And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am].
1. after these things ] An indefinite note of time referring to Isaac’s birth and the expulsion of Ishmael: cf. Gen 22:20. See note on Gen 15:1.
God did prove Abraham ] “Prove” in the sense of “make trial of,” cf. Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4; Deu 8:2; Deu 8:16; Psa 66:10. The A.V. had “tempt,” in the old English sense of “put to the test” = Lat. tentare. On the test of faith and obedience, to which human nature is continually subjected, see the N.T. passages: 1Co 10:13; Heb 11:17; Jas 1:12-13; 1Pe 1:6-7. “Deus tentat, ut doceat: diabolus tentat, ut decipiat” (Augustine in Joan. Tract. 30, Serm. 2). It is instructive to compare the “proving” of Abraham, which is here referred directly to God Himself, with the “proving” of Job, which, in chaps. 1 2, is brought about by “the Satan.”
and said unto him ] Presumably in a dream during the night; cf. Gen 22:3, “Abraham rose early”; compare Gen 19:27, Gen 20:8, Gen 21:14.
Here am I ] The first instance of this response. Cf. 11, Gen 27:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 19. From E; but Gen 22:15-18 are, probably, from another source, possibly R. As a piece of simple and vivid narrative, this passage from E’s narrative is unsurpassed.
SPECIAL NOTE ON THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
This episode occupies an important place in the religious teaching of Genesis. It is (1) the crowning test applied to the faith of the patriarch Abraham, and (2) the supreme example of the difference between the God who revealed Himself to the patriarchs, and the gods of the nature-religions of the Semitic peoples.
It has, however, raised difficulties in the minds of many readers, who have been unable to reconcile the command to offer Isaac for a burnt-offering with their conception of a good God. The following points deserve, in this connexion, a careful consideration.
1. Human Sacrifice. This was a religious custom widely prevalent among the ancient Semites.
( a) The Israelites. Besides the present passage, there are to be found in the Pentateuch several passages strongly condemnatory of the usage (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2; Lev 20:5; Deu 12:31; Deu 18:10). But it is evident from the instances of Jephthah’s daughter (Jdg 11:29 ff.), and of Hiel’s sons (1Ki 16:34) that the practice was not easily eradicated. The prophets denounced it: “Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Mic 6:7). In the dark days of the later kings, and subsequently, we gather that the people shewed an evil tendency to revert to this barbarity (see 2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:10; Isa 57:5; Jer 7:31; Jer 19:5; Eze 16:20-21; Eze 20:26; Eze 23:37: cf. Psa 106:37-38).
It hardly admits of doubt that the ancient laws of Israel, by which the firstborn were dedicated to God (Exo 22:29), and by which an animal was to be sacrificed in order to redeem the firstborn son (Exo 34:20), point back to the custom of an earlier age, in which the primitive Hebrews had practised the sacrifice of the firstborn. The redemption of the firstborn with a lamb at the Feast of the Passover (Exo 13:12-15) has been considered by some to be traceable to a similar origin.
( b) Other Nations. Instances of the practice in connexion with Moloch worship are mentioned in passages quoted above from the O.T. Mesha, the king of Moab, in order to propitiate his god, Chemosh, and obtain the defeat of the Israelite invaders, sacrificed his eldest son (2Ki 3:27). In 2Ki 17:31 “the Sepharvites” are said to “have burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.”
The excavations, carried out in recent years at Gezer, Megiddo, and Taanach, have shewn that the practice was followed by “the primitive Semitic inhabitants of Palestine, and even, at least at Megiddo, in the Israelite period” (Driver’s Schweich Lectures, pp. 68, 69).
There is evidence to shew that human sacrifice prevailed from the earliest times in Egypt, though the victims may generally have been taken from the ranks of the enemy (cf. Handcock, p. 75, quoting Budge’s Osiris, pp. 197 ff.).
2. The Command to sacrifice Isaac. We may assume, then, that in Abraham’s time the religious custom of human sacrifice prevailed among the peoples of the land. We have to think of the patriarch as he was, as a man of his own time and race. God spoke to him in language that he could understand. God proved his faith by a test, which, horrible as it sounds to our ears, was consonant with the feelings and traditions he had inherited from his forefathers. The command to sacrifice Isaac, in the year 2100 b.c., would not have suggested anything outrageous or abominable, as it does to our minds. We must remember that, startling as it may appear, it would have seemed to the ancient inhabitants of Palestine far more wonderful that Abraham’s God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, than that He should have given the order for its being offered. The command to sacrifice his son corresponded to the true religious instinct to offer up his best and highest.
3. The Triumph of Abraham’s Faith. We are told that “God did prove Abraham.” In the presence of the people of the land who practised this custom, would not conscience, the voice of God, again and again have whispered: “thou art not equal to the supremest surrender; thou art not prepared to give up ‘thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac’ ”? The command, then, to offer up Isaac came as a threefold test of faith: (i) did Abraham love and obey his God as sincerely as the heathen around him loved and obeyed their gods? (ii) did he, in the conflict of emotions, put his affection for his son before his love for his God? (iii) could he himself undertake to obey a command of his God, which was in direct conflict with that same God’s repeated promises that in Isaac should his name be called 1 [20] ? It was this last which constituted the most acute trial of Abraham’s faith. But he stood the test; and in the surrender of everything, will, affections, hope, and reason, he simply obeyed, trusting, that, as a son had been granted to him in his old age, when he was as good as one dead, so, in God’s good providence, His promises would yet somehow be fulfilled, and Isaac would live.
[20] Cf. “Nam quasi Deus secum ipse pugnet, puerum ad mortem postulat, in quo spem aeternae salutis proposuit. Itaque hoc posterius mandatum quidam erat fidei interitus” (Calvin).
The completeness of this faith was tested up to the moment when his hand was outstretched to commit the fatal act.
4. The Nature of God. The prohibition of the sacrifice of Isaac proclaimed a fundamental contrast between the God of Abraham and the gods of the nations round about. The knowledge of the God of Abraham was progressive: there was continually more to be learned of His Will and Nature. It was now shewn that human sacrifice could not any longer be thought to be acceptable to Him.
There was a true element in sacrifice which in Abraham’s case had been tested to the uttermost. This was the surrender of the will and of the heart to God. The spirit of the offerer, not the material of the offering is the essence of sacrifice. This is the anticipation of Israelite prophecy (1Sa 15:22; Isa 1:11 ff.; Jer 6:20; Amo 5:21).
There was a false element in the current conceptions of sacrifice, which tended to make its efficacy depend upon material quantity and cost. In the case of a human offering, the suffering, bereavement, and agony, mental and physical, seemed only to augment its value. The Deity that required to be propitiated with human life, was capricious, insatiable and savage. This hideous delusion about God’s Nature was finally to be dissipated. God had no pleasure in suffering or in death, in themselves. God was a God of love. Life should be dedicated unto Him, not in cruelty, but in service.
Sacrifice in the Chosen Family was to be free from the taint of this practice. The substitution of an animal for a human victim was to be the reminder of a transition to a higher phase of morality. The Revelation of the Law of Love was to be traced back by the devout Israelite to the Patriarchal Era, and to the religious experience of Abraham, the founder of the race. The Episode is a spiritual Parable.
5. The Rights of the Individual. Among ancient Semitic peoples the rights of the individual were merged in those of the family or the tribe. Life and death were in the hands of the father. Isaac possessed no rights of his own. The same Revelation, that prohibited his sacrifice, proclaimed that every one born in the image of God had individual and inalienable rights and duties. Human personality had a sanctity and a freedom of its own. True sacrifice implied the surrender of self, not of another. The substitution of the ram was the memorial of the abrogation of an inhuman system, which disregarded mercy and outraged humanity.
6. References in O.T., Apocrypha, and N.T. There appears to be no other mention in the O.T. of the sacrifice of Isaac. Some have needlessly supposed it is alluded to in Isa 41:8, “Abraham my friend”; cf. 2Ch 20:7. There is probably a reference to it in Sir 44:20 , “And when he was proved he was found faithful.” Cf. Wis 10:5 , “Wisdom knew the righteous man and kept him strong when his heart yearned toward his child.” 1Ma 2:52 , “Was not Abraham found faithful in temptation?” 4Ma 16:18-20 , “Remember that for the sake of God ye have come into the world ; for whom also our father Abraham made haste to sacrifice his son Isaac, the ancestor of our nation; and Isaac, seeing his father’s hand lifting the knife against him, did not shrink.” In the N.T. it is twice mentioned: Heb 11:17 ff., “By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac: yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; even he to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead; from whence he did also in a parable receive him back.” Jas 2:21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?”
7. Jewish Tradition found a fertile subject in the ‘adah, or binding, of Isaac. The following passage from the Targum of Palestine is a good example of Haggadah (i.e. legend, or explanatory tradition): “And they came to the place of which the Lord had told him. And Abraham builded there the altar which Adam had built, which had been destroyed by the waters of the deluge, which Noah had again builded, and which had been destroyed in the age of divisions [i.e. the dispersion of the peoples]. And he set the wood in order upon it, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And Isaac answered and said to his father, Bind me properly, lest I tremble from the affliction of my soul, and be cast into the pit of destruction, and there be found profaneness in thy offering. Now the eyes of Abraham looked on the eyes of Isaac; but the eyes of Isaac looked towards the angels on high, and Isaac beheld them, but Abraham saw them not. And the angels answered on high, Come, behold how these solitary ones who are in the world kill the one the other; he who slays delays not; he who is to be slain reacheth forth his neck. And the Angel of the Lord called to him, &c.”
“According to Jose ben Zimra, the idea of tempting Abraham was suggested by Satan who said, ‘Lord of the Universe! Here is a man whom thou hast blessed with a son at the age of one hundred years, and yet, amidst all his feasts, he did not offer thee a single dove or young pigeon for a sacrifice’ ( Sanh. 87 b; Gen. R. lv.). In Jose ben Zimra’s opinion, the ‘aedah took place immediately after Isaac’s weaning. This however is not the general opinion. According to the Rabbis, the ‘aedah not only coincided with, but was the cause of the death of Sarah, who was informed of Abraham’s intention while he and Isaac were on the way to Mount Moriah. Therefore Isaac must then have been thirty-seven years old ( Seder ‘Olam Rabbah, ed. Ratner, p. 6; Pirke R. El. xxxi.; Tanna debe Eliyahu R. xxvii.).” Jewish Encycl. s.v. Isaac.
“The Jews implore the mercy of God by the sacrifice of Isaac, as Christians by the sacrifice of Christ” (Mayor, Ep. James, p. 97). The merits of Isaac’s submission were regarded as abounding to the credit of the whole race; e.g. “For the merit of Isaac who offered himself upon the altar, the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter raise the dead” ( Pesikta Rab. Kahana, p. 200, ed. Buber).
8. Patristic References. In the Fathers, the story was seized upon for purposes of Christian allegory. Isaac is the type of Christ who offers Himself a willing sacrifice. The ram caught in the thicket is the type of Christ fastened to the wood of the cross. Thus according to Procopius of Gaza, the words of the Angel, “seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,” imply, “neither will I spare my beloved Son for thy sake. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Joh 3:16). Wherefore also Paul did greatly marvel at His goodness, saying, ‘Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all’ ” (Rom 8:32). His note on “the ram” is: “Aries mactatus ab interitu redemit Isaacum; sic Dominus occisus salvavit nos ab impendente aeterna morte” (ed. Migne, P. G. 87, Pars i. p. 391).
Primasius: “Occisus est Isaac quantum ad voluntatem patris pertinet. Deinde redonavit illum Deus patriarchae in parabola, id est, in figura et similitudine passionis Christi Aries significabat carnem Christi. Isaac oblatus est et non est interfectus sed aries tantum; quia Christus in passione oblatus est, sed divinitas illius impassibilis mansit” (quoted by Westcott, Ep. Heb 11:19).
The earliest reference occurs in the Epistle of Barnabas: “Seeing that there is a commandment in scripture, Whosoever shall not observe the fast shall surely die, the Lord commanded, because He was in His own person about to offer the vessel of His Spirit a sacrifice for our sins, that the type also which was given in Isaac who was offered upon the altar should be fulfilled” (chap. 7). Lightfoot’s Apostolic Fathers. p. 251.
Irenaeus speaks of Abraham as “having with a willing mind yielded up his own only-begotten and beloved son as a sacrifice to God, in order that God also might be well pleased, on behalf of his seed, to grant His own only-begotten and beloved Son as a sacrifice with a view to our redemption” (ed. Stieren, i. p. 572).
