Day 7: Abraham, Part Two

God selected a nation, Israel, and cultivated that nation's faith so that through it His Son, the Messiah, could eventually be born and save the world. And the nation of Israel began with the faithful obedience of Abraham. 

In Genesis 22, God dramatically tested Abraham's faith. He told Abraham, "Take now 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" (v. 2). That doesn't make any sense, does it? Abraham waited twenty-five years to have Isaac, who was the fulfillment of God's promise. Isaac's birth was nothing short of a miracle. Was God now asking Abraham to murder his son, the product of his faith? 

This is the first time the Bible uses the word love, and it refers to a father's love for his only son about to be offered in sacrifice. Does that sound familiar? It should. This pivotal chapter is merely a preview of another Father who would sacrifice His only Son on the very same mountain.  

In an incredible demonstration of faith, Abraham "rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him" (v. 3). When they arrived, Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you" (v. 5). 

What a statement of faith. God said, "Sacrifice your son"; Abraham said, "My son and I will be back." Abraham fully intended to obey God, but he also fully expected God to be faithful. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son…concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead" (Hebrews 11:17, 19).  

Abraham was right about the faithfulness—and character—of God. God provided a ram for Abraham to offer in place of his son, but not until Isaac was bound on the wooden altar his father built and Abraham gripped a knife to slay him. 

This momentous chapter concludes with God repeating His promises to Abraham: "Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore…. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice" (vv. 17-18). 

Abraham did not withhold his only son from God. And thankfully, God did not withhold His only Son from us.