Genesis 22:1-13

And it was some time after these things. Then God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

² So he said, “Now take your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

³ So Abraham got up early in the morning, tying his pack to his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and started out for the place of which God had told him.

⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and return to you.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

¹² He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not held back your only son, from me.”

¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and see, behind him was a ram, caught in a bush by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

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Substitute

Abraham had just “lost” his older son, Ishmael, because God had commanded him to send the boy and his mother away. Ishmael could not remain in the household because he represented Adam, God’s first creation, but not his only Son. So now Abraham is left with “his only son, Isaac”. The LORD commands him to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and slaughter him, and burn him as an offering. Abraham obeyed, perhaps thinking that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham had told his servants that God would provide a sacrifice. God did provide a ram, caught in the bush by his horns. He provided a substitute. Generations later, God provided a substitute: his only Son for Abraham and all his children.

LORD, thank you for providing for our greatest need: a substitute to die for our sins – your only Son, Jesus.