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December 17, 2024 | Daily Devotionals | December 17

Lay Your Isaac Down


This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear. ––1 John 3:16, msg

Sometimes God calls us to do things we don’t understand. That was the way it was when Abraham brought his beloved son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah (the modern location of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem). We pick up the story in Genesis 22:2:

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Wait, what?

First of all, YHWH is not—and never has been—a God who demands human sacrifice. Baal, yes. The Lord of Hosts, no. But it gets even more brutal because presumably, it’s too late in the day for Abraham to prepare and embark on a three-day journey (i.e., Beersheba to Mt. Moriah, about 55 miles), so he leaves early the next morning. Think about that. God shows up one afternoon and tells you to sacrifice your son, but you have to prepare for the journey first. That would be one long night of no sleep, right?

Here’s the wild thing: Abraham complies—without questioning God. I’m sure he was struggling mightily with what he thought he had to do, but there’s no biblical record of Abraham protesting or arguing with God. And when he arrives at Mt. Moriah, he takes Isaac by himself up the side of the mountain, builds an altar, and waits. That’s when Isaac asks, ““The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Yeah. Intense.

Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son for his God, but God intervened and stayed Abraham’s hand. Instead, God provided the sacrifice in the form of a ram caught in a nearby thicket (Genesis 22:13).

You see where I’m going with this, right? About 2,000 years later another “beloved Son” will be sacrificed not far from the very spot where God tested Abraham.

Man of God, you are Isaac.

But instead of you dying in your sins, God provided a Lamb. That’s how much He loves you. When we surrender to God’s process, even when it doesn’t make sense, we lay ourselves down. We become Isaac to Jesus’ ram in the thicket. When we surrender our loved ones to Him, we become Abraham—the father who was willing to go all the way for His Lord.

Father, I need Your help as I struggle to surrender every part of my life to You. Help me do it today.

_______________________

Genesis 22:7

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