Hi everybody!
I'm really sorry for the sporadic posting as of late...my homework load has been unexpectedly heavy the past couple of weeks. :-P
But here's what I'm doing to remedy the situation: I'm instituting a new post schedule. I will now be aiming for three posts per week - ONE weekend post that is a combination of "Prayer Saturday" and "Hodge-Podge Sunday," and TWO Bible study posts (not on specific days, just twice sometime during the week). Sound good?
Now, I'll get back to the James study starting next week, but right now I'd like to share some cool stuff I found out today about the story where Abraham sacrifices Isaac. You can read up on the story in Genesis 22 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+22&version=NASB .
You've probably made connections before between Abraham offering up Isaac and Jesus's death on the cross. But today I ran across the most complete list of connections I have ever seen, and it included a few that I hadn't put together yet.
Here are the similarities in their stories:
1. Isaac and Jesus were both only begotten sons.
2. Unlike what the Sunday School lessons simplify it down to, Isaac was not a young boy at this time - he was about 33 years old...so was Jesus.
3. Because he was 33, this means that his dad did not overpower him - he was willing to be a sacrifice, just like Jesus.
4. At the point when Abraham, knife poised in the air, was commanded to stop, it had been 3 days since God had told him to kill his son...in Abraham's mind, his son had been as good as dead for three days...and suddenly, Issac was alive again. Hmmm...sounds just like when Jesus rose on the third day.
5. The mountain where Abraham offered Issac is today known as Temple Mount...you may have also heard it referred to as Golgatha, Place of the Skull, and Calvary. It is on that exact mountain that Jesus was crucified.
6. Both men rode a donkey to their place of death...both men carried the wood for their execution on their back...and, for some reason, there are *two* men mentioned in both stories (Abraham's servants, and the theives on both sides of Jesus).
Another interesting thing about this story is that Abraham trusted God's promises enough that he knew that his son would either not die or be resurrected. Consider this:
1. Most translations render verse 8 something to the effect of, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering." But this is not an accurate translation! The KJV gets it perfect in this case when it says: "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." The Hebrew actually says that God will provide Himself as the offering! Abraham was speaking a prophecy of when Jesus - God the Son - would serve as our sacrifice. Did Abraham know what he was saying? It makes me wonder...
So, what can we glean from all this information? I thought of the following:
1. Be an Abraham - trust God when He tells you to do something crazy, because He will work it out for your good.
2. Be an Isaac - willingly submit to God's plan to use you, even when it's painful.
3. Praise God - no author can use foreshadowing like Him, no poet can use symbolism like Him, no playwright can use actors to tell a story like Him, and no other screenplay writer than Him has thousands of years worth of sequels precisely plotted before the first story is even put into motion. The parallels between Isaac and Abraham are no coincidence.
What about you? Do you see any more parallels between the two stories? Do you see any more applications we can take away from them?
I'm really sorry for the sporadic posting as of late...my homework load has been unexpectedly heavy the past couple of weeks. :-P
But here's what I'm doing to remedy the situation: I'm instituting a new post schedule. I will now be aiming for three posts per week - ONE weekend post that is a combination of "Prayer Saturday" and "Hodge-Podge Sunday," and TWO Bible study posts (not on specific days, just twice sometime during the week). Sound good?
Now, I'll get back to the James study starting next week, but right now I'd like to share some cool stuff I found out today about the story where Abraham sacrifices Isaac. You can read up on the story in Genesis 22 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+22&version=NASB .
You've probably made connections before between Abraham offering up Isaac and Jesus's death on the cross. But today I ran across the most complete list of connections I have ever seen, and it included a few that I hadn't put together yet.
Here are the similarities in their stories:
1. Isaac and Jesus were both only begotten sons.
2. Unlike what the Sunday School lessons simplify it down to, Isaac was not a young boy at this time - he was about 33 years old...so was Jesus.
3. Because he was 33, this means that his dad did not overpower him - he was willing to be a sacrifice, just like Jesus.
4. At the point when Abraham, knife poised in the air, was commanded to stop, it had been 3 days since God had told him to kill his son...in Abraham's mind, his son had been as good as dead for three days...and suddenly, Issac was alive again. Hmmm...sounds just like when Jesus rose on the third day.
5. The mountain where Abraham offered Issac is today known as Temple Mount...you may have also heard it referred to as Golgatha, Place of the Skull, and Calvary. It is on that exact mountain that Jesus was crucified.
6. Both men rode a donkey to their place of death...both men carried the wood for their execution on their back...and, for some reason, there are *two* men mentioned in both stories (Abraham's servants, and the theives on both sides of Jesus).
Another interesting thing about this story is that Abraham trusted God's promises enough that he knew that his son would either not die or be resurrected. Consider this:
1. Most translations render verse 8 something to the effect of, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering." But this is not an accurate translation! The KJV gets it perfect in this case when it says: "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." The Hebrew actually says that God will provide Himself as the offering! Abraham was speaking a prophecy of when Jesus - God the Son - would serve as our sacrifice. Did Abraham know what he was saying? It makes me wonder...
So, what can we glean from all this information? I thought of the following:
1. Be an Abraham - trust God when He tells you to do something crazy, because He will work it out for your good.
2. Be an Isaac - willingly submit to God's plan to use you, even when it's painful.
3. Praise God - no author can use foreshadowing like Him, no poet can use symbolism like Him, no playwright can use actors to tell a story like Him, and no other screenplay writer than Him has thousands of years worth of sequels precisely plotted before the first story is even put into motion. The parallels between Isaac and Abraham are no coincidence.
What about you? Do you see any more parallels between the two stories? Do you see any more applications we can take away from them?
2 comments:
This is so super cool! I got chills when I read that both events happened on the same mountain. Is God amazing or what?! :)
The one thing that has always struck me about the Bible and the story it gives us, is that it took thousands of years to set everything in motion before Christ came into this world. So many things needed to be accomplished and fulfilled before Christ became man. It makes me wonder, God is setting everything in motion once again for His second coming...how is he using me?
That is an AWESOME point about how God is using us today, Clare!!! It gave *me* chills - and something to think long and hard about. :-)
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