GOD'S PROVISION
Gen. 22:1-14
Prayer
The account of what happened
when God asked Abraham to offer up his only
begotten son Isaac is one of
the most fascinating stories in the entire Bible.
The whole incident
foreshadows the birth, sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus.
Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse
said, “God is showing us a pageant, a type, a
parable of the heavenly
Father offering up His only begotten Son.”
This seems right.
And yet, it's not a pageant,
a type, or a parable because the New Testament writers present it as an
actual event.
Our text begins with God
preparing a test for Abraham.
“Take now thine only son and
get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering.”
We will come back to this,
But for the time being, let's
notice Abraham's obedience.
This was a gruesome test.
I would guess that Abraham's
heart was broken.
But he didn't wait.
He rose up early in the
morning (verse 3).
He took Isaac, two servants,
fire, a knife and wood.
They headed off to a place
called Mt. Moriah.
There's a lesson in this for
us.
When God asks us to do
something, we should get with it.
Too many times we put things
off.
We fail to keep our good
intentions.
We miss the blessings of God.
We let God down.
But Abraham rose up early in
the morning.
And headed off to a place
called Mt. Moriah.
On the third day, he could
see it afar off.
He stopped.
He told his servants to take
care of the donkey while he and Isaac went on.
He said, “I and the lad will
go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (verse 5).
Notice, that he was saying, “We
will both be coming back.”
He took the wood off the
donkey;
“Laid it on Isaac his son.”
“He took the fire and the
knife.”
“And they went both of them
together.”
And Isaac spoke unto Abraham
and said,”
“Behold the fire and the wood
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering” (verse 7)?
Abraham answered, “My son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
They arrived at the appointed
place.
Abraham built an altar.
He laid the wood in order on the
alter.
He placed Isaac on the wood
on the altar.
Notice, the total obedience
of Abraham.
He was perfectly willing to
slay his only son Isaac at God's command.
Could you do that?
If a voice from heaven told
you to kill your only child, could you do that?
About two years ago [2001], a
woman in Texas named Andrea Yates killed all five of her children.
Some said she heard voices
from heaven telling her to do that.
The defense claimed she was
mentally ill for doing that.
The jury convicted of murder
for doing that.
In this case, we see that God
never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac.
But, “Abraham stretched out
his hand, and took the knife to slay his son” (Verse 10).
He planned to slay Isaac
before he burned his body upon the altar.
He was ready to go all the
way with God.
This is the kind of
commitment that God desires from us.
It honors Him in a great way.
It's the kind of faith that
gets things done.
Are you willing to go all the
way with God?
Or have you set aside areas
of your life that you want God to stay out of?
If you will go all the way
with God, you will never have to worry about failing, the Judgment, or
anything like that.
So Abraham took the knife to
slay Isaac.
But the Angel of the Lord
stopped him.
“Lay not thine hand upon the
lad, neither do thou anything to him, for now I know that thou fearest God;”
“Seeing that thou hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
Abraham turned around.
He saw a ram caught in a
thicket.
He released Isaac;
Took the ram and used him for
a sin offering.
God did provide.
It wasn't what Abraham
expected.
But God did provide a ram for
the sin offering.
Abraham named that place
Jehovah-Jireh which means Jehovah provides.
It's location is well known
today.
It's the most contested place
upon the face of the earth.
It was the threshing floor of
Ornan (I Chron. 21:25-28).
God told King David to build
an altar there.
King David bought it for the
site of the first Temple (I Chron. 21:18).
King Solomon built the first
Temple there.
Zerubbabel built the second
Temple there.
King Herod expanded the
second Temple there.
Joseph and Mary took Jesus
there.
He taught there.
Satan tempted Him there.
The Muslims say Muhammad
ascended into heaven there.
They built the Dome of the
Rock there.
The Jews want to build the third
Temple there.
The Antichrist will go there.
So we know where it is.
It's hotly debated in the
Middle East peace negotiations today.
Now, at the beginning of this
message, I told you that this whole incident foreshadows the birth,
sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus.
