Dearly Beloved & Delivered Up

Isaac is often seen as a picture of the sinner, rescued at the last moment by the substitute Lamb provided by God, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

But there are also many reminders of Christ Himself to be seen in Isaac. For one thing, both were long promised, and long expected. Isaac took 25 years to appear after he was promised to Abraham, and then he appeared by miraculous birth.

Our Lord Jesus was long promised by God through the Psalmists and Prophets - then one night He came, Hallelujah!

Both Isaac and Christ were well beloved by their fathers, and yet both fathers delivered their beloved sons to death - Isaac by Abraham at God's command, and the Lord Jesus by the Father from before the foundation of the world.

Both Isaac and Christ were obedient unto death and to the will of their fathers. Isaac was old enough to carry the wood, and spiritually awake enough to ask his father, where was the Lamb for the sacrifice?

Our Lord Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He delighted to do His Father's will in dying at Calvary to save His people.

Both sons had invested in them all the hope for the future. In Isaac all Abraham's hope for the promises of God was placed. In the Lord Jesus, all the glorious hope of the Messiah was long promised.

No wonder the Lord's disciples could not understand how His death wouldn't destroy all those promises.

But God was portraying to Abraham how it was that the Lord Jesus' death would fulfill all the promises and hope for all God's people! Isaac was rescued by God's special provided lamb, but Abraham saw Jesus' day in it all, when Christ would be provided as God's Lamb to take away our sin!