The Crimson Thread – The Offering of Isaac

Greetings Dear Reader,

This is one of those stories that both bothers and encourages me.  Abraham is told by God to take his only son into the wilderness and sacrifice him as he would a sheep or goat.  The tradition of animal sacrifice is common and some that follow other gods practice human sacrifice. 

Isaac is old enough to ask questions.  I cannot imagine the pain for Abraham in the questions his son asks.  Where is the lamb?  How do you tell your son that God wants you to kill him?  It sounds insane.  It sounds monstrous.  Even the response that one must have faith that God knows what he is doing sounds lame and crazy.

In all of that Abraham does the only thing one can when God has eaten at your table.  He obeys in faith.  In the most dramatic way God intervenes.  He stops Abraham as the knife is raised to strike.  He then reveals his purpose by providing a ram for the sacrifice.

The entire drama is for the effect of showing us that God will provide the sacrifice necessary for our sin.  God will be the sacrifice for our sin in the form of the Son.  His arrival for that purpose is still two thousand years away.  Today he will comfort his friend with the understanding that they are moving the story forward.  They are weaving the thread of redemption into the tapestry of the world.

For now I am to see that even when things seem horrible wrong God is at work.  I am to follow in faith even when I do not understand God’s plan.  I and people dear to me are walking through such a place right now.  God will provide a way.

God Will Provide a Lamb – Michael Card

Three days journey to the sacred place

A boy and a man with a sorrowful face

Tortured yet faithful to God's command

To take the life of son with his own hands

God will provide a Lamb

To be offered up in your place

A sacrifice so spotless and clean

To take all your sin away

Here's wood and fire, where's the sacrifice

A questioning voice and the innocent eyes

Is the son of laughter who you waited for

To die like a lamb to please the Lord

God will provide a Lamb

To be offered up in your place

A sacrifice so spotless and clean

To take all your sin away

A gleaming knife, an accepted choice

A rush of wind and an angel's voice

A ram in the thicket caught by his horns

And a new age of trusting the Lord is born

For God has provided a Lamb

He was offered up in your place

What Abraham was asked to do he has done

He's offered his only son

What Abraham was asked to do he has done

He's offered his only son

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."