January 20

Offered up Isaac.—Hebrews 11:17

AMONG the persons who typified Christ, Isaac seems to have occupied a prominent place. His conception by Sarah when she was past age, seems to remind us of the mysterious conception of Christ by the virgin. His being the only son of Abraham by Sarah, seems intended to direct our minds to Christ as the only begotten of the Father. The birth of Isaac was long predicted, so the appearance of the Redeemer, to him gave all the prophets witness. But the Scripture which heads these lines refers to one circumstance in the eventful history of Isaac.—He was “offered up.” Where was he offered up? On mount Moriah. And it is probable that Calvary, where Christ actually suffered, was a prominence of the same mountain. In preparing for the offering, Isaac carried the wood to the spot, and we behold Jesus ascending the steep and rugged Calvary, bearing his own cross. Isaac

11 was to be offered up as a burnt offering, in like manner, Christ was really sacrificed, and as a lamb without spot offered himself through the eternal spirit to God. Abraham was to be the priest on this occasion, and was commanded to take the knife and slay his son. In reference to Jesus, "it pleased the Father to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, when he made his soul an offering for sin." (Isaiah 53:10.) Hence also that very striking passage in the prophecies, by Zechariah, "Awake O sword against my Shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts, smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered." (xiii. 7.) The cup which Christ drank was given to him by his Father. In the readiness of Isaac to suffer, who had now arrived at years of maturity, we see set forth the voluntariness of Jesus, in dying for the sins of a guilty and perishing world. But for Isaac a substitute was found. He was only figuratively offered. For Jesus no substitute existed, he was really offered, and died the just, for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. It behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. How deeply interested we should feel in remembering that Christ loved and gave himself for us. Shall we not mourn when we look on him, whom we have pierced with our sins?

"But drops of grief will ne'er repay,

The debt of love we owe,

Here Lord we give ourselves away,

'Tis all that we can do."