Two impossible births – pt2
A prophetic look at Isaac and Israel from Egypt to Birth
In part 1, we investigated the extraordinary similarities between Abram and Sarai’s time in Egypt with the experiences of the fledging Jewish nation from the time of Joseph’s slavery to the Exodus. We identified many parallels between Abram and God, Sarai and the Jewish people, and Pharaoh with his successors. From this we concluded that these are examples of Biblical typology in action. Looking forward, Sarai’s life would reach its fulfilment with the supernatural birth of Isaac, whilst Jewish history is destined to climax with a national turning to Jesus as Messiah and Saviour. Moving on from Egypt, this is what we shall now explore.
To help us follow the narrative and typology, we started mapping out the people involved and whom they appear to prophetically foreshadow. Our suggested full cast list is presented below, except for one deliberate question mark to provoke reflection!
Spiritual opposition
The Lord’s supernatural births encounter fierce spiritual opposition. Jesus described the events leading up to His return as “birth pangs” (Matthew 24:8), a time of unparalleled deception and persecution because the enemy “knows that his time is short.” (Revelation 12:12).
Demonic opposition normally takes the form of violent persecution or spiritual seduction, as in the attempted murder of Jesus in Bethlehem and His wilderness temptations. Similarly, because God would not permit Balaam to curse Israel, he orchestrated their downfall by sending the Midianite women. (Numbers chapters 22-24,31). Sometimes temptation is even heightened by the threat of violence, such as in the Assyrian commander’s call on Jerusalem’s inhabitants to surrender. (2 Kings 18:27-32).
In Isaac’s birth narrative we also see a foreshadowing of Jewish history with another variation of the enemy’s methods – replacement.
The story in brief
These are the key events of Isaac’s birth narrative (see Genesis chapters 21 to 26), with the themes of God’s promise, threat/ seduction and replacement in italics:
1. The Lord’s calling of Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah). and his promises to them. (God’s promise).
2. The journey to Egypt. (Threat / seduction).
3. The return to the land, Abram’s blessings shared with Lot, Lot’s capture and liberation.
4. Abram’s son, not his servant, to inherit his estate. (Replacement, God’s promise).
5. Hagar and Ishmael, family conflict. (Replacement).
6. Circumcision and the promise confirmed through Sarah. (God’s promise).
7. Destruction of Sodom and Lot’s rescue.
8. Abimelech taking Sarah for his wife but thwarted by God. (Threat / seduction).
9. Isaac’s birth, confirming the promise. (God’s promise).
10. Ishmael’s and Abimelech’s departure.
Seduction and Replacement
The enemy’s attempts to prevent God’s plan to give Abraham and Sarah a child involve threat combined with seduction, and replacement. The first attempted seduction of Sarai, by Pharaoh, foreshadows the spiritual seduction of the Hebrews whilst in Egyptian captivity, requiring God to purge them of idolatry in the wilderness after the Exodus.
Next, we see two attempts to replace Sarai (representing the Jewish people in type); first by a servant, and then by Ishmael, the son of replacement mother Hagar. Two main groups have historically sought to replace the Jews as God’s chosen people – Gentile “institutional Christianity” 1 and Islam, 2 in that order. Again, there are a number of remarkable parallels. The servant was not Abraham’s blood relative and neither is the Gentile church physically related to the Jews. However, Ishmael was Abraham’s son. He was the father of the Arab peoples about whom it was prophesied that he, and his descendants, would be characterised by violence. It is from these descendants that Islam emerged. Has Ishmael’s rejection from Hagar’s ambition to become the covenant child caused a bitter resentment to take root which has persisted for thousands of years? This would explain Islam’s insistence that the Bible account has reversed the roles of Isaac and Ishmael as well as its utter rejection of a Jewish State, and its expectation of an Islamic messiah.
