26-0405p Transcript

(0:45) Well, good evening again. (0:47) Thanks to see everybody back. (0:50) Well, back to our study on the land of Moriah.

(0:56) This is an ancient land. (1:00) Before there was a Jerusalem, (1:02) there was Moriah. (1:06) And it’s the land where Jerusalem was located.

(1:13) And a unique geographical point of that area was there were seven hills. (1:24) People from the Alps would call them hills. (1:28) They called them mountains there in Israel.

(1:33) But we looked at those mountains. (1:36) And in particular, we looked at Mount Moriah and all the history that went on there. (1:42) So we’re going to continue where we left off.

(1:46) We were looking at two of the most important stories in the Bible. (1:52) They’re closely related. (1:55) One is a type and the other is the archetype.

(2:02) And so one is the foreshadow and one is the reality of it. (2:10) And we are looking at the stories of two fathers who sacrificed their only begotten sons. (2:20) One from the Old Testament and the other from the Gospel era.

(2:26) The Old Testament father is Abraham, and he was commanded by God (2:31) to offer his son as a burnt offering. (2:35) This event was a foreshadow of what would occur 2,000 years later in the Gospels. (2:43) We read through the text this morning.

(2:47) So let’s do a verse by verse of this story. (2:50) So going back to Genesis 22, we’re going to look at verses 1 through 19. (3:00) Verse 1. (3:01) Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham.

(3:09) And he said, here I am. (3:13) Now throughout Scripture, we read of God testing his people. (3:18) And the Hebrew word for test is tento, which is to prove, try, or test.

(3:26) God will test those who believe in him to determine one’s level of fear of him, (3:33) faith in him, and love and devotion to him. (3:38) Two verses come to mind which demonstrates God testing his people. (3:43) In Exodus 20, 20, Moses said to the people, do not be afraid, for God has come in order (3:52) to test you, so that the fear of him may remain with you, so that you may not sin.

(4:02) And another one is from Proverbs 13, verse 3. (4:08) The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. (4:17) And Abraham was about to enter the crucible, God’s crucible. (4:24) Verse 2. (4:27) God said, now take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah (4:39) and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will tell you, (4:47) so God lays out the test for Abraham.

(4:51) Sacrifice your son as a burnt offering. (4:57) At Passover, Israel was to roast their lambs over fire and weren’t allowed to break any of its bones. (5:08) And the Passover lamb of what that was, was a type of Christ.

(5:18) And in this case, Isaac is a type as well. (5:23) Notice also that God makes sure that Abraham understood the preciousness of his son. (5:33) Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.

(5:42) He was like underscoring each of those statements. (5:46) To really drive home the point, look Abraham, this is something that I’m going to do with my son, (5:55) who’s most precious to me. (6:01) So indeed, Abraham entered the crucible.

(6:08) So let’s examine the typology here. (6:13) Isaac had a miraculous birth. (6:17) God made Sarah, who was barren and 90 years old, so she was beyond the child-bearing age, (6:28) to actually conceive and have a son.

(6:31) God put life in her womb. (6:35) That wouldn’t have happened any other way. (6:39) So Isaac was indeed a miracle baby.

(6:45) So Sarah and Isaac are types of Mary and Jesus. (6:51) Jesus had a miraculous birth by being born to a virgin. (6:57) Mary knew no relations with a man.

(7:01) So it would have been impossible for her to be with child. (7:07) But God put life in her womb. (7:12) He put Jesus in there.

(7:18) And so we have Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh. (7:25) So Jesus had a miraculous birth by being born to Mary, (7:29) and Jesus and Mary are the antitypes to Sarah and Isaac. (7:35) They were both only begotten sons and both greatly loved.

(7:41) So Abraham is also a type, and God the Father is not just the antitype, (7:48) but he’s the archetype or plototype, the one that the type is after. (7:57) And that type is as a father who sacrificed their son. (8:04) Verse three, so Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey (8:11) and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son.

(8:16) He split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God told him. (8:25) So here we are shown the obedience of Abraham. (8:30) He planned on going through with it without objections or pleading for his son’s life.

(8:37) Could you imagine God coming to any one of us and saying, (8:43) offer your son as a burnt offering? (8:47) So not only did he have to cut the throat of his son, but set him on fire. (8:54) Who could do that? (8:57) Well, thankfully, Abraham did. (9:04) Abraham had to take enough wood to burn up a human, which I would imagine was quite a bit.

(9:14) And then he set out with Isaac. (9:16) Verse four, on the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. (9:25) Abraham had three days in which to travel and agonize in his mind what was about to happen.

(9:37) God, too, had three days to agonize at the separation and death of his son. (9:44) Jesus was in the earth three days after his death. (9:52) So this is a three days of agony type archetype.

(10:00) They started out in Beersheba, which is around 40 miles from Jerusalem, (10:08) a three days journey by animal. (10:12) And Abraham may have recognized the place that God wanted them to go to by either one, (10:20) perhaps God’s Shekinah was there. (10:22) That’s God’s cloud of glory that could have been settled over the mountain.

