The Found Lamb

It is a special blessing for Christians to know and understand that the true advent of Jesus Christ begins before time and space were created. In a certain sense every Bible Story is a Christmas story since the Christ of the Advent is the antecedent and/or promise of every theme and context in all of Scriptures. One of the glowing reports from the Old Covenant mentioned mentioned by the New Covenant reporters is the generous report made about the Patriarch Abraham. Faith, saving faith is mentioned in his context again and again. Commentator Henry Morris tells us that "Abraham, therefore, is offered throughout the New Testament as the prototype of those who are justified by faith."

The Apostle Paul describes Abrahamıs witness in this wonderful passage from his letter to Rome: "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations') in the presence of Him whom he believed - God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, 'So shall your descendants be.' And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarahıs womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore 'it was accounted to him for righteousness.'" (Romans 4: 16-22)

The Child of Promise, while slow to be born, was never-the-less keenly anticipated by Abraham and Sarah. Well can the older baby boomers consider Abrahamıs dilemma. Is it just my imagination while watching television, but isnıt every tenth advertisement about some variation on the Viagra complex? Abraham, needed no television advertisements to harass his knowledge of the aging process. He was a hundred and Sarah was ninety when the Child of Promise was conceived and born through the miraculous intervention of the Creator God. "As good as dead" the scripture can be translated!

From this report, we are pressed to see that every good thing that comes to us must come from and through the very hand of God. Like Abraham and Sarah, we are to live by faith and count upon the kindness of His grace. And so the promised child was born, no doubt he was treated like the prince of his people that he truly was. Early on, by Godıs providential guidance, Isaac was separated from his half brother Ishmael, when Ishmael and his mother were sent apart. The Apostle Paul develops the contrast between the two at considerable length in the letter to the Galatians: "For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants ..." (Galatians 4: 22-24a) Sinai and Zion as we are encouraged to understand. One under the law, the other under grace as we must well comprehend to apply the different to ourselves and all who belong to the true family of God.

So here was Isaac, in whom all the hopes and dreams of his loving parents were indwelt. Henry Morris observes that "Isaac was growing and in every way was a joy to Abraham and Sarah. He had been worth waiting for, an heir deserving both of Abrahamıs patriarchal responsibilities and of Godıs covenant promises. They no doubt rejoiced and praised God daily for the abundance of His blessings." Suddenly into this happiness the Word of the Lord intrudes grieving Abraham deeply. We pick up the commanding phrases in verse two of our text for today: "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

Modern scholars scoff at this instruction - even reasoning that the Old Covenant God must have been at least immature or worse in ordering such an outrageous sacrifice. Well, sadly those same commentators usually hang around with ruthless humanistic feminists and indicate their acceptance of the modern holocaust being performed within the all to numerous wombs of violence. These outlanders are Ishmaelıs kin - not appreciating the gospel of grace nor the city of God! While they may read on to the happy ending at the end of this chapter - they miss the whole point and are unable to process the similarity between God and Christ and Abraham and Isaac.

Is it really fair to draw out the tragic similarities - in this day and age? Three days journey to holy mountain - three days in Hades? What suffering we go through when those we love have but a short time to live. Well did David the king grieve and mourn before his beloved son was taken - but once He had passed on, then he put his grief behind. And so our hearts go out to Abraham as he gathers his little caravan to set out with his servants, and his son the sacrifice.

Or course we cannot know or speculate how the righteous Almighty Father feels, but perhaps we have a minimal hint in the reaction of Christ on the night before He descended to Hades? The scriptures report that He sweat drops of blood in the extreme agony of the moment. And yet, Abrahamıs greater Son was able to set His face like flint to go on and accomplish His holy duty. Should we marvel at the gumption of Abraham in his lesser imitation of the intensity of Christ? What we may marvel at is the incredible peace of mind that the Lord God Creator gives to those who know and serve Him. What the world counts as impossible - the saints of all the earth count as a necessity to obey God rather than trust in themselves or other men.

The servants escort the sad father Abraham to the base of the high place where the sacrifice is to be made. Isaac then observes "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Cut to the heart we may imagine as Abraham reassures his only son and even himself. Do we see the confidence of faith in these moments - the confidence that allows Abraham to carry on? The Geneva Bible notes that "Abraham knew that God was obliged to keep His promise, and he knew that a dead Isaac could not continue the covenant line. Hebrews 11:19 unveils Abrahamıs secret: he concluded 'that God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead.'"

But still, the slow climb up the mountain, the slow gathering of the altar stones, the laying of the sticks for the fire. The binding of the son, the taking up of the sacrificial knife. In the sixties movie Camelot there was a pivotal scene where the queen was bound to the stake to be burnt for adultery. The king must give the order to proceed, he tarries, he hopes that he will not have to make the moral choice of choosing between law and love. Then in the best traditions of Western Civilization, the cavalry arrives. Lancelot at the head of a goodly number of knights fights his way into the town square and rescues Guinevere. King Arthur is ecstatic, even though his table is cracked and his own knights had been slaughtered. The love of his life was safe.

I have often observed in the many years of teaching that Middle Ages morality tale that there are very many messianic elements in the telling. How much more so in the report of Abraham and Isaac. "Once I was lost, now I am found" goes the greatest Ode to Grace in human poetry. Abrahamıs hand is stayed, Isaac is released that the found lamb provided by the grace of God is sacrificed in Isaacıs stead! What an impression Isaacıs report should have had upon his children and all who heard and read it in after years.

"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

This word of blessing and promise is given to Abraham in the renewal of his covenant with the Lord God of heaven and earth. May we also appreciate that more than for Abraham, young Isaac must have felt and known too the blessings of the Covenant of Grace for himself and his own children. However, initially it would seem that Esau rejected his father Isaacıs birthright and that scoundrel Jacob was busily acquiring wealth and wives at the expense of his uncle. Yet it time, God wrestled with Jacob even as He triumphs over us all - all of us who are the spiritual seed of Abraham and the heirs of our Lord Jesus Christ. Francis Schaeffer tells us that "After Abraham the flow of history goes on, and the promise through the Old Testament continues to become clearer. We come finally to that last prophet of the Old Testament line, John the Baptist, who, when Jesus came and the moment of fulfillment was at hand, said 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'" (John 1: 29)

Now in the spirit of old John Calvin and even the solid teachings of the very Word of God, we must understand this scriptural report arightly: "two things, however, are thought to be hardly consistent with each other; that what before was gratuitously promised, should here be deemed a reward. For we know that grace and reward are incompatible." In Calvinıs economy, even the Lordıs own, we should note that: "before Isaac was born, this same promise had been already given; and now it receives nothing more than confirmation." Abraham believed the promise and it was counted as righteousness. So should we also understand the duties of our faith today. We believe first and are then enfused with the will of the Father to go boldly into the world to display the glorious blessings of life in and through Jesus Christ. He it is, who was and is for all the saints, the found lamb that was slain in our stead.

May we like Abraham and Isaac truly count the cost for our redemption and thus honor our Lord and Savior with lives worthy of His calling, not for reward alone but in gratitude for the grace received.