A long time ago in the land of Israel, an innocent man in the prime of life was led up the side of a hill to die a sacrificial death. He had led an interesting life. The circumstances surrounding his birth were especially unusual. He was miraculously conceived, and his parents had been visited by an angel who foretold the event. The Lord even provided the surprised parents-to-be with a name for the child.
Now, as he strained under his wooden burden, this man trusted completely in his father and subjected himself to his father’s will. He was to be laid upon the wood, pierced, and slain as a sacrifice.
But it was not yet Isaac’s time to die, for an angel stepped in at the last moment and stayed Abraham’s hand. This event must have perplexed Isaac. But little did he realize the remarkable way in which the defining moments of his life resembled defining moments in the life of the Messiah, who was to come some two thousand years later.
The events recounted above are taken from Genesis chapters 17, 18, and 22. However, their resemblance to the gospel accounts of Jesus’s life is striking. It seems God had much more in mind than testing Abraham’s faith. By working through the events in Isaac’s life, God presented His redemptive nature in a prophetic portrait of Jesus Christ.
This is one of many sets of astounding parallels between the lives of the Old Testament heroes of the faith and Jesus Christ. It is as if the image of Jesus Christ were holographically imprinted throughout the Old Testament. Sadly, many churches have ignored or forgotten this teaching. The result has been a very shallow view of the Old Testament held by many Christians.
Would you like to enrich your understanding of the Old Testament? Would you like to learn how to see Jesus Christ on every page, from Genesis forward? My book, Decoding Bible Messages, was written as a labor of love to help people do just that.
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