Genesis 22:1-2 "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. (2) 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."
Abraham had followed God for 25 years and had experienced many things at the
hand of the Lord. He had experienced highs and lows, victories and defeat. He
had seen the power of God on many levels and had enjoyed the blessings being
bestowed. The one blessing that he waited and longed for was the promise of a
son. Sarah had given birth to Isaac. Now God was speaking directions into the
very heart and soul of Abraham: "Give me your son." What? God
had promised the son and now He was asking Abraham to offer him back. It is
amazing to me (and I'm sure most others) that Abraham immediately made
preparations and took two of his servants, Isaac, and the wood for the burnt
offering. Notice again, just as in the beginning, God said "I will tell
thee" when you arrive at the place. We would call this blind faith to
follow God without knowing where He was leading.
God brought them to Mt. Moriah where Abraham made a great statement of faith to
the two men: "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship, and come again to you." (Genesis 22:5) Notice the tense
of those verbs. Isaac and I are going there. We are going to worship. And WE
are going to "come again to you." We are told in the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews that as they made the journey, Abraham knew he was going to
offer Isaac and was confident that God was going to raise him up again. After
all, God had promised that a nation would rise up in Isaac. What great faith
was to be exercised and the great faithfulness of God would be shown. Through
this event, we can learn to place that which is the absolute dearest to us into
the hands of our Lord and He will guard and protect it with the covering of His
grace.
Excuse the length, but I cannot stop this writing without speaking of Mt.
Moriah. The city of Jerusalem would be located in Mt. Moriah. Outside the gates
of Jerusalem would occur the glorious miracle of the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. I have no problem believing
that what was about to take place for Abraham was in the exact place where the
miracle of the resurrection would take place. Tomorrow, we will look
further into the correlation between the events of Abraham and Jesus.