#DailyDevotion The Angel Of The LORD Becomes The Sacrifice
Genesis 22:8c-14 And so both walked on together. 9When they came to the place God had mentioned, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the wood on the altar. 10As Abraham reached for the knife and took it in his hand to sacrifice his son, 11the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” he answered. 12“Don’t lay your hands on the boy,” He said, “and don’t do anything to him. Now I know you fear God: you didn’t refuse to give Me your only son.” 13When Abraham looked around, he saw behind him a ram caught by his horns in a bush. So Abraham went and got the ram and sacrificed him as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14Abraham called that place The-LORD-Will-Provide. Today we still say, “On the mount of the LORD it will be provided.”
Isaac was as good as dead on the first day of their journey. Abraham feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things. Isaac carried the wood he was going to be sacrificed upon. He did not know he was the sacrifice. We can only imagine the pain in Abraham’s heart as he carried out what the LORD had commanded him to do, even though he believed the LORD could and would raise Isaac from the dead in order for the LORD to keep his promise to Abraham. I don’t think his faith made it any easier, less painful, as he bound up his son and put him on the altar to sacrifice him. Thankfully, the Angel of the LORD stopped Abraham from going forward with the sacrifice. While the text says the LORD now knew Abraham feared God, since the LORD knows everything including that which is on our hearts, it is for certain that Abraham now knew he feared the LORD. Instead of sacrificing Isaac, the LORD provided a ram stuck in the thickets for Abraham to offer as a sacrifice instead. I find it also interesting that Isaac, for all we know, submitted to the will of his father and did not fight him on this.
Our God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ knows what Abraham went through. He sent his son, Jesus of Nazareth to be as the ram stuck in the thickets. Jesus has become the substitutionary sacrifice that we could never provide for our sins. Our Father laid on Jesus the wood of the cross through the hands of the Jews and the Romans and led him to the same mount Abraham built an altar to sacrifice Isaac on. Through the hands of the Romans, the Father bound Jesus to the wood of the cross to be a whole burnt offering for our sin. Jesus is that Angel of the LORD who stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac who would be Jesus’ ancestor according to the flesh. In his flesh, the LORD becomes the sacrifice Isaac would have been.
Jesus goes through the agony of his coming death there in the garden of Gethsemane. He spent many nights in prayer concerning this sacrifice he would make for the world, for you. He goes to the mount of the LORD to provide salvation for all mankind. In offering up himself for our sins he becomes the blessed seed of Abraham to the world. All nations have indeed been blessed in Jesus. You have been blessed in Jesus. On the mount of the LORD the Father offered up his son to death and the pains of hell so that you could have eternal life and know the joys of life everlasting.
Merciful and Gracious Father, grant us faith to trust in the sacrifice of your only-begotten Son so we may have eternal life in his name and live with your forever. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.