The Daily Missoulian., 1910-12-18
"And Isaac brought Rebecea into his
his wife and he loved hsr."-Genesis

"And Isaac brought Rebecca into his
his wife and he loved hsr."-Genesis
When we sometimes speak of Abra-
fham, Isaac and others as types we
should not be understood to mean that
lsthey were merely types--that the Bi-
ble stories respecting them are fic-
tions. person or thing is type
Ewhen, in addition to the actual expes
iences, the Scriptures indicate that it
prefigures ana illustrates on small
tseale some person or things yet fu-
| ture. As. for instance. Adam in cer-
tain respects, as the head OF the race.
was type Of Messiah, the second
Adam.
The first Adam was the head OF our
Trace, but failed to give the eternal life
desired In Gods providence Messiah
is to be the second Adam, In the sense
that he will regenerate, as his chill
dren, all the posterity of the first
Adam. Messiah Is thus declared in
Eprophecy to be the Everlasting Father
of mankind--the Father or Lifcgiver,
better than Adam, and who win give
to our race everlasting life, instead Of
a heritage of weakness, imperfection
and death
Similarly. Moses not only was real
character. the leader of the nation of
i Israel, but, additionally, he was a type
\ OF greater mediator--Messiah AS
Moses mediated the law covenant for
Israel SO Messiah, the prophet, like
unto Moses. or antitypical Of him
(Acts Iii. 23), Is to be the Mediator of
1sraefs new covenant, under which
the Abrahamic' blessings will reach
them and through them reach all the
families OF the earth Ger. xxi, 31).
| Similarly, Aaron was type of the
higher priesthood and it's better sacri-
fices connected with the new cove
nant. SO, also. the under-Driests and
the Levites, additional to their own
experiences, served, IN Gods provi-
dence, as types Of the higher institu-
tions by which the new covenant will
be inaugurated shortly.
On this occasion we ask your atten-
ton to Abraham, known in the Scrip
lures as the friend of God, as the
father of the faithful, and to his son
Isaac the son of promise, born out of
the natural order, miraculously, when
his mother was old; also to Isaacs'
Iwife. Rebecca. selected by Abraham
\ to be the companion and joint-heir
with his son Isaac in his inheritance.
These personages lived their lives
wholly unconscious of the fact that
God was using them and overruling
their affairs SO as to make of them
1 prophetic figures of His own great
plan of the ages. These pe-pictures
! are always to be read in full harmony
4 with the inspired writings Of the Bible
and never to be understood in contra
| diction of the same.
II Abraham Type Of God.
n Not everything that Abraham did,
II however, is to be esteemed typical. In
a general way this grand man of the
past looms up before our minds as a
monument Of faith and integrity and
n Justice The blessings promised to go,
1 through him to his seed, which would
constitute him the father Of many ma
tions. made Of him. as st. Paul points
l out, a type of the Almighty, from
whom flows every good and every per-
4 feet gift-from whom proceeds the
\ blessing which ultimately Is to flow
! through Messiah His Son. and through
Israel. His people, unto all the families
of the earth.
All Christians. presumably are
\ aware of st. Paul's Interpretation of
1 Abraham and his family as types. As
A Abraham typified God, SO his wife
A typified the covenant through which
| the vitality of the promise ultimately
Edevelops the seed of promise-lsaac IN
a type, and Messiah in the antitype.
| St. Paul also explains that Sarahs
servant, Hagar, at Sarah's wish, be-
came for time her representative
with Abraham and brought forth lsh-
mael Hagar st. Paul explains, typi-
| fled the law covenant, vitalized by the
| gracious arrangements of the same
1 God and Father And Hagar's son, lit
era)ly Abrahams first born. typified
1 the Jewish nation, the first develop
ment under the covenant.
| AS Abraham loved Isaac and desired
a blessing upon him. so God loved Is
| rael and desired Il blessing upon Israel,
| the offspring of the law covenant.
| Nevertheless, as Ishmael, the offspring
! OF the bond-woman, was declared not
to be the primary heir of the Abra-
/ hamic promise, but a secondary one.
so the children of Israel, the Offspring
| of the law covenant. were not intends
| ed to be the spiritual Messiah through
whom the promise declared that the
| blessing should first proceed.
In the type. we see that Sarah
Abraham's wife. who represented the
original Abrahamic covenant, brought
forth a son of her own. Isaac, long
years after the bond-maid. her substl-
tute had brought forth Ishmaei. When
Isaac was born, Sarah repudiated 1sh-
mael and no longer acknowledged him
as her son, but instead, claimed every
thing for Isaac The antitype of this
is that from the time that God began
the development of the spiritual Israel
and set forth the covenant by sacri-
flee" through which this spiritual Is.
rael would be developed-from that
time it began to be clearly manifest
that the chief portion of the promise
Of God to bless the world was not to
be fulfilled through the Ishmael seed,
natural Israel. but through the Isaac
seed--spiritual Israel.
The Well Spring Of Hope for the Jews.
From the first there was manifested
a competition for the Abrahamic