The following article is taken from an article posted on Son of His Love.com. To read more about THE BURNT OFFERING, which is Christ CLICK HERE.
—–◆—–
INTRODUCTION to the BURNT OFFERING
We have been dealing with the divine witness of both a father and a son. Genesis 22:2 presents for the first time the burnt offering of the Lord. If you understand the first mention of the burnt offering in Genesis 22, you’ll understand the fourth mention of the burnt offering in Genesis 22:7. Whether you like the use of numbers or not, nevertheless, in Genesis 22:7 we have the fourth mention of the burnt offering. As Abraham uttered those words, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: it was the fifth time that the burnt offering is mentioned. The number five is the number of grace, and Grace and Truth came BY Jesus Christ.
The Burnt Offering Determined
1. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son] Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. (Genesis 22:2)
2. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:3)
3. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid [it] upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:6)
4. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here [am] I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering? (Genesis 22:7)
5. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:8)
6. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. (Genesis 22:13)
The burnt offering is directly connected to the Lamb of God and to the gospel of Luke 22:22 in the very words of Abraham, God will provide HIMSELF a Lamb for a burnt offering. Turn to the gospel of Luke Chapter 22:22, And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed! In Luke 22:22 we have a witness to the world through the number four (four twos). The key word in this verse is the word determined. This brings in the foreknowledge of God in Genesis 22:7. Isaac asked but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood. : but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering? The word determined in Luke 22:22 brings us to the determinate counsels of God and the fulfillment of those counsels in the fullness of time.
Under the Law of Moses, ONLY the high priest could offer the sin offering. So, this makes Luke 22 more interesting to the Spirit. Luke 22:2 reads this way, And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people. Although these were evil men and they are said to have wicked hands, they were still among the priesthood and unknown even to themselves that they were seeking ways to kill the Lamb of God. They were being used even in their own wickedness by the determinate counsels of God. As the Lord Jesus stepped closer to His Day, to His hour, and to His time to be crucified by an ungodly world both Jew and Gentile gathered against the Lord’s anointed to slay the Prince of Life and to shed the blood of the Lamb of God.
Genesis Chapter 22 is also important for after the Lord had offered Himself in the upper room to His disciples in the bread and in the cup, He then went to the Mount of Olives. He took Peter, James and John and told them to watch while the Lord Jesus prayed apart. Now the Holy Spirit gives us the private prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ to God His Father, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42) This was His trial in the days of His flesh to COMPLETE the will of His Father and to fulfill the determinate counsels of God. The cup here in verse 42 is the cup of all the dregs of the world. He had the foreknowledge of exactly what He would endure on the cross of Calvary. Yet, He would NOT turn aside. He would NOT give into the world. He would NOT turn His back to the determinate counsels of God. The Spirit of God gives us the exact words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of man, His earthly title, And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined. After the first stage of His prayer, the heavens opened and there appeared an angel from heaven to strengthen Him. In Luke 22:44, the agony of the cross had already begun in the preparation of offering HIS SOUL for sin. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)
As He was in agony, the Lord Jesus was strengthened. This was not an outward physical agony, but this was an agony of divine magnitude and significance. Here was the manifestation of God on earth as the Son of man, as the holy thing, as the Holy One; as the holy child, and as the Holy Man He was facing the sin of the whole world. In verse 44 of Luke 22, He suffered the double weight of the world upon Him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. As He prayed this Supernatural Being sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
The first man who was slain on earth, Abel, God told Cain (the slayer) that his brother’s blood spoke to HIM from the ground. Now, many say, that it is impossible for man to sweat great drops of blood. May I remind you that this was NOT Adam, but this was The Holy One of God. This was IMMANUEL, God with us. The Holy Spirit tells us that the Divine Being, God was IN Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. We are also informed that the blood that was shed on Calvary was God’s blood. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) The Spirit of God gives us more on the prayers of the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane.
In Hebrews 5:7 and 8, we read, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; (Hebrews 5:7) Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; (Hebrews 5:8) What the Holy Spirit opens to us in Chapter 5 is that Christ learned obedience. This seems as a contradiction of His whole life, for He delighted to do His Father’s will. He proclaimed that what the Father had given Him to do He would fulfill. Even as a young child, He told His parents, I must be about my Father’s business. So therefore, how can a Holy and Righteous Son of God learn obedience? He learned obedience through the death of Himself. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:8) There is a paradox in all of this. God who is Eternal cannot die. However, the manifestation of God in the likeness of sinful flesh, but apart from sin, and separated from sinners, can go into the depths of death as the burnt offering, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He can learn the obedience of death to destroy him who had the power of death.
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; (Hebrews 2:14)
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:15)
For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. (Hebrews 2:16)
The Lord Jesus, as the Son of man, endured the wrath of man upon His divine Being as the Son of man. All that man could do to His flesh; man did in spewing out his hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ who had declared to them that HE was the Son of God. Then, on the cross, as not only the Son of man, but also as the Son of God, it was there that the beloved Son of God was judged in the flesh as the Son of man and as the burnt offering. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. (Ephesians 5:2) The whole purpose of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ upon earth was to give the sinful world and ALL sinners a determinate and an obedient burnt offering for sin IN HIMSELF, and to fulfill in the fullness of time through the determinate counsels and foreknowledge of God. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. (Acts 2:23)
● Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5)
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. (Hebrews 10:6)
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. (Hebrews 10:7)
● Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (Hebrews 10:9)
This article was taken from an article posted on Son of His Love.com. To read more about THE BURNT OFFERING, which is Christ CLICK HERE.