The Road to Moriah: The Preparation
I am not a super “over the top” kind of sports fan but I do like sports. One of the things that I have noticed about sports is that home field advantage can mean everything to whatever sport is being played. Sports teams have a far better record when they play at home than when they play on the road. The reason is when they are at home, they have people who are cheering for them and often they play above their ability. That is what gives them the advantage, people who cheer them on.
The other thing that I notice about sports teams is that the one that over prepares is the one that often prevails. In football especially teams prepare, and they counter prepare, attempting to be ready for anything that their opponent throws at them.
This lent, we have been following Abraham as he takes Isaac, in obedience to God’s command, to Moriah to sacrifice him there. This week we are going to focus on verse 9-10 of Genesis 22, the preparation that Abraham has made to accomplish this task. The search for good wood to use for the sacrifice, some leather ties with which to bind Isaac, and the fire and the knife to use for the sacrifice. When he arrives at the appointed place, he also builds an altar on which to perform the sacrifice.
I am appalled thinking about what must have gone through Abraham’s mind and heart on that entire trek. In my mind, I hear him pleading internally with God at every step. Yet, the entire event is a foretaste of what is to come. God allows this to take place to foreshadow what he himself will do with his only son Jesus. At the fall in the garden of Eden, God had proclaimed that he would provide for our need when he told the serpent that he would send someone who will “crush your head.”
In Abraham we have the beginning of the preparation to do just that, the calling of a family line out of which would eventually be born the Messiah. What many people miss is that the whole of the Old Testament is about leading us to and pointing to the salvation that God will provide in Jesus. This story about the sacrifice of Isaac is the story of the sacrifice of Jesus. The players are different, but the pain is still the same.
Join us this Sunday as we march to Moriah (and Calvary) to see the sacrifice of the one who can save us.
-Pastor Ken Harste