GENESIS

ABRAHAM

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Genesis 22:1-19

INTRODUCTION

In this passage we come to one of the darkest moments in the history of God’s dealings with mankind. The only event which surpasses it is that of God sacrificing His own Son. This passage challenges us to look at God in a totally new way than we are used to looking at Him. People who think that following God is nothing less than a bed of roses need to look afresh at this passage. On the surface God may come across as a monster, but actually He is stretching Abraham’s faith to the limit and in doing so produces the greatest saint of the Old Testament. As A. W. Tozer writes: “God wounds deeply those He uses greatly.”

THE COMMAND TO KILL ISAAC (Gen. 22:1-3)

By this time Abraham is well over 100 years old, anywhere from 108-135 years old (depending upon Isaac's age). He is definitely living in the twilight years of his life, when everything should be drifting towards tranquility and serenity. A warm autumnal glow should now be emanating from him. He has earned the rest that has come his way. The only problem is that God is thinking differently. Like a streak of lightning on a blue, cloudless day, God strikes Abraham's heart and instructs him to kill his son (Gen. 22:2).

In order to understand better the impact of this instruction, we must first realize that not only is Isaac to die, Abraham is to be the instrument of his death. It is one thing for your child to be killed in a car wreck or for cancer to ravage his body, but to be the actual instrument of your child's death—I don't think any parent could endure such an ordeal without destroying himself emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Yet that is exactly what God is putting Abraham through. Isaac is not the only one to die on Mt. Moriah. The old Abraham is going to die too. This story is as much about the death of Abraham as it is the death of Isaac.

Second, understand just how important Isaac is to Abraham. The text gives us many indications of just exactly how significant Isaac is to Abraham. First, God says that Isaac is Abraham's son WHOM HE LOVES. Of course he loves Isaac. That's his son! Even more, Isaac is the son of his old age born to him when the birth of a son seemed impossible from human standards.

Next, notice that God calls Isaac Abraham's only son. That seems strange in light of the fact that Abraham actually had TWO sons, Isaac AND Ishmael. Although Abraham had driven Ishmael away from his camp, Ishmael was still Abraham's son. Whereas that was physically true, with regards to the divine promise Ishmael was NOT Abraham's son. "Through ISAAC your seed shall be called." With regards to all the great promises God had made to Abraham Isaac only, not Ishmael, was Abraham's son.

At this point many of us try to minimize the crisis Abraham is facing. We say that he knew all along that God was going to stop him from sacrificing Isaac and was going to provide a ram to sacrifice instead of his son. There is absolutely NOTHING in the passage which warrants such an interpretation. The passage quite pointedly indicates the exact opposite: Abraham believes that God wants him to sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham is going to obey God.

Now here comes the true crisis. As a father, Abraham naturally was placed in a crisis whenever God commanded him to kill his son; however, Isaac represents more than just the natural love between a father and his son. Isaac represents the very purpose Abraham followed God in the first place. Abraham did not simply follow God because He was God; he had followed God because God had promised to bless him, specifically to make of him a great nation. In fact God had changed his name to Abraham (father of multitudes) in order to stress this part of the promise. The only way Abraham was going to be the father of many nations was first by having the son Isaac and second by Isaac having many descendants as well. If dead, Isaac will not be able to produce many descendants and God's promise to Abraham would not be fulfilled. Although at this point Abraham does not know how God is going to fulfill that promise, he trusts that God will fulfill that promise. He sets out with Isaac for the 3-day journey.

THE ASCENT UP THE MOUNT (22:4-8)

Although nothing is said about the 3-day journey to the mount, much more detail is given about the ascent up the mount, Mount Moriah. The last 3 days were understandably extremely difficult for Abraham; the last leg of the journey must have been like a dagger in his heart. The fact that Genesis goes into much detail about this last leg of the journey shows us that the stress Abraham was feeling must have been unbearable. Abraham leaves the servants at the base of the mountain with the pack animals, places the wood on Isaac's back, takes in his hand the dagger to kill his son, and then tells the servants that he and Isaac will ascend the mount alone.

At this point comes the most important statement of faith Abraham makes in this entire episode, actually in his entire life. It gives tremendous insight into the reason he was willing to sacrifice Isaac. It also gives us insight into the tremendous faith he had in God:

And Abraham said to the young men:
"Stay here with the donkey,
and I and the lad will go yonder;
and WE will worship and WE will return to you" (22:5).

