I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us. (1 Corinthians 10:1-11)
I have quoted here from a New Testament (NT) passage where Paul uses the Old Testament (OT) to teach about Christ. The OT passages being referred do not predict the coming of the messiah or the kingdom of God. In fact, these are narratives regarding the exodus and the wandering through the wilderness by the Israelites. During that time, manna came from heaven to feed the people and water came from a rock. Nevertheless, Paul says that the rock that gave them water and actually followed them through the wilderness was Christ, or we might say, the pre-incarnate Second Person of the Trinity.
Then Paul notes that many in the wilderness committed idolatry and fornication and were subsequently judged. He uses this example to warn the Corinthian church about going to the temples of idols or committing fornication. We all understand that. The judgments of the OT teach us what we need to beware of doing.
But there is more here. Paul sees the deliverance from Egypt and the wilderness wanderings as foreshadowing things in the NT church. He says the Israelites were all "baptized in the cloud and in the sea." So, he is relating our baptism into Christ to what happened to the Israelites when they passed through the Red Sea. And, again, he is relating the food and drink given supernaturally to the Israelites during their wanderings to the spiritual nourishment we receive in Christ as we walk with Him in this world. Therefore, the events of the parting of the Red Sea and wilderness wandering are a foreshadowing of the experience of Christians today. We were joined with Christ through baptism and we are fed spiritually by Him. (Baptism here refers not to water baptism, but to baptism into Christ when we were born again - see Romans 6:3-4)
Paul is telling the Corinthians that despite the fact that they have been joined with Christ and partake of His spiritual blessings while we walk with Him, they can still be judged for committing sins like fornication and idolatry when there is no repentance. And he uses the experiences of the ancient Israelites as proof of this.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this, however, is that Paul says the "rock was Christ". Did the pre-incarnate Christ actually become a rock and follow the Israelites through the wilderness? Should we take that literally, or is Paul simply saying that the rock symbolized Christ? I will make no argument one way or the other. I will leave it up to you. The point I wish to make is that the rock was a "type" of Christ, symbolic of Him. So, then, what is a "type"?
A biblical "type" is a subtle form of OT prophecy that shows what the coming Christ will be. I call it a subtle because no prophet is directly predicting the coming messiah. Instead, events in history are seen to foreshadow things about Christ or the Christian era. In this instance, the "rock" which gave natural water to the Israelites is like Christ is to the Christian believer, the source of spiritual blessing and nourishment. The rock is the "type"; Christ would be the "antitype" or fulfillment of that "type". The "type" predicts what will happen and Christ (or the church) fulfills that type. (This is called 'typology'.) Let's look at a bigger example.
Joseph was the second youngest son of Jacob and the favorite. Jacob's other sons were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery. While a slave, Joseph was falsely accused and sent to prison. Eventually, he was released from prison and immediately exalted to second-in-command in Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph complete rule over everything in Egypt except Pharaoh himself.
Think about the many parallels there are between Joseph and Christ. The Jewish leaders were jealous of Jesus and sought to get rid of Him. They falsely accused Him and turned Him over to Gentiles to crucify Him. After Jesus died on the cross, He descended into Hades, which was like Joseph in prison. [See Acts 2:27 - some translations have "realm of the dead" or something similar, but the word is literally "Hades" in the Greek.] Then Jesus was resurrected and was taken up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God the Father. Being seated at the right hand of a king meant to share the authority of his throne. Jesus now rules the universe as Joseph ruled Egypt.
We could even take this a step further to the time when Joseph brought his family out of Canaan into Egypt. We might say that this is like the rapture of the Church when Jesus takes us into heaven from whence He rules. Now some might that this is taking it too far but I will not debate it. And I will admit that we can take these things too far. After all, Joseph married a foreign woman and had two sons by her. Is there any significance to that? Not that I can see. Not everything in Joseph's life is like Christ's. This is the limitation of biblical types.
You might be asking at this point, "How many types of Christ can be found in the OT?". Probably thousands. I don't know if anyone has tried to count them but despite any criteria that they might use, you certainly could find even more. It is an endless study. That is because we can never plumb the depths of who Christ is even in the Old Testament. So, let's read the OT and look for these types, shadows and parallels that tell us about Jesus Christ and His church.
