February 10 | Genesis 22:1-19

Pam Mann
5 days ago
3 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

The LORD Will Provide

By Pam Mann

Imagine yourself as young Isaac trekking up the steep slope with Father Abraham. You’ve got the firewood bundled on your back while Dad’s got the fire in its pot and his knife handy. Dad isn’t young. He’s not the kind of dad to run with you on a hunt, but your dad walks with God. In fact, no one you know loves the LORD God like he does. So, three days

ago, when Abraham said that God wanted a sacrifice, you didn’t hesitate to join him.

Now the donkey that had carried the wood is waiting back with the two servants who had hiked the first two days with you. It’s just the two of you now trudging up the mountain crest where your dad will make the sacrifice. Finally, you have to ask: “Father, where is the lamb for the offering?”

Abraham answers: “God Himself will provide the lamb for the offering, my son.”

When the two of you reach the site, you gather stones and construct an altar. It takes a couple hours of sweat work. Your father arranges the wood on top. And then, what? He binds you and sets you atop the wood!

This can’t be what it looks like, you think to yourself. You know how precious you are to your father, born to him in his extreme old age. Your birth was a kind of miracle, an amazing gift to your elderly parents. Then you see the knife lifted above you. But wait. It’s not coming down on you. Rather it seems to be held back by an invisible hand. You turn your head to see what has caught your father’s attention. A ram tangled up in a thicket! How ever did that get there?

The knife, which you had dreaded coming down on you, now slices the ropes which had bound your limbs. God has provided the sacrifice, just as your father said.

You, Isaac, are not the sacrifice. And every animal sacrificed in your lifetime has not sufficed as a covering for sin. Your world needs a greater Savior, a spotless lamb.

Another Father must offer up His Son. At the moment of His sacrifice, there is no other who can take His place. Instead, that Son, that perfect Lamb, takes your place and the place of every soul who calls upon Him. His precious blood is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 11:17-19 tells of Abraham’s experience of God’s provision that fateful day. In describing Abraham’s willingness to offer up his dear son, the Hebrews text states:

He (Abraham) considered that God was able even to raise him (Isaac) from the dead...

Abraham had such a deep trust in God’s faithfulness to His promise of future generations that he knew God could do all things, even raise the dead. As Abraham grasped his knife that dreadful third day, he likely reminded his soul: God will provide. Indeed, thousands of years later, on the first Easter morning, God provided again. This time He provided a way for us. God the Father raised Jesus, the sacrificed Lamb of God, from the dead.

And now, we, though Gentiles, join the family of Abraham through faith in Jesus. (Romans 6:4) We were buried with Christ by baptism into His death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we might also walk in newness of life.

PRAYER

Thank You, Father, for the confidence Abraham had in Your provision. Thank You, Jesus, for being the Lamb of God, sacrificed in our place. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for leading us in newness of life to steward all that You will provide.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.