ALTHOUGH many have been prevented by holidays and other causes from sending in any results of study, yet we are glad to find that many continue to take an interest in the subjects suggested. Several questions have been raised in connection with the subject of the Red Sea. It is not an easy subject, and our space last month was devoted more to an outline of the main character of the Passover, the Red Sea, and the Jordan, as compared with one another; than to an actual study of the subject of the Red Sea. However, we were glad to find that many had taken the trouble to trace out the passages in which the crossing of the Red Sea is mentioned.
One correspondent asks:
“Is 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11, sufficient warrant for finding types in the Old Testament? J. N. D. translates ‘types’ by ‘ensamples’ in these verses.”
While these two scriptures do state plainly that Israel’s history is a type of our own, and that the principles of God’s grace and government do not change, yet we are shown by many other passages how the Spirit of God applies the events recorded in the Old Testament in a typical way. For instance, the Lord Himself applies the type of the brazen serpent in John 3:15; Paul applies the justification of Abraham, the mercy-seat, and others in Romans as types of God’s present ways of grace; the Passover and unleavened bread in 1 Corinthians 5; Hagar in Galatians 4, and so forth. The New Testament itself is the guide to the application of the types of the Old, and the only way to avoid fanciful interpretation is to carefully trace out the way in which the Lord Himself and the apostles by the Holy Ghost make use of the Old Testament.
A correspondent says:
“Colossians 1:13 and 3:2 seem to take us over the Jordan.”
A careful reading of Colossians brings out clearly that the believer is there shown as one who has died with Christ, and therefore has done with the principles regulating the world’s ways (rudiments of the world), and has risen with Christ, and therefore has his life and interests in heaven.
The believer is not seen in the heavenlies, but as a man dead and risen, living here on the earth with a new life that owes nothing to, and needs nothing from, the world with its philosophy and religion. “Christ is all and in all.”
So Colossians cannot exactly be said to bring us over Jordan as to the type.
We hope (D.V.) to publish the results of the study of the fifteenth of Exodus in next month’s issue. Will any who wish to take up the subjects suggested from month to month kindly do so without waiting to send in name and address first and to receive a number? Numbers will not be given in future, and we shall be thankful for communications from any children of God on the subjects suggested.
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For September the subject will be (D.V.) The Journey from the Red Sea to Sinai (Ex. 16-18). The difference between this part of the wilderness journey and the other parts of it should be sought out; also the different steps in it, and the meanings of them. May the Lord give us by the study of His Word “to increase in the knowledge of His will,” with the blessed practical results accompanying that knowledge (Phil. 1:9-11, and Col. 1:9-11).