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Remember we have just reached the dramatic point in the story were Abraham has tied his son Isaac to an altar, and Abraham has raised his hand with a knife in it about to slay his son”.

Let’s pick it up at verse 11. 

“But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied  “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

(Genesis 22: 11-12)

What we should I notice very importantly is who’s speaking in this passage?  Who’s speaking? The Angel of the Lord. OK. And what does the Angel of the Lord say? “Now I know that you fear God”. “Since you have not withheld your son, your only son from. Me”. As a matter of fact, in my Bible, me is capitalized and it should be. The Angel of the Lord in this passage is the preincarnate Christ and as is the case in many passages in the Old Testament. I’m not sure that’s the case in every single passage but it is in the example here, as it’s clearly spelled out by the capitalisation of the word used here. 

We’re then told in verse 13 

“Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked in there. Behind him was a Ram caught in the thicket. By its horns. So, Abraham, when he took the Ram, offered it on the burnt offering instead of his son. 

Remember what he said to Isaac before about how God will provide? And God has provided, the lamb as a substitute for Isaac.  So, God provided a substitutionary sacrifice. Think about that for just a second. This is a perfect picture of the death of Jesus Christ who himself die for sin. Jesus. The Lamb of God.  According to John the Baptist one Jesus is the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. The Bible elsewhere repeatedly tells us that Jesus Christ on the cross was a substitutionary sacrifice who died in our place to pay for our sins so that we don’t pay for it, and we can be forgiven because of what he did. Here was see the Lord provide a substitutionary sacrifice, and Abraham acknowledged what was going on and said, the Lord himself provided the lamb. I should have died for my sin, but instead he died, Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice God provided

So, God provided, but he provides all kinds of things. We could take that one little phrase, “God provides” and go crazy with it. What does God provide? God provided salvation absolutely as a gift. All we must do is trust him, but what else does God provide. He provides salvation instead of condemnation. He provides life instead of death. He provides strength in response to our weakness. He provides joy for our sorrow. He provides heaven instead of giving us hell.  God provides, and it all started when he provided Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin. What is really going on in this passage is that God is fulfilling his promise? 

As a matter of fact. Verse 15 onwards tells us. 

“The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time  and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,  I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba”.

(Genesis 22: 15-19)

God says you obeyed me so I’m going to bless you. Now keep these things straight because if you mix these things up, you’re going to mess up. You have faith and what do you get for faith? You receive forgiveness and heaven. Don’t get those backwards. Don’t think if you obey on it own that will get you to heaven, you obey ‘because you believe. The obedience may mean you are blessing in this life but it is not the obedience in isolation that gains you eternal life. This was the last time. In Abraham’s life that God spoke to him and basically what he's doing Is reiterating promises he’s made before. And he’s adding a few more besides. Do you know this is the first occurrence of the word obey in all of the Bible? God promised to multiply Abraham descendants as the stars and as the sand on the seashore.  but God also promised that Abraham descendants would possess the gates of their enemies. The term gates of their enemy simply means they would have victory over their enemies. This promise is to Abraham’s descendants called in this Book of Genesis, his “seed”. His seed simply means his descendants, but did you know that according to the New Testament. and for that matter, some parts of the Old Testament, there are four types of descendants.  Did you know there are four different types of descendants of Abraham?  We shall find out who there are and what this means in the next episode.