Death of the Lamb
There is an event recorded in Genesis 22 that is an amazing example of faith and obedience.
The story of Abraham before we reach that chapter is that God had chosen Abraham. God promised him land and descendants that would number as the stars in heaven. Abraham was in the prime of life when God first gave him these promises, and God repeated them several times over the years. As time passed, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, reached a point in her life when she could no longer have children. This appears to be a large problem. How can someone have an innumerable number of descendants if he cannot have a child?
Abraham and Sarah do what many of us do. Instead of waiting for God to provide the answer, we figure one out on our own. Sarah tells Abraham that he should have a child with her maid Hagar. There is no indication in the Scripture that Abraham objects in any way. About a year later, Hagar gives birth to Ishmael.
Twelve years later, God provides His answer to Sarah’s season-of-life problem. Sarah finds herself expecting a child. Abraham, at the age of 99, and Sarah, who is 90 years old, have the miracle baby Isaac. As the angel would tell Mary centuries later, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Spring forward twelve years, and God tells Abraham to do something unimaginable: offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Genesis 22:2, “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Let’s take a side step here for a second. Often lost in the unthinkable thought that God just told a man to kill the son God had promised him is something else God said: “thine only son Isaac.”
“Thine only son Isaac.” What about Ishmael?
To know why God completely disregards Ishmael, by totally ignoring his existence, we must see that God is using the events of this chapter to show us the way of salvation.
Ishmael is an example of how many people approach salvation: it is in their own hands. Sarah could no longer have children; Abraham would have many descendants; therefore, they thought, Abraham must have children with a different woman. When it comes to salvation, many people think the same way; they must put matters into their own hands. The ways to do this vary, but they all boil down to the same thing: to get God’s will done, I must take control and do something. Participating in some religious ritual, like baptism, being a good person, abstaining from certain sins. The ways people believe they must work to obtain God’s will for their salvation are endless.
Isaac, on the other hand, was a child of faith. When Sarah believed that God could give her a child, even in her advanced age, Isaac was born. Hebrews 11:11, “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.”
When it comes to salvation, God does the same thing: He delivers salvation when we have faith.
Back to Genesis 22
Abraham and Isaac start up the hill to make the sacrifice. They have a torch for fire, a knife to kill the offering, and wood to burn it with. On the way up, Isaac asks a very pertinent question, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham responds in verse eight, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
To finish the story of what happened on that hill that day, God stops Abraham from offering up Isaac, and they see a ram caught in the thicket, which they use for the offering.
Let’s go back to Abraham’s answer to Isaac’s question. God will provide Himself a lamb.
Remember, this story helps explain God’s plan of salvation. God’s plan for our salvation was to provide Himself as the Lamb.
John the Baptist confirms this at Jesus’ baptism. John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the sacrifice for our sins.
We can see Jesus as the Lamb in Isaiah 53.
Verse two tells us that “…he hath no form nor comeliness…” While dying there, He wasn’t anything anyone would want to look at. Those words, “no form,” give hidden detail. If you see someone from a distance, you can tell it is a person, but when Jesus hung on the cross, the words “no form” tell us you could not tell it was a human being hanging there. He had suffered, was battered and torn, so much you couldn’t tell what was hanging there on that cross.
Why was He killed? He was killed as the sacrifice for you and me. As sinners, we cannot stand before a holy God. The Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9:22). In order for us to have fellowship with God, for us to have eternal life, for us not to suffer in the flames for eternity, a blood sacrifice is needed. The sacrifice needed to be sinless. The perfect Lamb was needed. That Lamb is Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:4-6, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Preacher Tim Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in Parke County, Indiana. His weekly column “Preacher’s Point” may be found at: www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com