“When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”” (Genesis 22:9-14)

If you are looking for an obvious reference to Jesus in the Old Testament, this one should be about the clearest. The setup to the story has quite the makeup for a scandalous situation – after all, this is the one true God who is asking His most faithful follower to sacrifice His only son (who God earlier promised to Him). What seems like a horrific test of a servant is not what it seems – if you have a little higher perspective.

Just to clear any doubts, God never intended to let Abraham kill Isaac. It was never about that; yes, God was challenging Abraham’s trust, but at the same time God was giving Abraham (and us through scripture) a glimpse into the real sacrifice. We see this in verse 14, “Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

It is commonly accepted that Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac happened on Mt Moriah. That hill also happens to be the same place that King David purchased from Auranah the Jebusite to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord (2 Samuel 24:18-25). This is significant because the explanation of that passage in 2 Samuel is describing what the true king will be (hint: prophet, priest and king). Even more crucial is that this same hill is also known as Golgotha, or Calvary. This hill that Abraham almost sacrificed his son, but with the provision of the ram, Abraham called that hill “the Lord will provide”, is the very hill that Jesus died on taking punishment for our sins.

The Lord provided on that hill with the words “it is finished” the salvation for everyone who believes. Isaac was a glimpse of the coming rescuer, our Messiah. This is a clear and direct promise to Jesus and foreshadowing of the cataclysmic event that would be required for our salvation. Hebrews says that the blood of culls and goats is not enough to take away the sins of the world (Hebrews 10). Jesus was, and is, and will always be, enough.