Seeing the Story within the Story

A picture within a picture. When you take the initial glance at this image you see a portrait of a man…but then as you gaze longer and deeper at the picture, another picture begins to emerge.

What a great analogy for our study in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is filled with stories. Stories of real people, with real lives, and real adventures. We can read those stories and learn about these people and we can draw lessons for our lives. But there's more to it than that. If we gaze longer and deeper into the stories, we begin to see that another story begins to emerge. A much bigger story that points us to the true Hero of Scriptures!

A clue that we get that there is a story within the story comes straight from Jesus. John 5: 46, Jesus says, "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"  Hmmmm...Moses wrote about Jesus? And in order for us to even understand who Jesus is and believe what He has to say, we need to believe what Moses says? That's interesting! Jesus lets us know that we can't shelve the Old Testament as irrelevant and even more than that, the Old Testament is crucial for our understanding of Jesus and of His teachings! Earlier in that same chapter Jesus said, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." And again in Luke 24, as Jesus was walking with two disciples on the road to Emmaus we are told "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in ALL the Scriptures concerning Himself."

So as we study the Old Testament I want to study it through the lenses that Jesus gave us...that it is about Him! I want us to look at the story of Abraham and Isaac, I want us to see the story within the story!

In Genesis 21-25 we have all the elements to a great story. We have a promised child...born to a couple long after all hope of conceiving is gone. We have a time of testing...we have an offering of a treasured son as a sacrifice on a mountain and finally, we have a quest for a beautiful bride ending with a marriage.

And deep within this story, we can see God weaving the story of another Promised Child that was to come. Deep within this story, we see the full and beautiful story of the promised Messiah and of the atonement. 

• Both Isaac's  birth and the birth of Jesus were prophesied long before they were born. Abraham was promised by God to be a father of many nations when he was called to leave all behind and go to a land that God would show him. Over and over, God reaffirmed this promise to him, but it wasn't until "the time God had promised" did the event happen.  We begin to see hints of the promise of Jesus all the way back in Genesis 3:15 when we first read that the Promised One will crush the head of the snake and the snake will crush His heel. Then throughout the Old Testament, we see an unfolding of this Promised One who was to come and we begin to be shown what He is coming to do.
• Isaac and Jesus are both children of the promise. They are both born, not from the will of man but from the will of God.

• Both were named by God before they were born. In Gen. 17:19 "Then God said, 'Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.'" Matthew 1:21 "She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins."

• Both were a result of a miraculous birth. We are told that Sarah's womb was dead. There was no possibility of her conceiving a child. But then, "The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.  And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him." (Gen. 21:1-2) The Lord visited Sarah and did to her what he had promised. Isaac...a child born as a result of a miracle. Jesus...the true and greater Promised Child..."This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18) Both wombs dead...and both wombs resurrected to life by the will of God. 

• Both are the "one and only" son loved by their fathers. Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love..." (Gen. 22:2) "And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17) For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son..." (John 3:16)

• Both receive a death sentence and for 3 days both carry that death sentence. For 3 days Abraham and Isaac journeyed to the mountain. For three days Isaac was under a death sentence. For 3 days Abraham knew what he was called to do. For 3 days, Abraham knew that at the end of this road was death. Jesus' trial, His death sentence, and then His execution, and then for 3 days Jesus lay in that tomb.
• Both were obedient to the point of death. Abraham was an old man. Isaac a young man. He could have easily overpowered his father. And yet he didn't. He cooperated. He carried the wood on his back as they journeyed up the mountain. He allowed himself to be bound. He allowed himself to be laid on the altar. In fact, I'm fairly certain, he would have needed to assist his father in climbing on the altar of sacrifice. He was obedient to the point of death. Jesus, with all the power at His disposal, did not use any of it. He was obedient to the point of death...even death on the cross. He carried wood on his back on the way up the mountain. He allowed Himself to beaten and bound. He lay himself down on the altar of that cross. Obedient to death.
• On the third day, they were both delivered to life. Before Abraham could kill his son, a voice called from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, stop! And on that mountain a ram was provided for the sacrifice in the place of Isaac. And Isaac was delivered from death into life, figuratively speaking. Abraham worshiped God and called the place "The Lord Will Provide." Genesis 22:14 goes on to say, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided." And so it was...on the mountain of the Lord it was provided. Jesus, the True and Perfect Promised One was sacrificed on a mountain. There was no voice that called out to stop His sacrifice. There was no ram provided in His stead. There was no substitute for Him because He was the ram...He was the substitute. He was the only perfect sacrifice who could meet all the requirements to pay for penalty of our sin...who could reconcile us to God. And so on that mountain it was provided. And this sacrifice between the Heavenly Father and the Perfect Son was completed. But after the third day..."There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it...the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.'" (Matthew 28)
• Both are the heirs of their Father's wealth. While Abraham was still living he sent away his other sons by his concubines with gifts. But for Isaac, "Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac." "But in these last days He (God) has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things." (Heb. 1:2)
• After resurrection, the Father sends a servant to retrieve a radiant bride. Abraham sends his servant on a long journey to find a bride for his son Isaac. His servant is faithful to do that, makes the journey to Haran, and chooses Rebekah. He adorns her with riches from Abraham. Rebekah willingly leaves behind her family (all her past) and any future plans she may have had, to go with this servant on the journey back to marry Isaac, a man she has never seen before.  And then there is Jesus, who on His resurrection, is given a bride...the Church. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear..." (Rev. 19:7&8)

This story within the story points so clearly to the entire gospel message. And in this well-known Old Testament story, we catch a glimpse of each of the members of the Trinity and the Church. We see God the Father in Abraham, who willingly offered his one and only Son as a sacrifice. We see God the Son in Isaac, who obediently went to the altar of sacrifice and was willing to lay down His life there. And we see God the Holy Spirit in the servant, who was sent to a land far away to find a radiant bride, ready her and bring her back to be married to the Son. And finally in Rebekah we see the Church as the radiant bride adorned in wedding finery that was given to her by the Father, who willing leaves all behind...she leaves her past and her future...to follow the Servant and be brought to her beloved Bridegroom. 

The Picture within the picture. The Story within the story. The True Promised Son...the Hero of the Bible...the One that the whole of Scripture is pleading with us to come and see. Come and know. Come and believe. Come and love. 

"Then their eyes were opened and they recognized HIM..." (Luke 24:31)