The old testament is replete with examples of this phenomenon; how that God works with men, then the workings of men following God's beginning of the work: Abel by faith offering a more excellent sacrifice than Cain (Because faith is now and was then, a fruit of the Spirit, God reached Abel before Abel made any motion toward God), all of the faithful cited in the classic eleventh chapter of Hebrews had been touched by God causing them to act because He gave them faith and prompted them to obey the teaching they had received.  Without faith it is impossible to please God and because faith is the gift of God, the fruit of the Spirit (see Eph. 2:8 & Gal. 5:22), everyone who has faith has been quickened by the Spirit and is a son of God. (See Rom. 8:14.)

     Obviously, in a work of this size, it is impossible to notice everyone of the examples given in the old testament, but let us look particularly at Abraham first.  Abraham was dwelling in Ur of the Chaldees when God appeared to him and told him to leave the land of his nativity and go into a land that God would show him.  Is not this the experience of everyone who is touched by the hand of God; everyone who is mature and rational enough to have a measure of understanding.  Abraham was looking for that city which had foundations whose builder and maker was God; a place of refuge, peace, righteousness and joy.  This is what occurs in the life of all those who are called by His grace.  They may not have enough knowledge to understand--they may have no understanding--but the feeling of loneliness, of discontent for something better is manifest in all of them.  God guided Abraham to Canaan, but in the process he and Sarah went into Egypt, just as all of us do. 

     Finally, Abraham and Lot reached the land of Canaan; however, it was not the heavenly place for which Abraham longed, but it was a temporary home and indeed a good land.  God told Abraham that all the land between the Nile and Euphrates belonged to him and to his seed forever.  Canaan's land was a type or shadow of the gospel church during the new testament era.

     Due to the fact that all of God's children are children of Abraham by promise (see Gal. 4:28), we need to recognize that the land of Canaan is ours by promise, but just as was portrayed by the deliverance from Egypt of Jacob's posterity.  Jacob is the lot of God's people; the lot of his inheritance. (See Deut. 32:9.) All of Jacob's posterity went into Egypt willingly--God did not force them to go.  Men go into sin willingly.  God never tempted any man to sin.  God had already made provisions for the welfare of Jacob's family by his providence in allowing Joseph to be taken captive because he knew what would happen; yet we cannot charge God with wrong doing in this.  When men go into sin, God does not tempt them to do so or in any way cause them to become enslaved in it, and He is perfectly just in holding everyone of his creatures accountable for their conduct and had every right to decree the penalty of death for each and every transgression of His holy laws.  All of His chosen people go into the bondage of sin of their own free will; in fact, everyone of the posterity of Adam inherited this trait of sin and God had no moral obligation to any of them to save them from eternal destruction; but according to his mercy and grace, as has been before stated, he has made all that he loved sons and determined to bring them all out of the bondage of sin-to set them free from being bondslaves to sin--then make it possible for a remnant of them to enter the land of Canaan; the number being limited by their actions and the actions of their leaders, not by any absolute decrees of God.  Also, when the white throne judgment is carried out, everyone who is cast into the lake of fire will go there because of the sins that he willingly committed.  He will die for his own sins, not because God predestinated him to go to hell. 

     In fact, not one of the spiritual heirs of Abraham will be judged there; their names are in the book of life and only those whose names are not in the book of life will be judged out of the things written in the books. (See Rev. 20:15.)

     Now, left us look more closely at the Israelites in Egypt. This presents a very striking picture of God's children in every age.  Remember that Egypt represents the bondage of sin and every Israelite in bondage there--bondslaves to be exact.  They could not deliver themselves even though they entered by their own free will. They had become hopelessly enslaved.  Is this not the way all of Adam's posterity do? They are sinners by nature; but when they come to the realization that they are sinners (this is when God writes his law in their hearts), then they become aware that there is something wrong in their lives and they long to be delivered from their miserable state.  The Israelites could not deliver themselves and began to cry to God to deliver, or at least they began to cry in their miserable state in Egypt. (See Exodus 3:7.)

     Until they became aware of their bondage, there was no desire to depart from Egypt.  Notice how true the type is.  God saw the affliction of HIS PEOPLE and heard their cry.  They WERE his people, but had not been delivered to the place that they could escape their enslavers.  When they were delivered across the Red Sea, they had an experience of grace--they knew that something had happened to them and they were able to sing the song of redemption. 

