Join Rabbi Schneider as he explores the prophetic significance of the binding of Isaac, known as the Akida. In this episode, delve into how Yahweh’s promise to Abraham through Isaac foreshadows the ultimate sacrifice and resurrection promise fulfilled in Yeshua. Understand the prophetic drama of Abraham’s faith and the role of Isaac’s obedience as it parallels the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, shedding light on the continuity of God’s redemption plan through history.
00:00:01 Messianic Prophecy in the Binding of Isaac
I trust that by seeing how Messianic prophecy is fulfilled in the very person, nature, and ministry of Yeshua HaMashiach, that you’re being saved. God bless you and shalom, beloved. I’m in the midst of a series called Messianic Prophecy. Last time, I was talking about how Yeshua brings the binding of Isaac into its fullest prophetic meaning. We call it in Hebrew, the ha-akida, the binding or the binding of Isaac. This is such a critical story of redemption. In fact, Jewish people believe that it was through this epic historical event up to the world. Avraham, Abraham in the story, is a shadow of Father God. Avraham didn’t withhold his only son, even as Father God did not withhold his only son. Now, we realize that Avraham had sons from other women, but Isaac was Abraham’s only son through his own wife. It was the one that he had spent his whole life waiting for and looking for, the one that he had born when he was past the age of childbearing in the natural. So while his hopes and dreams were bound up in his son, Yitzhak or Isaac, and yet out of obedience to the Spirit of God, He willingly offered up His only Son to God’s purposes, even as Father God Himself willingly offered His only Son unto us for His own purposes. Even though Avraham is often seen as the hero of the story for his act of sacrifice, as we just indicated, in rabbinic teaching, Isaac is also a hero of the story. In rabbinic understanding, Isaac wasn’t a little boy when Abraham binded him on the altar. Oftentimes in the pictures, we see Isaac being bound on the altar as a young boy, you know, eight years old to 11 years old. But according to rabbinic understanding, Isaac was 37 years old when this took place, meaning he willingly, as an adult, cooperated with his father’s purposes and gave himself in an act of surrender. So you can see why he also is a true hero in the story, and he is even, beloved ones, a type of Yeshua. who offered up his own life to Father God in obedience. We remember Jesus before going to the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Bible says he was praying so intensely, blood was coming out of the pores of his body. It’s hard for us to understand that, but beloved, when we understand the agony he was in, that he knew the sin of the whole world was about to be absorbed in his own body as he hung on that cross. You can imagine the intensity of that realization and what it would have done to his physical body. So the Bible says the anguish was so intense, literally he was sweating drops of blood. And in that state, he said, Father, if it’s possible, may this cup pass from me. But then he said, not my will, but thy will be done. Isaac was a type of Jesus that recognized, obviously in no way comparable to Jesus in the fullest sense of the word, taking upon the sin of the world. But Isaac, like Jesus, willingly offered up his own life on that altar, knowing he was about to die there. I want to also point out in this story, the principle of resurrection, the foreseeing, the prophetic indication, of the fact that there was going to be a resurrection from the dead. You see, Abraham fully intended to put Isaac to death. We know the story that Isaac said to his father, father, where is the lamb? Where’s the sacrifice? We read there, for example, he said to his father, behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb. Somehow in the mind of Abraham, he had every intention of putting Isaac to death. And yet at the same time, he had complete confidence that everything was going to be OK. In fact, beloved ones, Abraham believed that God was going to raise his son from the dead. We see in the binding of Isaac, the Akita, the principle of the fact that we see Jesus foreshadowed there. In his resurrection, listen what we read in the book of Bereshit, in the book of Genesis, what Abraham said to his servants who he left at the base of Mount Moriah before taking Isaac up to the top. Here’s what Abraham said to his servants. He said, stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship Abraham. and return to you.” Do you see all the dynamics in this epic drama here? Abraham believed that he was going to put Isaac to death, but he also believed that God was going to raise him from the dead. Abraham was about to put Isaac to death as Isaac laid there petrified. And at the last minute, God stopped him and provided a lamb in the thicket. And Abraham said to his servants, I and the lad will return to you, not because he believed that God was going to provide a lamb in the thicket, but that he believed that God was going to raise his son Isaac from the dead. How do we know that he believed that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead? Because he was just about to kill him. And yet he said to his servants, we’re going to return to you. In fact, to prove the point, we go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verses 17 through 19. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he. to whom it was said, in Isaac your descendants shall be called.” The writer of Hebrews is making the point that even as Jesus, Yeshua, was the only begotten of the Father, and in Yeshua was the Father’s purposes all bound up, so too in the life of Abraham and Isaac was that same theme. Isaac was Avraham’s only son through his wife, Sarah. And in Isaac was the future of Israel. That’s why the scripture says in verse number 18 there, in Isaac your descendant shall be called. Now listen to the next verse as we’ve been focusing here, beloved ones, on the fact that in the Akita, the story of the binding of Isaac, we also see the prophetic foretelling that resurrection was a part of God’s redemptive plan. or all future generations. It’s in the 19th verse. Speaking of Abraham, he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. What the author of Hebrews is doing here is saying that even though Isaac didn’t physically die, it was as if he did because they were both about to go through with the act. And Abraham received Isaac back to life. even as Father God raised Yeshua back to life. And the author of Hebrews is point blank saying here in verse 20 that Isaac was a type of the resurrection, Baruch Hashem, of Yeshua HaMashiach, our Lord. So you see, beloved ones, you see, church, the whole Tanakh is messianic prophecy. Messianic prophecy is seen in the Torah, the prophets, the Psalms, the writings in different forms. Sometimes it’s very measurable and specific. In other situations, it’s more of the drama of Israel’s history being fulfilled in the person of Yeshua.
