Sabbath School Week

Read for This Week’s Study

1 Cor. 10:1–13; Matt. 2:15; Josh. 1:1–3; Acts 3:22–26; Heb. 3:7–4:11; 2 Cor. 10:3–5.

Memory Text:

“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11, ESV).

In the book of Joshua, there is a sense that the life of its main character points beyond itself to a reality that is much greater than the man himself. We see this principle all through the Bible, such as with the land of Canaan, a symbol of our eternal hope in a new earth. And, of course, the earthly sanctuary service pointed to a greater reality: “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation” (Heb. 9:11, NKJV).

But the question arises: In what way does Joshua point to a future fulfillment? How can we be sure that such an interpretation of the book is legitimate? What are the biblical principles that control the application of the book of Joshua to New Testament realities and to end-time events?

This week, we will look at principles of biblical interpretation concerning typology. We will study how the Bible itself contains indicators of typology and how the life of Joshua foreshadows the ministry of the Messiah and points to symbolism fulfilled in the church as well as in the consummation of human history.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, December 6.

Supplemental EGW Notes

Never before had the earth witnessed such a scene. The multitude stood paralyzed, and with bated breath gazed upon the Saviour. Again darkness settled upon the earth, and a hoarse rumbling, like heavy thunder, was heard. There was a violent earthquake. The people were shaken together in heaps. The wildest confusion and consternation ensued. In the surrounding mountains, rocks were rent asunder, and went crashing down into the plains. Sepulchers were broken open, and the dead were cast out of their tombs. Creation seemed to be shivering to atoms. Priests, rulers, soldiers, executioners and people, mute with terror, lay prostrate upon the ground.
When the loud cry, “It is finished,” came from the lips of Christ the priests were officiating in the Temple. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain. Clothed in his significant and beautiful dress, the priest stood with lifted knife, as did Abraham when he was about to slay his son. With intense interest the people were looking on. But the earth trembles and quakes; for the Lord Himself draws near. With a rending noise the inner veil of the Temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand, throwing open to the gaze of the multitude a place once filled with the presence of God. In this place the Shekinah had dwelt. Here God had manifested His glory above the mercy seat. No one but the high priest ever lifted the veil separating this apartment from the rest of the Temple. He entered in once a year to make an atonement for the sins of the people. But lo, this veil is rent in twain. The Most Holy Place of the earthly sanctuary is no longer sacred.
All is terror and confusion. The priest is about to slay the victim, but the knife drops from his nerveless hand and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God’s Son. The great sacrifice has been made. The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate as priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens. It was as if a living voice had spoken to the worshipers: There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” “By his own blood” He entereth “in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 10:7; 9:12).—Lift Him Up, p. 44.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Study the following Scriptures that refer to types and try to define what biblical typology is: Rom. 5:14, 1 Cor. 10:1–13, Heb. 8:5, and Heb. 9:23.

These biblical passages use the term “type” (Greek typos) or “antitype” (Greek antitypos) to refer to the way the New Testament writer defined the relationship between an Old Testament text or event and its meaning in his own time or in the future.

Typology is a specific interpretation of persons, events, or institutions that prefigure Jesus or other realities contained in the gospel. The type corresponds to the antitype as a mold or a hollow form that reflects the original form, even if the latter, the antitype, more fully fulfills the purpose of the type. Thus, the biblical type was shaped according to a divine design that had existed concretely, or conceptually, in the mind of God, and it serves to shape future copies (antitypes).

It is crucial to understand that the writers of the New Testament did not randomly attribute a typological meaning to some Old Testament texts in order to make a point. An Old Testament type is always validated in the prophetic writings before it acquires an antitypical fulfillment in the New Testament.

Look at how David appears in the Old Testament and then how he is prefigured in the New. What lessons can we learn about how typology works from this example?

a. David (Ps. 22:1, 14–18):

b. The new David (Jer. 23:5; Isa. 9:5, 6; Isa. 11:1–5):

c. The antitypical David (John 19:24):

By looking at these texts, we discover that the Old Testament itself provides the key for identifying and applying types in the Scriptures. That is, New Testament writers, whose Scripture was the Old Testament, were inspired by the Holy Spirit to use the Old Testament types to reveal “present truth” (2 Pet. 1:12), especially about Jesus and His ministry.

