Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. – Luke 24:27
(Info) The name Isaac is from the Hebrew word Yitschaq meaning “he laughs.” The meaning of his name was certainly a reference to Sarah’s laughter when she overheard the pre-incarnate Christ tell Abram that Sarah would become pregnant (Genesis 18:12).
How Isaac is a “type” of Jesus
- Both Isaac and Jesus had their births promised beforehand by God. (Genesis 18:10, Isaiah 7:14).
- Both Isaac and Jesus’ births were questioned by their mothers. (Genesis 18:12, Luke 1:34)
- Both Isaac and Jesus had miraculous births that seemed impossible. (Genesis 18:11, Matthew 1:18)
- Both Isaac and Jesus were born at an exact, preordained time. (Genesis 21:2, Galatians 4:4)
- Both Isaac and Jesus were named before their births. (Genesis 17:19, Matthew 1:21)
- Both Isaac and Jesus were obedient unto death. (Genesis 22:9, Philippians 2:8)
- Both Isaac and Jesus were heirs of all things that belonged to their fathers. (Genesis 25:5, Hebrews 1:2)
- Both Isaac and Jesus were made alive from that which was dead. (Romans 4:19, Revelation 1:18)
Rebekah
Certainly, Isaac and Rebekah had a dysfunctional family, due to Rebekah playing favorites with her kids. The twins, Esau and Jacob, also seemed to run wild, plus Rebekah helped Jacob deceive her own husband. Still God used them, and their meeting is the stuff of romance novels (I assume, having never read one).
Genesis 24:63-67: And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
There was a lot of “eye lifting” going on between Isaac and Rebekah. 😉 Notice that Isaac was a Godly man. He had gone out to meditate. No doubt Isaac was thinking about what God was up to. His mother had died, his father was exceptionally old, he was the only heir, but he had no wife, and without a wife, God’s promise would be lost.
Rebekah, as with Jesus, willingly and with great enthusiasm left her glorious home to take on a nomadic life, to live with and adopt a people that didn’t know her, and, within these backward people, she allowed God to use her to bring forth God’s chosen son, Jacob (Genesis 25:21-26). Jacob was not THE chosen son but it was through Jacob that God birthed the nation of Israel and, in God’s perfect time, birthed THE chosen Son, Jesus, God’s beloved Son.
We know there was concern within Abraham’s camp. Abraham’s oldest servant, being concerned about Abraham’s plan to find Isaac a wife asked, “Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” (Genesis 24:5) There was no going back. “Abraham said to him, ‘See to it that you do not take my son back there…’” (Genesis 24:6) There’s a whole sermon in these two verses, but we’ll not go off on that rabbit trail.
As we’ve seen in our excavations, Abraham is a type for Father God, and Isaac is a type for Jesus. With Isaac representing Jesus, then the bride of Isaac represents the bride of Jesus, the Church! The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah points to the marriage of the Lamb (Jesus) to His bride, the Church. Here’s a relevant passage in Revelation 19:7:
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
Isaac and Rebekah had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. God chose Jacob to receive the blessing of the first-born son. Later, God renamed Jacob to Israel. As God so often does, He took a remnant of Abraham’s lineage and established His bloodline for Jesus. It wasn’t Ishmael, it wasn’t Esau, it was Isaac and then Jacob.
With Jacob, Christ’s human bloodline was confirmed. How perfectly God directs history to move His will forward. No matter what we come up against, we can find rest in God for His ways are perfect and He cares for us. “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” – Psalms 18:30
Photo by Bernice Tong on Unsplash
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https://rockexcavationservice.org/2019/09/24/a-cluttered-mind/