THE
ATONEMENT
CHAPTER V.
The Offering of Isaac. (Gen. xxii.)
THERE were three men in Old Testament times with whom it
pleased God specially to connect Himself. To Moses He declares Himself as
"Jehovah, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob," - and adds, "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial
unto all generations." (Ex. iii. 15.)
Christians accordingly have been
accustomed to trace in Isaac some of the lineaments of the Son of God, the
Saviour. In Jacob, whose divinely given name is Israel, we may find no less, I
believe, the Spirit of God; not personally, but in His work in man. While
Abraham, at least in the memorable scene before us, (but elsewhere too,
assuredly,) presents to us the Father. In His connection with these three men,
then, God had already, ages before Christianity, foreshadowed its precious
revelations.
In the history recorded in the twenty-second of Genesis,
the apostles words to the Galatians at least give us the hint of
Isaacs presenting to us that greater Seed of Abraham, to whom God was in
fact confirming His promise there. (Galatians iii. 17 should read, "to
Christ.") And this is made clearer by what he states in Hebrews xi. 19 - that
Abraham received his son back, "in a figure," from the dead. It is in Christ
risen from the dead that all nations of the earth shall be blessed indeed. This
view of Isaac all his history confirms; but here is not the place to speak of
it. Our purpose is to mark only what fresh features of atonement are given us
in Isaacs offering, looked at as a type.
And here, the thing
which we should first notice is, that here God Himself suggests a human
offering. It has startled us all, I suppose, that He could do this; but we have
only to connect it as a type with its antitype to see how gracious, in fact,
this announcement was. Isaac did not, and was never meant to, suffer; but
Another, in due time, was to take this place, and find no release from it, as
he did. How the reality of what sacrifice pointed to bursts almost through the
vail of figure here! Was it thus indeed that, as the Lord says, Abraham
rejoiced to see His day; and saw it, and was glad? The bruised heel of the
womans Seed was in his mind assuredly, The Sufferer-Conqueror, acceptance
by sacrifice, the blessing of all nations through his Seed, could but unite
themselves with this suggested human offering, which was not Isaac, to give
indeed a prospect full of joy, the deeper for its solemnity, to his believing
heart.
The true Sacrifice was to be a human one, then, Man for men was
to suffer and die; yet to be Conqueror in mans behalf over the serpent, -
death only to Him the bruising of the heel. How this wrought in Abrahams
mind we seem to see in what we know by the apostles words was in it. A
heel bruised is not fatal: death to the Conqueror here is not fatal. Isaac, the
heir of the promises, must be offered up; and how then could these promises be
fulfilled to him? In resurrection, answers faith, in Abrahams soul. "And
he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it
was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able
to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a
figure."
Only a figure, for Isaac does not really die: but if here is
figured resurrection, it is the "Seed of the woman" surely (Abrahams true
Seed also) that is to rise again; and in resurrection all promises are secured
and fulfilled. Thus the Ark of salvation passes through the water-floods into
the new scene of covenanted blessing, and thus we find our promised rest.
Is it strange to read, then, of Abraham and his immediate descendants, that
"these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth"?
But this offering
of Isaac, seen in this manner, has a yet deeper significance. It is a
fathers offering of his son - yea, as the apostle says, (for Ishmael has
no place here,) of "his only begotten son." Here we can no longer speak of what
Abrahams faith realized. For us, however, the type only becomes the
clearer. If it is a man who offers himself, it is God who gives His only
begotten Son. Isaac is here the example of perfect submission to the will of
his father - one with the will of God Himself. He but asks the question, as he
bears the wood of the offering to the place of sacrifice, "Behold, here are the
fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Abraham
answers, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." And
Isaac asks no more; but, in the vigour of his young manhood, silently
surrenders himself, lamblike, to be bound and placed upon the altar. The
voluntary character of the offering is here apparent, beyond what its being of
the flock or herd implies.
But it is of the father that we think most.
It is as Abrahams trial that Scripture presents it: "it came to pass that
God did tempt Abraham." Point by point, the severity of the trial is brought
out. "Take now thy son - thine only son - Isaac" (that is, "laughter:" for
"Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear it will
laugh with me; ") "whom thou lovest - and get thee into the land of
Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains
which I will tell thee of." He carries this three days in his breast, that it
may be, not hasty impulse, but deliberate obedience. God knew His man; the man,
too, knew his God. Promptly, "early in the morning," he starts, and in due time
is there with unflagging steps, and faith in Him whom in his own body he has
learned as "Quickener of the dead:" "I and the lad," he says to his young men,
"will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." All the while that he
spoke so bravely, what was the strain on the fathers heart? "Now I know,"
says He who understood it all, - "Now I know that thou fearest God; seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me."
But how wonderful
to realize all this trial of a fathers love in connection with a type of
atonement! the pain and stress of it dwelt upon as if to make our human
affections illustrate that amazing statement, that God "spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all." What a proof of infinite love is here! The
Seed of a woman, the Victor in the conflict with the serpent, the willing
Sacrifice for mens sins, is the Son of God sent of the Father to fulfill
His will, and declare at once His holiness and His love. It is God Himself who
in the manhood He has taken has acquired capacity to suffer and to die for man.
He whose righteousness requires has Himself in love provided the atonement;
humbling Himself to human weakness, suffering, and death. And we are not only
brought to God in the value of so great a work, but know Him to whom we are
brought as told out in the unspeakable gift of His Beloved, His only begotten
Son.
Genesis thus, at the very beginning of Scripture, presents us with
almost a full outline of the atoning work. Many are the important details yet
to be filled in; but we have already certain fixed points which the fully
developed doctrine will maintain and justify, not remove.
Atonement is by
substitution; and in death, not life.
But death is the removal of the
one who dies out of the sphere of his natural responsibility as a creature.
Judgment is for the "deeds done in the body" only; if this also be borne
substitutionally (and this is the "copher" of the ark: "atonement" which is
something outside of and beyond death), then we are completely "covered;" sin
completely removed from us before God.
But the substitution is not only
of one perfect in the creatures place assumed, but infinitely more: it is
the Eternal Son of the Father who, become man, makes this atonement. Hence the
value of it is not to put us back into the old condition from which we fell,
but to put us into a new condition altogether. The Second Man, risen from the
dead, becomes the last Adam, Head of a new creation, fountain of life for His
people in a new power and blessedness. Upon those, partakers of His eternal
life, death (but no longer a penalty) may be in the meantime allowed to pass;
only until the time of reconstruction, which shall make them fully what (as
man) He is.
This is mans side of the atonement; but God is
glorified in it - His righteousness vindicated, His truth maintained, His love
revealed. We are brought to God, know Him, and have our happy place as
identified with the bright display of all He is. Good has indeed triumphed over
evil, and it is the Seed of the woman who has bruised the serpents head.
Go To Chapter Six
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