My Memorable Moments
No one's life is remembered long term for that many moments. Even in the most famous of people, it's one or two key times where they did or said something that changed a lot for many people. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a Dream." Ronald Reagan said, "Tear down this wall." John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you..." These are what we remember them for.
What will be the thing you are remembered for?
Abraham's life has a lot of high points but there is one moment everyone knows about for either the sheer inhumanity of it all or the theology behind it. That moment is in Genesis 22, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice is one and only son whom he loved.
Genesis 22:1–2 (ESV) After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
The Bible is about Jesus. And this is the one moment even a cursory glance to calvary makes absolutely clear. Abraham was to typify the Father and Son who would come in Christ 2000 years ago. The language of God's words point toward John 3:16. The actions of faith and trust between Abraham and Isaac recall Gethsemane.
Isaac carries the wood.
It's a three day journey.
It happens on a mountain.
Isaac will be laid on the wood.
Even Abraham's language recalls John the Bapist's:
Genesis 22:8 (ESV) Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
And many don't see the irony that God provided a ram for this moment after the angel halts Abraham's knife. It was subtly tellings us, the LAMB was still to come!
Genesis 22:13–14 (ESV) And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
This is absolutely one of the Old Testament's clearest pictures of the central Gospel event - the death of Christ for our sins.
And it's one of the two or three moments we think about when we think of Abraham.
My prayer in light of this is simply:
May the memory of my life point clearly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When people think about me, I pray they will think about Jesus. I want my life to point to Him because He's the only one worth point toward. What I earned, accomplished, the friends I had or the achievements I garnered will not matter to a soul. Only Christ is my boast. I pray that we Christians can get over this "What's in it for me" mentality when it comes to our faith. That kind of nonsense comes to our ears followed by a hiss. It wreaks of the fall. And it helps no one.
In Him we have all that we could ever need. He is the fulness and He is the point of our lives.
What will be the thing you are remembered for?
Abraham's life has a lot of high points but there is one moment everyone knows about for either the sheer inhumanity of it all or the theology behind it. That moment is in Genesis 22, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice is one and only son whom he loved.
Genesis 22:1–2 (ESV) After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
The Bible is about Jesus. And this is the one moment even a cursory glance to calvary makes absolutely clear. Abraham was to typify the Father and Son who would come in Christ 2000 years ago. The language of God's words point toward John 3:16. The actions of faith and trust between Abraham and Isaac recall Gethsemane.
Isaac carries the wood.
It's a three day journey.
It happens on a mountain.
Isaac will be laid on the wood.
Even Abraham's language recalls John the Bapist's:
Genesis 22:8 (ESV) Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
And many don't see the irony that God provided a ram for this moment after the angel halts Abraham's knife. It was subtly tellings us, the LAMB was still to come!
Genesis 22:13–14 (ESV) And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
This is absolutely one of the Old Testament's clearest pictures of the central Gospel event - the death of Christ for our sins.
And it's one of the two or three moments we think about when we think of Abraham.
My prayer in light of this is simply:
May the memory of my life point clearly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When people think about me, I pray they will think about Jesus. I want my life to point to Him because He's the only one worth point toward. What I earned, accomplished, the friends I had or the achievements I garnered will not matter to a soul. Only Christ is my boast. I pray that we Christians can get over this "What's in it for me" mentality when it comes to our faith. That kind of nonsense comes to our ears followed by a hiss. It wreaks of the fall. And it helps no one.
In Him we have all that we could ever need. He is the fulness and He is the point of our lives.
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