COME AS A CHILD - LESSON 60 - THE LORD WILL PROVIDE THE LAMB

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

It was the third day of their journey and Abraham walked on in faith, straight up the mountain that God showed him with his son Isaac by his side. 

Abraham carried the knife and the fire and Isaac carried the wood.

Not a word was heard from Abraham.  It was Isaac who broke the silence.  Isaac called out to Abraham; “My Father.”  “Here I am, my son” Abraham answered. 

Isaac noted that he saw the fire and the wood but asked where is the lamb for the burnt offering?  Abraham answered:  “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son.”  

We read in the midrash that when Abraham answered these words Isaac put his head between his hands and wept, then asked Abraham if this was from the Torah that he had heard Abraham discuss with Sarah.  The midrash speaks of Abraham weeping at this point and mentions that Isaac sought to comfort him and a conversation took place where Isaac gave his father permission to fulfill God’s will through him.  Isaac states that he wished for his blood to provide atonement for the Jewish people.  Both the Torah and the Midrash state that the father and son walked on together in agreement.  

It seems that Isaac, probably in his mid to late thirties now, understood and went willingly to a sacrificial death, Abraham leading him there and willingly giving him over to God.

Have you ever had to “walk on?”  Sometimes walking on is a very hard thing to do.  Sometimes we are asked to do very hard things, like carry wood and fire and a knife.  Everything feels like a struggle of the will.  Life is full of sacrifices that must be made.  They usually come through the things we cherish and the ones that we love the most.  

Walking on takes great courage, but more than that; walking on takes great love.  Abraham and Isaac walked on completely submitted to God’s will because of the great love they both shared for God and each other.  The story of the Akadah is the first place in the bible where we hear of the Hebrew word for love.  There is no greater love than this, that a man would lay down his life for his brothers or that a father would give his son in exchange for other people’s lives. 

So they came to the designated place that God showed them.  Most believe this was the very same place that Adam had offered sacrifices to God, a place that had been destroyed during the great flood.  After the flood Noah had rebuilt the place of the altar and offered up offerings to God there with his family.  Nimrod had destroyed this place after the fall of the tower of Babel, and now Abraham rebuilt the altar in this exact same spot.  He laid the wood in order.  As Abraham built, Isaac had every opportunity to escape and run away.  He stayed, submitted and humble, ready to do his Father’s will, believing that God would save them both through this offering. 

Abraham bound a submitted and willing Isaac who laid himself down on top of the wood.  It is very significant that Isaac laid himself down on top of the wood.  We know of many years later when another Son would come from another Father and willingly lay himself down on top of the wood of a tree,  just as Isaac laid atop this altar of wood that his  father built.

In offering the sacrifice it was important for the throat of the sacrifice to be slit quickly.  The scriptures say Isaac set his face like a flint to fulfill God’s will.  Isaac lay with his eyes directed toward heaven.   Abraham stretched out his hand to make the cut.  For a few seconds Abraham examined the knife to be sure it was ritually fit for the cut.  It was in that very moment that The Angel of the LORD called his name from heaven!  “Abraham! Abraham!” 

The Angel of The LORD told Abraham not to lay a hand on the boy and not to harm him.  “For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

With joy Abraham immediately released Isaac and recited the prayer of blessing:  “Blessed are You LORD, who revives the dead!”

Abraham lifted his eyes from the prayer and beheld a ram caught by the horns in the thicket.    Abraham took the ram and offered it up on the altar in the place of his son.  With the thought in mind of a substitute offering, Abraham prayed while sacrificing the ram that God would regard the offering as though it were his son.  God accepted Abraham’s offering in place of Isaac. 

It is said in the midrash that Abraham, after making the sacrifice, prayed to God and mentioned that he had not questioned or argued when God had made the request of him, but that he had willingly offered up his son until God stopped the action.  Abraham requested that God remember this each time one of the sons of his later generations sinned and Abraham requested that God would have mercy on their sins because of this and always forgive them.  Many of Abraham’s descendants can be very thankful for that prayer. 

The Talmud mentions that God asked Abraham to sound the sound of the rams horn before him each year so that He would remember the binding of Isaac and count it as mercy toward the children of Abraham forever.  This is why we blow the shofar at Rosh Hashanah, to remind God to be merciful to His children who are doing their best to be faithful.  Each year at the sound of the shofar, God is reminded of the prayer of blessing from Abraham.

This place where God had called for the sacrifice of Isaac is a very sacred place.  Abraham called it Adonai Yireh which means “The LORD will provide” because God had provided a ram in place of Isaac.    

Moriah comes from the verb “ra’ah,” which means “to see.”  It was said on Mt. Moriah that the LORD saw the need of the people and made provision for a substitute sacrifice that would save them. 

Mt. Moriah, which is called Zion has been the place for many, many sacred events ever since.  Many years later Jacob,  the son of Isaac dreamed here of a ladder that reached up to heaven.  Years after that, the Temple was built on the very spot where Isaac was bound and Jacob dreamed of Heaven. 

It was in this very place where another Son, the true Son of God, the perfect lamb, was eventually sacrificed on a cross of wood for all of the sins of mankind.  Isaac, as brave and courageous as he was, is only a shadow of the great and awesome love of Jesus Christ for His people.  He died for us all right in this very same spot on Mt. Moriah. 

On The Mountain of The Lord God truly provided a lamb.