The Vision (11.22.24): Christ: The New and Better Isaac

Image: The Binding of Isaac, by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, c. 1593, Piasecka-Johnson Collection, Princeton, New Jersey.

Note: Devotional based on last Sunday's sermon on Genesis 22:1-19.

Christians have long seen the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22 as a type (a shadow, a prefiguring, an anticipation) of the cross of Christ.

Consider these parallels:

Isaac is the son of Abraham (see the title given eight times in Genesis 22:2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13). Christ too is “the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), but also “the Son of God” (Mark 1:1).

Isaac is a beloved son of Abraham (22:2: the son “whom thou lovest”). Christ is the beloved Son of God the Father. Cf. at his baptism and transfiguration, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). See also Ephesians 4:6 where Paul said, “he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

Isaac is the only son (three times in 22:2, 12, 16). Christ is the only begotten Son (cf. John 1:14, 18; 3:16).

Isaac is the servant of his father (22:6 “and laid it upon Isaac his son”). Christ is the Servant of God the Father (Mark 10:45: He came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”).

Isaac cried out, “My father” (Genesis 22:7). Christ cried out at Gethsemane, “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36).

Isaac carried the wood to Mount Moriah (22:6-7). Christ carried his cross to Mount Calvary (Matthew 27:32: “him they compelled to bear his cross.”).

Isaac was told, God will provide himself a lamb (22:8). Christ is the Lamb of God (see John 1:29, 36; and Revelation 13:8: “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth.”).

Isaac was bound for the sacrifice (22:9: “and bound Isaac his son”). Christ was bound and handed over to Pilate (Matthew 27:2, “And when they had bound him”

God provided a substitute for Isaac (22:13: there was “a ram caught in the thicket by his horns… who was offered “in the stead of his son.”). Christ served as a substitute for elect sinners (Romans 5:8). Christ is both the Lamb and the Ram.

Isaac’s ram was caught in a thicket by his horns (22:13). The sacred head of Christ was encircled by a crown of twisted thorns pressed upon his brow (Matthew 27:29).

Perhaps the apostle Paul had Genesis 22 in mind when he said of God the Father’s offering up of Christ, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Here is one writer’s summary of this analogy:

The Lord Jesus “enters his day of suffering  as the new Isaac, the true son of Abraham in the fullest sense, the one who would offer himself wholly up to death, according to the divine foreordained plan, and bring the blessing of forgiveness and eternal life to all who put their faith in him” (Nicholas P. Lunn, The Gospels Through Old Testament Eyes, 183).

Christ is indeed the New and Better Isaac.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle