Who else gets excited watching a preview for a highly anticipated movie? Maybe it is a film version of a book you read. Maybe it is for the resolution part of a show that ended on a cliffhanger and left you anxious for the next installment. Whatever the case may be, most of us love a brilliantly told story. We can get sucked into stories, know all about the worlds created by the storyteller, and sometimes even understand other languages created for the story. I personally love symbolic stories in which characters or objects have a deeper meaning than initially suggested. God created storytelling, which is likely why His story is the best.  

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God has been telling a story since the beginning of time, and the story told in today’s key verses, the story of Abraham and Isaac, is a preview of the bigger story God was always writing through Jesus. This preview would pique curiosity and awe, but the full picture would remain a mystery for hundreds of years. This story offers a prophetic picture of the sacrifice Jesus would make, although no one in Abraham’s time could fully comprehend the depth and beauty God revealed that day, as Abraham lived around 1,800 years before Jesus’ birth. This preview has many “easter-egg” like details, but a few immediately point us to Jesus, the promised Savior.  

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First, why were Abraham and Isaac making a sacrifice? We read in Genesis 3 that God himself made a sacrifice to cover Adam and Eve after they sinned. If we were reading the Bible chronologically, we don’t get an explanation for the required sacrifice until after Abraham’s story; however, it seems to be understood by all who feared the Lord that, once sin entered the picture, a sacrifice was needed to atone for sin. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

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In our Scripture, we also see that Isaac trusts his father completely, as we know Jesus trusted God the Father. In both instances, the father’s answer is enough for the son to submit to the father’s will; yet, Isaac did not understand how it would work out. This trust is further evidenced, as Isaac was likely a grown man when he accompanied his father up the mountain; therefore, his question to his father about the sacrifice is not just childish inquisitiveness. He fully understood that a sacrifice must be made; and, at some point, he appears to have made peace with the fact that he may be the sacrifice. We know Abraham was very old, so Isaac could have easily overpowered his elderly father, yet we read in verse 9 that Isaac was bound and laid ON the altar as the sacrifice!

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If Abraham and Isaac’s story was the preview, Jesus brings the full story into focus.  Abraham’s words, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering,” are completely fulfilled in Jesus; He is the ram in the thicket. And, like Isaac, Jesus showed his willingness to be the sacrifice on the night he was betrayed, when he prayed to God, “Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). Jesus laid aside his own will for the plan the Father set before him.  

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So, the preview goes like this: A sacrifice must be made, and the sacrifice was a willing participant – but, at the last moment, a substitute was provided, just as the Father had promised. Picture yourself on the altar like Isaac. You know a sacrifice must be made, and you are the one who has to pay the price. Imagine Jesus coming to you, releasing you from the altar and then taking your place. You are free.  How do you respond to Jesus? I pray it is overwhelming gratitude and surrender.  

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Every time I read this story, I love God’s beautiful storytelling, and I’m in awe that it is not just a story, but the actual “movie” has played out millions of times in each heart that accepts Jesus as their substitutionary sacrifice. We inherit the greatest blessing in being covered by the blood of the lamb, Jesus. Thank God today for loving you so deeply that he protected you from certain death.

God, you are the Author of the most beautiful stories. Help us live a life where we are continually realizing in greater depths our freedom in Christ. You have freed us from death, from punishment, from separation from you. Thank you for your love. Amen.