Jerry C. Brewer
Introduction
In various ways throughout the Bible, God not only wrote His will to man, but demonstrated it in type as well. One example is His clothing of Adam and Eve who had made themselves aprons of fig leaves. Demonstrating what Jeremiah would later say, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23) and what Paul wrote, that, “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22), God fashioned “coats of skins and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). That was God’s demonstration that man could not properly clothe himself spiritually—that his spiritual covering had to come from God through the shedding of innocent blood—the animals had to die for their skins to cover Adam and Eve.
Man’s first physical clothing was typical of the spiritual clothing God purposed to provide through His Son as a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Thus, God always presented His scheme of redemption in “type” before making it plain by revelation. It was always typically there, but not understood by man until it was revealed. So stated the apostle Paul:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.… Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth (1 Cor. 2:9-10, 13).
The Old Testament is full of types, demonstrating the scheme of redemption revealed in Jesus Christ. Among those is Abraham, the topic of this lesson, who was typical in various ways. We shall explore two of those.
Abraham As a Type of God
As the father of the Hebrew race and the Israelite nation, Abraham typified God as the Father of Christians who are “a chosen generation…an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Pet. 2:9). As Abraham’s physical progeny and the nation of Israel proceeded from Isaac, the son of promise, who was miraculously conceived (Gen. 17:15-21; 18:10-14), so God’s spiritual progeny proceeds from Jesus Christ, God’s only Begotten Son, miraculously born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:26-38).
Being careful not to duplicate another lesson on the sacrifice of Isaac, we will touch briefly on that event in Genesis 22, in considering Abraham as a type of God. In that account, Abraham stands typically in God’s place in that he was willing to sacrifice “thy son, thine only son, Isaac” (Gen. 22:2). Isaac was not the only son Abraham had. How, then, could God call him “thine only son?” Because Isaac stood in relation to Abraham the way Jesus stands in relation to the Father. Abraham had many sons by Keturah and his concubines, as well as Ishmael by Hagar, but he fathered a special people through his son, Isaac, who was his “only begotten” by the barren Sarah. God is the Father of the human race, and all mankind are His children in the flesh through Adam (Luke 3:38). However, only Christians are His special people through His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, by the virgin Mary. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, the promised son (Gen. 22:3), and God willingly gave His Only Begotten Son, the promised seed (Gal. 3:16), for the sins of the world (John 1:29; 3:16).
Abraham as a Type of God’s People Today
Abraham was typical of all who are faithful to God in our present age—the obedient child of God today.
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham (Gal. 3:6-9).
Paul further said “that he might be the father of all them that believe…who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham” (Rom. 4:11-12). The faithful today walk in the steps of faithful Abraham of whom Paul wrote, “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (4:3). Notice the phrase, “Abraham believed God.” That Abraham believed in God is without question, but his faith was not “faith only” in God’s existence. He believed God, which meant he was willing to take God at His Word and do what God commanded him. It is that kind of faith which God requires of men today. Not a mere belief that God exists, but a willingness to do what God says.
Abraham demonstrated that kind of faith when he was called from Ur of the Chaldees. God told him: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Gen. 12:1), and Abraham, “believing God,” left his native country. Paul wrote that, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed” (Heb. 11:8). To “believe God” is far more than simply believing in God. Like Abraham, it is to hear God, believe God, and do what God commands. All who do that today walk in “the steps of that faith of our father Abraham” and, as Abraham’s faith was perfected by works (Jam. 2:22), so ours is perfected by obeying God in works which He ordains for us. Abraham was a nomad with no permanent dwelling place.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:8-10).
When Abraham “went out,” he left everything to follow God. He was typical of Jesus’ followers today, of whom He said:
There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).
Abraham had never seen the place to which he was going, but every step he took to Canaan was by faith in God’s Word, typical of all today who “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). He was a sojourner in the land of promise and, even in that land, considered himself a pilgrim upon the earth.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city (Heb. 11:13-16).
Jesus said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mat. 16:24). The first thing one must do in following the Lord is to willingly deny self. His own wants, desires, ambitions—everything—must take a backseat to his devotion to the Lord, and that must be done willingly. God forces no one to serve Him, but desires those who desire Him—those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (5:6). Of such a follower was Abraham typical. As a creature of free will, a Christian may choose to go back into the world from whence he came. That was the choice of many of Jesus’ disciples: “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). However, Abraham was steadfast, and of
him Paul wrote: “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned” (Heb. 11:15). In his comments on that verse, Robert Milligan wrote:
If they had desired to return to Ur of Chaldea, or to Haran, there was nothing to prevent their doing so. They had not been banished from their father-land, nor have we any reason to think that God would have so interfered as to prevent their return. He always prefers a willing service. And hence the Apostle argues that these Patriarchs might all have returned to Chaldea had they been so minded. But none of them ever showed any desire to do so. “Abraham in particular,” says Macknight, “considered the very thought of returning into Chaldea as a renunciation of his interest in the promises of God” (Gen xxiv. 5-8) (312).
Conclusion
In his devotion to God, his humility, his deep, abiding faith in God’s promises, his life pilgrimage, and in embracing the unseen through faith, Abraham is not only a type of the faithful of God, but a stellar example for us today. Abraham’s earthly pilgrimage was made in hope, as ours is today. He “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10) and, like him: “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).
Works Cited
All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.
Milligan, Robert. New Testament Commentaries, Vol. IX, Epistle To The Hebrews. Nashville, TN: Gospel Advocate, 1963.
