Genesis Twenty-two….(v.12-14) God's Substitute.
Verses 12-14….
Abraham's test was not for God, because He knew before He told Abraham what was going to happen. It was for an example to people and the unseen hosts of what a man of faith would do in obedience to God's command.
We never know ourselves until we are put the test, how we will react in certain situations until we are put in them. It was also for Isaac whose faith would have been strengthened as he saw how God provided….he would never have forgotten this incident his whole life through. It was a prophetic example of the obedient passive Lamb of God who was to come. It is for us today, to look back on this beautiful picture and example of faith and obedience.
God now intervened and provided a substitute which Abraham gladly took…the ram as a burnt offering. This again is a wonderful picture to us of our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, taking our place, paying for our sins in His own body on the cross (Galatians 3:13-14; 1 Peter 2:24). The penalty we each deserved.
Isaac was set free of the ropes that bound him to certain death, another picture of how we have been set free from the ropes of sin that were taking us to a certain eternal death. What wonderful pictures we have in this story!
Isaac knew of God's great love, When he heard the Voice above,
"Don't kill the lad, but stay the knife, And take the ram to save his life!"
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