     This experience is referred to by many today as the time they "got saved." Actually, this was a deliverance, but it was not the time they became God's children.  They were HIS PEOPLE before they ever came out of Egypt.  When people today realize that they are in bondage to sin, they need to cry to God to deliver them because He hears every feeble cry of his beloved.  It seems that many have not been able to make the distinction between becoming a child of God and being delivered from bond slavery.  Dead men do not cry to God; spiritually alive men do that.  The experiences of many who have never known anything about the gospel testify to that.  There is a story about an old Indian who was introduced to Christianity by an early minister.  The Indian believed that he would go to the happy hunting ground, but also recognized that he had offended, by his sins, the Great Spirit.  He could not converse very well with the minister but said that he could show the minister why he had this hope of eternal happy hunting.  The Indian found a worm, piled up a considerable little mound of dry leaves on a barren place of earth, hollowed out the center of the leaves, leaving a small basin-like place in the center.  He then put the worm in the center of the leaves, went to the first and kindled the entire outside of the ring of leaves.  As the flames began to cause the worm to feel a little discomfort, the Indian reached down, carefully lifted the worm out and placed him in a safe place; then pointed to himself, then to heaven as tears welled up in his eyes.  He knew nothing of the story of the deliverance of God's people from Egypt; yet he had a Read Sea experience in the quiet forest sometime in his past life.  David said:

     "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a    new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord."         (Psalm 40:1-3.)

      Many of God's children can relate an experience such as this, but a goodly number cannot.  Since the Red Sea experience was a type of this, we might think that everyone who saw this miraculous deliverance could relate to it.  I am sure that many of the children who finally went into Canaan did not remember anything about it.  God's children who have an experience of grace in their young and tender years cannot be expected to remember the wonders of it.

     All this has to do with the state of God's children and no their standing.  They were His legal children when they went into Egypt; were His vital born-again children when they became aware of their oppression; were conscious that He cared for them when they crossed the Red Sea, and were His experiential children during the forty (40) years of wandering in the wilderness.  However, not one of them could really be classed as a disciple.  God has much more in store for His people than just an experience of grace.  As mentioned earlier, God has given an inheritance to His people for their benefit while they live in this world; a land of Canaan, the gospel church.  If we carefully observe the experiences of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan, we can see much of the situation that confronts God's children while they are pilgrims and strangers in this land.

     After the Red Sea experience and the Hallelujah singing following the destruction of the Egyptian host, it was not long until they began to long for the leeks and garlic's and flesh pots of Egypt.  They finally said that it would have been better for them to endure the slavery of Egypt than to perish in the wilderness.  This was because neither the new birth nor an experience of grace can set us free from the old fleshly nature that we will have to wear until we drop this robe of flesh.  The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 gives us the experience that he had.   After the Damascus road experience (Acts 9:1-22), he still found that when he would do good that evil was present with him.  With his mind he served the law of God and with his flesh the law of sin.  Moses told the Israelites and Ananias told Paul what THEY needed to do.  You see, God had set all of them free from bondage and made it possible for them to be set free from being slaves to sin.  The new birth and the grace experience sets one free from being a bondslave to sin.  It does not set him free from being a sinner; it simply gives him power to overcome much of the sin in his life.  His adversary, the devil, works on the old fleshly nature and causes it to cry out for the leeks and the garlics, but God has devised means "that his banished be not expelled from him," not only in eternity--but also in this life--that they may have his fellowship and his peace.

     The wilderness experience of the Israelites should teach us much about the gospel day.  After one has had an experience of grace, he begins to thirst for spiritual things.  He is usually in a wilderness of religious thinking and finds there is not much "water" in the wilderness.  God is merciful and provides enough to keep him going, but this is insufficient to really slack his spiritual longings. occasionally, he comes to an Elam where there are seventy (70) palm trees and twelve (12) springs of water.  What a blessing! But alas, it too soon comes to an end and there is thirst again.  Never enough Spiritual drink in the Wilderness of Sin!

     There is also spiritual hunger.  God provided manna to sustain the Israelites, but it did not satisfy their longing for balanced meals.  It was a daily task to gather it, and it would only keep overnight on the night that the sabbath began.  It could not be stored.  I am sure that it was a completely balanced food that was sufficient in nutrition for both elderly and children and all in between, but evidently it did not satisfy the longing for strong meat that was present among many of the wilderness pilgrims.  God sent quails among them to provide them with meat; but that, in the course of forty (40) years, must have been a very unappetizing diet.  Still, I see many spiritual Israelites today who will not leave the wilderness and pay the price required to come into the church--to truly be a disciple--where there is plenty and to spare. This I cannot understand.

     In Jesus ministry, He was often moved with compassion on the multitude and said they were as sheep having no shepherd. (Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34.) God's people have ever been prone to go astray when they do not have a leader.  When God called Moses up on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:20), and Moses stayed on the mount longer than the Israelites expected, they went astray.  They did the very thing that so many in the wilderness do today.

     God had given instructions for all the children of Israel to borrow from their Egyptian neighbors, raiment and jewelry, things for the outward adorning of the body.  God caused them to find favor in the sight of the Egyptians and they left Egypt with a considerable quantity of gold.  In a sense, Egypt represents the moral laws of God.  It is under these laws that men become sinners before God.  When the Israelites left Egypt, they were not to leave the moral laws behind.  These laws were for the outward adorning of the body, but had no effect on the standing of God's people before God.

     It has often been asserted that the doctrine of election and predestination to glory leads to antinomianism; that it is no deterrent to sinning.  This example in Exodus should forever put such notions to rest.  Egypt represents the moral laws of God which are strictly for the guidance of those under them.  As stated elsewhere in this work, every man on earth is under the jurisdiction of these laws.  However, it is easy for God's children to come to the conclusion that when they were set free from sin, that they were also set free from this set of laws.  This is not the case and will be considered later.  When one is born again, he is still obligated to keep these moral laws, but the penalty for not keeping them has been changed from death to appropriate chastening.

     On the other hand, there is widespread belief that they are to be kept and that the keeping will make those who keep them righteous enough to stand in God's presence.  This is the example given in Exodus.  The jewelry that the Israelites borrowed from Egypt was strictly for the outward adorning of their persons.  They were obligated to wear all that God caused them to find favor to receive.  However, it appears that Satan was able to prey upon their humanistic tendencies and instill in their minds that what would adorn their bodies outwardly would deliver them from the bondage of sin.  It seems to me this notion is still very present among Christians today.  If you start down the street asking every person you meet the following question, I think you will be surprised at the answers you get.  The question: "If a man does enough good in the world and keeps all the laws of God, will that take him to heaven?" I dare say that probably fifty percent (50%) will agree that they will go to heaven.  Those who believe such are just as guilty of making a calf as Aaron and the children of Israel were then Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool and the people bowed down to worship that golden calf; going back to the idolatrous worship of the Egyptians who believed they could appease their God by doing things to adorn themselves outwardly, not realizing that it takes an inward work to make one "accepted in the beloved." Men in the wilderness will never reach the land of Canaan as long as they subscribe to the notion that by keeping some of God's commandments they can go to glory, whether those commandments pertain to the decalogue or to the instructions of the gospel.

     Not only did this displease God exceedingly, it brought His wrath down upon those who were partakers in the deed.  Everyone who contributed to the stock for making the calf was guilty, and Moses took the calf and burnt it in the fire, ground it to powder, sprinkled it on their source of drinking water and made them drink it. Have you made such a calf? If you have made a calf, trying to find a sense of direction in your life, I hope you like burning idols, ground and sprinkled in your spiritual water.  God will not overlook your idolatry.

     Moses, as a type of your Lord, Christ, made intercession with God to prevent utter destruction of those who made the calf; yet Moses administered the chastening which these Israelites deserved.   This agrees perfectly with 2 Cor. 5:10.  Every heir of heaven must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body.  The chastening hand of Christ comes on all of His people because of their disobedience while they live in this world.  Not being a disciple, not being in the church does not prevent the chastening hand of the Lord coming on His people: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent." (Rev. 3:19.)

    It may be thought that the redemption of Christ set all of His people free from chastisement.  Such a notion is nowhere presented in scripture.  The crossing of the Red Sea was a picture of redemption by power, but in no way prevented the correcting hand of God from coming on those He had redeemed.  The blood on the door-posts and lintels of the houses in Egypt before the death angel came through protected the firstborn and delivered everyone of them from that woe and the follow-up delivered all of them into the freedom of the wilderness, yet did not prevent many of them from falling in the wilderness.  Jesus set His people free from the law of sin and death, but brought them under the law of the spirit of life. (See Rom. 8:2.) Everyone who was redeemed by His blood and who has been washed by the washing of regeneration has come under law to Christ; the law of the spirit of life.  There was only one penalty under the law of sin and death regardless of the transgression.  Under the law of sin and death, he that is guilty of the least is guilty of the whole.  Under the law of the spirit of life, the punishment is according to the severity of the offense.  And more than that, there is forgiveness under this law after proper petition and action. (More about this later.)

     We must remember that the experiences in the wilderness were not those of disciples, but of pilgrims.  God took care of them, but they were in constant desire of something that they did not have.  Their humanistic tendency surfaced time after time, and God sent one after another adversity upon them; yet they still did not harken to the voice of the Lord nor obey his commandments.  They were His people in a strange land, yet would not do His commandments that they might find the peace that He had promised them.  They turned everyone to his own way, yet God laid all of their iniquities upon the Son. (See Isa. 53:5-6.) They had all been set free from the law of sin and death as before observed.

