THE LAW OF FIRST MENTION: RESURRECTION

After a three-day journey, Abraham left his servants at the foot of Mount Moriah. “Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you’ ” (Genesis 22:5).

The New Testament commentates on the Old Testament. “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac. He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking” (Hebrews 11:17–19).

Abraham trusted God’s power to resurrect his beloved son. He believed that, though Isaac died as a sacrifice, God would raise him to life. This is the Bible’s first hint of God’s resurrection power!

Isaac had been as-good-as dead for three days (Genesis 22:4), but he lived because Jehovah-Jireh, God-the-Provider, prepared a substitutionary sacrifice… the lamb (Genesis 22:7-8). (By the way, this is the first mention of a “lamb” in the Scriptures.)

Obviously, this story foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection. The Beloved Son died, but three days later, He was resurrected.

This is not the only Old Testament reference to resurrection. “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt” (Daniel 12:2). “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits” (Isaiah 26:19). “But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet I will see God in my flesh. I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me” (Job 19:25–27).

Ezekiel’s vision of a multitude of “dry bones” coming to life also forecast the resurrection (Ezekiel 37:1-14). “This is what the Lord God says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel. You will know that I am the Lord, my people, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:12–14).

Jesus left us with a promise: “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too”

(John 14:18–19).

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).