St Augustine compares Isaac bearing the wood for the sacrifice with Christ bearing His cross; while the ram, caught in the thicket, typifies Jesus crowned with thorns: “Propterea et Isaac, sicut Dominus crucem suam, ita sibi ligna ad victimae locum quibus fuerat imponendus ipse portavit Postremo quia Isaac occidi non oportebat, posteaquam est pater ferire prohibitus, quis erat ille aries, quo immolato impletum est significativo sanguine sacrificium? Nempe quando eum vidit Abraham, cornibus in frutice tenebatur. Quis ergo illo figurabatur, nisi Jesus, antequam immolaretur, spinis Judaicis coronatus?” (Aug. De Civ. Dei, xvi. c. 32).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
– Abraham Was Tested
2. moryah, Moriah; Samaritan: mor’ah; Septuagint, hupsele, Onkelos, worship. Some take the word to be a simple derivative, as the Septuagint and Onkelos, meaning vision, high, worship. It might mean rebellious. Others regard it as a compound of yah, Jah, a name of God, and mr’eh, shown, moreh, teacher, or mora’, fear.
14. yr’eh, Jireh, will provide.
16, ne‘um, rema, dictum, oracle; related: speak low.
21. buz, Buz, scoffing. qemu’el, Qemuel, gathered of God.
22. chazo, Chazo, vision. pldash, Pildash, steelman? wanderer? ydlap, Jidlaph; related: trickle, weep. betu’el, Bethuel, dwelling of God.
23. rbqah, Ribqah, noose.
24. re’umah, Reumah, exalted. tebach, Tebach, slaughter. gacham, Gacham, brand. tachash, Tachash, badger or seal. < maakah, Maakah; related: press, crush.
The grand crisis, the crowning event in the history of Abraham, now takes place. Every needful preparation has been made for it. He has been called to a high and singular destiny. With expectant acquiescence he has obeyed the call. By the delay in the fulfillment of the promise, he has been taught to believe in the Lord on his simple word. Hence, as one born again, he has been taken into covenant with God. He has been commanded to walk in holiness, and circumcised in token of his possessing the faith which purifieth the heart. He has become the intercessor and the prophet. And he has at length become the parent of the child of promise. He has now something of unspeakable worth, by which his spiritual character may be thoroughly tested. Since the hour in which he believed in the Lord, the features of his resemblance to God have been shining more and more through the darkness of his fallen nature – freedom of resolve, holiness of walk, interposing benevolence, and paternal affection. The last prepares the way for the highest point of moral likeness.
Verse 1-19
God tests Abrahams unreserved obedience to his will. The God. The true, eternal, and only God, not any tempter to evil, such as the serpent or his own thoughts. Tempted Abraham. To tempt is originally to try, prove, put to the test. It belongs to the dignity of a moral being to be put to a moral probation. Such assaying of the will and conscience is worthy both of God the assayer, and of man the assayed. Thine only one. The only one born of Sarah, and heir of the promise. Whom thou lovest. An only child gathers round it all the affections of the parents heart. The land of Moriah. This term, though applied in 2Ch 3:1 to the mount on which the temple of Solomon was built, is here the name of a country, containing, it may be, a range of mountains or other notable place to which it was especially appropriated. Its formation and meaning are very doubtful, and there is nothing in the context to lend us any aid in its explanation. It was evidently known to Abraham before he set out on his present journey. It is not to be identified with Moreh in Gen 12:6, as the two names occur in the same document, and, being different in form, they naturally denote different things. Moreh is probably the name of a man. Moriah probably refers to some event that had occurred in the land, or some characteristic of its inhabitants. If a derivative, like poryah, fruitful, it may mean the land of the rebellious, a name not inapposite to any district inhabited by the Kenaanites, who were disposed to rebellion themselves Gen 14:4, or met with rebellion from the previous inhabitants. If a compound of the divine name, Jah, whatever be the other element, it affords an interesting trace of the manifestation and worship of the true God under the name of Jab at some antecedent period. The land of Moriah comprehended within its range the population to which Melkizedec ministered as priest.
And offer him for a burnt-offering. – Abraham must have felt the outward inconsistency between the sacrifice of his son, and the promise that in him should his seed be called. But in the triumph of faith he accounted that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. On no other principle can the prompt, mute, unquestioning obedience of Abraham be explained. Human sacrifice may have been not unknown; but this in no way met the special difficulty of the promise. The existence of such a custom might seem to have smoothed away the difficulty of a parent offering the sacrifice of a son. But the moral difficulty of human sacrifice is not so removed. The only solution of this, is what the ease itself actually presents; namely, the divine command. It is evident that the absolute Creator has by right entire control over his creatures. He is no doubt bound by his eternal rectitude to do no wrong to his moral creatures. But the creature in the present case has forfeited the life that was given, by sin. And, moreover, we cannot deny that the Almighty may, for a fit moral purpose, direct the sacrifice of a holy being, who should eventually receive a due recompense for such a degree of voluntary obedience. This takes away the moral difficulty, either as to God who commands, or Abraham who obeys. Without the divine command, it is needless to say that it was not lawful for Abraham to slay his son.
Upon one of the hills of which I will tell thee. – This form of expression dearly shows that Moriah was not at that time the name of the particular hill on which the sacrifice was to be offered. It was the general designation of the country in which was the range of hills on one of which the solemn transaction was to take place. And Abraham rose up early in the morning. There is no hesitation or lingering in the patriarch. If this has to be done, let it be done at once.
Gen 22:4-10
The story is now told with exquisite simplicity. On the third day. From Beer-sheba to the Shalem of Melkizedec, near which this hill is supposed to have been, is about forty-five miles. If they proceeded fifteen miles on the first broken day, twenty on the second, and ten on the third, they would come within sight of the place early on the third day. Lifted up his eyes. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader of the Bible that this phrase does not imply that the place was above his point of view. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the vale of Jordan Gen 13:10, which was considerably below the position of the observer. And return unto you. The intimation that he and the lad would return, may seem to have rested on a dim presentiment that God would restore Isaac to him even if sacrificed. But it is more in keeping with the earnestness of the whole transaction to regard it as a mere concealment of his purpose from his servants. And he bound Isaac his son. There is a wonderful pathos in the words his son, his father, introduced in the sacred style in this and similar narratives. Isaac, when the trying moment came, seems to have made no resistance to his fathers will. The binding was merely a sacrificial custom. He must have concluded that his father was in all this obeying the will of God, though he gave him only a distant hint that it was so. Abraham is thoroughly in earnest in the whole procedure.
Gen 22:11-14
At this critical moment the angel of the Lord interposes to prevent the actual sacrifice. Lay not thy hand upon the lad. Here we have the evidence of a voice from heaven that God does not accept of human victims. Man is morally unclean, and therefore unfit for a sacrifice. He is, moreover, not in any sense a victim, but a doomed culprit, for whom the victim has to be provided. And for a typical sacrifice that cannot take away, but only shadow forth, the efficacious sacrifice, man is neither fit nor necessary. The lamb without blemish, that has no penal or protracted suffering, is sufficient for a symbol of the real atonement. The intention, therefore, in this case was enough, and that was now seen to be real. Now I know that thou fearest God. This was known to God antecedent to the event that demonstrated it. But the original I have known denotes an eventual knowing, a discovering by actual experiment; and this observable probation of Abraham was necessary for the judicial eye of God, who is to govern the world, and for the conscience of man, who is to be instructed by practice as well as principle. Thou hast not withheld thy son from me. This voluntary surrender of all that was dear to him, of all that he could in any sense call his own, forms the keystone of Abrahams spiritual experience. He is henceforth a tried man.
Gen 22:13-14
A ram behind. – For behind we have one in the Samaritan, the Septuagint, Onkelos, and some MSS. But neither a single ram nor a certain ram adds anything suitable to the sense. We therefore retain the received reading. The voice from heaven was heard from behind Abraham, who, on turning back and lifting up his eyes, saw the ram. This Abraham took and offered as a substitute for Isaac. Both in the intention and in the act he rises to a higher resemblance to God. He withholds not his only son in intent, and yet in fact he offers a substitute for his son. Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide, is a deeply significant name. He who provided the ram caught in the thicket will provide the really atoning victim of which the ram was the type. In this event we can imagine Abraham seeing the day of that pre-eminent seed who should in the fullness of time actually take away sin by the sacrifice of himself. In the mount of the Lord he will be seen. This proverb remained as a monument of this transaction in the time of the sacred writer. The mount of the Lord here means the very height of the trial into which he brings his saints. There he will certainly appear in due time for their deliverance.
Gen 22:15-19
Abraham has arrived at the moral elevation of self-denial and resignation to the will of God, and that in its highest form. The angel of the Lord now confirms all his special promises to him with an oath, in their amplest terms. An oath with God is a solemn pledging of himself in all the unchangeableness of his faithfulness and truth, to the fulfillment of his promise. The multitude of his seed has a double parallel in the stars of heaven and the sands of the ocean. They are to possess the gate of their enemies; that is, to be masters and rulers of their cities and territories. The great promise, and blessed in thy seed shall be all the nations of the earth, was first given absolutely without reference to his character. Now it is confirmed to him as the man of proof, who is not only accepted as righteous, but proved to be actually righteous after the inward man; because thou hast obeyed my voice Gen 26:5. The reflexive form of the verb signifying to bless is here employed, not to denote emphasis, but to intimate that the nations, in being blessed of God, are made willing to be so, and therefore bless themselves in Abrahams seed. In hearing this transcendent blessing repeated on this momentous occasion, Abraham truly saw the day of the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the Son of man. We contemplate him now with wonder as the man of God, manifested by the self-denying obedience of a regenerate nature, intrusted with the dignity of the patriarchate over a holy seed, and competent to the worthy discharge of all its spiritual functions.
With the nineteenth verse of this chapter may be said to close the main revelation of the third Bible given to mankind, to which the remainder of this book is only a needful appendix. It includes the two former Bibles or revelations – that of Adam and that of Noah; and it adds the special revelation of Abraham. The two former applied directly to the whole race; the latter directly to Abraham and his seed as the medium of an ultimate blessing to the whole race. The former revealed the mercy of God offered to all, which was the truth immediately necessary to be known; the latter reveals more definitely the seed through whom the blessings of mercy are to be conveyed to all, and delineates the leading stage in the spiritual life of a man of God. In the person of Abraham is unfolded that spiritual process by which the soul is drawn to God. He hears the call of God and comes to the decisive act of trusting in the revealed God of mercy and truth; on the ground of which act he is accounted as righteous. He then rises to the successive acts of walking with God, covenanting with him, communing and interceding with him, and at length withholding nothing that he has or holds dear from him. In all this we discern certain primary and essential characteristics of the man who is saved through acceptance of the mercy of God proclaimed to him in a primeval gospel. Faith in God Gen. 15, repentance toward him Gen. 16, and fellowship with him Gen. 18, are the three great turning-points of the souls returning life. They are built upon the effectual call of God Gen. 12, and culminate in unreserved resignation to him Gen. 22. With wonderful facility has the sacred record descended in this pattern of spiritual biography from the rational and accountable race to the individual and immortal soul, and traced the footsteps of its path to God.
The seed that was threatened to bruise the serpents head is here the seed that is promised to bless all the families of the earth. The threefold individuality in the essence of the one eternal Spirit, is adumbrated in the three men who visited the patriarch, and their personal and practical interest in the salvation of man is manifested, though the part appropriated to each in the work of grace be not yet apparent.
Meanwhile, contemporaneous with Abraham are to be seen men (Melkizedec, Abimelek) who live under the covenant of Noah, which was not abrogated by that of Abraham, but only helped forward by the specialities of the latter over the legal and moral difficulties in the way to its final and full accomplishment. That covenant, which was simply the expansion and continuation of the Adamic covenant, is still in force, and contains within its bosom the Abrahamic covenant in its culminating grandeur, as the soul that gives life and motion to its otherwise inanimate body.
Gen 22:20-24
This family notice is inserted as a piece of contemporaneous history, to explain and prepare the way for the marriage of Isaac. Milkah, she also, in allusion to Sarah, who has borne Isaac. So far as we know, they may have been sisters, but they were at all events sisters-in-law. The only new persons belonging to our histoy are Bethuel and Rebekah. Uz, Aram, and Kesed are interesting, as they show that we are in the region of the Shemites, among whom these are ancestral names Gen 10:23; Gen 11:28. Buz may have been the ancestor of Elihu Jer 25:23; Job 32:2. Maakah may have given rise to the tribes and land of Maakah Deu 3:14; 2Sa 10:6. The other names do not again occur. And his concubine. A concubine was a secondary wife, whose position was not considered disreputable in the East. Nahor, like Ishmael, had twelve sons, – eight by his wife, and four by his concubine.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Gen 22:1-18
God did tempt Abraham
The trial of Abraham
I.
