Mike
Scriptures: Psalm 139:6-10 Genesis 21:1-3 Genesis 22:1-19 2 Chronicles 3:1
Many years ago as a young Christian someone once told me that all man’s knowledge and discoveries were just the discarded projects that were left on the floor of God’s workshop. I often ponder on that saying, and the more I learn about the scriptures, the more I conclude it could be very right.
David was under no illusion about the knowledge of God and how precise our creator has been in His plan for mankind.
Psalm 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."
I want to relay a story in scripture that we all know, but I want to take a closer look at what the nation of Israel should have observed from the drama that invades the story.
In John 8:56 Jesus told the crowd that their father Abraham “rejoiced to see my day, and He saw it, and was glad”, so what was Jesus telling them that they should have observed through their knowledge of the scriptures?
In Genesis we are told that the child of promise was to be born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Then Abraham is tempted by God and was told to offer him as a burnt offering to God.
Abraham rose early, he didn’t wait until lunchtime in the hope that God would change His mind. He saddled the ass, cut the wood, took a knife, took the fire, Abraham left nothing to chance. He was steadfast in the purpose that God had given and made no excuses in carrying out the sacrifice.
On the third day of the journey, he saw the appointed place far off, he took the wood and laid it upon Isaac to carry to the mount, took the fire and the knife.
Isaac questioned his father, “behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the burnt offering”, Abraham responded that “God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering”.
Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order, and bound his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar. He was about to kill him when the Angel of the Lord called to him and said “lay not your hand on him I know that you fear God and have not withheld your Son your Only Son, Isaac” and he was released.
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and there in the distance was a ram caught in the thicket. There was the sacrifice, the one who was to die in place of Isaac; a male lamb that lay on the altar to provide the burnt offering. Abraham called the place Jehovah Jireh, My Provider.
The place where God had sent Abraham was a special place, the mountains of Moriah where David would purchase the threshing floor of Ornan and Solomon would start to build the City of Jerusalem.
God now allows Abraham to see the Revelation of the “seed”. To see the Lamb sacrificed as a substitute so that others will go free.
Abraham saw that the day was to dawn when the Lord Jesus would come to redeem His people. He grasped, that one day, the promises, that in his “seed” all the nations of the earth would be blessed, would be fulfilled in one Saviour, the Lord Jesus.
Abraham stood on Calvary and saw the “seed” of Isaac who would one day come to the same place and be the Passover Lamb. Abraham rejoiced to see the day and he was glad.
2000 years later when Jesus appeared from the Judgement Hall, despite all they knew, they didn’t see Him caught in the thorn bush depicted by the crown of thorns on his head, They didn’t see the wood on his back that He was carrying through the old city of Jerusalem, down the Via Dolorosa to Calvary, to be sacrificed on a Roman cross that marked the spot where Abraham once sacrificed Isaac.
Prayer: Father, what incredible fore knowledge that would allow the Lamb that was caught in the thicket to pay the Mohar, the Bride price for our sins, and shed His blood at Golgotha for us all. The nation in Jesus’ day had the knowledge but not the discernment to see, Father grant us the Grace to both know and understand. In Jesus name we pray. Amen