Genesis 22:13 · World English Bible
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
When the mind lifts its eyes from the intended attack it sees what was there the whole time, a substitute for the death it feared it had to cause. Guilt is always caught nearby, tangled in the mind's own snares, and it can be released as the thing offered up so that innocence goes free.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
The same verse, read by 2 traditions.
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
When the mind lifts its eyes from the intended attack it sees what was there the whole time, a substitute for the death it feared it had to cause. Guilt is always caught nearby, tangled in the mind's own snares, and it can be released as the thing offered up so that innocence goes free.
So the son lives and the ram is offered in his place, and this is forgiveness in its plainest form. The mind stops sacrificing the beloved and lets go instead of the guilt it mistook for a debt, and finds that love asked only for that release.
Ram: the guilt the mind lays down in place of its innocence, the fear given up so that love may be spared. Thicket: the tangle of the mind's own making where guilt is held fast, the snare of separation. Horns: the grip by which guilt is caught, the entanglement that keeps fear near at hand. Son: the innocent self set free the moment the mind offers its fear instead.
ESOTERIC
The ram caught in the thicket is the animal nature of a person snared in the tangle of the material world, held fast by its own horns, which are its instinctual force and drive. When the higher self lifts its eyes and looks, it sees that what must be given up is not the beloved inner child of spirit but the animal held behind it, the lower drive substituted on the altar. The thicket is the dense undergrowth of earthly entanglement, the brambles of desire and fear that catch and hold the animal force. The burnt offering is the raising of that lower energy through fire, the transformation of the animal current into a higher vibration rather than its mere destruction. What ascends in smoke is the beast in a person surrendered, so that the spiritual child within is spared.
The animal drive is not killed for cruelty. It is offered up and transmuted, given to the fire so the higher self can live, and the beloved inner life is preserved.
Ram: the animal nature of a person, the instinctual force caught and held by its own horns Thicket: the dense undergrowth of the material world, the brambles of desire and fear that snare the animal force Horns: the instinctual power and drive of the lower nature, the very thing that binds it fast Burnt offering: the raising of the animal energy through fire, the transmutation of the lower current into a higher vibration
Christian Psychology lens
What have I been sacrificing that was never what love asked for?
What you have been searching everywhere for is standing right behind you, waiting for you to turn your head. The looking was the only thing in the way.
When you stop straining, the thing you needed appears on its own. Effort scares it off; stillness lets it come near.
The arrow that truly wounds is the second one, the one you shoot into yourself after the first. Lay that one down and most of the pain goes with it.
Free · No account needed
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store
Christian Psychology
Esoteric