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ABRAHAM WHEN THIS TRIAL CAME. His hope was set on Isaac as the medium through which Gods promise could be fulfilled, and he had been encouraged by observing him rising year after year to the age and stature of manhood.
II. GODS CONNECTION WITH THE TRIAL. He subjected Abraham to a testing trial in order to prove his faith.
1. There was no attempt in the action of God, bearing upon Abraham, in the least to diminish the patriarchs affection for his son.
2. In the command binding Abraham to offer up his son there was an assertion of Jehovahs right to be regarded as the supreme object of His creatures love.
III. ABRAHAM UNDER AND AFTER THE TRIAL.
1. His fear of God was tested by this trial.
2. His faith in God was tested by the trial. But the result was blessed to him in these four ways:
(1) He obtained an attestation from heaven of his fear and of his faith.
(2) He obtained a new revelation of Messiah as the atoning Surety.
(3) He brought back with him alive his only son, whom he loved.
(4) He held Jehovah-jireh in the grasp of his faith, and had Him pledged to care for him always.
Application:
1. Learn that true faith is sure to be tested faith.
2. Learn that all love must be subordinated to love for God.
3. Learn that the only way to be truly strong is to have faith in God.
4. Learn that God will never fail under the leanings of faith.
5. Learn from this text that no one need expect an attestation of his fear and faith except when these are revived and exercised. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
Abrahams trial
It is by trial that the character of a Christian is formed. Each part of his character, like every part of his armour, is put to the proof; and it is the proof that tests, after all, the strength both of resistance and defence and attack.
I. The voice of God to Abraham was NOT HEARD IN AUDIBLE WORDS; it was a voice in the soul constantly directing him to duty and self-sacrifice. The voice told him, as he thought–I do not for a moment say as God meant–that his duty was to sacrifice his son. The memories of olden days may have clung and hovered about him. He remembered the human sacrifices he had seen in his childhood; the notion of making the gods merciful by some action of man may still have lingered in his bosom. We have here the first instance of that false and perverse interpretation which made the letter instead of the spirit to rule the human heart.
II. As Abraham increases in faith HE GROWS IN KNOWLEDGE, until at last more and more he can hear Lay not thy hand upon thy son. God will provide Himself a sacrifice bursts from his lips before the full light bursts upon his soul. In this conflict Abrahams will was to do all that God revealed for him to do. In every age and in every station faith is expressed in simple dutifulness, and this faith of Abraham is, indeed, of the mind of Christ. We may be perplexed, but we need not be in despair. When we arrive on Mount Moriah, then the meaning of the duty God requires of us will be made clear. And as we approach the unseen, and our souls are more schooled and disciplined to God, we shall find that to offer ourselves and lose ourselves is to find ourselves in God more perfect. (Canon Rowsell.)
Abrahams sacrifice
The birth of Isaac brought Abraham nearer to God; though he had believed in Him so long, it was as if he now believed in Him for the first time–so much is he carried out of himself, such a vision has he of One who orders ages past and to come, and yet is interested for the feeblest of those whom He has made. Out of such feelings comes the craving for the power to make some sacrifice, to find a sacrifice which shall not be nominal but real.
I. The Book of Genesis says, God did tempt Abraham. The seed did not drop by accident into the patriarchs mind; it was not self-sown; it was not put into him by the suggestion of some of his fellows. It was his Divine Teacher who led him on to his terrible conclusion, The sacrifice that I must offer is that very gift that has caused me all my joy.
II. Abraham must know what Gods meaning is: he is certain that in some way it will be proved that He has not designed His creature to do a wicked and monstrous thing, and yet that there is a purpose in the revelation that has been made to him; that a submission and sacrifice, such as he has never made yet, are called for now. He takes his son; he goes three days journey to Mount Moriah; he prepares the altar and the wood and the knife; his son is with him, but he has already offered up himself. And now he is taught that this is the offering that God was seeking for; that when the real victim has been slain, the ram caught in the thicket is all that is needed for the symbolical expression of that inward oblation.
III. When this secret has been learnt, every blessing became an actual vital blessing; every gift was changed into a spiritual treasure. Abraham had found that sacrifice lies at the very root of our being; that our lives depend upon it; that all power to be right and to do right begins with the offering up of ourselves, because it is thus that the righteous Lord makes us like Himself. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Abrahams temptation
A temptation had come upon Abraham; he thought that it was the right thing to do, and that he was called to do it; so after brooding over it intently for several days, he was irresistibly drawn to take the knife for the purpose of slaying his son.
I. Since the child of promise had been born to him, his natural tendency had been to repose on Isaac rather than on God. After a while he would awake to the troubled consciousness that it was not with him as in other days; that he had sunk from the serene summit on which he once stood. Brooding thus from day to day he came to feel as if a voice were calling him to prove himself by voluntarily renouncing the son that had been given him. He was driven wild, fevered into madness, through the fervour of his desire to maintain trust in the great Father, even as now men sometimes are by the lurid burning of distrust.
II. But did not God tempt him? you say. Is it not so recorded? Yes, undoubtedly; in the patriarchs mind it was God tempting him. The narrative is a narrative of what took place in his mind; the whole is a subjective scene, portrayed objectively. The old Canaanite practice of offering human sacrifices suggested to Abraham the cultivation and manifestation of trust by immolating his son.
III. Although God did not suggest the crime, yet He was in the trial–the trial of maintaining and fostering trust without allowing it to lead him by perversion into crime.
IV. We see God penetrating and disengaging the grace in Abraham which lay behind the wrongness. He divided between the true motive of the heart and the false conclusion of the weak brain. He notes and treasures every bit of good that blushes amidst our badness. (S. A. Tipple.)
The crucial test
I. THERE COME TIMES IN HUMAN LIFE WHEN MEN MUST UNDERGO A CRUCIAL TEST. A man can have but one trial in his lifetime; one great sorrow, beside which all other griefs dwindle into insignificance.
II. THE CRUCIAL TEST CAN ONLY TAKE PLACE IN REFERENCE TO THAT WHICH WE LOVE AND VALUE MOST. DO we so hold that which is dearest to us upon earth, that we could surrender it at the Divine bidding?
III. Abrahams answer, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb, IS THE SUM OF ALL MEDIATORIAL HISTORY; it is the main discovery of love. After all, what has the world done but to find an altar? It found the Cross; it never could have found the Saviour.
IV. The narrative shows WHAT GOD INTENDS BY HIS DISCIPLINE OF MAN. He did not require Isaacs life; He only required the entire subordination of Abrahams will. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Lessons from the trial of Abraham
1. We learn from this passage the lesson that God taught Abraham that all souls and all beings are His, and that our greatest and dearest possessions are beneath His control and within His grasp.
2. We learn also a lesson of obedience. Abraham was called upon to make the greatest possible sacrifice, a sacrifice that seemed to clash with the instinct of reason, affection, and religion alike, and yet without a murmur he obeyed the command of God. We learn, too, that for wise reasons God sometimes permits the trial of His peoples faith–not to weaken, but to strengthen it, for He knows that if it be genuine, trial will have the same effect which the storm produces on the kingly oak, only rooting it more firmly in the soil.
4. We learn that Gods provisions are ever equal to His peoples wants. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. (J. W. Atkinson.)
Abraham offering Isaac
All the elements of piety were in this act. The voice of the Lord heard and obeyed is essential to religion. The unshaken conviction that all He requires is best, though one lose thereby all but Himself, is the substance of religion. Abraham heard and did and trusted. Thus he became our worthy example.
I. His TRIAL. What could it mean? Abraham had the traditions and prejudices of his time. No man can be much above them. With all the manifestations of Jehovah to him, there yet lingered in his mind the common ideas of God and of His requirements which the common people had. He was in conflict between the two. The sense of sin and guilt was universal; the hope of propitiation as well. Human sacrifice was common. It represented the most stern exaction by the offended deity and the greatest gift which the transgressor could make. Popular custom helped the conceit in the patriarch. While heathen were so ready to show their faith in the false god, much more must he exhibit as great for the true. Could he withhold the choicest thing while imagining the Almighty asked for it, then his was a partial, not a single and complete, fealty. Isaac must not rival Jehovah in his affection. More and more plain the issue became, till his intense impressions seemed the solemn accents of his Maker, bidding him take the precious life. So far, at least, must he be willing to blot out every means by which his darling desire might be gained. Was not this an early illustration of the crucial test: He that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me?
II. HIS OBEDIENCE. Doubtless, one says, while Abraham lifted up the knife to slay his son, the sun was turned to darkness to him, the stars left their places, and earth and heaven vanished from his sight. To the eye of sense, all was gone that life had built up, and the promise had come actually to an end for evermore; but to the friend of God all was still as certain as ever–all absolutely sure and fixed. The end, the promise, nay even the son of the promise–even he, in the fire of the burnt-offering–was not gone, because that was near and close at hand which could restore: the great Power which could reverse everything. The heir was safe in the strong hope of him who accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. The offering, so far as the offerer was concerned, had been made. His obedience to the word he thought to hear was perfect. Gods will and his were one.
III. His ACCEPTANCE. From that lofty summit in the land of Moriah there went up to heaven the sweet savour of acceptable sacrifice before any fire was kindled on the altar. So in the grossest darkness it may be still, where they who know not of the true God bring as perfect a gift. But piety and humaneness alike impel all who have heard the protest from the lips of Jehovah to speed with it to them whose sacrificial knives are about to be bathed in the blood of their firstborn. Thus again Christ arrests the devout and teaches them His righteousness.
IV. HIS DELIVERANCE. The place was Jehovah-jireh indeed, for the Lord bad provided Himself the lamb for the burnt-offering. The sacrifice in its outward form should not fail. Here was the Divine sanction of the method of substitution. Here was foreshadowed the ritual of Tabernacle and Temple, and, most dimly, the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Isaac need not die, but the animal must. We need not perish, but the Christ must give His flesh and blood for the life of the world. The victim was Gods choice in the first instance: He was in the last. In the smoke and flames of this first sacrifice ascended not only the tribute of a penitent and adoring soul, but also the unutterable gratitude for a life given back as from the dead. (De Witt S. Clark.)
Abrahams trial, obedience, and reward
I. ABRAHAMS TRIAL.
1. Purpose of this trial. Not to discover something unknown; but to test the strength of a recognized faith. To illustrate the gift of Christ; whose day Abraham saw afar off.
2. The nature of this trial.
(1) The sacrifice of a son. An only son. A well-beloved son.
(2) By the fathers own hands.
(3) A son of promise.
Through whom was expected the fulfilment of the covenant. In whom this great believers hopes centred. What is the trial of our faith as compared with this? How little does our faith in God call us to surrender. Yet the trial of our faith is more precious than of gold which perisheth.
II. ABRAHAMS OBEDIENCE.
1. He did not wait for the repetition of the command, nor demand additional evidence concerning it. Did not imagine he might have mistaken its nature. Did not question the love or wisdom of God. Did not wait till he perfectly understood its purpose.
2. It was prompt. To hear was to obey. Rose early. Prepared at once.
3. It was ruled by precedence. Told no one his purpose. What might Sarah and Isaac have done or said to hinder the execution of the plan? Conceals it from his young men. The wood was cleft at home and taken with him. There might be none on the spot. That might be a hindrance.
4. It was marked by great self-control. Does not by manner express a mental burden. The affecting conversation with Isaac by the way.
5. It was distinguished by an heroic confidence in God. The Lord will provide. He fully believed he should return to the young men with Isaac. Expected he would be raised from the dead (Rom 4:16-22).
III. ABRAHAMS REWARD. Having built an altar, he bound his son. Non-resistance of Isaac (Jesus, the Son of God, became obedient unto death. No man taketh My life from Me, &c. Isaac, at twenty-five years of age, might have resisted, but did not). Learn–
1. Receive with submission the trial of our faith.
2. Cheerfully and promptly obey God.
3. The Lord has provided. Jesus died willingly. (J. C. Gray.)
Temptation a trial
When a person took the first Napoleon a shot-proof coat of mail, the emperor fired many shots at it, whilst the inventor had it on. Finding it answered, the emperor gave the maker a reward. Storms of trial, sacrifices to be made, obedience required, or loving services demanded, will test us. Constantine thus tested the Christians in his household, when he required them to give up their religion under a heavy penalty. Those, however, who were faithful he took into his particular favour and service.
