This week on Things Unseen we've been thinking together about the way Genesis 3 verse 15 is

like a tightly wound ball of thread that gradually unwinds throughout the whole of the Old Testament

until eventually it reaches the Lord Jesus. It's already Thursday and we've really just

reached Genesis chapter 9 so there's a long way to go and we'll not get much further today

but I promise tomorrow we will get there. We saw in Monday that the New Testament sees the

promise of Genesis 3 15 being fulfilled in Jesus Christ but when the New Testament talks explicitly

about the story of a seed it tends to focus on the way this seed comes through Abraham.

There are several reasons for this. One is polemical. The opponents of both Jesus and Paul's

ministry claimed that physical connection to Abraham was what really mattered. Interestingly John

chapter 8 verses 31 to 59 tells us about this conflict story but Cain's connection to Adam and

Eve should have been enough to teach anyone that physical connection is no substitute for living

faith. But there's another reason Abraham gets so much attention. It's that when the story gets to

him God gives significant fuller revelation of how the promise is going to be fulfilled and here are

two elements in that fuller revelation. Number one is given on Mount Moriah, the scene of the binding

of Isaac. It's an event full of electric moments Abraham has been told to sacrifice his son Isaac,

the son who carries the seed of promise. And as he's about to plunge the knife into him,

the angel of the Lord stops him. Abraham turns round and sees a ram caught in the thicket and

he offers it instead of Isaac. It's a moment that brings into full relief Isaac's earlier question

and his father's answer to him. My father said Isaac, we have the fire and the wood. But where is

the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham says God will provide for himself the lamb.

I wonder if for ages believers pondered that response, God would provide the lamb.

It was a ram God had provided. So where is the lamb? The question was partly answered by Isaiah,

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