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An understanding of Typology is fundamental to understanding Eastern Orthodox Theology. The concept of typology is found throughout all of scripture and without an adequate understanding of this concept it is impossible to read scripture other than on the level of the 'letter' or 'proof texting'. Typology is amongst the most sublime forms of prophesy and many of the prophetic visions of the Old Testament contain typologies within them pointing to the incarnation, cross, and ressurection of the Lord.

The following article is from the The Eastern Orthodox Study Bible Appendix.

TYPOLOGIES
A consideration of the words used in Scripture to express a type will show how extensively the system of teaching by types, pervades the Old Testament and how fully this method is employed in the interpretation of the Old Testament by the writers of the New Testament.

TYPE (Old Testament Pre-Figurement)
At least six words are used to express the nature of a type (pre-figurement).
  1. The word 'type' [typon] itself is used in John 20: 25: “Except I shall see in His hands the type [τύπον] (print) of the nails and put my finger into the type (print) of the nails and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” This verse gives us the clue to the meaning of the word. As the hole corresponds in size, shape and is a recognizable counterpart to the nail which makes it, so the type corresponds to the, antitype, or the reality of which it is the type.
  2. The word 'shadow' [skia] is used in Col. 2:16, 17: “ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or indrink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days : which are a shadow [σκιὰ] of things to come.”
  3. The word 'example' [hypodeigmati] is used in Hebrews 8: 4, 5: “There are priests that offer gifts according to the law: who serve unto the example [ὑποδείγματι] and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.”
  4. The word 'sign' [sēmeion] is used in Matthew 12: 39: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign [σημεῖον]; yet no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonas.”
  5. The word 'figure / similie' [parabolē] is used in Hebrews 11:19: “From whence also he received him in a figure [παραβολῇ].”
  6. The word 'allegory' [allēgoroumena] is used in Galatians 4: 24: “There things are an allegory [ἀλληγορούμενα]...”
ANTITYPE (New Testament Actuality)
Similarly a number of terms are used to express the nature of the antitype (reality) to which the type corresponds to.
  1. The word 'antitype' [antitypon] itself is used in 1 Peter3:21: “The like antitype [ἀντίτυπον] (figure) whereunto even baptism doth also now save us.”
  2. The word 'body' [sōma] is used in Colossians 2:17: “Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [σῶμα] is of Christ.”
  3. The word 'image' [eikona] are used in Hebrews 10:1: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the [εἰκόνα] image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which theyoffered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”
  4. The expression 'good things to come' [mellontōn agathōn] is used in Hebrews 10:1: “The law having ashadow of good things to come [μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν]”
  5. The words 'things in the heavens' [tōn en tois ouranois] are used in Hebrews 9:23: “It was necessary thereforethat the patterns of things in the heavens [τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς] should be purified with these.”
  6. The words 'the true' [tōn alēthinōn] are used in Hebrews 9: 24: “For Christ did not entered into holyplaces made with hands, which are the figures of the true [τῶν ἀληθινῶν]”
  7. The word 'spiritually' [pneumatikōs] is used in Revelation 11: 8: “The great city, which spiritually [πνευματικῶς] is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”
It will greatly assist us in this study if we have a clear definition of what is meant by a type and this is given us in Scripture itself. A type is “a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:10). A type involves three things:
  1. an outward sensible object or thing which represents some other higher thing;
  2. that other higher thing represented, which we callthe antitype or the reality and
  3. the work of the type which is expressed in the term “ representing “ or “ shadowing forth.”
A type is a sign, a resemblance, a pattern, a figure, a shadow. As a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, so a type is an outward and visible earthly thing by which God has designed to teach us some invisible, spiritual, heavenly truth. A type is some outward and sensible thing ordained of God under the Old Testament to hold forth something of Christ or something in relation to Him in the New Testament. The type (in the Old Testament) is the shadow, the antitype (in the New Testament) is the substance; the type is the shell, the antitype is the kernel; the type is the letter or the law, the anti type is the spirit or the gospel. The work of the type is to announce or foreshadow forth something about Christ, His Kingdom and His blessings. In summary, a type is a divinely instituted resemblance.

