Jesus said He was in the Law of Moses (Luke 24:44). In the context of Luke 24:44, the Law of Moses refers to the Torah, which comprises the books Genesis through Deuteronomy. But when you read these books of the Bible, you don’t find Jesus of Nazareth—He is not yet born. So then, how is He in these books? We are asking this question because we are studying Deuteronomy on Sunday nights, and we have exegetical responsibility to find Him. He told us He is there. We are Christians reading the Law of Moses; we search the Scriptures to point ourselves to Jesus, our Lord and Savior, the author and finisher of our faith.
One answer to how Jesus might be present in the Law is the “Angel of the LORD” or Yahweh’s messenger (Gen 16, 22, 24; Exo 3; Num 20, 22). But is that the only way He is present, or are there other ways?
For example, in Genesis 3:21, Yahweh clothes Adam and Eve with garments of skins. Animals shed their blood and died for clothing. The animals that died that day foreshadowed Christ’s work on the cross, shedding His blood and dying so that we, believers, could be clothed in His righteousness. The animals that died in Genesis 3 were a type—a shadow pointing to Christ.
The next type of Christ in Genesis is “the ark” (Gen 6–9). The large boat made of gopher wood saved those in it from the judgment of God upon a wicked world. Those in the ark believed that salvation from judgment was found in the ark. Some even take the ark idea a step further and connect the door in the ark to John 10:9, where Jesus is described as the door.
In Genesis 22, both Isaac and the ram caught in the thicket are types of Christ. Isaac, Abraham’s son of promise, who lay on an altar on Mount Moriah, was ready to be sacrificed to God until Abraham was told to offer the ram caught in the thicket as a substitute for Isaac. Both serve as types.
In John 1:51, we read, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus is referencing Genesis 28:12, where it reads, “And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!” The “it” is a ladder. The ladder in Genesis 28 was a symbol of the way to heaven, and in John 1:51, Jesus connects Himself to the ladder.
At this point, animals, gopher wood, a person, a ram, and a ladder are all types that foreshadow different aspects of the redeeming work of Christ.
Two Sundays ago, while teaching from Deuteronomy 2, I suggested that Yahweh’s land promise to Israel and others may be a way of seeing Christ in Deuteronomy. Some could not believe I was comparing Christ to dirt. Let’s talk about this. First, the “type” is always less than the “antitype” (the fulfillment in Christ)—so every type of Christ is going to be less than Christ, i.e., animals, gopher wood, etc. Yahweh can never be a type of Christ. The lesser points to the greater, not the opposite. Think: shadow → substance. Paul writes, “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col 2:17). We are not taking away from Christ when we say the “ark” is a type of Christ. We are not saying Christ is wood.
In the same way, I was comparing the promise of land (the dirt) to Israel in the OT to the promise of a Messiah, a Savior to Israel in the NT. Paul says, “And when he [Yahweh] had removed him [Saul], he [Yahweh] raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised” (Acts 13:22-23). In the OT, the gift was often land, and in the NT, the gift is Christ.
Finally, let me give you one last example. In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul identifies the rock in Exodus 17 that provided water for Israel as a typological example. He writes, “the Rock was Christ.” Paul was not degrading Christ by comparing Him to a rock, and I was not degrading Christ by suggesting the dirt promised to Israel could be a type of Christ.
