In accordance with the timing and the provisions (Genesis 18: 13, 14) of God, Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah.
In keeping with the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17:2), Isaac was circumcised on the eighth day of his life.
this ongoing ritual of circumcision included all of the male members born into abraham's household.
what distinguished isaac different from the other male members of abraham's household was that his conception took place after the natural window of opportunity for Abram and Sarah to reproduce offspring had passed (gen. 17: 17). What further distinguished Isaac from the rest of abram's offspring, was that it was to be from his (issac's) family line that the nation of israel and the humanity of the lord jesus Christ would come.
abram had wanted ishmael (his older son from his wife's egyptian hand maiden hagar, to be the one to fulfill this role (Gen. 17: 18). to this day, many of the descendants of ishmael take the position that ishmael (and his family line) being the firstborn son of abraham, was entitled to the "promised Land."
The circumcision in which Isaac underwent was physical in nature. a child that is eight days old does not have any control and has not given consent, yet this was the ritual that god commended the house of abraham to embrace.
Christian religion(s) have adopted rituals of initiation in which infants, without their consent or knowledge of participation, are baptized in or with water. This practice, however, is contrary to the water baptisms recorded in Scripture. in every instance in which people of the church age were baptized in water, it involved consenting adults and after they were already saved by making a conscious statement/confession of faith.
spiritual baptism (aka as the "sealing" of Eph. 4: 30) in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy spirit is the work of God (not clergy) that takes automatically takes place when and where a soul makes a conscious decision to believe in a presentation of the Gospel Message. it is at the same time and place that the Titus 3: 5 regeneration of the dead spirit, also the work of God, takes place.
biblical baptisms have to do with i-d-e-n-t-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n.
those baptized by john "i-d-e-n-t-i-f-i-e-d" themselves with john's message of repentance and of the coming of the messiah.
The lord jesus was baptized by john, publicly i-d-e-n-t-i-f-y-i-n-g himself as the lamb of god and with the atoning work that he, in that capacity, came to accomplish on the cross.
the *church age began at the fest of pentecost in Jerusalem a few weeks after the lord's ascension, and will conclude when the rapture (1Thess. 4: 16, 17) takes place.the water baptisms of the *church age, usually performed by ordained clergy, has to do with the already born again believer i-d-e-n-t-i-f-y-i-n-g with a local assembly of believers here on earth for the purpose of engaging in discipleship.
identifying with a local assembly is a post (after) salvation part of the post salvation spiritual life. the post salvation spiritual life of scripture does not begin until one is born again. in order to be born again, the soul must make a conscious decision, after reaching the age/stage of moral accountability, to believe (place his full trust and confidence) in the person and the work of the lord jesus christ.
Souls that do not reach the age or the stage of moral accountability are not disqualified from heaven (2Sam. 12: 23).
old testament souls (Gen. 15: 7), and i believe, new testament souls that are never given the opportunity to be presented with the gospel message were/are judged by god based on their chosen response to whatever information that they were exposed to, beginning with the eccl. 3: 11 knowledge of eternity.
what is made perfectly clear in new testament scripture is that just as believing in the gospel message assures one of eternal life (John 3: 16), rejecting the gospel message assures one of eternal damnation (Rev. 20: 15/Jophn 3: 18).
With the disclosure of the part that Isaac would play (Gen.17:21), The plan of God was becoming more defined. Since it was through the family line of Isaac that our Lord’s humanity was to come, the spiritual combat of the angelic conflict would now call for an attack on that part of God’s plan, as well as to continue to promote false religious alternatives that Satan offers to the human race at large.
Satan and the Ephesians 6:12 forces use the followers of false religions as tools in his/their hands to oppose the forward progress of all believers in each dispensation of the plan of God.
Abraham, now having received the promised heir, would be put through an event that would teach both Abraham and the observing beings in the spiritual realm, that the fulfillment of the plan of God is going to take place, no matter what events would come against it.
god instructed abraham to take isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering on an altar (gen. 22: 2).
had god changed his mind? was ishmael going to be the chosen one after all? Initially, it had to appear that God was arranging for the very means to terminate His own stated plan for the life and purpose of Isaac. at the very least, it would appear the god was going to have to bring the sacrificed isaac back to life.
Satan was undoubtedly baffled as to what this event was meant to accomplish. He likely rationalized that he had nothing to lose by allowing it to unfold. if isaac went down so would the stated plan of God.
As in the case of the crucified Lord Jesus Christ, what overtly may appear at the time to be a defeat, proves to be what was in fact a victory in progress.
Abraham’s faith was put to the test. He had accepted what part Isaac was to play in the plan of God, but Abraham was now challenged to go along with what appeared to be totally contrary to the part that isaac was to play.
Keep in mind that God knows the future as well as the past, and what God knew at the time was that when the moment came, He would provide an animal (Gen. 22: 13) for the sacrifice, and that His stated plan for Isaac was going to move forward. god tells us all that we need to know when we need to know it. in the meantime, we are to walk by faith, based on what we have been told so far. this takes faith.
Because Abraham (and we) was not privy to knowledge of the future, he (and we) was going to be put in a situations where he was going to challenged to do something that did NOT make sense.
we would think that Abraham had to be confused when he was initially called upon to make a human sacrifice to the God of the Bible, but making human sacrifices was not unusual within the false religions (Psalms 96: 5) of that time period.
Even if God were to later provide another heir to be the means of eventually bringing about the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, it would have meant that God’s stated plan involving Isaac had failed to materialize. if it was god's intent to bring isaac back from the dead, why have him killed in the first place?
Burnt offerings required the slaying of the sacrifice, and then the total burning up of the remains.
The only way that Abraham was able to bring himself to be in a position to do such a thing would have been for him to believe that if Isaac was slain, that God would raise him from the dead. One way or another, if God was going to be true to His Word, then Isaac was going to walk away from this scenario alive and well! Remember abram had told his servants making the trip with them that hea-n-di-s-a-a-c would return (gen. 22: 5)!
There are many symbolic lessons that we can take from this incident, but the primary one, as it pertains to our study of the Angelic Conflict, is that no matter what happens, God is in charge and that by whatever means He chooses, His plan will be manifested.
In the course of time, Isaac would be the means through which Jacob and seveal of his wives and the tribes of the nation of Israel would descend. God has not yet disclosed the identity of which tribe (judah) the humanity of the lord jesus christ would come.
There would be conflicts between Jacob (later named Israel) and his brother Esau, their descendants. there would be conspiracies and betrayals among these sons of JACOB (Israel). Never-the-less, but God would cause all these things to eventually bring descendants of Isaac to the Promised Land. CONFLICT OVER RELIGION AND ENTITLEMENT TO THE PROMISED LAND BETWEEN THE DESCENDANTS OF ABRAHAM would continue on down through the Ages and will be factors in the End Time events.
In the course of these events, Satan would make use of each and every opportunity to oppress the descendants of Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). ANTISEMITISM IN ANY FORM IS ENDORSED BY THE DEVIL, AS THE ELIMINATION OF THE JEWS WOULD MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE PLAN OF GOD TO BE FULFILLED.