Vol. 12  The Symbolic Code  No. 5

Vol. 12     No. 5


MARCH, 1957


A STUDY IN TYPOLOGY 3


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A STUDY IN TYPOLOGY

(The sermon which follows was given by Brother V.T. Houteff, July 15, 1944.)

   Our study for this afternoon is based on the statement found in

Isa. 41:21-23 -- "Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the
King of Jacob.  Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall  happen: let them shew the
former things,  what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or
declare us things for to come.  Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that
ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.'"

   God is challenging the world not only to predict the future, but to explain also what bearing the
past has on the future, that they may show that they are gods.  The challenge itself, implies that
none but God knows "the latter end" of "the former things."  Now let us read

Isa. 41:4 -- "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?  I the
Lord, the first, and with the last;  I am He."

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PICTURE


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   God here propounds the question as to who had foreseen and declared the generations that
were to come from the very beginning even to the very end of time.  Then He answers His own
question, -- "I, the Lord...I am He."

   This scripture plainly shows that God has declared the generations of today from the beginning
of time, and that the former things are significant in that they point forward, or are otherwise
related, to present or future events or conditions.  With the help of this chart I believe we shall be
able to see a little of God's work, particularly in respect to how He has pictured the generations of
today in the generations of yesterday.

   Let us turn now to

Gen. 3:15 -- "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

   We cannot possibly misunderstand what woman God meant in this scripture, for there was only
one woman -- Eve -- then in the earth.  In the presence of Adam and Eve and the serpent, God
spoke these words predicting the future outcome of Eve's seed and the serpent.  Eve's children
were to have their heel bruised by the serpent, the Devil.  And in return, the children of Eve, the
human family, were to

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bruise the Devil's head, the serpent's head.  Now you know that even if one's leg were to be
amputated, one can live on; but when one is decapitated his life immediately ends.  God predicted
here that there was to be enmity between good and evil all through time.  And though the serpent
would wound the human family, yet the descendants of Adam and Eve, were finally to bruise
Satan's head.  "But," you may say, "Christ is to do that."  I do not wish to dispute your word, but
actually it is Christ through the human family that is to accomplish it.  For in Jeremiah 51:20 God
Himself declares that Israel is to be His battle ax, His weapon of war; for with Israel will He break
in pieces the nations.  Then though it is to be accomplished by the will and direction of Christ, yet
Christ will do it through His people.  In this way His people who have been wounded by Satan,
will finally bruise Satan's head.

   To represent the period of church history symbolized by Eve, we have assigned to her the first
of the three sections on the chart.

   Next in the line of typology we have Hagar and Ishmael, and Sarah and Isaac.  They, too are
types of the church, as you already know from the fourth chapter of Galatians.  In this chapter,
Paul makes it plain that Hagar was a type of the Old Testament church, the Jewish church -- and
that Sarah was a type of the New Testament church, the Christian church.  With

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the first period symbolized by Eve herself; the second symbolized by Hagar; and the third
symbolized by Sarah, we see that church history is divided into three periods.

   In the first period -- Eve's period -- there was no particular line save that of Cain and Abel,
through which the seed of the woman was at last to bruise Satan's head.  And since Cain, being
evil, could not become that line of seed, and since Abel was now dead, someone else was needed
to carry on the line of righteous seed.  Let us read

Gen. 4:25 -- "And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For
God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew."

   God appointed Seth to stand in Abel's stead, and through the line of Seth was God to carry on
His purpose for the human race.

   Proceeding on to the next period, we come to Hagar and Ishmael. Providence, you recall,
brought Hagar and Ishmael into the home of  Abraham.  You well know the circumstances which
brought it about: God had promised a son to Sarah, but years passed without the promise being
fulfilled to her and she grew impatient over the long delay.  In order to pacify Sarah, God
permitted that Hagar become Abraham's

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wife, and Ishmael was born to them.  You can see that this arrangement was not a necessary part
of God's plan.  In fact, it was Sarah's plan whereby she could at least vicariously have a son, if she
were not to have one of her own.

   According to Paul in Galatians 4, Hagar typified the Jewish church, and Ishmael her children. 
Through it all we see that it was God's plan from the beginning to have only the church born of
the Spirit -- the Christian church.  But as in the case of Hagar and the birth of Ishmael, the Jewish
church, which was born after the flesh only and not of the Spirit, came into being.  Through the
experience of Hagar and Ishmael, Providence, you see, wrote both history and prophecy, for it
foreshadowed the coming of the Jewish church.

   After Isaac was born, trouble came into the home of Abraham, and God instructed him to put
away Hagar and her son, for her son was not to be heir with Ishmael.  But why did God direct
Abraham to do this, if it was not an allegory?  I do not believe that God did it  because He wanted
to be mean to Ishmael.  I believe He did it because He was writing both history and also prophecy
in this experience.

