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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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All right, guys, this week I'm taking you on a journey to Golgotha. Yesterday we discussed the life of Abraham, and Abraham and Isaac traveling to Mount Moriah, as described in Genesis 22. So we ended with Isaac asking his father where the lamb for their burnt offering was, and Abraham answering that God was going to provide one. So let's go ahead and pick back up in Genesis 22, verse 9. When they came to the place of which God had told him, abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Okay, so you know, even right now, as a man with sons, this is just very hard for me to read. Okay, since having sons, this is just all very, very hard for me to kind of look at and get through, even though I know how it ends. And so yesterday we talked about the fact that Isaac is likely a teenager, if not older, at this point, and Abraham is well over 100 years old. So Joby actually pointed this out in a recent sermon that Isaac was certainly old enough to where, if he couldn't whoop his dad, he probably could whoop his dad, but at the very very least he could outrun his you know beyond elderly father. Because, you know, let's say, let's say he was the wimpiest young man of all time, the wimpiest teenager or early 20 year old, whatever dude of all time. He was capable of outrunning a man that's well over a hundred years old. Right, he could get away. So why is that fact important? Because this implies that Isaac was willing to be sacrificed, even if he did not understand why. Because his father told him to Think about that.

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Verse 10,. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. Now remember, guys, abraham had previously handed this knife to Isaac to carry, knowing full well that he planned to use it very soon to cut his promised son's throat at the altar. So, verse 11,. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham, abraham. And he said here I am. He said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. I mean again, such a dramatic moment, I mean this has been depicted in a million different ways the hand is in the air, he's ready to go and he's told not to Right. And you just got to think in this moment. Abraham and Isaac, both must have felt a tremendous amount of relief. But let's go and pick back up in verse 13. And Abraham lifted up. But let's go and pick back up in verse 13. Provided, and the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said by myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord. Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

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Okay, so a lot of ink has been spilled over the years about this story. Many people have tried to explain all the intricacies of it. Right, many have debated the character and nature of God based on the details of the story. But I want to key in on something that you know just recently was revealed to me. Right, it just recently occurred to me To set the scene again.

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Abraham was told by God to go to Mount Moriah, to take his promised son with him and to kill him, sacrifice him on the altar to God. They make a three-day journey together, abraham knowing what is to come and Isaac having no clue. They go up on the mountain. Isaac gets everything set up before he realizes that they don't have a lamb for the burnt offering. Abraham, non-verbally, and perhaps verbally, reveals to Isaac that he was to be the sacrifice. Isaac is bound and Abraham takes the knife and prepares to cut his son's throat. An angel from God stops Abraham and says that he has now proven that he indeed fears God, because he was even willing to sacrifice his only son.

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So let's go back to verse 13. I'll read it here. 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. So what is a ram? It's an adult male lamb. What is a thicket? It is an incredibly dense growth of shrubs and underbrush. What does an incredibly dense growth of shrubs and underbrush include Thorns and underbrush include thorns. What was caught in the thorns of the thicket? The head of the adult male lamb. Thorns covered the head of the sacrificial lamb that God provided as a substitutionary payment for sin debt. You could even call it a crown of thorns. Come back tomorrow.

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