So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” Genesis 22:14
I missed the Sunday song this past Sunday, but songs are good to sing every day, so I posted this one above called ‘Come Ye Sinners’. What a beautiful rendition this is. “I will arise and go to Jesus – He will embrace me in His arms, In the arms of my dear Savior, Oh there are ten thousand charms.” A simple chorus and message: Jesus will always receive us if we will receive Him. A call for sinners (which, spoiler alert, is all of us) to receive the love of God found in Jesus.
The word for today is our family memory verse which is taken from a part of Genesis 22:14. The context here is so important: Abraham is told by the Lord to sacrifice his only son Issac as a test of Abraham’s faith and devotion to the Lord. God demanded the most precious thing Abraham had – a son – and Abraham obeyed fully. However, the Lord already had a plan to provide a sacrifice and stops Abraham right before he drops the knife to slay his son – a ram whose horns are caught in a nearby thicket.
The gospel implications are soaking this passage: what God calls Abraham to do in giving up his only son Issac – God actually did in giving up His only Son, Jesus. And the sacrifice of Jesus is a much better sacrifice than the blood of ‘bulls and goats’ (or rams, even) as the book of Hebrews states. Indeed, Jesus is a perfect sacrifice.
And Jesus is God’s ultimate provision for sinners. God doesn’t tell us to obey the 10 commandments and we’ll be accepted. God gives us the 10 commandments to reflect His own holiness and to show us that we cannot keep the commandments – this makes us aware of our sin and our need for a Savior, a perfect Savior. Jesus is that perfect Savior. The only perfect sacrifice. We don’t ‘arise and go to Jesus’ to get the next 5 steps to lead a better life or be a more influential person. We arise and go to Jesus for love because the root of most every sin is a failure to receive the love of God in Jesus, day in and day out. If my eyes turn from Jesus – I am far more lustful. I am far more anxious. I am far more envious of others. I am far more prone to impatience and anger.
And the root of all these things, down deep at the root, is that I don’t really believe God loves me. This is the foundation of the gospel: ‘for God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son.’ If I have Jesus, I have everything and am in need of nothing – humanly speaking. I don’t need to lust for sexual pleasure because Jesus and God’s Word is pleasing to me. I don’t need to worry because God clothes the grass of the field and takes care of those birds in the air. I don’t need to wish my life looked more like someone else’s because Jesus laid down his very life for me and nothing compares to that. And if my eyes are upon Jesus, I can forgive any sin and shift my perspective of any ‘trial’ I may be in, even a trial my own doing or the doing of someone else. Jesus invites us to come and we must ‘arise and go’ to Him.
God is the God who provides – ultimately in Jesus and in the day to day details of our lives. How many times have we found ourselves in dark, desperate situations (sometimes being aware in the moment and many times looking back to see just how dark and desperate the situation really was) and God provides a way of escape. It may not have looked like a ram caught in a thicket. Maybe it was a horrible relationship that God brought us out of. Maybe it was a huge bill that we had no idea how it was going to be paid. Maybe it was waiting a long time (as in the case of Abraham and Sarah) for a child. Maybe it was an illness. Maybe we lost a close friend or loved one. And maybe, if none of those hit us in the heart, maybe it was the thousands upon thousands of times we have failed God and Jesus still opens up his arms and says ‘come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest’. The rest God gives is not found in a bigger bank account, a nicer home, a better job, everything lining up just right for us that day or that year or that season of life. The rest God gives only comes through that perfect sacrifice – Jesus Christ. Let us arise, knowing that God gives us life and breath and a heart beat and HAS already given us his one and only Son, his everything – and go to Jesus, today.
The War Within 