Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 21-23.

I try to find something new to write about these passages each year as I go through them another time, but sometimes, such as today, I find an idea from a passage which I have written about before seems like what I should cover again this year.  So, I am going to write about when Abraham took Isaac to sacrifice him to God.  First, the accounts around this indicate that Abraham was involved with the culture around him, even though he was not part of it.  Our knowledge of that culture suggests that child sacrifice was not uncommon among them.  So, this gives us the context for Abraham receiving the instruction to sacrifice Isaac.  The story of Abraham offering to sacrifice Isaac serves two purposes.  First, it foreshadows God sacrificing His own Son.  Second, it serves as an object lesson that God does NOT desire child sacrifice.

When Isaac asked Abraham where the animal for sacrifice was, Abraham responded with equivocation and what he thought was deception by saying that God would provide one.  It turns out that Abraham was prophesying because God did indeed provide an animal for sacrifice.  So, Abraham was misleading Isaac when he told him that God would provide an animal for sacrifice, but God used what he said to build up Isaac’s faith, and to provide us with an object lesson.  When you know that you have been called by God to take an action but do not believe that you have the resources to execute, act anyway, because, if God has called you to act He will provide the means.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.