Devotion

God asked Abraham to do something incredibly hard. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing that anyone could be asked to do. Put yourself in Abraham’s shoes and imagine how he must’ve felt: God had promised him a son, miraculously kept that promise, and then asked him to offer that son as a sacrifice back to God! 

If you’ve read the story before, it may not seem so scary. (You know the ending!) Abraham, however, couldn’t see how everything would play out. He just trusted that God ultimately had a good plan, and he bravely obeyed. He had faith in the God who had been faithful to provide for him, lead him, and keep all his promises. We see Abraham demonstrated his faith when he told Isaac that God would provide a lamb for the sacrifice. Sure enough, God did provide—just as he would later provide another Lamb, another Son, to be sacrificed in our place.

Abraham wasn’t the only father willing to sacrifice his only son. The story is a picture of how another loving Father—God himself—would willingly sacrifice his only Son as part of his good plan. A Son, Jesus, who would also carry the wood for his own sacrifice on his shoulders up a hill (the cross). But this time God wouldn’t stop it. Jesus became the substitute sacrifice, the Lamb of God, sent to rescue those who believe in him from the punishment, power, and presence of sin. Jesus’s sacrifice was incredibly hard, but it was incredibly good. Sin and death wouldn’t have the last word; Jesus did! Three days later he rose from the grave, defeating sin and death forever! As you celebrate Jesus’s birth this Christmas season, remember why he came.