Trials reveal God to us
It is the mission of trouble to make earth worth most and heaven worth more. I suppose sometimes you have gone to see a panorama, and the room has been darkened where you were sitting–this light put out, and that light put out, until the room was entirely darkened where you sat. Then the panorama passed before you, and you saw the towns and villages, the cities and the palaces. And just so God in this world comes to us and puts out this light of joy, this light of worldly prosperity, and this light of satisfaction; and when He has made it all dark around us, then He makes to pass before our souls the palaces of heaven and the glories that never die. (Dr. Talmage.)
Abrahams faith tried and triumphant
The significance of the transaction is rooted in the fact that Abraham was not a mere private individual, but in a very special sense a representative man. Gods communications to him were made, not for his own sake alone, but also for that of those who should come after him. There was a revelation through Abraham as well as to him; and in this transaction God was seeking not only to develop Abrahams faith to its highest exercise, but at the same time to instruct him and all his spiritual children in their duty to their covenant Lord. It was literal fact, but it was also acted parable. I would say that the whole story was meant to reveal the universal law to this effect, that what is born of God must be consecrated to God; that the children of promise are at the same time the children of consecration, and so there is no more difficulty in the command to sacrifice Isaac than there is in the injunction to cast out Ishmael. Both alike arose out of the representative character of Abraham and his seed, and through both alike a revelation has been made for all time. The one says to unbelievers, Ye must be born again; the other says to believers, I beseech you by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service. The whole transaction, therefore, literal fact as it was, was at the same time the acted hieroglyphic of a spiritual revelation foreshadowing the self-sacrifice of the Christian to his Lord. But now leaving the merely expository for the time, let us take with us one or two practical lessons suggested by the whole subject.
1. And in the first place we may learn that the people of God should expect trial on the earth. Here is one of the greatest saints subjected to the severest of tests, and that not as an isolated experience but as the last of a series which began when he was called to leave his country and his kindred in the land of the Chaldees. So when we are required to pass through ordeals that seem to us inexplicable let us not imagine that some strange thing has happened to us. And Tholuck is right when he says: I find in all Christians who have passed through much tribulation, a certain quality of ripeness which I am of opinion can be acquired in no other school. Just as a certain degree of solar heat is necessary to bring the finest sorts of fruit to perfection, so is fiery trial indispensable for ripening the inner man. Nor is this all: trial may come upon the believer for the sake of others rather than for his own. The chemist darkens the room when he would show some of his finest experiments; and when God designs to let others see what His grace can enable His people to endure, He darkens their history by trial. So God, by our trials, may be seeking to show through us what His grace can do; may be making manifest the reality of His presence with His people in the fire, in such a way as to bring others in penitence to His feet. Thus we too may vicariously endure, and so enter into what Paul has called the fellowship of the Saviours sufferings. What a sting does that take out of many of our trials!
2. But we may learn in the second place, that if we would stand trial thoroughly we must meet it in faith. Tribulation by itself will not improve our characters. The patriarch did not know the way God was taking with him; but he knew God. He had received such proof of His tenderness, His faithfulness, and His wisdom in the past that he could trust Him now; and so putting his hand in the Divine grasp, he was once more upheld by Gods strength. Andrew Fuller has well said that a man has only as much faith as he can command in the day of trial.
3. Finally, we may learn that faith triumphant is always rewarded. At the end of this dreadful ordeal the Lord renewed the covenant with Abraham; and in the belief of many writers, it was on this occasion that he was permitted to see Christs day and to rejoice in the assurance thereby given him that his hope should never be belied. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Abrahams trial
I. ITS LEGALITY. Would God command to kill who saith, Thou shalt not kill?
(1) The supreme Lawgiver, who made that law, can out of His uncontrollable sovereignty, dispense with His own law.
(2) God did not command Abraham to do this, as it was an act of rebellion against His own moral law (which was not now promulgated, as after by Moses) nor against the law of nature, which is writ in every mans heart, and so in Abrahams (Rom 2:14-15), but as it was an act of obedience to the great Lawgiver; and therefore it was necessary that Abraham should well know it was God, and not the devil, who tempted him to this act, which in itself seemed so unnatural for a father to kill his own son, and wherein God seemed so contrary to Himself, and to His own positive precepts and promises; this Abraham knew well,
(a) from special illumination;
(b) from familiar experience of Gods speaking to him, whose voice he knew as well as the voice of his wife Sarahs.
(c) This voice came not to him in a dream (which would have been more uncertain, and less distinguishable from the devils deceit), but while Abraham was awake; for it is not said that he stayed till he was awaked out of sleep, but immediately he rose up and addressed himself to his business, which intimates he understood his author from the plainest manner of speaking to him, without any ambiguity in so arduous an affair.
II. What were the DIFFICULTIES of Abrahams duty under this command of God?
1. God saith not to him, Take thy servants, but thy son. Oh then what a cutting, killing command was this to Abraham, Take (not thy servant, but) thy son!
2. Thy only son. Had he had many sons, the trial had been more bearable. Here was another aggravation; for a tree to have but one branch and to have that lopped off; for a body to have but one member, and to have that dismembered.
3. Yet higher, Whom thou lovest (Gen 22:2). Isaac was a gracious and dutiful son, obedient both to his earthly and to his heavenly Father, and therefore Abraham did love him the more; had he been some graceless son, his grief had been the less.
4. Higher than that, Isaac was the son of Gods promise–In him shall thy seed be called. So he was the son of all his fathers hope of posterity, yet his expectation hereof, and of the accomplishment of Gods promise (given to relieve him, when his mouth was out of taste with all His other mercies), as victory (Gen 14:1-24.), protection and provision (Gen 15:1): he could take no joy in his former conquest or present promise, because childless (Gen 5:2)–must by this means be cut off in the offering up of Isaac.
5. But the greatest conflict of all was, that the Messiah was promised to come of Isaac, and so the salvation of the world did seem to perish with Isaacs perishing.
Notwithstanding all these difficulties, Abraham acts his part of obedience–
1. With all alacrity and readiness to obey, he rose up early (Gen 22:3), making no dilatory work about it. Thus David did, saying, I made haste, and delayed not (Psa 119:60).
2. The constancy and continuance of this his ready obedience it is a wonder how his heart was kept in such an obedient frame for three days together, all the time of his travelling from Beersheba to Mount Moriah.
3. Abrahams prudence in leaving his servants and the ass at the foot of the hill (Gen 22:5).
4. Abrahams confidence herein.
(1) Speaking prophetically, we will both of us come again to God Gen 22:5), and
(2) God will provide Himself a lamb (Gen 22:8). Abraham believed to receive his son again from the dead (Heb 11:19). Yet this cannot be the genuine sense. As Abraham did, so every child of Abraham ought to evidence their fear and love to God (Gen 22:12). (C. Ness.)
Trial of Abraham
This is the most extraordinary command which we find in Scripture. In order to set it in the most intelligible and instructive light, I shall make the following inquiries.
I. LET US INQUIRE, WHETHER GOD HAD A RIGHT TO GIVE THIS COMMAND TO ABRAHAM.
1. In the first place, God did not command Abraham to murder Isaac, or to take away his life from malice prepense. He required him only to offer him a burnt sacrifice; and though this implied the taking away of life, yet it did not imply anything of the nature of murder.
2. In the next place, it must be allowed that God Himself had an original and independent right to take away that life from Isaac, which He had of His mere sovereignty given him. It is a Divine and self-evident truth, that He has a right to do what He will with His own creatures. And this right God not only claims, but constantly exercises, in respect to the lives of men. He taketh away, and who can hinder Him? And He takes away when, and where, and by whom He pleases.
3. Farthermore, God has a right to require men to do that at one time which He has forbidden them to do at another. Though He had forbidden men to offer human sacrifices in general, yet He had a right to require Abraham, in particular, to offer up Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. And after He had required him to sacrifice Isaac, He had a right to forbid him to do it, as He actually did.
II. WHETHER ABRAHAM COULD KNOW THAT THIS COMMAND CAME FROM GOD. Now it must be granted by all, that if Abraham did sacrifice Isaac, or offer him upon the altar, he really thought God did require him to do it; and, if he did really think so, it must have been owing either to his own heated imagination, or to the delusion of some evil spirit, or else to some real evidence of Gods requiring him to sacrifice his son. But it is evident that it could not be owing to his own heated imagination; because there was nothing in nature to lead him to form such an imagination. The command was contrary to everything that God had before required of him; it was contrary to what God had revealed in respect to human sacrifices; and it was contrary to all the natural instincts, inclinations, and feelings of the human heart. Nor is there any better reason to think that he was under the delusion of some evil spirit. We can by no means suppose that God would suffer such an excellent man as Abraham to be deluded in such an extraordinary case, by the great deceiver; nor that Satan would be disposed to tempt Abraham to do what he really thought would be for the glory of God. Nor can we suppose, if Satan viewed it as a criminal action, that he would have restrained him from committing the crime. But if Abraham was not led to think that God required him to sacrifice his son, by a wild imagination, nor by the delusion of an evil spirit, then we are constrained to conclude that he had clear and conclusive evidence of the commands coming from God.
III. WHY GOD COMMANDED ABRAHAM TO SACRIFICE HIS SON.
1. It is evident that Abrahams offering Isaac upon the altar was a lively type or representation of Gods offering Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
2. God meant, by the command in the text, to try or prove whether Abraham loved Him sincerely and supremely.
IV. WHETHER THIS COMMAND TO ABRAHAM ANSWERED THE END WHICH GOD PROPOSED IN GIVING IT. And we find that Abraham did actually and punctually obey both the letter and spirit of the command; by which he gave an infallible evidence that he loved God sincerely and supremely.
1. He obeyed, in contrariety to all the natural feelings and affections of the human heart.
2. The cheerfulness and promptitude with which he obeyed the Divine command increase the evidence of the sincerity and supremacy of his love to God.
3. His obedience to the command to sacrifice his son was obedience to the mere will of God; which renders it, in the highest possible degree, evidential of his real and supreme love to Him.
Improvement–
1. It appears from Abrahams ready obedience to the command in the text, that those who are willing to obey God, can very easily understand the real meaning of his commands.
2. Did Abraham exhibit the highest evidence of his sincere and supreme love to God, by obedience to His command? Then we learn that this is the only way for all good men to exhibit the highest evidence of their sincere and supreme love to God.
3. It appears from the obedience of Abraham to the Divine command, that all true obedience to God flows from pure disinterested love to Him.
4. It appears from Gods design in giving the command in the text, and from the effects of it, that Christians have no reason to think it strange concerning the fiery trials which they are called to endure. God has a good design in all their trials. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Abrahams trial
1. This trial is wholly unexpected. For several years the patriarch has been the recipient of great and uninterrupted prosperity. Instead of going through the bleak and barren desert he has been walking in the garden, which is smiling with the flowers of richness, fertility, and hope. How speedily may the heart be bereft of all joy and filled with poignant sorrow!
2. This trial is wholly unprecedented. Abraham is not a foreigner to suffering. He had been separated from his country and friends at the age of seventy-five. He had been driven by famine from the land of promise into a distant country. The companion of his youth and the affectionate partner of all his fortunes had been forced from him again and again. You may say, I am the man that hath seen and felt affliction; yet sterner calamities may be coming upon you than any you have ever experienced.
3. This trial is an assault upon the object which the patriarch loves and values most. He loves and values his son Ishmael. He loves and values his wife Sarah. He loves and values his own life. Isaac, however, is the son of promise, the root from which the final blossom is to be the Messiah, and on this account he must love and value him most of all. To slay him with his own hand, this is the climax of trial to Abraham–it cannot ascend higher. A man can only have one such trial in his lifetime. But if no such surrender has been demanded from us; then our trials have been only secondary. They have scattered a few blossoms, and swept away a little fruit, but they have not touched the root; the tree remains as healthy and vigorous as ever. Let us not heave one rebellious sigh, lest, instead of the wind, the whirlwind should come to us in all its terrific fury. (A. McAuslane, D. D.)
Trial of Abrahams faith
We notice–
I. The AUTHOR of the trial (Gen 22:1). What has God to do with my trials? is the first question which wisdom always asks. When that is settled, we know where we are and what to do.
