Scripture: Genesis 22 v 1 - 3: "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him."
When God tempted Abraham it was really that He was testing Abraham to see if he would carry out His instructions to the letter. Isaac was a much loved, longed for, miraculous son and God wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son, carrying the wood for the fire. And Abraham went to perform this sacrifice without fear or doubting.
Genesis 22 v 6 - 9: "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and 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."
Abraham took the wood and laid it upon Isaac and on the way Isaac asked, where is the lamb to be sacrificed? To which Abraham answered, God will provide Himself a lamb for the sacrifice. When Abraham had bound his son he laid him upon the altar of wood.
If you have not started seeing the big picture yet, allow me to join the dots.
Because of the nature of God, true, holy, just, and because Satan was now "god of this world" through the yielding of Adam to him, a legal precedent needed to be set for God to sacrifice His own Son, the Lamb of God.
Every part of it had to be correct in every aspect. Abram was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, a pagan sect of magicians, shamans and soothsayers, and his father was a maker of idols. A handpicked ancestry that would satisfy the court of Satan as to how far from truth they were.
When Jesus was sentenced to death, there was no stay of execution, it was to happen the very same day. He had to carry His wooden Cross, just as Isaac was made to carry his wood. Now Abraham had no idea why this was being done like this but he was obeying the Lord in every item.
When Abraham was about to plunge the knife into Isaac's heart, the Lord said STOP! Abraham looked around and suddenly there was a ram entangled in a hedge. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it to God.
A ram was substituted for a human being, a beloved only son, in order for God to substitute His only beloved Son, the Lamb of God, for the sins of the whole human race. To pardon every human of every sin forever. A gift so mighty it cannot be equalled by anything on this planet nor in Heaven.
It's so powerful it cannot be challenged because a legal precedent was set, so air tight, that there is no argument against the truth of it. And this was laid down before the law was given to Moses.
However, Satan, the Accuser, the original Prosecutor, he knew the way God was expected to react and he wanted to ensure there were loopholes he could slip through at will. Especially the loopholes carnal man could provide, which is why he tried to barricade his stronghold over human flesh be making sin so attractive, so easy so addictive. He never reveals the fine print of consequences for sin and slavery. Him to know, us to find out.
He was outwitted by God over Abraham, over Noah, over Moses, over Elijah and so on. He was totally outwitted by Jesus, the Apostles, especially Paul. And he can be outwitted by us. Jesus says we must overcome him. He took Satan's weapons away so he only has a big mouth full of lies, bluff and the power we give him through ignorance. Or stupidity.
God went to a lot of trouble to select Abraham and Isaac to bring about the sacrifice of Jesus. He had to wait till there was a wood sacrifice that did not include burning. That's when the Romans introduced crucifixion as a death sentence. Then they had to conquer Palestine, now Israel, to have authority over the Sanhedrin, the Pharisee priesthood in Jerusalem.
Bringing in the New Covenant, or New Testament, was an arduous task which was done to save us from sin, because sin cuts us off from God, Heaven and for eternity. So if you have a thought that a merciful God will wink at sins small or large, think of all He did to abolish it. We have to become sinless. We are forgiven and cleansed by His Blood but if we continue to sin we run the risk of backsliding into the world.
We are to become like Jesus in every way because we are His Body, twisted out of shape by Satan, but able to be made whole if we put aside material things and all our lusts and demands. We can see the finish line of the human race, and the obstacles that must be removed to get across it.
If we put all our resources to work for God's Kingdom to come and pull us out of this world, the Body of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, will be made whole for Him to rescue His Bride, Israel, from Armageddon. In the South African Comrades Marathon on the "up run" from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, there is a wicked little hill called Polly Shorts. It tries to sap your last reserves of energy before reaching the goal.
The church has staggered to the foot of Polly Shorts, spiritually, and we need supernatural power to get to the finish line. It will take determination, discipline and the power of the Holy Spirit to get us there. We need to be baggage free, sin free, demon free, world free, to get up Polly Shorts. It's the choices we make now that will give us enough strength to encourage the feeble. Let us show our Father and Jesus how badly we want to be with Them in Heaven.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, this world is sinking fast, it's power and energy are rapidly running out, or being used as blackmail. Father we need Your power and energy to get us Home. Father show each person what their part must be to keep Your energy at full power for each of us. You did it for Abraham and Isaac on the mountain, Lord, and we are ready for You to do it now. In Jesus's name. Amen.