First off, I apologize to those who are regular readers. You could say I have been fighting a mild depression, and I have been occupied with the events surrounding Israel. One of my grandfathers was a Jew, and I feel a strong attachment to Israel. So, this post, triggered by a post I read several weeks ago, has had many interruptions. Life sometimes gets in the way.
I can't remember ever hearing this before.
In Genesis 22:19 it shows us (in a type) Abraham coming down off the mount alone, for God received Isaac up - just as He would receive Jesus at a future date.
In case you are struggling to understand “a type,” think of it as a simile or model. Isaac, for us, is a pattern or model of Christ who was to come, and Isaac submitted himself, as Christ eventually would, to be the sacrifice for us by what He did.
"He
(Abraham)
considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from
which he also received him (Isaac)
back as a type.”
Hebrews
11:19 NASB95
Look at this in another translation.
“By
faith Abraham, when
he was tested, offered
up Isaac, and he who
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom
it was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED,"
concluding that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative
sense.”
Hebrews
11:17-19 NKJV
So, how does the narrative describe what transpired?
“Now
it came to pass after these things that God
tested Abraham, and
said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
Then He said, "Take
now 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."
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took
two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the
wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which
God had told him.”
Genesis 22:1-3 NKJV
Points to hold on to.
God tested Abraham by saying, “ Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.”
Didn't Abraham have another son? He did, but it was not through the covenantal promise he made with God.
At Sarah's insistence, Abraham went into Hagar, a servant girl of Sarah's, as a wife, and nine months later, she produced Ishmael. Ishmael's descendants became the perpetual enemies of the Jews with one purpose: to kill the Jews.
If Isaac is an allusion to Christ, then we can recognize that God loved His only Son as well.
Is it possible that Abraham announced to Sarah what he was going to do? He may have because we do not see any mention of Sarah again until she died in Genesis 23.
Christ was not burnt upon an altar, but He was undoubtedly offered upon the same Mountain.
Abraham took the wood, the fire, and two young men. Perhaps these were there to help, or they could have been witnesses.
Problem: Sunday school often portrays Isaac as a young child who could have been forced through rough handling to submit to being sacrificed, when in fact, Isaac was big enough to successfully resist had he wanted to.
So then, Isaac willingly submitted, just as Jesus would eventually do.
“Then
on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.”
Genesis 22:4 NKJV
Abraham has had to journey for three days to get to Mt. Moriah, even though he has no idea where he is going or the significance of this place. This should have alerted you to comparable language about Jesus, who spent three days and nights in, as Jonah did, in the belly of death.
Isaac noticed that they were missing the lamb to be sacrificed. Abraham's response went like this.
“And
Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they both went together.”
Genesis
22:8 MKJV
The inference was that God would provide "His own self" as the lamb necessary for our sacrifice, and He did just that through His Son. I can't imagine what Isaac felt. It appears that Abraham, though we don't see it in scripture, taught Isaac what it is to act in faith.
Did Abraham strike Isaac with the knife?
The answer is an emphatic no, but it appears that he went so far as to lift it as to slit his son's throat. Sorry if that offends you, but it was the standard method of dispatching the sacrifice.
To shorten this, I will say that God provided a ram stuck in the thicket.
How did that just happen?
I don't know, but it did, and Abraham took his son off the altar and offered up the ram.
God, once again, blesses Abraham.
“and
said, I have sworn by Myself, says Jehovah; because you have done
this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only one; that in
blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your
seed like the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the
seashore. And your Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies. And
in your Seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
you have obeyed My voice.”
Genesis 22:16-18 MKJV
Now, pay attention to what happens next.
“Abraham
returned to his young men,
and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham lived
at Beer-sheba.”
Genesis 22:19 MKJV
Why did the description suddenly turn into a singular scenario?
The answer lies in what Abraham did. Short of killing his son, he went right up to the point where killing his son was next. God sees the heart and the dedication and accepts that.
“By
faith Abraham, when
he was tested, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son,
of whom it was said, "IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED,"
Hebrews 11:17-18 NKJV
Abraham knew that God was able to raise up Isaac.
“For
he (Abraham)
reasoned that God was able to raise [him](this
is an inference toward Isaac and Jesus)
up even from among the dead. Indeed
in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead
[potentially sacrificed], he did [actually] receive him back from the
dead.” (The italicized
words within the parenthesis are mine.)
