Faith’s Hall Of Fame: Abraham (Again)
Long ago, I was visiting a friend who told me his struggle with faith. “How can I follow a God who requires a father to kill his own son?”
Faith’s Hall Of Fame: Abraham (Again)
There’s more to the story of Abraham’s faith. He was, after all, the father of our faith. He was promised a son, through whom God would build a great nation. After decades of waiting and learning, God gave Abraham the son he was promised. And then He said, “Now, go sacrifice him.”
What? That can’t be right, can it? A human sacrifice? God detests that. What about that great nation? What was God thinking?
Long ago, I was visiting a friend who told me his struggle with faith. “How can I follow a God who requires a father to kill his own son?”
I watched his face as he shared, thinking about his own son. I said, “What if that’s not what’s going on there?”
He said, “What do you mean?”
I said, “God told them to go to Moriah. Why Moriah? What’s there?”
He didn’t know.
If you don’t know, let me spell it out for you. He led them to Moriah because that’s where the most important event in human history would take place. God led them to a specific mountain there.
Moriah is where Jerusalem would be built. It’s where King David would build an altar to end the plague. It’s where Solomon built his Temple. Moriah is where the Passover was restored by Hezekiah.
It’s where Nehemiah’s Temple was built - and Herod’s Temple, too. And right near there is a distinctive looking mountain called Golgotha, on which Jesus was crucified.
He stared at me.
I said, “Isaac wasn’t the son who would die there. It wasn’t about him. God was showing Abraham and Isaac what it was going to take to save the world. A Father would have to sacrifice His Son there to save mankind.”
That’s why it was a three day journey. Thats why Isaac is called the “Only Begotten Son”. That’s why Isaac climbed the hill with the wood for the sacrifice on his back. That’s why the mountain was so recognizable. That’s why Abraham told Isaac that God would “provide for Himself a Lamb” for the sacrifice.
The plan was never for Isaac to die. God was teaching them the cost of salvation.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
