“God will provide for Himself the lamb ... ”

Genesis 22:5-10, On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 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, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

God has promised Abraham to raise up a great nation through Isaac and so Abraham walks in faith knowing that “God will provide Himself” the sacrifice. He believed that God would even raise Isaac from the dead if necessary. Isaac carries the wood on His back as Jesus carried the cross; Isaac is bound to the wood as was Jesus nailed to the cross. Yet for Isaac the knife of sacrifice was stayed by the word from an angel of the Lord and in his place God provided a substitute, a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, was indeed raised up that He might draw all people to Himself; He was raised up first on the cross where He has become sin for the world that we might be declared righteous. And on the third day He was raised up for all eternity, the firstborn of many in the new creation of God’s promise!

We thank You for putting an end to the power of sin and death in Your declaration: “It is finished!” We thank You that in your ascended glory at the right hand of the Father, you intercede for us at every moment! Use us to bring glory to Your name, O Lord!