So we see that the Bible, although it's filled with various stories, doctrines, and principles,
is ultimately a collective witness of Jesus Christ, right?
You know, he is the essential fabric that is woven throughout the Bible.
And so in order to enrich your Bible reading, your studies, you need to make sure,
in order to get the most out of it, you have to be able to identify these parallels and draw them.
So when you read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
you go through the historical books, the poetical books, the minor major prophets.
When you read through those books, look for Jesus in those books, amen?
And it will enrich your Bible reading.
And so we're going to look at some idiosyncrasies in the Bible that parallel Jesus Christ.
And one of the most important, or should we say, one of the most famous parallels we see in the
Bible is Isaac, right? Because Abraham is Isaac's father.
And we see that Abraham chose to, or was commanded by God to sacrifice his only begotten son.
So we see how that parallel can work there.
Now we see this throughout the Bible that his death, his suffering, his resurrection,
often is parallel with different stories in the Bible.
But today we're going to look at the miraculous birth, okay?
Now just keep in mind that not every shadow is perfect, okay?
Because here's the thing, you draw a parallel and you'll have some individual out there who
just knows everything about the Bible.
It's like, oh, that's not a good picture of Jesus Christ.
He wasn't like Jesus in this area.
Well, obviously, not every individual is going to be able to portray Jesus Christ correctly
because of the fact that they're fallible men and they're going to make mistakes.
In fact, a great example of this is Samson.
Samson, whether you like it or not, is a picture of Jesus Christ.
Now here's the thing, Samson sinned, right?
Samson marred his reputation.
He marred that symbolism and that typology, but there are many parallels that we could
draw from Samson's life that parallel Jesus Christ.
Not every shadow and symbol is going to be perfect.
We want to make sure that when we study each character and analyze their works or their
deeds or their actions, that we pull out that which parallels to Jesus Christ, okay?
Now, when we talk about a miraculous birth, we're talking about a birth that basically
necessitates a supernatural occurrence, right?
And obviously, the last one we're going to be talking about is Jesus Christ, and he was
the most miraculous birth, but it's making the impossible possible.
Now, turn with me, if you would, to Genesis.
Go to Genesis, or I'm sorry, go to Hebrews chapter 11.
Hold your place there in Genesis 18.
We're going to go back to that scripture in just a bit.
Now, as I mentioned, there's obviously many parallels to Isaac and Jesus Christ.
The main parallel and the most famous is how he pictures a sacrifice that he would make.
Genesis 22 verse 7, you don't have to turn there, says,
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 in the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together, and they came to the place which God had told him of.
And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son,
and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And we're not going to, I'm not going to read, expound the whole story here,
but what we see is that God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son.
At the very last minute, when he's raising his hand to strike his son,
the angel come and stops him and recognizes that Abraham was willing to do so.
He was willing to be obedient to the word of the Lord.
But in doing so, what did he do?
He made a beautiful picture of God sending forth his son to sacrifice him for the sins of the world.
And in fact, look at Hebrews 11 verse 17 says, By faith, when he was tried,
so what does that tell us?
It tells us that that was a test, right?
When he was tried, offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises,
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
So this takes a lot of faith.
Why?
Because he's promising him this son.
He's saying, Hey, you're going to have a son.
And then he has him.
He's like, okay, now I want you to give him back kind of thing.
And so this is the promised child and he's asking him to sacrifice him.
You know, this is going to take faith on the part of Abraham to believe God and to trust him.
Look what it says in verse 19, accounting that God was able, look what it says, to raise him up.