God will provide.....

Genesis Chapter 22

This is one of these “What the heck?!” chapters. Abraham has waited at least 13 years for a Son born by Sarah. 

This son is the one God promised through whom Abraham would become a father of so many they cannot be counted. 

So what does God do? Tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac by fire on top of a mountain. 

When God told Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah were about to be destroyed Abraham negotiates with God for the sake of the towns – now God is asking him to kill his heir, old Abraham just gets the lad to carry the wood!

Young Isaac realises that something is a bit screwy and asks where is the sacrifice – to Which Abraham relies that God will provide one……

Luckily for Isaac (and the story of the Biible) God intervenes, prevents Abraham from committing murder and arranges a goat to get trapped in a bush.

I guess that there is a bit of an echo here of the Christian belief of the sacrifice of Jesus immortalised in the best known verse of the whole bible “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16

I guess it is one thing to think “What the heck” when reading this chapter, but really when a person believes that Jesus (God’s only begotten son) DID actually die as God sacrifices himself to himself and by so doing wins mankind for himself.

The end of this chapter mentions that Abraham’s extended family is growing as well – there will be more of these guys later.