Ep. 12. Genesis 22 | God will Provide

EPISODE 12

GOD WILL PROVIDE: GENESIS 22

As we saw yesterday, Isaac is a picture of the people of faith and not a picture of Jesus, so we will not read this narrative found in Genesis 22 and try to make Isaac be, instead, a picture of our Savior. Instead, we find ourselves in this story. We are Isaac, the redeemed and ransomed ones, and the ram foreshadows Jesus.

We see in verse two this story takes place on Mt. Moriah, which will eventually be the location of the temple of the Lord. It was on this very mountain where Christ was supplied as the sacrifice for the sins of humanity. When Abraham named the place "the Lord will provide," he reached far into the future and spoke prophetically of the ultimate sacrifice for sins.

You also see in verse 2 that Isaac is called Abraham's "only son." This is because he is the "son of promise," and Ishmael has already been sent away. From God's perspective, only Isaac is considered a son. So also, from a spiritual sense, only those people of faith are considered sons and daughters of God.

Abraham said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there and worship and come again to you." Abraham knew they were both coming back. It isn't that Abraham believed he would be spared the sacrifice of his son, but that God would raise his son from the dead. "He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead."

It is also significant that Abraham's obedience to God in this story proved his faith was genuine. We shouldn't make the mistake of thinking this was the moment Abraham came to faith; rather, Abraham, having believed God's promise about his son many years earlier, gave him the confidence to obey boldly some 25-40 years later. In a similar fashion, it isn't our works that save us, but our works show that our faith is genuine. We all know that "faith without works is dead" since authentic faith will inspire bold obedience.

The rest of this chapter has repeating language we've made note of several times already. In verse 18, we see again the promise, "In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Of course, this promise is restated on the heels of one of the clearest pictures of the gospel story so far in Genesis. We are reminded of Chapter 12, where we first discussed that the blessing for all nations is not one of physical wealth and well-being but that of salvation through Jesus.

ADDITIONAL READING: 2 Chronicles 3:1; Hebrews 11:17-19; James 2:18-24; Genesis 12:1-3