In this sermon, Chuck Missler explores the book of Genesis, specifically chapters 22 and 24. He begins by discussing the nature of the Bible, highlighting its collection of 66 books written by 40 authors over thousands of years, yet demonstrating a single authorship outside of our time domain. Missler then mentions a homework assignment to study Galatians 3, Romans 4, and Hebrews 11, which will help unravel some of the peculiar notions he will suggest. Finally, he introduces the exploration of passages in Genesis that represent the climax of Abraham's life, making it one of the most significant lives in the book.

This is the 16th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters 22 and 24. Tonight we're going to have some fun because we're going to be in what's my favorite chapter in the Bible. And not just my favorite chapter in Genesis, it's one of my favorite chapters or passages or areas in the whole scripture for lots of reasons, a long list of reasons. And so you run a great risk because I'm so emotionally involved with this chapter. The Holy Spirit may not get a chance. So we should seek the Lord's help and protection. Let's let's open with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just praise you with thanksgiving and anticipation of this evening and the opportunity to open your word to our understanding. And we would indeed seek to know what you have here for us. And Father, we know we are engaging upon a supernatural experience, so we would just ask the guidance of the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and understanding that you might just illuminate those things which you have here for us and help us appropriate those to our lives that we might in all these things behold Jesus Christ and through him be pleasing in thy sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. We're going tonight, we're going to do an exploration of some passages in Genesis which are interesting from a number of points of view. They're interesting because they represent in many respects the climax of perhaps one of the most significant lives that are treated in the book of Genesis, the life of Abraham. And we have seen his faith tested and we see it tested in a climactic sense in what we're going to look at. But we're also going to glean from this exercise or this exploration some lessons about the nature of the message with which we have to do. Now, those of you that might have joined us lately or may not be familiar with some of the very bizarre, strange, peculiar views I hold, let me quickly summarize an outlook. You have in your laps a collection of 66 books that are written by 40 authors over a number several thousand year period. And yet what makes this group of books so provocative is the evidence, the evidence that this collection of books has a single author. And that because of the nature of these books and the span of years that it took to assemble them, we can demonstrate that that single author had to exist outside our time domain. And so we're dealing really with a message system of extraterrestrial origin. And as we understand not only the content of the message, but its structure, its linguistics, the numerics that are used, the place names, we become awed at the realization that from the five books of Moses, written as part of the Torah of the Hebrew scriptures, all the way through to the revelation given to John, that the books are intricately, mystically, supernaturally engineered, not only to convey a narrative, a history, a poetry, a cultural background, but to reveal some very specific truths. And specifically to point to the pre-existence, the incarnation, the destiny, the mission, and the result of a particular life, the life of Jesus Christ. Now, this particular area we're in is going to, of course, deal with the climax of that, but it's also going to teach us some surprising lessons as to just how far the Holy Spirit will go to convey to you his truth. And so it'll be kind of fun, I think. But before we jump into Genesis, I'd like to pose a few little interesting problems. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If I was to ask you, what is the gospel? You know, among religious groups or biblical people, we always speak of the gospel. Here's this quaint old English word, which some of you probably know means the good news. But if I asked you to define just what is the gospel, what's the essential kernel of the gospel, there are many answers that might be adequate, but one of the best is probably the definition of the gospel that occurs in the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 happens to be known as the resurrection chapter. It opens up with a definition of the gospel and climaxes with a description of the rapture of the church, which I think is interesting, very appropriate to the concept of the resurrection. But specifically what I'd like to focus on is the definition of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1 says, moreover brethren, Paul talking, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. And then he continues with some adjective type clauses and he climaxes as to what the gospel is, verse 3. For I deliver unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now that is the essence of the gospel, that he died, was buried, and he rose the third day. Everything else is extra. Every unorthodox, heterodox, cult attacks that truth. You can believe many things about Jesus Christ, but unless you believe that Jesus died for our sins, that's a big idea. Not just that he died, but that he died in our stead for our sins, according to the scriptures. And that he was again the third day. The resurrection is key. And the rest of the chapter goes on to explain the significance of the resurrection. The part that I want to call your attention to, it says here that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. What scriptures was Paul making reference to? The New Testament? No. He's making reference to that body of books that we call the Old Testament. So that leads of course to the provocative homework assignment, where in the Old Testament does it prophesy that Jesus Christ is to be raised from the dead on the third day? If I asked you where is it prophesied that he was to be born in Bethlehem, you'd quickly answer Micah 5.2. That he's supposed to be born of a virgin, many places, but of course Isaiah 7.14 being the reference in mind. And if I asked you about his family tree, I could ask you 300 details of his life and you could find the Old Testament references. But where does it say he's to be raised on the third day? Some of you might say, well that's in the book of Jonah. That's cheating because he told you that. He said three times in the Gospels that as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth. But I suggest to you, I submit to you, had you not had the benefit of his insight, you probably could read Jonah a long time before you have sensitive to the fact that it is a prophetic passage, messianically prophetic of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Now, there is a passage in Isaiah that some people point to, but for technical reasons I don't want to bore you with tonight. I don't think it really refers to that, so I'm going to pass that. You'll also find people refer to Psalm 16 where it says, I shall not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. And they say, well the body corrupts in third day. Remember Lazarus, you know, it's and so forth. So the fact that he would thus not be in the grave beyond the third day is suggested by the Psalm, but that's still kind of fuzzy. If you think that's fuzzy, the answer I'm going to give you is even fuzzier, except that it is rabbinical and you'll find that kind of, just tuck this away as a problem. Now, for the homework assignment I had suggested to you that you commit to your understanding Galatians 3 and Romans 4. I'm not going to take you into Galatians 3 and Romans 4 tonight, but I'm mentioning that to remind you of that in perspective. And secondly, so it's on the tape, so if you're really bewildered after I'm through tonight, you can get the tape and dig back and look at Galatians 3 and Romans 4 and also Hebrews 11, which will unravel some of the bizarre, peculiar notions that I will suggest to you this evening. But before we go on further, I'd also like to review a little methodology. Turn to Hosea chapter 12. Hosea, Old Testament prophet. You turn to Isaiah, go to Isaiah and turn right. And Hosea chapter 12, verse 10 has a verse that I want to highlight an authority on. The Lord says to the prophet Hosea in chapter 12, verse 10, he says, I have also spoken by the prophets, no surprise, and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets. One of the things, what is a similitude? Well, okay, I'm not going to quarrel with any English teachers here that suggest that a metaphor, a similitude, a model, an analogy are all similar things. Now, technically those are all different also, but for our purposes, I'm going to lump those together. When I say a similitude or an analogy or a metaphor or a model, you know what I'm talking, I think you can get the feeling. I can communicate to you by using parallels, by using things that are similar to what I'm trying to talk about. And the Lord says here in verse 10, that that's the way he communicates and we're going to see what probably is the most dramatic similitude in the scripture tonight. And it's in fact a