Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

Genesis 31 | Mark 2 | Esther 7 | Romans 2

Jacob’s time living with Laban has been a terrible experience. At every turn, Laban has lied to Jacob and cheated him out of what he promised to Jacob, first by giving Jacob Leah instead of Rachel as a wife and second by stealing Jacob’s wages of the striped, spotted, and mottled animals. Jacob had found a technique to breed more of those animals through peeling sticks in Genesis 30, and now, at the beginning of Genesis 31, we find that Laban’s sons have begun to turn against Jacob and his family because Jacob has become too rich.

It is no small relief, then, that Yahweh’s call for Jacob to leave Laban and return to Canaan finally comes in Genesis 31:3: “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” After serving Laban for twenty years (Gen. 31:41), Jacob will at last return to the land that God had promised to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham, to his father, Isaac, to Jacob, and to Jacob’s offspring.

At the outset of Jacob’s return journey home, we gain two glimpses that help us to understand God’s perspective regarding the relationship between Jacob and Laban. First, when Jacob is explaining to his wives the reasons that they need to leave their father’s house to go with him back to the land of Canaan, Jacob tells them about the vision he had from God, which seems to be the fuller account of the vision where Yahweh told Jacob to return to the land of Canaan in Genesis 31:3.

In this vision, God tells Jacob that he himself has made all the goats to be striped, spotted, and mottled—that is, the kind of goats that Jacob could claim as his own, according to the agreement he struck with Laban in Genesis 30:31–34—and God explains that he did this because “I have seen all that Laban is doing to you” (Gen. 31:12). Through this turbulent time, God has been preserving and blessing and flourishing Jacob. God was not compelled to bring forth spotted or speckled sheep by Jacob’s breeding practices; rather, God graciously blessed Jacob to protect him from Laban’s dishonesty.

The second glimpse we get into God’s perspective comes when Laban pursues Jacob to find his stolen household gods and to bid farewell to his daughters and his grandchildren. God comes to Laban in a dream, saying, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad” (Gen. 31:24).

In this warning, we are reminded that God swore a covenant with Jacob and that Isaac prophesied that God would bless those who blessed Jacob and curse those who cursed Jacob (Gen. 27:29). The dishonesty and treachery of a man like Laban is nothing in comparison with the power and wisdom of God to bring salvation to the world through the offspring of Jacob.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 30 | Mark 1 | Esther 6 | Romans 1

Genesis 30 contains two main stories. The first half of the chapter continues the tragic, unhappy narrative of sibling rivalry between Leah and Rachel that began in Genesis 29. In yesterday’s meditation, we noticed similarities between this story and the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, and Isaac and Rebekah. In Genesis 30, we see yet another similarity to a previous story. Here, Rachel sends her servant Bilhah into her husband, Jacob, to conceive on her behalf (Gen. 30:3–8), just as Sarah had sent in Hagar to conceive a child with Abraham on her behalf. Later, Leah follows suit, sending in her servant Zilpah to Jacob (Gen. 30:9).

We also read that these women struggle over their husband when Leah “hires” Jacob sexually (at Rachel’s prompting) by selling her son’s mandrakes (Gen. 30:16). Ultimately, the author of Genesis insists that Rachel does not conceive because of mandrakes (an ancient fertility treatment) but because God “remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb” (Gen. 30:22).

Sadly, despite the many children shared by Leah and Rachel, the tensions between them have escalated to outright competition. God has prospered Jacob, giving him the sons who would eventually form the heads of the tribes of Israel, but his family is a wreck, with his sister-wives and their female servants pitted against each other.

The second half of Genesis 30 tells the strange story of Jacob’s efforts to take wages from his uncle Laban before he leaves with his family to return to the land of Canaan. The two men make an arrangement that Jacob would that day pass through Laban’s flock, taking out all the speckled and spotted goats and lambs, along with the black lambs for wages, and that Laban would keep all the remaining livestock (Gen. 30:31–33).

But immediately, Laban conspires to cheat Jacob by removing all spotted, speckled, or black animals in his flock and sending them to become part of his sons’ flocks, who were a three-days’ journey away. Remember, the agreement was for Jacob to take his wages from Laban’s flock that same day (Gen. 30:32). When Laban removed the animals and sent them away, he effectively stole Jacob’s wages from him. Additionally, Laban was preventing any further breeding between the spotted, speckled, or black animals and the rest of the flock.

Once again, Jacob is cheated out of his wages, just as he was cheated out of Rachel after seven years of working for her. Also, don’t overlook the fact that Laban dishonestly gave Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel, forcing Jacob to take two wives instead of one and causing no small amount of trouble.

