Isaiah tells the people of Judah to look to the “rock from which you were hewn, and to the cistern from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1). The next verse makes it clear that he is talking about Abraham and Sarah. Abraham the father is the rock; mother Sarah is the cistern or well from which they were plucked (cf. Proverbs 5:15 for a woman as well).

The only other passage that uses the verb “hew” with this noun “rock” ( tsor ) is Isaiah 22:16, which describes a tomb hewn out of a rock for kings. In the New Testament, “hewn from a rock” is only used for the tomb of Jesus (Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53). The same Greek verb and noun are used in the LXX of the Isaianic passages ( latomeo petra ), and these same terms are used by Matthew and Mark. Luke uses the single word laxeutos , “hewn in stone.”

“Look to the rock” is “look to the grave from which you came” - the grave of Abraham’s body, who along with Sarah was good as dead (Romans 4). Israel doesn’t look ahead to resurrection. Her birth was a resurrection. Isaiah says, “Look to that birth from the dead, and hope for a future resurrection.”

Abraham was only one when Yahweh called him (Isaiah 51:2), but Yahweh blessed and multiplied - as He blessed and multiplied the creatures at the beginning. From the sepulcher of Abraham, Yahweh called out a new creation.