Almost every circumstance in this narrative de- serves to be considered in,
II. Its typical reference —
Waving many less important points, we may observe that Isaac was a type of Christ :
1. In his appointment to be a sacrifice —
[Isaac was a child of promise, born in a preternatural way, of a disposition eminently pious ; yet him did God require for a burnt-offering : it must not be Abraham's cattle, or his son Ishmael, but his beloved Isaac. Thus was Jesus also, the pro- mised seed, named, like Isaac, before he was conceived in the womb : he was born, not after the manner of other men, but of a pure virgin : He was that only, that beloved Son, in whom the Father was well pleased : yet him did God appoint to be a sacrifice. A body was given him for this very purpose11. He was ordained from eternity to be a propitiation for sin1: nor did the Father recede from his purpose for four thousand years. Having set apart his Son for this end, he changed not : and Jesus, at the appointed time, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross k."]
2. In the manner of being offered —
[Isaac bore the wood on which he was afterwards to be lifted up ; and voluntarily yielded up his body to be bound, and his life to be destroyed in God's appointed way. Thus did Jesus bear his cross to the place of his crucifixion ; and, having been bound, was lifted up upon it. On the very spot where Isaac had been laid upon the altar, was Jesus (most probably) offered in sacrifice to God1. And by whose hand was Isaac to bleed, but by that of his own Father ? By whom too did Jesus suffer, but by Jehovah's sword™ ? It was not man, who made him so to agonize in the garden ; nor was it man, that caused that bitter complaint upon the cross". Neverthe- less it was with the perfect concurrence of his own will that he died upon the cross ; " He gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savour0."]
h Heb. x. 4, 5. i Rom. iii. 25. k Phil. ii. 8.
1 Mount Calvary was one of the mountains in that small tract of covin try called the land of Moriah : and from ver. 2. it can scarcely be doubted, but that it was the very spot pointed out by God. It could not possibly be far from the spot ; and therefore, when the place for the sacrifice of Isaac was so accurately marked, it can scarcely be thought to be any other, than the very place where Jesus was offered two thousand years afterwards.
1,1 Zech. xiii. 7. Isai. liii. 10. n Luke xxii. 44. Mark xv. 34.
0 Eph. v. 2.