Day 019 (Genesis 22-24) - Year 7
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Yesterday we saw God fulfilling His 25-year-old promise to Abraham by giving him a son, Isaac. Today we hit a pretty important story in Abraham's life. There are some really unique language things happening here that we need to pay attention to. So first, we start out with God's call to Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

This is crazy, right? Human sacrifice? That's not the God we know, is it? No, you're right. It isn't. God does not delight in human sacrifice. This becomes obvious later, but it's even hinted at here.

Abraham is called to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, not to sacrifice him. It's an offer God rejects, fortunately. And here's another interesting language detail. God also refers to Isaac as Abraham's only son, which we know isn't literally true because of Ishmael. But in terms of the uniqueness of God's covenant with Abraham, it certainly is true.

You may remember that when God commanded Abraham to be circumcised, he immediately obeyed. And we see the same thing happening here. Abraham and Isaac set out on their journey early the next morning.

Some of the toughest assignments in all of Scripture are given to Abraham, and he doesn't seem to hesitate with any of it. First of all, Abraham knows that God is not going to make him kill Isaac, or that if he does, God will raise him from the dead, which, by the way, is something we have no biblical record of prior to this. According to Hebrews 11, Abraham's faith is a huge faith. It's a faith that believes in something that has never yet been done.

But it's not the size of our faith that makes things happen. It's the plan of God. And God's plan is for Isaac to live, but for Abraham to be tested. God knows our hearts, but the testing he puts us through reveals a lot to us about what we truly believe. And Abraham willingly faces the test.

Now, here's where a lot of us may be shocked, because most of us have gotten our theology from Renaissance paintings, which I've previously mentioned as being terrible Bible teachers. Most of us picture Isaac as being a young boy when this happens, like five or six years old. But most Jewish historians say he's probably 25 to 30. And even logic would tell us that a small boy couldn't carry the large amount of wood required for an animal sacrifice up a mountain. At the very least, he would have been a teenager.

This also points us to the fact that anyone who is strong enough to carry wood up a mountain is strong enough to resist their elderly dad when he tries to kill him. Abraham is well over 100 years old at this point, but Isaac doesn't resist being the sacrifice, just like Christ. And the wood that is laid on him that he carried up the mountain, does that sound familiar? This whole story is actually pointing us towards something greater than Isaac.

Isaac is a Christ type, a foreshadowing. But then, as Isaac is on the altar, we see an appearance of the Angel of the Lord, capital L-O-R-D. In other words, God the Son before he is born on earth as Jesus. He shows up and puts a stop to things. God provides a substitute. God provides the sacrifice, just like Abraham says in 22.8.

It reminds me that all my sacrifices to God and for God originate as gifts from God. Nothing I offer God—worship or faith or good works or time or money—none of it finds its origin in me. When all this happens, Abraham declares one of God's names—

We see this a lot in scripture, where people give names based on what you do. They're a function of your activity or your character. Even today, this is how a lot of us got our last names. Someone in our lineage was a Smith or a Taylor or a Miller. Probably somebody in my lineage made shoes or maybe pies. Anyway, Abraham calls God the Lord who provides. Jehovah Jireh.

God's names tell us about God's character and his actions. Put a pin in that because we'll come back to it in the future. Verse 14 goes on to say, "'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'" One thing that's interesting here, this mountain in the land of Moriah where all this takes place, there's a lot of reason to believe that this is the exact same place where Solomon would build his temple and that it's also on this short stretch of mountains where Jesus would be crucified.

On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And it is. God again reiterates his promise to Abraham through Isaac. There would be many descendants and much land. And God says, Again, this is a prophecy of Jesus, who came to save people from among every nation. Interestingly, even people who aren't a part of Abraham's family.

In chapter 23, Sarah dies and Abraham negotiates a burial spot for her. The reason this is a big deal is because here we have Abraham buying a plot of land in Canaan, the very land God promised him, the land currently inhabited by his enemies. You guys, this passage isn't just caves and fields and silver coins. It's significant. Then in chapter 24, Abraham is old and tired, and he wants to make sure everything else is in order for his death.

He makes an oath with his servant in a way that was customary at the time, but was kind of bizarre. The text describes him saying, put your hand under my thigh. But the generally accepted meaning is that it's more likely somewhere in the general thigh region where one might swear on their offspring if you get my drift. The reason is, this is a very big deal.

At the time, Isaac is still single and Abraham knows he would need to marry in order to make many nations from his bloodline. And Abraham and Isaac are living in the land of their enemies, the Canaanites, people who are not circumcised as God commanded and people who do not live according to God's ways. But it's the land God promises to give them eventually, and Abraham knows he needs to stay put.

But there are zero options of women for his son to marry there, which means he wouldn't be able to have grandchildren like God promises. So Abraham needs to make sure Isaac marries only someone who worships the same God they worship. But all those women live far away. You see the conundrum?

Abraham's servant makes the oath, then sets out on a 20-plus day journey to Abraham's homeland. He goes first to the well, which is a pretty smart move because that's where the young women go to draw water. He prays a prayer asking God for help and direction. And before he even finishes praying, the answer to his prayer appears: Rebecca. God has sent her to the well in His perfect timing in order to accomplish His plans.

She's kind and generous. She has a servant's heart. And most importantly, she's from Abraham's clan. Her family doesn't want her to leave, but she finally cuts the apron strings and goes back with Abraham's servant. As she's leaving, her family prays the same blessing over her that God spoke over Isaac in 2217. And then there's this beautiful moment where 40-year-old Isaac, who is out meditating in the field, where he's likely also been working...

meets Rebecca, who has been working at the well. They're both walking out their calling, and God crosses their paths through a weird oath, a servant's prayer, and a bunch of camels. What was your God shot today? I'll tell you something beautiful that I noticed about the way God talks with Abraham. He has this way of talking to him that's specific yet vague. In 22.2, God says to go to "...one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

In 12.1, it's the land that I will show you. So many of us just want God to tell us the whole plan so we can do it. But the point is not doing what God wants us to do so much as it is doing it with God and through his power. It's like this. Let's say you're going on a road trip to a friend's beach house and you have two options. You can either ask your friend to tell you the destination address so you can type it into your GPS, then wave goodbye to them as you head out on your own, or...

You can ask that friend to get in the car with you and show you the way there. Some of you introverts may think the former sounds better, but hopefully you get my point. We're on a journey with God as he leads us step by step. We're not just taking assignments and orders from him. It's way more beautiful to enjoy the intimacy that comes in the moment-to-moment interaction with him.

So many of you are already experiencing this through our daily Bible reading plan. I've seen it on your social media posts. You've sent it to me in emails. You already know him so much better than you did just three weeks ago because of this daily interaction with him. Because you're starting to see with your own eyes that he's where the joy is.

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