The History of Israel is a Type of the Church as the Body of Christ in God’s Economy

The entire history of Israel in the Old Testament is a type of the church in the New Testament, for God desires to gain a corporate Body, the church, for His habitation and expression on earth.

As we come to the books of 1 and 2 Kings, we want to see the intrinsic revelation in these books; there are many outward things such as this king did that evil thing and that king did that good thing, but we want to see something intrinsic.

The line that runs through the whole Bible is God’s economy.

In the Old Testament, the economy of God was hidden and veiled, and many prophets and seekers of the Lord wanted to find out what was in God’s heart.

Job even said that he knew that something was hidden in God’s heart, and because of this all the things happened to him; however, he did not know what was it.

The secret hidden in the heart of God is the economy of God based on the desire of God’s heart.

God has a desire in His heart, He has a will and an intention, and based on this, He made a plan, an economy, a household administration, to carry out what He desires.

What does God desire? Many unbelievers think that God wants to be obeyed and worshipped.

Many Christians also think the same thing. Some would say that God wants to fellowship with man; this is not wrong, but it falls short of what the revelation in the Bible tells us.

The Bible tells us of God’s economy, which is His desire and intention, even His determination, to work Himself into man and even become man so that man would be mingled with God, transformed by God, and conformed to the image of Christ to the extent that man and God, God and man, are fully one.

The Old Testament offers us many pictures of what God’s heart’s desire is, and God’s economy is seen in pictures, types, and figures in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament.

The New Testament is a full definition and practical fulfilment of God’s eternal economy.

God’s economy is carried out in the spiritual realm, so for us to see God’s economy, enter into God’s economy, and cooperate with God for His economy, we need to be in our spirit.

The economy of God is revealed to us in spirit (Eph. 3:9), and when we are in the mingled spirit, we’re one with the Lord for the fulfilment of His economy.

As we approach the books of 1 and 2 Kings, we want to see God’s economy and the desire of His heart running through these books.

There are many outward things that happened in these books, but we want to see how God is carrying out His economy and what are the lessons we can learn to cooperate with God today, in the New Testament age, for the fulfilment of His economy.

Israel is a Type of the Church as the Body of Christ to be God’s Dwelling Place on Earth

In His economy, God desires to have a corporate Body for Christ to be expressed, manifested, and lived out.

He delights in Christ, He is embodied in Christ, and Christ is the One who can express God to the uttermost; therefore, He wants His Christ to be reproduced and lived out in man.

In order for God to carry out His economy. He first chose a people in the Old Testament, the people of Israel, and these people were a type of the Body of Christ, the church.

The history of Israel is a type of the church and also a type of God’s economy, for what happened to Israel is in type what happened to the church, and God’s economy is revealed in type with Israel and in reality with the church.

We need to be unveiled and enlightened by the Lord to understand the types and figures in the Old Testament related to the children of Israel, so that we may apply them properly to us today as the church. Israel typifies the church as God’s elect in the New Testament (1 Cor. 5:7; 10:6).

The apostle Paul was masterful in his understanding and applying the types in the Old Testament to us in the New Testament.

He realized that the Passover was not just something that the children of Israel enjoyed in order to be delivered from Egypt with its usurpation but that this Passover is Christ.

Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed; we can eat Him as the Lamb of God roasted by the fire of God’s judgment, as the unleavened bread that sanctifies us, and as the bitter herbs that give us the sense of death when we are not one with the Lord, and we are saved from the world with its usurpation. Amen!

In Genesis, we don’t see the type of this corporate Body of Christ, the church, but in Exodus we start to see the people of Israel with their history, being delivered from Egypt, travelling through the wilderness, building the tabernacle, and journeying toward the good land.

In the people of Israel, we see a type of the church and also a type of God’s economy, for it was through this people that God was expressed and represented on earth in the Old Testament.

The corporate Israel is a type of the church as the Body of Christ to be the dwelling place of God among men and to express God on earth.

In the New Testament, it is the church that expresses God and is the dwelling place of God, but in the Old Testament, it is the people of Israel (a type of the church) that is God’s dwelling place and His expression.

From the beginning to the end of the Bible, God’s economy and purpose remain the same: He desires to gain a corporate people through which He can express Himself and in whom He can dwell.

In the Old Testament, this people was Israel, but this was not the real Body for Him to be expressed – it was only a type.

In the New Testament, we see the real dwelling place of God, the church, the reality of the type of Israel, for it is in the church that God dwells and is expressed.

The corporate Israel, the people of Israel, is a type of the church as the Body of Christ to be God’s dwelling place on earth among men.

We need to not only understand this truth and agree with it but even more, bring it to the Lord in prayer and tell Him,

Thank You, Lord, for choosing us and redeeming us to Yourself so that we may be Your dwelling place on earth. Hallelujah, we are the people of God today, and God dwells in us and among us. We open to You, dear Lord, to partake of Your riches and enjoy You. We come to You as we are, we apply Your precious blood, and we take You as our life and life supply. Fill us with Yourself. Make us Your dwelling place today. May it please You to dwell in us and with us. Be expressed through us. Make us the church as the Body of Christ in reality to be the dwelling place of God today, even the corporate Body that expresses Christ on earth!

The History of Israel is a Type of the Church and also a Type of God’s Economy

Before the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, in the Old Testament, God chose a certain people on earth called Israel; first, He chose one man, Abraham, who followed God by faith and lived by faith.

Abraham was not a “giant in faith”; he simply responded to God’s appearance, His attraction, and he followed God to a land which God promised to him and to his seed.

