The Lord Will Provide
Please read Genesis 22:1-18 before you begin this blog. I know it’s long, but I promise, if you take the time to read it, this blog will be a much greater blessing to your heart.
Genesis 22:2-3: “God said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his 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.
Abraham had been promised a lineage that would multiply into a great nation, as many as the stars in the heavens. (Genesis 15:5) Now that his promised son has been born in his old age, Abraham has been commanded by God to sacrifice this one and only promised son as a burnt offering to the God who had given Isaac to him.
God had performed a miracle when he gave Isaac to 100 year-old Abraham and 90 year-old Sarah. He was part of an everlasting covenant from God, who promised Abraham more descendants through Isaac then the stars in the heavens. And suddenly, after 25 years of waiting for Isaac to come, and 14-15 years of life as a family, God is asking Abraham to kill his son? What?!?!
Abraham must have been so confused…so overwhelmed with questions…so grief-stricken…so distraught.
How could he possibly raise a knife to his own child, whom he loves more than life itself?
What is this going to do to Sarah? How would he begin to explain this to her?
What would he say to Isaac, who was now a curious, perceptive teenager?
How would Abraham ever be able to live with himself?
But the scriptures tell us that Abraham obeyed without question…without protest… without running away…without delay. Verse 3 says that Abraham got up early the next morning set out for Mt. Moriah.
What could possibly have given him the strength to obey such a horrendous, unspeakable, excruciatingly painful command?
Abraham believed that God would provide the sacrifice for the burnt offering.
Genesis 22:8: “Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.”
Although Abraham had never before seen a person come back from the dead, he believed that God was able to raise the dead.
Hebrews 11:17-19: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”
Genesis 22:5, “And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you.”
Abraham believed so strongly that the Lord would either bring Isaac back from the dead or provide a substitute that he immediately obeyed God, even when the thing God commanded must have felt like it would utterly destroy him.
No wonder Abraham is known throughout history for his faith.
No wonder his faith was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6)
But, wait. Is Abraham really the hero of this story? Yes, he believed God, but why did he believe God? Was it because Abraham was great? Absolutely not. He believed God because:
· God is who He says He is: Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide.
· God will do what He says He will do: He will provide.
It is because of God’s faithfulness, not Abraham’s, that he could confidently trust God to come through.
What if God had kept His word the way we keep our word? Would Abraham had been so confident to put his son’s life on the line? I don’t think so.
It wasn’t Abraham’s faith, but God’s faithfulness, that made it possible for Abraham to trust and obey.
What about you? Is God’s faithfulness enough for you to consistently trust Him—even in the worst of times? Is He trustworthy enough for you to obey Him in everything, even the scary, painful things?
I want to challenge you today to put into action your profession of faith: trust and obey Him in everything. Even the hardest things. He will never fail you, because…
God is who He says He is; and He will do what He says He will do.
