This picture of the beautiful Rocky Mountains at Banff, Canada, brings to mind one of the many mountain stories of the Bible. It is about Abraham. (See Genesis 22.)
Abraham lived many hundreds of years ago in the land of Canaan. He was a man who feared the Lord and sought to please Him. When Abraham and his wife were quite old the Lord promised them a little son, and after waiting about fourteen years God finally gave them the promised boy. They named him Isaac and loved him very dearly.
One day the Lord appeared to Abraham and told him to take his son and offer him for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which he said He would show him. This was a very hard thing for Abraham to do, but since God had said it, Abraham prepared to obey at once. He got up very early in the morning, took a knife, some wood, and fire to light it, and started out to the appointed place with Isaac. Two of Abraham’s servants went along too, with an ass, which is like a young donkey. They all traveled on together until the third day, when Abraham saw the chosen place in the distance. He then left the servants with the ass, while he and Isaac started out on foot for Mount Moriah which God had chosen.
Poor Isaac wondered what kind of sacrifice his father was going to offer, and so he said, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” What simple and touching faith this was, as they both traveled together to Mount Moriah.
When they arrived there Abraham built the altar, and when he had placed the wood in order he bound Isaac upon it. Then he lifted up his knife to kill him, but just at that moment the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.”
Abraham then turned around and found a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. This he offered up to the Lord instead of his son. He then called the place “Jehovah-jireh,” which means “The Lord will provide.”
This touching story is a picture of something far more wonderful. It is a picture of God, who had only one Son whom He loved greatly. And yet He loved poor sinners like you and me too, and so He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die as a sacrifice for in on the cruel cross of Calvary. Abraham’s son was spared that awful death upon the altar, but God’s Son was not spared. There was no lamb to take His place. He Himself was the Lamb of God. He was the sinner’s Substitute. If you and I were to be saved from our sins and from judgment, He must die. Sin must be punished, and so the Lord Jesus took the sinner’s place and died in our stead. All who believe in Him are saved — forever free from the righteous judgment of sin, because all such are made the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21).)
Dear reader, do you know this Saviour? Are you trusting Him? If you are not sheltered by His precious blood, then judgment is before you, but if you will only trust Him, you will be saved today.
ML 08/16/1953