“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
In this dreadful command God invites Abraham into his purposes, into his way, and into his plan. He asks Abraham to do the very thing he himself had purposed before the foundations of the world and in so asking he invites Abraham to walk in the way of the cross.
Obedient Abraham clung desperately to the Promise with each step and confessed that God himself would provide when asked by his beloved son about the sacrifice to be offered. Surely God would intervene. Surely God would not thwart his own promise, his own word. Surely.
God knew what Abraham did not, that up ahead there was a ram in the thicket, and also that up ahead, two thousand years down the road, he would offer up his own beloved Son to take our place and atone for our sins.
Christ bids us take up our cross daily and follow him. We hear an echo of this from Peter when he says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12)
A few verses later we find the comforting conclusion to inevitable suffering (the very thing I believe Abraham did) “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” What great comfort there is in having God as a friend.