Published by Deborah Negron- Child of God
May 19, 2022
We are people who want to know where things are coming from. We want to have all our ducks in a row. We like continuity. Human nature is made up of learning and making routines. We love tradition and ritual. It makes life easier to know the how and the why. Abraham was told by God to leave his comfort zone. He had to go to a land he was unfamiliar with. He had to go without a GPS. He simply had to Trudt God. He had to Believe God. He had to Follow and Just Go.
This is not easy for our American mindset. We live under a democracy and are accustomed to hearing that we have rights. We have laws and we have the right to choose.
One way to consider this is, there are tracks for the train. We know how to travel on those tracks. They have a specific span they cover.
But more often than not, Faith in God requores us to take an unknoen route. He also asks us to only take the Scriptures along. That is in our case, the Word of God. For us there is some guidance. But for Abraham, he was as if he were a blindfolded man. He had to follow.
God had made a promise to him.
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3
Well, many days had passed since that promise. And now Abraham was Old and God had goven him Isaac. Yes, the child born to the barren woman Sarah Abraham’s wife, in their old age. The Lord had been faithful to Abraham. But as it were a time came for God to test Abraham’s faith.
We are all tested. We will all see points in our lives where we must choose to Trust God even in the midst of hard trials. We will have to face moments where we will know if we truly believe.
Let’s look at the scriptures.
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. 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. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Genesis 22:1-8
Has the Lord asked you to give up to Him a possession so great that is cut you to the core? Has he asked you to offer up the very thing you held closest to your heart?
Has the Lord brought you to a decision that is difficult and one that truly appears to be irrational and even absurd, in human terms?
What is it about us that we cling to others more than we cling to God. How is it that Adam seeing that Eve had eaten from the fruit of the forbidden tree in the midst of the garden, chose to sin by joining her in his action and his decision to also eat of thw forbidden fruit?
Adam chose to sin against God, rather than to lose his mate.
Abraham did not tell his servants what the Lord had asked of him. He possibly did not even tell his wife. (This is a personal speculation, for scripture does not divulge this.)
Abraham, however, had the determination to trist God. To obey God and to believe that God was able to do anything. His son asked him a direct question. The custom was to go up to the mountain and offer up a sacrifice to the Lord. A sacrifice perhaps for sin or for gratitud. The child understood, there was the kindling for fire and he perhaps understood rhat his father carried a knife for this purpose. He also noted that there was no lamb. There was no animal for the sacrifice. Isaac followed his father Abraham up the mountain. He thought within himself. Abraham had a response that ought to be our response when we do not understand what we are facing. When we feel perplexed and bewildered by the facts. When what God seems to be asking of us seems too impossible and difficult. We can simply surrender our own expectation and wills. We can relinquish our wills.
Abraham said, with great faith… He said it with a trust and confidence in God that leaves us completely at a loss.
Abraham said clearly,
And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
Genesis 22:8
What a response.
He did not try to find a logical answer. He did not say I am not sure. He did not even tell the child what was happening. He just said, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
Oh the picture of Abraham points to the Cross of Jesus. The picture of Adam shows us how difficult it is to let go of sin. Adam felt compelled in following Eve in to the sin she was fooled in to commiting. But Adam joined her in her sin.
Abraham points to us the picture of things to come. His willingness to obey the Lord. Is the same willingness of God’s own Son, Jesus.
Jesus came. He agreed with the Godhead trinity. That is Father God, Father Son and God the Holy Spirit – the triune God formdd this plan of redemption before the world wven began.
God knew Adam woumd fail. He knew sin would come. He understood that mankind would be lost unless there was a plan in place to restore mankind, all of us, to a right relationship with God.
So in this plan we read that Jesus came. He gave himself an offering and a Sacrifice.
You see, that picture of our Father Abraham surrendering to the will of God is a picture of Jesus saying, Father, Send Me, I will go.
John 3:16 -18 says,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
His initial intention was to make a way. His plan from the start was a plan of Mercy and Love.
He chose Abraham and told him that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his seed.
Isaac was that seed. Isaac was Abraham’s son with his wife Sarah. God had already done the impossible. He had opened the womb of a barren, old woman. Yet with God there is no thing that is impossible.
So, there in the mount Moriah stood Abraham over his son, Isaac.
But Abraham was eillong to obey God. He did not hold on to anything, he surrendered his son.
Just as the Father surrendered Jesus for us. Now we see Abraham willing to obey God.
Then I remember what Abraham said to Isaac. He had said,
God will provide himself a lamb.
Yes, God prepared for himself a Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God. God the Father sent his son to atone for the sins of thw world. He made a way for the sin of Adam to be gone from our DNA. Our innate inclination for self and for self preservation. Our desore to have and to get, to keep and to hold on to. Our egocentric desire to maintain our ground. That self serving ego which tells us ojr will is most important.
This is what God came to redeem. He came to redeem us from our wayward thinking. His desire was to provide a Lamb. A sacrifice that eould once and for all take away the stain of selfish sin we all have.
Abraham surrendered Isaac willingly. He put his emotions aside. He just chose to Believe God.
As he was about to stab his son. Abraham heard the Angel of the Lord say, And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Genesis 22:11-12
What a tremendous faith. What obedience.
Lord, today We cling to so many things. We cling to positions and to toxic relationships. We cling to detrimental grudges and to ideas that hinder us from seeing your ultimate plan.
Abraham trusted that God would supply. He believed God’s promise that he would gove him an inheritance and descendants that would be as the number of the stars in the sky and the sand on the earth.
He believed God so much, that he is revered.
Listen to what The book of Hebrews says of Abraham.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Hebrews 11:8-13
Today, Lord what are you asking of me. Help me to surrender it. Through Jesus, the seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth have a Lamb. You provided for us a Lamb. You provided the one that would take the place of each of us once and for all.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
John 1:29-34
The Lamb….
Jesus is the Lamb God provided.
Isaac did not have to die. Adams choice no longer has to remain as our stain. Jesus is the Lamb of God.
He has come that we could be set free. He has delivered us from the punishment of sin. He has taken our shame and blame so we can reign with Him.
Oh Jesus is the provision for your pardon and mine..
He is the picture of perfect obedience. He surrendered to the will of the Father.
saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Luke 22:42
Today Lord, I surrender. Whatever is hindering me from doing your will., take it. I surrender everything that could be keeping me fro. Obeying you and following you completely.
Lord, my desires are yours. My hopes are in you. Me purpose is to honor you. My wayward heart change and restore un to me the joy of my salvation.
Christ you are my purpose.
For in You Lord, we live and move and have our being.’ …. ‘For we are also Your Children.’
(Acts 17:28 paraphrased).
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
John 1:12
Yes, today I surrender all. I pray for all who read this.
I pray we are able to leave whatever hinders us from commiting to your will for our lives. You provided a way. You made us acceptable to the Father.
Like Abraham obeyed, help us obey you..
Like Jesus surrendered your will, help us surrender and live in such a way that t the evidence of our faith wll be seen and bring glory to God.
You provided the Lamb.
Life and Faith By Deb 
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