His Lamb

A father and his son walked quietly side by side, slowly approaching the mountain before them. They had been travelling for three days to make a sacrifice to their God. Yet, the son was perplexed. where was the lamb? Breaking the silence, he asked his father to explain this confusing situation. “God Himself will provide a lamb”, was the response.

They reach the mountain, and begin to climb it, each step carrying the heavy weight of what God had requested of Abraham. On Isaac’s back lay the same wood upon which he would be slaughtered. In the hand of his father lay the knife and the fire that would carry out the deed.

They reach the place, and Abraham binds his precious son to the wood on the altar. Isaac submits freely, trusting the will of his father as the realisation hits. He is the sacrifice.

Abraham raises his knife to slaughter his son, the silence hanging thick around father and son. This same silence is destroyed in an instant as a voice of salvation thunders through the heavens. Abraham looks up, and sees a ram, provided by God, caught in a bush.

Abraham had not withheld his only son, trusting in the will of God, even to the point of believing that God could raise Isaac from the dead if He so desired. The son is spared, the ram slaughtered in his place. The knife and the fire intended for Abraham’s only son is used on the ram God Himself provided. Indeed, on the mountain of the Lord, God sufficiently provided exactly what Abraham needed.

Thousands of years later, from the very family line of Isaac, Abraham’s statement is once again proven true. Yet, this time, it is fulfilled in its fullest sense. God Himself does indeed provide the ultimate Lamb. God’s only Son sets His feet on the Earth. A mighty voice thunders through the heavens proclaiming the full, eternal love for God the Father’s precious, only Son.

Submitting freely to the will of His Father, this Lamb is led willingly to the slaughter. Upon His scourged back rests the same wood that He will be slaughtered upon. With each heavy step, He climbs the hill of Golgotha, as the place of His death draws nearer and nearer.

This time, the Son is not spared. The silence in the darkness is filled with a shout of abandonment, of the Father turning His face away. The knife in the hand of the Father is not stayed, as the fire of God’s wrath is poured out to its fullest. The horrors of God’s judgement for sin are unrestrained as the full cup is poured out. The death blow lands heavily, with nothing to cushion it or hold it back. Upon the hill of execution and suffering and death, God provides the ultimate sacrifice, once and for all.

This beloved, only Son is given not only in Isaac’s place, but in the place of every single person belonging to Him. Unlike Isaac’s ram, Jesus provides an eternally sufficient sacrifice. The Lamb hangs His head; the full stop of the outpouring of this wrath is set in place. It is finished. God’s wrath is fully satisfied, sin fully paid for.

Yet, the Lamb does not stay hanging on this cross. We ask the same question again. Where is the Lamb? Abraham’s faith becomes sight as God exercises His power to raise the dead. The tomb bursts open, and God’s only Son steps forward in glory. And that power is proven again and again as the blood of the Lamb brings dead souls to eternal life, opens their eyes to His beauty, and ushers them into His Kingdom forever. Those purchased by the blood of the perfect Lamb rejoice in what God has done as they gaze at the face of their Substitute, Mediator, and King.

We ask the question a final time. Where is the Lamb? He is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory and majesty. He is reigning in power, for all the ages of Eternity, to the glory of God the Father. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.