It's Holy Week, so I'm taking a break from my usual Motown, soul, R&B offerings. I thought it would be appropriate to post a song that reflects the progression from Palm Sunday to Good Friday and finally Easter Sunday -- Resurrection Day!
I really like this song, God Will Provide a Lamb, by Michael Card. And I also like this video version of the song; I think the graphics are a great compliment to the music.
Perhaps one of the reasons I like this song so much is because, through it, God allowed me to have one of those "light bulb moments" that I love. Many years ago I attended a Women's Bible Study brunch where a woman sang this song. I think we had probably studied Genesis that semester. As the woman spoke for a bit before she began, I realized I knew what song she was going to sing. I was familiar with the song and might even have heard Michael Card perform it when I saw him at a Friday Night Sing at Moody.
All of a sudden God opened my mind and showed me the deeper meaning beyond the story related in the lyrics. The song tells the story of Abraham and his beloved son Isaac, the son of the promise, journeying to Mount Moriah where the Lord God has instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son. The Biblical account doesn't fill in many details, but it does say, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together." Genesis 22:6
Abraham took the wood that would become the burning pyre that would consume his son, and he laid it on Isaac's back and together they climbed to the top of the mountain where God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
For the first time I saw the parallel of Abraham's sacrifice of his son and God's sacrifice of His son, Jesus. Just as Jesus willingly and obediently carried* the cross, the instrument of His torturous crucifixion, to Golgotha, Isaac also, in obedience to his father, bore the burden of the wood for his own sacrifice to the summit of Mount Moriah.
Two fathers and two sons: loving fathers who no doubt wished that somehow there could be another option, a way that would spare the lives of their beloved sons; and obedient sons -- One who knew the pain and horror that lay ahead and another who had no clue. Yet both sons fully trusted their fathers and willingly obeyed their commands.
What beautiful illustrations of faith and obedience are found in these fathers and sons. Abraham trusted that even though God was asking him to sacrifice Isaac -- the son he and Sarah had waited years for, the child with whom God promised to establish an everlasting covenant -- somehow God would be faithful to His promise and Isaac's life would be restored. Abraham was willing to obey God because he trusted Him and He had proven Himself faithful.
Isaac trusted his father, Abraham. As they traveled on, Isaac asks Abraham where is the lamb for the sacrifice and Abraham responds, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." Genesis 22:8 When they came to the precise spot that God had indicated, Abraham "built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood." Genesis 22:9b
Isaac wasn't a toddler or even a scrawny ten year-old. He was most likely an adolescent. He was obviously big and strong enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice on his back and, in light of that, he was probably also big and strong enough to fight off his elderly father as he bound him and laid him on the altar. It seems that, unless he was unconscious, Isaac must have cooperated with Abraham.
What was the conversational exchange between the two of them? Did Isaac ask his father if he had lost his mind? Did Abraham promise Isaac that God would bring him back from the dead? Did they cry, embrace, pray?
Ultimately, Isaac trusted his father Abraham, and Abraham trusted God the Father. God did provide a lamb for the sacrifice and Isaac's life was spared.
Neither Abraham nor Isaac could see into the future, but if they could, they would have seen that their test of faith would pale in comparison to the faith and obedience the Son of God would offer to His Father as He became the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for all mankind.
Just as God provided the lamb that enabled Abraham to spare his son from death, God has provided a Lamb for me. Because He did not spare His Son, but offered Him as the perfect sacrifice for my sin, my life has been spared. Jesus, the Lamb of God, willingly died in my place. By Christ's obedience to His father, God has provided a Lamb for all who believe on the name of His Son.
* Some gospel accounts say that Simon of Cyrene walked behind Jesus and carried the cross.
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