#4 — Parshat Vayeira
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What is needed for Israel to exist and be blessed?
What is needed for Israel to exist and be blessed?
Parshat VaYeira reveals the essential answer which is foundational to God’s plans in the Tanakh.
In Parshat VaYeira we read that the miracle child, Isaac, is born in Abraham and Sarah’s old age. But then Abraham’s faith and obedience to God is tested. God commands him to sacrifice this promised son as a burnt offering.
Why a burnt offering?
Why does God choose to test Abraham this specific way? Why does the LORD ask him to offer his son as a burnt offering? Is that just a divine whim?
No, the Holy One of Israel doesn’t have capricious whims. There must be a deep reason why this is asked from Abraham.
We find an answer when the Angel of the LORD intervenes and stops Abraham from slaughtering his son. The sacrifice is not altogether cancelled! Something else happens. Abraham lifts up his eyes and looks and, behold, behind him is a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham takes the ram and offers it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.” The LORD provides a substitute for Isaac.
The lesson here is clear: for Israel to exist and be blessed a substitute sacrifice is needed. That principle had to be demonstrated!
Repeated
This lesson is repeated throughout Israel’s history. For example, the night before the great redemption from Egypt, God strikes every first born of Egypt. But unlike with previous plagues, the firstborn of Israel are not automatically safe. The blood of a substitute sacrifice, a Passover lamb, on the door is required in order for the LORD to pass over the houses of the Israelites. This was the only way for Israel’s firstborn to be among those redeemed from Egypt the next day.
We see this again in the Tabernacle and the Temple. The blood of animals is spilled daily. “I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls” (Leviticus 17:11). Every year, on Yom Kippur, God made it especially clear for the whole nation that a substitute sacrifice was necessary for the atonement of the people.
But it doesn’t end with this. In the Book of Isaiah we read about the substitute sacrifice of the “Servant” who gives Himself as an offering for sin. His substitute sacrifice unlocks Israel’s ultimate redemption.
Throughout the Tanakh blessing is tied to sacrifice. We see this early on with Noah, who is blessed after his sacrifice. God said He would never curse mankind again with a worldwide flood, but rather blessed Noah and his descendants. This is the first mention of blessing after the curse in Eden!
So where is our sacrifice that brings blessing today?
Parshat VaYeira leads us toward the answer.
The L-RD will see to it!
When Abraham’s faith is tested, a new trust in the LORD is born. Abraham’s pressed faith produces prophecy.
As he gives the place of sacrifice a name, Abraham speaks prophetically. He doesn’t call the place “The Lord cancels His command” nor even “The LORD has seen to it, the LORD has provided.” Rather he names it “The LORD will see to it.”
The LORD will provide. Abraham saw in what happened just a ram given as a substitute for Isaac at that particular moment but also a promise for a future provision.
According to Genesis this place name becomes the creed and expectation of the faithful. Moses declares in Genesis 22:14, “As it is said to this day ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be seen to….’”
In other words: “The LORD will provide.”
That expectation was not in vain. Because the LORD indeed saw to it! He gave the Messiah as the ultimate provision, the ultimate substitute sacrifice for our sins. At the end of the second Temple period it was said of Yeshua, Jesus of Nazareth: “God has put Him forward as a propitiation, an atoning sacrifice for sin, by His blood, to be received by faith.”
Yeshua is the Servant of Isaiah 53, the Messiah, and the substitute sacrifice that brings blessing to Israel, the nations, and us as individuals.
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