Four useful guidelines were offered in Samuel Mather's 18th century classic work “Figures or Types of the Old Testament”:

RULE 1: GOD IS THE ONLY AUTHOR OF THE TYPE.
We should not contend that anything is a type unless we have solid Scriptural, Patristic and Liturgical reasons to do so. Scripture warrant for regarding anything as a type is given in three forms.(1) By express statement, e.g. Adam was “the figure of Him that was to come” (Rom. 5:14). The law“was a shadow of good things to come” (Heb.10:1). The land of Canaan was a figure of “a better country,a heavenly one.” (Heb.11:16).(2) By permutation, or change of names between thetype and the antitype, e.g. when Christ is calledDavid (Ezekiel 34: 23), or Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), or theLamb of God (John 1: 29),or our Passover (1 Cor.5:7); or a sheep is called a sacrifice, or is said to make - atonement, or to expiate sin, there being in truthbut one Mediator, one Sacrifice,one Atonement and one Expiation,of which Moses and the victimsoffered on the altar are but types.(3) Where there is a clear and evident analogy and parallel between things under the law and thingsunder the Gospel, enabling us to conclude that such legal dispensations were intended and given by Godas types of the Gospel mysteries whose image they bear. Thus Joseph may be looked upon as a type ofChrist, though Scripture nowhere expressly calls him such and the deliverance out of Egypt may beregarded as a type of the deliverance of the Church from the of sin. The analogy is so clear that we mayjustly infer that God intended the one to be a type of the other. On the other hand, we should refrainfrom making anything a type unless we have Scripture ground for it. The constitution of the type, likeevery other method of Revelation, isthe prerogative of God and God alone.

RULE 2: TYPES ARE NOT ONLY SIGNS BUT SEALS.
As signs they shadow forth, but as seals they pledge and make sure the benefits of Christ to which they are related. Abraham received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith (Rom.4:11). If they were signs at all, then they were more than signs, for if they signified to our intellect what the Messiah would be, they at the same time assured our faith that the Messiah certainly would be that which the type signified.

RULE 3: TYPES RELATE NOT ONLY TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST BUT ALSO TO ALL HIS BENEFITS, TO ALL GOSPEL TRUTHS AND MYSTERIES AND EVEN TO OUR MISERIES WITHOUT CHRIST.
Thus Circumcision is a type of Baptism. The Passover is a type of the Lord's Supper. Leprosy is atype of our natural pollution through sin. Hagar and Ishmael are types of the Old Covenant. Doeg and Ahithophel are probably types of Judas. Gehenna (the Valley of Hinnom) is a type of Hell. The Queen Mother and the Ark are types of the Theotokos.

RULE 4: THERE IS BOTH A SIMILITUDE AND A DISPARITY BETWEEN THETYPE AND THE ANTITYPE IN CERTAIN ASPECT THINGS.
Adam is a type of Christ, but the second Adam infinitely transcends the first. Some types are partial and represent Christ in one particular way only, as Jonah, who foreshadowed Christ in the one thing of His abiding in the grave for three days and rising again. David is also a type of Christ, because he resembled Him in so many points; but no type can be called total, certainly not David.
The following classification embraces all the principal kinds of sensible objects or things selected andused in Holy Scripture, as types representing or shadowing forth corresponding spiritual realities:
  1. Individual persons, e.g. Adam
  2. Orders of persons, e.g. priests
  3. Events, such as deliverances and destructions, e.g. the passage of Israel through the RedSea
  4. Things, e.g. Jacob's ladder
  5. The institutions of the ceremonial law, e.g. circumcision
  6. Holy places, e.g. the burning bush
  7. The Tabernacle and the Temple
I. INDIVIDUAL PERSONS
Rom. 5Adam = Christ, the head of a new race
1 Thess. 4 Enoch = Christ's ascension and a pledge of ours
1 Pet. 3 Noah = Christ preaching and saving believers
Heb. 7 Melchizedek = Christ the Great High Priest
Gen. 22 Abraham = God the Father
Heb. 11 Isaac = Christ (miraculous birth, sacrifice)
Ps. 105Joseph = Christ in suffering and exaltation
Exod. 3  Moses =  Christ delivering us from slavery
Josh. 1Joshua = Christ bringing us into rest
Judg. 16Samson = Christ in strength, suffering and death
1 Kings 4    Solomon = Christ in wisdom and dominion
Matt. 17  Elijah = John the Baptist, the forerunner
Matt. 12 Jonah = Christ's death, burial and resurrection
Ezra 5Zerubbabel = Christ leading out of captivity
Zech. 3   Joshua (the High Priest) = Christ restoring purity of worship
 
