By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:17-19)
Today's Morsel: I like reading about Abraham and Isaac. The Bible says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But really, think about Isaac for a few moments in relationship to us as being living sacrifices. Paul wrote, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Isaac was not dead when his father Abraham bound him and laid him on the altar. He was alive. He was not dead, but he was alive; he knew what was taking place. He was a sacrifice. He asked his father Abraham, ".......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? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. 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" (Genesis 22:7-9). Now notice what the writer of Hebrews says, Abraham received Isaac in a figure. What was the figure? Isaac was not only a figure of Jesus Christ, the only begotten son, he was also a figure of us, and what must be - living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). The same way that Isaac was offered as a sacrifice, Jesus was made a sacrifice for us. Isaac's life was spared and replaced by a ram caught in the thicket, a figure of Jesus Christ. Our lives have also been spared. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because of God's goodness and mercy, Abraham and Isaac's lives proved to be lives of righteousness. May ours also reflect the same figure.
Sing: Jesus paid it all, all to who I own, sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
Thought for Today: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins"(Hebrews 10:26).
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