A major theme of the Bible is that God is calling a people to Himself who will see His glory and abide with Him in love forever. David is an outstanding example of a person answering this call, as we see in so many of his Psalms.
In Psalm 30, David extols the Lord for lifting him up in times of great trial.
Psalm 30 (NKJV)
1 I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried out to You,
And You healed me.
3 O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
David exuberantly proclaims his hope and faith in Psalm 27:
Psalm 27 (NKJV)
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.
5 For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
14 Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Abraham, like David, is an example of one who keeps his hope and faith, even in the hardest of trials. This was most clearly seen when God tested him by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Hebrews 11 describes his faith when faced with this test.
Hebrews 11 (NKJV)
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
This passage in Hebrews 11 is referring to the account of Abraham’s greatest trial in Genesis 22:1-19. Jacob D. Gerber has written an excellent commentary on this passage:
“In spite of all the long waiting and the extraordinary faith Abraham had to exercise while waiting for Isaac to come, God tests Abraham’s faith in an even greater way in Genesis 22 by asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Shockingly, we read Abraham bound his son Isaac on top of the altar, but just as Abraham took his knife to slaughter his son, God stopped Abraham from harming Isaac. The test was over. Abraham was willing to do anything for God—not even sparing his own, beloved son.
“Why would God ask Abraham to do this? To answer this question, listen to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:16–18: “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you … And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Everything about this story points us back to the promised offspring — the offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), redeeming creation from the curse of sin and death.
“Ultimately, we see in this passage a shadow of the what God would do for us in Jesus Christ. Unlike the way in which God spared Abraham’s son, God did not spare his own Son. Jesus Christ was offered up as a sacrifice, and God did not send an angel to stop the hands of the Roman soldiers who beat him, nailed his hands and his feet to the cross, and let him hang there until he died. Where God did not forsake Isaac, God did forsake his own Son at the cross, abandoning him to wrath and the powers of hell.
“And although God gave a substitute sacrifice so that Isaac would not have to die, God provided no such substitute to save his own Son. In fact, Jesus was the substitute, dying on the cross in our place for our sins.
“But where Isaac was restored to life by being spared from death, something greater happened with God’s Son. Jesus did go to the grave for three days, but on the third day, God raised up his Son Jesus from the dead, resurrecting him to life and giving him everlasting victory over sin and death. In other words, Jesus gained possession of the gate of his enemy Satan, just as had been foretold in Genesis 22:17, “Your descendants will possess the gate of your enemies.”
“And because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, all the nations of the earth are blessed (Gen. 22:18). You and I share in the blessings of Abraham because Jesus Christ, the ultimate Isaac and the true offspring of Abraham, died and rose again.
“This is the good news of the gospel of Jesus, declared thousands of years in advance, through Isaac.”
https://freedailybiblestudy.com/january-21st-bible-meditation-genesis-22/
Abraham declared his faith that both he and his son would be coming back down the mountain.
Genesis 22:5 (NKJV)
And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
He also spoke to Isaac with faith saying, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” (Genesis 22:8 NKJV)
As Jacob D. Gerber notes, this passage is a shadow of the what God would do for us in Jesus Christ. Isaac apparently did not resist when Abraham later bound his son and placed him upon the wood. If he had chosen to resist, he probably could have overpowered his aged father.
We do know that Jesus willingly laid down His life as an atoning sacrifice, as He declared in John 3:16 and John 10:17-18:
John 10 (NKJV)
17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
Hebrews 12:2 states that Jesus did this for the joy that was set before Him:
Hebrews 12 (NKJV)1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What was the joy for which Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2), even as the mockers called out, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matt. 27:40)?
It was the joy of bringing many sons and daughters to glory!
Hebrews 2 (NKJV)
10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying:
“I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”
David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 1/6/2019, https://compellinglove.net/
Photo credits:
(1) https://wordforlifesays.com/2018/06/01/god-lifts-me-up/
(2) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/40602834114583276/
(3) http://beautyobserved.com/2015/10/20/31-days-of-beauty-in-the-psalms-psalm-3011-12/mourning-dancing-psalm-30-11-12/
(4) https://freedailybiblestudy.com/january-21st-bible-meditation-genesis-22/
(5) https://www.biblestudytools.com/inspirations/john-3-16-galaxy.html
Compelling Love 
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