If Abraham had thought that Isaac was going to die and remain dead, then he would have said: "WE will worship and I (I alone) will return to you." But Abraham doesn't say that. He says WE are going to go up the mountain and WE are going to return. What was Abraham thinking? Did he think God was going to renege on His command and stop Abraham at the last moment from killing his son? No! Abraham truly believed that not only was he going to kill Isaac but that God was going to raise Isaac from the dead! The Isaac who walked down that mountain with Abraham was going to be a resurrected Isaac.

How in the world did Abraham come up with such a scenario? The resurrection of Isaac was the only way Abraham could reconcile 2 contradictory statements from God: "I will bless you through Isaac" and "Kill Isaac." What gave him ANY indication that God not only COULD do this but WOULD do this? The answer is quite simple: the birth of Isaac. The birth of Isaac just showed Abraham how mighty God actually was. In fact right before God tells Abraham that he Abraham, who reproductively is as good as dead, is going to sire a son, right before God tells Abraham this, He first tells him that He is God ALMIGHTY! Both Abraham and Sarah were dead in a reproductive sense, and yet out of their dead bodies came life, resurrection, the birth of Isaac. On the basis of God producing life from their dead bodies, Abraham believed that God was going to give life to Isaac's dead body.

Now THAT is faith! Abraham didn't have the luxury of knowing that one day God WOULD resurrect His own Son from the dead. Even though WE know the story of Jesus' resurrection I'm not sure we would go ahead and sacrifice our children even if God appeared to us directly and told us to. Yet Abraham is clinging to the promise of God. Maybe this great God is a cosmic sadist, a cosmic jokester. Abraham does not know for sure. To his everlasting credit though, Abraham clings to his faith in God and to God's promise that through ISAAC God would bless Abraham and the world. On the basis of this faith Abraham proceeds up the mountain to kill his son.

This passage definitely dispenses with one major theological heresy in popular modern Christian thought. Get over any idea that God won't let His people go through the wringer, that He isn't going to allow them to suffer! This story proves the exact opposite. In fact if God put Abraham through such torment, if He even put His Son through the ordeal of the cross, then what makes you think He won't put us through some rough ordeals of our own?

As Isaac and Abraham ascend the mount, Isaac most naturally points out that although they have the fire, the wood, and the dagger, they don't have the animal for the sacrifice. Abraham declares: "God will provide the sacrifice." Little does Isaac know that he is the sacrifice.

THE SACRIFICE AND PROMISE (22:9-19)

When Abraham and Isaac reach the summit of the mountain, they prepare for the altar and wood for the sacrifice. Abraham then binds Isaac and places him on the altar. He then takes the dagger to slice Isaac's throat for sacrifice. It is only at this moment that the angel of the Lord stops these proceedings.

"Do not stretch out your hand against the lad,
and do nothing to him;
for now I know that you fear God,
since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" (22:12).

So this was the purpose of the test: to determine who was more important to Abraham, Isaac or God. This statement now brings us back full circle to the beginning of Abraham's relationship with God:

"Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives,
And from your father's house" (12:1).

At the very beginning of Abraham's relationship with God, God had called him to abandon everything people consider most valuable in their lives, their family relationships. At the very end of Abraham's life, God is now making the same demand. It is not God and good health, God and good family, God and country, God and success, God and fame, God and wealth; no, it is just God. Many times when people come to Jesus for salvation, they feel that He is telling them it is all or nothing. C. S. Lewis, when under the convicting power of the Spirit of God, felt that God was saying: "All." There was no "All or nothing"; it was just "All." That's what God was calling Abraham to do; it is what God is calling us to do as well.

In his morality story The Great Divorce Lewis tells the 2 stories first of a mother's love for her child and second of a man's infatuation with lust. Lewis stuns us because whereas we think that a mother's love for her son is one of the holiest things on earth, in his story this mother's love for her son keeps her out of heaven, while the young man saddled with lust is actually transformed into a glorious son of God. Why did the mother's love for her son keep her out of heaven? Because that love was not transformed by God's love. She clung to her son; she possessed him. She would rather spend an eternity in hell with her son than spend an eternity in heaven without her son. Her relationship with her son was more important than her relationship with God.

{An angel to the mother]: "You're treating God only as a means to Michael [her son].
But the whole thickening treatment [being transformed into God's son or daughter] consists in learning to want God for His own sake."
[Mother]: "You wouldn't talk like that if you were a mother."
[Angel]: "You mean, if I were only a mother.
You exist as Michael's mother only because you first exist as God's creature.
That relation is older and closer."

