THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM
Abraham awoke in the night. Was someone calling him? Yes. "Abraham! Abraham!" And Abraham knew that it was God's voice that he heard calling.
He said, "Yes here I am."
But when God answered, it was such a terible message that Abraham thought he must be dreaming a bad dream. "Abraham," said the Lord, "take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. Take him and go to Mount Moriah, and there offer him for a burnt offering."
Could he really be hearing God? The God who had given him and Sarah a son in their old age? The God who had said, "In Isaac shall your name be carried on," and "You shall become many nations and many people? How could it be, if he was to slay his son and offer him, like a lamb, as a burnt offering?
Sometimes, Abraham knew, that was done by fathers in that land. They offered their oldest son as a burnt offering to their false gods.But the true God had never asked for a child or any human being to be offered to Him as a burnt offering. Could it be, Abraham thought that he was listening to one of those false and evil gods, or devils, asking him to destroy his only hope, his only son? Isaac had grown to be about 20 years old.
Abraham struggled in his mind. And he prayed. But he had known God so long, he had heard His voice so many times, that now he could not doubt. That was his God speakng to him. And he thought, "If God really tells me to, I must obey. He can raise Isaac from the dead, if He will. I must go."
So softly he aroused Isaac, and led him out of the tent. He did not waken Sarah, Isaac's mother. He could not bear to tell her what God had told him to do. Silently in the night, with Isaac and two young men, his servants, and a mule loaded with dry wood, and with fire in an iron basket, Abraham started on his three day journey.
Finaly they came in sight of Mount Moriah. Abraham said to the young men, "Stay here, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you." He bound the wood on Isaac's back, he took the fire in the iron basket and a knife in his hand, and started with Isaac up the steep way.
Then Isaac said "My father!"
"Yes, my son."
"Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Abraham could not bring himself to tell the awful truth to his son. He answered, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
But when they came to the top of the mountain, there was nothing to do but tell his son the truth. Isaac was astonished and dismayed, but he was an obedient son. He was indeed like a lamb. He said, "Father, if God has told you to do this, then you must do it."
They built an alter of stones and laid wood on it. Then Abraham bound Isaac as he would bind a lamb, and laid him on the wood. In an agony, he reached for his knife to plunge into his son's heart.
Then he heard a voice. God called to him, and said, "Abraham!"
"Here I am."
"Lay not your hand on the lad. For now I know that you love God, seeing that you would not keep back your only son from Me."
Abraham looked around in a daze, and he saw a sheep caught by his horns in a thicket. Quickly unbinding his son, he caught the sheep and offered him on the alter instead of Isaac.
Then Abraham's eyes were opened further, and he saw what God's plan was. God would give His own, the Son of God, to be the sacrifice for men. The lamb Abraham offered and the son he was willing to offer pointed forward to the Lamb, the Son of God would provide, to die for the sins of the world. And thankfully, with a new vision, Abraham took Isac and went home to Sarah.
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"Faith made even Sarah herself able to have a child, although she was past the time of her life for it, because she thought that he who had made the promise would keep it. Faith enabled Abraham, when he was put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had accepted God's promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, of whom he had been told. "Your posterity is to arise through Isaac!" For he believed that God was able to raise men even from the dead, and from the dead he did indeed, to speak figuratively, receive him back." Hebrews 11;11, 17;19
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Remember,Jesus Loves You!
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