A dark mist hangs over our drooping heads.  The times seem so filled with great stress as swords clash in the heights.  Darkness presses its heavy weight of fear, tyranny, and control down on those of us who have been designated keepers of earth realm.  The spirit realm continues to operate as normal, certain men rise to power and others die in obscurity.  Wars wage, nations rise and fall, and the spirits of the air keep score.  The old-line battles wage as familiar adversaries face each other again and again just as it was from the dawn of our age.  Our sins have imbued us with permanent cancer that plagues every human soul and our many gaping wounds remind us to our impending doom.

Thus began and we see continued the clash of good and evil in the human world.  Cain kills Abel, so Eve bears another son, Seth, who points men back to the real God and Creator, Jehovah.  Many generations pass until violence covers the entire earth as the sons of God come from the heights to inseminate the daughters of men.  This move of the darkness exponentially increases wickedness on the earth.  Foolishness multiplies rapidly and sullies almost all men with pride and the spirit of conquest.  

But the Keeper of the earth realm intervenes and makes short work of the long ranged pride of the kingdoms of darkness.  The King of all things decides that all that is stubborn and unbelieving must be removed from his planet.  All that is living and walking on the earth that hate His words of guidance and comfort, must die.  

One man and his family survives by listening to a Voice that speaks so clearly from above.  The words uttered by the Voice are so deep and so perfect.  How was this Voice able to break through the sin drenched atmosphere and catch the attention of this man is beyond all comprehension.

The stratosphere is so polluted by the vile works of the unbelieving, that the birds of the air must be exterminated along with all human flesh.  A one hundred and twenty year faith project ends without much fanfare.  Along with the end of this perfectly timed exercise, the completion of a season of mercy is finalized.  

The crazy-looking house that can float has been completed and the animals and birds that are to be saved come to this monstrosity.  Will it float?  Why does it need to float?  Will it really rain?  Drawn by an unmistakingly powerful force, all those creatures who were aptly warned understood the urgency of the warning; they and only they came to this man and his project.  Clean and unclean animals and creeping things enter into safe haven.

The builder and his seven family members enter this one-time historically strategic project to save mankind.  A future similitude would appear, but for now this will do.  Very quickly the door closes, seemingly under its own power.  A new form of rain from heaven begins to fall.  Floods of water are released on every side, they rage for forty days, the deep bursts forth waters that fill the earth so quickly that men and animal are taken totally by surprise.  All the mountain peaks are covered by at least eighteen feet of water and then recede as the beautifully and perfectly designed house boat rests on a rocky mount a year and ten days after its one and only door closes. 

A new beginning ensues.  A new mandate given to go and repopulate the earth realm along orders to maintain a better way then in earlier times.  A sign is set in the heavens to remind the survivors and the Maker of the floods that this kind of devastation and annihilation would never happen again.  The epic sign is so beautiful for this man to see and study that many future generations are awed still by its appearance whenever conditions allow.

But even still, the selfishness  and waywardness of man manifests again.  One of the sons of the ark builder is to bear the horrors of curse because his father was foolish enough to let his guard down one day.  Still many of the house boat builders children decide that the new rules are too overbearing and they haplessly decide to ascend to the heavens to make a new place for their dwelling.  As they go higher and higher, the King of the Universe comes down and visits them with the perfection of the confusion of their one world language.  

Once the spreading of their silly godless scheme is stilled, their grandiose project ends and the prideful ones are scattered every where but where the project ensued.  They travel all across the entire globe. They dwell in new places with unique weather and new mountain ranges, on this go around, the Maker of the earth shortens their opportunity of misusing his precious earth and its peoples.  They only will have the stewardship of one hundred and twenty years to obey his new mandate to populate the earth.  The length of days has an interesting connection with the length of the project that was sent to save their grandparents before the Great Devastation.

Nine generations after the new start, the great great great great great great great grandson of the saved family moves from the place of manly pride upon the hearing of a new sound and Voice.  By following the sound of this new authoritative Voice, this man and his small family are led to go places that make little sense to them, but they feel drawn to go anyway. 

Facing the reality of a dead father and nothing else to lose, this man leaves his homeland and follows the leading of the Voice to a land filled with many promises of well being.  He is clearly led to a place that the Voice has emphatically and confidently assured that his children will own.  

