Genesis 22:9-14. 9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Abraham and Sarah waited years for God to fulfill his promise to them. But then, finally their baby son had come. Yay! Isaac was literally a miracle, a walking, talking testimony to God’s faithfulness. He’s the covenant promise in the flesh. Nothing is impossible for God. And they lived happily ever after. The end.
Not quite.
Then Genesis 22 happened. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son.
Genesis 22:2. “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, 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.”
How could Abraham be expected to do such a thing? And how could God even ask? Doesn’t this make God bad? No. Why not? Because God is testing Abraham. As we can see in today’s scripture, God won’t actually make Abraham sacrifice Isaac.
When we hear this hard story, we usually think that God is testing Abraham’s devotion. Devotion means loyalty, faithfulness, or commitment. We think that God just wanted to see if Abraham would obey him. But is that really what God is doing? Is this really just a test of Abraham’s devotion? Hasn’t Abraham already proven his loyalty? He left Ur. He waited for decades. He kicked out Hagar and Ishmael! Hasn’t Abraham already proven enough to God?
The ram in the bush is the answer. The ram?
Genesis 22:13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
If God only cared about testing Abraham’s devotion and loyalty, then he would have stopped Abraham from killing Isaac and ten said, “Good job you passed the test.” But that wasn’t the end of the story. You see, something still really did have to die for Abraham. Not Isaac. But a substitute – the ram!
Genesis 22 is a test, but it is not a test of Abraham’s devotion. It is a test of his dependency. Dependency means to need something. It means you can’t live without it. We depend on air, and food, and water to stay alive. And we depend on God.
After years of trusting in God, Abraham has proven his devotion to God. But the question is does Abraham understand his need for salvation no matter how “good” he’s been? Does he understand his need for a sacrifice? Yes, God is his friend, but is God also his savior? This story in Genesis is the first time that one thing has died for the sins of another. First it was going to be Isaac dying for Abraham’s sins. But then God gave them a ram to die as Isaac’s substitute.
You see, Abraham’s biggest need was not a son. It was not an heir to inherit all his wealth or to carry on his legacy. His biggest need was to have someone or something to die for his sins. And that is our biggest need too. You need a savior more than you need anything else in the whole world.
And God has provided a savior. Abraham said, the Lord has provided. Jehovah Jireh.
God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, was more than a test. It was a revelation. It was a picture of Jesus. Isaac carrying the wood on his back up the hill, what does that remind you of? That’s right, Jesus carrying his cross of wood up the hill to Calvary where he would die for our sins like the ram caught in the bushes. But no ram will take Jesus’ place on that day. Jesus will die willingly for us so that we might live for him.
Never forget, all of life is a test. But not a test of our devotion to God. God doesn’t have much use for our devotion to him. Instead all of life is a test to see if we will depend on God, trusting him to save us from our sin, today, and every day. With Jesus we can always pass that test.
You: Do you think that you are a sinner that needs to be saved?
You with Jesus: How does the cross of Jesus prove that we need to depend on him to save us? Have you done this? Have you trusted in Jesus alone to take away your sins?
Prayer: Father, you have provided Jesus for me. Thank you! Amen.
TLICfamily 