Gabriel Agbo - Power Of Sacrifice

Lot saved by sacrifices

“...One day about noon, as Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent, he suddenly noticed three men standing nearby. He got up and ran to meet them welcoming them by bowing low to the ground. My lord, he said, if it pleases you, stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree while my servants get some water to wash your feet. Let me prepare some food to refresh you please stay a while before continuing on your journey. | ‘All right’, they said. ‘Do as you have said’. So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, Quick! Get three measures of your best flour, and bake some bread. Then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it. When the food was ready, he took some cheese curds and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them there beneath the trees.”

“Where is Sarah, your wife?’ they asked him. ‘In the tent’ Abraham replied. Then one of them said, ‘About this time next year I will return, and your wife Sarah will have a son...‘and the men got up from their meal and started on toward Sodom. Abraham went with them part of the way. ‘Should I hide my plan from Abraham?’ the Lord asked. ‘For Abraham will become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the LORD and do what is right and just. Then I will do for him all that I have promised’. | So the LORD told Abraham, ‘I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are extremely evil, and that everything they do is wicked,. I am going down to see whether or not these reports are true. Then I will know’. The two other men went on toward Sodom, but the LORD remained with Abraham for a while. Abraham approached his and said “Will you destroy both innocent and guilty alike?”

Chapter Two | Sacrifice your only

“Later on God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience. Abraham! God called; ‘Yes’; he replied, ‘Here I am’; ‘Take your son, your only son - yes, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will point out to you;”

“On the third day of the journey, Abraham saw the place in the distance. ‘Stay here with the donkey’, Abraham told the young men. ‘The boy and I will travel a little farther”

A little farther

“One day Moses was tending the flock of his farther – in-law, Jethro, the priest of Median, and he want deep into the wilderness near Sinai, the mountain of God. Suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames but it didn’t burn up. ‘Amazing!’ Moses said to himself. ‘Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this. When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!”

“Then, accompanied by the disciples Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, ‘Pray that you will not be overcome by temptation’. He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,”

“At that moment the angel of the LORD shouted at him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Yes’ he answered ‘I am listening’ ‘Do not hurt the boy in any way for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld even your beloved son from me.’ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering on the altar in place of his son. Abraham named the place, ‘The LORD Will Provide’. This name has now become a proverb. ‘On the mountain of the lord it will be provided.’ | ‘Then the angel of the LORD called again to Abraham from heaven’ ‘This is what the LORD says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your beloved son, I swear by my own self that I will bless you richly. I will multiply your descendents into countless millions, like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, and through your descendents, all the nations of the earth will be blessed - all because you have obeyed me’ Then they returned to Abraham’s young men and traveled home again to Beersheba, where Abraham lived for quite some time.”

“It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, though God had promised him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted’. Abraham assumed that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”

Altar

“Then Elijah called to the people, ‘Come over here!’. They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the LORD that had been torn down. He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the LORD’s altar...”

“At the customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, ‘OLORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself. Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch!

Priest

“And now God is building you, as living stones, into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are God’s holy priests, who offer the spiritual sacrifices that please him because of Jesus Christ. As the scriptures express it.”

Offering

Chapter Three | I will pass through Egypt

“Now the LORD gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron while they were still in the land of Egypt: ‘From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice. If a family is too small to eat an entire lamb, let them share the lamb with another family in the neighborhood. Whether or not they share in this way depends on the size of each family and how much they can eat. This animal must be a one year- old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no physical defects. | ‘Take special care of these lambs until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then each family in the community must slaughter its lamb. They are to take some of the lamb’s blood and smear it on the top and sides of the door frame of the house where the lamb will be eaten. That evening everyone must eat roast lamb with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. The meat must never be eaten raw or boiled; roast it all, including the head, legs, and internal organs. Do not leave any of it until the next day. Whatever is not eaten that night must be burned before morning. | ‘Wear your travelling clothes as you eat this meal, as though prepared for a long journey. Wear your sandals, and carry your walking sticks in your hands. Eat the food quickly, for this is the LORD’s Passover. On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and kill all the firstborn sons and firstborn male animals in the land of Egypt. I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the LORD... celebrate this festival of Unleavened Bread, for it will remind you that I brought your forces out of the land of Egypt on this very day. This festival will be a permanent regulation for you, to be kept from generation to generation.”