The Sacrifice Of Isaac

by R.B. Fullarton, Innerleithen, Scotland | Category: Christ In Type And Shadow | Mar 1989

The Bible is the Word of God and therefore the depository of divine truth. But it does more than simply state truth: it illustrates and expounds it, explains its underlying principles and shows its constancy from dispensation to dispensation and throughout eternity.

The twenty-second chapter of Genesis is the meeting point of several lines of scriptural truth.

The Call to Obey

Isaac was the son of promise, the son of Abraham's old age, the son of deepest affection. The very person who was so special to Abraham would become the test applied by God Almighty to Abraham's faith. This was a most crucial moment in Abraham's faith-life. Father and son were separated from the rest of the family to go the fifty-mile journey of three days to the place of sacrifice. The material for the sacrifice was carefully selected. "They went both of them together" (vv. 6,8). The long-awaited, divinely promised heir of this prince of faith was to be slain by his father's hand. "Take now thy son, thine only son

and offer him there for a burnt offering". The unfolding revelation of divine purpose is couched in language related to sacrificial and substitutionary atonement.

Abraham had come to understand this truth as indicated by his utterances to the young men and Isaac, "we will come again to you" and "God will provide Himself the lamb" (vv. 5,8). Here was bright spiritual perception and faith shining through the anguish he experienced on the way to mount Moriah.

At the very start of this moving episode there is a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ in His uniqueness of relationship to the Father, His being set aside in eternity for later manifestation as the Lamb who would be offered for our sins and in our stead (1 Pet. 1:20; 1 Cor. 15:3; Gal. 2:20). "Before the foundation of the world" (1 Pet. 1:20) tells us that His coming sacrifice was a thought conceived in the heart of God before time (lit. "the founding of the world").

The Call to Sacrifice

Isaac's name means laughter. That is laughter expressing the joy of faith, not the laughter of scorn or reproach. God had brought life and laughter into their lives, where there had been childlessness and distress (cf. Ps. 126:2). Now, moving to the place marked by God as the place of sacrifice, there to experience a richness of fellowship with God as never before, Abraham carried the instruments of judgement and death - the fife and the knife. Upon Isaac's back was laid the wood on which he would be laid. Did the Lord Jesus when He "went out, bearing the cross for Himself" (John 19:17) return in thought to that occasion of Isaac's ascent to the place of submission to his father's will? Isaac broke the silence, "My father ..."; so personal and touching. No resistance, or doubting, only the questioning and reasoning of faith as to the whereabouts of the lamb to he offered. "0 My Father, if it be possible . . ." (Mat. 26:39) shows the Father and the Son holding counsel on earth as in eternity. The Lord's confidence never varied, never wavered, never wearied, yet there is indicated a horror in anticipation of the suffering which He would endure. The cup of judgement, suggesting inner sufferings, had to be drunk for the accomplishment of our redemption. The Lord Jesus would know, as no one else, the relationship between the death of the cross and the wrath of God. Although showing perfect resignation to the Father's will, His own wishes ever being subservient to His Father's purpose, it is no wonder He prayed that He might be saved "out of death", not from it, that is by resurrection (Heb. 5:7 RVM). To the Lord, the cross was no light matter; it was an experience awful to contemplate. To Him the Father's will was paramount and to it He was obedient. The soul anguish of the Lord Jesus produced strong cryings and tears which He

offered up, expressed in Hebrews 5:7 in terms of sacrificial presentation before the offering up of His body once for all (Heb., 10:10).

In response to his son's plea Abraham said, "God will provide Himself the Lamb... my son". "My son", dear and precious this young man was to Abraham. God not only provides salvation but is Himself the Saviour.

The Place of Suffering

Sombre moments followed when "they came to the place", a phrase carefully repeated by the divine Spirit in Mat. 27:33; Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33 and John 19:17. The altar was built, the wood laid and Isaac bound. At the precise moment when Abraham's hand was outstretched with the knife poised to strike the victim, the voice of God rang out "lay not thine hand upon the lad".

There was no sparing of the hand of judgement upon the Lord Jesus. God spared not His own Son (Rom. 8:32). He who had voluntarily, personally and totally surrendered to the will of His God, having borne the cruelty of vile oppressors, now drinks the cup of loneliness, wrath and judgement as His soul is made an offering for sin (Isa. 53:10). Him who knew no sin, made to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

At the place Golgotha we perceive the greatest of all mysteries, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him" (Is. 53:10) strange and awful linking of "pleased" and "bruised". This reveals God's love in redemption's plan that also involved fearful intensity of affliction and suffering breaking upon the

Redeemer. In the word "bruised" there is the thought of grinding, crushing, beating and pounding. When the sinless, blameless Christ was made sin God would not allow any mortal eye to gaze upon His only Son under the terrible rod of His bruising. From noon until three p.m. no human eye could see Christ's suffering of death (Heb. 2:9) and even God's face was averted from His only beloved.

The Truth of Substitution

The incident of the ram caught by its horns in the thicket and offered as a burnt offering in the stead of Isaac (v. 13) is a clear illustration of the scriptural truth of "substitution" as it applies throughout Scripture.

There is an important principle that the substitute has to bear the totality of judgement that would fall upon the victim. Isaac was released and freed not because judgement was withheld or modified but because it was to fall completely upon the ram. Sin and sins place us in the position of judgement. That place was taken by the Lord Jesus on the cross where He bore God's wrath upon sin.

Never again did Abraham and Isaac make the journey to the place of judgement. The demands of God's throne were met once for all by the Lord

Jesus at Calvary (Heb. 9:26).

The ram was caught by its horns in the thicket; it was not torn or damaged. Abraham would have examined it carefully to ensure it was an unblemished, perfect substitute for sacrifice. The Lord Jesus was the fulfilment of all the Old Testament types in every aspect of His Person and Being. He was God incarnate. He alone could be the believer's substitute. Not only was Christ the only acceptable offering but He took our place completely and permanently. So this brings a sense of debt to Christ by the saved sinner, as the apostle expressed in Romans 5:8 "Christ died for us" and Galatians 2:20, "The Son of God ... gave Himself for me", with its consequent obligation of living for Him.

The Outflow of Blessing

through Obedience of Faith

Abraham called the place Jehovah Jireh - God will provide. Only He could. God said, "Because ... I will bless". God's blessing flowed as a result of Abraham's obedience and Isaac's submission. His seed would be as the stars of heaven (spiritual seed) and as the sand of the sea shore (natural seed). The Lord Jesus will see His seed for whom He was wounded, bruised, chastised and lacerated.

Abraham knew that if Isaac was to be slain God would raise him from the dead. (Heb. 11:19). Divine promises are irrevocable. So, through Christ whom God has raised from the dead and given glory, we believe in Him and have faith and hope in God (1 Pet. 1:21).

R.B. Fullarton, Innerleithen, Scotland | Mar 1989
Christ In Type And Shadow