Vv. 1-2 : God’s command
to Abraham
Vv. 3-14 : Abrahams
obedience
Vv. 15- 19 : God’s covenant
promises reaffirmed
Vv. 20-24 : An important
footnote concerning Isaac’s future wife, Rebekah.
This recorded piece of sacred Scripture must surely rank as
one of the supreme tests[1]
and acts of faith in the Bible. But let’s face it - as much as we would admire
the faith of Abraham, so as much many would find themselves perplexed by the nature of what God requires here of
Abraham. Is it possible that God could
require such a thing? The God who said, ”You
shall not murder?" (Gen. 9:5,6;
Ex. 20:13).
I have reminded you so often from this pulpit that we need to
learn to see further than the end of our noses. We need to learn to read
Bible texts, such as this one, in the light of the whole Bible, and
particularly in the light of the full revelation of the NT Scriptures,
otherwise we will always be like children, swayed by mere appearances and
swayed by mere emotions of the moment.
What strikes me so very often about Bible critics and cynics is that
they take a verse such as this and say, “Oh,
really, so this is your loving God who commands a father to kill his son?” So, they take verse 2 and think themselves justified to pull apart
the whole of Christianity on the basis of this verse and text, without
understanding the context of the entire Scriptures. We need
to learn that the weight of the entire Bible stands behind this text!
By way of introduction I also wish to remind you again that all
of the OT anticipates and foreshadows the Messiah- Jesus Christ, the Lord. We
saw that last time in Genesis 21. Isaac, the son of promise was born under
miraculous circumstances and at the right time, determined by God. This child
was never born according to man’s will and in man’s timing. And this child
never ultimately belonged to Abraham and Sarah – just like your and my children
don’t ultimately belong to us! We
receive these gifts from God to be
raised for the glory of God. Now
with this thought in mind we
must understand that Isaac was born to
be an illustration of something even greater that God would do later in
the history of the world.
Isaac in his birth, and in the act of being sacrificed by his
father foreshadowed ultimately the birth and the death of the greater Son of
Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we need to see the logic of this passage
ultimately in that light. All this is so
very big and breath-taking, and so I want to encourage you to see this test of Abraham’s faith in an
entirely positive way and not
through the eye of the superficial modern
person who cannot see the glory
of God in the face of Christ and who whose
who would simply cry, “child abuse!”
22: 1-2: God’s command to Abraham
"After these things God
tested Abraham…”.The fact that God tests His people should not be construed in a negative
manner. There is a crucial difference between testing and tempting. Satan tempts
people in order to make them fail. God tests His people to further
sanctify and refine them. In both, the
Old and New Testaments the words translated “test”
mean “to prove by trial”. When God tests His children, His purpose is to
prove that their faith is real. James
says that the testing of our faith develops perseverance, which leads to
maturity in our walk with God (Jas.
1:3–4). James also goes on to say that testing is a blessing, because, when
we have “stood the test” we will “receive the crown of life, which God has
promised to those who love him” (Jas.
1:12). So ultimately testing comes from
our heavenly Father who works all
things together for good for those who love Him and who are called to be
the children of God (Rom. 8:28).
In a sense God tested Abraham all his life. He tested him
when he left his familiar home in Ur. He tested Abraham through a drought when
he arrived in the Promised Land. He tested him in his relationship with Lot and
by means of the happenings in Sodom and Gomorrah. He tested him by keeping him
waiting for 25 years for a son to be born to him and Sarah. God tested him causing Hagar and Ishmael to
leave the home, because the sibling rivalry between Ishmael, the son of the
flesh and Isaac the son of the promise
was threatening to destabilize Abraham once again.
When Isaac was born Abraham
might have thought that this would have been the end of all his
trials, but it was not so! The greatest trial was yet to come. We read, “After
these things God tested Abraham…”.
To be sure, the nature of Abraham’s test of faith is a specific one,
and you and I will never be asked to do this. But God may ask you to give up
your son or daughter to His service in a very dangerous mission field. Be
prepared! But this specific request in
22:2, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land
of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering…”, is at face value a tough one. Abraham knows what is at stake. What would Sarah say if he came home to tell
her that he had to sacrifice Isaac? But far more profound is the fact that if
Isaac dies, the promise of Abraham’s seed and offspring cannot be
established. The Messiah,
according to promise, could not be born! There is a lot at stake
here.
