Sacrifice..really?

    By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Hebrews 11:17-19 [original story in Genesis 22]

Sacrifice
Click on the word above and; go to dictionary.com to find out [as you scroll down it gives you info of "sacrifice in the Bible"] the meaning of the word.  The Oxford dictionary of the Bible says:  " offering to the deity [God, Supreme Being] something precious.  Surrender of something ~ give up something.

What is precious to me? To you? What can I surrender as a sacrifice?

In 70 AD after the temple was destroyed the chief annual sacrifice was the Paschal Lamb [originally the Lamb eaten at the Jewish Passover; Exodus 12].  The fulfillment of this was Christ [I Cor 5:7; John 1:29].

What could be more precious to God than "his only begotten son"?
Begotten = only born, sole
God gave His only born, sole son as a sacrifice for sin...for all who would come in faith and repent of their sin...including ME and YOU!

So, what can I give, offer, sacrifice to Him, for Him [God]?  As I wrote these words and was thinking of them a song came to mind but I couldn't remember the title to search for it.  Doug was up stairs so I intercomed him and asked him and we were humming the tune, still not remembering the words.  He went back to bed [no, i didn't wake him, he was already awake at that point, lol] and I tried searching again and voila! it came to me then.  So i am linking The Stand.

So now, back to Abraham's sacrifice of his son.  Why would God ask this of him? If you read the previous notes & definitions, sacrifice involves giving up something precious - relinquishing.  He gave back to God his son [He "proved his faith"] - the son promised to Him in his old age and whom he miraculously received because of his faith.  [read Romans 4:16-21].

I leave you with this thought ~
"What can I give....to the One who gave it all..."