The Promised One: Advent Day 4

Read & Journal

Read Genesis 22:1-19. Use the following prompts to help you dig a little deeper into what you’ve read:

• This may be a familiar story, but pause for a moment and really read the text. How would you describe in your own words what happened in this passage?

• What do these verses teach you about God? About his character?

• How does this passage point to Jesus or God’s promise of salvation in Christ?

• Take note of how Abraham refers to Isaac in these verses. Generally, he calls him “my son” (NLT). What does that reveal to you about Abraham’s relationship with his son?

• In verse 14, Abraham names the place Yahweh-Yireh, which means “The Lord will provide.” How has God provided for you? Be specific

Ponder

After all those years of waiting. After mistakes and false starts and trying to fulfill God’s promise according to their own timeframe, Abraham and Sarah held Isaac in their arms. He was the son of the promise, the one through whom God would create a great nation and bless all people.

Abraham and Sarah must have been overjoyed as they realized God had done exactly what he had promised he would—so God’s words to Abraham in verse 2 must have cut like a knife: “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much … and sacrifice him.”

In the New Living Translation, when Abraham talks directly to his son, he doesn’t call him Isaac or “the boy.” He is “my son”—a term of endearment, a reminder of the gift God had granted Abraham. When Isaac asks about the animal for the offering, Abraham’s answer is simple: “God will provide, my son.” God will provide, Abraham assures his beloved, only son, but in that moment, Abraham believes the offering will be his own beloved, only son.

Isaac’s near sacrifice points to another Father’s sacrifice on a hill called Golgotha. While the Advent season looks forward to Jesus’ birth, that birth finds its purpose and meaning in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. The story of the gospel is the story of a Father who gave His only Son, whom He loves so much, so that we might spend eternity with him. The sin that had separated us from our Father ever since that fateful day in the garden was forgiven in Christ’s sacrifice. His death and resurrection struck the death blows foreshadowed in Genesis 3.

“God will provide,” Abraham assured Isaac, and we can rest in the same assurance today. God has provided all we need for salvation in Jesus. Let us ponder that gift today.