Demonstrating His Love

Scripture: Genesis 22:3-4 "Then [God] said [to Abraham], 'Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.' So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him."

Observation: I have always been somewhat appalled that God would test Abraham in this way and curious as to the measure of Abraham's earnestness in obedience. I picture Abraham looking with one eye to Isaac as he lay on the alter and with the other eye to God thinking, "Really?". But the details of the story now seem to paint a different picture.

1. Here we have recorded a "burnt offering" commanded well before the law had been given.
2. God asks Abraham to offer his son, his only son. The test is a test all along, but only God knew this. Certainly there were other nations giving human sacrifices. The idea wouldn't be new. The hard thing for Abraham faith (aside from losing his son, of course) would have been that God had never directed him to do something the other pagan, demon-worshipping religions did.
3. This request from God must have torn Abraham's heart o shreds. No doubt Abraham loved Isaac immensely. And yet he truly, without reservation, intended to put Isaac to death as an offering.
4. Throughout this event, God was looking forward to the time when He would not replace His Son with a ram, but rather would offer "his son, his only son" to death.
5. Like Jesus, Isaac had done nothing to deserve this end. Surely Isaac was a sinner, but to be used as a sacrifice was not a form of punishment or wrath for sacrificed object. Sacrificial objects were offered up for others. The ram that was slain was a substitute by institute of God.
6. Because Isaac had his own sin, he was an inadequate sacrifice functionally. That is why the Jews always sacrificed animals, who have no sin of their own to die for. However, the blood of animals could never truly atone for the sins of people (Hebrews 10:4). The sacrificial laws were a temporary solution intended to point men to Jesus Christ.
7. Jesus had no sin and therefore did not need to be substituted.
8. The faithfulness and greatness of Abraham as a lover of God was tested in and demonstrated by his obedience in action and heart just shy of surrendering his only son. The faithfulness and greatness of God's love was tested in and demonstrated by Him surrendering His only Son, holding nothing back, all the way to death.

Application: Obvious - I want to be like Abraham who would follow God's word completely and fully in heart. This is merely one action among many for which all people who have faith are called children of Abraham. Only the children of Abraham (Romans 9:7-8; Galatians 3:28-29) will be saved. Continue to believe in faith in all that I do and in all that I experience.

Prayer: I do not know how to relinquish all of me to You, but I pray that You teach me to loosen the grip on my life to the point that it lays in an open palm in complete offering to You. You have not called me to offer my son, but rather myself (in Romans 12:1). I love You. My You be glorified in my offering. Amen.