Children of Yes!

“‘The fire and wood are here…but where is the lamb?’  ‘God himself will provide the lamb.’  Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram” Gen 22:7-8, 13.

When we pull the curtain back on this scene and truly understand the foreshadowing we should all fall to our knees in humility and deep gratitude for Christ Jesus.  Abraham’s son Isaac was told to climb up on the altar.  As he tentatively climbed onto that hard surface his eyes must have met his dad’s with confusion and sudden realization.  Did his voice crack in that adolescent pitch as he asked that heartbreaking question to his father…‘but where is the lamb?’  Were his eyes tearful as he considered why he was laid upon that place?   

For every one of us walking on this earth, life will demand we climb up on that altar… that place where we seem to be losing pulse…that place where all looks hopeless…that place where we scan the horizon looking for the very thing that will deliver us from our present circumstances.  We cry for deliverance from our hard places, bound and oppressed…we look among the thickets for our lamb that will climb up so we can climb down.  We forget that we are asking for something that has already been received. 

‘Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross’ Mark 15:32.  But the Lamb said an emphatic No so we could be the children of Yes!  As He looked up to His Father in the same way Isaac did the difference was that He was the substitutionary offering.  It was us who should have been laid out on that slab.  It was you and it was me who deserved to to be separated from our Father instead of the One with perfection running through His veins.  But He chose to climb up so we could climb down.  So why don’t we trust Him with everything lesser than death?  He is our Redeemer from all things, and our Deliverer from everything.  He will never change and will always be the way out of any painful or frightening situation.  He will be faithful in His care and true to all His promises.  But we must look up from our knees to find Him instead of looking down onto our circumstances with despair.

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, who rider is called Faithful and True…He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God…KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:11-16.