I want to go back and point
out thirteen reasons why.
1st---The birth of
Isaac and the birth of Jesus were both promised births.
Before Abraham moved to the
Promised Land, God told him he would have many descendants.
God said, “Get thee out of
thy country and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee
and I will make thee a great nation.”
Concerning Jesus God said, “Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
So God promised the birth of
both boys (Isaac and Jesus).
2nd---Both boys
were born many years after God's promise.
Abraham and Sarah moved to
the Promised Land.
They kept wanting a child.
But they didn't have one.
Many years passed.
Sarah was barren.
Isaac was born.
It was that way with Jesus
too.
Isaiah prophesied the birth
of Jesus about seven hundred years before it happened.
It seemed like it wasn’t
going to happen.
Then, an angel appeared to a
young maiden named Mary.
He said, “Thou shalt conceive
and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.”
Both boys were born many
years after God’s promise.
3rd---The birth of
both boys startled their parents.
Abraham laughed.
Can you imagine becoming a
parent at the age of ninety-nine?
Some of us might do more than
laugh.
Mary's reaction was
different.
“How can this be, seeing I
know not a man?”
Joseph almost got a divorce.
He pondered how he might put
Mary away.
The birth of both boys
startled their parents.
4th---Both boys
were named by God.
Abraham laughed so God told
him to name his son “Isaac” (Gen. 17:17-19).
“Isaac” means laughter.
God told Joseph to name Him “Jesus.”
“Jesus” means Saviour.
God said, “He shall save His
people from their sins.”
5th---Both boys
were born at God's appointed time.
Sarah conceived.
The Bible says she bore Isaac
in her old age, “At the set time of which God had spoken” (Gen. 21:2).
She could not rush it, or
change it, even by one day.
Concerning Jesus, “When the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son.” (Gal. 4:4).
Both boys were born at the
time of God's own choosing.
6th---Both births
were miracles.
Sarah was 90 years old when
Isaac was born;
Too old to have a child by
anyone's standard.
Mary was a young unmarried
girl.
She had not known a man.
The Bible says, “God sent
forth His Son.”
Jesus was the virgin born Son
of God.
That's why both boys were so
special.
Both boys were the result of
a miracle.
7th---In God's
eyes, both boys were only begotten sons.
Isaac was Sarah's only
begotten son.
Abraham fathered another son
named Ishmael.
But Ishmael was the product
of adultery;
The product of a sinful
relationship.
God wouldn't recognize him.
He told Abraham to send him
away.
Concerning Isaac God said, “Take
thine only son Isaac and offer him for a burnt offering.”
Concerning Jesus, “God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
God accounted both sons
(Jesus and Isaac) to be only begotten sons.
8th---Both sons
were to be a final sacrifice.
Isaac was to be a burnt
offering.
When an offering was burned,
there was nothing left but the ashes.
Ashes mean, “It is finished.”
On the cross, Jesus bowed His
head.
He cried with a loud voice, “It
is finished.”
We should not expect anything
else to remove our sins.
We cannot make another
sacrifice.
Jesus won't die again.
His sacrificial work is
finished.
9th---Both boys
carried the wood for the sacrifice.
A donkey carried the wood
part of the way to Mt. Moriah.
Then, Isaac carried it the
rest of the way.
Jesus carried the cross until
He was too weak to continue.
Then, Simon the Cyrene took
it.
And carried it to Mt.
Calvary.
10th---Both boys
were laid on the wood.
When Abraham arrived at Mt. Moriah,
he built an altar;
Laid the wood on the altar;
Bound Isaac his son;
Laid Isaac on the wood
When Jesus arrived at Mt.
Calvary, the cross was laid on the ground.
Jesus was stripped of His
robe.
He was laid on the cross.
His arms were stretched out
across it.
His hands and feet were
nailed to it.
11th---Neither son
complained.
We don’t hear one word of
complaint from Isaac.
He obeyed his father even
unto death.
He was not a small child
either.
He was a grown man by this
time.
