Posts Tagged ‘angel’
Gloria Copeland — Lessons in Obedience – Abraham Part 3
Posted by admin | Filed under Gloria Copeland, Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Just as Abraham raised the knife to slay Isaac, the angel of the Lord called out to him and said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Genesis 22:12).
Then Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket. He took the ram and offered it as a sacrifice to the Lord in place of his son. God found in Abraham a man who would obey Him to the degree of giving up his son.
Through Abraham’s life we see a picture of God’s love for you and me. Just as Abraham didn’t withhold his son from God, neither did God withhold His only begotten Son, Jesus, from us. He sent Jesus into the world and allowed Him to die on the cross so the world could be redeemed. And just as Abraham received back his son from the dead, God received back His only begotten Son when Jesus was raised from the dead.
Just as Abraham demonstrated faith as a father, so Isaac demonstrated faith as a son—willing to be offered as a sacrifice without a struggle. He was not a small child, he could have protested. But he had been trained in the way he should go—to obey his father in all things.
During his life, the Lord spoke to him as He had to his father Abraham. The Lord appeared to Isaac when he was grown, years after he was spared his life: Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws (Genesis 26:2-5).
God performed His oath to Isaac because Abraham had obeyed His voice and kept His commandments. Obedience was the condition of the oath. Had Abraham not obeyed God, He would not have fulfilled His promise. Had Isaac not obeyed God, disobedience would have stopped the promise in his life.
Isaac and his seed were Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. If we are in Christ, we are also heirs according to the promise. The Apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia:
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith….For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female:for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:13-14, 26-29).
Jesus came to redeem Abraham’s seed. God sees the Church, as well as Abraham’s natural descendants, as that seed. We have been grafted in through faith in Jesus Christ, the Anointed. It is our blood-bought right through Him.
However, our obedience determines how much of Abraham’s blessing is manifested in our lives. That is a choice we must make. Am I going to be faithful to God and obey Him? Yes! At all costs!
Gloria Copeland