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I want to take you now to one of the most colorful personalities in the Tanakh. We’re going now to study the life of Yosef or Joseph. Now, many of us know the story of Joseph. He was his father’s favorite. His father made him the multicolored garment, and the brothers got jealous of him. And in their jealousy, they wanted to get rid of him. But instead, what they decided to do was to throw him into a pit. Later, they changed their mind and said, you know what? Let’s sell him. So they sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites, where eventually Joseph found himself in Egypt as a slave. But the grace of Father God, beloved ones, was so powerful on him. It’s such a remarkable story that he kept on rising up through the ranks to eventually become second in command in Egypt, where Father God used him there to literally save the Egyptians from starving to death during a famine. Now, here’s what’s interesting as we consider how Joseph’s life was a foreshadowing of Messiah Jesus and as such was messianic prophecy. Joseph, rejected by his brothers, and as a result of their rejection, he finds himself as a savior in Egypt, delivering the Egyptians from starving to death during the famine. Rejected by his brothers, becomes the savior of Egypt, just like Yeshua, rejected by his own brothers, by his own people, but instead was exalted to become the God and the savior of the Gentiles. Now, continuing the story, Yeshua goes on from being the savior of the Gentiles to eventually recovering his own people. So the scripture tells us that at the end of the age, all Israel will be saved, even as was the case with Joseph, who was in Egypt, rejected by his brothers, saves the Egyptians. And yet towards the end of the story, what happens? Joseph’s own brothers come to Egypt and he becomes their savior as well and gives them a place to live in Egypt in the land of Goshen. Very much a prophetic foreshadowing of King Jesus and as such, his messianic prophecy. Consider this as well about the life of Joseph. Joseph, because he found himself in Egypt, began to look more and more Egyptian. He began to wear Egyptian clothes. He began to wear Egyptian makeup. Eventually, Joseph no longer looked like a Hebrew. He looked like an Egyptian. In fact, the case was so strong that when Joseph’s brothers eventually came to Egypt to buy grain, they didn’t recognize him. They were brought into a room where Joseph was before his brothers. They didn’t recognize who they were talking to because Joseph didn’t look like a Hebrew anymore with his Egyptian dress and his makeup. In the same way, church and beloved ones, today Yeshua is being portrayed to the world, not as a Jew, not as a Hebrew, but as a Gentile. And as a result, it’s preventing some Jewish people from seeing that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. For example, I pointed out in an earlier broadcast, Leonardo da Vinci’s picture of Jesus at the Last Supper. The reason I’m using him as a reference is because it’s such an iconic picture. But Jesus in that picture doesn’t look like a Jew. He looks like a Scandinavian. He doesn’t even have a beard. He’s got like a light skin and red hair. It looks like he’s wearing a blouse of some sort. Jesus is being portrayed now as a Gentile. And as a result, many Jewish people are prevented from further seeing that Jesus is the king of the Jews. Eventually what happens is Joseph takes the makeup off and he reveals himself to his brothers. And in the same way, Yeshua HaMashiach will reveal himself to his first covenant people, the children of Israel, and they’ll see him for who he is. The Bible tells us that they’ll be weeping and crying as they recognize that this one that was crucified 2,000 years ago, that was rejected by common Israel, has in fact been their Messiah. It’s interesting to realize that the reason that Joseph found himself in Egypt was because of his own brother’s rejection of him in the same way. The reason that the gospel of the kingdom has spread to the world of the Gentiles is because of his own people’s rejection of him. The Bible says he came unto his own, but his own received him not. Remember the story of Paul. Paul was in the temple after his vision of Jesus, after Yeshua had appeared to him and blinded him. And Paul was so sure that God was going to use him to bring his own people to faith in the Messiah. But while Paul was in the temple, the Lord spoke to him and said, Paul, they will not receive your testimony. I’m sending you far away to hell. the Gentiles. And so again, we find Joseph came into Egypt, was pushed into Egypt because of his own brother’s rejection in the same way the message of the gospel came into the world of the Gentiles because Yeshua’s own people rejected him. Well, beloved, we could go through so many patriarchs in the Hebrew Bible and show you how so many of their journeys were, in fact, messianic prophecy. Their life was messianic prophecy. This is why Yeshua took those first disciples of His through a journey of the entire Torah, the prophets