ICS Daily Devotions
Sacrificing His Son for Us
Genesis 22:2: Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
In the framework of the blood covenant, God knew that He would eventually need give His Son as a sacrifice to mankind. But the question was: if God reciprocally demanded from Abraham to sacrifice his only son to God, would he be willing? As we know, in the covenant, both parties share everything. If Abraham would not be willing to give this ultimate sacrifice, it would mean that he was dishonoring the whole covenant with God. So before God could send His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth. Abraham—as the other partner—had to go through the same test of loyalty.
It was a tremendous test. Abraham was about 112 years old and all of the promises God had given him were in fact connected with his son Isaac! How then would these promises be fulfilled? At his old age, Abraham would hardly have a hope of getting a new son. In the ancient world to have a descendant was more important than anything else. To sacrifice a son was for Abraham worse than sacrificing himself. But Abraham obeyed God.
Abraham started a three-day-long walk to a hill at the city of Salem in the land of Moriah. This city later became Jerusalem. Two of Abraham’s servants, two witnesses, went along.
Genesis 22:4-5: Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, ”Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.
During these three days Isaac was the same as dead to Abraham! It reminds the death of Jesus when his body was laying in the grave. And just as with Jesus later, Abraham could only hope for the resurrection of his son Isaac:
Hebrews 11:19: concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
Abraham placed the firewood on Isaac’s back, just as Jesus was bearing the wood of the cross on his own back. They started to climb the hill which was named Calvary. Abraham had built an altar and placed his son on it. He had lifted his knife for the killing stab… Then he was suddenly stopped by the voice of the angel of the Lord:
Genesis 22:11-12: But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
God stopped Abraham at the last minute. Instead, Abraham noticed a ram behind him, caught in a thicket, and offered him up instead. Isaac’s blood was not to be shed! God reserved the ultimate human bloodshed for his own Son to pay the price for sin of mankind.
John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
2 Corinthians 5:21: For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus became the innocent sacrificial lamb of God for us. He became the Second Adam who died for our sins. He shed His blood for us once for all. But the death could not hold Him because He was innocent. Thanks to the blood covenant in which God and His people share everything in common, Christ’s righteousness applies to all of us who believe in Jesus and are thus true descendants of Abraham circumcised in our hearts. The righteousness of Jesus Christ dwells upon us. Jesus brought us the resurrection and new life in heaven if we are in the covenant!
Sermon series: Blood Covenant
