By [Read Genesis Chapter 22]
There are probably few chapters ever penned that raise such tension as this one. Abraham is asked to take his only son Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering. Abraham wakes early in the morning and gathers what is necessary for the journey. Three days pass, Abraham and Isaac ascend the mountain, and the boy breaks the silence.
“Father?”
“Yes my son?”
“Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
“God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son.”
Abraham builds an alter, binds his son, and lays him on top. The next person to speak is God himself. Shockingly the angel of the Lord calls with urgency for Abraham to stop the sacrifice. The tension is high. Abraham has passed the test, and sees a substitute sacrificial ram caught in the thicket.
In this scene, Abraham experienced the closest emotion God must have felt during the sacrifice of his Son at Calvary. We are the ones that should be slain for our sin against the Lord. Jesus is the ram caught in the thicket who will be our substitute. The ram in the story ends as a bloody sacrifice. Jesus, the sinless Ram of God, ends as a risen and victorious King who reigns over heaven and earth. He is the One whom you and I must look to if our lives are to be spared on judgement day.
Leading Family Devotions 