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“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son” (Genesis 22:13).
In the story in Genesis 22, Abraham is a picture of God the Father, and Isaac is a picture of the Lord Jesus. But in the story, God stopped Abraham from actually killing his son and offering him up for a burnt offering. A substitute was provided—a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. But there was no substitute for the Lord Jesus; only He could be the true burnt offering, and pay the penalty for sin. There are many pictures of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament, but none of them are perfect.
The ram is also a picture of the Lord Jesus, for the ram was caught by its horns. The horns of a ram are strong, and it would be most unusual for a ram to be caught in this way. But the horns are perhaps a picture of the strength of the Lord’s love for us, and that love held Him to the cross, until the work was done.
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