Then, by the time of Moses, there were about two million descendants of Abraham, and they were the people of Israel, God’s elect.

Israel is a type of the church and the history of Israel is a type of the church and also a type of God’s economy.

In the Old Testament, God’s people is Israel, and in the New Testament His people is the church; Israel is the type, and the church is the reality and fulfilment of the type.

The people of Israel are just a shadow, a type, a figure, of the church; in God’s economy, the church is the fulfilment of the type of Israel, and through the church, God can fulfil His economy.

What happened to the children of Israel is a lesson for us to learn, for their history is a type of our history as the church.

The descendants of Abraham became a people, but they fell into the hand of Egypt and were usurped by Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

This is a type of the people of God falling into the hand of Satan and his world, thus being in need of God’s salvation.

God came in to redeem His people by means of the Passover and through Moses; this is a type of Christ coming as the real Passover and the real Moses to lead us out of the usurpation of the world and be separated from the world through baptism.

The people of Israel were delivered from Egypt and went into the wilderness to become the corporate expression of God and His dwelling place.

We were redeemed, saved, and delivered from the world to become the spiritual people of God for Him to dwell in us and with us and for Him to be expressed through us.

Even more, we were saved by God not only to be delivered from Satan’s usurpation but to be reconstituted with Christ as the unique food and become the same as He is for His corporate expression.

Just as the lamb was slain and its blood was sprinkled to cover the people of Israel, so Christ was slain on the cross and His blood is sprinkled on us so that God with His judgment would pass us over.

The righteous God formed something judicial to redeem us, His people, by fulfilling His righteous requirements; this is God’s redemption.

The entire history of Israel is a type of the church; Paul applies the history of the children of Israel to the New Testament church life (1 Cor. 5:7; 10:6).

He is masterful in applying the typology; these things occurred to the children of Israel as examples to us that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also lusted.

Following the redemption and deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt, a type of our being redeemed and delivered from the world with its usurpation, the children of Israel journeyed through the wilderness, ate the manna, drank the water from the rock, and built the tabernacle.

Today we as Christians in the church life journey through the wilderness being reconstituted with Christ as the real and unique food, we drink of the flowing Spirit as the water of life, and we build up the church as the tabernacle of God.

We are also learning to enter into the possession of the good land as the people of Israel did, and we are building up the church as the more solid house of God, the temple of God.

Even in their failures, the people of Israel were still a type of the church.

In the Old Testament, we see how the people of Israel disobeyed God, worshipped idols, and went after other gods, so God allowed the Babylonians to come and take them captive and bring them into Babylon.

Similarly, at the end of the New Testament, the Lord Jesus called the degraded church, Jezebel (Rev. 2:20), for the church as a whole has fallen and even became “the great Babylon“, a mystery (Rev. 17:5). Wow!

On one hand, God is still gaining His overcomers who do the work of the church on behalf of the church, even as He had His overcomers in the Old Testament (the prophets).

On the other hand, the church as a whole is being mixed with the world and is fallen, and in Rev. 15 is even called the great harlot, the great Babylon, and the mother of harlots (vv. 1, 5). Oh, Lord!

In the midst of all this, the Lord is gaining His overcomers, those who cooperate with Him for the fulfilment of His eternal economy.

In the Old Testament, God has a people – Israel – and in the New Testament He has a people – the church; these two peoples are a description of one thing that God has done – the accomplishment of God’s economy (Eph. 1:10; 3:9).

We are the church today and we want to be His overcomers who cooperate with the Lord for the fulfilment of His economy in this age.

Lord Jesus, we are here for the fulfilment of Your economy. We give ourselves to You, dear Lord, to be saved from any degradation. Make us Your overcomers today. We want to learn from the history of the people of Israel not to lust after evil things as they did but to remain one spirit with You all the time. Amen, Lord, keep us eating You as our real and unique food. Keep us drinking You as the living water. Build us up together in Your habitation. We want to be Your pure and holy corporate expression on earth. Manifest Your multifarious wisdom through the church! Hallelujah, we today are the church of God, the dwelling place of God and His corporate expression!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 179-181, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 1, entitled, The Intrinsic Revelation in 1 and 2 Kings concerning the Economy of God Unveiled and Conveyed through Typology.
• Further reading:
  – The intrinsic revelation of the books of history in the Old Testament from Joshua to Esther (via, Life-study of 1 & 2 Kings).
  – Adam and Eve – a type of Christ and the church, via, The Economy of God and the Building Up of the Body of Christ, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee
  – The type of Israel – an illustration of running the racecourse (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 47).
• Hymns on this topic:
  – From Egypt Israel fled / Into a desert land; / Egyptian food they left behind, / And wandering began. / One day, the manna fell, / Oh, what a wondrous feat; / This was the bread the Lord had giv’n / For Israel to eat. / Unique this manna is, / It comes with morning dew; / The visit of God’s grace it is, / Forever fresh and new. (Hymns #1147, stanzas 2-4)
  – The Israelites in bondage were / To Pharaoh’s choking hand. / The God of Hebrews made a way / For them to leave that land…. / Now in the church life, we have left / The world, religion too; / Now we’re the river-crossing ones, / Enjoying Christ so new! (Hymns #1270, stanzas 4 and 7)
  – As the Israelites did offer / From the surplus of their land, / Thus some produce reaped of Jesus / Must be in our serving hand. / We on Christ, as land, must labor, / Harvest Him for all our fare; / Tasting Him to overflowing, / Christ with others we may share. (Hymns #912, stanzas 2-3)