Beginning at verse 1 of Genesis
chapter 22, it says, and we'll read through verse 19. It came
to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham and
said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. And
he said, God said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer
him there a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I
will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him, and Isaac his son, and claved the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had
told him. Then on the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son,
to carry it, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife,
and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father? And he said, Here am I, my son. And Isaac said, Behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And
Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together.
And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham
built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound
Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his
son, And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven,
and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he
said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from
me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day, in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the Lord
called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By
myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done
this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which
is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies, and in thy seed all the nations of the earth
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou
hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his
young men, and they rose up, and went together to Beersheba,
and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba." Amazing, isn't that? Amazing
that someone like Abraham would offer up his son. God never required
anyone in scripture to kill their child as a sacrifice. But here,
Abraham was asked, God told Abraham to do that very thing. Take your
son and offer him up. Back in verse 1 it says, it came
to pass after these things. After what things? Well, after
everything we've read about Abraham, particularly about the immediate
thing that was in the context here, but you remember how Abraham
left Ur, the Chaldees, when God called him, that land of idolaters,
his family who were idol worshippers, and he himself, part of that
family, and God called him out to come out of that land, and
he went out. He didn't know where he was going, but God called
him to go to a land he would show to him. That was the first
test. And then after that, the famine came in Egypt. And Abraham
had to go down to Egypt. That was a test. And there, Abraham,
in the weakness of his faith, told the people there, Pharaoh's
servants, that his wife, Sarah, was just his sister. Didn't tell
them that she was also his wife. And that was a failure on his
part. And then, when Lot's herdmen argued and strove with Abraham's
herdmen, Then Abraham was tested again. He didn't go back to the
country he came from. He didn't go looking for the
wealth and comfort and ease in Sodom. But he let Lot take the
first choice. He was content to abide in the
land God promised would be his and his children after him. And
so throughout Abraham's life you see this testing going on
over and over. Remember the account with Ishmael.
Abraham and Sarah, long time, he was 80 some years old, 86
I think, and they decided that God's promise needed their help.
They had to do their part. And so he learned the lesson
between works and grace through that failure on his part to believe
God. But in the following promises
that happened, God promised that they would have a son, Isaac,
that very year. And then Abraham laughed. He
couldn't believe it. He was 99 years old when that
happened. And Sarah also laughed when she
heard it. And so you see the trials of Abraham's faith through
all that God promised. Abraham didn't fully understand
what it was, how God was going to bring about the salvation
through his seed that he promised when he said, But God was going to teach him,
and that's what he does here. Specifically, right here, the
Lord God is bringing to a climax Abraham's life and the promise
that he made to him. And so it says, And it came to
pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said
to him, Abraham, God doesn't tempt man. It says in James chapter
1, God is not tempted, neither does He tempt any man with evil.
But in tempting here, it means that He tried Abraham. He tested
him. And God knew what was in Abraham,
but He wanted to show us what Abraham believed. So that as
we believe as Abraham did, then we can see the gospel in
that. And that's why he tried him in
this way. In order to teach us the gospel,
in order to teach us what believers believe. And so what we find
in this section of scripture that we just read through here,
is two things that are amazing. The first is that God offered
his son a burnt offering, which is depicted by Abraham offering
Isaac. And the second thing we learn
that's amazing here is the faith that God gave Abraham in what
he said, that Abraham simply believed God. And those two things
are very clear on the surface here. But I want you to see also
here how the Lord used this. Remember in Genesis chapter 20
and verse 7, God told Abimelech, who was not Abraham's. He was in the land of the Philistines,
I think. And Abraham had told Abimelech
that Sarah, again, was just his sister. And then after that,
God came to Abimelech in a dream in verse 7 and told Abimelech
in a dream that Abraham was a prophet. Very important statement. The
first time the word prophet is even used in scripture. Abraham
was a prophet. And so what Abraham said and
what Abraham did was pointing forward to what God was trying
to say in all of scripture. That's what prophets do. Not
just what they say, but what they do. The Lord Jesus is a
prophet, isn't he? He came and he preached the gospel. And he came and he fulfilled
the gospel. That's what prophets do. Whatever
they say is from God. Whatever happens to them in their
life is a depiction of the message that they bring. And Abraham's
words and Abraham's life here is a prophecy of what God would
do. And so what he's doing here,
when God spoke to him, and it's recorded here by Moses in Genesis.
