Sinclair Ferguson

Accept the sacrifice.

And Abraham had responded, God himself will provide a lamb for the sacrifice.

Haunting words.

But if Abraham reflected on this dramatic experience of the angel of the Lord, the way I'm sure Moses must have when he was addressed by the angel of the Lord, I wonder if he ever wondered.

I told Isaac that the Lord would himself provide a lamb for the sacrifice, but it was a ram, not a lamb, that he provided.

I wonder, is that significant?

Well, what is significant is this.

Later on, hidden away in 2 Chronicles 3, verse 3, we discover that Mount Moriah was the area where Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.

It was therefore the area where Jesus spent the last week of his ministry, went through his agony in Gethsemane, was arrested, condemned, crucified, buried, and then wonderfully raised from the dead.

Truly on the mountain of the Lord it came to pass, God will provide for himself the Lamb.

There, on Mount Moriah, on the edge of King David's city, took place the event all history had awaited since Abraham had spoken to his son as they climbed the barren wastes of that elevated ground.

There the words of the greatest of the prophets of the Old Covenant era, John the Baptist, were fulfilled.

Behold the Lamb God has provided, who will take away the sins of the world.

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.

Do you remember we began this week asking, what is God like?

And we should end it by saying, this is what he is like.

He is the God we can trust to provide us with everything we need because, as Paul says, if God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also graciously give us all things?

Maybe we'll come back someday to these words.

But for the moment, let these two words be fixed into our hearts.