Supplemental EGW Notes

In fulfilling “all righteousness,” Christ did not bring all righteousness to an end. He fulfilled all the requirements of God in repentance, faith, and baptism, the steps in grace in genuine conversion. In His humanity Christ filled up the measure of the law’s requirements. He was the head of humanity, its substitute and surety. Human beings, by uniting their weakness to the divine nature of Christ, may become partakers of His character.
Christ came to give an example of the perfect conformity to the law of God required of Adam, the first man, down to the last person that shall live on the earth. He declares that His mission is not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it in perfect and entire obedience.
In this way He magnified the law and made it honorable. In His life He revealed its spiritual nature. He revealed to heavenly beings, to worlds unfallen, to a disobedient, unthankful, unholy world, that He fulfilled the far-reaching principles of the law. He came to demonstrate the fact that humanity, allied by living faith to divinity, can keep all God’s commandments.
The typical offerings pointed to Christ, and when the perfect sacrifice was made the sacrificial offerings were no longer acceptable to God. Type met antitype in the death of the only begotten Son of God. He came to make plain the immutable character of the law, to declare that disobedience and transgression could never be rewarded by God with eternal life. He came as a man to humanity, that humanity might touch humanity.
But in no case did He come to lessen the obligations of mortals to be perfectly obedient. He did not destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. He fulfilled that which was predicted by God Himself. He did not come to set human beings free from the law: He came to open a way by which they might obey that law and teach others to do the same.—To Be Like Jesus, p. 362.
When Christ on the cross cried out, “It is finished,” the veil of the temple was rent in twain. This veil was significant to the Jewish nation. It was of most costly material, of purple and gold, and was of great length and breadth. At the moment when Christ breathed His last, there were witnesses in the temple who beheld the strong, heavy material rent by unseen hands from top to bottom. This act signified to the heavenly universe, and to a world corrupted by sin, that a new and living way had been opened to the fallen race, that all sacrificial offerings terminated in the one great offering of the Son of God.
Type . . . met antitype in the death of God’s Son. . . . The way into the holiest is laid open. A new and living way is prepared for all. No longer need sinful, sorrowing humanity await the coming of the high priest. Henceforth the Saviour was to officiate as priest and advocate in the heaven of heavens. . . . There is now an end to all sacrifices and offerings for sin. The Son of God is come according to His word, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” “By his own blood” He entereth “in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Hebrews 10:7; 9:12.—The Faith I Live By, p. 201.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Interpreters of the Bible cannot arbitrarily decide on what constitutes a biblical type or how that particular type is fulfilled in the New Testament and beyond. The Bible itself provides some controls and principles as to the application of biblical typology.

Similarly, the New Testament unfolds the antitypical fulfillment of a type in three distinct phases: (1) in the life of Christ (the Christological fulfillment), (2) in the experience of the church (the ecclesiological fulfillment), and (3) at the end of time (the eschatological fulfillment).

We can find these types and antitypes all through the Bible, and they are very helpful in showing readers how to understand the Bible and what truths the Word of God is teaching about Jesus, salvation, and the ultimate hope that we have.

Look at the following Old Testament types: Israel, the Exodus, and the sanctuary. How is each fulfilled in the three antitypical phases: the Christological, the ecclesiological, and the eschatological?

1. Israel
   • a. Christological phase (Matt. 2:15)
   • b. Ecclesiological phase (Gal. 6:16)
   • c. Eschatological phase (Rev. 7:4–8, 14)
2. The Exodus
   • a. Christological phase (Matt. 2:19–21)
   • b. Ecclesiological phase (2 Cor. 6:17)
   • c. Eschatological phase (Rev. 18:4)
3. The Sanctuary
   • a. Christological phase (John 1:14, John 2:21, Matt. 26:61)
   • b. Ecclesiological phase (1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16)
   • c. Eschatological phase (Rev. 3:12, Rev. 11:19, Rev. 21:3, Rev. 21:22)

“Since Scripture has a single divine Author, the various parts of Scripture are consistent with each other. . . . All the doctrines of the Bible will cohere with each other; interpretations of individual passages will harmonize with the totality of what Scripture teaches on a given subject.”—Raoul Dederen, ed., Handbook of Seventh-day Adventist Theology (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2000), p. 65.

What do you do when, at times, you find it hard to understand the meaning of certain passages?

Supplemental EGW Notes

God’s people, whom He calls His peculiar treasure, were privileged with a twofold system of law; the moral and ceremonial. . . .
From the creation the moral law was an essential part of God’s divine plan, and was as unchangeable as Himself. The ceremonial law was to answer a particular purpose in Christ’s plan for the salvation of the race. The typical system of sacrifices and offerings was established that through these services the sinner might discern the great offering, Christ. . . . The ceremonial law was glorious; it was the provision made by Jesus Christ in counsel with His Father, to aid in the salvation of the race. The whole arrangement of the typical system was founded on Christ. Adam saw Christ prefigured in the innocent beast suffering the penalty of his transgression of Jehovah’s law.
The need for the service of sacrifices and offerings ceased when type met antitype in the death of Christ. In Him the shadow reached the substance. . . . The law of God will maintain its exalted character as long as the throne of Jehovah endures. This law is the expression of God’s character. . . . Types and shadows, offerings and sacrifices, had no virtue after Christ’s death on the cross; but God’s law was not crucified with Christ. . . . Today he [Satan] is deceiving human beings in regard to the law of God.
The law of the ten commandments lives and will live through the eternal ages. . . .
God did not make the infinite sacrifice of giving His only-­begotten Son to our world, to secure for man the privilege of breaking the commandments of God in this life and in the future eternal life.
He [Jesus] gave His precious, innocent life to save guilty human beings from eternal ruin, that through faith in Him they might stand guiltless before the throne of God.—The Faith I Live By, p. 106.
All the time of Christ’s coming there was much agitation concerning the appearance of the world’s Messiah. The Jewish nation expected that a great deliverer would come, and there were men who took advantage of this expectation, turning it to the service of themselves, that they might be thereby profited and glorified. Prophecy had foretold that these deceivers would arise. The deceivers did not come in the way in which it was prophesied that the world’s Redeemer should come; but Christ came, answering every specification. Types and symbols had represented Him, and in Him type met antitype. In the life, mission, and death of Jesus every specification was fulfilled.—Lift Him Up, p. 197.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