Oddly, Jacob finds an innovative way to breed spotted, speckled, and black animals by causing stronger animals to breed in front of peeled sticks. What should we make of this?

Let’s pick up that discussion tomorrow.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 29 | Matthew 28 | Esther 5 | Acts 28

As we discussed during the meditation for Genesis 24, it is a running theme in Scripture for God’s people to meet their future spouses at wells. Abraham’s servant met Isaac’s wife-to-be, Rebekah, at a well, and now Jacob meets his future wife Rachel at a well.

But after Jacob serves Rachel’s father, Laban, for seven years in order to marry Rachel, Laban gives Rachel’s older sister, Leah, to Jacob in marriage. Jacob, the younger brother who had shamelessly tricked his older brother and deceived his father to get what he wanted, is now furious that Laban would give him the older daughter before the younger. Laban sins against Jacob, but there is no doubt that God is providentially bringing Jacob’s own sins back around to him. As Allen Ross writes, “even though God’s people may experience God’s blessing on their endeavors, God will effectively discipline them by making them painfully aware of their unresolved sins.”1

Then, when Jacob finally receives Rachel as his bride, he finds out that she is barren—just like Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, had been (Gen. 25:21), and just like Jacob’s grandmother Sarah had been (Gen. 11:30). Once again, God calls a barren woman to play a role in bringing forth offspring to make Abraham’s family into a great nation.

And once again, there is strife in the family of the patriarch. Sarah and Hagar had despised each other (Gen. 16:4–6), and now Leah and Rachel are locked in a struggle for Jacob’s affections and for his offspring. We will see more of Rachel’s envy tomorrow (Gen. 30:1), but the focus for today falls on Leah’s envy of Jacob’s love for her sister.

The hope of Genesis 29 is that even though Jacob may not have loved Leah, Yahweh certainly did. Through Leah’s son Levi, Yahweh called forth the priests who would minister to him, and through Leah’s son Judah, Yahweh brought forward the direct ancestor of Jesus.

Yahweh never loses sight of his ultimate purpose—to bring his only Son into this world to destroy sin, death, and the devil forever—but he also never loses sight of the people he pulls into his story along the way. No one is treated as a prop or a puppet, but as a creature made in God’s own image, worthy of dignity and respect.

And even today, as God’s plan marches toward eternity, he still cares. He still shows tender compassion to those who are most worn down by the hurtfulness of this world. If you are tired and discouraged by this life’s harshness, remember Leah, who eventually came to terms with her lot in life, so that she stopped naming her sons in such a way as to plead for her husband’s love, but with her final son, she simply named him Judah, saying, “This time I will praise the LORD” (Gen. 29:35).

1 Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 503.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 28 | Matthew 27 | Esther 4 | Acts 27

At the outset of Genesis 28, Jacob has come to an impasse. If he does not flee, he will certainly be murdered by his brother, Esau, from whom he stole their father Isaac’s blessing in Genesis 27. But if he does flee, it is unclear how he will receive the blessing of Abraham. Throughout Genesis there is a concern that if the true offspring of Abraham leaves the land of Canaan, they might in some way invalidate the promise that God had made to give the land to Abraham’s offspring (Gen. 12:10; 24:2–4, 8; 26:2–5). After Abraham’s foolish trip to Egypt in Genesis 12, God’s covenant people had not left Canaan for any reason.

But Rebekah seems unconcerned with this, so she lies to Isaac at the end of Genesis 27, making up an excuse to cause Isaac to send Jacob away from Esau’s vengeance. Rebekah tells Isaac that she does not want Jacob marrying one of the Hittite women (Gen. 27:46), since Esau had married two Hittite women who had “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen. 26:35). So, Isaac instructs Jacob to leave in order to find a wife among the daughters of Laban, Rebekah’s brother.

As Jacob leaves, Isaac reiterates to Jacob the covenant blessing of Abraham: “May [God Almighty] give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” (Gen. 28:4). But would God remain faithful to his promise if the offspring of Abraham and Isaac left the land of Canaan? If not, what would happen to God’s promise from Genesis 3:15 to crush the head of the serpent?

It is not an overstatement to say that the fate of the universe turns on the answer to these questions. If Jacob’s leaving Canaan invalidated God’s promise to Abraham and Isaac, then the ultimate promise to bless the whole world through the offspring of Abraham would never come to fulfillment. And Jacob’s recent behavior certainly wouldn’t merit him any special treatment from God.