comprehension of just how far the Holy Spirit will go to bend the historical reality so that it fits his spiritual similitude. That's going to surprise us. We could go into 1 Corinthians 10, 11, and 2 Timothy 3, 16, and 17. Most of you know 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is given, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness, all scripture, all scripture. And that includes Genesis 22 and a few other things we'll look at. So we're going to get into tonight a story that for many people, for the natural person, the person thinking only intellectually, is probably a stumbling block in his understanding of what God is trying to do. Because many people that have a Sunday school acquaintanceship of the Bible are all familiar with the fact that God asked Abraham to take his son Isaac and offer him on an altar. And most of us that are confronted with that idea are shocked and appalled that God would cause Abraham to offer, make a human sacrifice of his son. What a barbaric idea. And it's interesting to see how the secular world and some, unscholarly, modern denominations, try to paint a concept that the concept of God somehow improved. Here is the barbaric God of the Old Testament, later superseded by the loving God of the new, and that's hogwash. Because the Bible tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God doesn't change. And so what is going on here? If we have an adequate comprehension of what God is all about, how do we relate to the idea that God asked Abraham to offer on an altar a child, let alone his only son? Well, we'll explore that. So that's a stumbling block. But that which is a stumbling block to some becomes the rock of salvation to others. And we'll see that sort of development. Genesis chapter 22, which is the thing we're into tonight, in my opinion ranks with Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 as those chapters in the Old Testament that describes the significance of Christ and Calvary, the cross at Calvary, more clearly than probably any passage in the New Testament. Psalm 22, of course, is called to our attention by the Lord himself as he hangs on the cross and says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, which is the opening line of the Psalm. And you can read in Psalm 22, you have a description of the crucifixion as if it were written by Christ hanging on the cross in the first person singular. That includes such detail that if you apply the principles of textual criticism, it conclusively proves that Psalm 22 is written after the book of Matthew. That's supposed to be facetious. Don't be silent, you scare me to death. And of course, Isaiah 53 describes the reason for Christ's crucifixion, perhaps more clearly than even Paul does with his 13 plus epistles. So, but Genesis 22 describes a scene that, well, it'll have some surprising things. Now, before we get into the details, let me point out what's happened to Abraham this time. There's been 60 years of preparation that has gone into this moment. We saw Abraham tested several ways. We saw him tested in Genesis 12, where he was called to leave his nation, his kindred, his home. And he sort of passed that as we explored back there in Genesis 12. Then he was asked to leave Lot, right? Separate from Lot. Genesis 13, as I recall, right? And so forth. Well, we're now in a point where he, and in this whole progress of Abraham, and we summarized this earlier, we have his faith growing, tested. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he failed. But all the time, his faith is being built to a climactic point. The climactic point is Genesis 22. When we get to the point where God says, I want you to offer your son Isaac, he says, you bet. You bet. Now, he could do that because he knew something that most of us don't. Now, we know that Abraham wouldn't, Abraham obviously believed the Lord, right? If he didn't believe the Lord, he probably wouldn't even have, he wouldn't progress to the point where he would be that obedient, right? So, we know he believed the Lord. But there's a very specific thing he knew. The Lord promised him seed from Isaac, right? But Isaac, did Isaac have any kids yet? So, if he's going to offer Isaac, he knew the Lord had a problem. He knew that the Lord had to miraculously resurrect Isaac from the dead. And before we're through this evening, I'm going to try to suggest to you, it was that conviction that saved Abraham's soul. The fact that he believed God isn't the issue. It's the fact that he relied on a resurrection that saved him. In Romans chapter 4, we find the phrase by Paul that the gospel was preached before unto Abraham. That's in Romans chapter 4. Interesting phrase. You mean that Abraham knew the gospel? Yes. So much so, that I personally believe that Abraham knew he was acting out a prophecy in Genesis 22. And for that reason, Genesis 22 becomes far more exciting than simply an interesting record of the faithfulness of one of the patriarchs. It's a fascinating story of how Abraham trusted the Lord even to go through with this apparently extreme move. It has more than that. It has impact for you and I because it is a passage which the Holy Spirit has engineered to teach us some things that go far beyond a casual reading of the passage. So let's start by jumping at this point, jumping into Genesis chapter 22. And we get a clue right up front. If you're sensitive to the precision of the Holy Spirit, you'll notice verse 22 says, and it came to pass after these things. The Holy Spirit is hinting here that this couldn't take place until the preparation was laid. That is to bring Abraham to this point. That'll become obvious as we see what Abraham's asked to do. The God did test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, behold, here am I. Verse two, and he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac. Now right away there you stumble if you're an alert student because Abraham had how many sons? Two. But God is saying to Abraham, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac. That's rough. Now Abraham earlier would have said, yeah, but what about Isaac? I mean, excuse me, what about Ishmael? God has finally gotten through from the previous chapters, chapter 18, chapter 21, that Ishmael, that's fine, that's the son of the flesh, that's not the son of the spirit. And as far as God's purposes are concerned, he's blind to Ishmael. Is Ishmael not blessed? No, of course, we had that whole scene where Ishmael's taken care of. But Ishmael is the son of the flesh. As Paul develops in the book of Galatians, he uses an analogy, a model, a type, if you will, of the bond woman and the free woman, Hagar and Sarah and their respective sons. And Ishmael is a work of the flesh, another work of the spirit. God had promised Abraham and Sarah a supernatural seed through which he was to work his plan. And Ishmael was Abraham's attempt to help God by works of the flesh. And God rejected it. God rejects all works of the flesh, as we find out later in the scripture. And Ishmael is no exception. But here we have a very interesting emphasis of that by God saying to Abraham, take your only son. Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get... Notice the emphasis, whom thou lovest. Did Abraham love Ishmael? And how? You betcha. In fact, I could probably suggest that to Abraham, Ishmael was still the firstborn in his heart. I'm sure the role of Isaac that God had ordained came reluctantly to Abraham. But God is saying, 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. Boy, you know, we all sometimes worry as we submit ourselves to the will of God, we sometimes wonder, what's God going to ask us to do? And I personally cannot think of anything more extreme that God could ask you to do than to take your only son that you love and go offer him as an offering. And I'm not just saying what will the neighbors think, I mean in terms of... I shouldn't be flippant that way, that's just a very poor mechanic to break tension, because that is a heavy idea, to actually take one's son and offer him as an offering. Furthermore, as we're going to see, and I'm sure you're way ahead of me, Abraham is acting out a circumstance in which another father is going to offer his only beloved son as an offering. And it's interesting that right up front in this passage, the Holy Spirit emphasizes the language to the almost alteration of the history. Because you and I, if we were writing, if we were writing the story, we wouldn't describe Isaac as an only son, would we? Holy Spirit does. Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him there. In a mountain that I will show thee of, there's a specific place that God is going to lead Abraham to. And we all think, well most of us know the story, verse 3, and Abraham rose up early in the two of his young men with him. How many are traveling? Four. Abraham, Isaac, two young men, and the daughter with him, and Isaac his son, and cut the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. Now, we all know what happens, that when they get there and they go up, of course, just before Abraham is to offer, as we'll find out shortly, the angel stops him and arranges a substitution of a ram, right? We're going to, before the passage is over, go to Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll discover, we'll discover several things, but the point is, when did Isaac die, as far as Abraham was concerned? When the commandment came. When was dead to Abraham when God said offer him? As far as Abraham's concerned, he's dead already. As far as Abraham's concerned, he's dead, until he gets there. When was Isaac given back to Abraham? When God provided a substitute on the hill, the ram, the substitutionary ram, which is later ordained in the book of Leviticus. How much time occurred between the time that Isaac was dead to Abraham and yet restored to Abraham in three days? Now, you may say, you may say, that's ridiculous, Missler. You're really making too much. Let me tell you, that is the rabbinical line of reasoning, and in fact, Abraham knew it. Why? Because he names the place that way. Before we're through, in the mount of the Lord, it will be seen. What will be seen? Because 2,000 years later, on that same hill, another father offered his son as an offering for sin. Now, as we know that, let's go on and look carefully at what really happens here. Verse 4, then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place. God had told him, I'm going to show you a place where you do this. Abraham takes his son next morning, early, doesn't mess around, doesn't go into three weeks of prayer saying, gee, take this, can't we do this some other way? The next morning goes. I don't know that he had any idea how long it was going to be. Day after day after day he traveled, as the Lord leads him, from Beersheba, where they lived, to a place called Mount Moriah. It's actually a group of mountains. It isn't a specific mountain. The specific mount is named by Abraham, but Mount Moriah was really a region. And they go three days, and of course then he sees the place afar off. Notice verse 5, Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again unto you. Now, first of all, he leaves the two young men and the donkey at the foot of the hill. Abraham and Isaac are going to go up the hill. Don't be thrown by the word lad. The Hebrew word is translated to mean also armed soldiers. The word in the English implies a young man. There's some evidence to suggest that Isaac may have been 33 years old. Now, notice what he also says to the young men. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again unto you. Now, you might believe that that's just a put-off, so these two guys don't get unglued as to what the old man has in mind. Or, it may be Abraham's conviction that there's not going to be a resurrection. It's going to happen on the third day. The more I've studied this, the more I'm convinced that Abraham knew before the procedure started what was going to happen. Maybe not in detail, but I'm convinced that's what Romans means when it says the gospel was preached before Abraham. In a revelation not here recorded, I think Abraham understood that he was acting out prophecy, and I think he expected Isaac to be resurrected. Now, we know he expected that because he believed the Lord, and the Lord had a problem. He had to give Isaac seed, because he promised Abraham that several times in great expansive terms. The word seed, by the way, was singular. It isn't all his offspring. It's the seed, the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll come back to that. That's what Galatians 3 talks about in great length. There's so much to bring out, it's hard to know what you bring out after we've summarized it, and what we bring out as we go. Let me sort of try to do a little bit of both. I'm fascinated by verse 4, where it says he saw the place afar off, because he obviously is meaning geographically as they're getting there. He sees it before they get there. But I'm also reminded what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 8, where he was talking about, you know, in John chapter 8, where he says that Abraham rejoiced to see my day. This is, how can you say that, Abraham, when you're not even 50 years old, and Abraham has been dead so long. And that's when he goes into it, that before Abraham was, I am. Which we may not recognize in the English. We recognize what he's saying in a pre-existent sense, that he pre-existed his birth. What we don't realize is that he's also claiming to be the voice of the burning bush in John chapter 8. But I'm fascinated with this idea when he says Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And I personally believe that he saw his day here, because he's acting out exactly what was to happen to Jesus Christ 2,000 years later on the same spot. He saw the place afar off. So we have a willing father, and we have an only beloved son. And you can pencil in your margins John 3.16, if you're so moved. And where he says whom thou lovest, it's interesting that John 15.13 says that no greater love has a man missed than to lay down his life for his friends. It has to be a son. We have the whole concept of the kinsman redeemer, that the world has to be redeemed by a kinsman of Adam. And that idea we've developed in Revelation 5, and the book of Ruth deals with that, for those of you that want to tie this to some of your other studies. Okay. Verse 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. Who hauled the lumber up the hill? Isn't that interesting? Who hauled the cross up Golgotha? And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. What also went along? What is a symbol of fire in the scripture? It means judgment. We first see at the Garden of Eden, both the fire and the sword, the knife, if you will, of the cherubim, doing what? Guarding the way to the tree of life. So that Adam could not turn back? No. So that Satan couldn't block the way for his return. We went through that in Genesis 2. And we see that same fire in the Shekinah glory. We see it in the pillar of fire and smoke that was with Moses. In fact, we see it in the burning bush itself, where we have the thorn bush of the desert, the acacia bush, not consumed in the judgment of fire. And the symbol of the curse, the thorns, not being consumed in the fire is a symbol of grace. And that's what drew Moses, and that's what draws us. Not his righteousness, his grace. Now, and of course, we have the knife or the sword. What is the sword symbolically in the scripture, Hebrews 4.12? The word. Right. They both went, at the end of that verse 6, they went, both of them, in agreement. The English says together. The Hebrew says they both of them went. How can two go together, be they not agreed? There's another verse. But here in the Hebrew, they go together. They both go in agreement. Now this is, the next two verses fascinate me, because I misread these for about more than 20 years. Isaac spoke to Abraham and said, my father, and he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself for a lamb for the burnt offering. So they both went in agreement. There's a second time. And I used to always visualize this as the young boy. And again, I was a victim of our Sunday school coloring books, visualizing a small boy going with his father, the old man laying the wood on his back, and they're going up the hill. And the old man's going to con him until he gets to the top of the hill and then break the news to him. And when he says, hey, where's the lamb, dad? He says, well, you know, we're going to get one later or something. I figured it was a stall. Now, you look at this carefully. Read what Abraham says. The boy says, by the way, where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide who? He will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Verse nine, they came to the place where God had told him of. Notice the emphasis by the Holy Spirit. There's a specific place that this occurs. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him upon the altar, laid him on the altar upon the wood. Now, by type, I'm going to argue that Isaac was submissive. I suspect that if Isaac wanted to put up a struggle, it would have been tough for Abraham to accomplish this. And as we understand with 2020 hindsight in the New Testament, we know that he became obedient even to the death. Now, incidentally, God is not only providing himself, he is providing, not only do we have a substitution by God in the story, we have a substitute for God. God benefits by this also. And that's what Romans chapter three is all about. And this is, that'll get beyond us to get into all of that, but just to recognize there's two sides to the cross. And it obviously benefits us, and that's overwhelming, but it also is described in the scripture as a benefit to the Lord. And that's Romans chapter three, verse 26, if you want a specific. Okay, it's also interesting to notice that the father and the son up here are alone. Nobody else is there. Who are the two young men down at the base of the hill? Well, why two men? Why did Abraham bring these two young guys along? Two witnesses, a thing will be established by two witnesses, was the law, that's true. Also, it's provocative to recognize that Jesus Christ was crucified between two thieves. But, on the other side, remember what Jesus Christ said from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was alone. What was going on on the cross at Calvary is something we couldn't see. We see the physical aspect of it. The book of Hebrews chapter nine tells us that his blood was shed in a tabernacle not made with hands. And that the whole, the real issue of the crucifixion is something that I don't think we could possibly fully grasp. But, moving on. Abraham stretched forth, verse 10, stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything to him. For now I know that thou fearest God, and seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. Who is the son withheld from, or not withheld from? God. Who benefits from the crucifixion? You and I do, if we have the willingness to appropriate it to ourselves. Who also wins? God himself. Isaiah 53, It pleased the Lord to bruise him. What does that mean? Why? Because it opened the way for him who is not willing that any should perish. It opened up the way for sanctification and redemption without violating God's righteousness. So it allowed him to accomplish what he was trying to accomplish without violating his nature. Verse 13, And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him there was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. Now, this is a substitutionary ram. In my opinion, it's the second time it occurs in the scripture. Where is the first time that a ram is substituted in the scripture? When Adam and Eve made fig leaves, aprons of fig leaves, God covered them with coats of skin, teaching them by the death of the innocent. By the shedding of innocent blood, they'd be covered. And the Levitical system was instituted with Adam and Eve in the garden. We see it occur here again in the exemplar of the ram being the substitute here on Mount Moriah. We see it elaborately, ceremonially ordained in the Leviticus 9 and Numbers 5, just to give you some references if you want to chase those down. Okay. And it's also used in Genesis 15 in the oath as a prediction of Israel's captivity, but that's a long, complicated thing. Verse 13, Abraham went and took the ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. See, the ram is a substitutionary ram, and that's the way it is ordained in the book of Leviticus. Now, this is the interesting thing. Verse 14, Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Now, Abraham is naming this particular spot the Mount of the Lord. Where is this mountain today? It's in an area called Mount Moriah. The word Jehovah-Jireh, Jireh means to, you know, will provide. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. Now, Jireh Shalom, Shalom being peace, Jireh Shalom being the root from which we get the name of the city called Jerusalem. But more specifically, it's the Mount of the Lord. How could Abraham call it the Mount of the Lord? What mountain is biblically identified uniquely as the Mount of the Lord? We call it Calvary or Golgotha, it's where he was slain, where he was crucified, the cross. Now, what's interesting, don't miss the point, Abraham knows it's prophetic. He didn't just, he wasn't just, this wasn't just a situation where he took his son, followed the Lord's will, and was ready, tied him up, and was all ready to go through with it, where the Lord intervened and stopped him and says, oh great, you did fine, substitute the ram. And Abraham didn't simply understand that this was just a test of faith and that he passed, he recognized its prophetic significance and we know that because of his naming the place. So what I don't know is how much earlier did Abraham realize this had a prophetic significance, quite apart from the fact that obviously it does have a prophetic significance, we have the three-day issue, we have the father offering his only son, and so forth. Now, the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, singular. Now, don't misunderstand this, he's talking about several ideas here, there will be a lot of seed, but the seed singular is the seed that will possess the gate of his enemies. What seed is that? It's the seed that God spoke of when he declared war on the serpent. In Genesis 3, 15, I'll be enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, from which we get this initial title of Jesus Christ, or the Messiah. The seed of the woman, singular. Paul in Galatians 3 makes a big thing of the fact that that word in the Hebrew is singular. Now, it's interesting here, well, before we go on, let's turn to Hebrews chapter 11. I won't take the time to go to Galatians 3 and Romans 4, you can do that on your leisure, but it might be useful to pop over to Hebrews 11, this famous chapter that's sometimes called the faith chapter, or the hall of faith. Hebrews 11, first Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter, first Hebrews, first epistle of the Hebrews, 11 is the hall of faith. And it opens with a definition of faith, and then has a chronicle, sort of a hip parade, if you will, of the great men of faith. And it comes down to several things about Abraham and Sarah, but we'll pick it up about verse, no, maybe 17, 17, 18, 19. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises, notice the past tense, a perfect tense, he had the promises, obviously before Isaac, the question is, how many? Promises offered up by his only begotten son, his only begotten son, notice the writer of Hebrews tying that, if you will, to John 3, 16, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it is said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, which also he received him in a figure, or a type, or a model. You see what it's saying here, as far as Abraham's awareness is concerned, that he was able to understand, even though it was in a figure, that Isaac was being resurrected. And it was, I believe, the emphasis is that Abraham's reliance on Isaac's resurrection, or I should say Christ's resurrection by type, that was the basis of his salvation. You can believe lots of things. James tells us the devils also believe and tremble. The fact what you believe won't save you. It's what you rely on, and specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can believe many things that are true, but it doesn't necessarily save you. There's some specific truth which you must not only know or believe, you must rely on, and the supernatural work of Jesus Christ being the essence of it. Clearly, that's what the scripture from end to end emphasizes. Now, it's interesting, getting back to Genesis 22, verses 15 through 18, is a reconfirmation of the covenant. The covenant is confirmed after Isaac's resurrection, if I can put it that way, which I think is interesting. Verse 18, And I see, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. And now the passage concludes, we'll come back to this, but just to finish the chapter, and then I want to show you something else. So, Abraham returned to his young men, they rose up, went to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba, and it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also had born children to my brother Nahor, Uz the firstborn, and Buzz his brother, and Camuel the father of Aaron, and it goes into a genealogy here, and it concludes. Now, Genesis chapter 23, we're going to skip for tonight. It's the death of Sarah. Sarah dies, and Abraham buys a burying place for her, but it's going to be useful for us tonight to move ahead a little bit, and I want you to take a look at Genesis chapter 24, because we've got some interesting things yet brewing here. In Genesis chapter 24, we have a very peculiar errand that's run by a ban of authority on behalf of Abraham. Chapter 24, verse 1, Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things, and Abraham said unto his eldest servant. Now, let me stop right there. You and I reading this jump to the misunderstanding that the eldest servant is an old menial. The eldest servant, we know, was the heir of Abraham's fortune, had he not had kids. We're going to discover in several verses here, he was an authority over all of Abraham's household. So, you need to first of all recognize that this person, unnamed here, is a man in authority. In fact, notice the next verse, the eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had. So, don't get the idea that this is just some kind of lackey. This is his first officer. He was born under Abraham's own roof. We know from Genesis 15, in fact, when Abraham was bemoaning that he didn't have a seed, is that the heir to his entire operation was this Eleazar. Now, it's interesting, two things, that number one, he's not named here, and I'll come back to that. And he says, pray I put thee thy hand under my thigh. That sounds strange to us, but it was a mechanism to take an oath, a promise, a faithful commitment. And Abraham says, I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country, unto my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac. We'll take it verse by verse, but what's going to happen here is that Abraham is going to commission his servant, or the head of his servants, to go into a far country to obtain a wife for his son. Now, what's going to happen here, and you may be starting to get ahead of me, and what he does, of course, he goes to this country and he qualifies a woman by the well to be the bride of Isaac. Here's Abraham, who is in type, who is he in type, in a typological sense, who is Abraham's model? The father. Here is the eldest servant going on behalf of the son to gather a bride for the son. Who is he a type of? The Holy Spirit. Now, it's interesting, the name of Abraham's eldest servant is Eleazar. Eleazar means comforter. Isn't that interesting? Furthermore, in the type, Jesus Christ tells us, when he gives the promisor of the Holy Ghost, and the father shall send in my name, he will teach you all things, and so forth, he will not testify of himself, right? It's very, it fascinates me to discover, here we can tell the name of this guy by going back to Genesis 15, and we figure out that he's Eleazar, but the Holy Spirit will not testify of himself, his name is not in this passage. When we study the story of Boaz and Ruth, and Boaz is a type of the kinsman-redeemer, Ruth is a Gentile that is destined to be the bride of Boaz, who introduces Ruth to Boaz? An unnamed servant. It fascinates me that the Holy Spirit is always modeled as an unnamed servant, even here when we know his name. Isn't that interesting? We don't understand that until we get to John, where Jesus Christ himself explains what the Holy Spirit is all about, okay? Now, it might be interesting right now to turn to John chapter 14, and refresh our memory a little bit about some of the things the Lord told us about this, and then we'll come back to Genesis 24. John 14, let's pick it up about verse 16, Jesus says, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. You might notice, you could watch very carefully for that passage, which says he's going to be taken away as soon as the canon is complete, and so forth. That's just a little footnote for those of you that are into that. