Have you ever read a familiar Bible story and noticed something you never saw before? This happened to me the other night in our Family Group study.
We are going through the book, So You Want to Be Happy, by Eric Owens. He is showing what true happiness looks like, and why we as Christians should be motivated to be happy despite the circumstances. This particular study was on the concept of redemption. Mr. Owens brought up the story of Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis 22. You remember that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son. So, they went to the mountain to make the offering. Along the way, Isaac asked, “Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering’” (Gen. 22:7)? Abraham’s response was always, “God will provide.” We know that as Abraham was about to offer Isaac, an angel of the Lord told him to stop. Abraham looked up, and there was a ram in the bushes caught by its horns. God did provide. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us about that moment, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your descendants shall be called.’ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type” (Heb. 11:17-19).
This is where something came up that I had never thought of before. Hebrews said that Abraham received Isaac back as a type, a representation of future spiritual events. My focus was always on the Jesus and Isaac similarities. Both were only begotten, both were to be sacrificed and both were children of promise. Only one was sacrificed and only one could have taken away the sins of the world. Jesus was represented by another figure in the story, the ram. Isaiah 53:7 mentions Christ as a sheep, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” John the baptizer also, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’” (John 1:29)! The New Testament is full of this concept. The book of Revelation mentions it 31 times. How could I have missed this?
God was on that mountain with Abraham. God provided the needed sacrifice just as Abraham’s faith believed He would. God is with you in your mountains and valleys. He has provided the needed sacrifice that makes us able to approach the “throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:3).