The worth of anything is measured by its relation to Christ, and to what extent it represents Christ or glorifies Him. This applies to all creatures, whether men or angels. The rank that any man takes in the kingdom of God depends on his position in the providence of God, and to what extent and in what way he sets Christ forth. Most all the patriarchs and prophets were representatives of Christ in manifold forms and degrees.

Isaac was a typical son, and a scriptural model of perfect sonship, and in this special feature he was a type of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, and perhaps more than any other Bible character sets forth the multiplied features of sonship. Men are interesting and beautiful in proportion as they represent Christ, and hence Isaac is one of the sweetest characters in Scripture, because in so many ways we can trace the resemblance between him and Jesus.

1. He is a type of Christ in that he was the true heir and the seed of promise. Paul argues that it was not sufficient to be the child of Abraham in order to inherit the promise, but to be the child of Isaac, through whom the covenant was made. "They are not all Israel that are of Israel, neither because they are Abraham's seed are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called."� (Rom. 9:7.) In this respect he is a type of Jesus, who was the only begotten Son of the Father, and the only divine person that was incarnated in humanity. There are many sons of God, but only one Son generated eternally by the Father. Hence all divine covenants are through Christ, just as all covenants with men are made through Isaac, the true heir of Abraham.

2. The angel Jehovah announced the birth of Isaac in a similar way as the angel announced the birth of Jesus. The account is given in full detail in Genesis 18: "And the Lord said, I will certainly return unto thee according to this season, and Sarah thy wife shall have a son."� Although Abraham was about one hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety years old, he was strong in faith, and did not stagger at the promise, and thereby became the father of believers — those who have the faith which brings the supernatural birth from above. The announcement of the angel to the Virgin Mary is found in Luke 1:26-33: "And the angel said unto her. Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and shalt bring forth a Son, and He shall be great, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David."� These two announcements are special marks from God indicative of sonship in the highest and truest degree. We must remember, also, that, in a spiritual sense, these things set forth our being born again by faith through the operation of the Holy Spirit.

3. In both cases, of Isaac and Jesus, we see the Lord gave them their names before they were born. "And God said, Sarah shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish an everlasting covenant for his seed after him."� The word Isaac means laughter, because Sarah laughed when the announcement was made to her. Some have thought it was the laugh of sarcasm, but the whole spirit of the passage shows that she laughed with an inward gladness, as if to say it was too good to be true. The word Sarah means a princess, and she was made a princess by the Lord in His kingdom before she became the joyful, laughing mother of the true seed of the covenant through whom Christ should be born. These things are full of significance as applied to the spiritual Christian. In like manner the angel said to Mary that she should bring forth a Son, and should call His name Jesus, because He should save His people from their sins, as the word Jesus means one who saves. All the names given of God are perfectly true to the nature or life work of the one to whom the name is given, and doubtless such names will be continued in Heaven, whereas all others who are saved will have names given to them in the resurrection, which will exactly set forth the leading features in their character or life work.

4. Isaac is a type of Jesus in that he was hated and persecuted by his brother Ishmael. Paul shows the distinction between being a child of Abraham according to the flesh, and a child according to faith, which was illustrated by the two brothers. Ishmael was a child in the flesh, and hence persecuted Isaac, who was a child of promise. Thus Jesus, the true Son of God, was hated by His brethren according to the flesh, for they envied Him because He had the inheritance. The same principle is still carried out in the fact that the carnal mind will always hate the spiritual mind. Hence carnal Christians are always at enmity in heart more or less with those who are purified and specially led of the Holy Spirit. Not only so, but before believers are sanctified, the sinful dispositions in them will antagonize the work of grace in the soul, and thus hinder growth in grace.

5. Isaac and Jesus were both offered up, each by his father, on the same mountain. We have the account of Abraham offering up Isaac on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22. This is the same mountain of which Mount Calvary forms a part, and it is more than probable that Isaac was offered on the same spot where Christ died. When Abraham took Isaac up the mount to sacrifice him, the other men in the company were left in the valley below, and in like manner, when Jesus went to Mount Calvary, His disciples all forsook Him, and thus He was offered alone, or separate from His followers.

6. When Abraham led Isaac up the mount, he put on him the bundle of wood that was to burn his body, and on which he was to die, but the fire and the knife were carried by Abraham. In agreement with this, Jesus left Pilate's hall to go to Calvary bearing His own cross, the wood on which He was to die, though afterwards a man from the country carried the cross to the place of execution. God the Father retained in His own power the knife of the law, and the fire of the Spirit, that were used in the sufferings of Jesus. We see in both cases the most perfect obedience for a son to render to his father.

7. There is a striking type of Isaac to Jesus in connection with the resurrection from the dead. Paul says in Hebrews 11 that Abraham expected God to raise Isaac from the dead after he had been slain, and then adds that he did receive him back from the dead in a figure. That is, Isaac did virtually die, and in a typical sense was raised up from the dead, which made him a prophetic figure of the rising from the dead of Christ after He was crucified. If Isaac had been slain and not raised again, all the promises and covenants that God made through him would have come to naught, and in like manner, if Jesus had not risen from the dead, all His life work and the redemption by His death would have proven a failure. In a certain sense this truth applies to us, for though we were crucified to the world, if we are not raised up in the power of the Spirit, we can accomplish nothing for God, for it is the resurrection life in the power of the Spirit that proves fruitful.

8. We see the Father looking out for Isaac to obtain a wife for him, and sending his faithful steward into a distant land, and among his own kindred, to obtain a suitable wife for Isaac. This was prophetic of God the Father sending forth the Holy Spirit, as a faithful steward, into a distant world, to obtain a Bride for Jesus, but mark you, she was to be sought for among God's kindred, that is, a select company from those who are the Lord's servants.

9. After all these events, and after Isaac was happily settled with Rebekah, we are told that he planted grain, and reaped the same year a hundredfold. How beautifully this typifies that Jesus, after His death and resurrection, is to work through the ministry of the Bridehood saints, and sow the good seed of the kingdom in all the earth, and reap a hundredfold of souls from among the nations, to be gathered at the harvest, at the end of the age.

Another beautiful type may be found in the fact that Isaac dug out again the old wells which his father had dug, in order to supply abundance of water for his herds; in the light of which we see how Jesus, by His Spirit, opened up afresh all the old fountains of truth and prophecy in the Old Testament, making those grand old Scriptures to overflow everywhere with streams of knowledge and comfort. Thus right straight through, we see Isaac a type of Jesus, from before his birth through to old age, and to study these two lives in companionship, reflects light on both of them, for it magnifies Isaac to trace out his likeness to Christ, and it simplifies and makes more precious to us the character of Jesus, to study Him through one of His servants. We can, in a certain sense, trace out our own religious lives by these various points, especially in connection with being sons of God, and all the graces that belong especially to sonship.