The story does not inform us whether or not the mother ever gave up her son; however, it does tell us about the young man and lust. On the young man's shoulder is a red lizard which constantly whispers the most sensual thoughts into his ear. The angel tells the young man that he must let the angel kill the lizard before the young man can ascend into heaven. The young man at first puts up excuse after excuse why he cannot give up this creature of lust. The lizard tells the young man that the young man will die if he lets the angel kill him. Finally, the young man screams at the angel: "'Blast you! Go on, can't you? Get it over. Do what you like,' bellowed the young man, but ended whimpering, 'God help me. God help me.'" The angel then grabs the lizard and casts him to the ground, breaking his back and killing it. At that moment Lewis says 2 remarkable things happened. The young man before his very eyes is transformed into a glorious son of God. At the same time the lizard comes back to life. He too though is being transformed, not into a glorious lizard but into a shiny silver stallion. The young man mounts the white stallion and charges upward into the heavenly country. In God's way of working only death brings life.

Because Abraham experienced the "death" of his son, life is exactly what God is bringing Abraham. Now that Abraham has passed the ultimate test by killing his son in his heart, by choosing God over Isaac, the angel of the Lord appears to Abraham communicating one final time the great promise He had first given Abraham in 12:1-3. As real and as great as that promise was to Abraham before the sacrifice of Isaac, it is even now more real and greater now. Deep feelings of reverence, gratitude and joy towards God surely overwhelmed Abraham's soul. In this final enunciation of the promise God is giving the promise its fullest scope and expression. Each time God had given the promise to Abraham in the past, it had grown and developed. Now it reaches its fullest expression upon Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

Unlike previous times here the Lord swears by Himself that this promise is going to come true. Why would God swear with an oath? To assure Abraham that this promise was inviolable. Why did God swear by Himself? Because He could swear by no one or nothing greater (Heb.6:13-17). Swearing by Himself meant to convey to Abraham just how serious God was about the promise He was making Abraham and his seed. God will NEVER, EVER break THIS promise.

Next, As we now look in more detail at the final giving of the promise, we see something very mysterious happening. As we look at this passage we need to remember that the word translated "seed" or descendants" is the Hebrew word serah. Just like our English word "seed" can be either singular or plural, so the Hebrew word can be singular or plural. At times in this passage the plural use of serah (seed) is in play; at other times the singular use is in play. Just what this exactly means we shall see later.

Now with regards to some of the details of the promise. God says:

I will GREATLY bless you or I will SURELY bless you

God is not simply going to bless Abraham. The Hebrew can mean that God is going to bless Abraham GREATLY or He is going to bless him SURELY, that is, MOST DEFINITELY!

Next, God says, "I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and AS THE SAND WHICH IS BY THE SEASHORE." The phrase "as the sand which is by the seashore is another addition to the promise. It elaborates the thought contained in the phrase "as numerous as the stars of the heaven." In case Abraham didn't quite get it whenever God says that his descendants will number as the stars in heaven, He here adds the mention of the sand on the seashore to reemphasize His point. By using these images God is impressing upon Abraham just how numerous his physical descendants and SPIRITUAL descendants are going to be.

Third, God adds a totally new thought:

Your seed shall possess the gates of HIS enemies.

Abraham's seed will conquer his enemies.

Up to this point it would be easy to say that the Hebrew word serah is to be interpreted as plural, as referring to the Jewish people; however, the Hebrew here does not say that the seed will possess the gates of THEIR enemies but rather the gates of HIS enemies. In other words, the word "seed" here is referring to one person. Whereas some might claim this refers to David who conquered the enemies of Israel, according to both Paul and Jesus that person was Jesus Himself, the One who conquered the gates of hell (Gal. 3:16; Matt. 16:18).

We're all familiar with Paul's claim that Jesus is the seed God was referring to in Gen. 22, but where does Jesus say that He is that seed? In His conflict with the Jews, the Jews claim that Jesus is making Himself out to be greater than Abraham because Jesus claimed that the person who kept His words would experience eternal life, a claim the great Abraham never even made for Himself. Jesus replied:

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad!" (John 8:56).

Did Abraham literally see Jesus? Most likely not; however, he was given the promise of Jesus' coming. In this promise he saw that in the future his great Son (Jesus) would come and that He WOULD conquer His enemies, the true enemies of mankind, especially the serpent (Gen. 3:15; Col. 2:15).

Even after this event Abraham still has many years left to live. After Sarah dies, Abraham will even marry again and sire more offspring. (Apparently the gift God gave him just kept on giving!) Yet, for all practical purposes his adventure of faith is over. After the Moriah experience there is really nothing left for him to experience in his relationship with the Lord. Because of his extraordinary life of faith, he will not only be called "the friend of God," he will also be called the "father of us all" (Rom. 4:16).