But in fact, God does meet Jacob on his way out of Canaan to Haran, and when he meets him, he promises Jacob not only that would he bless him and his offspring (Gen. 28:13) and that his offspring would bless all the families of the earth (Gen. 28:14) but also that God himself would bring Jacob back to the land (Gen. 28:15).

Simply put, God’s plan to bless all the families of the earth is bigger than Jacob, Esau, Rebekah, and Isaac. God’s plan cannot be derailed by family squabbles, geography, or reckless sin.

God will accomplish all that he intends to through Jesus Christ, and he will either do it through us or in spite of us.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 27 | Matthew 26 | Esther 3 | Acts 26

The blessing that Isaac pronounces on Jacob—the blessing that he does not pronounce on Esau, despite his intentions to do so—was not a vague wish for his son’s well being. In fact, it was a prophesy that bore great weight and significance, so much so that Isaac had no blessing left to give to his son Esau, since Jacob had taken all of the best blessings. Jacob would receive abundance and wealth (Gen. 27:28) and the obedience of the nations (Gen. 27:29), while Esau would only receive infertile land and subservience to Jacob (Gen. 27:39–40).

The critical blessing falls in Genesis 27:29: “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” Yahweh had promised this exact thing to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Yahweh had sworn that he would save or curse all peoples based upon their interaction with one man and his offspring. Next, Yahweh traced that promise through Isaac (rather than Ishmael—Gen. 21:12), and now Yahweh’s promise falls to Jacob (rather than Esau).

But how could God possibly bring anything good out of such a wretched, deceitful, petty family?

In fact, God had already decided that Esau (the older) would serve his younger brother, Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Even from the womb, and even before either boy had done anything good or bad, God’s purposes in election were set. Just as God had passed over Ishmael in favor of Isaac, so God would pass over Esau in favor of Jacob.

Why? How is there justice in this?

In fact, God’s election isn’t about justice, because God’s election is about grace. By grace, God had chosen one man out of all the world to bless, and by grace, God had promised that the blessing he placed on that one man would be the means through which the whole world would be blessed. By grace, God chose Isaac, and by grace, God chose Jacob.

And by grace, God eventually raised up the promised offspring, his own Son Jesus Christ, so that whoever blesses Jesus will be blessed and whoever curses Jesus will be cursed.

The doctrine of election, then, isn’t really given to us so that we spend our time speculating about who’s in and who’s out but rather so that we recognize that God’s purposes prevail even in the lives of messed up people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—as well as you and me. Those whom God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified will receive salvation—not because of their goodness, but because of God’s grace.

We should rejoice today because we aren’t called by being better than Esau; rather, we are called in spite of the fact that we are as bad as Jacob.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 26 | Matthew 25 | Esther 2 | Acts 25

Like father, like son. Or, to borrow a more Hebrew idiom, a father has eaten sour grapes, so his son’s teeth are set on edge (Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2). What Abraham foolishly did twice in his lifetime—lying about the fact that his wife was, in fact, his wife to protect himself—we now find Isaac doing in Genesis 26:6–11.

Even more, we see the troubles between Isaac’s herdsmen quarreling with the herdsmen of Gerar that look almost identical to the disputes Abraham’s herdsmen had with Lot’s herdsmen back in Genesis 13—a dispute that ended with Lot heading to Sodom and Gomorrah, which ended with Abraham needing to rescue him from the king of Babylon and his allies (Gen. 14), and then with two angels of Yahweh rescuing Lot before pouring out wrath on the city.

But if we notice that Isaac seems to be repeating many of Abraham’s mistakes, we should also notice that Yahweh is repeating similar covenant promises to Isaac that he had made to Isaac’s father, Abraham. First in Genesis 26:1–5, Yahweh intervenes to prevent Isaac from going to Egypt in the middle of the famine, assuring that he would bless Isaac, give to Isaac and his offspring all the lands of Canaan, multiply Isaac’s offspring as many as the stars in the heavens, and bless all the nations of the earth through Isaac’s offspring. These promises are identical to what Yahweh swore to Abraham in Genesis 12:1–3 and Genesis 15:5.

Later, Yahweh appears again to Isaac, assuring him again after the quarrel with the herdsman of Gerar that “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen. 26:24). Why is Yahweh extending so much grace to a man who has already begun to fall into the sin patterns of his father?

The first reason is that Yahweh is keeping the promises he had made to Abraham. For as many mistakes as Abraham might have made, Yahweh had sworn a covenant with Abraham, promising to go so far as to be torn in two if Abraham or his offspring should break the terms of the covenant (Gen. 15:17). So, Yahweh is keeping his promises “for my servant Abraham’s sake,” but also because Yahweh has bound up his own glory in his covenant promises to Abraham.

