Where The Lord Provides

Day 22:  Chapter 22 - Genesis, Psalm & Joshua

God has finally given Abraham a son through his wife Sarah (chpt 21) and the boy, Isaac, is now weaned and probably a young pre-teen.  God puts Abraham to the test to determine his heart in two areas, one, has Abraham learned to trust God completely even when he doesn't understand?  And two,  is Abraham willing to do whatever God asks of him?

This chapter is difficult for us to understand in part because of what God asks and also because we are separated by thousands of years.  However, Isaac was not only Abraham's ONLY son, he was also the son of the promise of God.  It was through Isaac that God's promise, to make Abraham into a great nation, was to come.

But this chapter is not really about Abraham or Isaac or the gruesome act God asked Abraham to perform (an act - child sacrifice - that God abhors).  This story is not really about Abraham and Isaac at all, it's about God and His Son, Jesus.

Think of it as the modern idea of foreshadowing in books and movies.
Isaac is a representation of Jesus.  Abraham is a representation of God.
Isaac carries the wood for his own sacrifice up the hill, so did Jesus.
Abraham was the willing participant in an incredibly difficult place, the taking of his own sons life, God also willingly had to sacrifice His own Son or His death would have been stopped.
There is no indication that Isaac struggled against his father as he was bound to be placed on the alter,  neither did Jesus struggle as He was bound, beaten and hung to die.
The only real difference here is that Isaac was spared and instead a substitutionary ram was slaughtered instead.  Jesus actually was that substitutionary ram, sacrificed in your place and mine upon the alter of our own sins.

What a beautiful of picture on that mountain, not of the near sacrifice of Isaac, but of the story of Jesus sacrificial death thousands of years in the future, but played out by these actors on a lone mountain.

In verse 14 we read that Abraham called that mountain, "The Lord Will Provide" and the saying goes, "In the mount of the Lord it will be provided."

One last thought.  When you're on the mountain of the Lord that He has led you to it will be provided for you.  The problem for most of us is that we climb our own mountain.  Possessions, prestige, power, position, family or any other of a million different sorry substitutes for God and when we get to the top of our hand-made mountain we expect God to provide for us there.  God provides on His mountain.  You can't build your own life, go your own way, and expect God to rescue you - you can't expect it, but it happens anyway.

Jesus is your substitute whether your on God's mountain or your own.  He died so you don't have to no matter where you are or where you've been.  God has always provided a way for salvation because He provided His Son.  You simply have to believe that God will do and has done what He said He would, save you through Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.

He is your substitute sacrifice.  Do you believe?