26-0405a - Detailed Summary

The preacher, Jim, greeted the congregation, noting that "He has risen" was the joyous first-century Christian greeting. He described it as a glorious day for God’s children to gather in worship and celebrate the heavenly Father and his risen Son, Jesus Christ. The church rejoices because believers hold the hope of heaven in their hearts, a hope made possible by the Savior who rose from the dead.

Jesus was the first to rise from the dead by the power of the resurrection. When Christ returns, the trumpet will sound and angels will gather all faithful followers, bringing the church to heaven. Believers will one day experience the thrill of resurrection themselves as they enter eternity.

The event leading to the good news of Jesus' resurrection was the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jewish families gathered annually to remember God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. God judged Egypt and its false gods through ten plagues, convincing Pharaoh to release the Israelites and demonstrating that he is the true and living God.

The tenth plague, the death of the firstborn males in Egypt, finally convinced Pharaoh. God’s people were instructed to mark their doorposts with the blood of the Passover lamb they would eat. When the destroying angel saw the blood, it would pass over that house, sparing the firstborn. This is the origin of the name Passover.

Roughly 1,500 years later, Jesus became God’s holy Passover lamb. Being sinless, he was the perfect lamb without spot or blemish. He willingly went to the cross on Calvary as the sacrificial atoning lamb whose death would take away humanity’s sin. This occurred at the exact time Israel was slaughtering their Passover lambs, by divine design.

God is detail-oriented; nothing happens by chance or randomly, but everything is planned with purpose. Jesus' death at that precise hour was part of the plan of salvation. His death on the cross completed the Old Testament system of worship. The Israelites observed the final Passover that God would recognize and accept, as he provided the ultimate Passover lamb in his Son Jesus.

This established a new system, the New Testament, through Jesus' death. Jesus replaced the Passover remembrance with the Lord’s Supper, observed every Sunday. Instead of eating the Passover lamb, believers partake of bread and the fruit of the vine in remembrance of his death on the cross. These emblems represent his body and blood shed to remove sins and establish a covenant relationship with him.

Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, has always been the intercessor between God and humanity. The Gospel of John states that no one has seen the Father except the Son. In the Old Testament, it was always the pre-incarnate Jesus, known as Yahweh, who interacted with mankind on the Father’s behalf. Examples include walking with Adam and Eve in the garden, wrestling with Jacob as Peniel, guiding Balaam’s donkey, appearing with sword drawn, and standing as the captain of the host of heaven before Joshua.

Paul taught that Christ was the angel of the Lord with Israel in the wilderness, the rock that followed them, and the one who spoke with Moses and provided water. Paul explicitly called Jesus our Passover lamb, confirming the type-antitype relationship. In Exodus 3:2-6, the angel of the Lord in the burning bush identified himself as God (Elohim, Yahweh), instructing Moses to remove his sandals on holy ground and declaring himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, known to the patriarchs as El Shaddai.

Later in Exodus 33:13-14, Moses asked Yahweh to show him his ways so he could know him and find favor, reminding Yahweh that Israel was his people. Yahweh replied that his presence would go with Moses and give him rest. This echoes Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28: "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

The Hebrew word for "presence" is "panin," the plural of "face" but used in a singular sense, meaning "my faces shall go with you." Biblical scholar Adam Clarke explained it as different manifestations of God’s grace and goodness, varying his appearance as needed for the circumstances. Thus, the Lord would appear to Israel in different forms, such as the rock.

Reading the Old Testament does not immediately reveal that the rock was the pre-incarnate Jesus; it requires study. Jesus appeared in over thirty different forms or roles in the Old Testament, with various names and appearances. He was always guiding humanity, his creation, through divine intervention and providence to accomplish the scheme of redemption. Christ was actively present, "boots on the ground," guiding his people. This establishes Jesus as Yahweh-Rohi, the Lord our Shepherd.

An ancient land called Moriah in the Old Testament was the site of two important sacrificial events separated by about 2,000 years, bearing a type-antitype relationship that blesses believers today. The first event (the type) was Abraham offering his son Isaac. The second (the antitype or archetype) was Yahweh offering Jesus.

Moriah refers to the region around Jerusalem with seven mountains, similar to Rome’s seven hills. These include Mount Gihon (the tallest), Mount Sion, Mount Acre, Mount Scopus, the Mount of Olives (Olivet), Mount Opal, and Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is rich in biblical history.

