Abraham and Isaac

I'm sure this isn't new to my family and friends and I hope my excitement isn't wearing on you guys. Yep I'm going to blog about Abraham and Isaac today. Sorry. Maybe tomorrow I'll post something about my life. I will also point out here that I did load a bunch of pictures from my snowshoeing trip...

So what has me fascinated about this Bible story? Well today I Sat and studied on it for a bit. I always knew Abraham was faithful. I mean I don't know that I could've sacrificed or even gone through the steps to sacrifice my own child, especially if I had waited as long as he had.

We know that God had Abraham do this as a test. God wanted to prove to Abraham where Abraham stood spiritually. But He also did this to teach Abraham about the sacrifice He would be doing for all mankind.

So first Abraham had to learn about his faith and learn to more fully trust God. As we read in Gen 18:17-19 God already knew Abraham, this test was for Abraham.  So God came to him and said he needed to sacrifice his son. I'm sure Abraham had to question if it was really God speaking. I mean He had saved Abraham from being a sacrifice previously (Abraham 1:12-20) and Abraham knew that human sacrifice and murder were against God's laws. Add to that the promise God made Abraham that through Isaac he would have uncountable posterity. It is almost as contradiction. I'd have been wondering what I had done to have that promise revoked. I love the show of Abraham's faith by him following God's command.

Now comes the part that was almost new to me. I'm so glad I had reference material to study this out. God wanted to teach a very personal lesson to Abraham and to us. He wanted Abraham to understand for us to see what He would be going through. I'm going to list some parallels between this and Christ's sacrifice, I'm sure you'll be awed like I was.

1. Abram means "exalted father" and Abraham means "father of a great multitude." (how appropriate for God our Father? )

2. Isaac can mean "he shall rejoice"

....now for the really good stuff.

3. Isaac was a product of a miraculous birth. Stick with me here... his mom was well past the age of bearing children, and earlier the scriptures it tells us this. But God intervened and she did conceive a child.

4. Isaac carried the wood for the offering.

5. Isaac voluntarily submitted to Abraham. He was yound and Abraham was old, had he decided not to submit he could easily have gotten away. No age is given of Isaac at this time, the following chapter tells of his mother's death at age 127. This means Isaac could have been in his 30s here.

6. The sacrifice was performed in the same area where Christ was crucified. Mount Moriah is a hill near Jerusalem. It is now the site of the Dome of the Rock, a Moslem mosque. A few hundred yards to the north on a higher point of that same hill system is Golgotha.  (this was the neatest thing to me to have learned today)

7. The name Abraham gives in Gen 22:14 of Jehovah-jireh scholars say should be translated to "on this mount the Lord shall be seen." Now if that's the case, it would seem to me that Abraham understood his sacrifice to be a representative one.

All of that is so fascinating to me. Amazing to think of God's plan and work. I think this also reveals to us what is expected of us, how strong our faith needs to be. We too need to be perfected, we need to be able to withstand any pressure. Can you imagine what would've happened if God hadn't been disposed to endure the suffering of seeing His son on the cross? Definitely something to think about....

The other scriptures that tie into what I've been thinking today come from D&C 101:4-5; 98:12-15; and 122:5-9

There were more thoughts and insights I I had today,  but the above seemed the most interesting to me and seemed to be enough for one post.