel took a spiritual journey through a physical wilderness, and every other miraculous inbreaking of God took place, in accordance with His Word and His character, all fully founded upon God’s righteousness and justice, the foundation of His throne.

So much so that, when it came to Paul, he said of God concerning the cross that He proved Himself both just and the justifier of the wicked through the sacrifice of His Son.