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#DailyDevotion What Are You Willing To Sacrifice To The LORD?

#DailyDevotion What Are You Willing To Sacrifice To The LORD?

Genesis 22:1–18 After this God tested Abraham. “Abraham!” God said to him. “Yes,” he answered. 2 “Take your only son Isaac, whom you love,” He said. “Go to the country of Moriah, and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the hills I will point out to you.” 3Early the next morning Abraham harnessed his donkey. He took two of his servants and his son Isaac with him. He cut the wood for the burnt offering. Then he started out for the place God told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked and saw the place in the distance. 5Then Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship. Then we’ll come back to you.” 6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac while he took the fire and the knife in his hands. And both were walking together. 7Then Isaac said to his father, “My father.” “Yes, my son,” he answered. “We have the fire and the wood,” said Isaac, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” 8“God will provide Himself with a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And so both walked on together.

This account in the Bible really sets a number of people off. How can a loving God ask Abraham to sacrifice his own son, his only son by his wife? The LORD comes off bloodthirsty and mean. Many of these same people have no problem though with a woman sacrificing the child in her womb to the gods of convenience and happiness. How can Abraham give consent to this horrific request by the LORD? The LORD though is God. He is the only God. He has made a covenant with Abraham. Who is Abraham to refuse God? The author of Hebrews tells us something we don’t know here. In chapter 12 he writes, “17By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac. Yes, this man, who received the promises 18and was told: ‘Isaac’s children will be called your descendants,’ was sacrificing his only son, 19thinking, ‘God can even raise him from the dead.’” In chapter 17 of Genesis the LORD had promised, 16“I will bless her and by her give you a son; I will bless her, and she will be the mother of nations and of kings of people.” And again the LORD says, 19 “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac, and I will keep My covenant with him, an everlasting covenant with his descendants.”

This faith in no way made it any easier for Abraham to do what the LORD had asked him to do. He must have felt conflicted. The LORD promised this and now he’s asking to do this thing which seems to go against the promise. You and I have the promise of the resurrection. We still grieve greatly at the loss of a spouse, child or parent. Yet what we see Abraham doing is exactly what the Father does when he sends his son, his only begotten son, Jesus Christ to the cross.

On the first day Abraham set out, Isaac was as good as dead. On the cross there on Golgatha Jesus was as good as dead. Indeed, he did die. Abraham laid the wood on Isaac to prepare him for the sacrifice. The Father through the hands of the Roman soldiers laid the wood of the cross upon God’s only begotten son for his sacrifice. While Abraham laid the wood on Isaac on the third day he also receives Isaac back from the dead on the third for the LORD did not make him go through with the sacrifice. On the third day Jesus literally does rise from the dead and we received him back as our LORD and Savior. The LORD provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac, a ram. The LORD provides a sacrifice in substitution for us, Jesus Christ the LORD, his life for our death, his righteousness for our sins.

Heavenly Father, grant that we may have the faith of Abraham that we would be willing to sacrifice all for the sake of having Jesus Christ as our LORD. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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