Genesis 22 gives the account of Abraham offering up his son Isaac: The father takes the son on a donkey into the land of Moriah. He places the sacrificial wood on his son’s shoulders and leads him up the mountain. There on the mountaintop, he binds his son to the wood, lays him on the altar, and prepares to offer him up as a sacrificial lamb. This scene is an awesome foreshadow of the sacrifice of the Son by the Father on sacrificial wood on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem). There’s an amazing rabbinic writing on the offering of Isaac called Pesikta Rab 54A, where it says this: ‘Isaac carried the wood as a man who takes up his cross…’ Even the rabbinic writings testify of a son who takes up wood like a cross to his sacrificial death. Genesis 22 is unique in that it’s the first occurrence of the word ‘love’ in the Scriptures – and it centers on a sacrifice. Messiah’s sacrifice on the cross remains the center of God’s love and our faith. Never move away from it – but live your life as a reflection of its light.
From Message #804 - The Rabbinic Mysteries III
Today, meditate on the sacrifice that God gave for you and seek to live today in that love and sacrifice and manifest it to the world.
