Sermon Questions

1. _______________________________ is a reality beyond itself of which God will be accomplishing.
2. What two prophets did Pastor Winans quote from to demonstrate the reality beyond itself of which God will be accomplishing?
3. TRUE or FALSE: Genesis 22 opens by God telling Abraham to take your son Isaac, the only son whom you love, and go to Mount Sinai and offer him as a sacrifice.
4. What was the hint in Gen 22 that Abraham believed God would spare Isaac of death?
5. What day is repeated in scripture that represents a pattern of new life (Gen 22:4, Ex 19, 1 Cor 15:4) that has a prophetic meaning behind it?
6. What biblical character in the Old Testament offered himself as a sacrifice?
7. Isaac’s sacrifice in Gen 22 was prophetically looking forward to Whom in the New Testament? ­­­

Discussion Questions

1. Read the text Genesis 22:1-18
2. What does Abraham's response to Isaac's question (“Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”) reveal about his trust in God's provision?
3. What can we learn from Abraham's immediate obedience to God's difficult command?
4. What does the concept of "The LORD Will Provide" mean in your personal life?
5. How can you apply the principles of faith, obedience, and God's provision in your life today?
6. How is the story of the proposed sacrifice of Isaac like the actual sacrifice Jesus Christ from your review of the following Scriptures?
7. Genesis 22:8 and John 1:29
8. Genesis 22:6 and John 19:17
9. Genesis 22:1-10 and Acts 8:26-34
10. Genesis 22:2 and John 3:16
11. In his sermon Pastor Winans referred to the references to the Third Day in scriptures. Both Jesus (Luke 24:46) and Paul (1 Corinthians 15:4) stress that the prediction of Christ’s being raised on the third day was “written” and was “in accordance with the Scriptures.” It seems likely, therefore, that we should look for typologies that foreshadow a third-day resurrection event. From the sermon or by a search of the Bible, list out a number of texts as sources for the New Testament claims.
12. From this sermon from Pastor Winans, we see connectedness of scripture from the Old to the New Testament.
13. Discuss in your group the implications for the connectedness of scripture over the centuries.
14. How do we explain to unbelievers this characteristic of the Word of God of prophetic foreshadowing? (eg the sacrifice of Isaac foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ)?

Sermon Outline

Read - Genesis 22:1-18

Pastor Chris explores what we might refer to as a prophetic enactment. God is performing a sign act which looks beyond itself into something greater, which God will do to accomplish the promises he made to his servant Abraham. Enacting something points beyond the act itself, to some other reality.

Prophetic Enactment

The bible is full of prophetic enactments, which God asks of his prophets, to demonstrate a reality beyond itself of which he will be accomplishing.

·        Jeremiah was living in Jerusalem at the time of the Babylonian siege in the capital city of Jerusalem. He is instructed by the Lord to do something, which is a prophetic enactment. God asked Jeremiah to purchase a plot of land. It was a prophetic enactment.

Jeremiah 32:14-15 - ¹⁴‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’.

Jeremiah is purchasing this land, which is prophetic, because it points forward to a reality of what God will accomplish in the future.

·        The prophet Hosea, in chapters 1 through 3, is told to do something which is a prophetic connection. He is told to marry Gomer, who is a prostitute.

Hosea 1:2 - ²When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

What Hosea is told to do is a prophetic enactment. He is portraying the relationship between God and his people. Hosea is representing the Lord and Gomer represents the people of God. What Hosea’s prophetic enactment is pointing towards is the reality that God's people are adulterous. And God, in his relationship with his people, is a marriage. God's people are in pursuit of idolatry and other gods, portrayed as a prostitute. Hosea, in his marriage commanded by God, is a prophetic enactment which points to a reality beyond itself.

Genesis 22 opens by God telling Abraham to take your son Isaac, the only son whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice.

Genesis 22:1-2 - ¹After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ²He said, “Take 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.”

·        Genesis 12 through 21 portrays a faithful promise-keeping God. A God who makes promises and keeps them. God, who is a just God, has specifically declared that he is going to bless Abraham, and the blessings of Abraham will go forth through his son Isaac. Isaac is how God will fulfill his promises. Abraham had a hint and knew that this was the case.