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and he shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world shall see me no more, but ye shall see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know, that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. And he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I shall love him, and will manifest myself to him. And Jesus saith unto him, How is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If the man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and he will come unto him, and make our abode with him. And he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but my Father's who sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being present with you, but the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father shall send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, and so forth. We might skip over to John 16, pick up another little reminder, picking it up about verse 7, Jesus again saying, Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because ye believe not me, of righteousness, because I go to my Father which is in heaven, of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged, and so forth. I'd like to pick up a few more verses here, I have yet many things to say unto you, verse 12, but you cannot hear them now. Nevertheless, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. Now we understand that in one sense, yet we're flabbergasted to discover how literally that's true in the Old Testament even. Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, for he shall show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you, all things of the Father. Half are mine, therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and show it unto you. It's interesting that the issue is Jesus Christ, not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never testifies of himself, and it's interesting how literally that is true. Let's get back to Genesis, and notice this guy, Eleazar, who's sent on behalf of the son, Isaac. He is in full authority, that is, he ruled over the house. He is instructed not to take a bride from among the cursed. Canaanites were cursed under the curse of Ham. He wants them from the line of Shem, and so forth. It's interesting in verse 4, 5, and 6, that the bride is to be brought to Isaac. That's strange, isn't it? Isaac is not to go to get the bride, the Eleazar is to go get the bride, bring it to Isaac. In fact, Abraham says, beware that thou bring not my son there again. Who? What happens the second time that the son comes? The second half of the passage of Isaiah chapter 61, I'm annoyed to preach good tidings to the poor, and so forth, right? When Lord Jesus Christ opened his ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth, as recorded in Luke 4 and Matthew 4, he reads from Isaiah chapter 61 his mission, but he stops at a comma. If you compare what he read in Luke 4 and Matthew 4, and compare it to Isaiah 61, first two verses, he stops at a comma, does not read, and the day of vengeance of our God. When Jesus Christ returns to the earth, he brings the day of vengeance, the day of judgment of sin, and we're not ready. He wants to, he's not willing that any should perish, he'd like to call his own first. Abraham says, beware that thou bring not my son there again. Strange remark, son's never been in the place that he's sending Eleazar, but the structure of it here, has Isaac ever left the land? No. He told Eleazar to go there, but not to take Isaac there again. You can rationalize the grammar, because while Isaac wasn't there, Abraham originally was, so he means don't return. But in the typological sense here, it's fascinating to see how we can learn that the bride is to be gathered before the son returns. That kind of interesting? This is in Genesis 22. Wild? Oh, you think that's exciting? We're just getting warmed up. Verse 7, the Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke unto me, who swore unto me, saying, unto thy seed will I give this land, he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from there. And if the woman not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this only, bring not my son there again. In other words, Eleazar, he's speaking now to Eleazar, if for some reason she won't come, you're off the hook. But until then, you're sworn, that's your mission, you're all set, okay? Verse 8, verse 9, if the servant put his hand into the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swore unto him concerning the matter, and the servant took ten camels, of the camels, remember those ten camels, I'm going to come back to those ten camels, and he parted, for all the goods of his master were in his hand, and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, and to the city of Nahor. Now this is kind of interesting, really, because remember that Ur of Echaldi is meant flame, Echaldi meant destruction, so Abraham was called from the flames of destruction, right? Now it's interesting that he's gathering his bride from between the floods, that's what Mesopotamia means, between the rivers. Incidentally, in the city of Nahor, Nahor means the snoring of a sleeping man, the world's asleep, you don't know where, what's happening. The place names are significant. Verse 11, he made his camels to kneel down outside the city by a well of water. The next scene, the key scene, takes place by a well, and I'll leave it up to you to compare this with, I believe it's John 4, where the Lord Jesus Christ takes a detour out of his path of his ministry to go to a place called Samaria, because he's got a date with a woman by a well. The disciples think he's going there to do some shopping, they go in town and get some provisions. He's there because he has a cosmic destiny with this woman, from whom we learn a great deal. She was not a Jew. That's interesting in terms of where the Lord was in his ministry at that time. That's a whole other story. Here we are with the Holy Spirit in type, in the form of Eleazar, by a well of water. At the time of evening, even at the time women go down to draw water, and he said, O Lord God of my men, now the Eleazar, the servant, is praying to God. He's in effect setting up a fleece, as we would say. I pray thee send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Notice this intercessory prayer. Behold, I stand there by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come to draw water. Let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher, I pray thee that I may drink, that she shall say, drink, and I will give thy camels to drink also. Now what he's saying here, if I ask her for a drink, she's not only going to give me a drink, she's going to volunteer to water my ten camels. That's not likely to happen by accident. If you girls are on an errand, and you've got to get water for the household, it's a long walk, and you've got the stranger who would like a drink from your pitcher, you probably, you know, accommodate. But would you volunteer without being asked to water his ten camels? I doubt it. Okay, that's the fleece that Eleazar sets up. Let her be the one whom thou hast appointed to be thy servant Isaac. The girl that is picked, Eleazar recognized, is foreordained to be picked. It doesn't happen because she volunteers to water the camels. It happens because, it's just a sign to let Eleazar know that that particular person has been appointed by the God of Abraham to be the bride of Isaac. Thereby shall I know that thou hast shown kindness to my master, and it came to pass before he had finished speaking. Isn't that interesting? The bride is called in the midst of the ministry. But behold, Rebecca came out, who was born of Bethuel, the son of Melchah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother. Coincidence that his brother's name is the same as the city, but anyway. With the pitcher upon her shoulder, the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin. Now, obviously she was, if she's a suitable bride, but it's interesting that the Holy Spirit mentions that. Compare that to what Ephesians talks about the church. Neither had any man known her, and she went down to the well, filled her pitcher, and came up, and the servant ran to meet her and said, Oh, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water from my pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord, and she hastened