Reading:
And
it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto
him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him
there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee
of. And Abraham rose up early in the
morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac
his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto
the place of which God had told him.
Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar
off. And Abraham said unto his young
men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship,
and come again to you. And Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he
took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them
together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he
said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them
together. And they came to the place
which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood
in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the
wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the
lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked,
and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and
Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son. And Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the
mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Commentary:
God's
"tempting" here of Abraham, was God testing of Abraham's faith. Indeed it was a great test or temptation, yet
"God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it." As God spared Abraham of this sacrifice in
the nick of time, so He always grants us relief just when we are about to
break. Yet we do "break", near
the end of our test when we yield to God's will, putting ourselves, our life,
body and soul entirely in His hands.
This lesson regarding Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, naturally is
to teach the greater sacrifice of Jesus, by God the Father. When we contemplate God's command that Abraham
sacrifice his only son (and what we would do if God commanded us such), how
much more does it mean to us knowing God the Father literally and truly offer
up His own Son for all the world, "for God so loved the world, that He
gave His only-begotten Son….." What
is more, the Son Jesus was willing to be offered up in such a way, that you and
I, we, and all people, also our children would be saved from sin and death and
eternal hell. Knowing this, if God calls
our own child to heaven through death, through the first gift of His Son Jesus,
our child will enter everlasting life.
No comments:
Post a Comment