Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from June 21, “The Father’s Sacrifice”
We’ve been talking for the last couple of weeks about who Jesus is. We know him as God, and also as the son of God. For there to be a son, there must be a father. It is in the New testament that this revelation of God also emerges. Jesus speaks much about His Father, and through Him we see who the Father is and how much He loves us. But that is not to say that this imagery is absent from the Old Testament. A powerful picture can be found in the account of Abraham when God commands that he sacrifice his son. You can read about it in Genesis 22. For the sake of time I’ll only read Genesis 22:1-6, but the story goes through verse 19.
We’re not told what thoughts went through Abraham’s head upon receiving such a command. We can imagine confusion, anger, even a sens of betrayal. Isaac was a miracle baby, born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age after a visit from an angel. Abraham was told on more than one occasion that Isaac would be the heir through which God’s promises would be fulfilled. This demand would seem to render all of that impossible. But Abraham does not appear to question. He gets up the next morning , collects the things he will need, and sets out with Isaac and a couple of servants.
We are given the journey in some detail. When they arrive at the place, Abraham tells his servants to stay behind and that he and Isaac will go worship and return. I used to read that and think Abraham was hiding the truth of what He as about to do, but the writer of Hebrews helped me to see that wasn’t it at all. In Heb. 11;19, we are told that Abraham knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if necessary. Whatever questions he may have had about this command, seemingly contrary to everything we know about God, He did not lose faith in God’s original promise. He did believe they were going to come back as they left, together.
Isaac noticed something was missing on this little trip. He asked his father about it. There was wood, and fire, and a knife, but where was the sacrifice? Abraham then made another profound statement, “God will provide the lamb.” Maybe at this point he did hope to hide the terrible truth from his son for just a little longer, but the moment would come when he would tie up his son and lay him on that altar. What must that have been like for Isaac?
When God saw that Abraham was going to follow through and kill his son, He intervened. He did in fact provide a lamb, which was sacrificed in place of Isaac. The analogies here can only be taken so far, but God pictures for us in a way that we can understand what he will eventually do Himself when Jesus is sent to die for all of our sins. With confidence that God would still somehow keep his promise, Abraham was willing to give up his cherished son because God required it. Father God, who loved his own son with a depth we cannot comprehend, gave Him up in the knowledge that in so doing He would have Him back along with all of those He died to save.