and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have finished drinking. She hastened, emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. And the man, wondering at her, held his peace to learn whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. It came to pass, as the camels had finished drinking, that the man took a golden ring, let's see, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight and two bracelets for her wrists of ten shekels weight of gold. What's the first thing that the servant does? Gives her gifts. And what's the first gift? For the ear. Faith cometh by hearing. And track into, if you will, the Torah and what the ring and the ear mean in terms of service. And then to her hands, her bracelets. And what does she do? Then she runs. She said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor. And she said to him, We have both straw and fodder enough and room to lodge in. And the man bowed down his head and worshipped the Lord and said, Blessed be the God of my father Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of mercy and his truth. I being where? In the way. What does the book of Acts speak of the Christian walk? You thought that started in the book of Acts, didn't you? I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. And the damsel ran and told them of her mother's house and these things. And Rebecca had a brother and his name was Laban. We'll learn a lot more about Laban when we get to the story of Jacob. He's quite a rascal. And Laban ran out to meet the man in the well, and it came to pass that when he saw the ring and the bracelets upon his sister's wrist, now it's interesting, Laban, that's when he took interest, you see. A guy that drives a Porsche can't be all bad, you know. And when he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister sang, Thus spoke the man unto me, that he came unto the man, and behold, he stood by the camels at the well. And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou outside? For I have prepared the house and room for the camels. And the man came into the house, and then girded his camels, and gave the strong fodder for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet that were with him. And there was set food before him to eat. But he said, I will not eat until I have told my errand. And he said, Speak on. And he said, I am Abraham's servant. Now, by the way, here we're going to get into the intercession of the Holy Spirit. I am Abraham's servant. And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he has become great, and hath given his flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses. And Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old. And unto him hath he given all that he hath. In other words, he's the heir of all things. Isn't that interesting? My master, my master made me to swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of Canaan, in whose land I dwell. But thou shalt go to my father's house, to my kindred, and to take a wife unto my son. And I said unto my master, Suppose the woman will not follow me. And he said unto me, The Lord before whom I walk will send his angel with thee, and will prosper in the way. And thou shalt take a wife of my son, for my son of my kindred, and of my father's house. And thou shalt be clear from this oath when thou comest to my kindred, and if they not, if they, you know, give thee not one, and thou shalt be clear from the oath. And I came this day unto the well, and said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go, behold, I stand by the well of water, and it shall come to pass that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, I go to her, and I give thee, I pray thee, a little water from the pitcher to drink. And if she say, both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels. Let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master's son. And before I had finished speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder, and all this went on in the servant's heart. He prayed in his heart. You can pray in your heart, there's your authority. And she went down unto the well, and drew water, and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee. And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulders to drink, and I will give thy camels a drink also. And so I drank, and she made the camels drink also. And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, Daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son. And Milka bore unto him. And I put a ring, it says in her nose, by some translation. It doesn't sound too exciting, does it? And the bracelets upon her wrists. And I bowed, customs were a little different, I guess. And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham. He led me in the right way to take my master brother's daughter unto his son. This is all obviously recounting to Laban what has transpired. And now, if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me, and if not, tell me that I may turn to the right hand or the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the Lord, we cannot speak unto thee, good or bad. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken. And it came to pass, that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the Lord, bowing himself unto the earth. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah. And he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink, and all the men that were with them, and tarried all night. And they rose up in the morning, and said, Send me away unto my master her brother. And her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten. After that she shall go. And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the Lord hath prospered my way. Send me away, that I may go to my master. And they said, We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. Very, very interesting, interesting situation. Do you realize what they're asking her? First of all, the issue is a personal decision. She makes a decision. She goes with a man she has never known before. She married, in order to marry a man she has never met. To leave home, never to return. That's an interesting commitment, is it not? Now, I can't also resist asking you a question. What are the ten camels for? Right on, they're carrying gifts. The servant went on his errand with more than enough supply of gifts for Rebekah. And others too, but primarily Rebekah. They sent away Rebekah, and her sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those who hate them. And Rebekah rose in her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man, and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. Now, all the way back from this land, they're traveling in a caravan of ten camels. Every night by the campfire, the servant tells Rebekah what it's going to be like with a bridegroom whom she's never met. Giving her gifts, telling her of her inheritance, until one day, verse 62, Isaac came from the way of the well at Lahai-Roi. You know what the well of Lahai-Roi means? It's the well of the living water. For he dwelt in the Negev, and Isaac went out to meditate in the field at eventide, lifted up his eyes, and saw, and behold, the camels were coming, and Rebekah lifted up her eyes. When she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel, for she had said to the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master. Therefore, she took a veil and covered herself, and the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done, and Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent. Sarah's gone. Sarah had to be removed before the bride was ready. Sarah is probably a type of Israel. And she took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. Now, Sarah probably can be looked upon as the woman of Revelation chapter 12, in a sense, from whom came forth, in travel of birth, a man-child, who is to rule the nation of the rod of iron. And we've been through that whole thing. Get it on the tapes if you haven't been through that. The seed of the woman, Genesis 3.15, is climaxed in Revelation chapter 12, and by type, I suggest that Sarah might be suggested here. If you want more background on this, you might read the 11th chapter of the Book of Romans. The 11th chapter of the Book of Romans. But before we get into some of these other, there's just so many interesting other things we can get into here, I want to show you something else that some of you may find rather interesting. Let me go back and share something else with you. We have seen how in Genesis 22, Abraham was a type of whom? The father. Isaac was a type of the son, the only begotten, only beloved son. Okay, and of course, the offering of Isaac on Mount Moriah being a type, or a model, or a foreshadowing, a prophecy of Calvary. We skip ahead a few chapters, and we come to Abraham commissioning his Eleazar to go gather a bride for Isaac. Abraham being, again, in type of the father. Eleazar being a type of the comforter, the Holy Spirit. Rebecca being a type of the church, the bride of the son, the church, as Ephesians and other writings would deal with idiomatically, right? I want you to notice something very interesting. Abraham and Isaac and the two men on a donkey travel three days to get to the base of this mountain. The two young men stay at the base along with the donkey. Abraham and Isaac go up the hill, right? They get up to the top of the hill, Abraham sets it all up, takes the knife to go forward