One key event occurred when God sent a plague on Israel because King David disobeyed by conducting a military census, relying on army numbers rather than God’s strength. The plague struck at a threshing floor owned by Ornan on Mount Moriah. David saw the angel of the Lord (Jesus as the destroying angel) standing between heaven and earth with drawn sword, punishing Israel for David’s sin. The plague killed over 70,000 people.

David immediately prayed, taking responsibility and asking God to spare the people. God instructed him to build an altar there for sacrifices. David purchased the threshing floor from Ornan, regarding it as holy ground after seeing the angel of the Lord. His son Solomon later built the temple for God on that exact spot, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 3:1: "Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan."

But there is another holy site in the land of Moriah on Mount Moriah, not far from the temple. On one side of the mountain there is a unique rock formation called Golgotha because it resembles a human skull. Both sacrificial events happened at this exact spot. Jim announced he would read from the Old Testament about Abraham, whom God chose out of all the people of the world so that he would bless the whole world through him on that very spot.

Abraham was a Hebrew whose story begins in Genesis chapter 12. On the human timeline, Abraham appeared 2,000 years from Adam, or 2,000 years from creation.

In Genesis 12:1-3, Abraham headed west and was directed to the land of Canaan. Genesis 12:7 records additional details. God made three promises to Abram and reaffirmed them on oath in chapter 15. First, God swore Abraham would have a child from his own body. Although Sarai was barren and beyond childbearing years with no children, his descendants would be more numerous than the stars of the sky. Second was the land promise that his people would possess the land of Canaan. Third, through Abraham’s seed someone special from that bloodline would be a blessing to all the families of the earth.

Abraham was 75 years old when God called him. Twenty-four years later God gave him the covenant of circumcision. At that time God renamed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. One year later, Genesis 21:1-2 states the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at the very time God had promised.

They named the boy Isaac. He was a miracle baby because Sarah was 90 years old when she conceived, and she had been barren up to that point. It was God who put life in her womb. Jim hoped listeners would notice all the striking similarities between the two sacrificial events at the end of the lesson. The first event is a foreshadow of the event to come 2,000 years later. The foreshadow is called a type, and the future event is the realized anti-type. In the case of God, it is called the archetype.

With this context for the first of these two most important sacrificial events in Moriah, Jim read Genesis 22:1-14 together. He noted that this evening the congregation would examine the story verse by verse, and he would conclude the morning message with Genesis 22:1-19.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" He answered, "Here I am." God said, "Now take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you." Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, rose up, and went to the place God had told him.

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place far off. He said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship and come back to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took the fire and the knife in his hand. They both went together.

Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father." He replied, "Here I am, my son." Isaac said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So they both went together. They came to the place God had told him. Abraham built an altar there, laid the wood in order, bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, "Abraham, Abraham!" He said, "Here I am." The angel said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy 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." Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

Abraham called the name of that place "Yahweh will provide." As it is said to this day, "On Yahweh’s mountain it will be provided." Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky and said, "I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly. I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the skies and like the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my voice."

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.

This was the critical event in the scheme of redemption that sets up the actual event that would happen 2,000 years later on that exact spot. The second person of the Godhead, the angel of the Lord (known as Yahweh), was intimately involved in guiding and directing providentially the scheme of redemption. It had to be worked out through Abraham, the man of promise. Abraham proved himself true to the test. He was actually willing to lay his son on the altar, and as his hand was coming down with the knife, the angel of the Lord called out to stop him.

God knows the intent of our hearts and saw that Abraham was going through with it. By God’s great mercy and grace, he stopped Abraham from having to do the unthinkable, knowing that he would do the exact same thing for real 2,000 years later. God provided an actual ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Abraham sacrificed that animal to God. The name of that spot forever will be called "God will provide."

God tested Abraham’s faith and Abraham was willing to obey God’s command to sacrifice his only begotten son Isaac. Thankfully, Abraham passed the test. Because of that act he became God’s friend. God actually called Abraham his friend because they both experienced a loss of a loved one through that event. Abraham received back his son figuratively, a type of resurrection.

Jesus is going to be the archetype of the resurrection. Jim invited everyone to come back that evening for a verse-by-verse analysis of this story and how it foreshadows the wonderful gospel story of Jesus going to the cross and being raised from the dead.

He extended an invitation: if anyone has any need and would like to be baptized into Christ, accepting that wonderful sacrifice he made on our behalf, the baptismal water is there. The church is willing to help in any way to be right with God. The service concluded as the congregation stood to sing the invitation song.