4b Isaac [Genesis 21-35]
The Bible passage: [Genesis 21-35]
The Story:
God came to Sarah and kept His promise. Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son that they named Isaac.
When Isaac was eight days old, Abraham had Isaac circumcised.
Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born.
A few years later, God told Abraham, “Take your son Isaac to the land of Moriah. I will show you a mountain there and I want you to sacrifice him to Me as a burnt offering.”
Early the next morning, Abraham took his son Isaac and started for the land of Moriah. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Abraham left the servants there and went on to the mountain.
Abraham had Isaac carry the wood for the fire and he carried the fire and the knife for killing the sacrifice.
Isaac asked his father, “We have the wood and the fire, but where is the animal for the offering?”
Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the sacrifice.”
When they arrived at the place, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on the altar. He then tied his son Isaac on the altar on top of the wood.
As Abraham raised the knife to kill his son, the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham!”
Abraham replied “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Don’t harm the boy. I know that you fear God since you were willing to give up your son.”
Abraham looked and saw a ram tangled up in the bushes. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a sacrifice to God.
Abraham named the place “The Lord Will Provide.”
Sarah lived 127 years and then she died. Abraham was getting old and he made his top servant swear that he would not let Isaac take a wife from among the Canaanites, but that he would go find a wife for him from among Abraham’s family.
The servant loaded up ten of Abraham’s camels with goods and set out for the town of Nahor.
When he arrived there, it was evening, the time of day when the women went out to draw water from the well.
The servant prayed, “God grant me success in what I do for my master. I am standing here at the spring. Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please draw some water for me to drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels, too,’ let her be the one to be the wife of my master’s son.”
Before he had finished praying, a beautiful young woman named Rebekah came to the spring and filled her jug with water. Rebekah was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor.
The servant went to meet her and said, “Could I please have some water from your jug?”
She gave him water to drink and said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they are satisfied.”
After the camels had finished drinking, the servant asked if there was a place where he and his caravan could spend the night.
She told him that her father had plenty of straw and feed, and a place for them to spend the night.
Rebekah led the servant to her family’s home. The servant told the family about Abraham and Isaac and how he had been sent to find a wife for Isaac. He told them how he had prayed for a sign and how God had answered his prayer.
The servant asked, “Will Rebekah go with me or do I need to go somewhere else?”
Rebekah’s family told the servant that she would go with him to their relative.
Isaac and Rebekah were married, and this comforted Isaac after his mother’s death.
Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac.
Abraham took his last breath and died at the age of 175. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave with Sarah.
The Lessons:
- A burnt offering was a special type of offering. It was an animal that was killed and then burned on the altar. It was said that the smoke ascended up to God. The animal used for a burnt offering was to be “without blemish”: the best of the best.
- When God calls us to a task, He will provide what we need to be successful in that task. God will never call us to fail. Let me also say that sometimes what we see as failure, God sees as success, because we can’t see the future and we might not see the full picture.
- God knows everything. He is omniscient. He knows what we will do or say even before He asks. To give just one example, [Psalm 147:5] says, “His understanding is infinite.”
- The Bible often talks about fearing God. Unfortunately, we don’t have a single English word that describes this concept very well. The Biblical meaning of fear can mean awe and reverence, respect, or a worshipful submission.
- “Here I am”: I don’t think I need to provide a definition for this phrase. I’m including it because we are going to see several men in the Bible who said, “Here I am” to God. God could see them and knew where they were. We will see that they weren’t just saying, “Here I am.” It’s more like they were saying, “I’m listening. I’m ready. I’m available.”
- God told Abraham to go up the mountain and offer his only son and heir as a sacrifice. Abraham followed where God led. God provided the sacrifice AFTER Abraham followed.
- An offering is a gift of something of value. God asked Abraham to offer his most valuable possession: his son, his heir.
- The passage about Abraham and Isaac and the sacrifice is often referred to as a “test”. It isn’t that God wanted to find out what Abraham would do. God already knew because He is omniscient. When I was in school, taking tests helped me to know what I needed to work on to do better on my next test. God was using this to strengthen Abraham’s faith.
- When Isaac’s servant arrived at the well, he prayed and asked God to provide a wife for Jacob. The Bible says, “before he had finished praying”, there was Rebekah. That reminds me of something I heard Priscilla Shirer say a few years ago: “God is already working on things you don’t even know to pray about yet.” God had Rebekah headed to the well at the right time to meet Abraham’s servant at the well. And God had her respond to him in the right way so he would know God had provided.
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