Sarah's Story (Part 2)

I would love to visit your church or ladies Bible study group and share this design with them! One person will receive this design while the rest of the group will receive a small design that goes with the story. I don't charge for this service, but I do invite attendees to give a free-will offering to support this ministry.

​One day Sarah watched her husband Abraham walk away with that baby she had prayed so hard for. Abraham had been acting strangely and now he was going to make a sacrifice to God, but when he left with her son, he did not take an animal to kill. Have you ever been in a place where you might not know exactly what your husband has up his sleeve, and it's scaring the living daylights out of you. Well, I imagine that's how Sarah felt, too, waiting for her husband (and hopefully her son) to return home....

Abraham and the boy walked for three days until they came to a special place for making sacrifices, high on a mountain. When the boy noticed that there was no animal, his father simply responded, "God will provide."

After they built the altar, Abraham tied up his son and laid him on it. Taking the knife, he prepared to kill the son that God had given them, the son of promise. God suddenly called to Abraham, "Stop! Don't lay a hand on the boy. Now I know that you have faith because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the bushes, and he and the boy sacrificed the ram. God said, "I will surely bless you, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed."

Did you notice that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, but then God supplied the ram, a substitute? Is there any way there could be a substitute for us as we try to repair our relationship with God?

God had promised Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would be like the stars in the sky--uncountable. Those descendants became the people of Israel. Through the years, God sent many prophets to the Israelitites to reveal pieces of his rescue plan: He would send a Messiah, a Savior, a substitute. The prophet Isaiah told the people, "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." Immanuel means "God with us." Was this holy God going to dwell with us once again? The prophet Micah said, "Out of Bethlehem will come one who will be ruler over Israel." Four hundred years after the last prophet spoke, God began to fulfill these words.

(Genesis 22, Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2)