Eve & Adam
Adam was given dominion over all things on the earth, while Eve was associated with him as his bride. Christ will be in dominion over all things, both in heaven and on earth, and His bride, the Church, will be associated with Him (Rev. 21:10,11).
Eve was the first mother, and so she, as her name implies, is called the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). She typifies the Church as the bride associated with Christ in the first and highest place in heaven, the holy Jerusalem.
Eve was formed from a rib taken from Adam’s side while he was in a deep sleep. She is a picture of the Church formed by the death and resurrection of Christ (Gen. 2:22,23). Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Gen. 2:23. (See also Eph. 5:30.)
Rebekah & Isaac
“And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” Gen. 24:67.
Rebekah replaced Sarah, Isaac’s mother, in the tent. In this picture Sarah is Israel in type. Also, we have that which typifies God’s habitation on the earth through the Spirit (Eph. 2:21,22).
The Church took on a Gentile character, when the heathen were saved and brought into the Church through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. The story of Isaac and Rebekah illustrates this.
The testimony of God on the earth, held by Israel in the city of Jerusalem, was then taken away because they had rejected their Messiah. Until that time Jerusalem represented God’s authority and testimony in the earth. Once formed, the Church carried the privilege and responsibility of testimony and discipline on earth among the profession of Christianity. Sad to say, it has failed and is in a state of ruin.
Asenath & Joseph
Asenath means beauty. As Joseph’s bride she is a picture of the bride of Christ in the day of the display of her beauty (Rev. 19:7,8). She is a type of the bride of Christ associated with Him in His greater glory over the earth (Gen. 41:39-45).
Beautiful Esther is another picture of this. She was selected for her beauty by King Ahasuerus, ruler over the whole earth (Esther 2:16-19).
Zipporah & Moses
Zipporah, Moses’s bride, was separated from him while he was away, preparing all things for blessing among the people of God. It reminds us of the Lord when He said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.
“I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.” Psa. 102:7. Zipporah’s name means “sparrow.” This pictures the present time when the believer is in the wilderness as a stranger and a pilgrim.
Abigail & David
Abigail means a father’s joy, a source of joy. It is the bride at home in the Father’s house (Eph. 1:6).
Pharaoh’s Daughter & Solomon
The Egyptian (heathen) daughter of Pharaoh sits with Solomon on his glorious throne, a type of the Church reigning with Christ in His millennial kingdom on earth. Solomon chose the daughter of Pharaoh for a bride. She formerly belonged to Egypt, a slave to the pleasures of sin. The Church, the bride of Christ, was set free from the temporary pleasures of sin (Heb. 11:25,26).
The Prophecy of Caiaphas
When the Jewish leaders held a council meeting to try and decide what to do about Jesus, Caiaphas the high priest said,
“Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” John 11:49-52.
In Israel when the high priest went into the holy place, he had a breastplate of judgment upon his heart for a memorial before the Lord. He was to bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart continually (Ex. 28:29,30). On this breastplate he was to have “the Urim and the Thummim.”
Caiaphas prophesied under constraint when he gave the last Urim and Thummim sentence. As high priest he not only acted as a judge to condemn Jesus to death, but he also prophesied as to the Church. His prophecy was fulfilled at Pentecost. What he said was not his choice, but God made him say it as a type of Christ bearing the breastplate of judgment upon His heart for His people forever.
Urim means “light” or “revelation,” and Thummim means “perfection” or “truth,” so we have in this type Christ as the only source of revelation and truth. Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6. We see the calling of the Church, which followed His death and resurrection, indicated by the judgment upon the breastplate over the heart.
In Caiaphas’s prophecy “the children scattered abroad” are those who formed the Church at Pentecost. He said, “And not for that nation only,” indicating that not only the Jew but also Gentiles would be blessed by His death.