"17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."
Hebrews 11:17-19
In referring to Abraham's offering up of Isaac, the Apostle once again emphasises one of the supreme characteristics of his life. The experience of Mt. Moriah was simply the visible evidence of a principle, which marked his entire earthly walk. A spirit of utter sacrifice actuated him from the day he stepped out at the behest of God right to the end of his life. To this the Apostle now draws our attention in these verses.
Note first the spiritual nature of the sacrifice. It says, 'Abraham offered up Isaac', but in the Genesis story he was stopped short just as he raised the knife to slay his son. In principle however he did really offer him up, from which we gather that it is not the outward form but the heart of the sacrifice that is the chief matter. It was the intention of his heart that made the sacrifice a sacrifice - not the presenting of the gift but the obedience and devotion of the soul.
It is certainly not by accident that the whole story in Genesis, and the very language in which it is presented, bears a very startling similarity to the story of Christ. The offering up of Isaac is a type of the offering up of Christ on the Cross. "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" asked Isaac. And John the Baptist said, "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world". When Abraham offered up the promised seed on the altar he was simply foreshadowing the offering up of his promised Seed, Jesus Christ, on the Cross. And if this be so then the awesome thing is that in this tremendous experience God was giving Abraham a revelation of how the promise made to him that in his seed all families of the earth should be blessed was to find fulfilment. Not only so it bears witness to the fact that this is to be the pattern for all on whom God has laid His mighty hand for service. The chosen of God has a baptism to be baptized with, and it is ever straitened till it is accomplished.
The fact that Abraham 'in a figure' - i.e. in principle, received Isaac back from the death is meant to teach us the wonderful truth that life, not death, is the final goal of true sacrifice. How wonderful. How very wonderful.