Thine Only Son, Whom Thou Lovest: Parallels Between the Akedah of Isaac and the Offering of Yshua

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Thine Only Son, Whom Thou Lovest:

 Parallels Between the Akedah of Isaac and the Offering of Yshua

His Father Placed the Wood on His Shoulders

Passover begins at sundown two days from now, and for the Jewish community and the Messianic Jewish community, the holiday is both radically similar, and greatly different. We find our many divisions as Messianics hold orthodox Judaism accountable for a failure of vision and Judaism view Messianism as a spiritual holocaust. That is a rather odd dichotomy, since the synthesis is found in the New Testament in the Book of Acts: the Pharisees and Sadducees, both opposed to the doctrine of the new believers in the 'Way, the Truth and the Life', nevertheless referred to the 'Nazarenes' as a sect of Judaism, as they each were considered a sect.

Act 5:17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,
Act 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command [them] to keep the law of Moses.
Act 24:5 For we have found this man [a] pestilent [fellow], and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:

The divisions then were not at all unlike the divisions now: the Pharisees had become strict legalists, bound by rule and the letter of the law but not by heart, and holding to beliefs in the Resurrection and angels, in 'divine' things, and the Sadducees were the 'liberal' sect, holding these things to be more metaphor and archetype, the two of which paint a similar picture to Orthodox vs. Reform Judaism (or even Christianity today). It is the point on which Rabbi Paul escapes, for he pleads before the council that he is held in question of the resurrection of the dead, and it causes a war on the Sanhedrin between the Conservatives vs. the liberals! 

Act 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men [and] brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

So when we begin to discuss the 'Akedah', the Hebrew word for 'binding' of Isaac, referring to the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham and compare it to the sacrifice of Jesus, Yshua, the Lamb of God, one cannot help but confront controversy and even rage, outside the Messianic community, for many Jews cannot even address the similarities and find it a sacrilege, and many Christians consider the comparison to be 'judaizing' an unfortunate and wholly misunderstood word.

Yet to those who study scripture in depth, the comparison is as old as Golgotha. 

A Brief Comparison and Contrast
Abraham, the father of faith, reaches old age and is promised a son for an heir, born around the time he is 100 years old. That's faith! Sarah, his wife, laughs at the thought, brought by angels, the like of whom will announce another miraculous birth some 2000 years in the future. The child's name is 'Isaac' or "Ihtzhak" or "Yeshaq" arriving in the set time, and the name traditionally translated as "God laughed" but a more in-depth study indicates the wondrous 'presence' or 'face' of God, attendant at the birth of this son of Promise.

How old Isaac is when God calls Abraham to his greatest test of faith: the offering of his son, has been debated for centuries: some Bible stories picture him as a 9 or 10 year old, some claim he is at the age of a Bar Mitzvah, and some rabbinical writings set him as a young adult, even as old as 29, although this seems rather unlikely, since Ishmael is an older child when he is sent away, and Isaac is younger. We do not know how long it was 'after these things' that it 'came to pass' when God 'tempted' or tried Abraham, but Ishmael and his mother Hagar were sent away right after the feast celebrating the weaning of Isaac, (Ishmael mocked Isaac), and a few other facts are relevant: Sarah was 90 (Gen 17:17) when the announcement was made; Abraham was 99 when circumcised with his son Ishmael who was 13 years old (17:25), and immediately following, the angels appear at the door of the tent. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah comes before the birth of Isaac, but it immediately follows the presence of the angels at Abraham's tent. There is also a trip to Gerar and an interchange again with Abimelech before the birth, but no set amount of time is given there, although the events of Sodom and Gomorrah are accomplished in one day and night, though tragic and astounding.

Immediately following though, Sarah conceives;

For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 21:2

Chapters are not time periods, for one chapter can be a few hours or centuries (e.g. I Chronicles 1); but the bottom line is, Abraham was 99 when the announcement is made, and 100 when the birth occurs, and at the time of weaning, the 13-15 old Ishmael is sent away, and the next event is the calling of the Akedah. How much time between is not certain, but the much older ages appear to be inconsistent. Sarah dies at 127, but not before Abraham has several other children by concubines, so, the younger age is more likely. 

