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  (DIVINE EMBLEMS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE) 6. EMBLEMS FROM THE LIFE OF ISAAC
  by A.B. Simpson
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CONTENT
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In the fourth chapter of Galatians, the apostle gives us a key to some
of the most important events in the life of Isaac, and along with these
a principle which may be applied to other portions of the historical
Scriptures, as a key to their interpretation. He tells us that the birth
both of Ishmael and Isaac was typical of the divine dispensations; the
former representing the Law and the Flesh; the latter, the Gospel and
the Spiritual Seed; and that the expulsion of Ishmael and the solo
inheritance of Isaac completed the type as respects the passing away of
the law and the permanence of the gospel. He also applies the teaching
of these symbols to the spiritual life of the individual Christian.
Authorized by this divine pattern, we shall endeavor reverently to
gather the spiritual lessons, not only of these facts, but others in the
life of this remarkable character. More reserved and passive than the
other patriarchs, Isaac is, perhaps, more obscure and less understood by
most Christians than any of the characters of the book of Genesis; but
there is none that, when properly realized, impresses itself so vividly
upon the heart, and teaches such profound and searching lessons for all
Christian lives. A life very largely made up of commonplace events, it
is just the life that meets the needs, the failures and the testings of
most of us; and we trust we shall find many points of contact with that
which is most real and essential in our religious experience.

SECTION I -- The Birth of Isaac.

The apostle that we have already referred to, declares that he was born
after the Spirit and according to promise. His birth was not natural and
ordinary, but extraordinary and supernatural. Not until nature had
failed, and the hope of issue from the bodies of Abraham and Sarah was
humanly improbable, did God even promise the covenant seed; and, even
after this, an interval of testing had to come before the promise was
fulfilled. His birth, therefore, was the direct result of omnipotent
power, and so it stands as the type of that greater birth, which, in
later ages, came through Mary of Bethlehem, even the Incarnation of the
Eternal Son of God. This greater mystery and mightier miracle was
distinctly foreshadowed in the babe of promise that came to Hebron\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ab-simpson/divine-emblems-of-spiritual-life-6-emblems-from-the-life-of-isaac/
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