II. The NATURE of the trial (Gen 22:2). It was no ordinary requirement. Any fathers heart would sink within him at such a command. The history of the future of which hope had dreamed was a fable. The book of life was to be closed when nothing but the title-page had been written.
III. The PROGRESS of the trial (Gen 22:3-10). It was not one downright blow of trouble, but protracted trial. Days came and went, and found it unconcluded. Good men never graduate from trouble. Christian life itself, in one view, is trial–an escaping from old conditions, a breaking of fetters, a climbing to higher levels–all accomplished with pain and cost. Life is a race for life. Life is a battle for life. And so likewise its incidental troubles have a self-perpetuating power. Long after the gale has gone down the ocean keeps its restlessness, and under the serenest sky the after-surge of the storm moans upon the beach. It is so in human life. The shock of sorrow comes and passes, but the soul is not at rest. The old grief comes back in thought and dreams, and life can never again be what it was.
IV. The ENDING of the trial (Gen 22:11-14). The long agony was over, and the issue was all the sweeter for the bitterness which had preceded it. Accepting this story of Abrahams trial as a type of human life, we find certain practical truths emphasized.
1. Men make mistakes in their judgment of experience. What they think the best, may be the worst possible for them; what they think the worst, may be the best. Humanly judging, the command to sacrifice Isaac was the end of Abrahams hopes; in fact, it was the beginning of his prosperity. It is so always. God plans behind and works through a cloud, but always for the best.
2. Clearly, also, in the practical conduct of life, faith is superior to reason. We can trust, and are wise in trusting for some things which can never be argued.
3. In our dealings with God, obedience is safety. Men are not to stop to calculate chances, nor wait until they think they see their way clear. Whatever God appoints is to be undertaken at once and without question. Men ruin themselves sometimes with what they call their prudence. There is no prudence in anything that limits exact obedience to the Divine requirements. (E. S. Atwood.)
The trial of Abrahams faith
I. IT WAS A TRIAL FOR WHICH ABRAHAM HAD BEEN CAREFULLY PREPARED.
1. By his spiritual history.
2. By a life of trial.
II. IT WAS A TRIAL OF REMARKABLE SEVERITY.
1. The violence done to his natural feelings.
2. The violence done to his feelings as a religious man.
III. THIS TRIAL WAS ENDURED IN THE SPIRIT OF AN EXTRAORDINARY FAITH. His obedience was–
1. Unquestioning.
2. Complete.
3. Marked by humility.
4. Inspired by trust in a personal God.
IV. GOD REWARDED HIS FAITHFUL ENDURANCE OF THE TRIAL.
1. By taking the will for the deed.
2. By renewing His promises.
3. By turning the occasion of the trial into a revelation of the day of Christ.
(1) He sees represented the sacrifice of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of God.
(2) There is suggested to him the idea of substitution.
(3) The resurrection of Christ and His return to glory are also represented.
Learn:
1. That the most distinguished of Gods servants are often subjected to the greatest trials.
2. That trials test the strength and spirituality of our faith.
3. That trials well endured set spiritual truths in a clearer and more affecting light. (T. H. Leale.)
Abraham offering Isaac
The crowning test of Abrahams life, in which all preceding trials culminated. The greatness of the test appears in the exceptional character of the demand. It appeared as a direct contradiction of Gods promise. Abrahams obedience was–
1. Prompt. The command came in the night. Early next morning, Abraham rose up . . . and took . . . Isaac, &c.
2. Persistent. He had the sustaining force which enabled him to maintain his purpose unwaveringly during the period of suspense between the command and the full obedience to it.
3. Perfect. He accepted the command as meaning the unreserved and unconditional offering up of Isaac, with the faith that God would say enough when the obedience came up to the measure of the demand. When that would be, it was for God, not Abraham, to decide. It was for him to obey; and he did obey. When he lifted up the knife, the sacrifice was complete. Isaac bad already been sacrificed upon the altar of a fathers heart. All the agony of giving up had been endured. Only the tragedy, and not the real sacrifice was prevented. (D. Davies.)
Abrahams trial
I. THE DIFFICULTY AND ITS EXPLANATION. God seems to have required of Abraham what was wrong. He seems to have sanctioned human sacrifice. My reply is–
1. God did not require it. You must take the history as a whole, the conclusion as well as the commencement. The sacrifice of Isaac was commanded at first, and forbidden at the end. Had it ended in Abrahams accomplishing the sacrifice, I know not what could have been said; it would have left on the page of Scripture a dark and painful blot. My reply to Gods seeming to require human sacrifice is the conclusion of the chapter. God says, Lay not thine hand upon the lad. This is the final decree. Thus human sacrifices were distinctly forbidden. He really required the surrender of the fathers will. He seemed to demand the sacrifice of life.
2. But further still. God did not demand what was wrong. It did not seem wrong to Abraham. It is not enough defence to say God did not command wrong. Had God seemed to command wrong, the difficulty would be as great. Abrahams faith would then have consisted in doing wrong for the sake of God. Now it did not. Abraham lived in a country where human sacrifices are common; he lived in a day when a fathers power over a sons life was absolute. He was familiar with the idea; and just as familiarity with slavery makes it seem less horrible, so familiarity with this as an established and conscientious mode of worshipping God removed from Abraham much of the horror we should feel.
II. THE NATURE OF THE TRIAL.
1. We remark, first, this trial was made under aggravated circumstances. The words in which Gods command was couched were those of accumulated keenness. To subdue the father in the heart, that a Roman has done, and calmly signed his sons death-warrant; but to subdue it, not with Roman hardness, but with deep trust in God and faith in His providence, saying, It is not hate but love that requires this–this was the nobleness, this the fierce difficulty of Abrahams sacrifice; this it was which raised him above the Roman hero.
2. We remark, secondly, Abraham was to do this; his son was to die by his own hand, not by a delegate. He was to preclude escape. We do our sacrifices in a cowardly way; we leave loopholes for escape. We do not with our own hand, at His call, cut asunder the dearest ties. We do not immediately take the path of duty, but wait till we are forced into it; always delaying in the hope that some accident may occur which will make it impossible. Them conscience says, with a terrible voice: You must do it and with your own hand. The knife must be sharp and the blow true. Your own heart must be the sacrifice, and your own hand the priest. It must not be a sacrifice made for you by circumstances.
III. HOW THE TRIAL WAS MET.
1. Without ostentation.
2. Abraham was in earnest.
If you make a sacrifice, expecting that God will return you your Isaac, that is a sham sacrifice, not a real one. Therefore, if you make sacrifices, let them be real. You will have an infinite gain: yes; but it must be done with an earnest heart, expecting nothing in return. There are times, too, when what you give to God will never be repaid in kind. Isaac is not always restored; but it will be repaid by love, truth, and kindness. God will take you at your word. He says, Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return. Lessons:
1. The Christian sacrifice is the surrender of will.
2. For a true sacrifice, there must be real love.
3. We must not seek for sacrifices.
You need make no wild, romantic efforts to find occasions. Plenty will occur by Gods appointment, and better than if devised by you. Every hour and moment our will may yield as Abrahams did, quietly, manfully, unseen by all but God. These are the sacrifices which God approves. This is what Abraham meant when he said My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
The greatest trial of all
Satan tempts us that he may bring out the evil that is in our hearts; God tries or tests us that He may bring out all the good. The common incidents of daily life, as well as the rare and exceptional crises, are so contrived as to give us incessant opportunities of exercising, and so strengthening, the graces of Christian living.
I. GOD SENDS US NO TRIAL, WHETHER GREAT OR SMALL, WITHOUT FIRST PREPARING US.
II. GOD OFTEN PREPARED US FOR COMING TRIAL BY GIVING US SON, IN NEW AND BLISSFUL REVELATION OF HIMSELF.
III. THE TRIAL CAME VERY SUDDENLY.
IV. THE TRIAL TOUCHED ABRAHAM IN HIS TENDEREST POINT.
V. IT WAS ALSO A GREAT TEST OF HIS FAITH.
VI. IT WAS A TEST OF HIS OBEDIENCE.
VII. THIS TEST DID NOT OUTRAGE ANY OF THE NATURAL INSTINCTS OF HIS SOUL. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Faith tested and crowned
A life of faith and self-denial has usually its sharpest trials at or near its beginning. The stormy day has generally a calm close. But Abrahams sorest discipline came all sudden, like a bolt from blue sky. Near the end, and after many years of peaceful, uneventful life, he had to take a yet higher degree in the school of faith. Sharp trial means increased possession of God. So his last terrible experience turned to his crowning mercy.
I. THE VERY FIRST WORDS OF THIS SOLEMN NARRATIVE RAISE MANY QUESTIONS. We have God appointing the awful trial. The Revised Version properly replaces tempt by prove. The former word conveys the idea of appealing to the worst part of a man, with the wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal to the better part of a man, with the desire that he should stand. Gods proving does not mean that He stands by, watching how His child will behave. He helps us to sustain the trial to which He subjects us. Life is all probation; and because it is so, it is all the field for the Divine aid. The motive of His proving men is that they may be strengthened. He puts us into His gymnasium to improve our physique. If we stand the trial, our faith is increased; if we fall, we learn self-distrust and closer clinging to Him. No objection can be raised to the representation of this passage as to Gods proving Abraham which does not equally apply to the whole structure of life as a place of probation that it may be a place of blessing. But the manner of the trial here presents a difficulty. How could God command a father to kill his son? Is that in accordance with his character? Well, two considerations deserve attention. First, the final issue; namely, Isaacs deliverance was an integral part of the Divine purpose, from the beginning of the trial; so that the question really is, Was it accordant with the Divine character to require readiness to sacrifice even a son at His command? Second, that in Abrahams time, a fathers right over his childs life was unquestioned, and that therefore this command, though it lacerated Abrahams heart, did not wound his conscience as it would do were it heard to-day.
II. THE GREAT BODY OF THE STORY SETS BEFORE US ABRAHAM STANDING THE TERRIBLE TEST. What unsurpassable beauty is in the simple story! It is remarkable, even among the Scriptural narratives, for the entire absence of anything but the visible facts. There is not a syllable about the feelings of father or of son. The silence is more pathetic than many words. We look as into a magic crystal, and see the very event before our eyes, and our own imaginations tell us more of the world of struggle and sorrow raging under that calm outside than the highest art could do. The pathos of reticence was never more perfectly illustrated. Observe, too, the minute, prolonged details of the slow progress to the dread instant of sacrifice. Each step is told in precisely the same manner, and the series of short clauses, coupled together by an artless and, are like the single stroke of a passing bell, or the slow drops of blood heard falling from a fatal wound. The elements of the trial were too: First, Abrahams soul was torn asunder by the conflict of fatherly love and obedience. The friend of God must hold all other love as less than His, and must be ready to yield up the dearest at His bidding. Cruel as the necessity seems to flesh and blood, and especially poignant as his pain was, in essence Abrahams trial only required of him what all true religion requires of us. Some of us have been called by Gods providence to give up the light of our eyes, the joy of our homes, to Him. Some of us have had to make the choice between earthly and heavenly love. All of us have to throne God in our hearts, and to let not the dearest usurp His place. The conflict in Abrahams soul had a still more painful aspect in that it seemed to rend his very religion into two. Faith in the promise on which he had been living all his life drew one way; faith in the latter command, another. God seemed to be against God, faith against faith, promise against command. We, too, have sometimes to take courses which seem to annihilate the hope and aims of a life. The lesson for us is to go straight on the path of clear duty wherever it leads. If it seems to bring us up to inaccessible cliffs, we may be sure that when we get there we shall find some ledge, though it may be no broader than a chamois could tread, which will suffice for a path. If it seem to bring us to a deep and bridgeless stream, we shall find a ford when we get to the waters edge.
III. So WE HAVE THE CLIMAX OF THE STORY–FAITH REWARDED.
1. The first great lesson which the interposition of the Divine voice teaches us, that obedience is complete when the inward surrender is complete. The will is the man, the true action is the submission of the will. The outward deed is only the coarse medium through which it is made visible for men. God looks on purpose as performance.
2. Again, faith is rewarded by Gods acceptance and approval. I know that thou fearest God. Not meaning that he learned the heart by the conduct, but that on occasion of the conduct He breathes into the obedient heart that calm consciousness of its service as recognized and accepted by Him, which is the highest reward that his friend can know.