The Call:

The call of Abraham to the consummate test of Faith in his career of faith, is the call to sacrifice his only legal heir and son, the promised son, in whom we shall all be called, Isaac:

And it came to pass after these things, that God id tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said Take now thy son thine only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Abraham immediately obeys, and a host of events begin to happen which will parallel and foreshadow the passion and sacrifice, of the Son of God, the Son of Man, in the redemption of mankind still to come two millennia later.

Isaac and Jesus: Yeshaq and Yeshua

The first parallel is in the miraculous birth of both little Jewish princes:both are announced by angels:

Gen18:10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according tothe time of life; and lo,Sarah thy wife shall have a son. 
Luk 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Luk 1:27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name [was] Mary.
Luk 1:29 And when she saw [him], she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
Luk 1:30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
Luk 1:31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS

The 'men' that appear at the door of the tent to Abraham, are given the reference 'angel' when in Sodom when rescuing Lot (19:5).

Both children appear in days of chaos: Isaac is born right after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the birth of Lot's inbred children which will father adversaries to Abraham's children. Egypt is a constant concern, Abraham has fought with the 5 Kings earlier, and there are constant 'range' wars , wars over wells, strife, and famine. Hagar's son is promised as a thorn in in his half brother's side. Jesus is born during a time of Roman occupation with brutal crucifixions of Jewish men lining the paths into Jerusalem, Herod has burned 70 zealots alive for tearing the Roman eagle off the Temple in Jerusalem, the Sadducees divide with the Pharisees, the High Priest is not Levitical and has purchased his seat from Rome with Temple taxes on the people, it is a violent time. Both children are born in fulfillment of the times announced. ( Gen 21:2; Luke 2:7) Both were circumcised on the 8th day (Gen 21:4; Luke 2:21)

Both Isaac and Jesus are in the line of Abraham to whom is made the promise of the land and seed. (Gen 15)

Both Isaac and Jesus are led to the sacrifice by their Father, willingly.
Both Isaac and Jesus ride to the sacrifice on an ass (donkey, colt, foal).
Both are taken to the sacrifice in the morning

And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering and rose up,and went unto the place of which God had told him. Gen 22:3)
Jhn 10:15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jhn 12:15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass's colt.
Mar 15:25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 

Both were Second in Order, but true

It would make human sense that firstborns would be the anointed ones, but often in scripture it is the second born: Isaac was second born after Ishmael, the son of the flesh. Jesus was 'second begotten' so to speak called the 'Second Adam', not so much in a literal second 'birth' but he was the Son of God completely incarnate who would set things right. Adam sinned, Jesus redeemed from sin. Other second borns include Jacob, and the case of Zarah and Pharez.
The Burnt Offering

Many of the foreshadowings in the Akedah are not difficult to see: the parallels are simply there. However, in various points of scripture, both are to be 'burnt offerings', and since Abraham does not have to in the end sacrifice Isaac, and since Jesus is not burned, I used to wonder about the issue of the burnt sacrifice which is necessary to the redemption of sin. The answer lies in our understanding, though, Abraham does exactly what God commands: he OFFERS Isaac as a burnt sacrifice, but God stays the sacrifice. With Jesus, Yshua, though, the only consuming fire appears to be the Lord and Savior himself. Consider though the words for 'burnt offering'

"olah".alah, ishshah or 

עֹלָה

אִשֶּׁה 

The meanings of the first two are ascent, as in smoke rising, or 'ascension'. One astute author puts it as follows:

