Since Genesis 12 the life of Abraham has occupied our study and we get one final—and powerful—look at him tonight. Abraham, we must remember, was a godless idolater God sovereignly and graciously chose, called, and covenanted with to make his family great and bless all the nations. So uniquely blessed by and related to God was he that Scripture calls him, “the friend of God.” What we see tonight in 22:1-25:18 is an answer to the question, “How does God treat His friends?” The answer may surprise many of you, but I hope it comforts all of us as we leave the story of this great patriarch.
God Provides a Substitute
As best I can tell, it’s likely that some 10-12 years have passed between the close of chapter 21 and the opening of chapter 22. It was a long period of peace, but now Abraham is made to experience one final storm of pain—undoubtedly the greatest of his life—as God gives him a final command. Look again at 21:2, “He said, ‘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 on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’” I’m not sure it’s possible for us to imagine the grief that must have flooded Abraham’s soul at this moment. Here is the child of promise, the son from Sarah Abraham waited twenty-five years for, and now God commands him to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering. Lest we miss how horrifying the act would have been, we must know that the Old Testament tells us burnt offerings entailed cutting up the sacrifice into pieces before burning it. It’s a terrifying command isn’t it?
20:3 tells us Abraham “rose early in the morning” taking Isaac and a servant and “went to the place of which God had told him.” Three days go by and I wonder if Abraham was able to sleep at all. Surely like King Darius tossed and turned as Daniel spent the night in the lion’s den, Abraham must have had precious little sleep, as Isaac was about to go to his death. Yet, it’s entirely possible that Abraham slept just fine for look at what Abraham tells his servant in 22:5, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Abraham says, “We will worship God and be right back.” Apart from the Lord Jesus, is there any greater example of faith in the Bible? Hebrews 11, which we read earlier tonight, says that Abraham’s faith was in God’s power to raise Isaac from the dead. Up the mountain they go and Abraham is planning on sacrificing His son only to find God raise him from the dead. What courageous faith! We see here that courageous faith is taking God at His word and trusting in His power to save. To live with courage for God means living by faith in His word and power. If you’re a Christian, do you find with each passing year your courage in God’s word and from God’s power increasing? I hope we as a church can say with each passing year the courage of faith is growing in our midst.
Abraham puts the wood on Isaac’s shoulder, takes “in his hand the fire and the knife,” and up the mountain they go. However old Isaac is he’s old enough to know something is missing and so he asks, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Oh, what anguish Abraham must have felt at his son’s innocent ignorance. Yet, see again Abraham’s courageous faith as he answers in 20:8, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”
They eventually arrive at the place where God told them, Abraham builds an altar, binds Isaac, and lays him “on top of the wood.” Scholars have long wondered how Abraham, a very old man, was able to get young Isaac to acquiesce to the laying on the altar. Some have said that Abraham must have knocked him out some how, either with a blow or a primitive drug. But I think the answer is much simpler: Isaac trusted his father. Oh, how I’ve prayed this week for my sons to have similar trust in me.
Look at 22:10-12 to see what happened next, “Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’” Why did God test Abraham? To see if he feared God enough to obey a most difficult word. We see here there is a direct link between how one’s fear of God and one’s obedience to God. Fear of God fuels obedience to God and obedience to God reveals fear of God. This is a truth on which you might meditate and examine yourself this week. I think we also see here that God can be trusted even when His word is hard to understand.
Abraham lifts up his eyes and sees a ram caught “in a thicket by his horns,” and he proceeds to sacrifice the ram in place of Isaac. God provided a substitute. Look at how Abraham magnifies God’s provision in 22:14, “Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The Lord will provide’; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Our God is the Lord of provision. You’ll notice if you scan your eyes through 22:15-19 that the angel of the LORD speaks again from heaven, saying, “God has sworn by himself to bring about the promises He made to you because you obeyed His voice.” This is the first and only time in Scripture that God swears by His own name. The event on Mt. Moriah is thus of no common place in God’s word.
whenever I work on a sermon I listen to a war movie soundtrack. I do it because I believe preaching is one of the greatest battlefields in spiritual warfare and so listening to battle anthems puts my soul in the most appropriate place. One of my favorite soundtracks ends with a requiem for soldiers in the Pacific theater of World War II. It moves me every time I listen for it thrillingly captures the tragedies and triumphs of men who’ve gone before.
You’ll notice that 25:7-8 tells us, “These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, 175 years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.” When I read that I hear a soundtrack like requiem run through my mind, highlighting the triumphs and tragedies of Abraham’s life. And so as we begin to close I want to do so by thinking about the two main themes of Abraham’s life, themes that stretch even to us today.
Themes from Abraham’s Life
Testing from God. 22:1 says it so plainly, “God tested Abraham.” God tested Abraham’s love for wealth when he called him to leave his home in chapter 12. God tested Abraham’s love for safety when he journey to Egypt and Gerar, where he sacrificed Sarah’s integrity for His own safety. God tested Abraham’s love for his family by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac. All in all, God tested Abraham’s obedience by asking him to surrender everything. We dare not think God never tests His people today. How many times throughout a given week do we encounter a spiritual struggle and, if we think long enough, we might just see it as a test from God. Might he be testing your fear of Him to see if you will surrender your love for a particular sin? Surrender an idolatrous relationship? Surrender worldly protection and cling to His promises alone? What rivalries might be holding you back to whole-hearted devotion to God?
Trusting in God. Oh, how Abraham trusted in God! Like the old hymn, Abraham with great faith trusted God and “proved him o’er and o’er.” I pray God would graciously form us in to a church that that is wonderfully peculiar in how deep we trust God and take Him at His word.
But let us land where we must—how often we fail to trust in God! We put our own “Isaacs” ahead of God thinking they will give me more security and worth than He will. It might be better said of us, “how we’ve failed Him o’er and o’er.” Yet, there is hope for us this night. For like Isaac, Jesus carried would on His back up a mountain where His Father sacrificed Him for us all. God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me, because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me.” Now we can say to God, “Now we know that You love us, because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love, from us.”
He has provided a way for us all. Our God is the Lord of provision.
This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “Abraham & Isaac,” on Genesis 22-25.