In this last lesson on the types of the Old Testament, we will cover how Christ, the overcomers as His followers, and the totality of God’s redeemed people are typified in the Bible by the heavenly luminaries, the three lights created by God—the sun, the moon, and the stars (Gen. 1:14-18).
The Bible uses the heavenly luminaries, the three lights, in God’s creation as signs to portray God’s redeemed, because even though man sees his trespasses, iniquities, defilement, and uncleanness, God sees His people as clean and bright. According to God’s eternal view, He sees them as His chosen and redeemed people.
The Old Testament uses the sun, the moon, and the stars to signify the whole house of Jacob, which was chosen and redeemed by God (37:9-10). Jacob and his whole house were chosen and redeemed by God, but God chose and redeemed them not according to what they were and did in their natural life but according to the will of God’s supreme sovereignty and His abundant mercy (Rom. 9:10-18). According to man’s view, they were evil and defiled, but according to God’s view, they were bright and heavenly. Therefore, in God’s eternal view, they were as bright as the heavenly luminaries, the three lights. Among them Jacob was like the sun, his wife Rachel was like the moon, and his twelve sons were like twelve stars.
The New Testament uses the sun, the moon, and the stars to signify the totality of the saints in the Old and New Testaments with the sign of the universal corporate woman (Rev. 12:1). Both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament believers are the saints chosen and redeemed by God. God looks at them according to His eternal view and the purpose of His economy, not according to what they are and do. In this view, they are clean and bright, like the God-created heavenly luminaries, the three lights, which serve as symbols of them.
The universal woman in Revelation 12:1 is clothed with the sun. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age. Before Christ came to the world, the Old Testament age was like a dark night. When Christ, as the rising sun, came from on high (Luke 1:78), the age of the sun came. Since Christ has come, the New Testament believers are living in the day, and since they are a part of Christ, they are part of the sun. The church, which is composed of all the New Testament believers, shines corporately in the day to show forth the glory of God (Phil. 2:15-16). The woman, who is clothed with the sun, indicates also that the New Testament believers constitute the major part of God’s people.
Before Christ came, it was the age of the moon, which signifies God’s people in the Old Testament age. The moon is underneath the feet of the universal woman because the age of the moon is the age of the law, which, in God’s eyes, should not be exalted like the stars.
The stars signify the patriarchs, God’s people before the law was given, shining individually in the dark night with the divine, heavenly light. These individual stars are the crown on the universal woman’s head, indicating that the glory of God’s grace and economy should be exalted. The number twelve signifies completion in God’s eternal economy. The patriarchs were under the principle of grace, not under the law; hence, they were a crown exalted on the head of the woman.
All God’s people in these three ages, who together constitute the woman, are light-bearers. Hence, she is the bright woman shining throughout all generations.