Genesis 22:13
“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.” ESV
In this new season, the Lord is leading His body to lay every Ishmael in our lives on the altar for the sacrifice. This will make way for the Isaacs to come. Ishmael was the son Abraham had with Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave which Sarah gave over to Abraham to have the son they were believing God for, but by their efforts and human reasonings.
In the same way, Ishmael represents everything in our lives that was not born out of our relationship with God, and therefore, it is not God’s intended will for us. He allowed those things to exist for a time because He doesn’t waste anything and also because in our immaturity of the last seasons, He tolerated things we thought were necessary, but came from our strength and reasonings. But since He’s called us to maturity, those things are no longer to remain in our lives.
In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham when He commanded him to come to the land of Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac. However, seeing that Abraham obeyed His voice and was willing to sacrifice his son of promise, God sent His angel to call him a second time. But this time, it was to let him know that he didn’t have to sacrifice his son after all.
Instead, God provided a ram that was already caught in a bush for him to grab and sacrifice on the altar. The ram represented Ishmael—that which was not God's original intention for him and his wife Sarah to be the son of promise. We know this is the case because Isaiah 60:7b shows,
“The rams of Nebaioth will serve you; They will go up with acceptance [as sacrifices] on My altar, And I will glorify the house of My honor and splendor.” AMP
Nebaioth was Ishmael’s firstborn son of twelve. Genesis 25:12-13 says,
“Now these are the records of the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham; and these are the names of the [twelve] sons of Ishmael, named in the order of their births: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,” AMP
In the Egyptian culture, as in many others, the firstborn son is given exceptional importance because he is considered the child that will carry on the strength of the family name and therefore, rule over the other children and the family affairs after their father dies. This is one reason why the Egyptians worshipped the god of the firstborn son.
But God also takes special care, protects, and fights for Israel, His firstborn of many nations. This promise is also extended to the Church, as the gentile nations can access the blessings of Abraham (Galatians 3:14) by their belief in the sacrifice of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He’s the firstborn of many sons of God that were bought (redeemed) by His sacrifice on the Cross (Romans 8:29) because the price for our redemption was the shedding of His Blood. This is why God commanded Moses in Exodus 4:22-23,
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, ‘Let My son go so that he may serve Me’; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’’” AMP
God opposes this false sense of power the Egyptians placed on their gods because their system was based on idolatry and injustice. Through this system, they oppressed the Israelites for 430 years. But God broke their false strength. Psalm 75:10 says,
“For God says, ‘I will break the strength of the wicked, but I will increase the power of the godly.’” NLT
What took place with Abraham and his son of promise, Isaac, and the ram that was caught in the bush which became the actual sacrifice has two meanings:
- First, it represented what would later take place in Egypt—the captivity of His Jewish people and the 10 plagues that forced Pharaoh to finally release them. It also became the prophetic picture of God's promise in Genesis 15:14 that they would leave Egypt with great possessions. Thus, they plundered Egypt.
- But it's also a prophetic picture of the exchange God made with humankind for which His one and only Son, Jesus, who was sinless but became sin for us and took upon Himself the penalty of sin which was death. This way, He redeemed us through His death on the Cross, so we would not have to suffer that penalty as we believe in Him and the sacrifice He made for us.
Hence, surrendering all our Ishmael’s to God is crucial to our growth in wisdom and spiritual stature because those Ishmael's come from following the influence of the spirit of this world which is contrary to the ways of God’s Spirit. The intention of the enemy through the Ishmael’s in our lives is to derail us from our callings and destiny in God and take us out in the end.
Exodus 34:12-17 explains,
“Watch yourself so that you do not make a covenant (solemn agreement, treaty) with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a [dangerous] trap among you. But you shall tear down and destroy their [pagan] altars, smash in pieces their [sacred] pillars (obelisks, images) and cut down their Asherim —for you shall not worship any other god; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]— otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the prostitute with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat his sacrifice (meal), and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters would play the prostitute with their gods and cause your sons also to play the prostitute (commit apostasy) with their gods [that is, abandon the true God for man-made idols]. You shall make for yourselves no molten gods.” AMP
Due to the Ishmael’s we allowed and the bondage and struggles they produced in our lives, many times God had to intervene and deliver us out of troubles and dangerous situations, whether we were aware of it or not, or pleaded for Him to intervene. But now He’s coming to our help by removing the Ishmael’s that kept us from His will for us. For this, we ask Him to reveal to us the Ishmael’s He wants us to remove as we repent for allowing them into our lives, and ask Him to take away the things we cannot remove ourselves.
He’s doing this because, in reality, we’re supposed to be occupying our rightful place in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father. The enemy and his hordes had usurped these positions away from us through the Ishmael’s in our lives. But God swore that He will not share His glory with idols. God shares His glory with us, His sons and daughters as we become covenant and Kingdom of God minded which helps us rule with Him and bring heaven to earth in our spheres of influence and authority. Isaiah 42:8 reveals,
“‘I am the Lord, that is My Name; My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved idols.” AMP
John 17:4 shows how we partake of the glory of God as Jesus gave us the example,
“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do." NKJV
It’s time for the Church to occupy her rightful position of authority and dominion in heavenly places. God doesn’t wish to just intervene on our behalf. In this new season where more maturity is required of us, He wants us to govern, subdue, rule, and reign with Him for He gave the earth to the children of men. Psalm 115:16 says,
“The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.” ESV
Psalm 8:5-8 says,
“But You placed the son of man just beneath God and honored him like royalty, crowning him with glory and honor. You ordained him to govern the works of Your hands, to nurture the offspring of Your divine imagination; You placed everything on earth beneath his feet: All kinds of domesticated animals, even the wild animals in the fields and forests, The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, all the multitudes of living things that travel the currents of the oceans.” VOICE
To God alone be all the glory. *
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