Offered to God for God’s Satisfaction 
and Resurrected from the Dead

Isaac as a type of Christ obeyed his father even unto death and was resurrected from death (Gen. 22:9-10; Heb. 11:19). In like manner Christ was offered to God for God’s satisfaction, obeyed His Father even unto death, and was resurrected from death. Isaac was put on the altar, and right at the time Abraham was about to kill him, God intervened, providing a ram as his substitute. This meant that Isaac was resurrected from death.

Gaining the Gentile Church
as His Counterpart through the Holy Spirit

God gained Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife, his counterpart, through Abraham’s old servant who typifies the Holy Spirit as God’s servant sent by God. Isaac took Rebekah, a Gentile woman, as his wife (Gen. 24). This is a type of Christ taking the church as His bride out of the Gentiles. He is gaining the Gentile church as His counterpart through the Holy Spirit.

We can now see that Isaac is a type of Christ in four aspects: the unique only begotten Son, the Son who inherits all that the Father has, the Son who was offered to be the burnt offering and resurrected, and the One who gains a corporate Rebekah for His counterpart through God’s sending of the Holy Spirit to the Gentile world.

Putting Him under His Rich Blessing

God raised Isaac as the unique heir of Abraham, God made him a type of Christ, and God also put him under His rich blessing (25:11a; 26:24b).

Given by His Father All That He Had

Abraham, his father, gave all that he had to Isaac (25:5).

Given by God Two Sons as Twins

Isaac was also given by God two sons as twins by the names of Esau and Jacob (vv. 21-26).

God Appearing to Him and Promising Him

God also appeared to Isaac and promised to be with him and bless him, to give him and his seed the land, to establish the oath He swore unto Abraham his father, to multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and to cause all the nations of the earth to be blessed in his seed (26:2-4). The whole life of Isaac was a life in which God was with him and in which God blessed him. God would multiply his seed as the stars of heaven. The stars in the heaven cannot be touched by earthly things. We, the New Testament believers, are the stars of heaven. Eventually, all the nations of the earth would be blessed in Isaac’s seed, that is, in Christ.

In the previous chapter we saw the God of Abraham in His dealings with Abraham. In this chapter we want to see how God worked on Isaac and Jacob. Because the Bible considers Joseph as a part of Jacob, we want to see God’s history in the life of Jacob with Joseph.

WORKING ON ISAAC

We should not forget that we are studying the history of God, not merely the history of man. Now that we have seen the history of God in Abraham, we want to see the history of God in Isaac.

Raising Him as the Unique Heir to Abraham

God raised Isaac as the unique heir to Abraham to inherit God’s promise to Abraham and God’s covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17:19; 21:10-12; 26:3-4). Some consider that Isaac was a good person, a meek person, and a person of prosperity. This is a superficial understanding. Actually, he was raised up to inherit the promise God gave to his father and the covenant God made with his father. God’s promise and God’s covenant are two great things inherited by Isaac.

Paul says that the unbelieving Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no participation in God’s promise (Eph. 2:12). Today, however, in Christ we inherit all of God’s promises and God’s covenant. God’s covenant with Abraham eventually became a new covenant promised to the people of Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and that covenant was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus enacted it at His table (Matt. 26:26-30). Therefore, the real covenant of God to His elect actually is only one, and that one covenant is altogether concerning Christ. Christ is the centrality and universality of God’s covenant with His elect, and this covenant is the new covenant, the new testament.

Today we are destined by God to inherit His promise and His covenant. His promise is a precursor of His covenant, and His covenant is with Christ as the reality. What we inherit is Christ Himself. Isaac’s inheriting God’s promise to Abraham and God’s covenant with Abraham means that he inherited Christ. This is a part of God’s history.

Making Him a Type of Christ as the Son of Abraham

God’s working on Isaac made him a type of Christ as the son of Abraham. Matthew 1:1 says that Christ is the son of David and the son of Abraham. God promised Abraham that the whole earth would be blessed in his seed. Then Paul says in Galatians 3 that this seed of Abraham, not many seeds, is Christ (v. 16). Therefore, Isaac was a person who is a type of Christ as the son of Abraham, the one who inherits the promise and blessing God gave to Abraham (Gen. 22:17-18; Gal. 3:16, 14).

As the Only Begotten Son of the Father

Isaac is also a type of Christ as the only begotten Son of the Father (John 1:14b; 3:16a).

Given by the Father All That the Father Has

Isaac is a type of Christ as the One who was given by the Father all that the Father has (Gen. 25:5; John 3:35; 13:3).

CHAPTER EIGHT

GOD’S HISTORY IN TIME
(FROM THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
TO THE FINAL JUDGMENT
AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE—
GENESIS 1:1—REVELATION 20:15)

(7)

WORKING ON HIS ELECT
FROM ABRAHAM TO JOSEPH

(3)

WORKING ON ISAAC AND JACOB WITH JOSEPH

(1)

Scripture Reading: Gen. 17:19; 21:10-12; 25:5, 11a, 21-26; 26:2-22, 24-25; 28:10-22; 30:31-43

