Learning to Wait: Lessons From the Life of AbrahamSample

Shadow

"Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”" Genesis 22:2 (NIV)

Sometimes, after we witness the fulfillment of God's promise, we watch it seemingly die before our eyes. Abraham experienced this. After having his despair transform into joy over Isaac's birth (Genesis 21), God asked Abraham to do something unthinkable—to offer up his beloved son of promise as a burnt offering.

How could this be? Isaac was the promised son through whom all of God's covenant promises would be fulfilled. God himself had been clear: "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be counted" (Genesis 21:12, NET). How could God now ask for this sacrifice?

The text of Genesis doesn't reveal all that was running through Abraham's mind. But it gives us clues that he believed God's promises through Isaac would somehow endure, even if he went through with the sacrifice. He tells the servants that both he and Isaac will return after worshipping (Genesis 22:5). When Isaac asks about the lamb, Abraham expresses his faith: "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son" (Genesis 22:8). The author of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead if necessary (Hebrews 11:19).

This story challenges our understanding and may cause us to question God's character. Yet this moment was more than a test of Abraham's faith—it was a revelation of God's love and a prophetic foreshadow of the greatest provision yet to come.

Many years after Abraham died, God did what Abraham did not have to do—He gave His only Son, Jesus, for us all. In love, the Father sent and the Son came, first as a baby in Bethlehem, and ultimately to be lifted up as our perfect sacrifice. On a mountain, Abraham had declared, "The Lord will provide" (Genesis 22:14). In those words, he unknowingly preached the gospel of Jesus centuries before its time. Indeed, God has proven his love by providing for us fully and completely in Jesus, the true and better Isaac, who died and rose again.

As Abraham journeyed to Moriah, he must have felt like he was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. However, through his obedience, an even greater shadow was being cast — a foreshadow of a Father who would actually give His Son, and of a Son who would willingly become the sacrifice that paid the price of our redemption.

Practice:

One day this week, find a quiet place at sunrise or sunset when shadows are longest. Observe the shadows around you and notice how they require both darkness and light.

As you do this, consider a current "shadow" in your life—perhaps a promise from God that seems to be dying before your eyes. In this situation, are there any ways that God’s light is currently breaking through?

Prayer:

Ask the Lord to journey with you through whatever shadows you are currently enduring. Ask him to shine his light in your darkness, and to give you the strength to endure until the Day his light fully breaks through.