However, had Yahweh chosen to be explicit rather than vague and ambiguous, think of all the words he could have used to make unquestionably clear his thoughts that were expressed in Genesis 22:2. Some that come to mind would be: יקד (yakadh)–to burn with fire, באש-בער (boeyr ba’eysh)-consume with fire, קטר (katar)–to raise an odor by burning, הרג (harag)–to slay, שחט (shachat)–to slaughter, קטל (katal)–to kill, שרף (saraf)–to burn, consign to flames, זבח (zavach)–slaughter for sacrifice, or even אשה (isheh)–which is the literal term for burnt offering, fire offering. All of these terms are conspicuously absent however, from Genesis 22:2, but use is made instead, and repeated, as if to establish it firmly, of the עלה (alah) verb, the verb of ascension. Let’s say it again. Above are a group of eight Hebrew words, four which mean kill, and four that mean burn. None of them are used in Genesis 22:2 to describe what was to happen to Yitschak. Rather, a word is used, — twice —, which means, simply, go up, alah. Alah? Olah? Ascension? Cause him to go up? And up to what? Cause him to go up to a going up? Ascend to an ascension? A calling on high! But how many think that the way to be called on high is through death? Is it not rather through repentance, conversion, redemption, and restoration? Let us renounce our “covenant with death” please! This is “to life”, and the glory of Yah — the silence doth roar: let us listen in awe! from Torah on GuardSchwenk

The burnt offering in the sacrifice system did always involve fire, for the sacrifices were consumed and eaten by the priests---but the meaning of the word clearly allows for both: neither Isaac nor Jesus is burned, but both are genuine 'ascending offerings'. And the word Ishshah is terribly interesting as well: it is used for burnt offerings by fire, but is used once in leviticus for an offering not burned but refers to food offered by fire (albeit the fire of God) for example, the bread and the wine, the body and blood. The sacrifices point to the Cross and must be satisfied by the cross, but the altar of the burnt sacrifice, the 'olah' sacrifice of ascent, or the Ishshah, the offering of the body and blood,  are indeed satisfied both in the foreshadowing of Abraham and the satisfaction of the covenant on the altar of the cross.

Both Sacrifices take place on Moriah.


Do you realize how wondrous this is? Moriah comes from 'Moreh' and it is between Sichem and Moreh that the first altar establishing the house of God is set. Sichem is equivalent to 'Shechem' and means shoulder, which in ancient thinking is the place where authority and sovereignty rest, hence the adorned robes of royalty being placed upon the shoulder. The altar, the place of offering, is between the shoulder and the hill of the teacher or rabbi. [מוֹרֶה] The offering to God, the perfect and complete offering, awaited for centuries, takes place where the first offering on the first altar is established: somewhere near what was Beth-El, on what was the plains of Mamre, beside the wood of an oak, in what had been called Luz, meaning 'almond tree', mentioned as the tree that flourishes first of all. (shaqed is used for almond tree in (Jeremiah 1:11)and noted as the first to bloom after the death of winter. The Oak tree, rendered Oak in Genesis is the Terebinth which was considered a long living evergreen although Gensenius' lexicon notes that botanists do not agree. So even from the beginning, as Abraham left Ur and Haran for the sands of Mamre, the altar of God for the house of God is established between the shoulder and the hill of the rabbi, next to an 'eternal' (so to speak) tree, in a place previously/also called Luz, or almond tree, the tree to arise first from the death of winter: the shadows in place before the foundation of the house is entirely set!!!! Not far is the hill Moreh, of the teacher or rabbi, where both offerings will take place. Takes faith to see both.

His Father Laid the Wood on His Shoulder
In both events, the Cross and the Akedah, the father of the son lays the wood on his shoulder. Consider the following:

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand and a knife; and they went both of them together Gen 22:6

Jhn 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called [the place] of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

Note that Pilate declared him innocent in 19:6-and Jesus has willingly laid down his life. (This can be seen in the Garden when he first stops the officers with the words "I am (he)", and then allows his own arrest.) His Father and he are one, his father lays the wood on His shoulder, though he may have used Roman hands to do it.

The Binding

Both Yshua, Jesus and Yeshaq, Isaac are willingly bound. The meaning of Akedah is the 'binding': both in a sense by their father, Isaac by Abraham, Yshua by the Temple guard, first, as a lamb without blemish would be for the passover. (The passover yet to come in the Akedah, and in existence with the Cross. (Gen 22:9; )

Mat 27:2 And when they had bound him, they led [him] away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

God will Provide Himself a Lamb
AS Abraham prepares the wood, with Isaac bound, he lays the wood in order, just as Jesus's crucifiers lay the wood 'in order' binds his son and lays him on the altar. Before, though as they approach the altar, Isaac says:

Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offerng? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering....

