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Genesis study & commentary

Genesis 22

By Doug Ford
Abraham is told to sacrifice Isaac.

Genesis 22:1

Chapter 21 closed with Abraham planting a tree and worshiping the Lord, the Everlasting God.  Some time passed and then God called to Abraham to test him.

James 1:2-4 says:

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

 

It seems that trials and testing are part of our growth and sanctification.  Abraham didn't seem to hesitate.  God called him and he immediately responded, "Here I am."  I have to wonder how many times God has called my name and I asked myself, 'Did God really call me?'  I often wonder how well I hear; do I have selective hearing?  Every day, as part of our life in Christ, let's answer Him, "Here I am, Lord."

 

Tests are usually administered by one party to find out something about the other.  However, the Lord already knows the heart of Abraham.  The test is one of obedience, which is an opportunity to grow in faith. 

 

"I the Lord search the heart

and examine the mind,

to reward each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve." (Jeremiah 17:10)

 

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.  (Psalm 139:23)

 

This obviously wasn't announced as a test to Abraham.  He wasn't aware his obedience was going to be tested.  Does Abraham know his own heart?  Has he grown in his faith to know and trust the promises of the Lord?  Does he know his own sinful inclination will lead him away from God and the promises?  The Lord knows the end from the beginning.  Abraham, like us, rarely acknowledge the tests we are taking, where every day, in many ways, along this adventure, the Lord asks us repeatedly if we truly trust Him.

 

Our natural response to God's calling is not usually the obedience seen here.  We want to know the economy of it.  When will this happen?  How? Where?  What's in it for me?  Is there any risk?  What's the reward if I'm successful?  What's the downside if I fail.  Is there a plan B if God fails?  And so on.  What's wrong with us that we can't look to the Almighty, Eternal God and trust Him? 

 

Genesis 22:2

Abraham was to take his only son, the son he and Sarah waited 25 years for, and offer him as a sacrifice.  Remember Abraham and Sarah had lived most of their life childless and had given up on having children when the Lord gave the promise of a son.  Then it was 25 more years before this son came along.  Now, by all appearance, Abraham was to sacrifice him.   He was to be offered as a burnt offering.  This preparation of the burnt offering would later be defined as cutting the throat, dismemberment and burning it up completely on the fire.  This may well have been the horrifying picture in his mind.

 

Remember that Abraham had Ishmael by Hagar, but God does not regard Ishmael as Isaac's son.  Isaac was the promised son and the covenant promise.  God mentioned that Isaac was the son that Abraham loved.  This is the first use of the word love in the bible.  It's noteworthy that the first look at love is the love of a father for his son. 

 

This request that God offer Isaac must have sounded insane to Abraham.  This made no sense.  This was what all the other religions were doing.  Was this God that Abraham was following just like all the other gods?  He had never asked of anything like this before.  God had always set Himself apart from other gods.  Abraham's response was to listen and obey.

 

He had waited so long for a son and now God was telling him to offer him as a sacrifice.  A burnt offering was a sacrifice made to God and then completely burnt up on the fire.  It signified the complete surrender of the worshiper and complete acceptance of by God.  What was going through Abraham's mind?  There were really only two main thoughts.

 

Question one: How am I going to obedient and yet keep my son?

  • If He did what God asked then God's promise would be broken.  Was Abraham tempted to disobedience so as to help God out?  This line of thought puts all the responsibility on the Abraham himself as if he were responsible for God's faithfulness.

Question two: How will God be faithful if I am obedient?

  • Right away, we can see this question puts the responsibility on God, where it belongs.  He is all powerful, it's His promise and He's much better at these things than we are.

Abraham didn't know the answers to his questions, but he knew God and knew his call.  He was to say, "Yes, Lord!" Then watch the Lord work things out.  What a blessing to see and be part of God working these things out. 

 

This assignment couldn't be done just anywhere, but there was as specific location for this sacrifice.  Abraham had to travel to Moriah, the land where Jerusalem would someday be built.  God had a specific mountain in mind for this test.  When David sinned by taking a census, the Lord brought judgment:

14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, "Enough! Withdraw your hand." The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

 

16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

 

17 David said to God, "Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people."  (1 Chronicles 21:14-17)

Notice the Christlike intercession of David, offering himself in the place of his sheep.  Mt. Moriah is only mentioned in Genesis 22 and 2 Chronicles 3:1 and it is this passage that links the threshing floor to the temple site.

Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah b the Jebusite, the place provided by David. (2 Chronicles 3:1)

 

 

Genesis 22:3-5

It's at least noteworthy that Abraham rose early in the morning to begin what God called him to do.  Abraham's relationship to God and his obedience was the first order of business.  I think it was Chuck Misler who said God wants to be number one on a list of one.  We are to be on God's agenda.  Too many are on their own agenda and hoping to include God as their good luck charm or disaster insurance.   

 

This was a long journey to get to Moriah; a significant 3 days journey.  There was plenty of time to question what they were doing, why God would command this and a thousand other things.  But no complaint or questioning is recorded.  All we see is faith in obedience.  Abraham told the young men to stay with the donkey and that he and Isaac were going to worship and that they would be back.  Abraham had faith that if he were to sacrifice Isaac that God would resurrect him or that there would be a substitute.  It wasn't for him to know figure it out, only to obey. 

 

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." r 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

 

Abraham had learned this from his previous tests; what looked like failures in faith became lessons by which to grow.  Abraham grew.  He was determined to see this through in obedience and let God do what He will.  He had learned that God could be trusted.

 

Genesis 22:6-7

In spite of all the coloring book pages we saw growing up, the fact is Isaac is at least a teenager and maybe over 20 years old.  He is at an age where he was strong and conscious enough of what was going on to see this develop.  For three days, Isaac was as good as dead.  Upon arrival to the place, Isaac was loaded up to carry the wood on which he would be sacrificed. 

 

We begin to see some types and shadows of another sacrifice that would be offered on this hill in the distant future.  At a glimpse, Isaac might sound Christlike, carrying the wood on which he would be sacrificed.  But that was our cross, my cross, that Christ was nailed to.  He took my place.  He was my substitute.  In this way, Isaac looks like you and I. 

 

In faith Abraham took Isaac up the hill.  By faith, Isaac went with him.  By asking where the sacrifice was, we see he still thought they were going to sacrifice an animal.   He knew that a lamb was needed for a burnt offering.  Isaac was physically able to overpower Abraham and run away. 

 

Genesis 22:8

Abraham knew the promise that was given to him.  He knew something had to happen for the covenant promise to remain and this command of God to be fulfilled.  Abraham understood his role to be obedient and for God to solve this problem since it was His problem. 

 

Abraham's answer meant 'will see for himself' or 'look out for' as if to provide.  God would in fact provide Himself as the lamb near the same spot in a few thousand years.  Jesus would be offered as a sacrifice for atonement of sins. 

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

 

Tradition says that the Jesus was crucified on the very spot where Abraham offered Isaac.  Abraham's offer of his son was a model of God offering His son for us.  At the peak of Mt. Moriah there is a place called 'the skull' or Golgotha.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

 

Note:  One story said that Golgotha was 777m above sea level.  If it's true, that's fascinating and a detail only God could work.  It's also provocative in that God must use the metric system!

 

Genesis 22:9-11

At this point things get hard to imagine.  Abraham is over 120 years old.  He's surely not able to catch and hold down the 20-year-old kid.  Isaac was willingly bound by his father.  He trusted his Father.  This binding became known as the Aqedah, meaning 'binding'.  It was remembered when sacrifices were made at the sanctuary.  It was remembering the binding of Isaac and the substitute that was made. 

 

What a moment this was.  You have to wonder what was going through Isaac's head, tied up on the altar, looking up at his father with a knife in his hand. It's clear this test wasn't just for Abraham.  This was something he would surely never forget.

 

The Hebrew word translated to 'slay' is 'shachat'; this word is a link to the sacrifice of children by the godless Canaanite religions around them.  These practices were later adopted by some Israelites.  For instance:

You burn with lust among the oaks

and under every spreading tree;

you sacrifice (shachat)your children in the ravines

and under the overhanging crags. (Is 57:5)

See also Ezekiel 16:21; 23:39.

