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God’s Ultimate Provision for Faith
Genesis 22
*Taking our kids to places special to us
The Place of Sacrifice
Mountains are tied to the worship of God by his people, the revelation of God to his people, and the forging of relationship between God and his people. God’s special and particularly effective provision for his people often comes at the summit of a mountain. Abraham’s worship of God at Mount Moriah establishes this pattern.
Throughout the scriptures there are only two other places called the mountain of the LORD. The first is Sinai. Two of the most important revelations of God to his elect people happen at Mount Sinai. First, God reveals himself to be the great I am in the burning bush. Secondly, Moses receives one of the clearest revelations concerning God’s nature on Mount Sinai, where God descends in the cloud declaring his name and nature. That revelation and manifestation of God’s presence causes Moses' face to emanate a blinding heavenly light. God’s presence is meant to transform his people from one degree of glory to another.
Israel also receives God’s law at Mount Sinai. The reception of God’s law meets the trifold theme of mountains in the scripture. The law in a true sense is a revelation of the LORD and his holiness, it shows his people how to properly worship him, and also how they are supposed to live before him in a way that pleases him.
The only other site referred to as the mountain of the LORD is Mount Zion or Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the religious center of Israel, is called a city on a hill. The site of the temple in Jerusalem, the only dwelling place of the living God where God’s people could worship him and experience his abiding presence, is called the temple mount.
Isaiah 2:3, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem…”
Zechariah 8:3, “Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain…”
Mount Moriah is the original, which the other shadows follow regarding revelation, worship, and relationship. But Mount Moriah’s significance goes deeper still. 2nd Chronicles identifies the place where Solomon builds the temple of God as the very same mountain where God provided a substitutionary sacrifice for the life of Isaac.
2 Chronicles 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah…”
Mount Moriah, then, is actually the temple mount. This thought is strengthened by v.10. Abraham takes the knife in his hand to slaughter his only beloved son Isaac. The word slaughter’s most predominant usage describes the slaying of a sacrificial animal in temple worship. It’s also nearly the only word used to describe the killing of the passover lamb. Abraham journeys to the future site of the temple mount, the only place on earth where God will accept sacrificial worship in his presence, and prepares a sacrifice. Abraham’s attitude of sacrificial obedience at the temple mount, sets forth the pattern for the entire sacrificial system for Israel. The essence of right sacrifice made unto Yahweh is a heart filled with faith in God’s substitutionary provision and bent in full obedience to his commands.
Hosea 6:6, “ For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
The name Moriah itself presents a point of interest. Moriah is identified as a play on the word for provision “raah”. Inlight of this John Walton writes, “Salvation is thus promised in the very decree that sounds like annihilation.”
Hidden within God’s impossible command, his ultimate test of faith, is his unstoppable promise of provision for Abraham. So it is for us, take up your cross and follow me. From the very beginning, God had mapped out the particularly effective provision that would fulfill Abraham’s faith. The place of sacrifice is then filled with unfettered anticipation for great provision.
The Role and Relationship of Father and Son in Sacrifice
The way that God describes the uniqueness and special place that Isaac holds in the heart and life of his father leads us to anticipate the coming of another unique and beloved son. God himself and the author persistently highlight not only Isaac’s sonship, but also his uniqueness as the singular and beloved son of his father. This description builds anticipation for the revelation and incarnation of the only beloved Son of God, Jesus.
Mark 1:9-11, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Matthew 17:1-8, “...Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
Jesus himself testifies to his unique relationship with God the Father.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”
John 17:24, “Father… you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
Jesus is the only beloved son of his Father.
When speaking of the loads that Isaac and Abraham carried up the mountain, I said that both of them carry a burden heavier than can be seen with just eyes. In the loads that Isaac and Abraham carry for sacrifice, we can see the roles assumed by God the Father and God the Son.
In Isaac, we see pictured and prefigured, the willingness of God the Son to lay down his own life in sacrifice and submission to his Father’s will. Issac carries the altar of his own sacrificial death upon his shoulders to the place of his slaughter. Jesus bore his own cross upon his shoulders, the implement of his own crucifixion and the altar upon which he would be slain as a substitutionary sacrifice.
John 19:16-18, “So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him…”
Issac is also willingly bound and laid on the altar demonstrating his deep love and trust in his father, even when his own death was imminent. This prepares us for the greater and perfect submission we find in Jesus.
Matthew 26:39 & 42, “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”... Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
Jesus submitted himself to his Father’s will completely, even at the cost of his own perfect and precious life, laid on the altar of a criminal’s cross.
But who is it that holds the cup? His Father. And who is it that holds the knife and fire? Abraham. God commands the father of a beloved son to sacrifice his only son by personally taking his life. This was not some vindictive command and tricky test that God placed before Abraham. God was painting the background of his grandly designed masterpiece of salvation for his elect. And Abraham had a part to play. This impossible command, even a seeming curse, was evidence of his elect and blessed position before God.
