In this morning’s Bible study I found Jesus in the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is one that confuses a lot of people but it isn’t as complicated as it’s made out to be. God tells Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. This would go against everything else God says about never sacrificing your son and not letting your sons pass through the fire to Molech and all of that. At least it would if God had let it happen, but sacrificing his son was never Abraham’s real assignment, it was just what God told him to do so that God could reveal something.
You know the story, Abraham goes up on the mountain. He leaves the rest of the people behind and just the two of them go up. Abraham knew that God had promised to bless the world through Isaac and in the New Testament it says that Abraham knew that God could raise Isaac from the dead if necessary and Abraham said God would provide. But none of that is important to finding Jesus in the history.
Jesus was at the top of the hill. When Abraham went to kill Isaac God told him to stop and then he saw a ram. He knew right away that God wanted to sacrifice the ram instead of his son. Later that principle would be built into the law of Moses. All of which points directly to Jesus. God came down, became a man, and died so that we don’t have to. That’s what the ram did in Genesis 22. God provided it as the sacrifice that He actually wanted.
Sure God asked Abraham to lay down the one he loved the most, the one that he treasured above everything else on earth. But God didn’t want the physical death of Isaac or anyone else. He wanted a chance to tell the story of what He would do and ultimately He was going to do the dying so that no one else had to. That’s how God is, He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He loves everyone, He calls out to everyone, He forces no one, He’s patient and kind, He doesn’t put Himself first.
This is a story about God telling everyone who He is and what He is going to do. It was a prophecy in an action but it was also the revelation of the character of God. the Bible says that God is waiting until everyone from every ethnic group across the world has heard the truth before He returns to judge. It says that His will is that none should perish but all would come to a saving knowledge of the truth. And I know this is a sore spot for some people, but it also says that Jesus went into hell and preached to the dead.
And I don’t know why that offends people, probably because they still don’t understand the nature of God. God being loving and good is just more than many people can bear. His goodness and righteousness will never make us feel righteous ourselves. When people see His goodness in us it’s hard to accept and sometimes even makes them angry. That why people killed Jesus and the prophets and the martyrs all through history. Seeing God’s goodness is overwhelming. But He’s always been good and loving and wonderful and He’s always planned a way to help people.
The truth is when the gospel reaching someone here on earth, it is Jesus preaching to the dead right here. Until our spirits are reborn we are all dead folks walking right here. But God doesn’t want to lose anyone, so He keeps coming after us to wake us up from the dead. I appreciate you reading along with my study. Day 2 of the 90 day reading plan was Genesis 17- 28, it’d be amazing if you read along. Look for Jesus on every page, he is the word and without seeing him the Bible is impossible to understand. God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 