     There is another aspect of the wilderness journey that needs to be examined carefully.  This pertains to the Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle service.  With the advent of Christ and the end of the ceremonial service, every child of God was set aside to the priesthood to become his own priest, Jesus being the high priest who made the atonement offering once and for all. (See Heb. 10:9-14.) The Levitical priesthood can be of much help to us in understanding the role of the Christian in this life.  The apostle Peter addressed all the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and called them a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood; so we may infer that every elect, born-again child of God, has been set apart to the priesthood--he can become his own priest because he can now enter into the holiest by a new and living way. (See Heb. 10:19-22.) When we look back to the wilderness experience of the Levites, we see that they had to become of age: Thirty (30) years under the law of Moses; under grace it is when they are born again.  They were brought to the door of the tabernacle, then they were washed with water--they did not wash themselves--then they were ready for the priestly garments, the linen breeches which were put upon them by others. This is typical of the washing of regeneration and clothing with the righteousness of Christ.  Every born-again heir of God has been washed by the washing of regeneration, then is made ready for the priestly garments.  After the washing, Aaron and his sons were clothed with the vestments of the priesthood; but after this consecration, they had to put on the garments themselves.  Also, there was a laver in the outer court where they had to wash their hands and feet before they went into service.  In the first washing they were passive; in the second, in the outer court, they were active.  The first washing fitted them for the priestly garments; the second washing fitted them for service.  It takes both washings to be a true priest, a true disciple.  The first washing fitted for heaven; the second fitted for service.  In order to serve in the tabernacle (a type of the gospel church), each had to wear the coat, the girdle, and the bonnet at all times.  Being a disciple requires keeping ourselves ready by the outward adorning of our body.  We cannot be a disciple, we cannot serve in the church, unless we put on the priestly garments, unless we keep His commandments; do the things he has told us to do.

     The tabernacle itself, where the priests were to serve, had no outward beauty or natural appeal to allure any to come into its interior.  It was completely enclosed with badger skins, covering up all the beauty of the broidered curtains, the accia wood inlaid with gold and the heavenly blue of the ceiling tapestry.  There was no hint from the outside of the ram's skins dyed red that covered the complete interior under the badger skins.  Only those who have some understanding of the wonders of redemption by blood can appreciate the covering of the red skins and enter in to serve under the protecting canopy of the blood of the high priest that offered himself without spot to God.  Only those who enter into its sanctified interior ever behold the glory of its scarlet, purple and royal-blue curtains.  There is no way for one who does not enter into service, who does not enter into full discipleship, to behold the majesty, the solemnity and the heavenly beauty of the tabernacle antitype, the gospel church.

     There is one more aspect of the gospel church portrayed by the tabernacle which is very important.  When the children of Israel moved from one location to another, the tabernacle was moved with them. (There is never a church where there are not children of God--children of God make the church; the church does not make children of God.) It was so set up in every place so that the entrance to it was through the tribe of Judah.  This is particularly significant.  It could not be entered into in any other way.  So it is with the church today.  No one can come into the church, except through the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ the Lord.  It is only through His redeeming blood that men are made suitable for heaven, and it is only through his righteousness that men are fitted for a home in the church.  Often times men feel that they are not worthy to live in the church, to serve as a priest in the tabernacle of God, but since entrance is only through the tribe of Judah (and our elder brother, Jesus Christ, is of the tribe of Judah), by our new birth we have been fitted to enter into His courts because we also have been born of the kingly line and have a right to be called a "royal priesthood." (1 Peter 2:9.)

      All of His children have a right to be called Jews because they are Jews inwardly. (See Rom. 2:29.) This alone with no other qualifications gives men a right to serve here, although there are other requirements that must be met before one can truly be a priest.  Even though every Levitical priest came into the outer court through the tribe of Judah, he had to put on the priestly garments before he could serve in the tabernacle.  

     Although there are many types in the old testament scriptures that point to Christ and to discipleship, we deem it not necessary to look at more than just a few of them and hope that this brief look will help the student of the old scriptures to examine them carefully for the types presented that each one may get a clearer picture of what it means to be a Christian; to be a true disciple and truly have an abundant life in this world.  In John 10:10, Jesus gives the exact reason for His coming; that His beloved might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.  Then lest we (and they) misunderstand, in verse 27-28, he says: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." The old testament pointed to the coming of Christ and what He would accomplish; the new testament verifies and says that it is done.