Sara Gave Birth to Isaac
Now Abraham moved on from there (Hebron) into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shut. For a while he stayed in Gerar.
Genesis 21:1-4 "Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumscised him, as God commanded him."
God always fulfills His promises for God cannot lie. Abraham's faith in God and his promises was not in vain.
Abraham Sacrifice Isaac
Genesis 21:5 "Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Genesis 22:34 " And Abraham stayed in the land of the Philistines for a long time.
Genesis 22:1 "Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him: " Abraham!" Here I am replied. Then God said:
Genesis 22:2...Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.
What? Isaac will be offered as a burnt sacrifice? Had not God promised that Abraham have many descendants? Why is God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac in Mt. Moriah? Is he taking Isaac away? Wasn't it that Abel and Noah only sacrificed animals as burnt sacrifices and not human beings? What is God trying say? Abraham did not understand all this; yet he trusted and obeyed God.
Genesis 22:3-8 " Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" Yes my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood is here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went together.
Abraham knew that God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. He even made Isaac carry the wood on his shoulder and he himself carried the fire and the knife. This means that his son Isaac whom he loved so much will die. However, as they walked towards the mountain, Abraham let out a sigh of hope from the depth of his heart. When asked about the lamb, Abraham said to Isaac:
"God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."
Abraham still believed and had Faith that God would provide a lamb substitute to die in place of Isaac even when Isaac was almost certain to die.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arrange the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then, mournful yet obedient, Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from Heaven:
Genesis 22:11-12...Abraham! Abraham!" Here I am, "he replied. 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.
God was only testing Abraham, but God was deeply moved by the measure of Faith of Abraham toward him. Then God provided the lamb for the burnt offering according to the Faith and Abraham.
Genesis 22:13-14 "Abraham looked up and there in the 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. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord if will be provided.
Isaac was saved from death because God provided a ram substitute sacrifice to die in his place. Through Faith, salvation comes by the grace of God to those who place their Faith in the living God. Again God confirmed confirmed that man shall be saved only if man has a substitute sacrifice to die in his of her place. Without a substitute, man will die for his sins.
God revealed this truth in Eden when, after He promised a Savior would crush Satan and foretold that he would suffer, God killed an animal in order to clothe Adam and Eve with its skin as a garment. By His act, God showed how the promised Savior will suffer to redeem mankind.
As pictured by the animal burnt sacrifices, when the Savior comes to fulfill the prophecy of the animal burnt sacrifice, God will charge the punishment of death on the Savior to redeem man from the wages of sin which is death.
Hence, the promised Savior will die for man's sins, like the animal sacrifice. The Savior is man's substitute that man may live and not die. It was through Faith on this Truth as pictured or preached by their animal sacrifices that God accepted Abel and Noah.
Through this testing, Abraham saw the days of the promised Savior(Jn.8:56) who, like a lamb from God, would take the place and die as a substitute sacrifice for every sinner who will believe in God's message and promises like Isaac and Abraham.
Like Isaac, who was a promised son to Sarah, the Savior is also a promised son who will be born as seed of a woman. He will carry wood on his shoulder towards the mountain where he will be slain like a burnt animal sacrifice.
However, unlike Isaac who is an unacceptable sacrifice for he is also a sinner, the Savior will be innocent like a ram from God whose head was caught in the thicket.
When Abraham understood the "good news" when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham was glad. (Jn.8:56)
Genesis 22:15-18 "The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time, and said I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
Because Abraham had Faith and was obedient to God's message, God swore by Himself (because there is no other being higher than God by which God can swear) to bless Abraham....and he will surely receive what God promised him.
Try Faith produces obedience, and obedience brings blessings to those who believe in God and His promises. But to the unbelieving and disobedient, misfortune would come upon them who do not have faith in God and his promises.
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