Contending 4 the Faith

This is from a lesson I gave this fall. The name of the class was “Finding Jesus in the Old Testament”. I hope it edifies all who take the time to read it.

Genesis 22:1 “After these things…”  What things??

Backstory:

Genesis 12

God calls Abram out of the place where he lived in Haran.  He was a native of Ur of the Chaldeans.  God promised to “make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Sarai is barren)  Abraham is 75 at this point.

Fast forward to Genesis 15

Abram is still childless and is questioning the promise God made in Genesis 12.  So, God enters into a covenant with Abram.

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” ² But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ And he believed the LORD, and He (God) counted it to him (Abram) as righteousness.

7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12  As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give³ this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Blessed Abraham was called by the Lord ‘the father of a multitude of nations,’ for all the nations which now believe in Christ and will believe are sons of Abraham by imitating his faith, not by birth in the flesh. Now just as after being children of Abraham the degenerate Jews by their infidelity became children of the devil and are called in the Gospel a ‘brood of vipers,’ so on the contrary all the nations who faithfully believe in Christ have merited to become the children of Abraham. Therefore, the heifer, the she-goat, and the ram of three years, as also the turtledove and the pigeon, presented a type of all nations. They were described as of three years, because all the nations were to believe in the mystery of the Trinity.

Notice, brethren, that what is called a fiery torch passing between those pieces is also not said to have touched the turtledove and pigeon. That evening signified the end of the world. Those animals, as we already said, showed a type of all the nations who believe in Christ. Because those nations have in them not only spiritual men, as was already said, that is, not only good men but even the wicked, for this reason the animals were divided and the fiery torch passed through them. According to what the Apostle says: ‘The day of the Lord will declare it, since it will be revealed in fire,’ and so forth. That burning, smoking oven and fiery torch prefigured the day of judgment, and for this reason fear and a darksome horror settled upon blessed Abraham.

(Caesarius of Arles; Sermon 82)

Ten more years go by…no child.

Genesis 16

Sarai gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abram so she can have a child by her.  This leads to the relationship between Sarai and Hagar to become strained.  Sarai kicks her out of the house.  The Angel of the Lord meets Hagar in the wilderness…tells her to return to Sarai and submit to her.  He promises to multiply her offspring and gives certain details about what would come of his descendants.

Abram was 86 when Ishmael was born. He is 14 years older than Isaac.

Thirteen years later

Genesis 17

God reaffirms his covenant with Abram and changes his name to Abraham (father of many nations).  God initiates the sign of the covenant; circumcision.  He also changes Sarai’s name to Sarah.  He tells Abraham that he will have a son, name him Isaac and that the covenant will be with him.  Ismael will be blessed in his own right, but Isaac will have the everlasting covenant.  God tells them he will be born at this time next year.

Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born.  He was 75 when he was called out of his land.

Isaac is now around 10 years old (according to biblical historians)

Genesis 22:1 – 19  (FORESHADOWING)

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take 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.”

How many sons did Abraham have at the time?  Who was to be the burnt offering?

Abraham had two sons at this point in time; Ismael (the oldest) and Isaac.

The scarlet thread has come up to Isaac and no further so far.  “your only son” sounds a lot like John 3:16.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he have his only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw (Hebrew:  ra’ah) the place from afar. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Significant things happen on “the third day”.  He was confident that he and Isaac were coming back after the sacrifice.  Jesus was riding a donkey when he rode into Jerusalem before his passion week (Matthew 21). In fact, Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem was the beginning of his journey to Calvary; to the Cross.

⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son (John 19:12). And he took in his hand the fire and the knife.  So they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Isaac carried the wood up Mt. Moriah for the offering.  Christ carried his cross up the same mountain.

God will provide a substitute.

Gen. 22:9   When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

“angel of the LORD”…preincarnate appearance of Christ

Isaac is laid on the wood just as Christ was at Calvary.

¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked (saw), and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide” (Yahweh will see); as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided (seen).”

“ram caught in a thicket”…caught in thorns around its head…”crown of thorns”.  The ram became Isaac’s substitute.  Just as Christ became all of mankind’s substitute.  (John 19:2)

Gen. 22:15   And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, ¹⁸ and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” ¹⁹ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

“and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”

Paul in Galatians 3 explains the fulfillment of this promise.

Galatians 3:15 – 19

To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. ¹⁶ Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. ¹⁷ This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. ¹⁸ For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Gal. 3:19   Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

Blessed through the redemption of Christ.

Hebrews 11:17

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” ¹⁹ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

On the slopes of Mt. Moriah, just west of the Temple Mount, Jesus was crucified; he stood between Heaven and Earth; the sacrifice provided, the “ram caught in the thicket”; our substitution.

On that mountain, the Lord provided himself a lamb for the offering; and on that day, the Lord did see.

Alters on Mt. Moriah

1 Chronicles 21:1 – 27

Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. ² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” ³ But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel?” ⁴ But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. ⁵ And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were ^h1,100,000 men who drew the sword, and in Judah ^h470,000 who drew the sword. ⁶ But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.  7   But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. ⁸ And David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” (one man’s sin causes everyone to be guilty) ⁹ And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹⁰ “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the LORD, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹¹ So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will: ¹² either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹³ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”  14   So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. ¹⁵ And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven (when Jesus was crucified, He was standing between Heaven and Earth), and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. ¹⁷ And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O LORD my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.”  (David sinned and he needs a substitute)

David Builds an Altar

1Chr. 21:18   Now the angel of the LORD had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.  ¹⁹ So David went up at Gad’s word, which he had spoken in the name of the LORD. ²⁰ Now Ornan was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. ²¹ As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and paid homage to David with his face to the ground. ²² And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the LORD—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” ²³ Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” ²⁴ But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” ²⁵ So David paid Ornan ^p600 shekels¹ of gold by weight for the site. ²⁶ And David built there an altar to the LORD and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the LORD, and the LORD² answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ Then the LORD commanded the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.

King David sins against God and affects the whole nation; Adam’s sin is imputed to all of us. (verse 13)

Verse 15 (Yahweh saw)

Verse 16 “standing before heaven and earth”  David needed a substitute.  David made an alter on the threshing floor; where wheat and chaff are separated.  The cross is the “threshing floor”; the place were the wheat and chaff are separated.

2 Chronicles 3:1

Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

The altar that David built; Solomon continued with the temple; on Mount Moriah.  Temple Mount is on Mount Moriah.

Dome of the Rock houses the Foundation Stone.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre – place where Christ was crucified and buried.