Isaac’s Sacrifice and Christ’s Crucifixion

 God’s Word, the Bible, is an incredible book! Though it took more than 1,500 years to write, and though it involved roughly 40 or more human authors working under Divine inspiration, it all fits together perfectly.

Researchers have identified roughly 340,000 cross-references between various passages in the Bible. The Old Testament explains the New Testament, and the New Testament explains the Old. It’s impossible to understand either one without the other.

From beginning to end, it preaches the same God, the same plan of salvation, and the same standards of good and evil. There’s no filler or wasted space. Every story, every instruction, every prophecy, and every detail is there for a purpose.

Or probably for more than one purpose, because God’s Word also contains many layers. There’s the face value interpretation, but hidden within are also types, symbols, and additional meaning. Today, let’s look at one such example: a part of the story of Isaac.

I think we’re all familiar with the account in Genesis 22, where God tested Abraham’s faithfulness by telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. There’s the story, and there’s also its main lesson: that one must always put God first.

But the Book of Hebrews reveals yet another meaning. In Heb. 11:17-19, we find,

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”

19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

An only begotten son nearly offered up as a sacrifice and then figuratively brought back from the dead. What does this remind us of?

Here’s John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And here’s 1 Pet. 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God the Father, died for us and then rose from the dead. Isaac’s sacrifice foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrifice. It was a type.

Now, if we go back to Genesis 22 and examine it in this light, we can see many more details that fit in with this deeper meaning.

In Gen. 22:2, God said to Abraham, “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.”

Your son, your only son, whom you love. Again, this foreshadowed Jesus Christ, the Father’s beloved Son (Mat. 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35; 2 Pet. 1:17).

God further instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on one of the mountains in the land of Moriah. Where was Moriah? We aren’t told in this passage, but later we are. When King Solomon built the Lord’s temple, he built it “at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah” (2 Chron. 3:1).

So the land of Moriah is the area of Jerusalem, where Jesus Christ would later be crucified. Likewise, Jesus’ sacrifice happened on one of the mountains in that area, on the Mount of Olives overlooking the city.

Moriah, by the way, means “Chosen of YHWH” in Hebrew, according to Gesenius. Strong’s (# H4179) defines it as “Seen of Yah.” Both seem appropriate descriptions of the area God chose for Isaac’s sacrifice, for the temple, and for His own Son’s sacrifice.

When Isaac went to the place of his sacrifice, Gen. 22 makes a point of telling us that he was accompanied by a donkey (vv. 3, 5). When Jesus entered Jerusalem prior to His death, He rode on a donkey (Mat. 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10; Luke 19:28-40; John 12:12-19).

As Isaac and his father Abraham ascended the mountain for the sacrifice, Isaac carried the wood on which he was to be offered up (Gen. 22:6). As Yeshua/Jesus went to His death, He made at least part of the journey carrying the wooden cross on which He would be offered up (John 19:17).

At this point, Isaac asked his father, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7). “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (v. 8; KJV).

God will provide Himself a lamb. What lamb would He ultimately provide? Why, Jesus Christ would provide Himself as the Lamb!

Notice that, throughout this passage, Isaac never complained, protested, or resisted. He went quietly as a lamb to the slaughter. Likewise, Jesus Christ “was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa. 53:7; Acts 8:32).

Now we all remember that God ended the test before Isaac died. He told Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Gen. 22:12).

So, as we read on, we find, “Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son” (Gen. 22:13).

The Hebrew word for “ram” in the passage is ayil (Strong’s # H352). It means “strength, anything strong, a chief, a ram.” Brown-Driver-Briggs specifies that it means a ram “as leader of the flock.”

Who is the leader of the flock? The Chief Shepherd? Jesus Christ said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

The ram, the strong leader of the flock, died in place of Isaac. At this point, I believe Isaac becomes a type of humanity, for Jesus, the strong leader of the flock, died in our place.

For our purposes today, the account wraps up in the following verse. In Gen. 22:14, we read, “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide [YHWH Yireh]; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.’”

That was a prophecy. “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” It foretold the day when Jesus Christ would provide His sacrifice for us and spare us from eternal destruction.

The story of Isaac itself was a prophecy of this! How amazing is our God and how amazing is His Word?