Curve Balls

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I loved being a catcher when playing baseball in high school and college. I especially liked it when we had a pitcher with a great curve ball—the sucker pitch. When the ball left the pitcher’s hand, it started on a certain trajectory, hopefully long enough for the batter to think he knew where the ball would arrive at the plate. But somewhere in the 60.6 feet from the pitching mound to home plate, the ball curves in or out or down, fooling the batter and making it difficult to hit it. 

Life is like baseball sometimes. No, I’m not trying to imitate Forrest Gump, but it really is true. Abraham knew all about the curve balls of life. One of them had to do with his son, his only son, Isaac. God had given him a promise that he and his son would be the ancestors of the promised deliverer. And that’s when the curve ball came in to play—and it was a big one!

God instructed Abraham to bind up and sacrifice his son, which didn’t make any sense at all. How would it be possible for all the nations to be blessed through Abraham and Isaac if Isaac were to be eliminated? 

Yet Abraham trusted God, and left on that fateful day to do God’s bidding. He took his son to Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. He bound the lad and, together, they marched up the mountain. However, God stopped him before he could harm his son by providing another sacrificial animal, a ram in this case.

Abraham was so delighted he gave that place a special name. He didn’t name it This-Is-Where-God-Threw-Me-A-Curve-Ball. No, he called it The LORD Will Provide!

Think about what God has provided for you, too. He gave His Son as a sacrifice for the death that each of us deserved. We receive His favor, so undeservedly. And who among us really deserves forgiveness, yet, that is ours, too, when we are in Christ!

The Lord provided the perfect sacrifice for Abraham and the perfect sacrifice for us as well. Jesus died to free us from sin, and make it possible for us to live with Him forever.

And Abraham called the name of the place, The–LORD–Will–Provide; as it is said to this day, in the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided. Genesis 22:14