In that moment, I felt overwhelmed by my feelings of love and pain and joy. How much greater were such feelings in Him! I sensed that my emotions were like a tea cup compared to the ocean of emotion God feels. While my feelings are like His, His are on a much grander scale.
Yes. I made you in my image. Now look again at Abraham’s story from my perspective.
Again, this wasn’t a voice inside my head; rather, it came all at once as fully articulated understanding.
I re-read the story, this time paying closer attention to details. Abraham took his son to Mt. Moriah. I looked it up and, in Hebrew, Moriah means “God’s ordained place” or, more literally, “the place where God shows.”
What did I show? Look more deeply.
In Genesis 22:4, the verse begins, “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place…” On the third day! Was that number significant? I recalled that Jesus arose on the third day after being crucified; Jonah was in the belly of a fish for three days; there was the Holy Trinity… I looked it up. To the Israelites, the number “3” signified a third value that is used to reconcile two opposing or contradictory values. In other words, three brings stability — it mediates, connects, and strengthens the two.2
On the third day of their journey, Isaac was to be sacrificed. The boy asked his father, “...where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Clearly, Isaac knew the ritual. Abraham responded, “God himself will provide the lamb…”
Moments later, Abraham looked and saw behind him a ram was caught in a thorn bush by his horns. So Abraham offered the ram for a burnt offering to God in the place of his son. (Gen 22:13) To the Israelites, a horn symbolized “strength” or “power”; and thorns symbolized “sin” or “the snares of earthly temptations.”
Many scriptures in the Bible — both before and after His life — refer to Jesus as the horn of salvation and the sacrificial lamb of God. Zechariah called Jesus the “horn of salvation for us” (Luke 1:67-69). Before they crucified Him, Roman soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on Jesus’ head (John 19:2; Matthew 27:29). God showed Abraham (and me) that Jesus would ultimately save all who walk by faith in Him — that the horn of David (Psalm 132:17) would wear our sins as His crown to the cross because He knew we could never disentangle ourselves from our sinful state.
On this particular reading, three things jumped out at me as remarkable. First, the Bible repeatedly refers to Jesus as “the sacrificial lamb.” For example, when John the Baptist first saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) The ram Abraham saw represented Jesus!
Second, Abraham expressed no doubt when he said, “God himself will provide…” In other words, he wasn’t going to Mt. Moriah expecting his son’s life to end that day! Rather, Abraham was expecting a miracle. He was expecting his son to live! (Much later I learned that Abraham was familiar with the concept of resurrection and that he probably was expecting God to resurrect his son.
The third remarkable thing that dawned on me was that Isaac was miraculously spared from death. Consider that Isaac was condemned to die, and there was no doubt that Abraham was planning to go through with it, but God intervened and provided an alternative. This all happened in a way that was deeply symbolic of all of humanity’s circumstance. These events showed what God would ultimately do to fulfill His promise and purpose through Christ’s crucifixion for the assembly of believers who descended from Abraham.
In a flash of insight, and for the first time, Abraham had glimpsed God’s nature and His plan. And, early that morning, so had I. The events on Mt. Moriah had special symbolic meaning for Abraham and his descendants (and me): God reveals Himself and His character not through words but through acts of faith!
I don’t tell, I show.
I now understood the story like this: Abraham bound Isaac. Are you not in bondage to sin? Abraham prepared to slay his son. Are you not doomed to die due to your sinful nature? The Lord told Abraham not to slay his son. Am I not merciful? Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horn. Have I not provided? Abraham named that place “The Lord Will Provide.” I so loved the world that I gave my one and only Son. In that painful and joyful moment, true to My Word, I provided the sacrifice. Do you now see and understand what that meant to Me and how I felt?
I now understood the story like this: Abraham bound Isaac. Are you not in bondage to sin? Abraham prepared to slay his son. Are you not doomed to die due to your sinful nature? The Lord told Abraham not to slay his son. Am I not merciful? Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horn. Have I not provided? Abraham named that place “The Lord Will Provide.” I so loved the world that I gave my one and only Son. In that painful and joyful moment, true to My Word, I provided the sacrifice. Do you now see and understand what that meant to Me and how I felt?
“Yes, Lord,” I said, feeling humble. “I begin to see and understand.”
However overwhelming it is to me, my sense of what it means to be a loving father is but a little image of what it means to be the loving Father. Likewise, the stories in the Old Testament are little images of something much bigger. In that moment of revelation, I grasped the fact that events in Israel’s history are individual instances of a repeating pattern. While each event was unique, the overall pattern is the same in accordance with God’s Word.
My Word is fractal.
When this understanding came, it appeared in my mind as both words and image. God showed me that morning what He showed Abraham over 4,000 years ago: His Word is consistent and true — fractal. His Word is manifest time and time again in characteristic ways in the lives of those who speak and act by faith, in covenant relationship with Him. God has a plan by which we will be reconciled to Him and made perfect, in His image. He did provide, and He showed this to people over and over again through the events of the Old Testament.
The fractal pattern I knew in my mind that morning was a 3-sided shape: a triangle. To me, it signified the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it signified the Father, His Son Jesus, and Jesus’ church bride. And it signified the Holy Spirit, me, and my wife. And it signified the Holy Spirit, human parents, and their children... and so the pattern goes. The triangle I saw was made up of smaller triangles, and they themselves were comprised of smaller triangles — all were in the image of the larger triangle and they were as numerous as the stars.3
Wake up, sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.1
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1 Ephesians 5:14
2 Ecclesiastes 4:12
3 Genesis 22:17
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Discussion questions
1. What similarities do you see between the story of Abraham and Isaac, and the story of Jesus?
2. Which of the characters in Abraham’s story can you most identify with, and why?
3. What things / people / relationships in your life come to mind when you think of the 3-sided triangle?
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