There are numerous instances in the Old Testament where the sacrifice of God’s son was insinuated and suggested but perhaps the story of Abraham sacrificing his only son ( when God told Abraham in the verse below) is the most memorable. When Abraham brought his only promised son Isaac to be sacrificed on Mt. Moriah did he know that God will spare his son’s neck? Literally.
Genesis 22: 2 Then He said, “Take now 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.”
It appears that Abraham believed that somehow God would either bring his son back to life, or that God himself will provide a sacrifice –perhaps in the last minute, in Abraham’s mind (my speculation here,) since Abraham said “we will come back to you.”
The choice of words Abraham used implied that he believed God will provide for himself the sacrifice.
Look at the wording here:
Genesis 22 7:Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"8 Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
By the way here is the verse that refers to the ram that was eventually sacrificed:
Genesis 22 12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
The sacrificial ram’s horns were caught in the thicket on Mt. Moriah, the same hill where Calvary would stand centuries later and Jesus, the lamb of God, would be sacrificed on the cross.
Perhaps it’s my wild imagination but doesn’t the ram’s horn caught in a thicket paint a picture of Jesus’ head stuck in a crown of thorns before our Lord was sacrificed?
This brings to mind what King David said of the Messiah’s body in Psalm 34.
New International Version says: he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
Written almost 1000 years before Jesus came to earth to be born of a woman (virgin) it talks of the Savior who will be sacrificed on the cross but who will not have even a bone broken. I am thinking the ram’s bones too was probably unbroken since only his horns were entangled in the thicket and not his body.
Cross reference this fact to other scripture verses about none of the bones of the Messiah being broken at the cross and we have these bible verses below:
John 19:33
But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
John 19:36
These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken,"
Exodus 12:46
"It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones...
The picture of the sacrificial lamb the Bible paints of Jesus does not end here. In fact this is only the beginning. Time and again Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is either hinted at, alluded to or point blank referred to in the Old Testament.
As the Bible says, those who have eyes let him see…the truth that could set them free.
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