And second, the offspring of Abraham through Isaac was the means through which Yahweh would save the world. As we have seen so many times already, Yahweh is raising up the offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

Seen in that light, we should recognize that Yahweh’s graciousness toward Isaac here in Genesis 26 is also his graciousness toward you and me who are blessed in Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 25 | Matthew 24 | Esther 1 | Acts 24

Genesis 25 is a chapter of extreme transition in the unfolding story of God’s salvation in and through his people. In this chapter, we see God’s purposes in election across three generations.

First, we read in Genesis 25 about the death of Abraham at the age of 175. Abraham outlived his wife Sarah, even taking another wife named Keturah who bore him many children. Nevertheless, we read that “Abraham gave all he had to Isaac” (Gen. 25:5) because Abraham never forgot that God had named Isaac as the one through whom his covenantal promises would be fulfilled.

Second, we learn more about Isaac’s story, and specifically about his relationship with Rebekah. Just as Isaac’s mother, Sarah, had been barren, so also Rebekah is barren (Gen. 25:21), and Isaac had to pray that God would open Rebekah’s womb. We discussed the ongoing theme throughout the Scriptures of barren women in our meditation for Genesis 16—Rebekah was not the first infertile woman in the Bible, and she would not be the last. God delights in demonstrating his great love toward—and power through—helpless people.

Third, Genesis 25 stretches us into the third generation, telling the story of how Rebekah did eventually conceive. In fact, Rebekah conceived twins who struggled fiercely in her womb. But from the very beginning Yahweh had chosen that the “older [Esau] shall serve the younger [Jacob]” (Gen. 25:23).

Jacob and Esau share many similarities to the children of the previous generation, Ishmael and Isaac. Both sets of brothers find themselves in fierce opposition even from birth, and in both sets of brothers Yahweh singles out one son through whom his covenant promises will run. Earlier Yahweh had told Abraham that “through Isaac shall your offspring be named” (Gen. 21:12), and now Yahweh tells Rebekah that Esau shall serve Jacob (Gen. 25:23).

The Apostle Paul points to those two verses (Gen. 21:12, 25:23) in Romans 9:6–13 to explain God’s purposes in election. It wasn’t that Ishmael or Esau had done something wrong, or that Isaac and Jacob had done something right—in fact, Paul insists that God’s purposes of election were accomplished specifically before these children were born, and before any of them had done anything good or bad.

Instead, God’s purposes were to bring forth the offspring that he had promised who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and so God chose specific people with whom he established his covenant, and through whom he would raise up that offspring. As Paul writes, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16).

Does your theology place a greater emphasis on what you do to receive God’s salvation or on what the God who has mercy has done before you were even born, before you had done anything good or bad?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 24 | Matthew 23 | Nehemiah 13 | Acts 23

Yesterday, in Genesis 23, we read about the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Today, in Genesis 24, we see Abraham himself approaching death. He too will not live to see God’s promises fulfilled. So, Abraham makes plans to help his son Isaac continue to serve Yahweh faithfully after he dies.

First, Abraham refuses to allow his son Isaac to marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites (Gen. 24:3). Instead, he asks his servant to go back to his old country to find Isaac a wife from there. It isn’t that Abraham’s old country is filled with devout worshipers of Yahweh—we know from Joshua 24:2 that Abraham and his family were idol worshipers before Yahweh specifically called Abraham to follow him.

But at the same time, we also know that the Canaanites were particularly wicked. In Genesis 15, when Yahweh cut a covenant with Abraham, he explained the reason that Abraham and his offspring would not immediately inherit the land of Canaan: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:16). The Amorites (Canaanites) were so wicked that Yahweh would eventually expel them from the land; however, Yahweh was also mercifully delaying their judgment until their iniquity was so heinous that justice demanded their annihilation. Abraham refuses to let his son marry such a woman.

Second, Abraham insists that his son not be allowed to return to Abraham’s old country (Gen. 24:6). Abraham had disobeyed God by leaving the Promised Land and going to Egypt in Genesis 12, and the consequences had been disastrous. As Isaac continues to wait for the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promises, Abraham insists that his son remain in the land of Canaan.

And so, Abraham’s servant meets Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, at a well. This is the first time in the Bible that one of God’s servants finds their wife at a well, but it is not the last. Later, Isaac’s son Jacob would meet his future wife Rachel at a well (Gen. 29:1–12), and Moses would meet his wife, Zipporah, at a well (Ex. 2:16–22).

