God Will Supply the Lamb

This post is about a new-to-me insight concerning the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Sacrifice of Christ. I certainly am not saying that no one has ever expressed this thought before, but rather that I have never heard/encountered it before it came to me (due to a phrase in a song).

I expect that most of the one readers of my little blog are familiar with the idea that the Sacrifice of Isaac is a 'type' of the Sacrifice of Christ (which is the 'architype'). Here is another aspect of that --

Recall, after Abraham passes the test God had set him, how his earlier answer to Isaac concerning the sacrifice was fulfilled:

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.

In the ancient Near East, and consequently throughout the Bible, an animal's horns represent strength and power, and by extension, authority and kingship.

So, the ram was able to be made a fitting sacrifice because he was held in the thicket by his strength and power.

Similarly, Christ, the Lamb of God, was able to be made a fitting sacrifice because he was held in the thicket of our sins by his strength and power, by his authority and kingship.

No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.