with it, the angel interrupts it. They substitute the ram, the angel blesses Abraham, right? And they go back home, right? I want you to notice verse 19. We've seen Abraham and Isaac at the top of the hill. The angel has interrupted the proceedings and stopped it. They substitute the ram and verses 15 through 18 is the blessing of the angel of the Lord, right? I want you to notice verse 19 very carefully. It says, so Abraham returned unto his young men and they, who, Abraham and the two young men, rose up and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. How far away was Beersheba? Three days. It took three days to get there. I assume it's three days back. Now, what's interesting about verse 19 is it lists the people who came down from the hill and went home. Abraham returned unto his two young men and they went home. My question to you is, where's Isaac? Where is Isaac? You know, if you read this literally, Isaac's still on the hill. It doesn't say they all came down. It says Abraham went down, joined the two young men, and they went home. And my question to you, you might pencil in the margins of your Bible, is where's Isaac? And if you study your scripture, you'll discover something very fascinating. The name of Isaac is edited out of the record from the time that he is offered until he's united with his bride by the well of the living water. Now, that blows my mind. Now, the reason that excites me is, I personally see, and this is just an opinion, but I personally believe that the Holy Spirit has gone about as far as he dare in altering the historical record in such a way that doesn't mislead. If you read this, you jump to the conclusion. And I'm sure, first of all, let's get me clear. I'm sure that Abraham and Isaac went down, picked up the two guys and the donkey, and they went home. Because when you read that, that's what you understand, you get on with it, right? So it's not misleading until you look at it very carefully. And if you're strict and literal, you look at this and say, wait a minute, Abraham went down the hill, picked up these two guys and they went home. Isaac is still up there on the hill. And we see nothing of Isaac all through the rest of the narrative until verse 62 of chapter 24, where he's united with his bride. And I personally am serious, I'm not being facetious, I'm very serious, I personally believe that the Holy Spirit intervenes in the record so as to control the grammar, the numbers, the place name, the very structure of the message. Because by doing so, it communicates something quite far removed, if you will, or apart from the historical narrative of the logistics of Abraham getting home. That we have here in type, the father offering his only son, who reappears when he's united with his bride, the church. And I think that's mind-blowing. And we've done this all from the Old Testament. All from the Old Testament. I think that's super. Now, it's absolutely thrilling to a spiritually enlightened scholar of the scripture because you can see so much allusion or foreshadowing of the ministry, mission, destiny, commitment, reward, gift of Jesus Christ. It's also very, very illuminating to us in terms of methodology. Now, the one thing that I would just pray for, that you take away from our time together, isn't necessarily a specific thing because I hope and pray that you appropriate to yourselves Acts 17.11, which speaks of the Bereans, and being more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they search the word daily to prove whether those things are so. They receive the word with all readiness of mind, but they search the scriptures daily to prove whether those things are so. The point is, I hope you don't believe anything I tell you, but check yourself. So, I'm not really interested in teaching. The Holy Spirit is your teacher. But I would encourage you to be sensitive to subtleties. Anytime you see an apparent contradiction in the scripture, rejoice because the Holy Spirit's got a surprise for you. Because in that apparent contradiction lies an insight. As you take the trouble and the diligence to unravel it, you'll discover something that wouldn't be available to you any other way than the superficial appearance of a contradiction. Zedekiah, the king of Babylon, threw Jeremiah into prison because Jeremiah and Ezekiel were both prophesying the fall of Judah against and being the conquest of Babylon. And one of them said that Zedekiah would die in Babylon. The Babylonians would succeed and take him slaves and die in Babylon. And another one of them said that he would never see the Babylonian captivity. And Zedekiah made fun of them and threw Jeremiah in prison as, in fact, a collaborator with his enemy, not understanding that God had ordained Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to be his instrument of judgment, and they weren't authorized by the Lord to rebel. And when Nebuchadnezzar did succeed in the siege, they took Nebuchadnezzar in chains and they gathered his sons. And before Zedekiah's eyes, they slew his sons. That was his last living memory. And they put out his eyes and they carried him to Babylon in chains. As we read the account in 2 Kings, we discover this shocking reality that that apparent contradiction that Zedekiah made fun of was literally true. He died in chains in Babylon, although he never saw it, just as the prophet said. So the prophets, you want to read the small print in the contract. God says that to Noah, gave him a rainbow, promising that the world would never be destroyed with a flood of water. Peter clarifies that. He says, that's right. Next time it'll be by fire. That's what he says. And that's what you say. You want to read the small print. I would admonish you to be a careful student of the word. Be sensitive to the subtleties. And one of the most exciting subtleties, I think, is Genesis chapter 22, verse 19. Because in my opinion, the more I look at that, some of you may think this guy's nuts, making so much of such a detail. I think that detail is very, very illuminating because it gives us an insight into the methodology of the Holy Spirit. The message of the gospel, God's plan by which he has provided for our redemption is so clear, so conspicuous in the scripture, that you can't miss it. You don't have to be aware of these subtleties to understand God's central purpose and his provision for you and I. However, one of the most thrilling and exciting and rewarding things to do is to be able to glean the treasures that he has put there, all through the scripture from cover to cover. And one of the most exciting treasure hunts you can get on is to take your scripture with the concordance and whatever other help you care and discover the way the Holy Spirit has engineered this text, these 66 books written by 40 authors, or I should say penned by 40 scribes, but engineered and designed into its most subtle detail, supernaturally, having its origin outside our time domain, seeing the end from the beginning, and in fact transcending that dimension we call time, so as to validate its origin, to validate its source, and to open our eternity to us. Genesis chapter 22 and 24, very, very interesting, interesting passages. There's a couple of other things that I wanted to bring out also. I mentioned the death of Sarah, we might pop over to Romans chapter 11, and Romans chapter 11 deals with this whole issue of the role of Israel. Romans chapter 11, verse 1, I say, then hath God cast away his people, God forbid, Paul saying, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, and so forth. And he picks up the theme there in verse 13, say about verse 13, for I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. If by any means I provoke you to jealousy them who are my flesh, I might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, then what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? And we have the whole theme that Paul develops in terms of the role of Israel, in terms of opening the way to the Gentiles, and yet also alluding to their restoration spiritually. And I won't try to get through the whole passage here, I would like to pick it up about verse, say 25, where Paul tells us, for I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part, what kind of blindness is he talking about? Spiritual blindness. Blindness in part is happened to Israel until, that's a very precious word, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, until the bride is gathered. There's a number, we don't know what it is, that makes the number of the Gentiles that come in that we call the bride of Christ be complete. And that number has been increasing for 1900 years, whenever someone has committed themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ, the counter is incremented by one. Now, when that is full, and we don't know what the number is, in fact there's some evidence that Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry didn't know either. He says, no man knoweth the day nor the hour, not the angel's heaven, not the Son, but the Father only. Now we suspect from Revelation, which was given to Jesus Christ, remember the first verse of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, not of John the Divine, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, who? Jesus Christ. Interesting opening verse. So the revelation, the unveiling of his destiny occurs there that he shares with John. He sent and signified it, rendered it into signs