How does the command to sacrifice Isaac relate to Jesus?

Answer 1

A:The idea of prefigurement is that something that occurs in the Old Testament represents something that will happen in the New Testament. Thus, Christians transformed the attempted sacrifice of Isaac into the centrepiece of an iconic link with Jesus. Jessica Harani, a professor of religion at Tel Aviv University, put it this way, "Abraham loved God so much that he was willing to sacrifice his son. God loved humanity so much that he will sacrifice his son." And Hebrews 11:17, talking of Abraham, "... and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son." This last reference is not quite true, since Hebrews makes it clear that the son is Abraham's second son, Isaac, but the verse connects to the story of Jesus. Tertullian even said that the reason Isaac carried the wood for his sacrifice was a mystery kept secret until Christ was asked to carry the wooden cross to his sacrifice. Again, it is only in John's Gospel that Jesus carried the cross to the crucifixion site, because Simeon carried it in the synoptic gospels, with no parallel to the Old Testament account.

Nevertheless, with some imagination it is possible to relate the command to sacrifice Isaac to Jesus in a number of very plausible ways.

Answer:

God had willed that Jesus the promised Messiah should be born as a descendant to Abraham. After Isaac was born, Abraham thought that Isaac was the son the God had promised, but it was not so. When God told Abraham that his wife Sarah would beget a son through Abraham, he had promised him Jesus.

Later God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Again, Abraham thought God is asking him to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22.5 and 22:8). Just as Abraham was about to do what God had asked him to do, an angel of God stopped Abraham from doing what he was doing. Thereafter, Abraham sacrificed a ram instead.

Most of the Jewish commentators argue that God had tested Abraham to test his loyalty towards God. In a way this kind of thinking is right because God wanted to see if Abraham is worthy to bring forth the promised Messiah into this world or not.

After Abraham had obeyed God's command, he conferred on him the right to bring forth Jesus as his descendant.

This is how God's command to sacrifice Isaac relates to Jesus.