The Patriarch Abraham trusted Christ

© 2016 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

Abraham trusted Christ, God’s coming Messiah. God provided Abraham with an incredible object lesson of Christ’s mission.

God instructed Abraham to travel to the land of Moriah, and sacrifice his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. This land of Moriah would be the same land in which God would ultimately sacrifice His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Redeemer.

As Abraham and Isaac journeyed toward Moriah, Isaac asked about the sacrifice. Abraham prophetically responded.

“My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8).

When Abraham, in obedience to God, took the knife to slay Isaac, God stopped him and provided a substitute ram which was caught in a thicket. This fulfilled Abraham’s prophesy, in the immediate situation, and also pictured Christ, the Lamb of God, as the final redeemer.

Christ would certainly have had this event on his heart as he made the following rebuke to unbelieving Jews who had rejected Him even while claiming Abraham as their father.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56).

Can you imagine the double joy Abraham would have experienced on this occasion? He figuratively experienced Isaac’s resurrection from the dead because of the substitute ram! Abraham understood that Isaac’s restoration to him was a picture of Christ’s ultimate resurrection. It says that Abraham believed,

“..that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure” (Hebrews 11:19).

Even more thrilling, however, would have been Abraham’s new depth of understanding regarding the fact that Christ, the Son of God, would die for his sins and then rise victoriously from the dead.

Scripture makes it clear that Abraham’s primary focus was on eternity rather than on this physical life. He understood that God was showing him incredible pictures of this greater reality.

“By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” (Hebrews 11:9-10).

As you move through life, are you, as Abraham, yearning for God’s kingdom? Are you trusting the Lamb of God, who is the only one that can take you there?

 

 

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