to his servant John. The point is, is that when that number is full, the Father says to the Son, go get him. Now we don't know what that number is. Satan doesn't know what that number is. He knows when that number is complete, he has a short while. For 1900 years he's been watching that counter. For 1900 years, every time a Christian is born again, he relies on Jesus Christ, commits himself to the lordship of Jesus Christ, the counter's increased by one and Satan's in shock treatment. For 1900 years he's been rattled. He also knows that your fruitfulness will cause that counter to increase. So now you understand a little bit why he's so anxious for you not to bear fruit. You may wonder, gee, if I'm saved, why does he care? He can't take my salvation away from me. That depends on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, not the faithfulness of me, but the faithfulness of my lord. So he can't take that away from me. But he sure can beat me up a little bit, so I'm a pretty unfruitful guy. Why? Because it affects the rate at which that counter gets hit. Now, we all know from the movement of that situation in Iran, Ezekiel 38 and the rest, that the whole Middle Eastern situation is exactly as the Old Testament prophets had described, that would just precede the return of the Messiah, the second coming as we call it. And yet, so we know it's near, but we don't know how near. Do you realize that somebody in the sound of this voice, here in this room, we're listening to the tape, might be the one to cause that counter to go to full? So someone in this room is holding us all up, gang. Someone in this room may be, the Holy Spirit's calling them to give a commitment in the privacy of their own heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they do, the counter's full, the Father says to the Son, go get them. And we have that peculiar thing that goes by its Latin name, called the rapture. Very interesting. I wonder who you are. Very, very interesting, interesting time we live in. We do know the counter's about full, and that's kind of exciting. Something else that, well, we could from here get into this whole thing of Israel and the rapture as it's described in Isaiah 20, 26, and all of that. This whole business of Genesis chapter 22, and I've said this very often when I read him, it's one of my favorite chapters, certainly in the book of Genesis, probably the Bible, because it's so rich. It's so direct, so rich, yet so misunderstood. And here's this story, which is such a stumbling block to the uninitiated. Abraham's offering this, he has to offer his son. What a gross, carnal, barbaric thing to see in the Bible. And yet, as you understand what underlies it, it's absolutely mind-boggling to realize how this is just one of those searchlights pointing at the cross at Calvary some 2,000 years later. And we have here, I mentioned to you that we benefit. No one will go to Gehenna for their sin. Did you know that? Gehenna was designed for the devil and his angels. We go, anyone that's in Gehenna will go there for having rejected the provision God made for his sin. So we are awed by the cross at Calvary and what it means to us theologically, and what it means to us personally, and what it means to us practically, in terms of the power of God unto all them that believe. What we may not fully appreciate is what it does for God. And that's one of my favorite places to try and develop that, is Colossians chapter 2. Paul is writing to the church in Colossae, and I'll pick it up about verse 13. He says, And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he made alive, together with him having forgiven you all your trespasses. Verse 14, in the King James, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, those are titles of angel, angelic hosts, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And let no man therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of any feast day, or of any new moon, or of a Sabbath day, which are but a shadow of things to come, but the body is the body of Christ. Now, this is an example of where even the feasts of Moses are obviously prophetic, and it's authenticated here, but in this argument, Paul uses a strange phrase in verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that was contrary to us, he took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances is a strange thing. It relates to a thing which is called the certificate of debt. And what the Romans did, which is the same practice the Greeks did, is when you were convicted of a crime, you were said to owe society a debt. We use that phrase today, he paid his debt to society or whatever. And that was evidenced by an actual physical document, which was called a certificate of debt, or here calling the handwriting of the ordinances the way it's translated here in King James. And what they did with this, when you were put in prison, let's assume you were sentenced by the court for say five years imprisonment, and you were put in prison, the door was locked outside your door, they posted the certificate of debt, and as you served your time, you got credit on that, and when you had served your five years, they would, that was, you know, paid in full. And they'd sign it, and you, they rolled it up, and you got it when you left. And that was your protection against double jeopardy. You could never again be tried for that crime, or caused to be in prison for that crime, because you had proof that it was paid in full, you had your certificate of debt stamped across it, to telestai, in the Greek meaning paid in full. Now what's interesting about, and if incidentally, if you as a jailer had your prisoner escape, guess what? The part that was left unpaid was yours. That's why when the jailer, Philippian jailer, when all the cells were open, was going to go kill himself until Paul said, hey don't do that, we're all here. He couldn't go, the doors were open, the angel opened all the doors, but he didn't leave. The jailer would have had him, you added all that up, we're having 785 years, or whatever. And that's why, because he was liable for the debts that weren't paid. So when someone escaped, it was a heavy trip for the jailer. Very career limiting decision, where I've been. But when the, when the, when the sentence was finished, across the document was to telestai, paid in full. Now Genesis 22 looks forward to a time when another only begotten son goes up the hill for an appointment with his father, carrying on his back a cross, which here says by the way, our certificate of debt, it says nailing it to his cross, Paul speaking of it in a figure of speech here. On that same hill at Mount Moriah, another only son was crucified to pay our certificate of debt. And when he was through, when it was over, he started, his first words from the cross were, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken, quoting Psalm 22, calling our attention to the rest of what happened. But his last words in the seven sayings from the cross, the last ones that he bellowed out from the cross was totelestai, which was translated in the English there, it is finished. It's the same words that were described across the certificate of debt, meaning paid in full. And that's where you and I are. We have that certificate of debt, paid in full. But you've got to appropriate it. You've got to roll it up and carry it with you. And that's how Abraham was saved, before the cross, by appropriating that cross and the resurrection to himself. That's exactly the way every person before the throne on that glassy sea in Revelation gets there, is by appropriating the implications, the benefits, the rewards of that event to themselves. It's free for the asking. It's faithfulness hangs on his faithfulness, not ours. But simply our reliance and our trust in his completed work. You can't add to it. You can't take away from it. That's what Genesis 22 is all about. That's what Colossians 2 is all about. That's what the book of Revelation from end to end is all about. So that's a sharing of the book of Genesis, chapters 22 and 24. And I'd just like to close with a word of prayer. If you would join me. Heavenly Father, we pause in awe before the great things that you have done. We thank you, Father, that before the foundations of the universe were laid, you had provided for our welfare. That even before Adam, you had provided for our redemption. That Jesus, who is a lamb slain before the foundation of the world, is our benefactor. Father, we just thank you that you have provided so great a redemption for each and every one of us in this room. And Father, we just thank you for your word and the view we have of what you have done, even from the days of Abraham. And Father, as we go forward from this place tonight, we just would ask you that your word might not return void, that this word in our hearts might find root and grow and flower, bear fruit. And pray, Father, that you would just create in us a hunger to know more fully what the cross at Golgotha means for each of us. That we, in appropriating that work to ourselves, might complete that work which you have begun, that we might indeed be joint heirs with him of all things. Father, we just would ask the Holy Spirit to abide with us, show us these things, illuminate them, cause us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, in whose authority and to whose glory we commit these things. Amen. This concludes this study in the book of Genesis.