In the light of biblical typology, what is the significance of the multiple parallelism between the lives of Moses and Joshua? See Exod. 3:1, 2; Josh. 1:1–3; Num. 13:1, 2; Josh. 2:1; Exod. 3:5; Josh. 5:15.

As we discovered in the first week, Joshua was presented as a new Moses who, in the life of the second generation, repeated the most significant steps of the Exodus from Egypt. Just as Moses was, Joshua was commissioned by a personal encounter with the Lord. Under the leadership of both Moses and Joshua, Israel’s fame among the nations inspired fear. Moses led Israel in crossing the Red Sea, and Joshua led Israel in a miraculous crossing of the Jordan. Both leaders were reminded of the necessity of circumcision and the importance of the Passover. Manna began to fall in the time of Moses, and it ended with Joshua. Both were commanded to take off their sandals. The outstretched hand of both signaled victory for Israel. Moses gave instructions for the division of the land and the institution of cities of refuge. Joshua fulfilled the instructions. Both gave a farewell address to the nation and renewed the covenant for the people at the end of their ministry.

Study Deuteronomy 18:15–19, Deuteronomy 34:10–12, John 1:21, Acts 3:22–26, and Acts 7:37. Who fulfills the prophecy of Moses about a prophet like himself? How does Joshua fit into the picture?

Joshua’s life was a partial fulfillment of the prophecy made by Moses (Deut. 18:15, 18). However, the prophecy made by Moses was not fulfilled in its ultimate sense. In its ultimate sense, the prophecy could be accomplished (or fulfilled) only by the Messiah. The Messiah knew the Father intimately (John 1:14, 18); He was true and revealed God truthfully (Luke 10:22, John 14:6, Matt. 22:16). God indeed put His words in His mouth (John 14:24). So, both the life of Moses and that of Joshua become types of the coming Messiah, Jesus.

How central is Jesus to your own walk with the Lord? Why must Jesus, and what He has done for you, be the foundation of your whole Christian experience?

Supplemental EGW Notes

Forty days and nights Moses remained in the mount; and during all this time, as at the first, he was miraculously sustained. No person had been permitted to go up with him, nor during the time of his absence were any to approach the mount. At God’s command he had prepared two tables of stone, and had taken them with him to the summit; and again the Lord “wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”
During that long time spent in communion with God, the face of Moses had reflected the glory of the divine Presence; unknown to himself his face shone with a dazzling light when he descended from the mountain. Such a light illumined the countenance of Stephen when brought before his judges; “and all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). Aaron as well as the people shrank away from Moses, and “they were afraid to come nigh him.” Seeing their confusion and terror, but ignorant of the cause, he urged them to come near. . . .
By this brightness God designed to impress upon Israel the sacred, exalted character of His law, and the glory of the gospel revealed through Christ. While Moses was in the mount, God presented to him, not only the tables of the law, but also the plan of salvation. He saw that the sacrifice of Christ was pre-figured by all the types and symbols of the Jewish age; and it was the heavenly light streaming from Calvary, no less than the glory of the law of God, that shed such a radiance upon the face of Moses. That divine illumination symbolized the glory of the dispensation of which Moses was the visible mediator. . . .
Moses was a type of Christ. As Israel’s intercessor veiled his countenance, because the people could not endure to look upon its glory, so Christ, the divine Mediator, veiled His divinity with humanity when He came to earth. Had He come clothed with the brightness of heaven, He could not have found access to men and women in their sinful state. They could not have endured the glory of His presence. Therefore He humbled Himself, and was made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), that He might reach the fallen race, and lift them up.—Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 329, 330.
Moses was a type of Christ. . . . God saw fit to discipline Moses in the school of affliction and poverty before he could be prepared to lead the hosts of Israel to the earthly Canaan. The Israel of God, journeying to the heavenly Canaan, have a Captain who needed no human teaching to prepare Him for His mission as a divine leader; yet He was made perfect through sufferings; and “in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:10, 18). Our Redeemer manifested no human weakness or imperfection; yet He died to obtain for us an entrance into the Promised Land.—Conflict and Courage, p. 111.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.