The Ultimate Sacrifice My Bible Blog: Genesis 22

What would you give up for God? Would you give up your favorite sin? Would you give up your family? Would you even give up Sundays? Most of us are too weak to give up any of these, even Sundays. 

There once came a day when God asked Abraham to give up the most precious thing in his life. Remember Abraham? He was married to Sarah while he had a son Ishmael through Hagar, but God still blessed him and Sarah with Isaac in their old age. God had promised that Isaac would be special, but it seemed He had changed the plan. He instead asked Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, the most important thing in his life. Not only did God ask Abraham to give up Isaac, He asked for Abraham to perform the sacrifice himself. Would you be able to fulfill that request? I wouldn’t. 

God asked Abraham to take Isaac, whom God knew he loved, to one of the mountains in the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. Abraham even split the wood himself for the offering. They traveled until the third day when they came to the mountain. Abraham took the wood, the fire, the knife, and Isaac who believed they were going there to worship. Isaac questioned his father about the lamb they were to sacrifice. Abraham answered that God would provide the lamb.

I wonder how Abraham felt as he prepared the fire that was to consume his precious son. I wonder how he felt as he bound him and placed him on that altar. I wonder how he felt as he took the knife and pulled his arm back to slay his beloved child. I wonder at the relief he must have felt when the angel of the Lord stopped him in his tracks and told him not to harm the boy. God, in all His glory, instead provided a ram for the sacrifice. 

Abraham named the place “The Lord will provide.” God had tested his faith, his fear, his loyalty, and he passed the test. Would we? As a mother I would gladly sacrifice my own life for my son, but I don’t think I could ever sacrifice his. Notice that God asked Abraham to do it, not Sarah. Maybe God knew that a mother’s heart could never willingly give up her child, maybe not even for Him.

On that great day, not only did the Lord provide, He rewarded Abraham with the promise that He would greatly bless him and his seed which He would multiply as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore. I bet if you look back on your pitfalls, you will see that the Lord provided for you also. 

Sometimes we feel tested and tried over and over again by God, and we are constantly proven weak, but no test compares to that of sacrificing your child. So, the next time we grumble about giving up our sin or our Sundays, just remember Abraham and what he was asked to give up, and remember what God sacrificed for us – His only Son, Whom He loved. We are lucky. God has been easy on us after all.