LITTLE reader, you have seen a good many pictures of sheep and have often read about them. Do you see in this picture anything different from the other pictures?
You have seen sheep in the meadows and you have seen them on the hills.
But did you in any of the other pictures see one sheep caught in the brush or thicket as in this one?
Did you know that the Bible tells us about a sheep caught in a thicket? If you have studied about Abraham you may remember about this sheep.
Abraham lived many hundred years ago, and was a man who loved the Lord. He did not have any little boys, but after a long time God gave him one. He called this son Isaac and loved him very much.
Now God had promised Abraham that Isaac would grow up to be a man and would be the father of many nations, who would inherit large possessions.
But one- day when Isaac was still a young boy, God told Abraham to take him up to a mountain in the land of Moriah and offer him up for a burnt offering.
Why do you think God told Abraham to do this? Could God keep his promise to Abraham if Isaac was killed? And even if Abraham had not cared about the promise, do you think he would kill his own dear child?
God wanted to test Abraham’s faith, and He could not have asked him to do anything harder than this.
Let us see what Abraham did.
He got some wood and a knife and everything ready and started with Isaac for the mountain.
While they were on their way, Isaac asked his father where the lamb was, for he knew his father offered up lambs for sacrifices, and he could not understand why he had started away without any lamb for this sacrifice.
Do you think Abraham said, “Isaac, I am going to offer you up this time instead of a lamb?” No, he did not. He said, “My son, God will provide, Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” Genesis 42:88And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. (Genesis 42:8).
But when they had reached the place of which God had told Abraham, he built his altar and put the wood on it. Then be bound his little boy and laid him on the wood, and took the knife, ready to kill him before setting the wood on fire to burn the offering.
But just then an angel called from heaven and told him not to strike. God proved that Abraham would give up his Only son in obedience to Him. But He spared him that sorrow.
When Abraham looked around he say a sheep caught in a thicket, and he offered this sheep instead of his son Isaac. God had provided the lamb just as Abraham told Isaac He would.
Dear reader, let us learn from this story to have faith in God and to obey Him in everything, no matter what it is going to cost us. He can give back more than He takes.
There is another and very important lesson that we should learn from this. Abraham was willing to offer up his only son in obedience to God, which was a type of God, in His wondrous love, giving His only Son the Lord Jesus—the Lamb of God—as a sacrifice for us, to take away our sins.
Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb?” and Abraham answered, “God will provide Himself a lamb,” which He did—the ram for Isaac, and His blessed Son for us.
Those who now believe in Jesus as their Saviour are, like Isaac, delivered from death. You will not fear death, because you will be able to say, Jesus, the Lamb of God, died instead of me. Jesus bore my sins in His own body on the cross.
Have you, my dear reader, accepted Him as the One whom God provides for you? Remember,
ML 11/24/1912