The Holy Scriptures present Isaac as a type of Christ. God said to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love … and offer him there as a burnt offering” (22:2). Abraham took him to the appointed mountain, built an altar and piled the wood, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar. In all this we have a foreshadowing of what took place about two thousand years later when God offered His only begotten Son, the Son of His love, at Mount Calvary. The Son of God was bound to the wood of the cross not by cords but by nails in His hands and His feet. And just as Isaac did not remain on the altar, Christ did not remain on the cross or in the grave, but was raised by the glory of the Father. Abraham received Isaac his son from the dead “in a figurative sense” (Heb. 11:19). Christ actually died and was buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven.

But the history of Isaac has another lesson for us, a lesson that is greatly needed in these days. Isaac was given a bride, Rebecca. Please notice the order in his relationship with her. She became his wife. And he loved her. There is great emphasis in many societies about “falling in love” with the one you will marry. It is nice to marry the one you love, but it is mandatory that you love the one you married. There is no commandment necessitating marrying one whom you have loved, but there is a divine commandment to love the one you married. In other words, you must love her because you married her. Ephesians 5:25 is not a suggestion but a commandment: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church.”

Today we hear of many who were in love, got married, then divorced because they did not love each other anymore. How sad! How dishonoring to God! How precious are God’s instructions concerning marriage!