on himself fresh graces and blessings. This is why Almighty God so often tries us with all sorts of sufferings and adversities, these tests being of great benefit to ourselves.
The third promise of the Messias. The words: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”, contain a renewed promise of the Redeemer.
Isaac, the fifth type of Jesus Christ. (We have already studied the first four types: Adam, Abel, Noe and Melchisedech.) In what way was Isaac a type of our Blessed Lord? The birth of Isaac was promised repeatedly: so was the coming of Jesus Christ. Isaac was the only and dearly beloved son of his father: Jesus Christ is the only-begotten and beloved Son of God, in whom His Father is well pleased. Isaac was obedient to his father, and was willing, out of obedience, to give up his life, letting himself be bound, and waiting patiently for his death-stroke: Jesus Christ was obedient to His Heavenly Father, unto death, even unto the death of the Cross. “As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb without a voice before his shearer, so opened He not His mouth.” Isaac himself carried up the mountain the wood on which he was to be slaughtered: Jesus Christ carried up to Calvary the Cross on which He was to die. Isaac was saved from death by the wonderful intervention of an angel: Jesus Christ was brought back to life by the greatest of all miracles, His resurrection. You see in how many ways Isaac was a most plain type of our Redeemer, of His death and of His resurrection; but the sacrifice of Isaac, all the same, is not a perfect type of the Sacrifice of our Lord, for no figure can perfectly show forth the infinite love of God in giving His Son to die for us. In one main point Isaac’s sacrifice was very different from the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Abraham was quite ready, out of love for God, to offer up his beloved son: but Almighty God would not permit the sacrifice to be completed, because sinful man could not be redeemed by a human sacrifice; and therefore the angel of God cried out to him, just as he was going to slay his son: “Hold thy hand I” God spared the son of Abraham, but He did not spare His own Son, but gave Him over to a painful death for our sakes. When, on Calvary, the executioners raised their hammers to nail to the Cross the Hands and Feet of God made Man, no angel cried out: “Hold thy hand!” The Sacrifice was completed, and the Son of God died for us on the Cross in unutterable agony of Soul and Body. “God so loved the world as to give His only -begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3, 1 6).
The Vicarious Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The ram whose head was caught in the thorns, which was sacrificed instead of Isaac, is a type of Jesus Christ, who was crowned with thorns, and offered Himself for us on the Cross.
