The Meaning of ‘Types and Shadows’

The Bible is an incredible collection of books which show how God has progressively been revealing Himself to mankind. He has been working throughout history to bring eternal salvation for all people, for all time, in the Person and work of His Son (John 3:16-17 / Heb 10:1-25). In the Old Testament, God frequently gives promises that a Saviour would come to break the curse of sin (referring to the ‘fall of man’ recorded in Genesis 3). He promised that The Saviour would redeem all mankind ~ in The New Testament we see these promises fulfilled in Jesus.

Christ is seen through multiple prophesies about Him, and through many ‘types’ and ‘shadows’ ~ which are pictures and pointers ~ from the lives of various people in the Old Testament. There are also places, rituals and ceremonial laws that point to Him. These pointers, when looked at together, serve to build up a wider picture of the kind of Person the Saviour (also called ‘Messiah’) would be. They also confirm the life and events that He would fulfil.

The Gospel writer Matthew (in the New Testament) often speaks of Old Testament prophecies having been fulfilled in Jesus’s life. Matthew uses statements such as “this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet…” (for example: Matt 1:22-23 / Matt 2:5+7 / Matt 3:2-3). The key point spoken of throughout the Bible is the need to restore the relationship between God and man.  

When God created the world (Gen 1-2), the first people walked with God in perfect fellowship. Then, from Genesis chapter 3 onwards, we read the account of the ‘fall of man’ and the negative effects that resulted thereafter. God still communicated with people; but sin, fear and shame had entered the once perfect world. The creative order began to enter into a chaotic pattern which produced terrible consequences over the passage of time.

As The Bible speaks its message, it tell stories of God working in the lives of various people to bring about His unfolding plan of redemption. It tells the story of the development of the nation Israel and its many ups and down over the ages. This nation, and the individuals relating to it, are focused upon because The Redeemer (Saviour / Messiah) was promised to be born out of this nation when God spoke to Israel’s Ancestors and Patriarchs (the fathers of the nation: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).

Jesus (The Saviour) was (is) fully divine, and also fully human. He was Jewish and lived under The Old Covenant Law of Israel, which He obeyed and fulfilled perfectly. Jesus said that ‘all the prophets’ and ‘all the Scriptures’ spoke of Him (Luke 24:27). We can now look back and see that The Old Testament pointed to Jesus all along. ‘The New’ sheds light upon ‘The Old’.

Luke 24:27 from The Amplified Bible says… beginning with Moses and [throughout] all the [writings of the] prophets, He (Jesus) explained and interpreted for them the things referring to Himself [found] in all the Scriptures.