The Types of Redemption
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can get it back. Hallelujah! If you lost your freedom, you can get your liberty back. You can get
it all back in Jesus. In Him everything is, “Yes! And so be it!” You get it all back!
Let’s go on to another type. There are two more that I would like for you to see. That’s not all
there are. The Old Testament is full of them. When we read our Old Testament, we see beautiful
pictures of Jesus.
We are looking for healing in the types, and if we find healing in the type, that proves to us that
there’s healing in the actual plan of redemption, in redemption itself. What does that mean to us?
If there’s healing in redemption, then healing has to be for everybody. Otherwise, you’re saying
parts of redemption are not for everybody.
Atonement for the Plague
In Numbers 16, we see the type of redemption I call “atonement for the plague.” Now there was
a group of people who were rebellious—including Korah, Dathan, and Abiram—and 250 famous
people in the congregation hooked up with them. These were the head deacons and associates.
Do you know what I mean by that? They were people who the other people knew and looked up
to. Those are the ones the enemy really goes after to get to rebel because they’re the ones who
have influence. It’s harder for unknown people who haven’t done anything to influence very
many people. But the more influence you have, the more the enemy desires it. He is the original
and ultimate control freak—emphasis on
freak
. He wants to control everybody completely. He is
a manipulator. He is a controller.
The Holy Spirit is not a controller. He will deal with you, and He will even deal with you
strongly, but if you don’t want to do it, He’s not going to make you. He’s not going to try to
make you do it, and if you’re the right kind of person, that’s how you are, too.
But the devil is a manipulator, a forcer. He’s going to make people do it. He’s going to control it.
These people rebelled, and you know the story: the earth opened up and they all went down
alive, along with all of their families, their help, their employees, their livestock, and their tents,
and the ground closed up on top of them. You would think the rest of the bunch would have
gotten a clue. Looking at that, you would have thought the rest of this bunch would have
decided, “Well, my rebellious days are over. You’ll never catch me rebelling and doing what
those guys did...”
But that afternoon, the whole bunch of them accused Moses and Aaron, saying, “You’ve killed
the people of the Lord. You killed the people of the Lord.” Who killed the people of the Lord?
Who caused the ground to open up? Moses didn’t do that. Aaron didn’t do that. These people
were so darkened in their understanding, and their unbelief made them that way.
Unthankfulness makes a person dumb. You might ask, “Where do you get that?” Romans 1:21
doesn’t say it quite like that, but it says, “Not being thankful their understanding was darkened.”
Similar, isn’t it? How would they know they’re unthankful? They’re griping. When you’re
griping and fault-finding and being unthankful, you get dumber and dumber. You see less and