The story of Sarah and Isaac is a foreshadowing of Mary and Jesus and in the shadow of Eve and Cain. Of course, the seed of God in the virgin womb of Mary would transport the Spirit of God from heaven to earth in the sense that Jesus theretofore was the Living Spirit of God who became a living soul with Flesh.
Now check out scripture (This is lengthy but quite worth the
reading):
1 And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3 And said, “My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant.” … 9 And they said unto him, “Where is Sarah thy wife?” And he said, “Behold, in the tent.” 10 And he said, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.”
And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said unto Abraham, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?’ 14 Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.’”
15 Then Sarah denied, saying, “I laughed not;” for she was afraid. And He said, “Nay; but thou didst laugh.” 16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
17 And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Gen 18:1-19)
… 1 And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. 2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, “Isaac.” 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his wife son Isaac was born unto him. 6 And Sarah said, “God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” (Gen 21:1-6)
The story of Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob is almost identical to the story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus except for one thing: The Lord God was upfront with Joseph who understood that Jesus would be the Son of God, but God hid the parenthood of Isaac from Abraham. Perhaps, just as Jesus was not the son of Joseph, that Isaac was not the son of Abraham. Just as Jesus is the Son of God, perhaps Isaac was as well.
When Ishmael was conceived scripture states clearly, “He (Abram) went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived” (Gen 16:4b).
Hagar saw the semen of Abraham because he had came unto her. Ishmael was most certainly Abram’s son who was born of Hagar. There is no doubt there; she saw it!
On the other hand, Sarai validated that; “Her mistress (Hagar) was despised in her (Sarai’s eyes)” (Gen 16:4c).
Then consider the conception of Isaac and his birth: “The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” (verses 1 and 2 of chapter 21).
The Lord did it! Nothing was too hard for Him! He had asked that in the previous meeting! “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” No, nothing is too hard for the Lord! His Spirit overshadowed the barren womb of Sarah as it would someday the virgin womb of Mary.
That too is validated! The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do (18:17)?” God validated that HE did it! While Abraham was gone to Sodom, The Lord transported a soul unto the cavern inside Sarah. “Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age (21:2)” God had implanted into Sarah a uterus; to wit: “At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son (18:14).
The Lord had given Sarah time enough for him to grow a placenta in her barren womb. Consider for a moment that the “womb” is the internal space inside the abdomen. When a child is conceived, a placenta develops for the purpose of carrying and nourishing the living soul in the making. For all women, their placenta is on loan from God for His purposes. God had a specific purpose for Isaac — he would be the seed that would grow the Messiah.
Sarah laughed for a reason: She had no useful ovaries. God healed her ovaries and planted ova in her fallopian tubes. Then God planted His own Seed in Sarah, not by carnal knowledge as Abram did with Hagar, but with the Good Knowledge of God.
Hebrews are special people with special DNA, coming from God. Moses revealed that to the Hebrews saying, “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth” (Deut 14:2).
How “holy” are they? They are “Sons of God” in the image of Abel who was conceived in like manner. [1] With Abel dead, the seed of Seth became the substitute of Abel, [i] and those were the Sons of God that coupled with the daughters of men. [ii]
The story of Ishmael and Isaac is the story of Cain and Abel all over again but this time the “born again Abel” lived to provide the seed for the Messiah! “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7) rings true. Abel was “born again” it appears in the womb of Sarah. Abel was the intended seed of the chosen people, but Isaac would be that in this go-around.
Why would Hebrews be “chosen people?” Because God chose Abraham to honor Himself because of Abraham’s great faith. The Lord said, “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” (18:8). The Covenant was that God would provide to Abraham the seed and seeds to grow the Lord’s kind.
How is that to be? The “faith of Abraham” is the epitome of faith; to wit:
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith… Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all… (Rom 4:13,16)
Abraham is not “the father of us all” because of his semen, but because of his faith. What was he willing to do? Kill the gods of his father, Terah, but unwittingly he was about to kill the Son of God because God said so! Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice God’s son, believing that Isaac was his own son, took great faith.
Abraham got it right whereas Adam failed. Adam let Cain and Abel resolve their differences, but father Abraham, by grace, allowed both sons to live and for both to be his heirs! But only one would be God’s heir and that was Isaac. The other son was Abraham’s genealogical heir which scripture says is useless!
Isaac appears to be Abel “born again.” If He can do that for Abel by taking his soul and planting it in Sarah, what keeps the Lord from doing the same with us? Why marvel not? Because the Lord did it before, and He can do so again!
The Lord did with Sarah, as He did with Mary: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The Holy Ghost came down on Sarah and overshadowed her. “The Holy Thing,” called “Jesus,” was born of Mary, and the Holy “Peculiar” Thing was born of Sarah!
The Hebrews are “peculiar people” in that they are “Holy Things” planted by the Lord in the “garden” of Sarah.
That brings us to us being “born again.” It is not birth by water, but an overshadowing by God to become His adopted children. Speaking of Christians, Peter wrote, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9).
This is not because of water baptism, but because the Holy Ghost of Jesus “overshadows” those who trust the Ways of God.
Jesus overshadows those who have been persuaded that He is God and able:
21 Then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost…” (John 20:21-22)
Do you remember how Adam was generated? Well, God breathed life unto him, and Adam became a living soul. [iii] How did God (Jesus) regenerate those who followed Him? “He breathed on them… Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
By that time, the Living Water and DNA of Jesus had already baptized Adam’s kind! When Longinus pierced the side of the Messiah, it most certainly sprinkled him, because Longinus was persuaded that Jesus is the Face of God! [iv]
The “One Baptism” of which Paul wrote is that “baptism.” Isaac was circumcised at eight days old, but he was “baptized” when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Sarah. “Abel” was “born again” as if he had never died. Like Seth before Isaac, the latter was also the substitute for Abel.
But Isaac died. He rests even now in Abraham’s Bosom, but Isaac was most certainly the Son of God resting in the bosom of Father God’s substitute. Then, Righteous Abel would be born again as Righteous Jesus. Abel tried to save Cain from himself and the Wicked One whose DNA was inborn. Cain killed his “savior” so to speak.
Abraham was willing to do the same thing, and in the end, Adam’s kind did kill the Righteous One. The Son of God just will not stay dead!
Jesus said unto them about his disciples, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).
Long before after Cain had killed Abel, God asked Cain where his brother might be. To that Cain responded that he was not his brother’s keeper. To that the Lord said, “What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.” (Gen 4:10). The “Voice” spoke the Word of God and according to John, Jesus is the Word whose Voice spoke. [v]
Cain killed the Son of God, and Abraham was willing to do the same thing but for different reasons: Cain in defiance of God and Abraham in accord with the Will of God!
The multitude killed the Son of God in the same manner as Cain long before… you know, when Abel sacrificed to save his brother, and was indeed his brother’s keeper!
(picture credit: Bering Drive Church of Christ; "Echos of God's Faithfulness")
[1] See “The Planter of the Seeds” at https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-planter-of-seeds.html
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