God Tests Abraham

God tests Abraham. He wants him to take Isaac, his beloved son and offer him as a sacrifice on one of the mountains.  Abraham, without any hesitation or objections, got up early in the morning, took Isaac and two of the men to the place which God told him of.  The journey took more than one day.

Only Abraham and Isaac went up to the mountain.  Noticing that they had everything except the sacrifice, Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Abraham’s reply was very interesting, prophetic.  “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”  Instead of us sinners dying for our sins because we had broken the law, God provided in our place, Jesus.  Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

When they got to the place which God told him about, Abraham built the altar and put Isaac on it.  One can’t help but wonder what was going through Isaac’s mind when he realized that he was the sacrifice–the lamb.  How do he feel when his father raised his hand  to slay him?  Was he relieved when the voice of heaven called out to Abraham saying, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him”?

Abraham himself was not worried about the outcome because he remembered the promise God had made to him that, “in Isaac shall thy seed be called .”  The author of Hebrews wrote that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.  He did, figuratively when a ram caught in a thicket by his horns materialized.  The ram was offered in Isaac’s place.

We see a lot of parallels here.  The ram died as a substitute for Isaac just as Jesus died as our substitute.  Abraham so loved God that he was willing to sacrifice his son.  God so loved the world that He sacrificed His only begotten Son so that whosoever believed in Jesus would not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).  Issac’s birth was promised just as Jesus’ was.