There are many boys you read about in the Bible, but we will take just five for today, each illustrating a vital gospel truth.
ABEL was the first to offer a sacrifice to God. He brought a firstling of his flock and sacrificed it to God on an altar of stone. That victim was his substitute, its life was given for his. It died in his stead, and his faith saw therein a type of Christ, the promised One, the sinner’s surety, who would die, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God (1 Pet. 3:18). God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and him with it, declaring that he was righteous.
SAMUEL heard the Word and obeyed the call of God (1 Sam. 3:9, 10). The Lord is still calling boys and girls through His Word, and all who hear and obey the gospel call (John 5:24), receive eternal life, now, they pass from death unto life, and shall not come into judgment.
ISAAC is a type of the obedient Son of God, the Lamb of God’s own providing, who gave Himself a sacrifice and an offering to God, for us (Eph. 5:2). He was obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). For Isaac, a substitute was found—a ram caught in a thicket by its horns—to die in his stead (Gen. 22:13), but for Jesus, the Son of God, there was no substitute found. He must die in our stead. God spared Abraham from sacrificing his son, but He did not spare Himself. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
JOSEPH was a sufferer, first at the hands of his own brothers (Gen. 37:22), and then at the hands of the world (Gen. 39:20). But God raised him to honor and glory in Egypt (Gen. 41:40-42), to be a Saviour (v. 45) of his people, to provide for them in their need (Gen. 42:25). So it is with Jesus, exalted as Prince and Saviour (Acts 5:31), in a more wonderful and blessed way.
DAVID, the shepherd lad, conqueror of Goliath the giant, was raised from a lowly place in life to reign on the throne of Israel (Acts 13:22), and to shepherd God’s people (Psa. 78: 72). So the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11), who gave His life for the sheep, but who conquered death (Heb. 2:14), the great Shepherd who lives (Heb. 13:20), to lead His flock (Psa. 23:2), and who will yet reign over all the earth in a coming day.
ML 10/29/1967