Genesis 22:4-5 - ⁴On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Abraham says to his two servants; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come to you again. He is implying that Abraham and Isaac are both going to go, and Abraham and Isaac are both coming back.

o  This incident happened on the third day. This whole passage is a prophetic enactment. He fully expects that both will come back, because he's enacting something God is revealing through the faithfulness of his servant Abraham. The father with his beloved son, who is the seed of promise, was then taken up the mountain by the father. He is put on a place of sacrifice and then as a result, blessing overflows.

Genesis 22:16-18 - ¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, ¹⁸and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”.

God says to Abraham, because of what you have an enacted, I'm showing you how I'm going to accomplish my promises.

Another passage or episode in scripture that mirrors the event in Genesis 22 fills in who Jesus is and what he did, is found in two places of scripture. One is at the end of Samuel 24, the other in 1 Chronicles 21. 1 Chronicles is an episode in the life of David who commands a census to be taken. He was told not to do this, but he did it anyway. As a result, God pronounces judgment upon him and as communicated by the prophet Gad.

·        Gad, the Prophet comes to David and says you should not have done this, and God has pronounced a judgment, and the Lord is giving you 3 choices.

o  The first is 3 years of famine.

o  The second choice is 3 months of being pursued by your enemies.

o  The third choice is 3 days of pestilence.

David chooses the third option because he did not want to fall into the hands of men. He would rather throw himself upon God. Because God is merciful.

·        For two days the pestilence goes forward in the land until the third day. The Angel that is carrying out the sentence, comes to Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 21:15-18, 26 - ¹⁵And God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw, and he relented from the calamity. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. ¹⁷And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” ¹⁸Now the angel of the Lord had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ²⁶And David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.

The Lord sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as the angel was about to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord saw. Remember back in Genesis 22, when they come to the place where Isaac was to be sacrificed it says that Abraham saw. The Lord saw and he relented from calamity, and then there's a voice from heaven that says stop. They were at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

·        Currently, there is a sentence of death upon Jerusalem to be carried out by the angel lasting 3 days. The third day they come to the threshing floor of Orman the Jebusite. There's a voice from heaven that says stop. Now in the hand of the angel is a sword or a knife, and it is stretched up and a voice from heaven says stop. David says it was I that did this, these sheep haven't done anything. Let the knife fall upon me and my house. Strike the shepherd and spare the sheep. Kill the king and spare the people. David is commanded to build an altar and put on it the burnt offering. Then the Lord commands the angel to put the knife away. They are at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite which is the exact same location where Abraham offers Isaac.

2 Chronicles 3:1 - ¹ Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

This is where the temple was built. Here you have a sentence of death that lasted 3 days. On the third day there is a knife which is outstretched where a judgment is pronounced.

·        To summarize, the Abraham story has the son placed upon the altar. The David story has the King of Israel saying kill me, spare the sheep. Then the sacrifice is offered, which halts judgment. Jesus is the beloved son, the seed of promise. The apostle Paul makes it clear that the seed of promise is Jesus. The father takes the beloved son and places a sentence of judgment upon him. On the cross which is the alter of sacrifice is written, The King of the Jews. The King of Israel lays down his life as the knife of sacrifice comes down upon him, and because the sacrifice of the son is offered, the wrath is averted.

·        On Golgotha not far away from the Temple Mount, this latter-day Isaac, this beloved son, met his fate. There was no intervention angels to save him; only their intercession to help him carry out his task. Unlike the first Isaac he was kept in the dark about the project; and his questions to his father were filled with anguish but finally submission. Like the first Isaac he also carried the wood up the hill, but unlike the first Isaac he knew the identity of the sacrifice. At the last moment there was no reprieve from the death sentence as this Father, like Abraham, “did not withhold his only son but delivered him up for us all.” This latter day David finally gets his wish that the angel’s sword would fall upon him and his house so that his people would be spared.

Stephen Dempster The Resurrection of Christ on the “The Third Day’

·        Romans 8:32 - ³²He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Genesis 22 is one of the most hope filled passages in the bible. God asked Abraham to prophetically enact the salvation of the world. Jesus accomplishes the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham, that all the world will be blessed through him. Jesus is the lamb provided by God in the place where it was pronounced God will provide. That salvation is open to all who believe in their faith in the King of Israel, the king that said let the knife fall upon me that the sheep would be spared.

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