Ram in a Bush

I‘ve always enjoyed hearing the story about Abraham and Isaac and a ram caught in a bush. That story, found in Genesis 22:1-18 (condensed from the NIV), goes like this:

God decided to test Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

(Abraham had an older son conceived by his wife’s handmaid, Hagar, but Isaac, born of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was the “promised son.”)

The next morning, Abraham loaded his donkey and took with him two servants and Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering and set out. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked, Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

They reached the place God had told him about, and Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.

Abraham thought Isaac would provide grandchildren for him – God told Abraham that he would become the “father of many nations” – but Isaac had no wife or children at that time. (Isaac was perhaps 25 years old when this story unfolded, according to ancient historian Josephus.) Did Abraham think he could kill Isaac and God would raise him “from the dead”?

God did not endorse human sacrifice, but he had set up a system of animal sacrifices to provide atonement for the sins of Old Testament believers. “Atonement” involves “satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury.”

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

That principle is stated also in the New Testament: “…The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

Adam Clarke in “The Holy Bible with A Commentary” says, “Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He (God) had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.”

Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day (Jesus’ incarnation); and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).

Isaac also shared Abraham’s confidence in God’s provision, some say. “Was not his (Isaac’s) very existence the result of God keeping His word?” (a note from “The Amplified Bible”).

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’” (Galatians 3:8).

The story of Abraham, Isaac and a ram caught in a bush foreshadows Calvary, where the Lord Himself provided His Own Lamb…just as Abraham said He would.

Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:18-20).