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St. Paul and the author of Hebrews have done for their types of the Christian present. In the mess- ages to the Seven Churches, it is true, lie deals with existing situations, and the use which he niuke.s in this connexion of OT types does not diller in character from what we find in other books of the NT. The seven lamps of the golden lampstanil in the tabernacle become types of the Seven Churches tlieni.selves (1'2. JU) ; Israel's kings and priests, of a kingdom and priesthood to God already enjoyed by all whom Jesus has loo.sed from their sins by His blood (v.°'-). And the history of Israel furnishes types not only of the living Christianity within tlie churches, but of a false doctrine and deliased morality that were making the lamps of the churches burn dim — liahiam has his antity|)e in the contemporary Ualaaniites (2''') and Jezebel in the false and wicked prophetess by whom God's servants are seduced (v.-'").
But, apart from his rapid glance at existing circumstances in the chnrches with which he was familiar, the gaze of this writer is forward and upward ; he is looking through a door opened in heaven, he is thinking of the things that must come to pass hereafter (4'). From the actual churches in Asia he leads his readers to the great vision of the Church that is to be, saying to them in the words of tlie angel, 'Come hither, I will .show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb' (21"). And in his descriptions of the coming glory that is to crown the long strugfrles of the Church on earth he linds in the OT foresliadowing tyjies of the final consummation. Some of his types are taken from the story of human beginnings in the early chapters of Genesis, as if to show the unity of the Divine plan from first to last. The Garden of Eden pre- tigures and anticipates 'the Paradise of God ' (2') ; the tree of life in the midst of the garden (Gn 2"), from which fallen man had to be debarred (3-), another tree of life, whose fruit is given to be eaten (Kev 2') and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (22-). Other types are ollered bv the history of the chosen people and the chosen land. Sodom and Egypt have their spiritual counterparts (11"), the fall of Babylon becomes a parable of the fall of that great city which made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication (14"). The triumph .song of Moses and the children of Israel (Ex 15', Dt 3V 32-') becomes ' the song of Moses the .servant of God, and the song of the Lamb ' (Kev 15^) ; the manna by which Israel was fed in the wilderness tells of a hidden manna given to him that over- conieth (2") ; the twelve tribes reappear in the twelve companies of the sealed servants of God (7'''*) ; Jerusalem itself is transfigured into the new Jerusalem, the city of God (3'= 21=- '") ; Mount Zion, to which the tribes went up, becomes the gathering place of the hosts of the redeemed (14'"-'). But, as was natural to one who conceived of the heavenly blessedness as consisting essentially in acts of adoring worship (7"-" 22^* ; note that ' to serve [Xarpeiu] God ' = to worship Him), the writer of this book finds his most frequent types in the sanctuary and sanctuary service of ancient Israel. The tabernacle in the wilderness anticipated that 'tabernacle of God ' in which He shall dwell for ever with His people and they with Him (21"-) ; the Temple in Jerusalem, 'the temple of God' which is in heaven (11'"; cf. 3" 7'" and passhii); the very pillars of the Tenijile are types of the strong overcoming soul who shall go out of the temple no more (3'*). Aaron and his sons in their holy garments of glory and beauty (Ex 28"'-) re- appear in the angels of the celestial temple ' arrayed with precious stone, pure and bright, and girt about their breasts with golden girdles' (Rev 15*). In antityjial reality the golden altar with its four horns (Ex 3tt^) still stamls before God
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(Rev 9" ; cf. 6' 8') ; the ark of the covenant is still seen in His temple (U'"; cf. 'the tabernacle of the testimony,' 15°). There is a j;oklen censer in the heavenly courts, and golden bowls full of incense ; but the incense of heaven is the prayers of the saints (5* 8'; cf. Lv 16'"-). And, as an atoning sacrilice was the central and culminating act of all the sanctuary worship of Israel (Ex 30'"; cf. He 9"''), Jesus, the antityiie of all ancient sacrifice, appears predominantly (27 times) under the figure of ' the Lamb ' — the sacriHcial and victoriously redemptive signilicance of the name being made evident on its very first appearance in the book, when the Lamb is described as having been slain, and yet standing in the midst of the throne (Rev 56- 9- 12; cf. 'I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the kej's of death and of Hades,' 1'*), endowed with all miglit and all knowledge (' having seven horns, and seven eyes,' 5"), and yet having bought us with His blood (v." ; cf. 7" 12").