22: 3-14 : Abraham's obedience
V.3 “So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God
had told him.” The place to which he takes Isaac is of very
deep significance. To miss this, is to miss everything. Abraham is told to go to the land of Moriah to offer him there as a burnt offering. And now for some perspective, as we take a
look forward in history; In 1 Chronicles
21 David had sinned by calling for an
unauthorized census of his people. It was a self -willed census, motivated by
his pride. A terrible judgement from God followed as a result. 70 000 people
died. It was on Mt. Moriah, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite in
Jerusalem that the angel of death was commanded by God to stop the divine
wrath. David then bought this place from Ornan the Jebusite and here he made
burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. (1 Chron. 21:26). This place would later become Israel’s house of
worship, having been built under the
supervision of Solomon (2 Chron. 3:1).
This place became Israel’s God appointed place of sacrifice and worship, and
many, many sacrifices would be made there in the course of history. And it was in this vicinity that the Lord
Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin was
crucified on Mt Calvary, outside the gate. So, I trust that you see the
significance of all this. An ordinary reading of this text, without
investigation would have caused you to miss the point of this story!
So now, let us think again. Why does God call Abraham to make
such an enormous sacrifice? Two reasons:
(i)
On
the one hand God designed this as the supreme test of Abraham's faith and trust
in God. Has Abraham grown in his faith? Yes, he has! And we know that Abraham does not fail this
test.
(ii) But
in a greater and more profound sense God was preparing the world for a future
happening, and He caused it to be recorded in the Bible, to be seen by those
that have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Here God, through this incident was foretelling what He would do in the offering up of a very real sacrifice of His only Son on the cross. So Abraham is taking his son where God took His
Son, to that place where He would die for the sins of the world- and there
was the place where the just wrath of God was stopped for
all who believe in the substitutionary death of Christ for themselves.
Incidentally, nowhere else in the Bible will you find such a
command, the sacrifice of a son, ever again. In fact, you will find it written
in the law of God that all child sacrifice is expressly forbidden.
Now, Abraham did not see everything as clearly as you and I
can today with the benefit of the full revelation of God in Christ. But the
important point is that Abraham believed in God and he trusted God in this, and this is what is
revealed in vv. 3-14 !And it
is revealed in the important commentary
on this passage in Hebrews 11:17-19.
In his heart, difficult as it was, Abraham determined to trust God for
this. When Isaac asks that gut wrenching
question in 22:7 , “My father…Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”, Abraham
answers in v.8, “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering…”. The commentary in the book of Hebrews tells us
that Abraham expected God to resurrect Isaac from the dead. But that is
not what happened. Instead, God provided a substitute! And here we have one of
the great doctrines associated with the death of our Lord Jesus Christ–His substitutionary death for
sinners. His life for those that
believe. The life of the Lamb of God for them that trust Him to save them from the righteous
wrath of God.
And as Abraham prepares Isaac for sacrifice, and as he
trusts God for the outcome, the
angel of the LORD intervenes (22: 11, 12).
“Do not lay a hand on the boy.” The
test is over. Abraham has passed it. He has stood the test. No further proof is
necessary. Abraham’s faith is vindicated. It is real. He really , really has
learned to trust God.
22:13 tells us that Abraham lifted up his eyes
and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. This ram becomes the illustration of the
great biblical doctrine of the substitutionary sacrifice, or atonement of
Christ for those that believe in Him. Without
the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of our sin. The ram dies in my place, and my sin is atoned
for. But it is an unequal sacrifice. The
ram is an animal. How on earth can an animal atone for the sin of a human being? It can’t! By God’s forbearance, He allowed it
to be so, but the blood of bulls and
goats cannot take sin away (Hebr. 10:4). There is only one who has been appointed in history to take
away the sin of people! Where on earth
will such a man be found? Who will redeem a man, since all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God? Only the Son of Promise foreshadowed by Isaac
can!
And once a again the letter to the Hebrews and particularly the 10th
chapter helps us to understand this. Do you see the profundity of Scripture?
Does this not put a new awe for God into your hearts?Brothers and sisters, I exhort you then to put your trust in
the Lord Jesus ! Abraham is our example. He trusted in God. And he was rewarded
by God. He figuratively received his Son back from the dead. Isaac was given to
Abraham a second time. He was Abraham’s son
by birth and now he is Abraham’s
so by redemption. And you too need
those two births - your physical birth and your spiritual birth . And
you can be born again, by looking to Jesus. And you can live forever. God the Father received his Son back from the
dead. He did allow His Son to see
corruption in the grave. And you too who hope in Christ will rise in triumph
with him.
And so in 22:15-18
God finally reaffirms and renews all the covenant promises to Abraham and his descendants. They
will become as numerous as the stars and sand on the seashore. And in 22:19-24 God prepares the next chapter of his covenant family as He introduces us to the family
of Rebekah, the future covenant
wife of Isaac, who will both be challenged
in a very similar way in their
walk of faith.
Trust God for your future in a new and radical way, based on
what you have learned from the Holy Scriptures! Amen.
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