The second seduction attempt on Sarah is made by Abimelech, King of the Philistines. The Bible tells us some interesting things about Abimelech and his people (see Genesis chapters 21 and 26 for the full picture), leaving us to ponder whom they might foreshadow, especially if our typology concerning Abraham, Sarah and Isaac is correct:
■ The Philistines constantly make claims on Abraham’s land by stealing or blocking up his wells.
■ King Abimelech is present with his army and its commander in the land.
■ Abimelech claims to be innocent regarding Sarah (with some justification) and ignorant of his people’s actions. He offers Abraham and his people a peace treaty, secured through gifts made by the injured party, and later broken by the Philistines.
■ The Philistine king is unaware of Abraham’s and Sarah’s true identity until God punishes his household for trying to seduce Sarah with the implied threat of violence.
■ The departure of the Philistines and their army from the land only happens after God’s judgement and Isaac’s birth.
■ The Philistines live in the modern-day Gaza strip.
Let us summarise this typology of a people dwelling in Gaza immediately before Messiah’s return. They have a weak and deceptive leadership, who claim the moral high ground whilst constantly seeking to take Israel’s land or severely damage its economy. They claim to seek peace with their Jewish neighbours but cannot be trusted to keep a treaty. Their words are seductive, but they are physically threatening. Nevertheless, Israel is prepared to offer them gifts in return for peace, which they are happy to take without honouring their part of the bargain. Given the parallels with the attempted seduction of Sarai in Egypt and its typology of the Exodus, it is also likely that this people might seek to ensnare Israel spiritually through their own false religion. Certainly, they are ignorant of who Yahweh and the Jewish people really are.
The story concerning Abimelech and the wells includes a fascinating historical dimension. Beersheba was where both Abraham and Isaac dug or re-opened wells, called upon the Lord, made peace with their enemy and, as a result, were able to settle in the land. Celebrations were held recently to commemorate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration which helped establish the State of Israel. The Declaration’s text was approved on 31st October 1917.3 On this very day, British and Australian forces gained a decisive victory over the Ottoman Turks at the battle of Beersheba, leaving the way open for the liberation of Jerusalem from Islamic rule. 4 The Balfour Declaration was later incorporated into both the Sèvres peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire, and the Mandate for Palestine. Just like Abraham and Isaac before them, Bible-believing Christians had called upon the Lord, who answered with a treaty and, at Beersheba, brought peace to the Jewish people which allowed them to settle in the land.
What about believers?
Do believers in Messiah have a part in this story? Lot was Abraham’s relative and shared in his blessings. He was righteous, just as those who are born again belong to the Lord’s family and are gifted righteousness in Christ. Lot was Abraham’s companion from the outset of his journey. Before born-again believers, righteous gentiles included Rahab, Ruth and Cyrus.
Sarah was always close to Abraham, just as God dwelt among Israel. Lot, however, moved away from Abraham to settle in the midst of a hostile world; Christians are “in this world, but not of it”. Before Isaac’s birth, God destroyed Sodom and rescued some of Lot’s family, foreshadowing His final judgements on this world and the rapture of faithful believers. Regarding His return, Jesus told His followers the parable of the “wise and foolish virgins” (Matthew 25:1-13) – a reminder, perhaps, that not all of Lot’s family escaped, whilst a stern warning to the institutional churches.
Conclusion
“Can a country be born in a day?” (Isaiah 66:8), asks the Lord – a question He answers with an emphatic “yes”. Whilst this seems to be one of the passages prophesying the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, in addition, it surely also reflects the idea of a people being born again, their reconciliation bringing “life from the dead”. (Romans 11:15). The purpose of the New Covenant is, after all, to provide a spiritual heart transplant. (Jeremiah 31:33). This truth, plainly taught in Scripture, appears to be foreshadowed in the life of Isaac.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersessionism
2 https://samuelwhitefield.com/1456/islams- obsession-with-jerusalem
3 The resulting letter was formally issued on 2nd November 2017.
4 https://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Comment- Balfours-real-victory-came-at-Beersheba-509845