SARAH AND MARY’S PAIN AND JOY

(Genesis 22)

How did Sarah feel that her son was doomed to die,

Her only child, a sacrifice to Elohim on high?

Abraham had heard the call and knew he must obey.

He took the lad and traveled far, but Sarah, she would stay.

She pondered in her heart the questions crowding in her head:

How could the Lord require this thing?  Her son would soon be dead!

Her husband reasoned in his mind that if he killed his son,

The Lord would raise him up again – this deed it must be done.

His journey to Moriah with his son would take three days.

His heart was breaking all the way, but Isaac did obey.

The lad had questions of his own, a lamb they had not brought.

His father said: God would provide Himself the lamb they sought.

So climbing up the mountain with the wood on Isaac's back,

The knife, the fire, the altar built, and now the tragic act.

Abraham bound Isaac and gently laid him down,

And back home Sarah wept out loud till she could make no sound.

The drama built until the knife was raised in Abraham's hand –

Then startled by an Angel’s voice, he almost broke and ran!

Abraham was told he did not have to kill his son -

The Lord was pleased he’d not withheld his beloved only one.

A substitute was found as Abraham had said before,

“The Lord Will Provide,” he gave the name the mountain bore.

A ram was caught by his horns in the thicket and sacrificed instead.

And this true story is an allegory of the thorns on Messiah’s head.

For God had painted a picture of Himself and His Son who was the Lamb,

Who willingly carried His cross up the hill – He is the Great I Am.

Embedded in Scripture are the truths of redemption – the Old in the New revealed.

Hidden in the covenants made with Israel, dig up the truths concealed.

“Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to Abraham your father …

“Look to Sarah who bore you …”[1] how did she feel, your mother who sorrowed?

Giving birth is a painful thing, but losing your loved one is harder.

Think of Mary who held her son who died, crucified!  What a horror!

But also think of how Sarah felt when Isaac who “died” ran to hug her!

He raised her bowed head, wiped the tears away, saying over and over, he loved her!

And thousands of years in the future this scene is replayed on the same holy hill.

When Mary sees Yeshua!  Raised from the dead!  Her heart is thrilled!

The Lamb of God was slain for us, foreshadowed in this old story.

Receive Him now as your Living Lord, and you will see His glory!

Nancy Petrey

June 23, 2015

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[1] Isaiah 51: 1-2.