(10:28) Or perhaps he saw the unique shape of the rock (10:36) projection out of the mountain that resembled a human skull and might have figured, (10:42) oh, that’s got to be the place. (10:44) Or perhaps it’s because he was a prophet and the Spirit let him know (10:49) that’s the place. (10:52) So Abraham finds the place and goes there.

(10:56) Verse five, and Abraham said to his young men, (11:01) stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go yonder and we will worship and return to you. (11:09) This shows Abraham’s total faith in God. (11:14) He felt he would return with his son intact by what he told his servants.

(11:21) And we’re not told in this passage how Abraham reasoned that God would do this, (11:28) but we are told by the New Testament writer, (11:31) the Hebrew writer that Scott read for us where it said, (11:35) by faith, when God tested him, he offered Isaac as a sacrifice. (11:40) He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his only begotten son, (11:47) even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. (11:55) Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead (11:58) and figuratively speaking, did receive Isaac back from the dead.

(12:04) So Abraham believed God could bring Isaac back from the dead. (12:08) And this is a type of resurrection. (12:14) Isaac figuratively came back from the dead because we’re told that Abraham was all ready (12:20) to put the knife to his son and deliver that fatal blow.

(12:28) And Jesus did die on the cross and three layers arose from the dead. (12:36) So type and anti-type with the resurrection, one figurative, one real. (12:44) Verse six, and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, (12:52) and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

(12:56) So the two of them walked on together. (13:00) They probably had to leave the donkeys because of the terrain of the mountain. (13:05) So by foot, they traveled and Abraham with the fire and the knife, (13:11) and Isaac with a large load of wood, sufficient for a human burnt offering.

(13:20) And Isaac had to be old enough to carry that wood. (13:25) As Abraham piled it on him and he carried it. (13:29) So he wasn’t the little guy just carrying a few pieces of wood.

(13:35) He had a bundle. (13:39) So Isaac was a mature young man. (13:46) So here’s another type.

(13:48) Isaac had to carry his wood to his sacrifice. (13:55) Just like Christ, the archetype, carried his cross made out of wood to his sacrifice. (14:05) You see all these similarities between what Abraham and God, the father, went through here? (14:12) Verse seven, and Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father, and he said, (14:21) here I am, my son.

(14:23) And he said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? (14:31) So up to this point, Abraham hadn’t told Isaac the full details of this sacrifice. (14:38) And it was probably then that Isaac may have entertained the thought that he could be the (14:44) sacrifice. (14:46) Hence the exclamation in his voice, my father.

(14:50) But still notice the affection between father and son. (14:55) Isaac is not a child here. (14:58) Some Bible scholars believe he is anywhere from 25 to 36 years old.

(15:05) And my guess is that Isaac, knowing how God is such a perfect timekeeper, (15:12) leaving nothing to chance, my guess is he was the same age as Christ (15:18) when Christ was put on the cross. (15:21) And here’s the reason why. (15:25) Sarah, when she died, was 127 years old.

(15:33) And we know how old she was when she had Isaac. (15:38) And so at this point, that would make, at her death, Isaac was 37. (15:46) And this was shortly before her death.

(15:50) Matter of fact, it’s the next story after this incident. (15:56) So he was a mature man by today’s standards. (16:00) Back then, they had a little more gas in the tank.

(16:03) Like Abraham was, what, 175 when he died? (16:08) Well, 33 is still 33. (16:12) That’s a man. (16:14) But when you’re that old, you can look at somebody that age and still call him a lad.

(16:20) I mean, when we see somebody 30, don’t we think he’s still just a kid? (16:25) Even though we know he’s not. (16:28) Anyhow, I digress. (16:31) I believe with all the deliberate type archetypes we see in this story, that God (16:36) had thoroughly thought this out, and nothing is coincidental.

(16:42) Everything is done with perfect purpose when it comes to God’s plan of salvation. (16:50) Verse 8, and Abraham said, God will provide for himself the land for the burnt offering, my son. (17:00) So the two of them walked on together.

(17:05) So this was more than Abraham being. (17:08) Faithful and obedient. (17:09) This was Abraham being prophetic because God would provide the lamb.

(17:16) But in the fullness of time, by offering his son as the sacrificial lamb to take away our sin (17:23) 2,000 years later, that’s what Christ did for us. (17:29) So this is really double types and anti-types here. (17:35) We have Isaac, who is the type and Christ as the archetype, and the lamb (17:42) is a type and Christ is the archetype.

(17:47) Verse 9, and they came to the place of which God had told him. (17:56) And Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac (18:02) and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. (18:06) So this really speaks volumes about Isaac’s faith.

(18:13) Because a man in his early 30s is at the peak of his physical ability, and yet here’s Abraham (18:24) freely binding his son and putting him on the wood. (18:29) Isaac did not resist. (18:33) He submitted to his father’s authority and purpose, (18:37) letting himself be tied up on the altar on top of the wood without saying a word.

