the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Daily Devotionals
Voice of the Lord
Avraham built the altar there...bound Yitzchak his son and laid him on the altar (Genesis 22:9).
The Akeydah (binding of Isaac) was an unparalleled trial for Abraham, but it also included an act with which he was already familiar. On Mount Moriah, Abraham built an "altar," as he had so often done in the Land of Promise.
Genuine worship requires us to offer "our best"; God does not desire merely our gifts—he desires us. By demanding Isaac, who was more precious to Abraham than life, God showed that true worship requires the dedication of our "all." Yet God did not take Isaac from Abraham, but instead provided a substitute sacrifice. True worship demands our "all," but God accepts a sacrifice in its place. The ram that God provided on Mount Moriah was the first substitutionary offering. It was sacrificed so that Isaac might live to serve God. On that same mount, God planned to one day establish a whole system of substitutionary sacrifice in the form of Temple worship. Abraham prophetically named the place ADONAI Yir'eh (The LORD will provide).
Two thousand years later the final substitutionary offering—Messiah himself—was sacrificed. In him, we offer ourselves fully to God, and yet, as with Isaac, we can live on to serve him.
...present myself as a living sacrifice to God, dedicating myself wholly to him.
RR
The Voice of the Lord, Copyright © 1998 by the Lewis and Harriet Lederer Foundation, Inc. Published by Messianic Jewish Publishers, Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this article may be reproduced in print or on the web, or transmitted in any form, without the written permission of the publisher.
