Scripture Daily

Context No. 2440 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 22:13-18: in context

13Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14Abraham called the name of that place “The LORD Will Provide”. As it is said to this day, “On the LORD’s mountain, it will be provided.” 15The LORD’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky, 16and said, “‘I have sworn by myself,’ says the LORD, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. 18All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’”

This is the resolution of the hardest test. Abraham, knife raised over Isaac, is stopped, and he lifts his eyes to see a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. He offers the ram in place of his son and names the place The LORD Will Provide, saying, on the mountain of the LORD it will be provided. Then God renews his promise by oath: because you did not withhold your son, I will surely bless you.

Notice that Abraham saw the ram only after he had obeyed to the very end. The provision was there, caught in the bushes, but it did not appear until the moment it was needed, not before. He had climbed three days trusting God would provide, without any sign of how. The name he gives the place is a testimony: on the mountain, in the extremity, God provides the substitute. Christians have long seen here a shadow of the Lamb God would one day provide in our place, a Son not withheld.

Am I willing to keep climbing in obedience before I can see the ram, trusting God to provide at the mountain and not a step sooner?

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