← The Daily Blade: Joby Martin & Kyle Thompson
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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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Welcome back, fellas. This week I'm taking you on a journey to Golgotha. So I did this quickly on a previous episode of the Daily Blade, but we're actually going to stretch this out to a full week to really get into the details. Now, you don't have to be a theolog theologian to recognize that name or location. So most of you know by now that Golgotha, AKA the place of a skull, is where our Savior Jesus was crucified by the Romans at the behest of the Jewish Sanhedrin. So the crucifixion coupled with the resurrection of Jesus is the center point of Christianity belief that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected three days later. A realization that it somehow counted for us. And us putting the full weight of our faith in that reality is the center point of our salvation. But there is so, so much more to the story. So let's go all the way back to the book of Genesis. Okay, this is where we get to the story of Abram. So he was first mentioned in Genesis 11 as the son of Terah. In Genesis 12, God tells him to leave his country and his father's house to go to a land that God would show him. God promised to make him a great nation. Then in Genesis 15, we see that God makes a covenant with Abram and he says that he will have many descendants, even though at this time Abram and Sarai are childless. And in Genesis 16, we see that Sarai tells Abram to have sex with her servant Hagar to make a baby, which was Sarai's way of speeding up God's promise. This was obviously not God's will and nor timing, but Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. Then in Genesis 17, God changes Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah. And also God tells Abraham that Sarah, who is 90 years old at the time, will give birth to a son. You know, a prospect that she laughs and scoffs at. And then we see the birth of that child of promise, Isaac, in Genesis 21. So Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. And even though it wasn't on Abraham's and nor Abra Sarah's preferred schedule. Right. God was faithful to his promise. So that gets us all the way to Genesis 22. And so I'm going to be reading starting in verse one. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, abraham. And he said, here I am. 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. Okay, so guys, we have to think here. We have to pause and just think about how shocking this would have been for Abraham after he had waited so long for this promised son. So let's get back into verse three. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there and worsh and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. So we need to pause right here to talk about Isaac again. I did not grow up in church, so I was a little fuzzy on some of the Old Testament stories, but I was exposed to them enough to surmise that Isaac was a small child when all this went down. Right. I saw depictions in cartoons and in children's Bibles that showed Isaac as a pre pubescent boy, but that is almost certainly not the case. Okay, so I've seen scholarly estimates for Isaac age here, ranging from 5 years old all the way up to 37 years old, if you can believe it. But context clues here, including the fact that he could make such a large journey and then carry the wood needed for the sacrifice, show that Isaac was very likely, at least close to being full grown. So I would say that he was likely late in his teen years or perhaps even into his early twenties when all this took place. Okay, and so let's go back to the verse here. We'll go back into verse six. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold the fire in the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them together. Now, guys, at this point, Abraham has been traveling for three days, knowing full well what he was going to do. He was saddled with the weight of something that is unfathomable for those of us with sons, me certainly included. He was journeying for hours and hours and hours, anticipating the moment when he would cut the throat of his own progeny because God told him to do so. I mean, I've been in some mental dark nights of the soul, if you will, but I've never faced anything quite like that. But now let's think about Isaac. Isaac again, likely at least a teenager at this point, was just told by his dad, hey, you know, get your crap. We're going on a trip. So like any dutiful son, he tags along on the journey with Pops, likely without a care in the world. And now here they are. They've apparently arrived at their destination. His father loads him up with wood for the burn offering and then his father hands him the knife that will open up the throat of the sacrifice, while at this same moment not knowing that he himself is that sacrifice. So they go up on the mountain, Mount Moriah. Isaac gets everything set up. He gets fire going and then realizes, wait, where's the lamb that we're going to sacrifice? And this moment is absolutely pregnant with drama. And it hasn't hit Isaac yet, but Abraham knows full well what is required of him now. Come back tomorrow. We'll pick up the story from there.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help, equip other men for the fight, Share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.