Scripture Meditation: Genesis 22:1-18; Galatians 3:16; John 1:29 & 36; Rev. 5:6-7; 11-14
There are quite a number of verses to meditate on today. Don’t be intimidated by that!! I encourage you to spend some time reading each one.
I love a good mystery! I love trying to figure out the clues that are being dropped and try putting the pieces together in order to solve the mystery before the big reveal! It’s no wonder I love the Bible! God entices us into His story by writing it as a mystery. From the very beginning, He doesn’t just reveal His plan for humanity but rather over time, He leaves little clues for us that hint at what is to come.
To Abraham God had promised many offspring, as numerous as the stars in the sky. But there was one particular Offspring of Abraham through whom God would bless all the world (Genesis 22:17-18). The seed of a woman would also be the seed of Abraham. The mystery of God continues to be revealed, one clue at a time. Who was this Offspring that would come? And how would He bless the nations?
The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians that the mystery of God is Christ. It is Christ that all these hints are pointing to! The Old Testament believers, as they received the clues, were earnestly looking into the Scriptures seeking to understand the mystery of God’s promised deliverer in advance (1 Peter 1:10-12). We, as New Testament Christians, have the unique privilege of knowing that the mystery of God was Jesus Christ, we earnestly look into the Scriptures seeking to understand how all these hints find their fulfillment in Jesus!
So how did Abraham’s Offspring bless the nations?? It is interesting that God makes this promise immediately after Abraham’s willingness to offer his own son Issac as an atonement sacrifice to God for it was in just the same way that God Himself would bless the nations. “On the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” And on Mount Calvary it was provided! God’s only Son, Jesus, became the sacrificial lamb that bought the forgiveness of sins, not just for the Jews but also for the Gentiles. It was through God’s provision of a Lamb, who was the Seed of a Woman, the Offspring of Abraham that all the nations of the world have been blessed!
How do we know this? The Apostle John writes in Revelation 5 of a coming day, a day that we are waiting for with great anticipation, where the Lamb is standing before the throne and a new song is being sung to Him. “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!”
Let us worship our God today! Worthy is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
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