3. Again faith is rewarded by a deeper insight into Gods word. That ram, caught in the thicket, thorn-crowned and substituted for the human victim, taught Abraham and his sons that God appointed and provided a lamb for an offering. It was a lesson won by faith, Nor need we hesitate to see some dim forecast of the great substitute God provided, who bears the sins of the world.
4. Again, faith is rewarded by receiving back the surrendered blessing, made more precious because it has been laid on the altar.
5. Lastly, Abraham was rewarded by being made a faint adumbration, for all time, of the yet more wondrous and awful love of the Divine Father, who, for our sakes, has surrendered His only-begotten Son, whom He loved. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The temptation of Abraham
1. Trials increase with time.
2. There is a gradation in service, and the trial is in proportion to the rank.
3. Gods servants are tested most severely at their strongest point.
4. In proportion to the uses to be made of a thing, so is it tested.
5. In the Bible history individual virtues are tried in turn.
I. GOD TESTED ABRAHAMS POWER OF SIMPLE OBEDIENCE.
II. GOD TESTS THE POWER OF PERFECT SURRENDER.
III. IN ALL GODS DEALINGS WITH MEN THERE IS A REVELATION, AND THE GREAT TRUTH UNFOLDED AT THE CROSS IS HERE IN GERM AND SEED. (Anon.)
Abrahams great trial
1. No narrative in Scripture more solemn and affecting, more graphic in its delineation, than this.
2. Profound instruction here as to the power and reward of faith.
I. THE TIME AT WHICH THE TRIAL CAME. After these things–after all his rich and ripe experience, after all that be had done and suffered, after all that he had gained and lost, in his repeated trials, after all Divine promises and Divine manifestations. There is no guarantee that our worst trials are over, till we have sighed out our spirits upon the bosom of our great Father.
II. THE NATURE OF THE TRIAL ITSELF. What could be a greater contradiction than this, that the child in whose seed mankind was to be blessed, was now to be slain? Only let us yield implicit obedience to Divine commands, and contradictions will explain themselves; the mysteries of providence, of life and death, shall all be unfolded; for the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.
III. THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE TRIAL OCCURRED. It was the final and grand development of the patriarchs faith; that was the end sought and attained. Not the sacrifice of Isaac, but of Abraham himself. When this was complete, it was enough (Homilist.)
Abrahams victory
I. THE TRIAL.
1. An unexpected trial.
2. A trial between the present and the future.
3. A trial without any precedent.
4. A trial between man and God.
II. THE VICTORY.
1. A victory after a long struggle.
2. A complete victory over self.
3. A victory revealing the trust God had placed in him.
4. A victory which obtained fresh tokens of the Divine love.
Lessons:
1. That a religion without sacrifice is worthless to us.
2. The shadow directs our attention to the reality–the Saviours Cross. (Homilist.)
Perfect faith
I. THE TESTING OF FAITH.
II. GODS MANIFEST APPROVAL OF PERFECT FAITH.
1. God manifests His approval by abstracting the pain consequent on obedience to the command.
2. God manifests His approval by providing a sacrifice which shall be at once vicarious and a thank-offering.
3. God repeats His promise of blessing, and confirms it by a solemn covenant. (F. Hastings.)
Abrahams sacrifice
I. HE SACRIFICED HIS OWN REASON. No argument. Simply faith.
II. HE SACRIFICED HIS OWN AMBITIOUS DESIRES. His only son was to be slain.
III. HE SACRIFICED NATURAL AFFECTION. TO murder an only child in cold blood required a strong nerve and a wondrous fixedness of purpose.
IV. HE SACRIFICED HIS OWN GOOD REPORT. Was willing to be branded as a murderer, for the sake of winning the approval of God. (Homilist.)
Faiths trial; or, Abrahams example practically applied
I. THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL. Example is an invariable element in every mans education. More or less he is sure to be shaped by it.
II. ABRAHAMS EXAMPLE ATTAINABLE. Abraham is a favourite subject for the artists pencil. But in most of the paintings we behold a figure erect and commanding, his countenance ploughed with stern lines of determination, an eye which makes resistance quail and tremble, and features which display a natural decision of character capable of pursuing its object at any cost. You would think love an easy sacrifice for such a being; you would say at the very first glance, I could tell beforehand that man would give up his all to accomplish his purpose; I can understand his offer of Isaac. I recollect seeing a painting the very opposite of all this. Before me stood the Patriarch, a decrepid and weak old man; he had lost his stature, for years had bent him down; there was a shrinking back from the deed, a rebellion in every joint; his face harrowed with grief, wearing an expression of intense agony, and evidently appalled by the act it was contemplating; his arm half lifted up, and apparently questioning whether he should do the deed or not. My first impression was, It is wrong, utterly wrong. And yet there was something on that canvas which kept me gazing, and at last altered my opinion entirely. There was a certain speech about the uplifted eye which you could not mistake; there was a peculiar and inexplicable expression overshadowing the agony of feature; there was a heavenly something about the countenance which told you that, after all, the deed would be done, and that the struggles you saw were but the weakness of man contending in unequal and unavailing effort with the might of the Spirit. The man would evidently draw back, but the God would as evidently triumph. Human power was all directed to avoid the sacrifice; but heavenly power–God working in that refractory heart to will and to do of His good pleasure–would certainly consummate the offering. That painting was a faithful likeness. I recognized Abraham. The Patriarch was not by nature a firm man; much less was he a stern man of cold heart. There are facts of his previous life which prove him to have been originally of a somewhat shrinking and cowardly disposition. We look in vain for moral firmness in the case of Sarahs sojourn in Egypt. He resorted to a falsehood as a safeguard against his fears lest strangers should slay him to obtain his wife; and notwithstanding he saw the evil and mischief resulting from this deception, he again practised it on Abimelech with the same purpose. His domestic life altogether indicates a pliant and yielding disposition. The short narration of Sarahs imperious and overbearing conduct in Ishmaels case (Gen 13:8-10) is very significant. The division of land with Lot goes to prove the same point; there is no stern demand of strict justice; he does not insist upon his due; he does not even award the nephew his portion of territory; but he gives up his right of adjudication, which he possessed by seniority and patriarchal title, and meekly does he allow his younger relative to select his own land and pasturage. Even in his prayer for Sodom, there evidently is seen the pitying and earnest, yet fearful and undecided suppliant: he does not sternly leave the city to its doom; he does not put forth one general supplication for mercy; but the ground of his petition is moved and shifted in a way, which, to say the least, is not the act of a firm unyielding nature. Yet if these proofs do not establish the contrary of constitutional boldness, there is at least no proof of its existence; there is nothing to indicate that the parents sacrifice had any sort of origin or support in natural disposition. We know that one who was weak in bodily presence, and in speech contemptible, was chosen out of the rest as the very chiefest of the apostles; and the probability is that one of the most infirm and naturally unlikely of all the Patriarchs was made strong out of weakness, and distinguished above many physical and mental Samsons, as a Father in grace. We are apt to consider such examples far above, out of our reach. We reckon them as giants from the womb, instead of giants by grace. We attribute to them natural powers which we have not. In fact we treat them as superhuman beings of a different race, and moving in a different sphere, But though the power provided is amply sufficient to enable us to emulate the faith of Abraham, yet you object, that you will not have the same scope for the exercise of that power; your circumstances are different; you are never likely to be commanded to take a son of special promise and slay him as a sacrifice to God. True, the deed is great, and probably, as a single act, it stands and will stand alone and unequalled; but there is often, as it were, a congeries of trials, which may even surpass, in its sum total, the amount of suffering which Abraham endured. A long succession of lesser sacrifices, following one on the heels of another, and keeping you in a state of constant depression for years, may call for more than the strength of faith required for Isaacs sacrifice. Sustained labour–sorrow scattered over a large surface–is far more difficult to bear than any crushing but momentary load. A strong man may easily walk twenty-four miles a day for a fortnight together; but break up this distance, and distribute it over the entire day and night; compel him to walk half a mile in each half hour. The distance is the same, but the effect is altogether different. The harassed traveller cannot bear this unceasing drain on his strength; he has no unbroken rest, no time for nature to recruit before her energies are again taxed; and often has such an attempt ended in almost fatal exhaustion. There is an analogy between body and soul; a number of little trials are more than equal to a great one; like the half mile to each half hour, they keep the moral bow continually strained and bent, and thus tend to destroy its elasticity. You may kill a man with drops of water as well as by immersing him in a flood.
III. THE NATURE OF FAITHS TRIAL. God tries men; Satan tempts them. God sits as a refiner of silver, to purify it; Satan as a base coiner, to alloy it.
Both often use fire; but the fire of heaven burns out the dross, whilst the fire of hell amalgamates more and more base metal with the lump. The two operations are diametrically opposed, though the means are often the same. God sits as a refiner of His people; His object is to purify and not to punish; and hence our surest escape from sorrow is not to struggle against the sorrow itself, but against the sin which demanded it. But since God alone gives trial efficacy, why cannot He give the efficacy without the trial? of what use is trial? how does God employ it? Some speak of the believers trial as though it were a means employed by God, for His own information, to find out the qualities of our heart and the strength of our faith. But the Lord knows such facts without trial. Our Creator is not a mere spiritual experimentalist, who needs a long course of practical tests before He can arrive at the truth. His science is not inductive, but intuitive. A mere volition on His part is more searching than the most careful analysis of the chemist, or all the combination, separation, and comparison of the philosopher. A look of God can resolve the intricate mesh-work of the human heart into single strands, and make every spiritual pulse as apparent as though it were the heaving of a volcano. The Lord knoweth our flame –every part as well as all–every weakness as well as every faculty; andeven the unconceived thought–the thought afar off –is understood by Him. It is not necessary, then, that we should be put to the proof, in order that God may estimate our amount of faith and love; neither is it needful for our Maker to try our strength by actually piling burdens upon our shoulders, for He can tell to the very grain what we can bear, and what will crush us. The promise that He will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able to bear, clearly implies a previous knowledge of the extent of our ability, Yes! God can weigh in the delicate balances of His Omniscience every power, bodily, mentally, or spiritual; a mere glance reveals to Him every weakness of our soul; and therefore trial is not intended to usurp the province of Omniscience, or to teach that which the Lord knows without teaching. Why, then, does God try His people? How does He employ trial? He aims, not at a knowledge of their condition, but at development of it. His object is to open out to your own eye the book of your heart, to display before you the letters which He Himself has already seen, and to pour such a light upon them that their true meaning and character may be understood by you. The frequent aim of sorrow is to show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. At other times trial is sent, not so much to point out actual sin, as to expose some internal weakness–some latent tendency to evil. There is a flaw in the metal, and since it has escaped your notice, God puts the lump in the proof-house, and that flaw is soon made visible–Davids impure affections, and Peters fear of man, were thus brought to the light. Or, perhaps, there is some muscle of the soul shrunken for the want of use–some talent buried and wrapt in a napkin–and temptation is to us as a gymnasium, strengthening that which was weak by athletic exercise, and gradually developing that which was attenuated even to deformity, until the might of the Spirit has by trial so completely matured our strength that the babe in Christ stands forth in all the gnarled muscle and staining sinew of spiritual manhood.
IV. THE REALITY OF TRIAL. Abrahams offer of Isaac was not a solemn farce, as a scoffer has said; but it was a real sacrifice–real, as God who searches the heart counts reality. The fathers entire plan bears the impress of a fixed conviction that Isaac must die, and die by his parents hands. There are many who can behave most heroically with trial in the far and uncertain distance. So long as self-denials and sacrifices are indefinitely shadowed in the dim future, so long as they are problematical, who so ready as these pseudo-Abrahams to meet them! There have been sad instances of this spiritual dealing in promissory notes, given under the impression that no call for the money would ever be made, and that men may live, and satisfy both their neighbours and themselves, on the credit of this mere paper sacrifice. God does not require from us loud assertions of what we would do under circumstances which we never expect to occur; He does not desire us to tell the world how unflinchingly we would bear the tortures of persecution, and die in the flames for the sake of Christ; but He requires some practical and real proof of our obedience. Conditional faith is very easy; gifts ungiven do not cost much; zeal, without a field for work, is readily kindled; but the true proof that you possess the spirit of Abraham is this–are you ready in act or deed to give up this or that jewel as he gave up Isaac? Are you willing to surrender any possession, or endure any suffering, in the full belief that God will ask and receive it from you?