   If it is an allegory, then what is its meaning? -- It means that when the Jewish people, the
children of the Jewish church, failed to be converted and reconciled to God, failed to be

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born again and become the children of Sarah -- born by the Spirit, by the will and the power of
God which the miraculous birth of Isaac typified, -- when they failed to do this, they met with the
sad experience which was typified by Ishmael and Hagar's being sent  away from Abraham.  It
was God in the antitype who cast off the Old Testament church and her people -- the unconverted
Jewish people, -- so that the children of the Old Testament  church should not be heirs with Isaac
-- the children of the New Testament church, -- for  they have nothing in common.

   This plainly says that the Jews that failed to accept Christ, and thereby failed to receive the
second birth, shall therefore never, never have a part in the Kingdom of God.  And if the
unconverted Jew cannot inherit the Kingdom, certainly the unconverted Christian  and the
unconverted Gentile cannot be heirs of the Kingdom of God, either.

   Following the Jewish church typified by Ishmael, we have next the church which originated with
a people from the same nation but who received the second birth, a birth that is impossible for
man to give, just as by nature it was impossible for Isaac to  be born to Sarah in her old age.  God
alone through His Spirit and His promises can give the second birth, just as it was God alone who
could make possible Isaac's birth.  That is why Isaac represents

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the New testament church or the people of the New Testament church.  Sarah typified the church
itself.   Sarah and Isaac together  represented the New Testament church and her children.

   We have now discussed three periods: (1) the period represented by Eve, (2) the period
represented by Hagar; and (3) the period  represented by Sarah.  Thus we have covered one part
of the typology.

   Just as there were three sections or divisions of the church, so also there are three sections of
the true priesthood.  You know that the  priesthood in the time of the Jewish church was the
Levitical priesthood, and it was not in existence before Israel left Egypt, and it is not the true
priesthood today.  Before the Levitical priesthood, there was Melchizedek who had neither father
nor mother, neither  beginning of days nor end of days, and he was the priest of the Most High
God, king of Salem, king of peace.  To him Abraham paid his tithes.  Then the three sections of
the priesthood lines up thus: (1) in the period from Adam and Eve to the time of Israel, we have
Melchizedek; (2) to the Christian era, we have the Levitical priesthood; and (3) in the Christian
period we have the priesthood of Christ Himself.  So much for the priesthood.

   We are ready now to study the typology of

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the children of the church.  To Eve was born first Cain and Abel.  Cain was wicked and Abel was
righteous.  In the typology of Abraham's two sons Ishmael and Isaac, Ishmael, who taunted Isaac,
was put aside and Isaac was chosen.  Then came Esau and Jacob, again one being evil and the
other good.  Thus we see that through the types there were two classes of children in the history
of the church -- the good and the bad.

   In the case of Cain and Abel, Cain who should have led out in true worship since he was the
eldest son, chose instead not to worship God according to His commands; whereas Abel was a
true worshipper of God.  Because God accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's, he persecuted
and slew Abel.  This incident served to demonstrate the actions of church leaders who were
determined to lead God's people wrong and even resorted to martyring those who refused to be
led wrong.

   Next in line came Ishmael and Isaac.  Ishmael was the older, Isaac was the younger.  But
Ishmael and Hagar were sent away because  he persecuted Isaac and Hagar persecuted Sarah. 
This friction and trouble in Abraham's home foreshadowed the trouble that came later between the
converted Jew and the unconverted Jew in the Christian church at the beginning of the Christian
dispensation.  God's casting away Hagar who persecuted Sarah, and Ishmael who

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persecuted Isaac, typified His casting away the Jewish nation and its people that would not
become converted to Christianity.

   In the experience of Esau and Jacob we find still another allegory which carries the line of
church history still further as we shall see a little later.  Of these twins, Esau was the older and
Jacob was the younger.  It was therefore Esau's privilege to be the spiritual leader of the family,
and through Esau the twelve tribes of Israel were to come.  Besides this blessing, Christ Himself
was to come through Esau's line of posterity.  But because he was evil and held in low esteem his
birthright  privileges, he lost them to his brother Jacob who coveted the spiritual blessings.  After
the momentous transaction was consummated in which Jacob purchased Esau's birthright for a
bowl of pottage, then Esau reflected upon the deal and deeply regretted it.  Since there was no
way for him to recover his loss as long as Jacob was living, he at once sought to persecute and kill
Jacob.  This is the circumstance that drove Jacob from his home to another country.