It is of no small significance, then, that Jesus ultimately met and spoke with a Samaritan woman at a well in John 4, asking her about her husband. Jesus had come as the great bridegroom to take for himself a people as his bride, and he demonstrated his deep love by singling out a woman to meet at a well, just as Isaac, Jacob, and Moses had done before him. It wasn’t that Jesus was only seeking that one woman, but he sought out this one undeserving woman to show us that he is seeking other miserable sinners like you and me along with her.

So, Abraham preserves his son’s faithfulness to Yahweh in Canaan by bringing him a bride. In the same way, Jesus preserves our faithfulness by seeking us out to become his bride.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 23 | Matthew 22 | Nehemiah 12 | Acts 22

Abraham and his wife, Sarah, lived their lives as pilgrims in the land God had promised to them. Theirs was a hard life, characterized by unfulfilled longings, constant danger, and disappointment. Still, they obeyed Yahweh, following him to the land of Canaan, out of their love for him and their faith in the covenant promises he made to them.

But in Genesis 23, Sarah dies, never fully receiving the promises that Yahweh had made to her and to her husband. She received her son Isaac, but she never saw her son become a great nation or come into possession of the land of Canaan.

This is a theme that occurs repeatedly through the Bible, as well as in our own experience. We live for a brief time, waiting for God to do all that he has promised, and yet generation after generation is laid to rest in the grave before seeing the culmination of what God has spoken. And yet, with every succeeding generation, God continues his mission to expand his kingdom in this world until the day when Jesus Christ returns to judge the living and the dead.1

So how should we conduct our lives in the meantime while we await the fulfillment of God’s promises? Abraham gives us a magnificent example of living by faith in this chapter, even in a passage that appears on the surface to be nothing more than a business negotiation.

First, Abraham insists that his wife be buried in the Promised Land. There is not even a thought of returning to the land of Sarah’s birth to bury her because Abraham believes God’s promise that Canaan is their home—even if they are still only sojourners and aliens there (Gen. 23:4).

Second, Abraham seeks to purchase a piece of land as his possession, refusing to receive any kind of special discount on the property for his wife’s burial place (Gen. 23:5–16). Abraham’s attitude here matches his response in Genesis 14:22–23, when he refused to keep for himself any of the spoils of war, lest the king of Sodom should say, “I have made Abram rich.” Abraham understood that God, not the Hittites, would give him the land. Even when it meant a financial burden to himself, he refused to purchase the land at less than full price lest the Hittites should say, “We have made Abraham rich.”2

To those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has promised something even greater than the land of Canaan—in fact, God has promised us that we stand to inherit all things in Christ (Luke 12:32; Rom. 8:17). While you wait for the fulfillment of God’s promises, are you grasping for whatever possessions you can find, no matter how you acquire them? Or are you waiting for God to give you the kingdom as your inheritance, just as he has promised?

1 Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 407–13.

2 John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 180.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 22 | Matthew 21 | Nehemiah 11 | Acts 21

In spite of all the long waiting and the extraordinary faith Abraham had to exercise while waiting for Isaac to come, God tests Abraham’s faith in an even greater way in Genesis 22 by asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Shockingly, we read Abraham bound his son Isaac on top of the altar, but just as Abraham took his knife to slaughter his son, God stopped Abraham from harming Isaac. The test was over. Abraham was willing to do anything for God—not even sparing his own, beloved son.

Why would God ask Abraham to do this? To answer this question, listen to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:16–18: “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you….And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Everything about this story points us back to the promised offspring—the offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), redeeming creation from the curse of sin and death.

Ultimately, we see in this passage a shadow of the what God would do for us in Jesus Christ. Unlike the way in which God spared Abraham’s son, God did not spare his own Son. Jesus Christ was offered up as a sacrifice, and God did not send an angel to stop the hands of the Roman soldiers who beat him, nailed his hands and his feet to the cross, and let him hang there until he died. Where God did not forsake Isaac, God did forsake his own Son at the cross, abandoning him to wrath and the powers of hell.

And although God gave a substitute sacrifice so that Isaac would not have to die, God provided no such substitute to save his own Son. In fact, Jesus was the substitute, dying on the cross in our place for our sins.

But where Isaac was restored to life by being spared from death, something greater happened with God’s Son. Jesus did go to the grave for three days, but on the third day, God raised up his Son Jesus from the dead, resurrecting him to life and giving him everlasting victory over sin and death. In other words, Jesus gained possession of the gate of his enemy Satan, just as had been foretold in Genesis 22:17.

And because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, all the nations of the earth are blessed (Gen. 22:18). You and I share in the blessings of Abraham because Jesus Christ, the ultimate Isaac and the true offspring of Abraham, died and rose again.

This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus, declared thousands of years in advance, through Isaac.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.