God Will Provide Himself the Lamb

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This is Day 7 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

Just as God had promised, He gave Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Sarah and Abraham were so delighted to have a son that Sarah claimed she could not stop laughing. Just think of how much love they must have had for the boy. They were old and thought they would never have children, but God blessed them with a son, because God always keeps His promises. What a bright and beautiful story of Abraham's faith and God's faithfulness.

But here is where the story gets dark. Here is where people reading the Bible often turn from God calling him a monster. Some have even called God the "greatest villain in literature." But this accusation comes from a lack of understanding. And this story of Isaac and Abraham that I am about to relate is one of the most misunderstood in all of Scripture.

After giving Abraham and Sarah a beautiful son, the one thing they had always wanted more than anything else in the world, the one thing they loved more than anything, the Lord threatened to take him away. But God would not just snatch the boy from them, He would make Abraham sacrifice the boy to Him.

The Lord said to Abraham, "Take your son, your only-begotten son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." Imagine what Abraham must have been thinking: "God just gave me a son, finally after all of these years, and now He wants ME to kill him?!?" What would you have done? Cursed God? Told Him no? Run and hid with your family? Abraham did none of those things. Instead, Abraham obeyed.

Abraham rose early in the morning and took Isaac, who was now grown to the place God had instructed him. On the third day of their journey, Abraham laid the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac's back and had the boy (or young man as the case likely was) carry it himself up the mountain.

Isaac was not stupid. He noticed that they had not brought a lamb to sacrifice and asked his father about it, to which Abraham responded, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." When they reached the top of the mountain, Abraham built an altar to the Lord and then tied up his son, who did not fight him, and laid him on the altar. He raised his knife to kill his son, but God stopped him saying, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only-begotten son, from me."

And Abraham looked and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and instead of offering his son as a sacrifice, he offered the ram instead.

Wow. What a horrible story. That sounds like something the Brothers Grimm would have written. No wonder people think God is a villain, right? But before we get too judgmental, let's take a closer look at this story.

First, we must understand that all life belongs to God. God created us, gave us life, and is the only one who has a right to take that life back. Everyone dies, and God decides when and how we die. Who else would?

But I get it, it seems especially cruel and evil to have a father kill his own son simply as a sacrifice, doesn't it? But this was a test, to see if Abraham was willing to give up everything for God. You might be thinking, "Chris, that doesn't really make it seem any better." But it does. You see, God did not make Abraham go through with it, but He needed to know Abraham's willingness to do it, because Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. Not his son Isaac, but a son many generations later, in the man Jesus. Abraham had to demonstrate that he was willing to sacrifice his own son, because that is what God was asking him to do, only, not yet.

And it almost seems as if Abraham knew this, because when Isaac asked about the lamb, Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering." Now that sentence can be read two different ways. It can be read to mean, "God himself will provide us with a lamb for an offering when we get up the mountain." Or it can mean, "God will provide himself as the lamb for the offering."

The former makes little sense as God did not provide a lamb at the top of the mountain. What God provided was a ram whose horns had been caught in a thicket. Thus, it is more likely that Abraham meant the latter, "God will provide himself as the lamb for the offering."

And that's just what God did. He provided Himself, God the Son, as the Lamb offered up for all mankind on the cross at Calvary. This entire episode is a prefiguring of Christ's passion. Remember how God described Isaac as Abraham's "only begotten son...whom you love."

The Apostle John describes Jesus as God's "only begotten son." (John 3:16). And the Apostle Matthew tells us that when Jesus was baptized, a voice from Heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (Matt 3:17).

And Abraham laid the wood upon which Isaac was to be sacrificed across Isaac's back and Isaac carried it up the mountain. Likewise, the Roman soldiers laid the wood upon which Christ would be sacrificed--His cross--across His back and He carried it up the mountain to Calvary. There God did make Himself the Lamb to be sacrificed once and for all for all mankind.

You see, God was asking Abraham to do exactly what God Himself would do many generations later--sacrifice His only-begotten Son whom He loved. God tested Abraham in this way for it was Abraham who was to be the great patriarch of the Jews whom God made His old covenants with. And it is Jesus, Himself a son of Abraham but also God made flesh, who would be the New Covenant for all of humanity. If Abraham would not willingly sacrifice his son, then he was not worthy to beget the nation God had promised him--the nation from which Christ Himself rise.

But Isaac lived, and grew old having a family of his own, including twin sons named Esau and Jacob.

Next: Wrestling with God

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!