What happened to Abraham and all that Abraham did is a picture. It's a corresponding picture
of what the Lord God, God the Father, did to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is the fulfillment of
the promise God made to Abraham, that in thy seed all the nations
of the earth would be blessed. This is how. This is how God's
going to do it. God purposed it, God promised
it, God provided, and God did it. and God accepted it, and
now God declares it to us. We're to stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord, and that's all we're supposed to
do. Look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and marvel, and with Abraham,
worship God for what he's done in Christ. But the next thing
we see here in the scripture is that the Lord told him to
take his son, his only son Isaac. Now I want you to notice how
Abraham is the one in these verses of scripture who is doing the
acting. Abraham is the one who's doing
the work. Abraham was to take his son,
the son of his love. Abraham was to take his son to
the land of Moriah, to this mountain God was going to show him. And
Abraham rose up early in the morning in verse 3. Saddled his
beast of burden, and he took two young men with him, and Isaac
his son. And he, Abraham, claimed the
wood for the burnt offering. And Abraham rose up, and Abraham
went to the place which God had told him about. And then on the
third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar
off. And Abraham said to the young men, You stay here while
I and the lad go yonder and worship, and we will come again to you.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it
upon his son Isaac. And then they walked up the mountain,
and Abraham carried the fire, and Abraham took the knife in
his hand, and they both went together. Then ask Abraham this
question, where's the lamb? Where's the lamb for the burnt
offering? Abraham does all these things because God the Father
is the one who offered his son. God the Father is the one who
did the work of offering his son in our salvation. He gave
his only son and He offered Him up for us all. Isn't that what
Romans 8.32 says? If God spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? That's the work of God the Father.
Jesus said in John 5.17, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
And the Jews said, you can't be equal with God. Only the Son
of God is equal with God. And they wanted to kill Him.
God the Father works. The work that He does is He gives
His Son. He commands His Son. He's the one who afflicted His
Son. He's the one who carried the
fire and the knife. He bound His Son. He laid the
wood upon His Son. He did all these things for His
Son. And that's the first thing we see here. It was God, God
the Father, the Lord of all, the one we offended, the one
whose law we offended, whose holiness we were striving against. He's the one who offered up his
only begotten son, the son of his love. Take now thy son, verse
2, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into
the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains I will tell thee of. The mountain here
is Mount Moriah. And according to the commentators,
this same mountain is the place where they built Jerusalem. And
you know that Jesus was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem
on a hill called Calvary. Crucified. And that has to be
the place where the Lord told Abraham to take his son, Isaac. If you look back at Genesis chapter... Let's see. Genesis chapter 21
and verse 12, when God was promising that Isaac would be the one through
whom God would bring the promise. He says in Genesis chapter 21-12,
And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight
because of Ishmael, the lad, and because of thy bondwoman,
Hagar, in all that Sarah has said to thee, hearken to her
voice and listen to these words. For in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Do you see that promise? And
then if you look back, you see that in Genesis chapter 12 and
verse 3, God had promised it would be in Abraham's seed that
God would bless all nations of the earth. So Abraham had a promise. And that promise had to do with
his son. His son Isaac. Not another son. Not another son named Isaac.
