22 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16 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:
17 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 thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
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How many times has someone said or done something and you think to yourself, or even tell the other person, “That’s not how I would have responded.”
I have heard that from some people, but the truth is, until you are IN a situation, you really do not know what your reaction response would be.
You may purpose within yourself in the event something similar may occur, you may even know yourself well enough that you would avoid certain things. The truth of the matter is, we do not know what God is going to bring into our lives and we can only GUESS at what our reaction will be.
Do you think Abraham had any idea that the Lord he trusted with his life and his family’s, would require that he offer his own son as a sacrifice?
I suppose the “Sunday school” answer would be “of course we would do the same”. I can’t honestly say that! Do you think he would have actually gone through with it, had the ram not appeared? I think, yes!
Today’s world may say something like “What a coincidence” or “That was lucky”, regarding the ram.. NOT!
Our God is One of deliberate action. Nothing He says or does is without specific purpose, so no, the ram did not just happen to roam up there at that particular moment.
What is the Lord asking your husband to put on the alter?
Let’s pray that He will make that clear and that our husbands will have the heart of faith and trust as Abraham.
PRAYER
Lord, we just bring praise to You this day
Thank You for the blessings in our husband’s lives
Please reveal those they do not recognize as such
May they please take every opportunity to be the man You intended
Father, we ask that they abandon reluctance to offer up to You
Burdens
Worries
Concerns
And hardest of all
What is most precious to them
Lord, You want trust and obedience
Please open our husband’s hearts
And ours
Giving us desire to do Your will
Without fear or reservation
Once placed before You, O King
Please help them leave it there
In Your capable hands
In the Name of Jesus,
AMEN
SONG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCQLaG_dsHE “Test of Abraham”