Friend of God

When Isaac was a lad, God put Abraham’s faith to its severest possible test. He was to journey to the land of Moriah and offer up Isaac, “thine only son, whom thou lovest” as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God will show him. The Bible kept silent what happened that night, when perhaps the darkness accentuated the twinkle of the stars, reminding Abraham of God’s promise of numberless descendants through Isaac. What secret solace had he when his soul was pierced as when the Lord of Glory cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” But Abraham “rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men and Isaac his son and clave the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the place which God had told him”. On the third day, he lifted up his eye and saw the place afar off, and left behind the two servants and proceeded with only Isaac. His faith resolutely marched on, in the victorious blessedness of holding all for the Giver! And throughout the 3 days journey, he must have tasted what it was like for the Father to agonize until Jesus rose from the grave! If he showed nothing to Isaac, inside cried, “Trouble is near; there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” But heart and mind struggling blended into God’s will – this sacrifice is to bless all mankind!

Isaac asked, “My father: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. We know that later, when Abraham was about to slay Isaac, God, satisfied with Abraham’s complete devotional obedience, intervened from heaven and provided in Isaac’s place a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Thus Abraham called the place of sacrifice, Jehovah-Jireh (“the Lord will provide” or “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen”). Are we constantly looking to God as our Provider?

Abraham’s motive in offering Isaac contrasted sharply with that of the pagan Canaanites who offered up their children to idols, or of wicked King Manasseh who made his son pass through fire, bringing down God’s judgement! He did not callously exchange his child’s welfare in superstitious fear and selfish greed without hope, but in faith “accounted that God was able to raise Isaac up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.” And later, as he worshipfully placed the ram on the altar, he foreshadowed the day when his Promised Seed, Jesus Christ, God’s Son would die on the cross for lost humanity. God was well pleased. “The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore… and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

God’s testing of Abraham was amazingly humbling – to think that Almighty God could in such great condescension allow a man to experience His deepest emotion point at history’s most crucial hour when Jesus Christ was offered in love as our Passover Lamb! And Abraham’s passing the test with his faith soaring to eagle’s height was incredible too! In this, he uniquely entered into and shared God’s heart like no other could. There is no mistaking the common points. Jerusalem, the city of David, outside whose gates Jesus was crucified, was in the land of Moriah. Solomon’s Temple, holiest place of the Jews, where annual blood offerings were made for the nation prefiguring the blood of the Lamb of God, is built on the very Mount Moriah where Isaac was offered! Abraham also shared 3 days of agony during his journey, resolving to sacrifice his only begotten son! And finally, God’s Son dying on Calvary’s cross was his promised Seed, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham! Thus fittingly and comprehensively, Abraham is God’s friend.