Lesson 38 The Sacrifice of Isaac
The life and times of Sarah and Abraham rolled on as they raised the son that had caused them so much laughter. The usual frustrations and tensions of life in the wilderness came and went. Abraham continued to live a life of righteous faith in the land for all to see. Treaties were made over water wells, animals were born and raised, the seasons came and went, and Isaac grew to become a young man.
Then, once again, God came to Abraham. This time, he came with the greatest test of all. He said, “‘Abraham!’” Abraham said, “‘I am here!’”
And then God gave him the most unimaginable instructions in history: “‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’”
What? Read that again! What could God mean? This was the God of life, the God of the great and precious promises! Did he really want Abraham to kill his own son? Could it be possible? How could God be so cruel?
God made it clear that he knew exactly what he was demanding of his servant. He pointed out how precious Isaac was to Abraham all along the way. He repeated, “‘This is your only son…this is the son of your great love,’” and then said, “‘Now sacrifice him to me.’” Abraham waited twenty five years for this child. He had loved him for seventeen more. It was an impossible request. It was radical obedience, the most extreme imaginable. It probably would have been easier for Abraham to take his own life than to bring an end to Isaac’s.
When we read this story, we are supposed to gasp. We are meant to be shocked. For anyone else to command this of Abraham would have been a horrific sin! Through this story, God is pushing us beyond all our normal thoughts. The very craziness of it is supposed to force us to think about a critical, but life giving point. Faithfulness to the Most High God is the highest good. Trusting him is more important than anything. Every other loyalty, even to the life of a son, must fall away so that the Lord of all Creation is our one true devotion.
And God, the Maker of all things, has the right to command life or death as he pleases. He is not bound by the rules that humanity is bound by towards each other. Our role as his trusting servants is to stand before him with reverence and awe, and to obey. In this extreme command, God was requiring that Abraham surrender the depths of everything, even this deepest, most precious gift from God, back to God.
It might have looked to Abraham that all was lost. If he obeyed his mighty, worthy Lord, he would be without the heir of the Promise. Yet Abraham had learned through many trials that his Lord was the God of the impossible. Through each stage of his journey, God was training him and preparing his faith, stretching him and disciplining him to be his resilient, steadfast servant. Abraham grew in the endurance and power to hold on to God’s promises even when he could no
tied Isaac’s hands and feet, binding him and laying him across the wood. What must Abraham’s heart have felt? What were the thoughts that must have flown to God? And what heavy anguish and agony must have moved between father and son as Abraham obeyed his Lord, and as Isaac let him!
Abraham picked up the knife and raised it in the air to sacrifice his child. But at that very moment, the angel of the Lord called out from Heaven. “‘Abraham! Abraham!’”
Once again, Abraham said, “‘Here I am.’’ He was ready to obey to the last.
“‘Do no lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’”
God had radically tested Abraham all the way to the most extreme limit. The powerful inner faith of Abraham was proven true through his outward actions.
The question of this testing by God was never that Abraham would lose Isaac. The question was whether Abraham would rise to faith. God watched his servant walk for three days, persevering in obedience, willing and determined to do exactly as the Lord commanded. He watched as Abraham arranged the wood took the very knife in his hand. There was nothing false about Abraham’s faith, he had followed it all the way to the worst kind of death-the death of his own son. He was willing to give the Lord what was most precious to him on earth. He absolutely trusted God with his Promises.
God shined a beacon on the greatness of what Abraham had done with his tender words; “‘...you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’” Abraham’s utter loyalty moved the heart of God. And then God moved on Abraham’s behalf. This is what the Bible says:
“Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’”
Genesis 22:13-14
How deep and powerful those words were to Abraham. How profound his gratitude when he spoke them! Then the angel of the LORD spoke to Abraham;
“‘I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.’”
Genesis 22:16-18
With Abraham’s radical obedience, God gave his most extreme promise. All the nations would be blessed through his descendants! There is no “wow” big enough to express how great this Promise was!
The faith of Abraham, the father of all who follow after the living God, has been celebrated for over four thousand years by millions upon millions of people. It is good to remember that it was not a perfect faith. Abraham made many mistakes along the way. He gave his own wife away to two different kings! But in the end, his radical, complete trust in God was the great model of faith that the rest of the Bible will point to. Read Isaiah 51:1-2, Hebrews 11:17-19, and Romans 4:16-25 to see how the writers of the Old Testament and New held up Abraham as one of our great heroes for all time.
Just as Abraham had said, he and his son returned to where his servants and the donkey were waiting. And they journeyed back to their home in Beersheba together