Meditation

We reach the end of our passage from Genesis 22 today, and find that the full passage is bookended by the same words and structure.

When Abraham is initially called into action and then called off from action, he answers immediately, "Here I am."

In the first movement of the story, he is told to "take your son, your only son," in this final movement, he is commended because he has not "withheld, your son, your only son."

Which is, essentially, the whole story in a nutshell.

But God still required a sacrifice. It was not enough to test Abraham. The need for sacrifice was real, and God himself provided it in the form of the ram caught in the thicket.

The joy that Abraham must have felt at the provision of an alternative sacrifice prefigures the Joy we should feel at the gift of Jesus.

Today's text is Genesis 22: 10-14 (and is called out in black)

Abraham Tested

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

Encouragement

Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

John 8:56

​Andy

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