(18:44) And what does that image conjure up in your mind? (18:49) Isaac too must have reasoned that he being Abraham’s son and knowing the promises would (18:56) somehow live again because of God’s divine promises. (19:01) The similarity between Isaac and Jesus are they were both willing to be offered as a sacrifice. (19:13) No resistance, no violence, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, (19:23) so both of them were silent and offered no resistance.

(19:33) And they were both bound on their sacrificial wood. (19:41) Verse 10, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (19:52) I’m sure Abraham had to psych himself up to go through with that.

(19:59) And there comes a point where you’re going to be beyond the point of no return in that strike. (20:06) And the angel of the Lord who was watching, God knows the intent in a man’s heart, (20:16) and he saw that Abraham was truly going to go through with the sacrifice. (20:24) Verse 11, but the angel of the Lord, and remember who this is, this is Christ, (20:32) the pre-incarnate Jesus as the angel of the Lord, as the second figure of the Godhead, (20:41) we know as Yahweh.

He’s watching this, and he shouts out from heaven, (20:52) Abraham, Abraham, and Abraham said, here I am. (20:57) So the angel of the Lord is one of the faces that Jesus Yahweh, (21:07) one-third of the Trinity, said that he would reveal himself to men. (21:14) And he is our mediator between God and us, the Father and man.

(21:22) Seeing what was about to happen, he put the brakes on fast and hard. (21:28) God never intended to be worshiped with human sacrifice. Pagans did that, and God detested that.

(21:40) Main example is how the pagans in Baal worship pass their children through the fire (21:48) and sacrifice to Murdoch, and that was detestable in God’s sight. He tested Abraham and witnessed (22:02) firsthand that the very man in whom he was making into his special people through his seed (22:11) was actually willing to give up his only begotten son, whom he loved. (22:19) Verse 12, and he said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, (22:25) for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

(22:38) Abraham and Isaac both passed this test with flying colors, with fear, faith, submission, (22:49) conviction, and obedience. In God’s eyes, the fact sacrifice was completed. (22:59) In Abraham’s eyes, he received back his son from the dead.

Abraham experienced the grace (23:09) and salvation of God, and Jesus spoke of this in the Gospel of John in the eighth chapter. (23:19) In verse 56, he said to the Jews, your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. (23:30) He saw it and was glad.

How did he see it? He saw it through what he went through with Isaac. (23:40) And he was glad, and he knew that one day the angel of the Lord and God the Father would do (23:48) the same thing for all of us. Verse 13, then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, (23:58) behind him a ram caught in the thicket by its horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram (24:06) and offered him up for a burnt offering in place of his son. Could you imagine the relief (24:16) and joy Abraham was feeling, and Isaac for that matter? It was like he received Isaac back from (24:25) the dead. Not only was God going to supply the lamb for the ultimate sacrifice 2,000 years in (24:34) the future, but he even took care of their immediate need right then and there by putting (24:41) a ram in the thicket caught by his horns.

How easy that was for a man who was over 100 (24:51) to just walk up and take it. Didn’t have to chase it. It was a wild ram (24:56) and sacrifice it there on the altar.

God provided. Verse 14, and Abraham called (25:09) the name of that place the Lord or Yahweh will provide, as it is said to this day, (25:19) in the mouth of the Lord it will be provided. So this confirms the location on Mount Zion (25:28) as that projection of rock that resembles the face of the skull, (25:35) Golgotha, or better known as Calvary.

Because on that hill 2,000 years forward from Abraham’s (25:44) sacrifice, Yahweh himself would be the sacrifice for all mankind. (25:54) There God’s perfect sacrificial lamb, a lamb without defect or spot, was offered on the cross (26:03) bearing its guilt, shame, and disgrace for the benefit of all mankind. (26:10) Jesus, the Son of God, sinless and innocent, willingly died for sinful mankind.

There’s no (26:19) greater love than that. Doesn’t John 3.16 sum it up? For God so loved the world that he gave (26:30) his only begotten Son. Amen and amen.

Now it was 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham. (26:42) It was 2,000 years from Abraham to Christ. It’s been very nearly 2,000 years since Christ (26:55) till now.

We’re talking just a handful of years, perhaps our lifetime. (27:05) That 2,000 years is significant, obviously. The only thing left for God to fulfill (27:16) is Christ coming back for his church and raising them up in the resurrection (27:22) and then judgment day for those who reject the gospel, for those who reject that perfect (27:33) sacrificial lamb, Jesus, God’s anointed Son.

So the invitation’s there for anyone who needs it. (27:46) You need the prayers of the church, or if you’d like to become a saved member, (27:51) if there’s anybody out there listening, we’ll meet you here at the building and we’ll be glad (27:58) to facilitate your being baptized into Christ to become a new creature, a child of God. (28:06) So come as we stand and sing the invitation song.