Today, we’re going to look at, what I consider to be one of the most mind boggling events in the Old Testament, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an offering to God! What a seemingly outrageous and unthinkable command from God to Abraham, based on what we know of our God. Although for Abraham, human sacrifices were not something unfamiliar to him, because many religions of his day practiced it. And yet, God, up until this point in their relationship had never asked for him to do that.

So, even though it was not something unheard of in Abraham’s day and even though it did not make logical sense to Abraham, he still trusted in Yahweh, God Almighty. To get a better understand how Abraham could trust God in this situation let’s read about Isaac’s birth in Genesis 21:1 – 6.

Abraham could trust God, because God kept his promise of giving Abraham a son and because of Isaac’s miraculous birth.

Now remember, Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born. That’s a true miracle. There is another miraculous birth, I am sure you can recall…Mary, a virgin, gave birth to Jesus without being with a man. Both of these events, resulted from the work of the Holy Spirit. The birth of Isaac was a foreshadowing or foretelling of the birth of Jesus!

Now that we could see how Abraham might trust God and obey this mind boggling command of God, let’s turn to one of the most well-known and famous passages in the Bible in Genesis 22: 1 – 14.

Biblical scholars will say that Isaac is anywhere from age 12 to 30 at this time in his life. He carried the wood, was willingly bound and laid on the altar to be sacrificed.

This Biblical account, like the other of his birth, is another foreshadowing or foretelling of a future event to come, Jesus’ willingness to be sacrificed by His Father, God.

And just as mind boggling as it was for us to understand how Abraham obeyed God and could offer up his only son that he had been promised to be his heir, it can be equally mind boggling for us to understand how God could offer up His only begotten Son to be a sacrifice for us! Look back at Genesis 22: 12 – 14 one more time.

In verse 13, God kept His promise to Abraham about his heir Isaac, by stopping the sacrifice and providing a ram to take Isaac’s place on the altar. This is another foreshadowing or foretelling.

God provided the best and only solution to fulfill the law and forgive us of our sin in Jesus death on the cross. We read that it was prescribed as the cure for our sin long before creation itself in I Peter 1: 18 – 20.

As the ram was provided to take Isaac’s place and allow him to live, so Jesus, the lamb, was provided to take our place and allow us to live!

When we think of Isaac’s experience with his father on the way to Mount Moriah, we see the gospel story foretold. They travelled three days to Mount Moriah and it took three days from Jesus arrest to Calvary. Both Isaac and Jesus were as good as dead to their prospective fathers, because their destiny to die was to be without return on their way to die. Isaac even carried the wood for the offering as Jesus carried the wooden cross. Even though Isaac did not actually die, in God’s eyes Isaac died figuratively. Turn to Hebrews 11: 17 – 19.

Did you catch the last part of verse 19?

Isaac was figuratively raised up from the dead, foretelling of the literal event of

Jesus being raised from the dead!

Now that we have seen how the account of Abraham sacrificing his son on Mount Moriah was a foreshadowing or foretelling of the coming death and resurrection of Jesus, there is also an ongoing example of this today that we can see. It is a unique example of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus that effects every Christian. Turn to Romans 12:1.

Do you think Abraham asked Isaac to be the sacrifice? Do you know God the Father asked Jesus to be the sacrifice for us? And here in Romans Chapter 12 God asks us through the Apostle Paul, to be a “living sacrifice”.

Isaac laid himself down willingly as a sacrifice, so did Jesus.

Are you willing to do the same?______________________

We must give all that we are to God to be in His perfect will. (Rom. 12:2)