God Provides

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

GOD PROVIDES

Gen 22:6-14

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that

NIV

This experience of Abraham's is not complete, as the LORD will speak to him again, but this part of his story has much to consider. As we had already noticed, Abraham now places the wood on Isaac to carry up to Mt Moriah, the place the LORD showed him where he was to offer a burnt offering. Of course, Jesus carried his wood through the streets of Jerusalem, built on Mt Moriah; there he offered himself for our sins; there at Calvary he took our place on the cross, where we should have been slain. Isaac did ask that important question, noting they had the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham's answer was both an act of complete faith in the LORD and a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus as the Lamb God would provide. The fact that Abraham bound Isaac and laid him on the altar of wood gives us another foreshadowing of Jesus. Isaac did not resist being bound or laid on the altar. Jesus did not resist being arrested, and later put on that altar of wood, to be the Lamb of God, slain for the world. Abraham did not withhold his only son from God; he intended to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, even though he had told his servants that both of them would return. However, God would not allow Abraham to complete the task; just as he lifted his arm with the knife in hand, God called out to him by name. Abraham had passed the test, and now God was going to provide the offering by showing Abraham a ram stuck in a thicket by its horns. Was it not there before? Did Abraham notice it before? Did the ram appear from God's hand, or did He open Abraham's eyes to see the ram, as He did for Hagar so she could see the well? In both cases, God provided as he always does. There are two ways in which we are unable to provide for ourselves. First, in the natural, where we sometimes find ourselves in a difficult situation, either financially or emotionally. Second, and most importantly, we cannot and never will be able to provide our own salvation. We will never be able to have any righteousness within because we are simply all sinners; that is, not one person is righteous- no, not one. We are blessed because God provided His Son, the Lamb of God, Jesus, to redeem us and secure our salvation. How could we ever doubt? God has always provided and will always provide.