   Now if the experience of Jacob and Esau does constitute an allegory, where in church history
does it apply?  Since Ishmael was a type of the Jewish church and Isaac was a type of the
Christian, then we must look sometime in the Christian dispensation for an experience similar to
Jacob and Esau's, for they were

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Isaac's sons.  Therefore, sometime during the Christian period two classes of people were to be
born to the Christian church -- one evil and one good.

   Before going further in the study of Esau and Jacob s typology we need to spend a few
moments on this part of our chart, which shows the line of children (people) born to this line of
women representing the church's history in its three divisions.  To make up the church there must
be the mother (the agency which embodies the Truth), the children (the people brought into the
church), and the priesthood.  These three constitute the living church on earth.

   First in the line of the children of God in the living church is Seth who was appointed to fill
Abel's place.  After Seth was Isaac whom God chose in preference to Ishmael.  After Isaac came
Jacob who obtained from Esau the birthright which brought great spiritual blessings.  Do you not
see that one child from each of the three periods was used to typify the continuance of the
children of God in the church?

   The living church represented also by the woman of Revelation 12,  was in existence from Eden
and will continue to the time the Holy City receives the saints.  These three good children -- Seth,
Isaac, and Jacob -- were her seed, her children through time, and it was through

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this line of descendants that the kingdom temporal -- the kingdom of Israel -- was made up.  It
took all three to make up the people who constituted the kingdom, for not any one of these types
did it.

   But, according to Revelation 12, the church was at sometime to leave the vineyard (the
kingdom) and go into the Gentile world.  This phase of the church's history is not typified either in
Seth's or Isaac's experience.  Only in Jacob's life do we find the type for it.

   Just as it was Esau's persecution of Jacob that caused Jacob to leave Palestine, so also it was the
persecution by the unconverted Jews against the Christians which caused them to leave Palestine
and go to the Gentile nations.

   It was the line of Seth, and Isaac, and Jacob that made possible the kingdom of Israel in
Palestine.  But if the trouble that came between  the Christian Jew and the unconverted Jew was
the actual cause of the woman's leaving the kingdom and going into the Gentile world,  who came
into the Gentile world?  Was it the Isaacites, and Ishmaelites, or the Sethites, or was it some
other?  It was the Jacobites in the Jacobite period who came to the Gentile world.  Therefore we
now see that the church is in the Jacobite period.  We also are able to see from the further
development of Jacob's type that from this Gentile world the living church is to

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return to Palestine, just as the Bible prophesies that it will.

   We shall now devote a few moments to the study of Jacob, the type, in relation to the church in
the antitype.  When Jacob left his home in Palestine, while he was on his way to Padanaram, God
met him and gave him his promises that He would be with him, and God fulfilled His promises. 
Likewise, when the church left the vineyard, God's Promise was with her that He would not
forsake her in the Gentile world.  While Jacob was in Padanaram away from home, he became
very rich and his household increased greatly.  Then he was commanded to return home.  So it
will be today in the antitype.  The time will come when the church is to be multiplied and then
return home.  But when Jacob left his father-in-law's house, and was on the way back to Palestine,
you remember that he had his great time of trouble.  It happened before he reached Palestine, his
homeland.  He wrestled in anguish all night with God, and it was then that his name was changed
from Jacob to Israel.

   We are not now living in the antitypical time of the changed name, Israel, but we are living in
the antitypical "Jacob" time.  You might say that Jacob is the fleshly name, a name that does not
spell either prince or saint.  Why are we still in the time portrayed by Jacob's sin-denoting name?
-- Because we have not yet

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started for home.  When we start for home as did Jacob, we, too, shall meet with our time of
trouble, even Jacob's time of trouble.  And at that time we shall become thoroughly converted  to
God forever, and our name will be changed as is foretold in Isaiah 61:6, and it will  be a name that
the Lord Himself will give us.  When we demonstrate that we are truly converted, then this great
promised blessing will come to us.  And when our name has been changed it signifies that we are
certain candidates for entrance into the Kingdom eternal.

   In our study today we have travelled over the road the church has gone through its long history. 
Our journey brought us through the patriarchal period and then the temporal kingdom age and on
through the sojourn of the church in the Gentile nations.  It has brought us to the place we find
ourselves now -- on the verge of leaving for the Kingdom eternal, which also means that we are
about  to go through our time of trouble and have our name changed, then to be accepted into the
Kingdom which God is about to set up that shall last forever.

   For the next few minutes we shall depart from the overall application of the allegories to the
living church through the ages, and let us also see what lesson there is in it for God's church at
this time.

   The natural birth that Rebecca gave to her

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twins -- Esau and Jacob -- symbolizes the church giving spiritual birth to two classes of people,
one good and one bad.  Since though contrary to established custom, the blessing was to be
bestowed upon the younger, it denotes that in the latter-day church experience the class which
should receive the spiritual blessing will forfeit it in favor of the other -- the younger -- class.

