BACKGROUND
Abraham was called to the ultimate test: to sacrifice his only son (22:2). But he did have another son, Ishmael. We know that Ishmael may have been cast out, but he was still Abraham's son. Then how was Isaac his only son? The actual Hebrew word means “unique, only begotten.” Isaac was unique in that he was the only begotten son of the promise. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for this child, and now, God was telling him to offer Isaac up as a human sacrifice! Abraham had faith and he obeyed. Amazing.
Genesis 22:11 says that Isaac was a “lad” or “boy,” but most scholars believe he was a teenager and could have resisted at any time. This implies faith of not only the father but also the son.
Abraham was called to go to Mount Moriah (22:2) from Beersheba, a distance of about 50 miles. This spot will continue to be important in the history of the Jews. In 2 Samuel 24:18, the prophet, Gad, instructed David to build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (Jebus is Jerusalem) to stop a plague. Moriah was the threshing floor! He offered to buy it from Araunah, and Araunah wanted to give it to him, but David said, ”I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” Later, it became the site of the temples built by Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod the Great. It is now the site of the Dome of the Rock erected in 691 AD by Muslims. Mt. Moriah is an important spot!
Even though human sacrifice was common in ancient paganism, it was not common for God’s righteous people. Abraham obeyed with immediate, unquestioning obedience though. He obeyed in faith! His faith was evident when he said to the servants, “We will come back to you” (22:5). So, he had faith that somehow he would return with Isaac. Also, He knew that God was Yahweh Yireh, the God who provides, when he proclaimed “God will provide a lamb” when Isaac questioned about the absence of a lamb for the burnt offering.
Hebrews 11:17 says:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.’ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead. . .God provided a ram in Genesis 22:13, but its ultimate fulfillment will be the “Lamb of God”!
The Scarlet Thread of Redemption
“Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.”
John 1:29
LaSor puts it so well:I can never think about the willingness of Abraham to offer up his son Isaac without thinking of the willingness of God to offer up His Son Jesus. God provided a lamb to take the place of Isaac, but there was no lamb to take the place of Jesus. He was the Lamb! You and I have our life and our salvation and our hope of eternity because of what God has done for us in Christ; and the only way this world will ever come to know the salvation we know will be by way of our faithfulness. God expects us to be faithful. (LaSor, William S. Great Personalities of the Old TestamentThis is a story of a faithful man who, in his old age, had come to believe God for anything! He called the place, Yahweh Yireh (The LORD Will Provide) looking forward to the time of the “Lamb of God” who would be provided as the substitutionary sacrifice for all time in that place., p.30)
Can you say AMEN to that! (Come on, shout it out in your home or even the public place you might be reading this!!)
REFLECTION
Every time I meditate on this passage, there is a tug of pain in my heart over the choice that Abraham had to make. I have two sons, and I cannot imagine picking either of them to be sacrificed, and I did not even have to wait 25 years for them! They are precious to me, and I love them. (By the way, 22:2 is the first time love is mentioned in the Bible), and I do not know if I could obey as Abraham obeyed (22:18 is the first time for this word too). Everything inside of me would fight against it, but Abraham knew his God could even raise the dead! Do I really believe that my God can do anything? Do I believe that He will provide above and beyond the unexplainable? OH, how I want that kind of radical faith AND obedience!
In Michael Card’s introduction to his song “God Will Provide a Lamb”, he writes:
The life of Abraham is a parable of salvation. His radical obedience to God in the offering of Isaac is the greatest single act of submission in the Bible apart from the Cross of Jesus. In this story, we see proof of the fact that Christ will never ask us to do anything which He Himself is not also prepared to do.This challenges and stirs me to the core. How about you?
APPLICATION
Think about the radical obedience of Abraham and ask God about where you might not be trusting Him. Lay it before Him as an offering.
You might like to apply this passage by meditating on this song by Michael Card:
"God Will Provide a Lamb"
by Michael Card
(Genesis 22:1-14 & Hebrews 11:17-19)
Three days journey to the sacred place
A boy and a man with a sorrowful face
Tortured yet faithful to God's command
To take the life of his son in his own hands
CHORUS
God will provide a Lamb
To be offered up in your place
A sacrifice so spotless and clean
To take all your sin away
Here's wood and fire, where's the sacrifice
A questioning voice and the innocent eyes
Is the son of laughter who you waited for
To die like a lamb to please the Lord
Chorus
A gleaming knife, an accepted choice
A rush of wind and an angel's voice
A ram in the thicket caught by his horns
And a new age of trusting the Lord is born
For God has provided a Lamb
He was offered up in your place
What Abraham was asked to do He's done
He's offered His only son!