Not a servant in his house. Not Ishmael. only Isaac. God was going to fulfill his
word to Abraham through Isaac. And so, when we see this here,
not only is this a prophecy that Abraham both spoke and lived
depicting the work of God the Father in offering His Son. But
Isaac, through whom the Lord Jesus Christ would come, is a
depiction. He corresponds to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the one Abraham offered. And he's the one who asked, in
verse 7, my father. And Abraham said, here am I,
my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Isaac
asked that question. Abraham laid the wood to carry
on Isaac. And so Isaac is the one who is
going to be offered. Abraham bound Isaac. Abraham laid his son on the wood
on top of the altar that he had laid that wood on. And he took
the knife in order to slay his son Isaac. It was the Lord Jesus
Christ who was offered up by God the Father. Offered up in
order to fulfill the promise that was promised by God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one. He's the seed of
Abraham through whom the promises would be fulfilled. And God made
these promises to Abraham. God made these promises to every
believer as Abraham. So Abraham's life Not only his life then, but his
eternal life was bound up in God's promise. His life was bound
up in Christ coming. If Christ didn't come, God's
promise to Abraham could not be fulfilled. But Abraham saw
that God's promise required that God bring his son into the world
through his son Isaac. And so Abraham knew his eternal
life, his eternal destiny. All of his coming to God depended
upon God bringing Christ into the world. And not just bringing
Christ into the world, but bringing him into the world through his
son Isaac. And so Abraham had this promise,
and he held that promise. And when God told him to take
your son Isaac and offer him up for an offering, Abraham understood
by that that if God requires me to slay my son, and if God
promised that he's going to bring Christ, his son, through my son
Isaac, then God is going to somehow raise Isaac from the dead. That's
what has to happen. And so Abraham looked upon Isaac,
his son, and saw the Lord Jesus Christ promised by God through
him. And he saw in his son Isaac his
own eternity bound up in the promise of God in Isaac. There
was no way God's promise could fail according to Abraham's faith. He believed that God would not
fail. God had already fulfilled his
promise in so many ways in his life. All these trials had strengthened
and increased Abraham's faith up to the point where Isaac had
been born, finally. And now God requires him to do
this ultimate act of obedience. Out of faith, He acted in this
way." And so we see all these things taken together point us
as sinners to the grace of God in offering up His Son. And we
also see here the faith that God gives believers. And all
that Abraham did, and all that he said, he acted as God the
Father, corresponding to him as a prophet. And all that Isaac
did, and all that happened to him, he corresponds to the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is the one who offered up
his son, and Christ willingly submitted to it. Did you notice
in here how Isaac didn't refuse? Isaac never questioned that it
was right for him to be bound up. He never questioned when
his father laid him on the altar, on top of the wood, in order
to burn him up. You don't hear him crying out
when Abraham raises the knife. Because the Lord Jesus Christ,
like a sheep, was led to the slaughter, and he opened not
his mouth. In Matthew 26, 39-42, the Lord
Jesus said, My father, he said, Thy will be done. Thy will. If it be possible,
take this cup from me, but nevertheless, Thy will be done." The Lord Jesus
Christ submitted Himself. It was a submission of obedience
and love to His Father. He trusted in the Lord that He
would do all that He said when He offered Himself to God. And
so it was an active submission on Christ's part to the will
of God. Remember He told the soldiers, if you seek Me, then
let these go their way. Take Me. That's what he says
is our surety. Take me instead of the lad. That
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you see that in Isaac
here. All these things. And God wouldn't let Abraham
take the life of his son even though Abraham knew that this
is what God required. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. I
want you to see why Abraham did this. And this is an amazing
thing. I've already given you the broad
outline of it, but look in verse 17, Hebrews 11, verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. accounting that
God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence
also he received him in a figure." Here we have scriptural making it clear that it was God
who used, I mean, he's speaking here about Isaac being received
again from the dead in a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is scripture telling us, interpreting for us, what happened back in
Genesis. so that there's no doubt in our
mind, this was God offering up His only Son. But in doing this,
Abraham showed great obedience, didn't he? He promptly got up
in the morning, and I'm assuming that God spoke to him the day
before, or perhaps the night. before. He was a prophet. I don't
know how God spoke to him, but he spoke to him and told him
what to do. And so he willingly obeyed. He
got up promptly in the morning. God had increased his faith through
all those trials that we summarized there. But Abraham believed God. He believed God, and so he immediately
got up. He believed that God would raise
his son from the dead, even from the ashes. That's an amazing
thing. You often wonder, well, I know
that God can raise people from the dead, but could he raise
them from the ashes? Abraham believed he could because
he was going to offer him up as a burnt offering. And because
God had said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called, therefore
Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. That's
what Hebrews 11 says. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. And based on that, Abraham believed
that God was able and would raise Isaac up from the dead. And so,
in Isaac, he saw all of the promises of God fulfilled in Christ. In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
What does that mean, in Isaac shall thy seed be called? Well,
first it means that in Isaac the Lord Jesus Christ, who was
the singular seed, would be brought forth. He would come into the
world through the seed of Abraham, through Isaac. That's the first
thing. But it also means that all who are Christ's, who belong
to Him, are called the seed of Christ. In Romans chapter 9,
And verse 8, I'm just going to read this to you so you see that,
that all believers are the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says in Romans 9, 8, for this is the, I'm sorry, that is, they
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children
of God. Not the children of the flesh,
not the Israel after the flesh. They're not the children of God.
