July 14.
A Painful Period Of Proving

Genesis 22:2

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.

Sometimes we panic after only one or two tests, but God will send test after test on top of test to get us where we ought to be. Now there’s difference between being tempted and being tested. When I’m tempted, Satan is behind it. However, when I’m tested, God is behind it. Temptation may lead me into pleasure, but sometimes tests will lead me into pain. Temptation may help me have a good time, but testing will bring me into joy. Getting drunk may make you feel good for a while, but when you have joy it will last on and on and on and on.

Then God said to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou loveth…” Isaac is referred to as the lone son. Look at this verse closely, prayerfully and meditatively to consider what it is actually saying. The second time you see the word son, it is written in italic. Whenever you see anything in the Bible that’s written in italic, it means that the translator added the word to help us understand the text. So it could read, instead of thine only son, thine only. That helps us a little bit because he was the lone son. How is that? It seems strange to call Isaac thine only son because Abraham had another boy. He had another son by his handmaiden, Hagar, whose name was Ishmael. But the text refers to Isaac as thine only son. God tells Abraham in verse twelve, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine only son.” Genesis 22:16 By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son. Son is an added word in both verses. God was referring specifically to Isaac.