God’s plan throughout the ages

I think, we all know the story about Abraham who had to sacrifice his son Isaac. Whomever does not know it, can read about it in Genesis 22. Abraham received an instruction from God to sacrifice his only and beloved son Isaac to the Lord. In obedient faith Abraham, commenced the journey to the place of offering which God told him about, and was prepared to offer everything up to God.

However, it was not time yet, and God therefore intervened and prevented the burnt-offering, as God saw his faith, and in its stead sent him a ram which he then offered in Isaac’s place. God thereafter blessed Abraham for his faith and his obedience.

“It was not time yet” I wrote; what do I mean with this? This story in the first book of the Bible, prophecies that which we see fulfilled at the conclusion of the Old Covenant in the Gospel: God Himself sacrifices His only begotten Son!

Even though Abraham did not complete the offering of his son, but in its stead sacrificed a ram, God blessed him and his descendants eternally. How blessed are we as followers of Jesus then only through the second offering, when God sacrificed His Son for us? Here, the offering is not intervened with and replaced by a ram at the last moment; God’s Son continued on the path as the sacrificial Lamb to the very end, to death on the cross of Calvary.

Even though God was only testing Abraham, we see by this story, that God has an eternal view. Already at the beginning of the Bible God had foreknowledge that His beloved Son will have to die to save mankind.

As in this story, we find hundreds of instances, in the Old Testament, where God in His foreknowledge refers to the Gospel.

In like manner as God had a plan with mankind from the beginning of time, He also has a personal and precise plan for you. Have you discovered God’s plan for your life?

I wish you a blessed and inspired Pentecost Monday!

Rainer Gigerich