Compelling Love

Abraham 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 directing 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.

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.”

On the way up the mountain, he spoke this promise to Isaac.

Genesis 22:8 (NKJV)
“My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together.”

Isaac offered no resistance when Abraham bound his son and placed him upon the wood.  Had he resisted, as a young man he  surely could have overpowered his aged father. But God intervened at the final moment.

Genesis 22 (NKJV)
¹¹ But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”So he said, “Here I am.”
¹² And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

¹³ Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

The offering of Isaac is a shadow of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  When Jesus began His public ministry, John the Baptist introduced Him with these words.

John 1:29 (NKJV)
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus willingly laid down His life as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

John 3:16  (NKJV)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

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.”

Jesus Christ truly laid down His life for all of us at Calvary. He is risen from the dead and alive forevermore! How then should we live?

2 Corinthians 5 (NKJV)
¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

David Krause, dhkrause2@gmail.com, https://compellinglove.net/