Good morning everyone!
Here's hoping today's chapters go better than yesterdays.
I'll be reading Genesis 22-24. In these chapters, God tests Abraham's obedience, Sarah dies, and Isaac gets a wife.
So, in chapter 22, we see God tell Abraham to take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice.
And at first, our minds rebel against the thought. Because we wonder how a loving God can ask something like that of His people. Abraham's only son. The promised son.
Of course, God stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, and sends a ram instead. Because God never intended for Isaac to die.
The whole point was Abraham's obedience.
Abraham did not withhold even his son from the Lord.
And this is perhaps an extreme case, but how often does this happen in our lives? How often does God ask us to give Him our everything as a test of obedience? So that He can bless us even further.
And how often does He ask us to give Him what we have, so He can give us something better?
I feel like I need to think about this for a while. I wonder how many times in my life God has asked for my complete, and unhesitating obedience, so that He could bless me.
None of this is new to me, but I feel like I'm finally, for the first time, truly beginning to understand complete obedience to God.
So, Abraham obeys, and Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." - Genesis 22:15-18
Now that's a blessing. Wow.
And speaking of blessings, in chapter 24, Isaac gets a wife. Abraham sends his servant back to his homeland to get a wife for his son. And Rebekah is chosen. And as she is departing, her family gives her this blessing:
Genesis 24:59 ..."May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousands, and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them."
I like that blessing. "May your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them."
It's like...may your children's enemies become their servants. May all who would do them harm, come under their rule.
And I like that blessing. A lot.
If we are obedient to God, He gives us favor, and blesses us, even in the midst of those who would destroy us.
Now, backing up for just a moment before I finish this post, in chapter 22, when Abraham is offering Isaac, his only son, as a sacrifice, I am reminded of Jesus Christ. God's only Son, offered as a sacrifice for us.
Genesis 22:7-8 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham said "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, son." So the two of them walked on together.
"God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering."
How true was that?
God provided the ram for Abraham's offering.
And God provided for Himself the only Lamb that would suffice as a sacrifice for our sins: Jesus Christ, His only Son.
It always amazes me how many parallels and references I see in the Old Testament that foreshadow the coming of Christ.
Well, that's all for today. I hope you learned along with me. I'll see you again tomorrow, when I talk about Genesis chapters 25-26.
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