Apologetics Toolkit

Major Types of Christ

These are the large foreshadowings of the Messiah in Hebrew Scriptures.

As Priest

Genesis 14

18

And Mel-chiz'edek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.

19

And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth;

20

and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Psalm 110

1

A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool."

2

The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes!

3

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your host upon the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning like dew your youth will come to you.

4

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchiz'edek."

5

The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.

6

He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.

7

He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.

Jesus is an eternal priest who offers bread and wine, which become his very self.

As Victim

Genesis 22

1

After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."

2

He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

3

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

4

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.

5

Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the ass; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you."

6

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.

7

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

8

Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.

9

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.

10

Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."

12

He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

13

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

14

So Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."

15

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

16

and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

17

I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies,

18

and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."

19

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.

Isaac is a type of Christ. Like Jesus, he carried the wood that would be used to offer him. Just as Abraham offered his only son to God, God offers his only Son for all men: "God will provide himself the lamb", whereas God actually provided Abraham with a ram to sacrifice.

Jesus, as a descendant of Abraham, fulfills the prophecy "by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves."

Exodus 12

1

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

2

"This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.

3

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they shall take every man a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;

4

and if the household is too small for a lamb, then a man and his neighbor next to his house shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.

5

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats;

6

and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs in the evening.

7

Then they shall take some of the blood, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat them.

8

They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9

Do not eat any of it raw or boiled with water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.

10

And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

11

In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's passover.

12

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.

13

The blood shall be a sign for you, upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14

"This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as an ordinance for ever.

21

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the passover lamb.

22

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

23

For the LORD will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to slay you.

24

You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever.

25

And when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

26

And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?'

27

you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28

Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Jesus is the spotless lamb whose blood saves us from death, so that we can escape to the Promised Land.

As Salvation

Numbers 21

4

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way.

5

And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food."

6

Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

7

And the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

8

And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."

9

So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

Just as the bronze serpent was raised up, so was Jesus raised up on a tree to be not only a sign of our salvation, but our very salvation.

As Victim and Savior

Psalm 105

As originally told in Genesis 37ff, Joseph's brother's sold him into slavery. God used his enslavement to save not only Israel and his sons, but all people of that region. Similarly, Jesus was sold into the bondage of suffering and death, and his bondage has meant our salvation.

Also of interest: Prophesies of the Messiah