And Abraham was old.
But Isaac submitted to his
father.
And that's the way it was
with Jesus.
He went to the cross
willingly.
He was pleased to die for our
sins (Isaiah 53:10);
Pleased to lay down His life
in our place.
12th---This is a
picture of substitution.
Isaac didn't die.
God provided a ram to take
his place.
And Jesus was the Lamb of God
who took our place.
Isaac asked, “Where is the
Lamb?”
More than three thousand
years later, John the Baptist answered that question, “Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Why did God provide Abraham
with a ram instead of a lamb?
There's only one Lamb of
God.
And “Abraham went and took
the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son”
(Gen. 22:13).
“In the stead of his son” is
a picture of substitution;
A picture of the innocent
dying for the guilty.
It began in the Garden of
Eden.
Innocent animals died because
Adam and Eve sinned.
God took the clothes of those
innocent animals and made clothes for Adam and Eve.
We believe those innocent
animals were lambs.
And the idea of substitution
goes all the way from the Garden of Eden to the cross of Calvary.
The Apostle Paul put it this
way, “God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”
That cross was an altar for a
sin offering.
The Lamb of God was slain on
that cross for us all.
13th---This is a
picture of the resurrection.
When Abraham saw the ram, he
untied Isaac.
Isaac arose from the altar.
Paul said Abraham received
him back in a figure.
The question is, “In a figure
of what?”
He tells us.
“Abraham accounted that God
was able to raise Isaac up even from the dead” (Heb. 11:19).
Abraham was willing to slay
his only begotten son because he believed that God was able to raise him
from the dead.
God had promised him many
descendants.
He believed God would keep
His promise.
Do you remember what he told
his two servants?
Wait here with the donkey.
“I and the lad will go yonder
and worship, and come you” (Verse 5).
He was saying, “I'm going up
there to offer my only begotten son as a sacrifice.”
“But we will both be coming
back because God can raise the dead.”
Jesus was beaten;
Cursed, spit upon.
He thirsted, cried, died and
was buried.
But “In the end of the sabbath,
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,”
“Came Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary to see the sepulchre,”
“And behold, there was a
great earthquake:”
“For the Angel of the Lord
descended from heaven and came,”
“And rolled back the stone
from the door and sat upon it.”
“His countenance was like
lightening and his raiment white as snow,”
“And for fear of him, the
keepers did shake and become as dead men,”
“And the angel answered and
said unto the women,”
“Fear not ye.”
“For I know that ye seek
Jesus which was crucified.”
“He is not here.”
“For He is risen as He said”
(Matt. 28:1-6).
Jesus arose from the dead.
And if God could raise Jesus,
He can raise us.
Paul said, “Now is Christ risen
from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.”
“For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”
“For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
“But every man in his own
order; Christ the first fruits,”
“Afterward they that are Christ's
at His coming.”
One more thing and I will
quit.
When Abraham received Isaac
back, he named the place where he offered him up Jehovah-Jireh.
Jehovah-Jireh means “God
provides.”
It means that God provides
the sin offering;
That we cannot provide a sin
offering for ourselves.
That all we can do is accept
what God has done for us.
Abraham could not provide his
own sin offering.
God would not let him slay
Isaac.
We are not saved by works of
righteousness that we have done.
We are saved by His mercy “which
is shed on us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Saviour.”
A few years ago, someone
tried to get the senior President Bush to eat broccoli.
He doesn't like broccoli.
But they kept pressing him to
eat broccoli.
Finally, President Bush said
something like this:
“When I was young, my mother
told me what to eat.”
“But now I'm grown.”
“I'm the President of the
United States.”
“I don't like broccoli.”
“And I'm not going to eat
broccoli.”
He was saying, “I'm President
of the United States.”
“I hold the highest office in
the land.”
“People don't tell me what to
do.”
God is like the President of
the United States---only greater.
He decides who will go to
heaven.
And who won't go to heaven.
And there’s only one offering
that God will accept.
Will you ask Jesus to be that
offering in your place?
