When one examines the content of Genesis 22, there will be inescapable conclusions that must be made. From a personal historical perspective, there was a real man in history named Abraham, who had a real son named Isaac. They walked to a real mountain and once there, were committed to trusting God.
Abraham shows us that faith will often require that we will to lay down our most precious item on the altar, to demonstrate fidelity and love toward God. Perhaps it's relationship or a dream. Perhaps it would be our identity. If God would ask, our only response would be yes and amen!
Isaac shows us the other side of faith, in that we must be willing to lay our very lives on the altar as a worship to the Lord. Isaac agreed with Abraham and the two went on together. When Abraham laid the wood on Isaac and bound him on the mountain, it was Isaac who exercised the faith necessary to sit under the knife of his 100 plus year old Father. Our faith demands that we willingly lay our lives down as well.
Behind the story that's applicable to our faith is the thinly veiled drama that points to the reality of God the Father's faith. He would really have an only Son that He loved, who would carry the burden of a cross up to that same Hill. Once there, God would not stop the sacrifice. He would allow it to go all the way through to the death of His Son.. What Abraham felt on an earthly level, merely typified God the Father's feelings on that day so long ago.
God in not sparing His Son, showed tangibly, eternally, that His love is real. That love shows us that everything He would ever ask us to do, could never compare to what He has already done!