 

What a horrifying moment for Abraham.  He had no reason to believe that God would really ask him to sacrifice his child, but here he stood with knife in hand, intent on obedience.  This is hard, it makes no sense.  He could have easily talked himself out of it.  Are you willing to be obedient, no matter the cost?  It's a question, we all must answer. 

 

At the last moment, the Lord calls to Abraham.  "Here I am," the response of the one whose ears are attentive to the words of God.  Imagine Abraham's relief. 

 

Genesis 22:12-14

Abraham did not withhold his son; his obedience was evident.  It was no coincidence that a ram was caught by the horns.  This ram was given as the substitutionary atonement in place of Isaac.  The place is named 'The Lord Will Provide' or Jehovah Jireh.  In this, the Lord set Himself apart from all gods (that were not gods at all) that would require a human sacrifice; while the Lord required justice and holiness, He made the provision for sacrifice.  The sacrifice was atonement provided by the shed blood of animals all a kind of down payment, pointing toward the final, one-time payment when He provided Himself as the sacrifice.

 

Ultimately, God never intended Abraham to sacrifice his son, but only his will.  Abraham was forced to sacrifice his will.  The Lord gives us logic and reason to make our way through this life.  However, we use those things in disobedience, coming up with reasons why we shouldn't be obedient to the Lord.  A true follower and worshiper of God lays it all down.  Do we withhold things from God?  Has he tested you to see if you really have given all to him?  Is there any part of your life that you think God can't handle better than you?  We answer quickly that we trust God with all, but our actions betray us regularly.

 

Genesis 22:15-19

The angel of the Lord confirmed the covenant promise to Abraham. 

  • He would be blessed
  • His descendants as numerous as the starts & sand
  • His descendants would possess the cities
  • Through Abraham's offspring, all the nations would be blessed.

These promises, along with the substitute sacrifice, all came as the result of faith.  Abraham and Isaac together learned of God's provision.  God allows tests and trials in our life, sometimes large, sometimes small; each become opportunities to exercise faith and see God move.  Each become significant in our life, teaching us to trust in Him. 

 

Verse 19 says "Abraham returned" to his young men.  What happened to Isaac? 

 

Consider Isaac as a 'type' of Christ.

  • Dead for 3 days (reckoned as dead)
    • As Christ was in the grave for 3 days.
  • Isaac is resurrected from that death. 
    • As Christ was resurrected on the 3rd day.
  • Isaac is now physically absent until he shows up to meet his bride. 
    • As Jesus ascended and sat down at the right hand of God until that day when the Lord sends Him to meet His bride, the church.

 

An unbelieving world might ask, "What kind of story is this?  What kind of God would pull a prank like this?"  It might seem demented or offensive.  Yet, for the believer, we see this as, what one commentator called, a pageant of prophecy.  What kind of God would do this?  The kind of God that would provide for His own requirement of justice and righteousness.  He would provide His own Son.  He is a God that loves us so much, He would never ask for our sons in worship, yet would provide His own that we might be drawn to Him, forgiven and made righteous to stand in His presence.

 

  1. Faith obeys God's word –
    1. Even if it offends our sense of how life should be, when it conflicts with our understanding and preferences
  2. Faith surrenders our all –
    1. Everything, all the time, holding nothing back.
    2. It's a daily exercise of picking up our cross and following Him.
  3. Faith waits on the Lord –
    1. He will provide.  The provision is rarely what we imagine, when we desire or how we would plan it. 
    2. It's not bargaining or Let's Make a Deal; how I think I can do it versus what God seems to be offering.
    3. Our will must be surrendered to His will, our offering a sacrifice and praise. 

 

It was the result of faith, that the substitute was provided.  I pray that you have exercised faith to turn from sin and trust fully in Jesus Christ.  When you do that, He will have become your substitute, having taken your sin and shame to the cross, He will forgive you and give you His righteousness. 

 

 

Genesis 22:20-24

We see that Abraham was still in contact with his family.  The lineage includes Rebekah who will come into focus in a few chapters. 

 

©2019 Doug Ford