Earlier in the year, I started a series titled Christ In The Old Testament . They are articles from a series of messages I preached during Bible Studies in church at Truth Missionary Baptist Church where I worship and serve as a deacon. There was a break in the articles here and I am picking it up again hoping to complete all I have taught so far in the series God willing.
Today we look at “The Sacrifice of Isaac” In The Sacrifice of Isaac, a popular narrative recorded in Genesis 22:1-14, God appeared to Abraham asking for Isaac, Abraham’s son, as a sacrifice. This, according to the narrative, was a test of Abraham’s faith. And Abraham passed. But we know he didn’t sacrifice Isaac because God provided a ram, a substitute, for the sacrifice (vv. 10-13).
In the narrative, we see beautiful glimpses of Christ revealed and I will attempt for us to look at some of the images revealed.
Isaac A Type Of Christ
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah , and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (v.2).
Isaac, the son of Abraham, points us to a beautiful picture of Christ in a way the Christian cannot miss if we examine God’s words to Abraham:“your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.” Doesn’t this indeed speak of who Christ is to the Father? When Jesus was baptised, Scripture tells us a voice came from heaven, obviously, the voice of the Father saying; ““This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). Also in John 3:16, the apostle John tells us Jesus is the only begotten son of God. We go back to the words again: “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love” Charles Spurgeon on this in a sermon noted that “There is a likeness[to Christ] in the person offered. Isaac was Abraham’s son, and in that emphatic sense, his only son.”
A Sacrifice
Apart from the words “your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,” Isaac points us to a sacrifice and in this sense we see the sacrifice of Christ for salvation. Not only was Isaac loved in the narrative, but he was to be given up as a sacrifice to God. Jesus’s sacrifice was to the Father to appease his wrath against humankind for their sins. The sacrifice of Isaac didn’t happen as we read the narrative. Why? Of course, it was simply foreshadowing a better sacrifice; the sacrifice of Christ.
The Lamb of God
“And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.” (vv.7-8).
On their journey to the mountain, Isaac asked his Father about the lamb needed for the sacrifice. “Behold, the firehe can see fire and wood but no animal, so his question was legitimate. The answer of Abraham also foreshadows the person of Christ: “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering”
God indeed provided the lamb for the sacrifice. Abraham was restrained from sacrificing Isaac and rather, God provided for himself a ram for the sacrifice. Firstly, Christ is identified as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Secondly, Christ as a lamb was provided by God. John 3:16 quoted earlier tells us “God gave his only begotten son.” The word gave simply points to God providing his only begotten for a sacrifice. And there are other expressions used to indicate God giving Christ as a sacrifice. Paul in Romans 3:25 says God put forth Christ as a propitiation for our sins. This means God made available Christ as a sacrifice. Peter uses the phrase “delivered up” in Acts 2:23 and Jesus himself speaking of his death describes it as laying down his life. In other words, he willingly made himself available.
Bearing His Cross
“And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife . So they went both of them together.” (v.6).
The Scripture tells us Abraham “laid it[the wood of the burnt offering] on Isaac his son. Isaac here carries the very wood upon which he will be crucified. Christ also bore his cross upon himself in the Procession to Calvary. He bore the cross upon which he will be crucified: “and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.” (John 19:17). How striking this is. The believer cannot miss this beautiful typology of Isaac carrying the wood of burnt offering and Christ bearing his cross of crucifixtion. What we see Isaac doing is a shadow of what Christ did.
A Substitutionary Atonement
“And Abraham lifted up his eys and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son” (v.13).
Another glorious and beautiful picture of the work of Christ here. The death of Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of humanity. We deserve to die for our sins, but Christ took our place. Isaac was to die, but the ram took its place. God laid our iniquities and sins upon Christ. He took our place in his death (Isaiah 53:4-6; 1 Corinthians 5:21;1 Peter 2:24)
Mount Moriah and Calvary
Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah , and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (v.2).
Isaac was to be crucified on a mountain–Moriah. Christ was crucified on Calvary which is considered a hill or a mount. This crowns how the events of The Sacrifice of Isaac, paints a picture of Christ’s sacrifice.
The sacrifice of Isaac indeed teaches lessons of typology in a profoundly beautiful and glorious ways. “Even novice application of the principles for recognizing and interpreting types reveals in the Abraham-Isaac story a vivid prophecy of God’s sacrifice of His Son: as God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the seed of promise, on Mt. Moriah but instead provided a substitute, so He Himself offered His only begotten Son, the Seed of promise, on Mt. Calvary.”²
Notes
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Gospel of Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac”, https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/the-gospel-of-abrahams-sacrifice-of-isaac/#flipbook/
- Michael P.V. Barret, Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament (Greenville, Ambassador International,1999), kindle edition
Grace and Truth 