February 28: The Second Sunday in Lent
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, 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.” –Genesis 22:1,2
Most of us find this at best disturbing or troubling and at worst, horrifying. Many a philosopher has set out to show how <fill in with the most negative adjective you can think of> God is because of this passage. Others view it as an ethical or moral lesson showing that to follow God is to obey no matter how crazy the command may be.
These two approaches and everything in between have their arguments, but they all miss something critical. We tend to assume that God called Abraham to stab his son to death. Right? And that is hideous. But that’s not what happened. If that’s what happened, God could have told him to stab Isaac to death at home in his bed or out in the front yard. Yet God called him to go to a specific place and offer Isaac as an “offering.”
Abraham did it not because he was the most obedient guy in the world; he did it because he knew there must be a sacrifice for sins, and God had the right to demand this sacrifice. He did it because he had faith all along the way that a substitute sacrifice would be provided or that this only son would be raised from the dead (Hebrews 11:19).
The place where he did it was on the same mountains that God’s only Son centuries later would be made a sacrifice not only as the substitute, but actually raised from the dead.
So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” –Genesis 22:14
You see, the name of the place is not “On the mount of the Lord it shall be obeyed;” it is “on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” And the one true Son, whom God loved was provided.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
Jesus Paid It All
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
MEN, don’t forget that our first Men’s Prayer Breakfast is coming Saturday Morning, March 6 at 8:30! It will be at First Pres with our guys cooking and praying. Click here if you would like more information.
Sunday school for children (in Genesis) and adults (in Galatians) is up and running! Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!