On May 29, 1953, a man named Sir Edmond Hilary stood 29,002 feet above sea level atop the worlds’ highest mountain. He was the first man in history to reach the peak of Mt Everest. The mountain had claimed many victims. Hilary faced the obstacles, the dangerous icy slopes and crevices. Recently one of our deliverance ministers, Bill Morgan, was in Nepal and he too, looked down from above the famous mountain. He was, however, in a helicopter.
There is another famous mountain that a man was asked to climb, and he didn’t even know where the mountain was, but God Himself ask him to do it. He journeyed 7,589 miles to get to that mountain “not knowing” until he got there, God told him just start walking and I will show you when you get there. Read the famous story in Gen. 12 on thru Gen. 20:20
Often, I tell the folks in our ministry, our job is just like Abrahams, just keep walking…everyday, just keep walking. Look at Gen. 12:1-5“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So, Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan, they came.”
In these verses we will read, you will see first:
A SPECIAL PERSON (Isaac)
A SPECIFIC PLACE (Mt Moriah)
A SOLEMN PURPOSE (Faith)A STRAGIC PLAN (Calvary)
As Abraham journeyed not knowing where he was going but knowing God would show him. Three angels appeared to him and asked, Gen. 18:9.
“Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.”
Indeed, as God had promised Sarah did give birth to a son, Isaac. Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; she was past menopause, and she knew it, so she laughed at the promise, but Isaac was to be a special person. He was to be a type of Christ. Angels prophesied a miracle birth. While today some Jews mock the idea of a virgin birth, the birth of Isaac was a miracle of great magnitude. It was virtually a scientifical impossibility. Prophesied beforehand. Consider what the angels said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
I would ask you to consider that today in your life. Is anything too hard for the Lord, anything? If any man be in Christ, he is Abraham’s seed and heirs accord to the promises. He is part of the Abrahamic covenant. Why was God asking Abraham to journey without knowing why or where he was going? You have the same thoughts about your life. Just keep walking!
A SPECIAL PERSON. A SPECIFC PLACE.
Imagine as God looks over his creation from His Throne. Today, (constantly there are updates), scientist say there over 200 billion galaxies, now obviously they don’t know but, think about it. We live in one of those galaxies, called the Milky Way, just one of two hundred billion. It would take 100 million light years to cross the Milky Way. God looks from heavens window into this vastness and sees a specific place. A planet circling one of His stars named the Sun, the planet is where we live and He zooms in to this world that He loves so much, a specific place.
But there He finds Abraham and sends him to an even more specific place. He zooms into the Middle east of this world and tells Abraham to leave the Ur of the Chaldes, to leave Haran and start walking to a specific mountain near the Mediterranean Sea. He promised to make of Abraham a great nation. And He gave him a special son of a miraculous birth. Start walking south.
Gen. 22 – And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.
Does this this sound familiar, take you son, your only son and offer him…and on the third day Abraham saw where God had called him. Mt Moriah, the same mountain upon which the Temple was built, the same mount where Jesus was offered as our sacrifice for sin.
A SPECIFIC PLACE! For a SOLEMN PURPOSE!
We can hardly comprehend what was going on here with both Abraham and Isaac. Isaac at this time was perhaps a teenager and he knew of his father’s great faith. He trusted his father as they left the others and headed to the mountain. The very place where Jesus would be crucified. I think of Jesus’ time in the garden where He prayed thru His anticipatory suffering. Lk. 22:41,42.
“And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him…”
Isaac carried the wood up the mountain like Jesus carried His cross. He did not question the Father but was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Abraham, with a torch in one hand and a knife in the other led his son, his only son up the mountain. Isaac could have run; he could have overpowered his aged father, but he didn’t! He carried the heavy wood for the altar and allowed his father to tie him to it.
He asked Abraham, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
Isaac was bound upon the altar and the knife to slay him was in the air when God Himself spoke “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now, I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh:
The Lord provides! The ram already had a crown of thorns. What a great picture of the cross. I don’t know what any of you may be going thru at this time…but God has already provided for your victory. GODS STRATEGIC PLAN. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Take a fresh look from the front porch of heaven thru and beyond God’s miraculous universe…zoom in on a small mountain on a small planet and see from the foundation of it all, God provided a way for you and I to know Him by grace and thru faith!
I don’t know where I’m going but I know how to get there! Just keep walking.
Just for Jesus,
Don