V. FAITH TRIED BY DUBIOUS OR CONFLICTING COMMANDS.
VI. FAITH TRIED BY A CONFLICTING PROMISE AND COMMAND. The command to slay Isaac seemed to be given in the very face of previous promise. On Isaac was the covenanted future of Abraham built. But My covenant will I establish with Isaac. What a strange and mysterious contradiction! Here is the forefather of the Redeemer–the boy from whom Christ is hereafter to be born; and he is to die as a sacrificial lamb–a burnt-offering–a type of Christ. As though God with one fell blow would destroy the hope of Israel, and in the very act of destruction mock His servant with the sign He had established as a guarantee that the hope would be fulfilled. It was like using the earnest of our inheritance to sweep away and devastate our inheritance itself. It was like employing the seal of the covenant as an instrument wherewith to cancel the covenant itself. This alone was a fearful trial of faith. And can our circumstances ever resemble these? We believe they can, and often do. God may have placed you in a position of great spiritual peril. Your soul seems to be endangered. He has promised to save you, and yet has surrounded you with such a complication of snares and dangers, that salvation appears impossible. Cares like a wild deluge sweep over you; your business is all-engrossing; it demands your closest attention; it calls you early from your bed, and only allows you to retire when it has thoroughly drained the energies of mind and body; your family is increasing around you; you dare not slacken your labours; starvation or this drudgery lies before you. Now such a case appears to be utterly incompatible with the growth of piety; it seems a fiat contradiction of the promise, Peace I leave with you. Yet it is clear that God has put a necessity upon you to remain in this employment; He has so contrived circumstances that you cannot escape without violating duties on all hands. If you abandon your calling, then a much worse condition threatens. You dare not lay down and die; this were suicide, and if you have lives depending on you, it were murder too. If your employment were in itself wrong and immoral, then it would be different; in such a case God calls you out, and at all risks, even though you had a thousand Isaacs to leave, you must go. But as it is, your occupation is right in itself, yet owing to your own weakness and infirmities, it has an influence, as all business has, to draw your soul from Christ, and plunge it in a sea of anxieties. Your companions also may be among those spiritual fools who say in their hearts there is no God, and laugh at your scruples. You cannot rid yourself of them; they may be employed by your master; or they may be a part of your necessary stock-in-trade; at all events, for some reason or other, escape from their society may be as impossible as giving up your calling altogether. Or perhaps your very family may be profane; the father who begat you may look coldly on you as a saint; your piety may wean you even from a mothers heart; for Christs sake you must remain like a leper in your family–alone, and when not alone, still worse–a butt for mockery, or a thing to be loathed. And all these grievous spiritual stumbling-blocks, or some of them, or other which we have not named, may stand in your way to heaven, and there is no possible turning by which you may rightly avoid them. In fact, to stay or to go seems fraught with your souls peril. How then can you be saved? Now such a position may appear hostile to your souls welfare; it may seem like handing you over to the wiles and power of Satan; it may wear the aspect of imminent peril; but if only you go on your way as Abraham journeyed with the doomed Isaac to Moriah, trusting in Gods love and faithfulness, you will eventually find that this road right through the enemys camp was really your safest road after all; your mind and your habits may be so formed, that nothing but constant fightings without keep up the necessary fightings within; like many a soldier after the flesh, you may not be fit for peace service; the luxuries of repose may prove more fatal to you than the enemys whole park of artillery; so that war is actually your safest occupation; resisting strong temptations may be the securest employment for you. Or perhaps God has some work for you to perform in the worlds heart–some poor half-wrecked bark to draw out of the whirling sucking vortex–some soul to be converted from the error of his ways, and to shine at last as your joy and crown of rejoicing before the presence of Christ. At all events, you may be quite sure that though every possible spiritual danger were accumulated round you, yet is that position nought but a master-piece of strategy, planned by the Captain of your salvation for your safety. Only trust in the Lords wisdom, and lean upon His strength, and the very spear of the foe shall be your defence, warding off some more dangerous and unseen weapon; the sharp bosses of the worlds buckler shall be the steel on which you sharpen your own sword; the number of your enemies shall be but an index of your imparted graces; the fierceness of the fight shall only predicate the splendour of your triumph and the brightness of your everlasting crown.
VII. FAITH SACRIFICING AFFECTION. The heart of the Patriarch was the primary point of assault in his trial of faith. The flocks of the Patriarch were not asked. It had been a great sacrifice to give up those large possessions of which we are told, some years previously to Isaacs offer, that Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. But though the command left them untouched, what would they be when the heir was gone? And Isaac was now Abrahams only son. Ishmael was gone–gone at Gods command (Gen 21:13). And how painfully must the dear boys name have struck on the fathers ear, when he was told to take thine only ISAAC–thy Laughter! Oh! God touched more than one sensitive cord of Abrahams heart when He said, Take Isaac. It told the father of that ungrateful mockery with which he heard the promise of a son pronounced; it told him how a forgiving God had pardoned the offence, and turned the laughter of mockery into the laughter of joy; it told him of the many years he had spent with this Isaac–this Laughter–to wipe away his tears and wreath sorrow itself into smiles. And now he is to take this Isaac–and God, when He dooms the son to death, and the father to kill him, calls him Thine only Laughter. And then to complete this array of the sons claims on his fathers heart, the Lord terms him thy son, whom thou lovest –as though there were any occasion to tell Abraham that. The reason of all this is obvious; it was to make manifest the Divine purpose; it was to say in plain language, Lovest thou Me more than these? God is not contented if you only give Him what you can easily spare; He will not be satisfied with a mere secondary treasure; but often He demands your chief delight, and bids you surrender the most precious thing you have. There is to be no reserve–no treasure kept back–no bidding God to take anything except that. There are many ways in which your faith is thus tried, and your love is called to give up its treasures. True, you are not told to offer up an Isaac on the altar; but there are other things which are Isaacs to you, and which God requires you to surrender; the great possessions were the young rulers Isaac, pharisaism was that of Paul, and expected worldly greatness was that of all the apostles who followed Christ in the days of His flesh. Everything dear to us, whether within or without, may be our Isaac; and oftentimes we find that the most hidden of our idols is our dearest. What can be dearer to you than your own will–that inbred desire to walk where you list, do as you like, and live for yourself? it is your nature; it is like the instinctive love of life; it is that for which the carnal man craves. And God invariably says with respect to this Isaac; Take him, dear though he be, and offer him up in a place that I will show thee–that place is Calvary. But frequently this cherished will assumes some more special form; it appears as some particular disposition or tendency of nature; there is some pleasure in which your tastes lead you to indulge, some unholy employment which mere avarice induces you to continue, some bad companion whose image has crept into your heart. Or it may be that some object, good in itself, stands between you and your God–between your love and your duty. And this trial is often heightened by Gods selecting a particular mode of giving, as well as by His choosing a gift we prize. God not only demanded Isaac, but He also fixed upon the most trying process of surrender. Give Me thy son, and offer him up. Abraham knew what that meant. If Isaac had been sent, like Ishmael, into the wilderness, and there left to perish of thirst, still had it been a gift of the child to God. But a mere gift was not all which God demanded; the means of bestowment were as essential as the gift itself. Abraham must sacrifice Isaac like a mere sheep on the altar. How many pangs did that act require l Even the mere preparations demanded more than a martyrs fortitude. Knife and fire! Just the two things from which affection most abhorrently recoils. So fearful in their operation! So violent in their work! So terrible for memory to dwell upon. It is related of an ancient painter that he once chose for his subject the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father, and over Agamemnons face he painted a veil, thus rendering the features invisible. The artists friends remonstrated on this singular omission. You have obscured, said they, the chief personage in your group; you have concealed the father. Ah, said the painter, I could not describe his features; and so he thought the veil more significant than any impotent attempt to depict agony, which no canvas nor words can convey. We must adopt the same wise plan; silence is the best comment upon the anguish of Abraham; the heart alone can paint it. But, however painful the operation which God selects, we must adopt it; for to change the mode of sacrifice, or to murmur at it, is just as much a proof of deficient faith, as to withhold the object. Alas! This impatience of the Lords mode of trial is all but universal. We seem contented with submitting to the bare loss of some treasure, and appear to think this meagre submission entitles us to find fault with the way in which that loss befel us. The merchant does not pine under his ruin, but impatience overmasters him when he thinks of the fact that a sons extravagance, or a friends treachery was the agency which God permitted; if only he had miscalculated his expenses, overrated his profits, or been defrauded by strangers, and thus being ruined, he could have submitted; at least he thinks he could. The parent loses his child; perhaps the stroke fell upon him with appalling suddenness, or the visitation was attended with severe pain, and long continued struggles with death; he fancied that he could have given up his boy in any other way without a murmur; if only time to say farewell had been granted, or if he had seen his darling sink into death as into a calm and painless sleep, he could have said, Thy will be done; but oh! that violent wrenching apart of soul and body, that pillow unwatched and unsoothed, that far distant grave unwatered by a tear, untold by an epitaph, or unadorned by a flower; these are the food on which a murmuring spirit feeds; these are the excuses to which want of submission clings. Or perhaps the sacrificed Isaac may be of quite a different kind; some privilege is taken away, some means of usefulness removed, and it is possible that all this may have been brought about by the authority of those dear to you; they care not for religion, they are taken up with business, they compel you, as far as possible, to relinquish what they call your weakness and absurdity, and since you will not go with them to the same excess of riot and worldliness, they throw every obstacle they can in the way of your progress; the taunt, the sneer, the profane jest, and the positive prohibition are all tried in turn; your heart is almost broken as it views such barriers reared by such hands. Oh l if the sword were to be the instrument which cut you and your privileges asunder; if a dungeon were to shut you out from your means of grace, instead of that parlour and that circle of loved hearts which like a chain surround you; if the edicts of some bloodthirsty ruler or some savage council were to utter your sentence of banishment from your means of grace, and not those words spoken by lips which have kissed you, and by tongues which have soothed you even as a babe, then you could bear your sad lot. All this is wrong; our faith is seriously defective; we have not learnt to say, Thy will be done, until we can give not only what the Lord wills, but as the Lord wills.
VIII. FAITH OPPOSITE AFFECTION. One half of the Patriarchs sacrifice is frequently forgotten–men see the father surrendering the son, but they overlook the husband giving up the wife; they do not remember that the same weapon which slew the child would inevitably divide asunder the parents. Abraham was called to pierce one heart and break another; and the same blow would certainly do both. How could Sarah survive Isaacs death stroke? The probability is that the command was purposely kept from her, lest she, who had imperiously sent Ishmael away against her husbands wish, should now step in like a robbed lioness, snatching Isaac from his fathers hands, and thus preventing obedience. Besides, the account tells us that Gods purpose was to try Abraham–not Sarah–and therefore to him alone was the afflicting command given, and from him alone was this sacrifice of faith required. With Sarah in this state of unconsciousness, what a terrible awakening was before her! And supposing Isaac were at length given back, would Sarahs love for Abraham recover from such a shock? Could she ever bear to be supported or fondled with that hand which had once been spotted with her Isaacs blood? But in any case what a trial of the heart was here! We speak truth when we say that a large share of the Patriarchs sacrifice consisted in opposing, as well as surrendering, his affections–in wounding Sarah as well as killing Isaac. God calls you frequently to thwart your heart, and to oppose things and persons you love. He does not always require you to give up the object; but He leaves it in your possession and bids you contend against it. It is not enough to resist loves influence against God, nor will it suffice that it should lie passive and submissive beneath the Saviours power; but we must even strive to make it an active and influential agent in Christs work of winning souls. Love must not be drummed out of the regiment as a vagabond sin, but it must be disciplined into a good soldier of Jesus Christ–a recruiting sergeant for the Lords army. Love must turn preacher, and persuade men.
IX. FAITH DARING THE WORLDS REPUTE. What will the servants of Abraham say? How will the Canaanite mock? Even if Isaac be restored, yet what will they say, should the bare purpose of that journey to Moriah ever transpire? And if the Patriarch should return alone; what then? What a difference between the Patriarch and many of us I He had reproaches awaiting him of such a character as to make the firmest man stagger–reproaches founded on principles which were true in the general way, and only false in his special case; and here are we hesitating at every step, however slight, wondering and fearing what this friend, or that neighbour, may say. How strange it will seem is our excuse for omitting many a duty, and perpetrating many a sin. I have but to quote to you half-a-dozen opinions against your obedience to God; I have but to show you that this or that act of discipleship will incur a laugh, or a sneer, or a curse, from your acquaintance, and you draw back; I have but to prove that open profession of Christ will be followed by your being cast out from some privileged Synagogue of Satan, and you timidly hide your Saviour, you content yourself with a hole-and-corner piety, your discipleship is only an invisible dress, you come to Jesus by night, the fear of man is your snare. Abraham must have expected to draw down upon himself the reproaches even of those who loved God; Melchisedec the priest, and Sarah the wife, and Eliezer the servant, would probably all unite in upbraiding him. And the name, too, how hard to hear–Murderer!