   From one of these twins is to come the twelve tribes of the children of Israel -- the spiritual
children of Israel, the 144,000 firstfruits.  When the time comes for the 144,000 to be born, the
class represented by Esau are to have first opportunity to realize the privilege of leading the
144,000 who are to usher in the Kingdom over which Christ is to rule.

   When Sister White, the founder of the Seventh-day Adventist church, first began her work, she
had a vision concerning the gathering of  the 144,000, which was to be the work of the church.  In
the terms of the allegory, then the Seventh-day Adventist church was travailing with the
antitypical twins and was to give birth to Jacobites and Esauites.  Who are the ones that would be
classed Esauites, and who are the ones that would be classed as Jacobites -- the two people that
are in the church now?  The Esauites would be those that are older in the Advent message, those
that came first and led the Jacobites, the younger ones into the church.  And as it was

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the younger all through church history that cherished the spiritual blessings which the older ones
should have possessed for themselves, so it is that the younger children in the Advent Truth --
God's true church today -- is to carry on the line of the living church.  The others, the older ones,
whose right it was by birth to be the leaders of the 144,000 princes standing with the Lamb on
Mt. Zion, and going to lose out.  When Sister White first saw the coming of these twelve
thousand out of the twelve tribes it indicated that the church was travailing with them and they
were soon to be born.  From that time until 1930, when The Shepherd's Rod message came, there
was no more Truth revealed concerning the 144,000.  And since the Rod message explained who
are the 144,000 and announced that now is the time for them to appear, then we may know that
they, the Jacobites, were born, so to speak, from the time the message came.

   But the Jacobites are not yet on Mt. Zion with the Lamb.  Instead, they are in antitypical
Padan-aram where God is sustaining them apart from the Esauites in the church.  That is why one
part of the Adventists are in Washington,  D.C. and the other part is in Texas.  They are  unable to
get along together.

   According to the type we are studying, and also prophecy, the Jacobites are about to gather
themselves and leave the Gentile nations to return

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to their homeland, Palestine.  And on their way they will meet Esau and have their name changed
to Israel.  Since Esau, however, did not go to the Gentile nations, but it was Jacob who left and
came here, there must be Esauites also in Palestine.  Is that not correct?  Though it is true that we
are connected with Edomites in the church, -- those who despise their birthright and whom God
will therefore take away, -- it is equally true that there are other Esauites besides, for the Esauites
in the Seventh-day Adventist church are not all of them.  No, they are not all of the Esauites.  In
addition to the Esauites that are in the Adventist church, there are Esauites in Palestine, and there
are also Esauites in the other churches, too, and from them other Jacobites must be gathered.  Do
you not see that the Esauites are going to be enraged with God's people and give them trouble
behind and a bigger trouble ahead?  And besides all the trouble Jacob will suffer from Esau, he is
also to have Laban running after him!  Somebody typified by Laban will pursue antitypical Jacob
for trouble.

   It is very apparent, then, that God's people will have much trouble among themselves on the
way, and ahead.  Trouble is what they face.  But God will take care of them today as He did
anciently.  He has promised that He will remove the Edomites in the church and He has promised
also to clear away the Edomites and all of the others that are in the land of

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promise, and give it to His people.

   If we had a representation of the Seventh-day Adventist church here along with Protestant and
Catholic representations, and if we  could at one presentation show them the vast amount of
Truth which we have been blessed with both from typology and prophecy, they would be amazed
and confounded.  Just as the woman of Samaria who talked with Jesus at the well, exclaimed
because He was able to reveal all that she had ever done they, too, would ask, "Where did this
people learn so much about what is going to happen?"

   Where did we get it?  Who is the one that  predicted all this?  To find our answer, we  will read
again

Isa. 41:4, 20 -- "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?  I the
Lord, the first, and with the last: I am He....That they may see, and know and consider, and
understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this and the Holy One of Israel hath
created it."

   What effect does all this Truth have upon your heart?  Does it not inspire within you the
consuming desire to possess the promised spiritual blessings that can be ours?  Are you not
becoming daily more intimately acquainted  with God and becoming hid away in Him, that you
may

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be protected in the storm which will soon break upon His people?

   Those who prevail with God for His blessing will be delivered and know no defeat.

==========

IN THE HOUR OF TRIAL

In the hour of trial 
Father, strengthen me; 
Lest by base denial, 
I depart from Thee.

When Thou see'st me waver, 
With a touch recall, 
Nor from Thy dear favor 
Suffer me to fall.

With forbidden pleasures 
Would this vain world charm, 
Or its sordid treasures 
Spread to work me harm;

Grant that I may never 
Fail Thy hand to see; 
Grant that I may ever 
Cast my care on Thee. Amen

--J. Montgomery.

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