The Official Journal of the Ensign Trust, London

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THE ENSIGN MESSAGE

ISAAC: A FITTING TYPE OF THE MESSIAH

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‘Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid {it} upon Isaac his son…’.(Genesis 22:6)

 We are usually led by preachers, Bible artists and story tellers to imagine Isaac was a half-grown boy at the time – when Abraham offered him as a sacrifice.

According to Genesis 21:5, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. The events recorded in chapter 22 followed 25 years later, according to the margin date, so Abraham was 125 and Isaac was a strong matured young man of 25. Indeed, he actually carried the bundle of firewood up the mountain. Bearing in mind his physical maturity he could have easily over-powered his ancient father.

isaac

Abraham’s Sacrifice

(An outline by Dickenson based on a picture by Rembrandt)

It is to his credit that Isaac went through this test and ordeal willingly, allowing himself to be bound and deliberately laying himself upon the altar. In so doing he was a fitting type of the Messiah, ‘Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time’- about 2,000 years later. (I Timothy 2:6)

With the noble example of Isaac, and then YAHSHUA in mind, are you and I presenting ourselves, our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service? Are we praying that we are not conformed to this age, but actually transformed by the renewing of our minds so we can prove (by experience) what is that good will of God, the acceptable will of God, and then the perfect will of God? (Romans 12:1-2)

Are we willing to shoulder the firewood (or the cross) of our own demise, the symbol of death to the old nature, the carnal mind of ‘my right to myself?’ It is the way of eternal life for our whole being spirit, soul and body.

R. Gibbons 

Courtesy of LOOK UP

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