God Will Provide Himself With a Sheep?

A few weeks ago in one of the meetings of the church I attend, an older gentleman quoted Genesis 22:8 from his J.N. Darby translation and it is noted that there is a big difference, and an important difference, between the J.N.Darby translation and the King James..

Genesis 22:8 King James

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Genesis 22:8 J.N Darby translation 

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering. And they went both of them together.

Both of these verses say that it is God that will provide, but here is the big difference.  The King James says "God will provide himself a lamb"  while the Darby says  "God will provide himself with the sheep"

We know that God did provide himself a lamb, for the Lord Jesus Christ is God incarnate, Philippians 2:7 "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men."  John 1:1, 14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."  John 1:29 "The next day John (the Baptist) seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

The Darby translation is only speaking of this specific occasion when Abraham went with Isaac to offer him as a burnt offering as he was instructed to do in Genesis 22:1-2 (King James)  "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.  And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."  The reason why I say that the Darby is only speaking of this occasion is by the use of the word "with", this word "with" was added, it is not in the King James.  And also, in the Darby translation it says that "God will provide himself with the sheep"...  while the King James speaks "God will provide himself a lamb".

The King James is speaking of this occasion, because it is Abraham speaking to Isaac, believing that God will intervene,  but it is also looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who was crucified on Calvary's cross, who shed his precious blood and took upon himself the penalty for sin and then gave up his spirit, to be raised from the dead on the first day of the week.   The Darby translation is not looking forward to the Lord Jesus in this verse.

We know from Genesis 22:13 that according to the King James "..Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns..."  the very fact that it was an adult ram that was provided for this instance, this makes the words "God will provide himself a lamb" so much more significant.

This is one of the reasons why I use only the King James, for I trust it.

Who are Abraham's Descendants? What are the Covenants of Scripture?

Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 15:1-21

Abram obeyed God, he left his father's house and his father's land when he was 75.  In Genesis 12 God is voicing a covenant with Abram;  an agreement, a promise between two parties.  There are certain things that Abram has to do, and in light of this there are certain promises that God makes to Abram.  I will give you the land, I will make of you a great nation, I will make you a blessing to all nations, in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.  People have called this covenant that God made with Abram the Covenant of Promise.  In Genesis 15 we see the covenant ratified or made legal in a powerful way.

An explanation of the covenants of scripture.  God always deals with people by way of covenant in the bible.  The Adamic covenant made with Adam: The covenant of works, certain duties imposed by God and then a warning..  "do not eat of the fruit....."  there were consequences for breaking covenants.  This was a contract of relationship between two parties, God and man.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God and broke the covenant and now man is under the sentence of death.  Humans cannot approach God by our works.  It was finished at the fall.

Then the Noahic covenant, the covenant of preservation.  The rainbow is the sign of that covenant.  God promised to do certain things, not to flood the world with water again.  Then there is the Mosaic covenant, the covenant of law and sacrifices.  The law was never meant to save.  If the law was meant to save why did they have a sacrificial system? The law was to show sin, failure to keep the law.  All these covenants can be summed up under three broad sections:

The Temptation to go Ahead of God.

This past summer my husband and I decided that we no longer want to take part in what I now call “Commercialmas”  and what the local news called the “Christmas Creep”, the stores already carrying all Christmas things decorative.  This past summer we gave away our tree and all the decorations as well as an extensive village..  and we decided that in late September we would tell our family that we no longer want to celebrate the day.  We were invited to a family member’s house for dinner this past Sunday and it seemed a perfect time to tell them of our plans, and the next day my husband would have emailed another family member, also telling them of our plans.  But something happened to change these plans and so this is the reason for this post.

This past Sunday the sermon was on Genesis 24, when Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac after the death of Isaac’s mother Sarah.  The speaker went through the chapter, and how Abraham told the servant (V3-4) “I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the god of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites…but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac”..

But the servant thought that perhaps the maiden would not want to follow him, he wanted to do things his way instead of waiting on the LORD, and so he said (V5) “if the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest?”  This is speculation on the servant’s part that the woman would not want to follow.  But Abraham trusted that (V7) “the LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me…he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.”  The servant must not consider what might happen, he must be obedient to his master, and trust that the LORD God is in control.

So the servant swore to do as Abraham said, and departed and he also prayed  (V12) “O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham.”  and then he made specific request regarding the woman who would come to a well, and give water to the servant and to his camels, “let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shown kindness unto my master.”