But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. And he's speaking here about
God's elect. So not only is the Lord Jesus the seed God promised
through Isaac, but all those whom God had promised to save
were counted or considered in Christ as part of that seed. So that in Galatians 3.29, To remind you what this says
in Galatians 3.29, it's worded this way, it says, If you be
Christ's, if you belong to Christ, if you were given to Christ,
if you were redeemed by Christ, if the Spirit of Christ is in
you, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
So there were two kinds of seed. Mentioned, or meant, when God
said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called, first Christ, and
second all those who belong to him. They're the seed. They're
the spiritual seed of Abraham. In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
So Abraham himself would only be blessed in Christ. Because
there are no seed of Christ, but those that are in him. And
so, that's why I say, when Abraham looked at Isaac, he was looking
at God's promise. He was looking at his own eternity
wrapped up in his son, Isaac, because he saw Christ in Isaac. God promised that Christ would
come through Isaac. In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And so Abraham's eternal salvation and his life therefore depended
upon the life of his son. Horatius Bonar says this, Upon
a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, another's life,
another's death, I stake my whole eternity. That's what Abraham
did. I stake my whole eternity on
Christ, whom he saw promised by God through his son Isaac,
and so he took his son willingly, obediently, not a blind obedience,
but an obedience of faith. God himself staked Abraham's
whole eternity on the obedience of his son. Isn't that amazing? God staked our eternity on the
obedience of his son. And Abraham, and every believer,
stakes his whole eternity on God's promise in Christ. Abraham believed that God would
not lie, and could not lie, and that he could not fail. and that
Christ was all of his satisfaction, the covering for all of his sin,
and the robe of all of his righteousness, and that the Lord Jesus Christ
would come through his son Isaac, therefore God must raise Isaac
from the dead, which depicted again the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's amazing, isn't it? God crucified
His Son. God laid the cross of curse,
of cursing, that we deserve to be cursed with, on His Son. And
God carried Him up to that mountain of Mount Calvary according to
His own counsel and hand. Look at Acts chapter 4. The Lord God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, is the one to whom we owe all of our salvation. because he did this in his son.
He says in Acts chapter 4 verse 27, That's what happened here,
isn't it? God the Father took his son from eternity And he ordained that he would
be the Lamb of God, sacrificed as a burnt offering, in order
to make satisfaction, in order to establish everlasting righteousness,
in order to save his people from their sins, in order to fulfill
his promise to have a people for his son and for himself.
