Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 42
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
21:34–22:17
he worshiped the Lord, the Eternal God. And Abraham lived as a foreigner in Philistine country for a long time.
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only s on—yes, Isaac, whom you love so m
uch—
and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and
took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he
chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God
had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up
and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham
told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship
there, and then we will come right back.”
So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders,
while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked
on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep
for the burnt offering?”
“God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham
answered. And they both walked on together.
When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham
built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and
laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife
to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called
to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
“Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any
way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from
me even your son, your only son.”
Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket.
So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will
provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the
mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. “This
is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will
