Father and Son Tested

Genesis 22

22 Later on, God tested Abraham’s faith and obedience.

“Abraham!” God called.

“Yes, Lord?” he replied.

² “Take with you your only son—yes, Isaac whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I’ll point out to you!”

³ The next morning Abraham got up early, chopped wood for a fire upon the altar, saddled his donkey, and took with him his son Isaac and two young men who were his servants, and started off to the place where God had told him to go.

 ⁴ On the third day of the journey Abraham saw the place in the distance…….

What is happening in this chapter?

Things are far different from what they appear! Yes, God made this request but lets look at the scripture.

.There is great revelation to be understood here ,great prophetic insight and a basis to  Christianity  and the cross of Jesus Christ

We notice first God speaks clearly to Abraham “Abrahams quick response “Here am I” shows his heart and willingness to listen and obey.

Gods’ request would be enough to question God himself .Nowhere in the bible did God condone human sacrifice, so what is going on?

 Abraham had proved God faithful.

Abraham had waited years for his promised son and it was not until he was 100 years old and Sara was 9o years, that Abrahams faith was such that he received the promised child. Abraham had proved God to be faithful. God had done a mighty miracle and kept his promise that a son would be born to Abraham of Sarah. What is more significant, was that the Lord had said that it was through Isaac that the promise of descendants would be like the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky. How could this be if Isaac were to be killed as a sacrifice? 

Hebrews 11:17  gives us an insight into the absolute trust Abraham had in God.

^17-19 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him—and this after he had already been told, “Your descendants shall come from Isaac.” Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that’s what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.

We see how Abraham believed if Isaac did die, God would raise him from the dead .

So Abraham set out to Mount Moriah where God had told him to go . This designated spot is of uttermost importance.

He went with his donkey, two servants and Isaac, three days journey.

Three days of Abraham  knowing that if he kept this promise Isaac would be dead, but three days believing that if this were so Isaac would be raised from the dead!

⁵ “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the young men, “and the lad and I will travel yonder and worship, and then come right back.”

⁶ Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering upon Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the knife and the flint for striking a fire. So the two of them went on together.

⁷ “Father,” Isaac asked, “we have the wood and the flint to make the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”

⁸ “God will see to it, my son,” Abraham replied. And they went on.

Seeing the place where God had showed him, he told the servants to wait. “I and my son will return”. 

There is faith right there.

  They went up the mountain with the wood  and the fire for the altar to God, which Abraham would build on Mt Moriah. He laid the wood on the shoulders of Isaac .This wood was to be the altar of sacrifice on which he would be placed and he bore it on his shoulders. We are reminded of Jesus carrying the wooden cross on which he would be sacrificed.

Isaac asked,” Where is the sacrifice?” 

Abraham said, “God himself will provide a sacrifice”.

This was revelation,

This was unwavering faith.

Abraham believed that whatever happened,

God was in control even at this critical time.

Isaac allowed himself to be tied (a man well over a hundred could not force a heathy young man to be tied without him allowing it) .

Isaac was not a child. (We see in the following chapter that Sarah died, a 127 years. which would make Isaac 37 when she died.)So it safe to say he was not a child. Commentators vary in estimating Isaacs ‘age from (Leupold) 18yrs to (Josephus) 33 yrs at the time of the proposed sacrifice.

⁹ When they arrived at the place where God had told Abraham to go, he built an altar and placed the wood in order, ready for the fire, and then tied Isaac and laid him on the altar over the wood. 

¹⁰ And Abraham took the knife and lifted it up to plunge it into his son, to slay him.

¹¹ At that moment the Angel of God shouted to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes, Lord!” he answered.

¹² “Lay down the knife; don’t hurt the lad in any way,” the Angel said, “for I know that God is first in your life—you have not withheld even your beloved son from me.”

¹³ Then Abraham noticed a ram caught by its horns in a bush. So he took the ram and sacrificed it, instead of his son, as a burnt offering on the altar.

 ¹⁴ Abraham named the place “Jehovah provides”—and it still goes by that name to this day.

The knife was raised,

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       when a voice from heaven cried “Abraham”, 

Abraham answered just as he did in the beginning, “Here am I ” He had not wavered from the beginning and was the same right at this vital point.

Abraham Stop!

God saw Abrahams heart, his trust ,his willingness to what was asked because trusted God was faithful.

We see a foretaste of God  sending his only begotten son to be sacrificed as a lamb who took away our sin.

Through Abraham, we have a glimpse of the enormous cost of God the Father to offer up his son, who laid aside his reputation, left his home to live among men and lay down his life as a sacrifice for our sin, that we might become righteous and have the relationship restored.

Abraham looked up, a ram caught by its horns in a briar or thorny thicket.  

Here was a divine exchange God himself had provided . It was a foretaste of the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world.

Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day .

 We know Abraham said “In the Mountain of the Lord it shall be seen”.

There is much significance in the mountain . 

It was here where Abraham offered Isaac and built an altar in Mount Moriah 

that 400 years later David built an altar to the Lord. 

The Lord had sent a plague due to David’s sin . 

It swept through the land but when it came to this place which at the time was the threshing floor of . 

The Angel of the Lord said “Stop” and the plague ceased . 

David bought the site and built an altar. 

Years later Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem on the site of David’s Altar.

It was here , Jesus the Lamb of God gave his life as a sacrifice, just outside the walls . This is significant because the sacrificial lamb was sacrificed and the ashes taken outside the city walls, because it was a sacrifice of sin and uncleaness and Jesus became sin for us 

 https://biblia.com/bible/niv/hebrews/13/11-16