"...in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 22:18
"....in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 12:3
God made this promise to Abraham, but then He asked Abraham to carry out what seems to be a terrible act......
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Genesis 22:2
In this verse "Take now" is not a good rendering of the Hebrew. The word translated as "now" actually means to beseech, pray, or plead. In other words, "I am beseeching(pleading) with you to take..." This was not some cold-blooded decree or command by God. This is a beseeching request. God knows what He is asking of Abraham. God knew the pain and sorrow Abraham would feel. But it had to be a willing choice. It could not be coerced. God needed Abraham to trust Him completely with Abraham's son whom he loves so much. This verse is the first time the word "love" is used in the Bible....in a verse speaking of a father's love for his son. I can't imagine what Abraham, as a father, thought or felt when God requested this of him, but he did not hesitate or argue.
Abraham had complete faith in God because he had a true and personal relationship with his Maker, and knew that he could trust Him. Abraham knew God could not lie and would do all He had promised. Abraham had already witnessed this with the miracle birth of the very son God was now telling Abraham to sacrifice.....the same son God spoke words of promise about in Genesis 17:19 when He told Abraham He would establish and everlasting covenant with Isaac and with his seed after him. This would be kind of hard to do if that son was dead before God has made the covenant with him and before he has had children. Abraham had to know that either God would prevent the act of sacrifice, or He would raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham knew his God was faithful to His word and was all powerful. The problem of keeping Isaac alive was God's problem, not Abraham's. So Abraham set out on the journey in complete obedience.
The journey to where God instructed Abraham to take Isaac took three days. When they arrived at the destination Abraham told the young men who traveled with them:
"....stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you." Genesis 22:5
Abraham told the young men he and Isaac would return to them. Abraham could speak in confidence of their return because he knew he could trust God's promises to him.
After telling them this, Abraham laid the wood for the sacrifice across Isaac's shoulders, and Isaac obediently carried the wood up the mountain to the place he was to be sacrificed. Does this sound familiar? When Isaac asked his father where the "Lamb" for the burnt offering was, Abraham answered....
"My son, God will provide HIMSELF a LAMB for the burnt offering..." Genesis 22:8 KJV
In thinking on this event, there is something to keep in mind, Abraham was no longer a strong young man. His son was 100 years younger than him, and Isaac was not a little boy like we picture in Bible story books. The term used for Isaac is "na'ar" most often used to indicate a young man of about twenty years of age or older. It is used to a lesser amount for a new-born infant, but Isaac was not an infant. Isaac was obediently doing as his father asked him each step of the way.
When father and son reach their destination at the top of the mountain, and Isaac is bound on the altar, Abraham stretches out his arm with the knife, but God stops him with the following words;
"Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know you fear God. You have not withheld your son, your only son from me." Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him, a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Genesis 22:12-13
This event in scripture can be one of the most difficult for us to understand....unless we recognize that God had a specific purpose for asking Abraham to go through this. God's purpose was threefold. One was to ensure that Abraham would withhold nothing in his life from God, not even his precious, beloved son Isaac. Another was for this to be an example to us of how in our own life's journeys we can be obedient and trust God even in the most difficult of circumstances. BUT there was another purpose....a beautiful, precious purpose. God wanted Abraham to be a type, a foreshadowing of something to come. God wanted Abraham and Isaac to be a picture for us.
Abraham called the name of that place THE LORD WILL PROVIDE, as it is said to this day, "On the Lord's mountain, He will provide." Genesis 22:14
In the Hebrew text, "He will provide" translates to say "it will be seen". And on the Lord's mountain, it was seen; the Ultimate Gift being given for us. As we enjoy all the fun and festivities of this Christmas season, may we praise and thank our Heavenly Father for sending His Son, His only begotten Son as the Ultimate Christmas gift.
In this event, God gave us a picture of a father willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and give his son, his only son whom he loved, as a sacrifice on a mountaintop, and not on just any mountaintop. Remember God told Abraham He would show him where to sacrifice Isaac? God had given Abraham instructions to go on a three day journey. That journey was to the land of Moriah where there was a mountain range known as the Mountains of Moriah. Hundreds of years after this event, King Solomon would build the Temple on one of the mountains of Moriah. But on this mountain of Moriah, on this very mountain that God showed Abraham...the mountain Isaac climbed with the wood across his back in obedience to his father, this is the very same mountain that Isaac's descendant, our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, would climb carrying the wood for his cross on His back in complete obedience to His Father to become our ultimate sacrifice. It was the very place a Father would give His Son, His only begotten Son Whom He loved, as the ultimate sacrifice. It is the place where God the Son would willingly provide HIMSELF as the LAMB, just as Abraham said He would.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Jesus, God the Son, took on human flesh and entered into His own creation as a newborn babe on that night in Bethlehem long ago, so that He could grow up and on that mountaintop lay down His life for us and pay the penalty for our sins if we believe in Him.
And on the Lord's mountain, it was seen; the Ultimate Gift being given for us.
As we enjoy all the fun and festivities of this Christmas season, may we praise and thank our Heavenly Father for sending His Son, His only begotten Son as the Ultimate Christmas gift. May we keep the focus of this season on Him.
May we keep the focus of this season on Him.
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