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Provisions
by Jesus Puppy The trail wound upward from their camp by the mountains foot, yet the sun was still high in the heavens above them, and the day wore on as the father and son went to the place appointed to them. Several days before, word had come to the father to gather his child and go to the place on the mountain. The father was troubled in his own heart at the message he had been given, but true to his own actions, he gathered the child and went as he was told. His was not a young man, well passed the years of most elders, but he was true to his God, faithful in all his ways for the blessings he had received through life. The goods given through time he knew as a blessing from his God, even the trials that had come his way, but now the trial was even greater on him. A true testing of his faith. He spoke with his son in encouraging ways, as he lifted the Lord higher in the child's eyes, revealing the great works of his God. How he had been called to leave the land of his family home to a new land, and as a stranger there, yet was yet blessed in great ways. He told the child of his many travels and the struggles he had been through, always to be guided by his God to better things. Yet in his heart he was troubled at this latest testing. As they climbed the last hundred feet of the small winding trail through the rocks, he petitioned within himself the desires of his heart. He had waited and prayed many years for the coming of his son; this child who was his true heir, the only child of his beloved wife. The words of his Lord were spoken and he knew he could not turn back, knew he need not question the greatness of his God, but the fact was there all the same. When they reached the top of the mountain to the place the Lord told him to go, many flattened stones lay there and he arranged them and made an altar for his offering. He had his son sit on the edge of the stones as he told him of the words of the Lord. How the Lord had commanded him to go into the mountains to give an offering and sacrifice. The child looked around and saw the bundle of wood his father had brought and the burning brand of wood they has carefully carried all the way from camp. "Look father there is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the offering.?" "The Lord shall provide His own offering this day," he told the child. He spoke softly to the boy and said how he had been told by the Lord that he would be given a child in his old age, and now, past a hundred years he had his heir. "God saw to it that my prayer was answered, fear not son, the Lord has provided His sacrifice." Slowly they arranged the wood upon the flat stone, and then taking a cord he bound the hands of his only child and placed him on the wood. Taking the knife he had brought within his hand, he slowly raised it up, praying silently once more to his God. A loud voice called out from heaven saying, "Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do any thing to him: for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me." Abraham lifted up his tear filled eyes, and looked to heaven with a joyful heart. At a sound he turned, and there behind him he found a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. He went and took hold of the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. He and his son then prayed together in praise of God, for HE had provided HIS lamb. They then gathered their things, and leaning upon the child, Abraham headed back down the winding trail. "Come Isaac, my son," he said, "Let us return home." _______________________________ Genesis 22 ____________________________ Edward Pennewell took on the name JesusPuppy while in the mission fields, and carries the name as a writer in showing the Lord's glory in all he writes. He now lives on the northwest coast of the United States of America. http://www.faithwriters.com/member-profile Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |