What is Biblical Typology?
(Editor’s Note: This month’s blog series will help you keep Jesus at the heart of every message by highlighting an approach to biblical interpretation called typlogy. Like most things, there are good examples and bad of how to practice typlogy, and we hope this series will help you honor each text while showing students how it relates to Jesus Christ, the central character of Scripture.)
David winds up and releases the stone. Upon finding its target in the center of the giant’s forehead, the once mighty Goliath falls to the earth. “Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it,” I read to the students, with as much cinematic expression I could muster.
Now came time for the exposition, to connect this incredible story from 1 Samuel 17 to the young hearts before me, thousands of years removed from that epic tale. What is the main point, and why does it matter for them? For those of us called to teach the Word, these are some of the most important questions we wrestle with in our preparation each week.
What lessons do we hear in the story? What principles can I offer students as guidance for life? What wisdom do the characters lay out for us? In 1 Samuel 17, those kinds of application seem to just jump off the page, don’t they!? Youth pastors often teach this story with application points like:
We can overcome the giants we face in our lives, too!
Faith leads to boldness.
Faith > Fear!
Here are five smooth stones for your spiritual battles against “Goliaths”.
Perhaps there are some elements of truth in some of these familiar applications, but what is missing here is an important guiding question for faithful biblical exposition: What is the original author intending to communicate?
Biblical Interpretation 101
Here are some fundamental principles of biblical interpretation that should guide our teaching, regardless of your audience’s age:
Although it contains many books, the Bible tells one big story. Therefore, any good interpretation asks where a passage fits within that big, overarching story.
Although it includes many characters, the Bible has one main character: the Triune God. Therefore, another guiding question asks what a passage primarily reveals about God.
Although it includes many “heroes”, the Bible ultimately reveals one true hero: Jesus. Jesus is the One in whom we place our faith. Therefore, a final guiding question asks how a passage points to Jesus.
With these guiding principles in mind, let’s once again consider 1 Samuel 17. While some of the common applications listed above certainly highlight some truths about God, we must admit that they neglect principles 1 and 3.
Now, I completely get the question that many of you have at this point: “How in the world do those principles apply in 1 Samuel 17, a passage that reveals one episode in the story of the earthly kingdom of Israel and that makes absolutely no mention of Jesus!?” I’m glad you asked!
Typology as Interpretive Tool
Let’s be honest: interpreting Scripture is difficult. However, if our desire is to teach the Scriptures faithfully, then we must be diligent to learn how to “rightly handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). One of the best interpretive tools to understand the Old Testament is typology. This tool is key to understanding the primary message of the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. But we’ll get back to that momentarily.
First, we need to define typology and discuss how it helps in interpretation. In his new book, entitled Biblical Typology, Vern Poythress writes, “Typology is the study of types. This study belongs to the larger subject of principles for interpreting the Bible. And what is a type? Roughly speaking, a type is a symbol specially designed by God to point forward to a fulfillment … a type symbolizes something beforehand. It prefigures or foreshadows something else still to come” (p. 1-2).
Think about “type” as in what type of song you like to listen to, and what type of savior God provides. If the whole story of the Bible centers upon God’s redemptive plan brought about through the person and work of Jesus Christ, then we should expect that every part of the Bible would somehow point to him. Some of the elements introduced to us in the Old Testament (types) do just that: they also function as symbols that prefigure or foreshadow Christ. These are not merely prophecies; they are patterns established in the history of God’s people that have both a localized meaning in their context and a future significance.
If this is true, then our surface-level understanding of Scripture is not nearly enough to help us arrive at the most faithful interpretation. We need to understand the types: why they mattered at the time, and how they uniquely foreshadowed what Christ would do.
Typology in 1 Samuel 17
While 1 Samuel 17 is a well-known Old Testament passage, I’m afraid it has been taught too rarely in light of its true meaning and purpose. If we reduce the significance of this passage to what it means to us first, without considering the intended focus of the author, we will overlook layers of meaning in the text. Simply put: the Scriptures are not primarily about us, but about God. A better first question is, “What does this reveal about God?”
It is by getting those questions out of sorts, I am convinced, that we have come to so frequently see ourselves in the character of David in this story. David found courage and boldness in his faith in God. David went out to face the giant before him. With great faith, David slew the giant in the strength of the Lord. All that is true of David, then, can be true of us. How can we be like David? It naturally follows from the starting point.
But what if we were never intended to find ourselves in the character of David in this story? What if God intended for David and his story to point us toward someone else? After all, David is a shepherd who was anointed to be Israel’s greatest king, a mediator with a heart after God’s.
Does any of that sound like us??
A closer look reveals that David is a “type” of Christ, whom God is using to point us toward the greater Shepherd-King who would eternally rescue the people of God from the enemy. Let’s analyze the story again with this in mind:
David is sent by his father to the front lines of the struggle.
David has humble beginnings and is seemingly ordinary.
David is rejected by his brothers.
David willingly becomes the representative for his people who goes out to face their greatest enemy.
David displays explicit trust in the Word of God, wholly submitting himself to his will.
David fights the enemy not with conventional weapons of war, but seems destined for certain doom.
David defeats the greatest enemy of his people, freeing them from the bondage of their captors.
Who does that sound like? Not us! I think that if you want to find us in that story you ought to instead look to the hundreds of soldiers shaking in their armor, without hope of overcoming their enemy!
It is through typology that we learn that this story isn’t merely about David, nor is it about us. Rather, it is all about Jesus! More than challenging students to muster up faith-inspired boldness and overcome their giants, we need to fix their eyes on the One who has already defeated the giant and delivers us into peace.
Although we can draw some life-lessons from David’s example and other elements of the story, those should always be considered as secondary principles to the primary goal of lifting up Jesus to our students. Why? Because despite this heroic depiction of David, in just a few short chapters we learn just how desperately wicked David can also be. This is why we (and our students) need to remember that David is a type of savior, perfectly fulfilled only by Jesus Christ. This is the beauty of biblical types. Through the unfolding drama of the Old Testament, God demonstrates how He can use what is imperfect to point forward to the one, perfect Savior.