God Will Provide

Genesis 22:7-14                      God Will Provide

And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” ⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

On the Mount of Calvary the Lord provided the Lamb for our offering. On the mount he did not hold back the hand that nailed his son to the cross. He did not withhold his son, his only son from us. We shake our heads at what God called on Abraham to do, even if the story did end happily. What mental anguish Abraham must have gone through for three days on his journey. Yes, we are to feel his pain, feel what it is like to give up our flesh and blood, our only child. We need to tremble at such a trial and then realize, our Father knew the cost that would be paid all along for our sin. He knew that his Son would be the Lamb that provides our salvation. However much we may know pain in this life, let us not think that our Father does not understand. He may not feel pain in the same way as we, but he understands, and he wants us to understand the cost, the full cost of our redemption. The Lord provided a ram that day for Abraham. That ram was Isaac’s substitute. He would provide a greater Lamb, a greater substitute, for us.