I have recently finished reading a Bible study on the book of Genesis. The creation of the world, man and woman – and following that the creation of families. One evening while I was bathing my son, I had thoughts of Sarah, Abraham and Isaac fill my mind. Specifically the account of Abraham taking Isaac to one of the mountains in the land of Moriah, to offer him as a sacrifice to God. I wondered what those moments must have felt like. The Bible doesn’t say if Sarah knew what God had commanded Abraham, but as a mother, I think about what it could’ve felt like for her. Her firstborn son. Her young boy.
As I kneel beside the bathtub, I take a moment to soak in the sight of my son splashing and giggling. The joy I feel and the love in my heart for this child is unexplainable. It burns so deep that I am brought to tears. I begin praying over him, thankful for Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Overjoyed that I would never have to face what Abraham and Sarah did. You see, Abraham was instructed to bound his son Isaac and lay him on top of a wooden altar. But then God in His love for Abraham, for us all, provided another way.
This is where it gets so real. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his firstborn son. Instead, God provided a ram to be used as an offering. Then hundreds of years later, the time came for God to lay His only Son on the wooden altar as the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of the word. There was no other way, God saw it through to the end. For God so loved us all that He finished what He had started.
The love. The Ultimate Sacrifice. To save my son, He sent His own.
As a parent, I imagine the relief and the joy that Abraham felt as He heard God’s voice saying, “Do not lay a hand on the boy.” There is no account of this in scripture, but imagine Sarah’s elation when she saw her husband and her son returning home. I am ever grateful to God for what He did for me, my family, humanity. The only question now is, how do we respond to this?
(Read more about the account of Abraham, Isaac and Sarah in Genesis 22)