II. ORDER OF PERSONS
Is. 49 The Jewish nation = Christ who is called Israel
Gal. 6The Jewish nation = the Church which is also called Israel
Rom. 8The firstborn = Christ: “the firstborn among many brethren.”
Heb. 12The firstborn = “the Church of the firstborn.”
Num. 6 The Nazarite = Christ, separated unto God
1 Pet. 2 The Nazarite = the Church, a holy people
Deut. 18 Prophets = types of Christ, who taught the will of God
I Cor 14Prophets = types of the Church, with its gift of prophecy
Heb. 5Priests = types of Christ, our great High Priest
Rev. 1Priests = types of the Christian, a priest unto God
Ps. 2Kings = types of Christ in their authority
2 Sam.7Kings = types of Christ in their perpetuity
Ps. 72Kings = types of Christ in their executive activity
1 Kings 2:19-20Queen Mother = type of the Theotokos as Mother and Intercessor

III. ACTIONS AND EVENTS
Ex. 12 + Ps. 105 Deliverance out of Egypt = baptism
Ex. 14-15The passage of the Red Sea = baptism
Deut. 1 + Ps. 95The march through the wilderness =  earthly pilgrimage of age
Josh. 3-4 The passage of the Jordan = Christ’s baptism and death
Deut. 11 + Josh 5Entrance into Canaan = Christ leading his people to the age to come
Is. 35 + 40Deliverance out of Babylon = deliverance from false worship
2 Pet. 2 + Jude Destruction of Sodom = unnatural lusts and uncleanness
Ezek. 30 +  Rev.11Destruction of Egypt = idolatry, oppression and cruelty
Jer. l. + Rev. 18Destruction of Babylon = destruction of the enemies of the Gospel
Jer. 7 + 19Tophet and Gehenna (The Valley of Hinnom) = hell

IV. THINGS (SEE ALSO VII)
Gen. 28Jacob's ladder = Theotokos and Christ connecting heaven and earth
Exod. 3The burning bush = the Theotokos and the Church
Num. 9The pillar of cloud and fire = Christ's perpetual presence
John 6Manna = Christ, the Bread of Life and the Eucharist
1 Cor. 10The smitten rock = Christ, the Water of Life
Num. 21 The brazen serpent = Christ lifted up on the Cross
             
V. THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW
Gen.  17  /  Mark 16Circumcision = a seal of admission to the Covenant (baptism)
Lev. 1Sacrifices: the burnt offering, a type of obedience
Lev. 2Sacrifices: the meal offering, a type of service
Lev. 3Sacrifices: the peace offering, a type of fellowship
Lev. 4 Sacrifices: the sin offering, a type of expiation
Lev. 5Sacrifices: the trespass offering, a type of restitution
Lev. 6Sacrifices: the consecration offering, a type of separation unto God
Heb. 9 Purifications and cleanings, ceremonial and spiritual
Lev. 23  Festivals: The Feast of the Passover = Redemption
Lev.23  Festivals: The Feast of Pentecost = The Holy Spirit
Lev.23Festivals: The Feast of Tabernacles = The Incarnation
Num. 29Festivals: The Feast of Trumpets = the sound of the Gospel
Lev. 16 Festivals: The Day of Atonement = the expiation of sin
Ezek. 46Festivals: The New Moon = a solemn assembly, the Church
Exod. 31Festivals: Sabbaths, the seventh day = a day of rest (burial of Christ)
Deut. 15Festivals: Sabbaths, the seventh year = a year of release from debt
Lev. 25Festivals: Sabbaths, the year of jubilee = a year of release from slavery
                     
VI. HOLY PLACES
Acts 7The burning bush = the Theotokos and all Christians
Josh. 5The place where God appeared to Joshua holy ground.
Exod. 19Mount Sinai = Heaven
2 Pet. 1The mount of transfiguration = The Kingdom
Zech. 2 The land of Canaan, the holy land = Heaven, the age to come
Josh. 20 Cities of Refuge = holy places of refuge
Ps. 48 – Jerusalem =  the holy city (Heaven, the age to come)

 VII. THE TABERNACLE AND THE TEMPLE
Exod. 38 The altar of burnt offering = atonement
2 Chron. 4 The molten sea and lavers = cleansing, baptism
Exod. 30The altar of incense = the prayer of the saints
Exod. 25, 31-40The golden candlestick = Christ, the Light of the World
Exod. 25:23-30Showbread = the Eucharist
Ez. 43-44The Gate of the Temple = The Theotokos, Ever-Virgin
Exod. 40 + 1The Holy of Holies = Heaven
Sam. 8The ark of the covenant = Mary the Theotokos see Mary / Ark Typology.