Hebrews
11:19 AMP
So the scriptures reflect Isaac as figuratively dead, an allusion to Jesus's death and ascension into the clouds.
Just as we will not see Jesus again until He comes, at His Father's dispatch, to collect His bride, we see no mention of Isaac again. Abraham sends the servant to find a wife for Isaac.
“but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Genesis 24:4 NASB95
Something tells me that the time frame between the “sacrifice” of Isaac and his fetching of his bride is significant, but time eludes me. I am confident this was an intentional language choice meant to allude to Jesus being caught up to heaven because we don't see Isaac again until He meets his bride, Rebecca.
Rebekah coming to Isaac.
“Now
Isaac had come from going to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the
Negev.”
Genesis 24:62 NASB95
Now, we see him and her for the first time since the mount.
Notice where Isaac is; he is in the wilderness of the Negev, where we will eventually find Jesus, where He was tested by Satan.
“Isaac
went out to meditate in the field toward evening; and he lifted up
his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. Rebekah lifted
up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from the camel.
She said to the servant, “Who
is that man walking in the field to meet us?”
And the servant said, “He
is my master.”
Then she took her veil and covered herself. The servant told Isaac
all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his
mother Sarah’s
tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife,
and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s
death.”
Genesis 24:63-67
NASB95
In this narrative that we are living, Jesus, our sacrifice, was caught up to heaven, and we don't get to see Him again until the day that Jesus once again meets His bride, the church in the air.
The term wife is the Hebrew word 'ishshâh and means woman. Wife and woman are the same Hebrew word. H802 'ishsha^h meaning a woman.
If you are okay with losing your mind, look at what Adam said about Eve.
“The
man said, "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman Because she was taken out of Man."
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be
joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis
2:23-24 NASB
Did Adam have a mother?
No, he was a creation of God alone and made from the soil.
Did he ever have the experience of leaving his Father, God, before the moment in which he ate the fruit of that tree?
No, for when God saw that the man's relationship with the animals was not a substitute for an intimate and conversational relationship with a woman, He had to make one. What a peculiar thought, as I am sure that God realized that naming all of the animals and then tending the sheep would not satisfy and already had plans to clone a perfect woman from the perfect man He would make.
Another consideration is that God knew that Lucifer, soon to be known as Satan in this narrative, would rebel, be thrown to earth, and cause a cataclysmic amount of damage to the creation. God also knew that Adam would eventually stumble and fall, but this was not a shock to God as He knew it would happen; therefore, fallen mankind became the path for God to insert His Son into the earth as a human capable of redeeming and restoring the humans back to God, by accepting His love if they chose too.
Since humanity carried a damaged DNA strain because of Adam, God had to bypass human genetics - this plays a role in the conversation we see in Genesis chapter six, where God had to bring a flood that would kill off all life on earth except for Noah's family, as they alone were NOT polluted by the infiltration of the fallen angels. All this is why God asked Mary if she would be willing to carry the Son of God. I said it like this because Mary was “artificially” inseminated with a fertilized egg without having damaged DNA involved. This conversation demonstrates why it was said that Jesus had no sin. You would rightly assume that I was infected with sin if I turned over the vendor's table and chased all these fine citizens off the church property with my handmade scourge, and yet scripture tells us that Jesus was without sin. Hmm.
We also make the assumption that Adam did not or could not interact or speak with the animals. It would be a limited conversation, as there was no news or sports to discuss. If you think this is crazy talk, then tell me how it is that the serpent in the garden held a conversation with both of them, and they were not alarmed, or why Balaam did not flinch when his donkey spoke to him?
I am not so sure that the sin that overtook the two of them in the garden, with all its horrid aspects, such as separation from the Father, which is clearly an emotional death, to say the least, as it separates you from the one that made you; and the physical death that we can only assume God described to Adam.
How would you understand death if you have never witnessed any form of death?
We are left to assume that this was all thrust upon them in the moments following the eating of the fruit.
Did this instant break in communication with the Father - through the death that sin brought, give Adam the elated emotions that we tend to associate with the experience of marriage?
I bring this up because this leaving, in some cases, has to be fraught with emotions, not all of which are pleasant, as so many in the Middle East get married only to immediately return to the added-on room or new additional floor of your parent's home.