And so Abraham is showing us this because he offered his son
in faith of that. He believed God. Isn't it amazing
how incredible Abraham's faith was? Don't you find his faith
amazing? He believed that God would be
faithful to his promise concerning Christ. And we think, how could
he possibly take the life of his son? How could he possibly
intend to burn up his son right there on the altar? But again,
Abraham believed God. His whole eternity and his son's
eternity was bound up in God's promise. If he trusted God for
his eternal soul and the eternal life of his son and all of his
descendants, couldn't he also trust God in this thing also? He didn't understand at the beginning
of this exactly how God was going to work it all out. He didn't
know that God was going to keep him at that moment from striking
his son and putting him to death. He didn't have the details. But
God revealed the gospel to him over a period of time. Like he
does to us. God doesn't always reveal everything
to us at once. It was a long time from the time
God called Abraham at 75 until now when he's over 100. 100 and
who knows how old. Because Isaac had to carry the
wood. He must have been more than say 12 or 15 years old.
And yet he submitted to his father's act here. But Abraham had believed
God concerning eternal things, and now that same faith knew
that he could trust God concerning all these things, even what he
required of his son. It's an amazing thing, isn't
it? And what lessons do we learn from this? Well, we learn this. That our salvation is by the
will and by the work of God alone. Did you notice that Abraham told
his two servants, you stay here, and stay here with that beast,
and I and the lad are going to go up to the mountain, just us,
and there we're going to worship, and then we're going to return
to you. Because it was God the Father and God the Son alone
who accomplished the work of our atonement. This is an amazing
thing. It was God who did the work.
God paid the cost. of His only begotten Son. God
loved the world and gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Not
every individual in the world, but out of every kindred, tongue,
people and nation, He redeemed them by the blood of His own
Son. God commended His love, made known His love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It was when
we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son. God made His Son the propitiation
for our sins. God wounded and bruised His Son.
God is the one who glorified himself in the salvation he accomplished
by the death of his son. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him because in his death he made known God's perfections and satisfied
God in all that he did in order that he might receive his people
who were opposed to him. even opposed to His holiness
and His justice, and He saved them. And it was the work of
God the Son. He offered Himself for the sins
of His people. Look at a couple of verses with
me in Hebrews. Look at Hebrews chapter 7. What did Christ offer
to God? What did He offer? Look at Hebrews
chapter 7 in verse 27. He says this, The Lord Jesus Christ was not
like those other high priests who needeth not daily as them
to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the
people's. He didn't offer up an animal. For this he did once
when he offered up himself. And who did he offer him to?
Look at Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself
without spot to God? The Lord Jesus Christ offered
Himself. And who did He offer Himself
to? He offered Himself to God. And God received His offering
because it satisfied Him. And so in Hebrews chapter 10
verse 12 it says, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. God offered
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ offered himself. The offering
was made to God. God designed it. God purposed
it. God provided it. God did the
work of offering his son. And all of it happened according
to that work. And God received it, and that
is our eternal salvation. It was the work of God, offered
to God. And the second thing we see is
that God's work in salvation was for the children of promise,
because in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. It was not for every
man. It was for the children of promise. The Lord Jesus said that He came
at the command of God to lay down His life for the sheep.
He said, I'm the good shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep.
And to those who didn't believe him, he says, you're not my sheep.
That's why you don't believe, because you're not my sheep.
But my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I know them.
