The man and woman are greying and wrinkling when the long-awaited child finally comes. Decades of barrenness and mistrust and attempting to make their own way finally yield the promised baby boy. They love and adore the little guy. Awe overtakes them as he learns to crawl, then walk, then talk. There are moments when they feel as if they have the smartest and cutest young man in the whole world. He grows and matures into a young teenager when the call comes. “I want him back,” says the God-man, “take your only beloved son Isaac up to the mountain and offer him as a burnt offering.”
The aging man obeys, knowing that after decades of following his own devices and wreaking havoc, the miraculous promised boy had come and God could even raise him from the dead if necessary. He takes his precious son and they go to worship. The altar is ready, the boy is bound, fire and knife are in hand The man raises the knife to strike, a foreshadowing of another Father willing to slaughter His own precious Son, when another command comes, “Do not lay a hand on him.”
The story goes on to say:
“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 Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The LORD will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” - Genesis 22:13-14
There are footnotes to this passage that say verse 14 could also be read “So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The LORD will see’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD he will be seen.”
The provision of God can be described as the place of union where He both sees and He will be seen.
Earlier this year, I came across a similar passage in Exodus 2. This story begins with the children of Israel in Egypt oppressed and enslaved:
“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel - and God knew.” -vs. 23-25
This account of God seeing and being seen is reiterated in the next chapter:
vs. 7 “I have seen the affliction... have heard their cry... I know their sufferings”
vs. 8 “I have come down to deliver them...”
vs. 9 “I have also seen the oppression
vs. 16 “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt”
vs. 17 “I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction”
vs. 18 “the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us;”
I love both of these passages and the hope and trust they instill. I don’t always understand my path, especially the rocky ascents but I take comfort in the knowledge that no matter, He sees, He remembers, He knows, He hears, He observes. He does not remain a God who is aloof and not interested in getting His hands dirty in my life. Rather, in His time, He will provide, He will act, He will come down and He will be seen in my paths and I will meet with the Creator of the Universe.
