“Abraham said, ‘God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.'”
The Lord told Abraham to take his only son Isaac, whom he loved and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that the Lord would specify. And as both father and son approached the mountain with fire, wood, and knife in hand, Isaac asked his father, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham responded by saying that God would provide the lamb. They then came to the place, which God had told him, and built the altar, laid the wood in order, and Abraham bound Isaac his son on top of it. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And then Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and he took it to offer up as a burnt offering instead of his son, declaring that place, “The Lord will provide.” Two thousand years later God the Father did the same thing by providing for those He loved, but this time He provided His one and only Son. Rather than father Abraham providing his son Isaac as the sacrifice for himself, Abba God provided His Son Jesus Christ as the redemption for all mankind. God provided for Himself and His creation, the Eternal and Spotless Lamb, who came to take away the sins of the world. The Lord foreshadowed it in the days of Abraham by finding a substitute for our debt and transgressions. Instead of sacrificing all of creation He sacrificed His Son who was before creation. He took our place on that altar of wood and shed His blood as an offering of atonement for the creation that He so desperately loves.