What this shows us, is that Jesus' death was an act of divine sacrifice. The knife and fire, the cup, was in his Father’s hands. Jesus’s most intense and significant suffering was not the lashes, nor the beating, nor the mockery. It was not the crucifixion and excruciating physical suffering of slow suffocation. It was the contents of the cup that his Father would dispense upon him by his own hand. God’s wrath for sin.
Isaiah 53, “...like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth... Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief…”
In this we see the unity of the trinity in salvation, and Genesis 22 gives us a glimpse of that glory.
God’s Ultimate Substitutionary Sacrifice
All of this leads us to anticipate God’s ultimate provision for his people. Isaac asks perhaps the most important question in redemptive history, “Where is the lamb?” And God does indeed provide a ram in the thicket. But Isaac’s question begins a pattern of godly inquisition for Israel. In fact, every faithful Jew, seeking to satisfy God and please him in worship, would ask themselves this very question dozens of times throughout their life. Passover rolls around and they would ask, “Where’s the lamb?” The day of atonement would roll around and the priest would ask, “Where’s the lamb?” At the birth of the first born son the parents would ask, “Where’s the lamb?” Throughout redemptive history, God’s people are brimming with anticipation for the answer to the question, “Where’s the lamb?” Issac’s question begins to build the ever expanding anticipation for the last lamb. The final lamb of God’s full provision.
*Thanksgiving bloating. Bloated with anticipation, even sick waiting for the revealing of the last lamb.
It is then no coincidence that the first thing uttered by the first prophet in 400 years concerning the appearance of Jesus in Jerusalem is, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” The ram in the thicket, the passover lamb, the goat in the wilderness were merely shadows of the substance who Jesus is, the last lamb who fulfills the faith of God’s people.
And God spared Isaac because Abraham did not withhold his only beloved son from God. But ultimately God spared Isaac because God would not withhold his only Son from the altar of the cross.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
Jesus' earthly ministry is also marked by revelation, worship, and the forging of relationships on mountains. Think of the sermon on the mount, a groundbreaking revelation of the application of God’s law. Jesus miraculously feeds 5000 people on a mountain. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John, his closest friends, up onto a mountain where he is transfigured before their eyes. At Peter’s suggestion of building a tabernacle for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, God declares Jesus to be his Son and when they look up only Jesus remains, demonstrating Jesus’ utter uniqueness. Jesus also ascends to heaven after his resurrection from a mountain. And most notably, Jesus is crucified for the sin of his people upon Mount Calvary.
On the mount of the LORD God will provide. God’s provision for us, to save us, to redeem us from the slaughter we deserved to suffer was slaughtering his very own son in our place on a mountain of execution for common criminals.
“By drawing attention to the relationship of Abraham and Isaac, the full awfulness of the deed is… underlined.” - Gordon Wenham
We should ponder and consider the full awfulness that God subjected himself to in order to make salvation for us. God the Father laid his own Son on the altar and plunged the knife deep into his soul so that Jesus suffered God’s full scorching wrath for us! And the Son willingly faced abandonment unto death by his Father, with whom for all of eternity past he had only known inseparable unity in the deepest, truest, most intimate love. Jesus, righteous and holy as God himself, pure and unstained as an unblemished lamb, the only beloved Son of God was slaughtered in the place of sinners by his own Father. Only when we come to understand the full weight of God's ultimate provision, can we understand the magnitude of his mercy and the soaring heights of his love for sinners. The only Son of God was given for us. And we were his enemies.
Jesus’s substitutionary death secures the gate of his enemies not by conquest through devoting them to utter destruction, but by personally bearing their destruction so that they might live and receive the prosperity reserved for the promised son of God. Jesus possesses the gate of his enemies by making them his friends by faith in his self-sacrifice.
God’s substitutionary sacrifice effectively provides escape for his people from death by delivering to them directly a salvation that they could never have hunted down by their own merits and work. An offering whose essence rose to the throne room of heaven and melted God’s wrath into love. Now the unique love that God the Father and God the Son shared for all eternity, is given to us.
John 17:26, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
God’s people are now recipients of inter-trinitarian love through the abiding presence of God with them. Kealoha, we have known the eternally abiding, immutable, all-consuming love of God as his very own sons and daughters as Jesus lives in us. How can a sinner experience this love? By making Abraham’s example our existence. All that matters is a heart filled with faith in God’s substitutionary provision and bent in full obedience to his commands. How can you taste this love? Believe. Believe that Jesus is the final and full provision of God for salvation. And yield your life to him.
What is God’s purpose in this test? I said last week, this test marks the completion of Abraham’s maturity in faith and obedience (not his perfection). God fully matures Abraham’s faith and obedience through this excruciating circumstance such that God makes for himself a faithful covenant partner out of Abraham. God forms Abraham into a partner who will live with him by faith in obedience. And the fiery trials of this life do the same for us. God uses fiery trials to form us into the image of Christ, the only perfect covenant partner. God uses the excruciating sufferings of this present life to make us more faithful covenant partners through his Holy Spirit working in us. So do not grow weary, God’s purpose of redemption is working in you.
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