The Typical and Spiritual Systems
THE TYPICAL SYSTEM - Taken from The Dual Plan
The system of types constitutes the first development of the Messianic kingdom. It is a foregoing development which serves as a model for the spiritual revelation of the same kingdom. These two developments constitute a dualistic unfolding of the kingly and the redeeming process joined together, which takes place prior to the real and permanent unfolding or to the setting up of the eternal kingdom of the Messiah. We read that the heaven and the earth shall perish, but the Word of God shall not perish. It will remain eternally—not as it appears in the Scripture, but clothed in human flesh and arranged in a perfect kingdom which shall stand for ever. Prior to the setting up of that glorious kingdom, the same Word unfolds two systems which are preparatory to that kingdom—one typical and one spiritual or personal. Each one requires the same length of time and serves the same purpose. One develops the other side of the first advent of Christ and the other on this side. The second unfolding is called the spiritual because the Spirit develops it outside of material objects. The typical consists of material things which constitute types set for the spiritual disclosure or revelation. "It is a shadow of things to come."
In the typical system, the Paschal institution constituted the main act that set in motion the development of the Israelitic kingdom. By it the down-trodden slaves of Egypt became an independent nation, a priestly nation, with God of heaven as their king. Being "a shadow of things to come" and a fundamental basis for the two comings of Christ, it consequently is related not only to the spiritual unfolding,. but also to the real development of the kingdom of the Messiah; something which all interested in that kingdom ought fully to understand and value.
A Sevenfold Act
The spiritual system or the spiritual dispensation is the corresponding part to the typical system. We have noticed already that the Messianic embryo or rudiments were comprised in the Word by which the world was created. It was then an unfinished beginning, a principle yet undeveloped. That principle involved the kingdom of God—its king, its priests and ruling class, its people, its government, its temple, its cosmopolitan city and its territory, including heaven and earth. That principle, before it has unfolded itself into the real and everlasting kingdom of God, has a dual development before it, and these two proceedings are represented—one by Moses and the other by Christ.
Moses was the reflected image of Christ. The whole typical system, the Messianic principle evolving into types and shadows, was represented by Moses. It was Moses that developed it into a priestly kingdom, with its peculiar tabernacle, center-city and territory. All those laws and regulations which built up the kingdom of the Hebrews, were issued by Moses. All developed through and from Moses. He was placed as a god over that wonderful evolution. (See Ex. 4: 16; 7: 1) . The Messianic principle was unfolded by and through him as a model of the same kingdom which was to be brought forth later by the development of faith in and by Christ.