Thanks for the help on this. I've definitely begun to see typology as a movement from OT to NT as you mentioned. l think what I struggle with is what language we should use when speaking about the spiritual realities they refer to. 1 Corinthians 10 tells us "these things happened as examples (the Greek here is types)." Is Paul speaking of the baptism of the nation of Israel as a type or only his daily provision of manna and water from the rock. I think he is referring to all the things mentioned in the first 4 verses of 1 Corinthians 10. The question then becomes. What is the anti-type? And is there a relationship between the physical things the nation of Israel went through and the spiritual realities we in the church today partake of.
This is really what I've been working to understand. I agree that water baptism points to something greater. Your thoughts are helpful as I've also been working to understand the nature of baptism as it relates to 1 Peter 3. Would you say it is improper to use the terminology of a type in the NT or is the language of type/anti-type language best suited to OT picture NT fulfillment? I'm thinking of how Vos uses the idea of a symbol as it relates to types. He essentially argues that symbol and type are two sides of the same coin. Symbol refers to present reality while type refers prospectively to an event in the future.
Not to answer for others, but Francis Turretin said some useful things that speak to these matters, as specifically concerns 1 Cor. 10:1,2.
In 1 Cor. 10:1,2, Paul speaks of the various benefits given to the people of God in the past, which by way of analogy correspond with our own Sacrament. ...Paul gives us the key to the mystery in the words that we have before us, for he would not have been able to say that the Fathers were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and the Sea, unless the pillar of Cloud and the passage through the Sea had something that would symbolically correspond to the Sacrament of baptism and the spiritual benefits that are sealed with it.
...It is certain that in our baptism three things come together: Divine Grace, the Word, and Water—that is, the Grace into which we are ushered, the Word of institution, and the Water in which we are baptized. Corresponding to this, there was a combination of three things in the Mosaic baptism: the Cloud, Moses, and the Sea—the Cloud was a symbol of the grace and divine protection into which we are initiated, Moses represented the doctrine of the Law and the gracious promises of the Word, the confirmation of which is sealed by the Sacrament, and the Sea represented the water of baptism in which we are washed.
...In order to truly grasp the meaning of this illustrious mystery, the three things said here by the Apostle must be carefully considered: Our Fathers were baptized into Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea. The first thing he says, they were baptized into Moses, is explained in various ways. …We think, however, that they speak most consistently who say that in this instance Moses metonymically designates the teaching and dispensation of Moses, which is often the case in Scripture: Luke 16:29, they have Moses and the Prophets; Acts 15:21, Moses has those who proclaim him; John 5:45, Moses himself will accuse you. No less is Christ taken for the doctrine of Christ, Eph. 4:21. Thus, to be baptized into Moses, is nothing other than to be baptized into the doctrine and Law of Moses, to be initiated into the Covenant handed down by him, and to be consecrated in the Mosaic instruction. Put another way, it was a solemn rite and profession of being immersed into [tingendi] the religion and worship that was handed down by Moses, because God testified his grace and benevolence to the people with these symbols. In this way the people were progressively united and consecrated to Moses. Likewise, in Acts 19:3,4, to be baptized in the baptism of John, was to be consecrated by the baptism of John to faith in the doctrine which John preached. For as the Sacraments are the seals of the Word, so they are the tokens and symbols of our faith.
...In another great similarity, the passage of the Israelites through the Sea wonderfully agrees with our own baptism, by foreshadowing its grace. For, as in baptism, when performed by immersion and emersion, as it once was, the person descends into the water and then comes out again, of which descent and ascent we have an example in the Eunuch (Acts 8:38,39). Consequently, when in this rite persons are immersed in water, they are overwhelmed and, in a manner, buried together with Christ; and again, when they emerge, seem to be raised out of the grave, and are said to rise again with Christ (Rom. 6:4,5, Col. 2:12).
In the Mosaic baptism we likewise have an immersion and an emersion; that, when they descended into the depths of the Sea; this, when they came out and escaped to the opposite shore. The former was a picture of death, the latter of resurrection. When they passed through the bottom of the Sea, what distanced them from death, except their escape to the opposite shore—so were they not, as it were, resurrected from the dead? Again, in the crossing of the Sea the Israelites are saved, but the Egyptians perish; the same Sea which is the means of deliverance for one, becomes the cause of death and destruction to the other.
And we may also observe this very thing in baptism: the same baptism which saves us, also extinguishes and mortifies the old man; just as Pharaoh with his whole army of sins perish in the Red Sea of the Blood of Christ, so our old man was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:3,6). While we are baptized into the death of Christ, the same blood that redeems us and opens the way to heaven for us (Heb. 10:19,20), destroys the devil and sin. By death He destroyed him who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14,15) and triumphed on the cross over Principalities and Powers (Col. 2:13,14,15).
(De Baptismo Nubis et Maris; Accessit ujusdem Disputationum Miscellanearum Decas; [Geneva: 1687], 131ff.)
