Substitution is a gospel theme that runs through the whole of Scripture, another band of color flashing from the diamond of the gospel. Perhaps one of the most insightful and prophetic events pointing to the cross that cannot be dismissed by critics is found in Genesis 22, the story of Abraham offering up Isaac in obedience to the command of God. Often higher critics say the recorded events that appear to be a fulfillment of prophecy were actually written after the event happened. However, the parallels between this prophetic event that happened some 2,000 years before Christ and what transpired when our Lord died on the cross as our Substitute are so striking that they cannot be denied. They stand embedded in the rock of history as a solid memorial proving that the Bible is trustworthy and Christ is the promised Messiah.
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you“ (Gen. 22:1-5).
This event comes late in the life of Abraham. God had already blessed Him, counted his faith as righteousness, made a covenant with him and his posterity, and miraculously given him a son in his old age. Yet God wanted to test him further and in so doing God provided for us this prophetic event with insights into the gospel truth of substitution.
One can only imagine the thoughts going through Abraham’s mind. The covenant God had made was to be fulfilled through Isaac.
But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year (Gen. 17:21).
…for through Isaac your descendants shall be named (Gen. 21:12).
Actually, we have no record of what went on in Abraham’s mind. He knew God’s voice and he had learned by experience to trust God in faith. The story forces us to put ourselves into Abraham’s place and feel the emotional tension.
Abraham had left his father’s home to wander about in a land that was his only by promise. He had seen the provision of the miracle birth of Isaac. Now what? Was all this for naught?
We are not told how old Isaac was on this occasion. The historian Josephus states that he was twenty five.1
A rabbi from the middle ages stated that Isaac was thirty seven years old at this time.2 From all indications Isaac was in the peak years of his strength in that he was able to carry enough wood for a burnt offering. Abraham was about 125-137 years old and could have easily been overpowered by his son. Yet there is not a hint of a struggle.
To understand the intricacies of this story we must see them in the light of the Trinity. We can best understand this story in Genesis if we see both Abraham and Isaac representing different facets of the Christ event as God the Father and Christ the obedient, only beloved Son, together worked out our salvation by the principle of substitution.
Abraham obeys God’s command without question just as Christ obeyed the Father without question. Abraham and his men traveled for three days getting to the mountain that God showed him. It is significant that this mountain is the same as what we call Mt. Calvary, where the temple would later be built.3 The fact that Abraham was specifically directed to this mountain shows God intended much more than just to test Abraham’s faith. The prescribed details point us to the truth foreshadowed.
When Abraham left his men he said,
Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you (Gen. 22:5).
We could ask many questions here. Was this an expression of his God-given faith that somehow He with Isaac would return to his men? Knowing the many promises God had made to Abraham which were all centered in Isaac, did Abraham believe that God could raise Isaac from the dead? This is the testimony of the writer of Hebrews.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type (Heb. 11:17-19).
Returning to the Genesis story,
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood (Gen. 22:6-9).
Abraham took the wood and laid it on Isaac his son. Then on top of the mount he bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. One cannot read this account without seeing this event as foreshadowing the cross of Christ.
To interpret this event as foreshadowing Christ is not wild allegorizing. Not only did the writer of Hebrews see this event as a “type”, but Christ in one of His most revelatory statements, points us in this direction.
Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him, and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” The Jews therefore said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple (In. 8:54-59).
It was here on the mountain top that Abraham clearly saw “Christ’s day” —the gospel of substitution.
And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son (Gen. 22:10-13).
The facts related in this story build a monumental prophetic event. A sanctified imagination cries out for us to fill in the missing bricks in this sacred memorial. That Isaac, now a strong young man, offered no resistance is significant. In his quiet acceptance of his father’s will, we see a preview of Christ’s submission to His Father.
Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, “Father, save Me from this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour (Un. 12:27).
The next few statements complete the truth of this event.
Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the LORD it will be provided” (Gen. 22:14).
Two thousand years before the death of Christ this prophetic event showed Abraham the meaning of the substitutionary atonement.
He [Abraham] beholds it [Christ’s day] in a threefold figure. First of all, when he takes the knife, and stretches forth his hand to slay his son, he is made to realize the intensity of the love of him who spared not his own Son, but gave him up even to the death. Again, secondly, in the ram provided for Isaac’s release, there is a vivid representation of the great principle of the sacrifice of Christ-that principle of substitution. A ransom is found for the doomed and condemned—an acceptable victim is put in their place. But, thirdly and especially, in the reception of Isaac again by Abraham virtually from the dead, and his welcome restoration to his father’s embrace;—not, however, without a sacrifice, not without blood;— the resurrection of the Son of God, and his return to the bosom of the Father—after really undergoing that death which Isaac underwent only in a figure—might be clearly and strikingly discerned.’4
Today there are some theologians and teachers who want to relegate the substitutionary atonement along with shedding of blood to primitive cultures. They say that God is not interested in blood and there was no reason why Christ had to die for sin. Rather, they say, Christ died to show men that they could do whatever they wanted to Him and he would love them still. The “gospel” they would say is just understanding the love of God and knowing that God is not angry with us, and we do not have to be afraid of Him. We simply trust His loving character.
However, it seems clear to this writer that the concept of substitution is a centerpiece of the gospel. For example, one cannot read the passage in Isaiah 53 without feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding us into the truth of substitution.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors (Isa. 53:1-12).5
The writers of the New Testament speak with one voice in support of the substitutionary atonement.
Paul states:
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous (Rom. 5:18-19).
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).
Peter puts it like this:
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit (1 Pet. 3:18).
The concept of substitution illustrated to Abraham, prophesied by Isaiah, demonstrated at the cross, and taught in the Epistles, not only teaches us about the depth of God’s love, but it grabs our heart as we realize it was all done for you and for me. He suffered for our sin so that He, in His holiness could legally adopt us back into His family as beloved sons and daughters. Like Abraham, when we understand these things we “see Christ’s day” and we rejoice at the good news of the gospel of substitution.
Endnotes
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 1, Chapter XIII, Paragraph 2.
- https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=how+old+was+isaac+when+he+was+offered+up
- See Keil-Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI., p. 253.
- Robert S. Candish, Studies in Genesis, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 1997, p. 380.
- For easier reading I have taken out the capital letters in the NASB text that indicate the first line of Hebrew poetry.
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