OUTLINE

1. Working on Isaac:
   1. Raising him as the unique heir to Abraham to inherit God’s promise to Abraham and God’s covenant with Abraham—Gen. 17:19; 21:10-12; 26:3-4.
   2. Making him a type of Christ as the son of Abraham—Matt. 1:1:
      1. As the only begotten Son of the Father—John 1:14b; 3:16a.
      2. Given by the Father all that the Father has—Gen. 25:5; John 3:35; 13:3.
      3. Offered to God for God’s satisfaction and resurrected from the dead—Gen. 22:2-13.
      4. Gaining the Gentile church as His counterpart through the Holy Spirit—ch. 24.
   3. Putting him under His rich blessing—25:11a; 26:24b:
      1. Given by his father all that he had—25:5.
      2. Given by God two sons as twins by the names of Esau and Jacob—vv. 21-26.
      3. God appearing to him and promising him—26:2-4:
         1. To be with him and bless him—v. 3a.
         2. To give him and his seed all these lands—vv. 3b, 4b.
         3. To establish the oath He swore unto Abraham his father—v. 3c.
         4. To multiply his seed as the stars of heaven—v. 4a.
         5. To cause all the nations of the earth to be blessed in his seed—v. 4c.
      4. Prohibited by God from going down to Egypt and protected secretly with his wife by God—vv. 2, 6-11.
      5. Becoming rich and continuing to grow richer until he became very rich, having possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great household and becoming much mightier than others, and God having made room for him that he might be fruitful in the land—vv. 12-22.
      6. God appearing to him again and promising him—vv. 24-25:
         1. As the God of Abraham to be with him.
         2. To bless him.
         3. To multiply his seed for the sake of His servant Abraham.
   4. As a whole, making him an heir to inherit all that his father had and blessing him all the way in peace and prosperity.
2. Working on Jacob with Joseph:
   1. Having loved and chosen him—Mal. 1:2b; Rom. 9:10-13.
   2. Raising him as an heir to Abraham and to Isaac to inherit God’s promise to them and God’s covenant with them—Gen. 28:13-14.
   3. Having destined him to live a struggling life all his days:
      1. From his mother’s womb to struggle to be the firstborn of the twins—25:22-26a.
      2. To struggle to receive the blessing of the firstborn son through his deceiving according to his mother’s device—27:1-29:
         1. God giving him of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine—v. 28.
         2. Letting peoples serve him, and nations bow down to him: being lord over his brothers, and letting his mother’s sons bow down to him—v. 29a.
         3. Cursed be those who curse him, and blessed be those who bless him—v. 29b.
      3. To be forced by his brother’s hatred and his mother’s partial love and natural wisdom to leave his parents and go to his uncle Laban—v. 41—28:5.
      4. To suffer loneliness and homelessness in the journey to his uncle—vv. 10-11:
         1. When God appeared to him in Bethel and promised him for his comfort that:
            1. He as the God of Abraham his father and the God of Isaac would give to him and his seed the land on which he lay.
            2. His seed would be multiplied as the dust of the earth, spreading to the west, east, north, and south.
            3. All the families of the earth would be blessed in him and in his seed.
            4. He would be with him, keep him wherever he went, and cause him to return to this land; He would not leave him until He had done that of which He had promised him—vv. 12-19.
         2. And when Jacob vowed a vow to God as his terms to God’s promise that:
            1. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and garments to put on, so that I return to my father’s house in peace.
            2. Then Jehovah will be my God.
            3. This stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house: and of all that You give me I will surely give one tenth to You—vv. 20-22.
      5. To arrive at his uncle Laban’s home by suffering a long, lonely journey, indicated by his weeping to his cousin Rachel—29:1-14.
      6. To marry four wives and beget eleven sons by fourteen years of hard labor and much grinding under his wives—v. 15—30:24.
      7. To endeavor to become rich by deceiving his uncle Laban with his subtle skill—vv. 25-43.

THE GOD FOR THE ETERNAL ECONOMY

As a whole, the God of Abraham is the God of speaking in appearing, with calling, in a vision, and in the human friendship, to unveil to His intimate friend on the earth what He aspired for him to be and what He wanted him to do according to His heart’s desire for the accomplishment of the eternal economy for the Divine Trinity. What God did was in His friendship with a human friend, but this was for the accomplishment of God’s economy. This is because God wanted this friend to have a seed and that seed is Christ, who is the centrality and universality of God’s eternal economy. Thus, in the life of Abraham we see the beginning, the foundation, of the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy. For the accomplishment of His economy, God dealt with Abraham in the way of human friendship.

THE GOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS
AND THE GOD OF JESUS CHRIST

The way God worked on Abraham is the way He works on the believers in the New Testament. The first one justified by faith was Abraham (15:6). Paul says that Abraham is the father of all those who are justified by faith, so Abraham is the father of all the New Testament believers (Gal. 3:6-7). Our father’s God should be our God.

On the morning of His resurrection the Lord Jesus told His disciples that He was ascending to His Father and our Father and to His God and our God (John 20:17). Thus, the God of Abraham and the God of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:17a) both are the God of the New Testament believers. In the relationship between God and us, the Bible puts us on the same standing not only as Abraham but also as Jesus Christ. Oh, what a wonder! Since we are the sons of Abraham in Christ (Gal. 3:29), his God is our God, and since we are one with Christ (v. 27), His God is also our God. To explain this fully, the entire New Testament from Matthew 1 to Revelation 22 is needed.

The God of Abraham is the God of crucifixion, signified by circumcision, and the God of resurrection for the new birth of God’s elect by God’s grace. Hence, this God is the God of His New Testament with His New Testament blessing for His New Testament economy. Today we are enjoying the New Testament blessing in Christ. Faith in Christ brings us into the blessing that God promised to Abraham, which is the promise of the all-inclusive Spirit, who has the bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19), as the New Testament blessing (Gal. 3:9, 14). We can never forget that, as the seed of Abraham, we have his God as our God, in whom we participate for our divine enjoyment, nor can we disregard that, as the members of Christ, we have His God as our God, who is our eternal portion in His eternal life.