What Abraham was asked to do He's done
He's offered His only son
PRAYER
Lord, You are Yahweh Yireh, the God who provides. Thank You for Your perfect provision of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice. I love You. I worship You. Teach me to obey You with unquestioning obedience to Your upward call in Christ Jesus. Amen
7 comments:
Carol, You asked about MOOBEEMA. I believe MOOBEE is a reference to Milk (MOO) and Honey (BEE). And MA must mean she's a mom! :-)
Ever since my son was born (13 years ago) I have a hard time studying this chapter or the crucifixion, ok...or even the birth of Christ without getting really emotional. His precious son, his hopes and his dreams...yet he didn't hesitate. He obeyed God immediately, setting out the next morning trusting somehow they would both come back.
Our family set out on a medical journey with our son last spring, oh man, I weep to even type this. I can't say that we trusted that he would come back. We thought we would lose him forever and I really don't know how I could have handled that. I can't imagine if, like Abraham, I had to be the one to lift the knife up to take his life. I like the way Abraham is so calm. He doesn't say "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG!" He just says, "Yes, I'm listening."
Another parallel here between Isaac and Christ is that Isaac carried the wood for the offering on his shoulders just as Christ carried the wood of his cross on his shoulders. It is a reminder that sometimes our children have to carry heavy, heavy, burdens we may not understand and we must walk along side as Abraham did and remind them that God will provide.
Connie
Yes, Abraham's obedience and faith in this chapter are challenging to me! Do I trust God? Do I obey God? Am I confident that God will do what He says He will do?
Abraham was not acting on "blind" faith. God had told him that He would make many nations out of this son. He didn't understand exactly how God was going to do it, but he knew that this could not be the end of Isaac's life. God had promised. And Abraham believed that promise.
It is difficult to imagine God asking me to sacrifice one of my sons (or daughters, for that matter), and even more difficult to imagine doing it! But Abraham was so calm, reassuring to Isaac, obedient to God, and sure that he and Isaac would both return. What an example!
I wonder what Abraham told Sarah that morning as he set off with Isaac.
Yes, Connie, you mentioned the carrying the wood and the cross! I was going to mention that too, and I forgot, thanks for mentioning that also. I LOVE how Scripture all comes together!
Katrina,
I wondered the same thing. We don't hear from Sarah during this whole episode. She had also grown too. Since she is in the Hall of Faith, she had, no doubt, come along in her ability to believe God like Abraham.
I love God's word! I love hearing what others think about it too. This is SO fun!
I wonder what was said between Isaac and Abraham as the father bound his son and prepared to kill him. And how this act impacted their relationship--did it make it stronger, did it bring some "distance" on Isaac's part? And did Isaac ever tell anyone?
And why did God do it? Although He says He will keep His promise because now He knows Abraham is "sold out," He of course already knew this or would not have made the unconditional promise in the first place. So it must have been for Abraham (and maybe Isaac) somehow. Maybe as a marker, a concrete "knowing" in Abraham's life that he had nowhere to go but with God.
When my son was 16 months old, he almost died. I remember being very honest with God as I sat in the ER, saying "I don't know what I will say to You if you allow my son to die. I just don't know what that will do to me." And so real that it may as well have been a literal voice came the words "where will you go?" and I knew, deep down, that I was in too deep, so to speak. There was no longer any place for me to go but to God. It was a turning point for me, that concrete knowing that I could lose a lot of things, but I could no longer live outside relationship with Him. God didn't need that "proof," but it changed me to SEE it rather than just think about it.
Laura, I absolutely agree that the sign is for us. We need concrete reminders that there is nowhere to go but to God. Abraham saw that GOD PROVIDED THE LAMB, the same way he provided the water for Hagar and Ishmael. GOD provides, GOD saves, GOD keeps his promises.
I think this is less a test of Abraham's faith than it is a demonstration of God's faithfulness, less about a man to emulate (though who wouldn't want to have faith like Abraham's!) than a God to adore.
And with all the parallels, it points the way to Christ for all the generations to come! God will provide a lamb!
Connie
Hands down, this is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible narrative. God has indeed provided a lamb, and Abraham's faith is phenomenal.
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