Read Genesis 22:8, Genesis 22:14, Genesis 22:18. How did God fulfill His promise that He will provide? What was provided?
When Isaac asked about the sacrificial animal, Abraham gave an intriguing answer: God will “provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8, NKJV). Yet, the Hebrew verbal form can actually mean “God will provide Himself as the lamb.” The verb “provide” (yir’eh lo) is used in a way that can mean “provide Himself” (or literally, “see Himself”).
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
What we are being shown here, then, is the essence of the plan of salvation, with the Lord Himself suffering and paying in Himself the penalty for our sins!
Read John 1:1-3 and Romans 5:6-8. How do these verses help us understand what happened at the Cross, which is prefigured in the sacrifice here on Mount Moriah?
There, at Mount Moriah, long before the cross, the sacrificial ram “caught in a thicket by his horns” (Genesis 22:13) was pointing right to Jesus. He is One that is “seen” here, as Abraham explains later, “In the mount where the LORD is seen” (Genesis 22:14, author’s translation). Jesus Himself had pointed to Abraham’s prophetic utterance here, when He said, echoing Abraham’s statement: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56, NKJV).
“It was to impress Abraham’s mind with the reality of the gospel, as well as to test his faith, that God commanded him to slay his son. The agony which he endured during the dark days of that fearful trial was permitted that he might understand from his own experience something of the greatness of the sacrifice made by the infinite God for man’s redemption.” — Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 154.
| How does what happened here help us better understand what happened at the cross and what God has suffered in our behalf? What should our response be to what has been done for us? |
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