The struggle to keep his clan alive moves him to make a bold move to travel the desert to dwell near a very godless empire, his only refuge for this season of famine.  Since they are the closest neighboring empire with adequate supplies of food and water, our hero enters their capital city by intrigue.  Tells his beautiful wife to lie about her affiliation with him, simply out of the fear of death.  The leader of this empire discovers, quite uniquely, that this man is protected by some very powerful angels, as his entire house and kingdom is jeopardized by the ravages of a horrible plague. 

The leader wants to release this man back to his dwelling, but first, he gives him all that he can carry to gain his blessing.  As fresh showers fall on his promised land, the man who hears the Voice moves back to hear and discover new words from His Heavenly friend.  These words penetrate his heart and a oath is made to him by this undeniably strong voice.

Once in the land of promise again, His brother's son, Lot, decides to follow a looming path that caused much trouble in past days in the land they left behind in Mesopotamia many years ago.  But this man who hears the Voice lets his soulish and selfish nephew pick the best land of their region.

More adversity arises, as the man who hears the Voice tries to stay alive, he required by family ties to fight a terrible war to save his wayward nephew who departed for greener pastures only to discover more trouble in the end.  After his victory over the kings of the east, a new and very different kind of King comes to meet him.  This man gives this king the first-fruits of his spoils.  This powerful king of Salem blesses him and reminds him of divine favor soon to come to his seed.

The promise of blessing is established by a very sacred and holy covenant between the man and His God.  As the man is put to sleep by the Spirit of the Voice, specific words are uttered from the Voice that reveal a real and large territory to be given in future days.  

But a hard struggle has been predetermined for his children's children to acquire it.  Interestingly, all the words uttered by the Voice presuppose a natural born son, but the man hasn't even had an inkling of hope to believe that his body will produce an heir to fulfill and execute the magnanimous promise he had just received.  His lonely wife thinks quietly to herself that her once babylonian husband is maybe a little crazy and maybe the Voice is not being heard correctly.   

And more time continues to pass.  Ideas rage in the mind of this man and his very broken, tired, and childless wife.  A mutual plan of salvation arises in their mind.  Realizing their destiny must come, they encourage themselves to perform their ill-conceived idea.  The plan includes inseminating the mistress of the house and, of course, she produces a child.  The beautiful baby boy is loved by his dad but even to the current hour; this child only intensifies the conflict between the eventual promised seed and his seed. 

Soon after the execution of the human plan; the man and his wife receive a personal visitation from the Voice.  Three very angelic-looking men meet this wandering man in his dwelling place and share an incredible word of encouragement.  Just when all bets were off on bearing a legitimate heir from his own body.  A promise is made of such a one that in just one year, will be born.  Yes, a real baby boy will be born to his post-menopausal wrinkly but still very beautiful wife.

The supernatural baby is born and meets and exceeds all expectations of his astonished parents.  He grows to be a strapping young lad with keen insight into all of nature and genealogies of men.  One very specific day this courageous young boy and his steadfast father are summoned by the Voice to go to a familiar mountain three days journey from their dwelling of massive tents to offer up a “thank you” for all that they have received.  

Their physical and spiritual abundance is so obvious.  So the “thank you” they are to offer includes a very precious offering.  They walk with much sobriety carrying the wood and supplies at a glacial pace.  They are saddened by the reality that this offering is nothing less then the supernatural heaven-sent and very much prized boy!  Oh my, what now? 

As doubt creeps into his tired mind, this experienced older man and father reminds his precious son of all the blessing and supernatural deliverances that the Voice from heaven has arranged in his circuitous life to save him from certain death and devastation. He has learned to trust the Voice over his head, he has become a friend of the Power that rules the stars.  He remembers back to his earliest years on the earth all the lies that were convincing his neighbors that “life” was about the acquiring of stuff or the forced management of the surrounding tribes that looked with lust upon their wealth.  

The lessons that have been taught by the Voice have made deep impact on the heart of this sojourner and now loving father.  He has learned the art of sacred trust and resignation to the Voice.  He has listened to the words of history.  He sees the rainbow and knows its Maker.  He is not confused by the illusions that are dancing before his mind at this moment of uncertainty. 

As he binds up this very costly sacrificial offering, he imagines and believes that the Voice from heaven has something up His holy sleeve.  His words are, and were so very clear.  I will be the father of nations.  My empire will not be destroyed by any nation, no matter how powerful and massive.  He was told in no uncertain terms, “I will make your name great.”  That, “As the stars of heaven are too numerous to number as to the grains of sand on the beaches of the great sea are too many to count, so will your descendants be.”  Recalling these words is his only comfort in this sad hour. 

