SCRIPTURE: Genesis (NIV) 22:9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
OBSERVATION: Through the years, I have heard many sermons preached about Abraham and his faith. God’s promises for Abraham’s future were all in Isaac.
But today, the Lord is speaking to me through Isaac. Isaac had surely heard the stories of how he was the son of promise. He surely knew that he would inherit all of Abraham’s possessions. He was greatly loved and valued by his father. Yet laying on the wood, bound as a lamb would be for a burnt offering, I believe Isaac came to know that God was more important to Abraham than even he was. Isaac, who had been the center of Abraham’s world, came to know that there was someone more important! There was no struggle, Isaacs trusted his father.
APPLICATION: This passage should remind us of another Son who willingly submitted Himself to his Heavenly Father’s will. For Isaac, there was a voice from heaven stopping the sacrifice. But for Jesus, no voice came. He was not only laid on the cross, but He was also crucified; He died; and He was buried.
The wages of sin is death, and because He had no sins for which to die, He died for my sins, and for your sins, and for the sins of all who will accept Him as the Lord of their lives. But, more than die, He rose from the grave showing that death is not the end.
PRAYER: Lord it is my joy to live with you now here on earth, AND to live with you in heaven for eternity! Amen
Pastor Leon
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