Bible in a Year - Women’s Thematic Reading Plan | Day 162

Day 162 of the Women’s Bible Plan: Read Genesis Chapter 22 and reflect on Abraham offering Isaac. Through Abraham’s journey to Mount Moriah with his beloved son, this devotional helps us consider how parents can entrust their most precious loved ones, deepest concerns, and dearest hopes into God’s hands. This page includes Genesis 22 Scripture, a devotional guide for parenting and family, reflection questions, a daily verse, prayer, and a life response.

🌸  Dear Sister, welcome to Day 162 of our reading journey. 

If you asked a parent, “What is the hardest thing for you to entrust to God?” the answer may not be money, work, or personal plans. For many parents, it is their children.

Children are love, but they are also deep concern. They are gifts, but also responsibilities. We long for them to be safe, healthy, faithful, and blessed. We worry that they may choose the wrong path, be hurt, drift away from God, or face pain we cannot carry for them. Many times, we say with our mouths, “My child belongs to God,” yet in our hearts, it is difficult to truly place them back into His hands.

Genesis Chapter 22 is a deep and difficult passage. God tests Abraham and commands him to take his beloved son Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering. This was not an ordinary test. It touched the deepest love of Abraham’s heart. Isaac was the son of promise, the child given in Abraham’s old age, and the most precious gift after many years of waiting.

As we read “Abraham Offers Isaac” today, we are not meant to understand this passage as a cold call to sacrifice. Rather, we are invited to see that God was testing whether Abraham still believed that the God who gave Isaac also had the authority, faithfulness, and power to hold Isaac’s life.

A Minute of Grace

Genesis Chapter 22 records how God tested Abraham. God called to him, “Abraham,” and Abraham answered, “Behold, here I am.” Then God commanded him to take his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and go to the land of Moriah to offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains God would show him.

This passage feels heavy because it touches the deepest love and hardest surrender of a parent’s heart. Isaac was not something Abraham casually possessed. He was the child of God’s promise, the son born to Sarah after many years of barrenness, and the most precious hope of Abraham’s household. What God asked for was not only Abraham’s outward action, but the deepest trust of his heart.

Abraham rose early in the morning, prepared the ass, the wood, the servants, and Isaac, and went toward the place God had told him. Along the way, Isaac asked, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” These words reveal Abraham’s faith in the midst of deep anguish. He did not know every detail, yet he still believed that God would provide.

When they reached the mountain and Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and stopped him. God said, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” Then Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh, meaning “The LORD will provide.”

From the perspective of parenting and family, this chapter reminds us that children are not possessions owned by parents, but lives entrusted by God. Parents may love, raise, protect, guide, and pray for their children, but ultimately, children belong to the Lord. True faith does not mean we never worry. It means that in the midst of concern, we keep learning to entrust our beloved ones to God. It does not mean we care less about their future, but that we confess God loves them more than we do and knows their path better than we can.

Today’s theme, “Abraham Offers Isaac,” invites us to reflect: Is there an “Isaac” in our lives—someone or something we love deeply, fear losing, and long to hold tightly? When God invites us to entrust what is most precious to Him, do we believe He is not a God who cruelly takes away blessing, but a faithful, good, and providing God?

Whispers for the Heart

1 Isaac was the son of promise whom Abraham received from God after many years of waiting. What is the “Isaac” in your life? Is it your child, family, marriage, ministry, dream, or someone or something you treasure deeply and fear losing? Are you willing to acknowledge that these precious blessings first came from God and ultimately belong to Him?

2 Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” When you cannot yet see how God will provide, are you still willing to trust His faithfulness? In parenting, family decisions, your children’s future, education, faith, or life path, do you often try to replace trust in God with your own control?

3 God did not let Abraham truly lose Isaac. Instead, He led Abraham to know Jehovah-jireh more deeply. Have you ever experienced this: when you finally became willing to entrust what you held most tightly to God, you came to know His provision, protection, and grace in a deeper way? Is God inviting you today to loosen your grip and entrust a deeply loved person or situation to Him again?

As you read Genesis Chapter 22 today, do not only notice Abraham’s obedience; also notice God’s provision. Do not only see the pain of surrender; also see God’s interruption and supply at the critical moment. May this passage help us learn in parenting and family life that the deepest love is not holding tightly in fear, but entrusting, watching, and trusting before God.

Take a quiet breath before you begin. Bring your children, family members, relationships, future concerns, and worries before the Lord, and let His Word meet you there.

🎞️ Today's Youtube Video 

🪕 Response Hymn: 

Genesis Chapter 22 (KJV)

22 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.

2 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.

3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

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

9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;

21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.

23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.

24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

🪕 Response Hymn: 

💡 Closing Thought · Entrusting Is Not Losing

After reading Genesis Chapter 22, we see Abraham bringing his beloved Isaac before God. The road up the mountain must have been heavy, full of struggle and tears. Yet at the most critical moment, God Himself stopped Abraham and provided. Abraham did not lose the promise God had given. Instead, he came to know the God of Jehovah-jireh more deeply.

As we close this page and return to real family life, perhaps there is someone you find hardest to entrust to God, a future that fills you with anxiety, or a situation you desperately want to control but cannot. Remember this: entrusting is not losing. It is placing what you love most back into the most trustworthy hands.

May today’s Scripture remind you that God is not the God who cruelly takes away what you love. He is the God who gives, keeps, guides, and provides. As you love your children, watch over your family, and face the future, may you learn to carry your responsibilities faithfully while releasing fear-driven control. And in every act of surrender, may you know more deeply: in the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

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