Torrents of negative thoughts spins around in his heart and mind.  Still he can't but trust the Voice and its many words of encouragement over the years.  The Voice has so much power.  He owns that heavenly fire that was sent to destroy a rebellious region within the realm of his promised territory; that fire was so very terrible.   The Voice of heaven is my friend.  He would not destroy his incredible gift he gave me after so long a wait to receive it.  What about his mother and my faithful wife?  What will she do now?  No, the Voice I have come to love so much must have a plan.  He can raise the love of my life from the place of death, I just know it!

The man continues to gather the elements of the sacrifice he has been commanded by the Voice to offer; stones and wood, and the boy.  As they work together to build the alter, the boy then asks a sincere question, “where my father is the sacrifice?”  The father simply says, “God will provide us a perfectly suited sacrifice.”  The work of building and completing the alter continues as the atmosphere of the scene saddens, time drags on to perform the unthinkable, kill my beloved son.  The lad lays down willingly and his compassionate father ties the rope around his strong legs and arms.  Tears are dropping from his cheekbones unto the boy and the boy face glistens with the reflection of the fading sun on his wet face.

The mountain air is surreal and it seems like many different kind of eyes are upon this man and his supernaturally born son.  The smell of death is evident.  The atmosphere is thick with the sense that history is about to made.  Nations will speak and argue over the meaning of this moment for centuries to come, and other members of his progeny would misunderstand the mandate that summoned him to execute this horrid task.

As he lifts his newly sharpen knife to plunge strategically in the flesh of his son, he locates a place where death will come the quickest, as his hands move downward a strong Voice utters his name in a language he understands, the voice cries out his name and speaks with urgency and in much friendliness.  His heavenly words summon him to lift his eyes and see what has been caught in the thicket.  

The man realizes the familiarity of the voice and says back, “Here I am!”  Confirming words of comfort fill the man's ears, joy spreads like a fire through his throbbing chest.  He sees a white ram up ahead.

He notices right away that the ram has massive horns and in a weird way was drawn to watch this painful execution of his one and only son.  The ram had, in foolish haste, fastened its broad and battle-hardened horns to a some very thick brush nearby.  The ram's foolishness is my salvation, and his blood poured out on this alter is my refuge.  My son will live and this ill-trodden beast must die in his place.  

I'm seeing and experiencing something that has never taken place before, yet I know it is only the beginning of the story.  The rest of the story must be told in the history that is to follow my days, and is being made as the man and his son take the ram and bind it to the alter.  The angel that spoke, said these words so simply, “Your God will provide the lamb!”  His only begotten Son will come one day to redeem all those who believe in the Voice from heaven and do as the Voice leads them to do.

The man and his son stand together next to the alter, alive and well, refreshed in the presence of the Living God.  They will be our firstfruits of the reality of the resurrection, life from the dead.  As Abraham and his son tread down the mountain they speak of glorious things and realize that this story must told again.  Mom will not believe it.  

Our God and Abraham's God are so determined to turn the darkest of hours to times of glorious light.  I have reflected with caution on a very sacred moment in human history and the events that led up to this moment when a man who has been given a son from a dead womb, would represent and the Son of God from heaven who would inhabit a virgin's womb to show forth the reality of the miracle that Abraham and Isaac must have imagined would one day appear.  

All of this history I have recounted has occurred on the same dust, though not Palestine or the Middle East, it happened in our world about four thousand years ago. While these two men stood by that alter with hope that one day the Voice they heard from heaven would provide the Lamb that would reveal much clearer that salvation of God in a far better fashion then the blood of the ram they slew and presented on that alter staged on historical Mt. Moriah.  

We must remember their real human struggle, so we can find the solace needed to gain confidence that the same inheritance they sought with diligence will be ours as well.  In Heb. 11:11-12 we read, “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.  Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude – innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.”

That innumerable mass of people all get to the city of glory by the same cross of humiliation and stumbling as they faithful follow the Lamb of God through this veil of tears.  

We must walk by faith experiencing the same kind of trials as they did to receive our promises.  Press on my dear friend, soon we will be there with blessed Abraham and Isaac enjoying the luxury of a perfect world wherein dwells only righteousness and peace.

Many blessings,

Jonathan