Foreshadowings #1 - Abraham & Isaac

Throughout the Old Testament, God uses foreshadowings (a literary device that hints at what is to come) to point us to Jesus, the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures.  God provides remarkable glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. 

Foreshadowings #1: Abraham & Isaac 

Scriptures Genesis 22:1-14, Isaiah 53, John 3:16

Pastor opens this new series with a story of a personal testimony of a man based on him reading Isaiah 53 and finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

The definition of foreshadowing - foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story.

While the Bible was written by tens of people over a period of 1500 years, it ultimately has one author and that is the Living God Himself. He has given us repetitious foreshadowings of Jesus the Messiah. 

Long before Jesus came we can see Him on the pages of Scripture.

Genesis chapter 22 begins, “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.’”

Truth one: Genuine love is best shown in a father who is willing to offer up his only beloved son. 

A second truth:  The son was as good as dead for three days. In Abraham’s mind his boy was gone, but Abraham trusted God. In the same way the Lord Jesus was laid in the tomb, dead for three days, but then raised by the power of the Father and the Spirit. 

Number 3:  Worship and sacrifice on Mount Moriah. That’s where God told Abraham to go. We know from the book of II Chronicles that Mount Moriah is in Jerusalem, and it is the site where the temple was built. So what we see here is 400 years before God had even designated that site as the place for worship. Abraham and Isaac go there to worship the living God, and the sacrifice is made in the heart of what would become the city where Jesus died. 

Number 4: The father and son act in unity. The son was obedient to the father’s will. Isaac did what Abraham said. Isaac did not resist. He did not put up a fight. He simply laid down his life in obedience. In the same way that Jesus did for us.

Number 5: The son actually carried the wood. You cannot read that without thinking of Jesus carrying His own cross as he goes out to Calvary, to Golgotha, the place where he would be offered up. 

Number 6: Abraham spoke prophetic words, “God himself will provide a lamb.” And that is exactly what God did. This is a foreshadowing of the real lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  The apostle Paul would say, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” (I Corinthians 5:7). And we first get a glimpse of that here in Genesis 22. 

Finally, point number 7: After Abraham lays his son on the altar - the son goes willingly, no fighting, no objections. A picture of Jesus who will willing obey His Father by going to the cross and laying down His life.  

When we understand how much God loves us. When you and I come to grips with the fact that the Almighty Creator of the universe was willing to condemn His own Son so that you and I might live forever, what that produces in us is a change of heart and a change of mind and a change of direction. What it does is offers life. 

No matter what you may have done in your life, no matter how you may have failed, God wants you and He wants you desperately. All through the pages of His Word, He gives dramatic foreshadowings of that incredible truth. The purpose of foreshadowing is to reveal the author’s intent, and the intent of the Heavenly Father is that you and I know Him and experience life with Him forever. And that life is found in Jesus, the only Son whom He loves who gave His life for us all, who is risen from the grave, ascended to the Father’s side and is coming back, and coming soon. We do not want to miss that. Trust me. When He returns, no one will miss that. But you don’t want to miss what He has to offer. It’s just that simple.

The ultimate author of the scriptures is the God of the universe. He is boldly declaring time and time again the truth that He loves the world desperately and that He loves each one of us so much that He would not spare His only Son.

The measure of the Father’s love is that He will spare no expense to bring us back to Himself.

Pastor ends this teaching with an invite to give your heart to God and if you are a believer to recommit your heart to Him. And then encourages us to share this message with another person and then to pray for that person.

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