"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).
The story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac is lauded as a prime example of faith. This is the climax of a long story about a man who gave up everything to experience the God who always provided.
Abraham's first act of faith is all the way back in Genesis 12, when he first heeds God's call to leave his homeland and journey to a land God would show him. This was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with God, one that involved living each day in complete reliance on the One who had called him.
God appears to Abraham several times over the next two decades, each time giving a little more detail on the incredible promise He had made him. At the initial call, God had said He would bless Abraham and make him into a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). The next time, God makes a covenant with Abraham, vowing to make his own descendants more numerous than the stars (Genesis 15). Finally, God promises Abraham a son named Isaac, who would be born the next year and from whom would come nations and kings (Genesis 17:1-8).
With each of these moments, Abraham's faith was tested. He waited 25 years before he finally received the son God had promised him.
But because he had spent so many years waiting on God and seeing Him provide again and again, he had the faith to sacrifice the very child of promise to God. God had been clear: He would continue His work through Isaac. Therefore, Isaac would live even if he died.
"The LORD will provide" is the theme statement of Abraham's life. Year after year, he sees God do the impossible. At this final climactic moment, he has no doubt God will do it again. "The LORD will provide," he says, and so it happens.
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