Think about this for a moment: Abraham had faith that he would not have to kill Isaac, or that if he did, he would come back to life. Can this be proved? Abraham promised the men he was with that they would both return (Gen 22:5) So God somehow,would provide for the sacrifice. Isaac was never called a lamb. As Abraham raises the knife, to slay his son, the angel of the LORD called out of heaven, and stops him. At that moment, Abraham lifts up his eyes and sees a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. The ram becomes the burnt offering. The Ram becomes the offering, but still is not a lamb: there is still one to come. A ram was acceptable for a burnt offering on an altar, so there was nothing inappropriate or amiss about the provision of God on Moreh, but a Lamb for Sacrifice was still wanting, caught in the prophetic vision and foreshadowing on Moreh. Note further the precise syntax God will provide HIMSELF a Lamb. Its a perfect word.

A Sacrifical Offering surrounded in briars

The ram is noted as 'caught in a thicket by his horns,..22:13, with horns being the symbol of power or radiance. The Lamb is surrounded by a briar thorn crown:

Jhn 19:2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put [it] on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,

The vision of the male lamb caught in the thicket would not be meaningful until two thousand years later. 

Both carry their Means of Death

This is related to the wood being placed upon the shoulder, but it should be added that the wood they carry, Jesus and Isaac is the means of their death: it is a sorrowful irony. 

Both are the Sacrifice of a Son of Promise

One of the reasons that Abraham knew that God would not let Isaac die, is because he was promised , covenanted, as eternal:

Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, [and] with his seed after him.

and as the 'name by which we shall all be called'. This is reaffirmed in the Old and New Testament:

Gen 21:12 .....for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Rom 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

One cannot have an eternal covenant with a son of Promise deceased. Either time. O my. In the first Akedah, the Son lives WITHOUT dying; in the Second, the Son of God lives THROUGH death.

Knife and Spear
Abraham raises a knife to slay Isaac; Jesus is pierced with nails and a spear to make sure of his death:

And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son....Gen 22:10
jhn 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Both are Alive, after 3 Days
This is a little more obscure, for the three days for Isaac are the days journeying to Moreh, and the three days for Jesus end in an empty tomb. (Gen 22:4; Mark 9:31)

A Closing Thought Regarding the Prophetic Occurrence
Abraham is the first person in the Bible called a Prophet at least chronologically (Enoch is referred to one in the New Testament). It is no surprse then, that Abrahamcalls the place on moreh: Jehovah Jireh::

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah -jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.(Gen22:14)

Abraham rightly refers to the provision of God, but also to 'vision' for it can mean 'it shall be provided, God shall see to it, or it shall be seen'. Some have equated the word 'Moreh', teacher, and Moriah, a variant as 'vision' related to the word 'see'. Even the words the LORD used in the early passage foretold something that would be seen ahead and provided. True to most biblical prophecies, there was a fulfillment in Isaac's lifetime of land and seed, and a distant fulfillment of the coming Messiah, with Heaven and a heavenly seed. All would be called through Isaac, or Yeshaq, perhaps Yshua, perhaps? 

Thine Only Son, Whom Thou Lovest

In conclusion, both are 'only sons' at the time: though Ishmael is living, he is not Sarah's, and is part Egyptian. The son God promised was of faith, and Isaac is Abraham's true son and heir. The son of promise and covenant though, later on the Hill of the Rabbi, would be called " my beloved son in whom I am well pleased". How much did God love His son? As much as Abraham loved His? More:

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten son that whosover believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

Two beloved sons, on a hill of faith and salvation, what more can be said?

Next year in Jerusalem!

more in a moment.....ekbest

Posted by Elizabeth Kirkley Best at 11:41 PM

Elizabeth Kirkley Best

 
Teacher, Director : Judah's glory, Promise of Messiah

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