I know them. And so he loves them, and he
saved them from the foundation of the world in the Lord Jesus
Christ. What response do we have when
we see what God the Father did? What response do you have when
you see what Abraham did to his son Isaac? In purpose, all these
things led up to he would have taken his life a moment later,
but God stopped him. What causes, what do we think
when we see God Himself depicting in such a dramatic scene what
He did to His own Son? The God of glory, the Lord of
glory sent Him to the earth and made Him an offering for sins,
for our sins. What do you think? I don't know
about you, but it makes me tremble in awe. Because we can't add
anything here. And we can't understand the holiness
of God. And we can't understand the grace
of God, or the love of God, or the wisdom of God. Except we
see it here. So when Abraham said, I'm going
to go up and worship with the lad and come back to you, here's
where we worship, isn't it? There's only one place and one
way we can worship God. It's right here. God offered
his son. And Christ offered himself for
sinners. And so we tremble with awe, and it endears us to Him. We know that this is God's character. This is His heart. If this is
the way God is, if He Himself was moved by His own motives
within Himself, His own nature and character to fulfill His
word that He made, then we can approach this God on the basis
of what He did, can't we? Remember when Samson was promised
by the angel to Manoah's wife. And Manoah, Samson's father,
had not been there. And he came and he wanted the
angel to come again and speak to him. And when the angel came,
he begged the angel that they could provide a sacrifice. And
the angel said, put it there. And when he did, the fire came
down. And it consumed it. And then
the angel ascended up to heaven in the smoke. And Manoah said,
we've seen the face of God. He's going to kill us! And Manoah's
wife said, no. Why would He accept our sacrifice
and tell us all these things if He was going to kill us? I
like to think about that. Why would God tell us all these
things about His Son and draw us as sinners to Himself, cause
us to call upon Him if He was going to kill us? He causes us
to come to Him, not in fear of terror, but in reverence, in
awe, endearing us to Himself by what He's done in offering
up His Son. Worship God for this. He purposed
it, and promised it, and provided it, and accomplished it, and
received it for sinners. This is how we worship. This
is the only way we worship. This is what we believe. This
is our life. How could we escape if we neglect
this salvation? This salvation. There's no way
that we can escape. Is there? It was all God's doing. And look back in Genesis chapter
22 now. Just one more thing here I want
to point out to you. There's a lot of things we could point
out. But I just want to point out this other little thing here.
In Genesis 22. And the Lord said to, in verse
8, after he said, My son, Abraham spoke this way, My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of
them together. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
went to the cross, was not alone. He said, My Father is with me. Remember that? I'm not alone. He says, My Father is with me. In John 16, verse 32. That's
what He said. And here, Abraham tells his son,
God will provide Himself a lamb. What a statement. I love the
King James Version. If you read any other version,
you won't get it this way. God will provide Himself. God
Himself will provide? No other person will. No other
will do this. And God will provide Himself.
The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's equal with the Father. And He made Himself of no reputation. He's called God with us, Emmanuel. He's the mighty God. The everlasting
Father. The Prince of Peace. He's the
God. He's God over all. The Lord of
all. The Lord of glory. The Prince of life. God will
provide himself a lamb. It was the cost God bore. He bore the full cost of our
redemption. And then, over in verse 13, he
says, And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. in the stead of his son. Why?
Because Isaac wasn't Christ. He only was a picture of Christ. And so Isaac, in this sense,
is a representation of all those whom the Lord saves. Because
he was spared, his life was spared, and God took the ram, which then
pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
was offered for all of the promised seed. He wasn't offered for all
men, but for the promised seed. Isaac's life was spared because
the ram was taken. Our life was spared because God
took his son. Took his son's life. And so in
verse 14, Abraham called the name of that place. Jehovah Jireh,
as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. Literally, God will see. God will see to it. God will
see to it in provision. God will see to it according
to what Abraham said. God will provide himself a lamb. That's what Jehovah Jireh means.
God will provide. He spoke as a prophet. God will
provide. What will he provide? Himself.
For what? A lamb. To do what? To be offered
up by God as a burnt offering in order to save His people and
fulfill His promise of eternal blessings in Christ. And Abraham
believed that. And he staked his whole eternity
on the Lord Jesus Christ. May God help us to do that. Let's
pray. Our Father, we thank You for
what You've done in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. who's
God over all, and who made himself of no reputation, and didn't
come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for
many. And with the cost of his life, he paid for our redemption,
and we're now set free from the curse that we owed, that was
laid on him for us. What a miracle of grace, what
wisdom, what goodness, what love you have, that you would find
one who is so worthy and so meek and so lowly that he would make
himself of no reputation and give himself, who is the almighty
God, the creator of heaven and earth, would step out of his
place there and take the place of a servant, even as a burnt
offering. And you would offer up your only
begotten son. How can it be? This is the place
we worship. This is all of our coming to
you. This is how we know you. Lord, this is why we come, because
of your word. You've said it, you've done it,
and we know you in this. Help us today to lay hold on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't let us neglect this so
great salvation. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.