Through the Bible: GenesisSample

Faithful Father, Beloved Son, and Innocent Lamb

He 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.” 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. So 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.”

Genesis 22:12-14 (ESV)

Watching Isaac carrying the wood to be used for his own sacrifice up the hill, Abraham kept his faith until God stopped him from sacrificing his beloved son. God honoured and provided a ram as a substitute sacrifice. There, on Mount Moriah, Abraham rejoiced, saw God as Jehovah-Jireh, that on the mount He will provide (Jn 8:56). 

Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac was also a foreshadowing of what God would do for the redemption of mankind. In the fullness of time 2,000 years later, there outside the city gate on Calvary across Mount Moriah, God the Father Himself did not withhold the heart-piercing sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus, as the lamb for the world, innocently and submissively slayed in mid-air with wood, thorns and nails. The new covenant was faithfully established. 

Prayer:

Father, You first introduced that tender love exists with mankind in Genesis 22, and You revealed its fullness in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son…” Abba, Father, we love You and thank You, for You first loved us without reservation. In Jesus' Wonderful Name.