Easter Week Devotional by Barbara Baker
And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the Donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.
Genesis 22:5
In reading this quite familiar accounting of Abraham and his son, Isaac, it can be easy to miss the use of we” at the end of verse 5. God told Abraham in verse 2, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, who you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt offering…” As Abraham gets the wood, fire, and his son ready to go up the mountain to make a sacrifice, he tells the men with him that, “we will come back to you.”
Isaac is a faithful servant of Yahweh, so what is his plan?
As the story progresses, Isaac asks his father, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham responds, “My Son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”
What faith Abraham had at this challenging point! We can try to soften the story and say that Abraham didn’t want to tell Isaac that he was the sacrifice or that Abraham couldn’t find the courage to say anything in front of the men minding the donkeys. Yet it is just wrong to try to twist the Word of God or explain it in delicate terms to make it palatable to our way of thinking.
Let’s tell it like it is! This story is a foreshadowing of God’s own Son being sacrificed for our sins. Jesus was the lamb that Abraham found caught in the thickets (verse 13) as a substitute sacrifice.
Isaac even carried the wood up the mountain, just as Jesus carried the Cross up Calvary. Abraham, God’s good and faithful servant, was chosen to show mankind that in a time to come, our Heavenly Father would provide His Son as a sacrifice – a substitute for all our sins.
Genesis 22 verses 14 and 18 read, “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided’ . . . In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
The blessing came to all mankind when our Lord’s dead body was removed from the Cross, lay in a tomb and sealed for all to see, and then miraculously resurrected on the third day. The blessing of His resurrection confirmed forgiveness for all who call upon His Name. New life is ours when we confess our sins, repent, and ask Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.
Thank you, Lord, for the words of young Isaac asking about the sacrificial lamb. Father God, point us to Jesus and the Resurrection.
Jesus loves you! Me, too!