“But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.”
Genesis 22:7-8
Notice the repeated words, “the two of them went together.” These few words speak volumes about the relationship Isaac and Abraham had. Based on the Hebrew word “na’ar”, translated “Lad” we find a bit of insight to Isaac’s age. Scholars believe Isaac wasn’t a kid at this stage, more than likely he was around the age of thirty, which blew me away considering every Sunday school lesson about this story I had ever witnessed portrays Isaac as a child not more than 8-10 years of age.
“So what!” you say.
“What does Isaac’s age have to do with anything?” You might think.
Considering old Abe was over 100 years old, it’s not too hard to believe that a young buck like Isaac didn’t have to obey his dad when it came to being slain with a knife, burnt over a fire, and offered as a sacrifice. He could easily have run away the moment he noticed his dad’s intentions, or wrestled the knife away from Abraham, which is more than likely what anyone of us would have probably done. In this situation most of us would simply write Abraham off as old and delusional and be done with him, but not Isaac, these verses show the amount of meekness and faith that Isaac held in character.
The same is true for Jesus Christ, the pure and spotless lamb, who perfectly obeyed the Father even when led to the destination of death on the cross. The story of Isaac is like a photo negative of the story of Jesus Christ. The picture is taken and over time and through the process in the darkroom of “trial and testing” the development of the image is manifested. In the same way we see God’s “bigger picture”, or the will of the Most High Himself, which is that none would perish, but that all would be saved through the Holy offering of His Son, the “Pure and spotless lamb” which He Himself did provide. He brought the flesh for the offering by becoming like us in the flesh and dying for our sins (John 1:14). Showing the same kind of meekness and faith in the Father as Isaac, Jesus was willing to lay down His life trusting that the Father knew best.
This all serves as an encouragement and example to me. Often when I desire to “offer myself as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2) I mistakenly think that it’s a task that I must do on my own. Like Isaac shows us here on Mt. Moriah, and like Jesus on Calvary, we see that to perfectly abide and obey with the Father’s plan it takes meekness, and faith. We are to trust, sit still, and know that God is working things together for good in our character even when it seems like He’s killing us, or we’re getting burned by others, or we’re being wounded by those we love.
“Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
He is with us in the conflict, He strengthens us while we journey up the mountain to the altar, and His powerful Holy Spirit accompanies us to the altar so that we might learn to trust and not squirm away from the Fathers desire…that we too would be altered to the likeness of His Son.
“The two of them went together”
Abraham with Isaac
The Father with the Son
God Almighty with You
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Comments ( 1 Comment )
HELLO GUYS FROM THE BIG APPLE !
i like the little scribbles banner thingy.
its majour bruv.Lool.
LUCY AND SAPH! added these pithy words on
Jul 08 08 at
9:20 am
