Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 22 before reading the devotional below.
I’ve often heard people talk about the symbolism of Abraham being willing to give up his only son, just as God later gave up Jesus. But during this series, I remember just writing about how much Abraham loved his son, Ishmael. Today’s chapter starts off with God specifically calling Isaac Abraham’s “only son.” Why is that? It strikes me that God did not want Abraham to be confused on his meaning. “Take your son, your only (legitimate) son — yes, I mean Isaac…” We know Abraham is prone to adding in his own ideas so God is careful to be clear. His plan was always going to be about Isaac.
Here God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. In this era, there were a variety of religions and many of them involved child sacrifice. God is using a very dramatic object lesson to show Abraham that he is not like any other god. In an act of obedience, Abraham is about to kill Isaac and God stops him, replacing him with a ram instead. I believe God is making a very clear statement that he will never demand a child sacrifice, and he now knows that Abraham will obey him fully.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God is one of a kind.
The God of the Bible is often misunderstood and mischaracterized by people who haven’t studied the Bible. When you read these stories in context and seek to understand the character of God, you see that already in this very first book of the Bible God is continually revealing himself as a provider. He is trustworthy and good, and the obedience he demands is in the context of care and love. God stayed with Noah through the entire ark and flood situation, he hung in there with Abram’s mistakes, and he provided a sacrifice in today’s story to show that he is trustworthy. God hasn’t changed — he’s still like this in your life today. Do you trust that he has good things for you?