Allegories of Redemption
The Old Testament Scriptures are literally full of allegorical illustrations of various features of the Divine Plan. And there is an order to the allegories. Allegories illustrating God’s covenants, for example, are not randomly distributed throughout the Old Testament, but are concentrated in the history of the lives of the patriarchs to whom God’s covenant of blessing was expressed. To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the promise of a blessing to all mankind was given, and in their lives were illustrations of the covenants and classes to be developed in the outworking of God’s promised blessing. Further,
1. In the affliction of Abraham’s natural seed for 400 years we have a picture of the affliction of the spiritual seed of promise during their development in the Gospel Age.
2. In Israel’s deliverance from bondage to Egypt we have an illustration of the deliverance of the saints (firstborn) and the world from the bondage of Satan’s rulership.
3. In God’s dealing with Israel, in their Law and Atonement rites, we have pictures of the processes by which atonement will be made for all mankind – first for the saints, and then for the world.
4. In receiving the inheritance of the promised land Israel typified the saints (two tribes on the east of Jordan), Ancient Worthies (Manasseh, which settled on both sides of the Jordan), and the world (9 tribes on the west of Jordan) coming into the inheritance of rest God intends for each.
5. In the history of the judges, which preceded Israel’s Kingdom, we find allegories of the Gospel age, which precedes the establishment of the Kingdom.
6. In the period of Israel’s kingdom we have pictures which relate to the Kingdom in one sense or another. The first three kings of Israel, each with a reign of 40 years, picture the Typical (Saul), Embryo (David), and Glorious (Solomon) kingdom of God, respectively. The reigns of many of the subsequent kings who were unfaithful represented the false kingdom of Antichrist. The reign of Ahab is prominent in this connection.
7. In the captivity of Israel to Babylon is a picture of the captivity of spiritual Israel to Mystic Babylon.
8. In the building of Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity we find allegories relating to the construction of the walls of New Jerusalem, the Church. The books of Nehemiah and Esther record experiences which illustrate the construction of Christian character and resolve.
EARLY ALLEGORIES OF REDEMPTION
But our focus now is on the allegories formed by the experiences of Adam, Eve, and their sons. They also fit a pattern. As Adam and Eve were the source of man’s fall into sin and death, so their experiences represent mankind in a fallen condition, seeking redemption. As a promise of a seed of deliverance was intimated to Eve, so her sons foreshadow the development of the seed of promise which would deliver mankind.
When Adam and Eve had sinned, they realized a need of a covering. This represents that mankind in their sinful condition require a covering – not of mere clothing, but of righteousness.
What would be suitable? “… and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” We notice two things about this: first, that this covering was provided by Adam and Eve, rather than God, and second, that this covering was evidently unsuitable since God provided them with animal skins later.
“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21)
Bible Students have seen this to mean, typically, that God provides mankind a covering of righteousness at the cost of life – the shedding of blood being necessary to secure the skins of the animal. In the reality, the cost was the life of Jesus’ human nature. The benefits of that gift have come to us now, and will shortly come to all mankind in the mediatorial Kingdom, near at hand.
But what of the fig leaf aprons? Do they symbolize something in particular of man’s attempt at justification? Yes, they seem to represent efforts toward self-righteousness, self-righteous acts and conduct to act as a covering. This was essentially the hope held out by the Law.
“For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” (Romans 10:5)
By perfect obedience, perfectly doing righteous works, it would be possible to secure life by evidencing that you were not an imperfect, condemned human. The flaw, of course, was that such a thing is an impossibility. Perfect works are not possible with fallen man. That attempt at covering is not suitable.
That the leaves were of the fig tree helps identify the symbol. The fig tree is used extensively to represent Israel. Leaves, the prominent visible aspect of a full tree, indicate the outward manifestation, profession, teaching, instruction of that represented by the tree. So our Lord cursed the fig tree shortly before his death, illustrating that Israel was cursed for having nothing but professions, without actual fruitage. And in Revelation 22:2, the leaves of the tree of life picture the teachings and instructions of the glorified saints, which shall be “… for the healing of the nations.” What was the teaching, instruction held out by the Jewish tree? It was that by obedience to the Law, life could be had. The fig leaf aprons are a good illustration of endeavoring to gain life by righteous works. But alas, a fruitless endeavor! requiring God’s provision of the ransom, shown in the animal skins which God provided.
Genesis 3:8 says that after Adam and Eve had adorned themselves with the aprons, “… they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.” This also has its lesson. It shows mankind’s condition after the fall, associating in nations and governments as though to gain some security and protection from the condemnation imposed by God. Trees do symbolize nations, and the trees of Eden in particular are used to represent nations. This is explicitly so in Ezekiel 31, in a prophecy against Pharaoh, king of Egypt. In that prophecy both Pharaoh, representing his nation Egypt, and Assyria are likened to great trees made …
“… fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden [other nations], that were in the garden of God, envied him. To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God .” (Ezekiel 31:9, 10, 16, 18)
The Genesis record next tells of God’s conversation with Adam and Eve, the sentence of condemnation, and the hope of eventual release through the seed of the woman. (Genesis 3:15-17) The following chapter builds on that hope. The firstborn, Cain, was evidently seen to be in fulfillment of God’s promise, for Eve said “I have gotten a man from the Lord.”
Let us look at Cain, then, as the first development of God’s promise to provide the way of blessing. That would be Israel, the people of whom it was said, ‘Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests’ if they would be faithful to the Lord. (Exodus 19:5, 6) Had they remained faithful they would have secured the privilege of coming into Christ, to become God’s agent for the blessing of all mankind. But they did not. Rather, they slew the Messiah appointed for them, their younger brother according to the flesh, just as Cain slew Abel. Abel was an illustration of Christ, slain by the rebellious Jewish people. Even the offerings of Cain and Abel to the Lord suggest this. Cain, Israel, offered vegetation – it reminds us of the fig leaf covering first used by Adam and Eve. But Abel offered a blood sacrifice, of the firstlings of the flock, just as Jesus offered himself as the spotless lamb of God to provide the ransom covering for mankind, pictured by the animal skins given Adam and Eve.
Cain’s punishment was not death, but to be “a fugitive and a vagabond … in the earth and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.” Just so, Israel has been a dispersed and fugitive nation during the Gospel age, but a people marked of the Lord to prevent their destruction.
After the death of Abel, Eve had another son, Seth. Her comment on the occasion gives us a clue as to who Seth pictured, and also adds strength to the thought that Abel pictured Jesus.
“…she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” Genesis 4:25
Previously she had looked to Cain as the “man from the Lord” to fulfill the promised seed. But as Cain evidently disqualified himself by his treachery, she understood Abel to have been shown the worthy one. But Abel having died, Seth becomes his replacement: “another seed instead of Abel…” Seth pictures the risen Christ, as Abel pictured the sacrificing Christ. Christ risen is the successor to Jesus slain, and is the seed through whom the promised release of mankind will be effected.
In course of time Seth also bore a son, “and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.”(Genesis 4:26) This takes us to the time when the risen Christ, with his completed bride, will as the “everlasting father” bring forth children in the kingdom. Then Christ will give to mankind the benefit of the life he yielded at Calvary, and become the second father of the race. And then, when Seth – Christ risen – brings forth mankind as his children in the kingdom, men will call upon the name of the Lord in praise and thanksgiving for His kind mercies.