Music recording by Ann Emery and Lezlie Taguding. From What Child is This? by W. Chatterton Dix, 1865. View the Lyrics. Narration by Aimee Riegert.

Devotional by Joseph A Kohm.

Image: Nearly all Hebrew prayers begin with the phrase “Baruch Ata Adonai” which means “Blessed are You, our Lord,” since He is the source of all blessing.

The story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is one of the most challenging in all the Bible. In one sense, Abraham had already sacrificed a son, Ishmael, by sending him away. Now, God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Everyone who has read this story has the same initial reaction, “How could God command Abraham to do such a thing?” Isaac was the son for whom Abraham had waited many years. The name Isaac comes from the Hebrew for “laughter,” yet there was nothing funny about this.

However when we zoom out from this story and place the whole of the Bible into our field of vision, it becomes clear that the story of Abraham and Isaac is one piece of God’s unified plan for all of history. This plan is summed up most clearly and succinctly in the best-known Bible verse in all of Scripture, John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Tim Tebow wore John 3:16 on his eye black during a National Championship football game, 94 million people Googled that verse during the game.

The story of Abraham and Isaac connects to John 3:16 in that we see God’s ultimate purpose, in the fullness of time, to reconcile all things, especially humanity, to Himself. Abraham loved Isaac, and God asked him to offer up Isaac as an offering. God loved the whole world, and He offered up His only Son to make God’s gift of eternal life available to anyone who believes in His Son, Jesus Christ.