Consider the picture in this chapter. We have a bull for a sin offering, lambs for a burnt offering, oil and flour for a meal offering, and wine for a drink offering. As you ponder these things, do you not have the feeling that they are meaningful and significant? To me, these pictures are very meaningful. However, I would point out strongly that my interpretation of these pictures, these types, is not something produced by the natural imagination of the human mind. In Exodus 29 we have a picture. The bull for the sin offering, the two lambs for the burnt offering, the flour, the oil, the wine—all these are parts of the picture. Unless you have some knowledge and experience, you will not know how to interpret this picture. Certainly, a person who has not been saved and regenerated and who does not have an adequate knowledge of the Bible has no way to understand this picture. He could see the bull, the lambs, the flour, and the wine, but he would not know their significance. He could do nothing more than point out this list of items in Exodus 29. However, because these items are described in the holy Scriptures, we need to consider them seriously and realize that this picture presents something very meaningful concerning us as believers in Christ.
If we have experienced the Lord’s salvation and have had some amount of experience in the Christian life and then read Exodus 29, we shall realize that the bull, the lambs, the flour, the oil, and the wine all portray different aspects of the all-inclusive Christ. Again and again we have pointed out that the bull typifies Christ as our sin offering. In this universe no one other than Christ Himself can be a sin offering for us. According to Exodus 29, the lambs are for a burnt offering. These lambs typify Christ as our burnt offering. Only He is qualified to be the burnt offering.
It is more difficult to understand the significance of the flour mingled with oil and of the wine poured out as a drink offering. The fine flour mingled with oil is for a meal offering. The meal offering, of course, is good for eating, and the wine is meant for drinking. If we are faithful and dig into the Word, we shall eventually learn the significance of the meal offering and the drink offering. No doubt, the flour pictures Christ as our food. First He was a grain of wheat. Then He was ground to become food. Furthermore, with the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and our experiences, we can trace the meaning of the flour, the oil, and the wine. The Bible and the Holy Spirit can be compared to two railroad tracks. We may travel along these tracks until we reach our destination—in this case a proper understanding of the types in Exodus 29. No doubt, the flour signifies Christ as the producing life becoming the supplying life to be our daily food. As we have pointed out, the oil signifies the Spirit. But what about the wine? The wine is for God’s satisfaction. It is poured out unto God for Him to drink.
As we consider all these matters, we realize that they are put together in a meaningful way. They can be compared to pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. When all the pieces of a puzzle are put together, we have a picture. In like manner, when we put together all these items from the Old Testament, in our spirit we can see a picture of Christ. What is revealed in this picture goes beyond what can be described in words. For example, by looking at a photograph of a person’s face, we can see what his face looks like. However, even if we try to describe his face in thousands of words, we still shall not have an accurate understanding of its appearance. A person’s face can be shown only through a picture, not by a description in words. I use this illustration to point out the importance of considering the types in the Old Testament. These types portray things that cannot be presented in words.
As one who has been a Christian and studying the Bible for more than fifty years, I wish to testify that if we did not have the Old Testament, we would be deprived of much spiritual understanding. We cannot understand spiritual matters adequately if we read only the New Testament. We need the pictures in the Old Testament as well as the definitions, the plain words, in the New Testament. Therefore, we all need to have a proper regard for the Old Testament. We need to be impressed with the significance of the pictures in the Old Testament so that we shall regard it more highly than we do at present. According to my realization, most Christians, including many of us, do not have an adequate regard for the Old Testament. This lack of regard is primarily due to the influence of our religious background.
Many Christians do not use even the New Testament truly in a spiritual sense or in a spiritual way. On the contrary, they use it in a religious way, in a natural way, or in an ethical or cultural way. For example, the New Testament tells us that we need faith. However, some take this in a natural way and claim that if we have faith, we shall be successful in what we are doing. Is this the kind of faith revealed in the New Testament? Certainly not. Also, the New Testament commands us to love others. But this commandment regarding love may be interpreted in a natural way or in a religious way instead of in a genuinely spiritual way. When I was young, I heard many sermons in which verses from the Bible were used as a basis for someone to express his opinion according to his cultural background. This practice is still common today. Time after time, verses are quoted from the Scriptures only to be usurped for a particular purpose. Many do not know how to use the Bible according to the mind of God.
Even if we know the New Testament according to the mind of God, we still need the Old Testament. By itself the New Testament is not adequate. The plain words of explanation are not adequate for us to apprehend God’s revelation. Along with the descriptions and definitions in the New Testament, we need the types, the pictures, in the Old Testament.