It is recorded in Genesis 22 that God tested the faith of Abraham. God said to him, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” (Gen. 22:2)
I find this of great interest because God through Moses said that he considers it an abdominal act which he hates; to burn ones sons and daughters in the fire as an offering to the gods of the land. This was one of the primary reasons that the Lord used Israel to dispossess the nations from the land of Canaan. (Deut. 12:29-31)
However, the Lord had no intention of Abraham actually burning Isaac as an offering but it was a test. Did Abraham so fear the Lord that he would obey the Lord’s commandment and offer up his son as a burnt offering to the Lord, his only son born of his wife Sarah, the son whom he loved?
The answer is yes, Abraham was on the cusp of completing the Lord’s commandment when the Angel of the Lord stopped him and provided a ram to take the place of Isaac. (Gen. 22:11-13)
There is no doubt that this is a picture and foretelling of the gospel. Abraham called the name of that place “YHWH-jireh” The Lord Will Provide. It was Abraham’s faith that God would provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering and God did just as he had told his son Isaac. (Gen. 22:8)
John the Baptist saw Jesus walking and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (Jn. 1:29, 36) It is through the righteous life and sacrificial death of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, that God has blessed all that nations of the earth. (Gen. 22:18)
