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LESSON ONE
The student should first decide whether the word under consideration is used by the Spirit as a type. Not all objects are types. Care should be used in arriving at a conclusion on this matter lest one distort the Word of God and thus arrive at decisions which were never intended by the Lord.
A safe rule is to ascertain whether an object is said plainly to be a type. When Paul wrote in <461004>1 Corinthians 10:4, "They drank of the spiritual rock... and that rock was Christ," we know that the rock in the wilderness was a true type of Christ.
When we read of the good and bad fish in <401347>Matthew 13:47, we know that these fish are types though the passage does not say so. The story is a parable intended to teach a lesson. It is needful therefore to learn just what they do represent and also what the net represents.
When we read of the Red Sea or the Jordan, we know this to be a type just because it teaches so many very interesting and profitable lessons.
But even though we decide that an object is a type, there still remains the problem of learning what it represents. Here great care is needed. Let us ask,
"What constitutes a type?" Let us seek an answer by a series of comparisons:
1. There is likeness of appearance as "clouds" and "dust" ( <340103>Nahum 1:3).
2. There is likeness of action as "the leopard" and "Alexander the Great" (
<270706>Daniel 7:6).
3. There is likeness of effect as "rain and snow" and "the Word of God" (
<235510>Isaiah 55:10).
4. There is likeness of relationship as "nurse" and "Paul" ( <520207>1 Thessalonians 2:7).
5. There is likeness of value as "gold' and "the Lord Jesus" ( <231312>Isaiah 13:12).
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6. There is likeness of position as "head" and "Israel" ( <052813>Deuteronomy 28:13).
7. There is likeness of character as "the spider" and "the sinner" (
<203028>Proverbs 30:28).