I really didn\u2019t want to be assigned this passage because it\u2019s hard to wrestle with. I\u2019ve been a Christian most of my life, and still, when I read this passage about Isaac and Abraham walking up the mountain, I simply want to throw my Bible across the room. Why in the world would God ask Abraham to do this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a host of things that God asks His people to do that, without faith and understanding of context surrounding these passages, seem really wild. Earlier in Genesis, God asked Abraham to circumcise every man in his household, even his servants. Today, Christians are asked to live in obedience to a lot of biblical commands which make no sense to the world and its culture today. We\u2019re asked to think of others as better than ourselves. We\u2019re asked to go out of our way to give to and love others\u2014even our enemies. These commands might seem obvious if you\u2019ve been in church for a long time. But outside of the lens of faith, they really make no sense at all. Only God can give us the strength and faith needed to obey Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so, I\u2019m left to believe that God must have given Abraham the strength and faith to obey even this seemingly insane command. Why would God have Abraham sacrifice this child, the one he and Sarah had waited and longed for throughout their lives? Why this child of the promise? If you remember Genesis chapter 21, you\u2019ll recall that Abraham had just sent his other child, Ishmael, away. So now, if he were to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, he would have no children at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Abraham trusted God. He trusted that God was good. Abraham had learned that obedience to God brings greater blessing than pain. So if God was asking him to surrender to something painful\u2014something as horrific as offering up his only son\u2014then there must be an even more abundant blessing on the other side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure I would have had the faith to walk up that mountain. But because Abraham obeyed, we now get to witness, through Scripture, the first example of substitutionary sacrifice, as God provided a ram in the thicket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you know who else walked up a mountain that led directly to an inconceivable sacrifice? Jesus. Only when Jesus walked to Calvary, when the Roman guard slammed hammer into iron, through flesh, there was no ram in the thicket (Genesis 22:13). Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, became the sacrifice. God willingly gave His Son, and Jesus willingly gave His life because of His love (John 3:16). And because of His supernatural, unexplainable, indescribable obedience, we now have peace with God. Thanks be to God for obedience and the peace that comes with it\u2014things that we may not be able to understand but can only pray to have His strength and faith to emulate that same trust in Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I really didn\u2019t want to be assigned this passage because it\u2019s hard to wrestle with. I\u2019ve been a Christian most of my life, and still, when I read this passage about Isaac and Abraham walking up the mountain, I simply want to throw my Bible across the room. Why in the world would God ask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":71767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genesis25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[71878],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"She Reads Truth","devotional_text":"ISAAC OFFERED OFF<\/b>
\r\nby Claire Gibson<\/i>
\r\n
I really didn\u2019t want to be assigned this passage because it\u2019s hard to wrestle with. I\u2019ve been a Christian most of my life, and still, when I read this passage about Isaac and Abraham walking up the mountain, I simply want to throw my Bible across the room. Why in the world would God ask Abraham to do this?<\/p>
\r\n
There are a host of things that God asks His people to do that, without faith and understanding of context surrounding these passages, seem really wild. Earlier in Genesis, God asked Abraham to circumcise every man in his household, even his servants. Today, Christians are asked to live in obedience to a lot of biblical commands which make no sense to the world and its culture today. We\u2019re asked to think of others as better than ourselves. We\u2019re asked to go out of our way to give to and love others\u2014even our enemies. These commands might seem obvious if you\u2019ve been in church for a long time. But outside of the lens of faith, they really make no sense at all. Only God can give us the strength and faith needed to obey Him.<\/p>
\r\n
And so, I\u2019m left to believe that God must have given Abraham the strength and faith to obey even this seemingly insane command. Why would God have Abraham sacrifice this child, the one he and Sarah had waited and longed for throughout their lives? Why this child of the promise? If you remember Genesis chapter 21, you\u2019ll recall that Abraham had just sent his other child, Ishmael, away. So now, if he were to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, he would have no children at all.<\/p>
\r\n
But Abraham trusted God. He trusted that God was good. Abraham had learned that obedience to God brings greater blessing than pain. So if God was asking him to surrender to something painful\u2014something as horrific as offering up his only son\u2014then there must be an even more abundant blessing on the other side.<\/p>
\r\n
I\u2019m not sure I would have had the faith to walk up that mountain. But because Abraham obeyed, we now get to witness, through Scripture, the first example of substitutionary sacrifice, as God provided a ram in the thicket.<\/p>
\r\n
Do you know who else walked up a mountain that led directly to an inconceivable sacrifice? Jesus. Only when Jesus walked to Calvary, when the Roman guard slammed hammer into iron, through flesh, there was no ram in the thicket (Genesis 22:13). Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords, became the sacrifice. God willingly gave His Son, and Jesus willingly gave His life because of His love (John 3:16). And because of His supernatural, unexplainable, indescribable obedience, we now have peace with God. Thanks be to God for obedience and the peace that comes with it\u2014things that we may not be able to understand but can only pray to have His strength and faith to emulate that same trust in Him.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"16","scripture":"Genesis 22:1-24, Genesis 23:1-20, Psalm 40:16-17, John 3:16, Hebrews 11:8-12","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}