Genesis 22:1-19
this is a story that i'm well familiar with. but it wasn't until last week when i took the time to study this passage myself and then with the women that i saw the richness of it. we focused on 3 words: love, obeyed, worship,.
kay arthur said in the book "In Genesis 22 you see the first mention of these three words in the Bible. God has written twenty-one chapters, and until now these words have not been used. When a significant word is mentioned for the first time in the Word of God, the principles connected with that word at that point hold true throughout the Scripture. This is called the principle of first mention"
love- used to describe the relationship between the father and his son- very sacred, passionate, like no other..
worship- Abraham's obedience to God's word- even to the point of sacrificing his one and only son, whom he loved. worship is not just singing praises on sunday morning. we are to worship God all the time. we do this by obeying his Word.
obeyed- because of Abraham's obedience it effected all generations right down to us! when we choose to obey God's words there is so much blessing that comes from it. Abraham's obedience showed that he feared God and he did not withhold anything from him.
Abraham was a man of such great faith! God promised him that his offsprings will be as numerous as the stars. yet when God told Abraham to go sacrifice his one and only son, he obeyed with no hesitation. no questions asked! he completely trusted God that he would provide. it's as if he knew that even if he killed his son, God had to power to raise him from the dead! he knew as God was Jehovah, a covenant keeping God.
you can also see Issac's obedience in this. i'm sure Issac knew what was going on. he could've easily prevented his old frail dad from tying him to the wood to be sacrificed, but he didn't. his faith in God was just as evident. this had to be taught by his dad.
one cool thing i found out was that in this passage, God stops Abraham from killing his son and then provides a ram to be sacrificed.
i looked up what the significance of a ram was because i was curious as to why of all animals God would choose a ram.
a ram represents protection. it is a male sheep that protects the herd.
this lead me to think of Jesus! as a protector, he was sacrificed for his sheep and we reap the blessings from it.
the order that these 3 words came up in this passage is love, worship, and then obeyed. the reason for this may be to show us how God desires our relationship with him. He wants our love first. we must love him above all else. without love, everything we do is meaningless. the love and adoration we have for Him will lead to worship. when we worship God we obey his Word.
This passage then ties in to John 3:16. See for yourself where love, worship, and obedience ties into it. It makes you look at the passage differently!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
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