“HERE I AM, MY SON!”

 Genesis 22:7-8                       (ESV)

“[7] And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “HERE I AM, MY SON.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” [8] Abraham said, “GOD will provide for HIMSELF the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.”

Last night in Bible Study the pastor of our church shared the twenty-second chapter of Genesis.  One thing keeps reverberating in my mind, and that is how Abraham told Isaac “HERE I AM, MY SON” when Ishmael was also fathered by Abraham through the handmaiden Hagar.  Did Abraham show Isaac favoritism because he was a son from Sarah, his WIFE!  

Abram and Sarai were husband and wife, yet GOD had yet to bless them with children.  Yet in Genesis 18:10 Scripture records “The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.”  In Genesis 17 GOD renamed the man Abram to Abraham and his wife Sarai was renamed Sarah.  The original name, Abram, means “exalted father” in Hebrew. His new name, Abraham, means “father of a multitude”.  On the other hand, the meaning of Sarai is recorded to be “She that strives," a contentious person wile Sarah is “princess; kings of peoples shall be of her”!  

Abraham and Sarah are NOT the focal point of this devotional though!  JESUS is!!!  Abraham KNEW GOD, and JESUS and GOD “are ONE” (John 10:30)!  “HERE I AM, MY SON” identified Abraham as the father of Isaac for “this world”, but it let me know that JESUS was IN THE MIDST of this event!  Even though we can’t SEE HIM in “the busyness” of our lives at times, JESUS is in our midst IF WE ARE ABLE TO IDENTIFY HIM!!!

Abraham KNEW that Isaac was coming back from Mount Moriah with him (Genesis 22:5), but he didn’t YET understand how??  As the story unfolds, we SEE that GOD was displaying HIS “substitutionary atonement” that JESUS would ULTIMATELY fulfill on Calvary!  It is difficult for us to grasp that the PERFECT CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES would sacrificially give HIS LIFE for me?  But when I stand before ALMIGHTY GOD at THE JUDGEMENT with nothing but my “filthy rags” to offer, I will once again hear HIM say “HERE I AM, MY SON”!  What PEACE is that???