GOSPEL NUGGET # 97

Ge 22:2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

Ge 22:6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.

1. Isaac was Abraham's unique son. "Your only" means unique, one of a kind son. Ishmael was of course Abraham's son but Isaac was unique. He was promised by God to Abraham. The Lord Jesus is God's unique Son. God has many adopted sons but He only has one unique Son.

2. Isaac was Abraham's beloved son. If you look up a concordance, the first citations of love in the OT and in the NT is the love of a father towards his son. Genesis 22:2 in the OT and Matthew 3:17: ""This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

3. Isaac was to be offered as a burnt offering. There are many types of offering in the OT and one of them was the burnt offering. It was an offering that expressed ones devotion, dedication and consecration to God. It was an offering that was to be burnt whole. Nothing was to be kept back---Abraham wholeheartedly offered and gave his son.

This is a picture of God the Father who willingly and wholeheartedly gave His Son for us sinners.

4. Issac submitted to his father. We notice that there is no record that Isaac resisted Abraham, there was no struggle. Isaac himself willingly submitted and wholeheartedly consecrated himself to his father's will.

This is a picture of God the Son's willingness to submit Himself to the Father's will: "Not My will, but Your will be done."

5. Isaac was to be offered in the land or region of Moriah. He carried the wood that was to be used to sacrifice him. Hundreds of years later, another beloved Son carried a wooden Cross on the way to the very same region where Isaac was offered.

But what Abraham was not able to do (because he was prevented), God the Father did, He consummated it, He gave up His Son to death. Not for friends but for enemies.