Just about everyone knows that Genesis 22 is a precursor, a picture of sorts, of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. There are many clear paralleles between Isaac and Jesus in this incident. Both are the long-awaited sons of promise. Both were called by God to be sacrificed. Perhaps the biggest difference, as many have noticed, is that God stopped Abraham from sacrifcing his son, while God did allow His own Son to be sacrificed at Calvary. God, it seems, does not call his followers to actually sacrifice the lives of their own sons because He gave up the life of His Son.
While all of the above is true, there are other connections between this account of the would-be sacrifice of Isaac and Jesus. To begin a brief journey of discovery of this connection we must go to John 8. . In John 8:56, Jesus tells his audience, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." Why is it stated so clearly that Abraham had seen the day of Jesus? Jesus does not argue that he will see it or was seeing it; Jesus reveals that Abraham had seen it at some point in the past. His apparent point was that Abraham had seen the day of Jesus. The big question for us today is when did he see it?
All indications are that it was during the incident with Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Read verses 3-4 of Genesis 22:
Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
I wanted to focus here on the phrase, “saw the place in the distance.” The word that is rendered “distance,” is the Hebrew word rachowq. Depending on the context, the word can be understood to mean either in the distance (with regards to space) or in the distance of time (or the future). The phrase in question, then, can, with no violence done to the orignial context, be rendered to read “saw the place in the future.”
Jesus’ words in John 8 already have been shown to indicate that Abraham had seen the day of Jesus. If we take into account the option that verse 4 of Genesis 22 says that Abraham saw the place in the future, we begin to ask, “is it possible that God allowed Abraham to see a vision of the crucified Savior 2,000 years before it took place?
Admittedly, this is circumstanial evidence, but are there any other items in this passage that might bolster this view? The answer is “yes.” Not the least of these items is that of the place itself. The incident with Isaac is taking place on Mt. Moriah. Interestingly, many biblical scholars believe that Golgotha, the place on which Jesus was crucified was on Mt. Moriah. Thus when verse 4 says that Abraham “saw the place in the future,” he may have actually been allowed to see that exact place in the future, as God revealed His future plans to the father of the children of Israel.
Another piece of the puzzle comes from verses 7-8:
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.
When asked by Isaac about the subject of the sacrifice, Abraham assures his trusting son that God would be providing the lamb. This seems simple enough but we need to look further down in the passage to see what is really going on here. After the angel stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, Abraham looks up to see that caught in the bushes is, in fact, the provision of the Lord. God has provided just as Abraham said. But wait. Abraham said that God would provide a lamb. What is caught in the thicket, however, is not a lamb but a ram. For those of you who are just waking up and are yet to have your morning coffee, those are two entirely different animals. Was Abraham incorrect when he said that God would provide a lamb? Or was he talking about a different lamb at a different time? Of course we know that Jesus was the Lamb of God. After being given a vision of the future sacrifice of Jesus Christ in the same place that he was standing, Abraham predicts to his son that the Lamb of God would be provided as the only sacrifice that was really needed.
Finally, lets look at verse 14 of Genesis 22:
So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
Don’t miss the fact that Abraham named the place “The Lord Will Provide.” Again, the tense here is vital. Abraham did not say that the Lord had provided. The provision of the Lord to which Abraham was referring appears to be in the future. His naming of the mountain has more to do with the future than it does with what just happened on the mountain.
In summation, it becomes clear that Jesus’ words in John 8 are extremely accurate. Abraham did indeed see the day of Jesus long before it had taken place. While escorting his son up Mt. Moriah in obedience to God, God allowed Abraham to catch a vision of the glorious future that was to come when the lamb of God would be sacrificed for the sins of the world.
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