Isaac a Type of Christ

    PARALLELS.

    I. ISAAC was the son of Abraham, the father of the faithful, a promised seed long before he was born; and so strange was his birth, that though he was born by the strength of nature, yet of Sarah's dead womb, when it ceased to be with her as with other child-bearing women; insomuch that when the angel foretold it to her, she thought it impossible, Ge 17:12. So. Jesus Christ is often called the son of Abraham, yet the only -begotten Son of God by nature, who is the Father of all that are taught, and can say in truth, "Our Father," &c., the only true promised Seed, who was long prophesied of, and expected by all believers; born and incarnate by the strange and wonderful power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the blessed virgin, yea, in such a miraculous manner that when it was foretold her by the angel, she thought it impossible, Lu 1:34.

    II. Isaac was mocked, and basely abused by Ishmael, the fleshly seed: so was Jesus Christ by the Jews, who were the children of the bond-woman.

    III. Isaac was led as a lamb to the slaughter: so was Jesus Christ. Though in this there was a great disparity; the one was spared, namely, Isaac; but Jesus Christ was sacrificed.

    IV. Isaac was offered, as it were, and three days dead in his father's mind and prnv pose, yet died not; but his father received him as from the dead: so Jesus Christ offered, but in respect of his divinity, died not; and though his humanity lay dead three days in the heart of the earth, yet it revived again; so both were, saith Dr. Taylor, delivered from death the third day; wherein the apostle plainly makes him a Type, Heb 11:19. "From whence he received him, as in a figure, Type, or resemblance," &c.

    V. Isaac, as the learned observe, was a Type of Christ in his marriage. (1.) He married one of his own kindred: so the spouse of Christ is of the same flesh which he himself assumed. (2.) She was wooed by his father's servant: so is the spouse of Christ by his faithful ministers. (3.) Rebekah resolved to forsake all her friends, and her father's house, to become Isaac's wife: so believers forsake all in affection, and actually, when called thereunto, for the sake of Jesus Christ. (4.) She was decked with jewels, trimmed, and rarely adorned, when she came to meet Isaac: so the spouse, the Lamb's wife, shall be richly decked, and gloriously adorned, to meet Jesus Christ, when he "comes "in the glory of the Father, to receive her to himself," Re 19:7. (5.) She came to meet Isaac: so shall the saints meet Jesus Christ in the air at the last day, 1Th 4:17.