A very interesting study is that of comparing God’s dwelling places throughout the Bible. The first is the Tabernacle, of which He said, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” This was the first time that God dwelt amongst men. He came down to visit Adam in Eden, when He walked in the garden in the cool of the day. Enoch and Noah walked with God, and He called Abraham His friend; but He had never before come down to dwell. In Gen. ix. 27, where it is prophesied, “He shall dwell in the tents of Shem,” there  may be an allusion to the Tabernacle. For more than five hundred years it was His dwelling place on earth. He went “from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another,” until He gave directions for Solomon to build Him a house, and the Temple became His sanctuary, a “palace, . . . not for man, but for the Lord God” (I Chron. xxix. I).

     These two, the Tabernacle and the Temple, were successfully His dwelling place in Old Testament times. But after many years had elapsed the Lord Jesus Christ came; and in Him, on earth as now in heaven, “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” We read that “the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.” He was Emmanuel, God with us, the Antitype of the Tabernacle and also of the Temple; for He was “greater than the temple” (Matt. xii. 6), and compares Himself to it more than once. “Destroy this temple,” He said, “and in three days I will raise it up; . . . but He spake of the temple of His body.”

(Ada R. Habershon, The Study of the Types/Priests and Levites: A Type of the Church, (Two Volumes in One), Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1977, 53)

Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. (Romans 5:14)

There Are Certain Rules That Govern Our Interpretation of Types

There is one unbreakable rule in typology and we dare not violate this rule. We must always go from the natural to the spiritual. It is impossible to violate this order and maintain consistency in the interpretation. You must always make the created typify the Creator. The natural things must represent the spiritual things. You cannot make the Creator typify the created, for when you do, you rob God of His divinity…

Types Are Never Perfect

It is the imperfect to represent the perfect and since they are imperfect, we can follow a type only as long as the truth we are representing parallels the divine creation with which we are dealing. Let me show you how the Bible teaches this. The Bible says in Romans 5:14 that Adam was a type of Christ, yet Adam sinned. Therefore he could not typify Christ perfectly. In dealing with Adam as a type of Christ you can pursue the type as long as the incidents and the happenings of his life parallel that of Christ; but you cannot go to the extent of saying that since Adam sinned then Christ sinned, because the Bible said He did no sin. Therefore, typology breaks down because it is imperfect to represent the perfect.

(O. L. Johnson, Bible Typology: The New Testament in the Old, Bourbon, Indiana: Harmony Press Inc., 1976 [1963], 3; Excerpt from Chapter 1: Introduction)