Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Genesis 22:2 NIV
The Lord God asked Abraham to do a most difficult thing. To offer his son as a sacrifice to the Lord, the son whom he loved ever so dearly. We need to take note of how the Lord stressed Abraham’s love for his son, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love.” Abraham was given Isaac in his old age. He had been hoping for the promised son for decades, and he had all his dreams wrapped up in him. Why would the Lord demand such a thing from Abraham? Very simply, He was putting Abraham to the supreme test of life, the absolute sacrifice and surrender of himself to the Lord. Step by step the Lord led him to the point of absolute surrender. How? He led Abraham to absolute surrender by taking the most precious thing in his life and leading him to surrender that thing as an offering, as a sacrifice to Him. It was Abraham’s heart, his willingness, his spiritual surrender that the Lord was after, not Isaac’s life. The Lord always has to use the language and the things of our environment if He wishes His message to be communicated and understood. In Abraham’s day the sacrifice of human beings was the supreme act of worship by some of the religions, for example Canaanite religions. When the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham knew exactly what the Lord was saying to him. Abraham knew that the Lord was after the absolute surrender of his heart, his will, his spirit.
PRAYER THOUGHT
All to Jesus I surrender, worldly pleasures all forsaken, take me, Jesus.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
All to Jesus I surrender, humbly at His feet I bow, worldly pleasures all forsaken, take me, Jesus, take me now. AMEN
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE READING ASSOCIATION (IBRA)
Matthew 21:28-46
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