Genesis22

Genesis 22 Summarized:

Abraham was told by God that he was to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved.  Early in the morning Abraham journeyed with two young men and his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah, which is located in what will later be called Jerusalem.  On the third day of the journey, Abraham had the two men stay back while he and Isaac went on to the location ordained by God.  Abraham took the wood for the offering and laid it upon Isaac, and they continued on their solemn journey to the peak.
It is written “Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son.”  Isaac then questions his father asking the obvious “… where is the lamb for a burnt offering,” to which Abraham replies “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”

When they came to the place that God told Abraham of, Isaac was bound by his father and then laid upon the wood.  Abraham, believing in God’s promise to him that through Isaac he would have innumerous descendants, believed that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead, and so he stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.  A messenger of God stops him and says “… for now I know that thou fearest God…”
Abraham then lifts up his eyes and beholds a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, and then offers the ram as a burnt offering.

All of these events point towards the future, as is typically the case in scripture.

Abraham offers his only son Isaac, just as God offers his only son.  Immediately after being betrayed by Judas, Christ is taken to Jerusalem to be tried, and two of his disciples follow him.  These represent the two young men that accompanied Isaac.  It is written that Abraham and Isaac journeyed three days.  In essence, for three days Isaac was dead to Abraham.  Christ was dead for three days.  Christ was resurrected by the Father, just as Abraham believed was possible for Isaac.

Isaac carried the wood for his self-sacrifice, just as Christ carried the cross to his own self-sacrifice.  Isaac asks Abraham where the lamb for the offering is, and Abraham says that God will provide himself a lamb for the offering.  The lamb represents Christ.  This is why God provides Abraham with a ram, and not a lamb, to point towards the future.

Lastly, Isaac is laid down atop the wood.  In other words, Isaac’s back was to the wood, and similarly Christ’s back was to the wood of a cross.  The last parallel is the ram with its horns caught in a thicket.  Thickets are formed of briars, which is a common name for a number of unrelated thorny plants.  This is a foreshadowing of the crown of thorns placed upon Christ’s head.

There is a heavy parallel I’ve not mentioned.  When Isaac calls to his father, Abraham replies “Here am I, my son.”  The same is not so for Christ, for when Christ was being tortured in his last minutes he cried “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  He was referencing a psalm in which David wrote “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”  This was done to fulfill the prophecy written by Isaiah in which God said “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”

This is the true significance of Abraham’s sacrifice.  There are hundreds of such parallels across scripture.  -KJVonly