Many people who read the Bible know that God required Abraham to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering, but they don’t know what happened after God provided a ram (a type of Christ) to replace Isaac as the burnt offering. We need to dig deeper into the word of God to see what it really says and, in the light of the Lord, pray over the words in the Bible so that they may become our spiritual reality today.
Abraham offered his beloved son Isaac to God as a burnt offering by faith, and in God’s eyes Isaac was sacrificed for His good pleasure – even though physically Isaac was not killed or even harmed.
After Abraham offered up Isaac as a burnt offering, God blessed Isaac and promised Abraham that his seed will be as the sand on the seashore and as the stars in the heavens, and in his seed all the nations will be blessed (see Gen. 22:16-18).
Before offering him up to God, Abraham had only one son, Isaac; after passing through death and resurrection, this one Isaac was multiplied to be as many as the sand on the seashore and as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
Actually, by being offered back to God by Abraham, Isaac was multiplied to become the New Jerusalem (Gen. 22:16-18; Rom. 8:29; Rev. 21:2, 7). The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of Abraham’s seed – the sand (the earthly descendants of Abraham, the real Jews) and the stars (the heavenly descendants of Abraham, the genuine believers in Christ).
After Abraham offered Isaac to God, God multiplied Isaac and caused him to be a blessing to all the nations. When we offer to God the Isaac He gave us, He will bring it back through death in resurrection and make it a blessing to everyone around us.
In the same way, the Lord Jesus came as a grain of wheat and died, and in resurrection, He was multiplied to become many grains of wheat – the believers in Christ (John 12:24). Now we pass through the same process of death and resurrection so that God may be multiplied in and though us, blessing would come upon all those around us, and the New Jerusalem would come into being.
Isaac was multiplied to become the New Jerusalem
When we read the Bible and especially when we read the Old Testament we need to have “God’s economy” glasses on, and we will see the intrinsic revelation in God’s word. After Abraham offered Isaac to God, his son was returned to him in resurrection and was multiplied to be as many as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the heavens (Gen. 22:16-18).
The footnote in Recovery Version Bible on the word “stars” Gen. 22:17 says,
The stars of the heavens signify Abraham’s heavenly descendants, the descendants who are of faith (Gal. 3:7, 29), whereas the sand on the seashore and the dust of the earth (13:16) signify Abraham’s earthly descendants, the descendants in the flesh. The sand on the seashore is the dust beside the sea. This sand is separated from the sea and also washed by the waves of the sea. The sea signifies the Gentile nations (Isa. 57:20; Rev. 17:15). The Gentile nations used by God to chastise Israel throughout the centuries (Joel 1:4 and note) were like the waves from the Mediterranean, coming up again and again with their invading armies to wash Israel as the dust to produce a remnant who are like the sand on the seashore (Zech. 12 — 14; Rom. 9:27-29). The New Jerusalem is composed of these two categories of Abraham’s descendants (Rev. 21:12, 14). Hence, the New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of Abraham’s seed. By being offered to God by Abraham, Isaac was multiplied to become the New Jerusalem. This was God’s blessing to Abraham. (Gen. 22:17, footnote 1)
The New Jerusalem has twelve gates having the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on them, and its foundations is the twelve apostles; the New Jerusalem is composed of the twelve tribes of Israel (representing the Old Testament saints, the Jews) and the twelve apostles (representing the New Testament believers).
The Jews are the earthly people of God, the “sand on the seashore” and “the dust of the earth (Gen. 22:17; 13:16), those who are separated from the world corrupted by Satan. The believers in Christ are the spiritual people of God signified by the “stars in the heavens” (Gen. 22:17), those who are not only separated from the corrupted world but are heavenly, having the divine life and nature of God in them and shining in this dark age.
In Christ, “the sand on the seashore” and “the stars in the heavens” have been made one, consummating in the New Jerusalem! The New Jerusalem is a great corporate Christ, the enlarged Christ, including the Old Testament saints (the Jews, the sand on the seashore) and the New Testament believers (the Christians, the stars in the heavens).
When God blessed Isaac after he was offered by Abraham to God by faith, He had the New Jerusalem in mind. In the New Jerusalem, we will all be one in Christ and will express God in a multiplied and enlarged way for eternity.
The Way to have God’s Gift Multiplied is to Offer back to God what He has Given to Us
If we offer our one grain to God and allow Him to put it to death, it will be returned to us in resurrection, and we will see multiplication under God’s blessing
God may have given us a gift, a burden, a calling, a ministry, something that we know it is from Him. Based on Genesis 22, we see that the way to have God’s gift multiplied is to offer it back to God, and He will take it through death and into resurrection, where it will be multiplied and it will become a blessing to us and those around us, even to the whole world.
When the Triune God who dwells within us and constantly supplies us with life speaks to us, prompts us, and anoints us, we will have the inner sense to offer back to God what He has given to us, what we have gained of Him through many years of costly experiences, and just desire Him and rely on Him. Then, the “one Isaac” that we give to God will be returned in resurrection, in His time and in His way, in a multiplied way and full of blessing.
This is the way the Lord Jesus took: He came as a grain of wheat, full of life, and He chose to fall into the ground and die; in His resurrection, He was reproduced and multiplied to become the many grains of wheat, the many believers in Christ (see John 12:24 and footnotes).
Today we as the many grains of wheat need to lose our soul-life and follow the Lord – to fall into the ground and die, so that in resurrection there would be a multiplication for the blessing of all those around us.
Sister Margaret Barber sowed herself into the soil of China and died, and she produced someone like Watchman Nee, who in turn perfected someone like Witness Lee, who fell into the ground and died. Now many receive life because Amy Barber chose to fall into the ground and die, taking the Lord’s way.
This is the intrinsic essence of the ministry in the Lord’s recovery and the essence of the new covenant ministry: going through death and resurrection for multiplication and blessing for all the nations. Today all the Gentile nations are blessed in Christ, the unique seed of Abraham.
May we all expect this kind of blessing: the multiplication that will issue in Christ and comes from Christ. All the churches on earth are the multiplication of Christ, and the whole earth is blessed because of the many local churches. The more we cooperate with the Lord to offer up “our Isaac”, the more He has a way to multiply it and make it a blessing to all the nations in Christ.
Lord, we praise You for Your blessing is not something outward like a good car, a good house, a promotion, a good wife, or a lovely child. Your blessing is the multiplication of the saints in God’s recovery and the multiplication of the churches! We want to take the way of falling into the ground and die with Christ so that we may enter into resurrection for the multiplication of Christ and the blessing of all those around us. May Christ increase, enlarge, and be multiplied, and may all the nations be blessed in the enlarged Christ today in the local churches! Hallelujah for Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 58), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Offering of Isaac and Experiencing God as the One who Gives Life to the Dead.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Buried? Yes, but it is seed / From which Continents may feed; / Millions yet may bless the day / When that seed was laid away. / Buried! hidden! out of sight! / Dwelling in the deepest night; / Losing, underneath the sod, / Everything, except its God. (Hymns #297 by M. E. Barber)
# Once Thou wast the only grain, Lord, / Falling to the earth to die, / That thru death and resurrection / Thou in life may multiply. / We were brought forth in Thy nature / And the many grains became; / As one loaf we all are blended, / All Thy fulness to proclaim. (Hymns #203 by Witness Lee)
# From the grain of wheat that died, / Many grains were multiplied; / He no more alone abides, / All the church is at His side. / As His Body, with our Head, / To the heavens we ascend; / With Him buried, with Him soar, / Praise His name forevermore. (Hymn on Christ’s Multiplication)
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