”So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” Genesis 22:14
On the way up the mountain, when asked by Isaac where was the sacrifice Abraham replied, not knowing how prophetic this statement would be, “God will provide Himself a Lamb.” As Abraham lifted up the knife to thrust it in the chest of Isaac the Angel of the Lord abruptly stopped him. Abraham was not playing and this was no half hatred attempt on his part to sacrifice his son. I’m sure his intent was to make Isaac’s death as quick and painless as possible, but in that moment he was stopped.
There is no way Abraham could have known exactly what God was up to. All he knew was that Isaac was the son God had promised him he would be the “father of many nations” through. Although there had been no record of anyone being raised from the dead, according to the Apostle Paul in Hebrews 11:17-19, Abraham knew if he did sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God’s command, then God would have to resurrect his boy.
Little could he have known that his obedience would provide the covenant and legal access for God to bring His Son Jesus into the earth. But, there in that moment of complete surrender the Angel of the Lord stopped him and revealed a ram, not a lamb, for him to sacrifice instead. And, it was at that place that God first became known as Jehovah-jireh, (The-LORD-Will-Provide.)
We often use this phrase “God will provide,” when it comes to finances, but here in it’s first use, finances were not needed. No amount of money in the world could have bought off God in His request for Isaac to be sacrificed. So what was Abraham saying? He was saying that God is the source of provision. Again, there’s no way at that point he would have known that 2,000 years later Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” would be sacrificed on that exact mountain.
Abraham knew nothing about Jesus, or that through His sacrifice Jesus would bring Sozo Salvation to the world. And, that in Sozo everything that we would ever need in this life would be provided for through Him. All Abraham knew, was on that day when he thought he was going to have to sacrifice his only son, “whom He loved,” the angel stopped him and God provided a ram instead.
Jesus is God’s provision for us, and thus everything we need was provided for us through His death on the cross. What do you need today? Through Jesus we are saved, healed, delivered, preserved, protected, made prosperous and made whole. God did provide Himself a Lamb and everything we could ever need through that Lamb.
Today’s Thought: Because of the Lamb of God, we are recipients of Sozo Salvation, which we receive as a free gift from God by faith.