and the Psalms, showing them Himself in the Hebrew Bible. Let’s continue to swim down the river into the Torah, the Psalms, and the writings as we see the life of Yeshua portrayed in them. In the Gospel of John, Yeshua referred back to the book of Numbers when Moses lifted up a serpent on a staff and said to the children of Israel that were dying because they were being bitten by serpents as a penalty for their sin. And Moses told the children of Israel, if you’ll look on the serpent on the staff I’m holding up, you’ll be saved. Yeshua referred to that incident and said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever looks upon him shall be saved. Let’s begin by actually going to the Torah, to the book of Numbers. I’m going to read there, beginning in verse number six. Israel was complaining against God that they would have been better off in Egypt. They were complaining about the food. And then the Lord did this in verse six. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord. that he might remove the serpents from us. And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard, and it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. Yeshua, in the Gospel of John, once again, chapter 3, verse 14 and 15, said this, “‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life.'” You know, it’s an incredible, powerful symbol here. This symbol of the serpent on the staff lifted up for the healing of the serpent’s bite, killing the children of Israel, that is the symbol of medicine today. It’s the symbol of the medical community, a serpent on a pole. A lot of people probably don’t even understand when they see that symbol where it came from. It came from the Torah. But before the modern medical community was using it, Jesus used it. And he said, I’m the healer. Even as Israel was delivered from the sting of pain and death, from the curse that came upon them for their sin, by looking at that serpent that Moses lifted up on the staff, Jesus said, so too. I’m going to be lifted up. How was he lifted up? Beloved, he was lifted up when he hung on the execution stake, when he hung on the cross, high above the people on the ground. She has said, so will I be lifted up. And whosoever looks upon me. will be saved. I trust that by seeing all these shadows and types in the Hebrew Bible, by seeing how messianic prophecy is fulfilled in the very person, nature, and ministry of Yeshua HaMashiach, that you’re being saved. I know most of you are already saved in the fact that you’ve received salvation. But our salvation, beloved, as well as being legally done, is also something that is happening. We’re going from grace to grace, from faith to faith, from glory to glory. We’re being transformed. We’re being saved. And Father, right now, I declare that as you are speaking your word into the lives of your people through me, that you are imparting faith to them, that your people are being strengthened, Father, in Yeshua’s name by your spirit and by your word. And I declare over you, beloved ones, as the word of the Lord is being laid in your life through this series, you’re being washed, you’re being sanctified. Your faith is now setting you apart to Father God, to Hashem in a brand new level. And I declare that because of God’s word being imparted to your soul, that you’re going to begin to walk in greater victory, in greater boldness, and become a more dynamic witness for the Lord than ever before. Beloved, Jesus loves you. You’ve been chosen out of this world to be his. Don’t ever be ashamed of him. Continue to name his name because we’re saved, beloved, by the word of our testimony and the blood of the lamb. In order to experience the weight of God’s supernatural glory on our shoulders, upon our lives, we must walk in the clean fear of the Lord. We oftentimes don’t hear about this much in the church. People are afraid to talk about the fear of the Lord. But the fear of the Lord is clean, and it’s the beginning of wisdom. In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 14, verse 23, when it comes to tithing, the Lord said, tithe unto me that you might learn to fear me. I want to encourage you as I encourage myself to understand Honor the Lord with your finances. I honor the Lord with my finances for many reasons. One of them is because I want to fear the Lord. Beloved, God’s a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. If God’s using this ministry to bless you, I encourage you to honor him with your finances through DJJ.
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The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6 is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God’s blessing into your life right now.
The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance. And the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.
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I’m your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Join us again next time when Rabbi Schneider reveals the secrets of Messiah. That’s coming up Tuesday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.