X. PROMPT FAITH. The difference between an excuse and a reason is, that the former is the offspring of desire, the latter is the result of judgment; one is forced into being by self-justification, the other is deliberately conceived by conviction; one is a mere invention, the other is a discovery. Now Abraham had no reason for delay; yet had he many possible excuses. Why not take some days or at least some hours to make his preparations for almost a weeks journey; food must be obtained, tents must be packed, wood must be hewn, and arrangements must be made for so long an absence. Affection might have lingered over a thousand so-called necessaries, and multiplied its preparations, in order to lengthen out the span of Isaacs life. The youth himself must be allowed time to get ready; and, above all, Sarahs mind must be prepared for his absence, or else what will she say to his sudden and mysterious journey? True, the servants may tell her, He is gone to do sacrifice; but will not her obvious answer be, Why should he conceal such a deed from me? why should he so suddenly conceive such a purpose? why disappear like a thief in the night? Surely the husband may spare her this woe I surely he may lull her suspicions by giving her a few days warning that he and Isaac are about to go and offer sacrifice in a place which God will show him, and thus reconcile her to the journey! The heart might easily have seized on any or all these excuses to prolong the sons life, and defer the dreadful slaughter. And to facilitate this immediate obedience, we find the Patriarch using the most simple preparations, and actually sharing in the labour of making them. With servants in abundance, he yet saddles the ass with his own hands; he then takes Isaac and two young men, and the four cleave the wood–i.e., the dry fuel which it was necessary to carry with them in order to kindle the damp wood they might find near the place of sacrifice. A tardy and hesitating commencement of Christian duty is so utterly opposed to the spirit of the gospel that the bare existence of reluctance is a just cause for doubting the genuineness of our faith. One of the most hopeless forms which ungodliness takes is the pseudo-obedience of unbelief, and fear, and hesitation. Oh! there is a force in prompt obedience which completely baffles the enemy of souls; he has no time to manufacture snares; he has no opportunity of throwing down stumbling-blocks before you; but there you are in possession, so to speak, of the heights, and too firm and strongly entrenched for him to disturb your position. Promptitude is the very strategem Satan employs so successfully against us; he anticipates our obedience with his rebellious suggestions; he is throwing up barricades before us while we are questioning whether we will go forward or not. Alacrity is thus the very weapon specially adapted to foil him. History tells us that promptness and rapidity of movement were the keys to Napoleons most splendid victories; he no sooner conceived a plan of campaign than his whole army was in swift march to execute it; his adversarys outposts, driven in by what appeared to them a mysterious and omnipresent antagonist–his artillery, flashing and booming from heights which the foe thought it useless and absurd to occupy–these were the couriers who made the first announcement of his approach to the enemy. At times this prompt appearance in the field served of itself to force the opposing army into a hasty and full retreat; and if this effect did not follow, then did the conquerors columns move with the same swiftness to the attack as they had shown on their march, and they fell upon the surprised and panic-struck foe as though they had been transformed into a literal thunderbolt of war, hurled by a second Mars. And why may not we use the same tactics in spiritual warfare with the same success?
XI. DELIBERATE FAITH. True diligence begins her work by earnest inquiry; she first looks, and then runs; she first prepares, and then sets out; neither is her course, when commenced, like an arrow from a bow–slower and slower, as she goes on, but it is like iron attracted towards a loadstone–faster and faster as she approaches it. She does not move like some showy ensign on a flagstaff–flapping and waving in all directions, yet always confined to one point–but like the sails of some gallant ship, she catches and keeps the wind, her canvas filled with the heavenly breeze, and pressing onwards towards port. She has an eagles eye and an eagles wing–looking and soaring to the sun–and not a swallows uncertain flight,now skimming the water, now gliding along the ground, now circling in the air, and yet never flying towards a given point. The desire of true diligence is, not motion, but motion towards an object; she runs, looking to Jesus; she presses to the mark. First of all, deliberation is needed to ascertain the fact and the genuineness of the Divine command; for until that is known, true faith can do nothing. Abraham was sure of this fact at once, but, as we have seen, it is different with us, and often much doubt surrounds the question. Diligence, therefore, begins by seeking Divine illumination; for no time is gained which is gained at the expense of Gods teaching–no time is wasted which is spent in supplication of the Spirit. Yet there must be no manufacture of doubts for the sake of waiting to have them removed; there must be no halting of unbelief after the Lord has uttered a reply quite clear and definite enough for a ready faith to hear, In fine, your questions must be like those of the child who has lost its way, and pants for home–not like those of the sluggard, who, when he is called, still lies rubbing his eyes, and asking a score of inquiries as to the time, and weather, and temperature, just to delay the act of rising, and, if possible, to discover an excuse for further sleep. And then, while this earnest and sincere inquiry of the Lord is going on, and we are learning what we knew not, a second purpose will be attained; we shall be strengthened as well as taught; the answer to our prayer for teaching will include might as well as instruction; the Lord will add power to knowledge; the Spirit will at the same time mark out our road, and prepare us for it. True obedience does the Lords will at the Lords time; it is neither before nor after; it is neither rash nor slow. But what has all this to do with Abrahams example? he did not tarry, but set out almost immediately; two or three hours after the vision he was on his way. Yet, notwithstanding this early start, the deliberate character of the Patriarchs faith was most thoroughly tested by the three days journey to Moriah . . . It had been comparatively., easy for him to leave his couch under the immediate influence of the vision, rouse Isaac from his bed, take him to some neighbouring hill, and there sacrifice him before the morning had dawned. But God required him to be a burning and shining light, and not a mere flashing meteor; He resolved to expose the flame to rough winds, and to sustain combustion, in order to give us an example of that holy fire kindled by the Spirit, which no wind can blow out, and no time can burn out. At first the full extent of Isaacs loss might not present itself to Abrahams mind. He was probably carried beyond himself by the abundance of the revelation given unto him. The first excitement of the Lords sudden appearance to him was cooled down; his obedience was clearly not the result of entrancement; he could stand, as it were, calmly in Gods presence for three long days, holding Isaac in his extended and untired arms for the Lord to take him when He chose. And then this period of suspense served not only to try the real and enduring character of Abrahams faith, but it also gave time for that necessary and painful work of counting the cost. In fact, he had time to estimate what the Lords will really was in all its extent and consequences, and thus to obey God with his eyes open. The Saviour is not contented that He should know the value of what He asks; we must know it too. Christ will have an intelligent surrender of all you have. You must reckon what you give to Him, not with a purse-proud spirit, but with the steady purpose of a man who makes over all his property to another, and numbers up pounds, and fields, and houses, to see that nothing is wanting. Thus prepared by earnest inquiry, imparted grace, patience, and a foresight of sorrows, our obedience will not be that hybrid monster of a day, begotten from the adulterous union of so-called religion with excitement or fear; but it will be the calm, holy, long-lived offspring of the Spirit–obedience which can rise with the lark, and like a bird of passage on its migration, continue on the wing till the distant clime is reached–obedience so unchangeable, that even were it three years instead of three days, or three centuries instead of three years, still would Gods true servant bend his willing steps to the distant Moriah, and at last take the knife to consummate the act with as much holy strength of purpose as if he had rushed from the scene of the night vision to the place of sacrifice.
XII. FAITH CLEARING, THE WAY OF EXPECTED OBSTACLES. It is not enough to foresee a difficulty or to blunder onwards, encountering hindrances as they come, but, so far as we can, we must previously remove out of our path everything which may impede or stop us. Many obstacles are insurmountable and fatal when discovered after they are reached, and yet are mere trifles if seen and provided against at a distance. How easy for a general to dislodge the mere handful of enemies which lie in yonder wood in ambush; yet let him march his whole force past the ambuscade, and only take measures against it when his army is attacked, then are his troops thrown into most serious confusion, and perhaps driven back panic-stricken. The traveller across the desert may easily guard against the drought of his journey beforehand; he has nothing to do but to fill his water-skin, and sling it across his shoulders; but if he delays preparation till the moment of thirst, what agonies–perhaps agonies even to death–does it entail i It is self-confidence, and not faith, which despises precaution, and expects no obstacle till it comes; it is presumption, and not filial confidence, which will not anticipate the obstacles God has revealed, or use the means to overcome them which He has given. A foresight of difficulty, and precaution against future obstacles, are as much the Spirits work as is strength for the actual battle. What, if Abraham had not hewn the wood, or had left the fire or the knife at home, depending on the moment of sacrifice to provide him with these necessaries! Would that have been genuine faith? Would you not have questioned his sincerity if the Bible had told us that he took Isaac to Moriah, and lo! the wet wood of the mountain would not kindle? Would you not have suspected an obedience which was arrested by the want of a knife or fire? If Abraham had returned with an unslain Isaac on such grounds as these, you would have refused to own him as an example of faith. Another remarkable instance of this same careful forethought is seen when, at some distance from Moriah, Abraham stopped the servants who attended his journey, and bade them Abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship. It is clear that Abrahams purpose was to secure himself against the certain interference of these servants. Without having received a direct command from God to submit, there is not a single right-minded man on earth who would, or could, or ought to, have quietly permitted such a deed to be done. They would certainly have interfered. Well! if they did, was not Abrahams purpose of obedience perfect? Could he not have said, I was quite willing, but they prevented me? Now, the faith of excitement would have gone carelessly on, without any forethought or precaution against this obstacle. Oh! what a contrary spirit often prevails among so-called disciples of Christ, and professors of Abrahamic faith. Instead of the Patriarchs foresight and energy of purpose, they welcome difficulties as saviours from self-denial. They snatch at any obstruction, magnify it a thousand-fold, esteem it an impassable barrier, and call it an interposition of Providence.
XIII. ACTIVE FAITH The son must be given–and something more–the father must be the immediate giver. Behold a priest is even at hand! Why not send Melchisedec to me? he is Thy priest; the office is peculiarly his; let the work be his; let him slay my Isaac. No! Abraham, the Lord requires thy active faith, therefore Take the knife. How desirable such a plan must have appeared for many reasons! Melchisedec would share in the act; the priestly sacrificer would at once be a guarantee for the character of Isaacs slaughter, and would in some measure silence the reproaches which such a deed would bring on the Patriarch. It would be evident to all that the deed was done from religious motives. But no! All this alleviation must Abraham forego; his faith must be active–not passive–he must take the knife. Faith must be active. She must not wait till houses, and lands, and friends are wrenched out of her possession, but when the Saviours cause requires it, she must forsake them; she must become the agent in her worldly loss; she must, so far as earth is concerned, be both ruiner and ruined. Are we to wait till accident robs us of them, or till God takes them from us by some signal calamity? No! The deprivation is to be our own act; we are to cut off the hand; we are to pluck out the eye; we are to amputate the foot. She is not like an unwilling child who requires the mother to rise up out of her place and force the toy from his hand; but she resembles the sweet and ready child, who, at a word, catches up the forbidden plaything, and runs with outstretched arms to put it in the mothers lap. Thus, the believer must often be the executioner of his own joys–the slayer of his own Isaac. But there must be no mere self-torture, for tortures sake; none of those lashings, and horse-hair shirts, or hot iron floor, or beds of thorns, or starving, which are often prescribed as trials of faith. If you act on your own judgment and responsibility, you are a presumptuous tormentor; your sacrifice has no relationship to that of Abraham, for if he had done as you do, he would have taken Isaac without any Divine command to Moriah, he would have slain him upon the altar, he would have been a murderer. Faith, then, must not walk alone: she must not mark out her own course; her activity must be that of obedience, and not of independent and self-prescribed action. Her first inquiry must be, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? and immediately she must set about doing it.
XIV. PASSIVE FAITH. There stands a weak and aged man, his form bent, and his hand trembling. And there, on the wood, lies a youth in all the bloom and power of bursting manhood, his age about twenty-five, his muscle developed, his form displaying all that wiry strength which ultimately endured the shocks of one hundred and eighty years. Why, Abraham would have shaken and staggered in such a grasp as Isaacs hand could give. A blow from the sons arm, and the father had rolled helplessly down the sides of Moriah. Doing often includes suffering; but suffering does not in itself always include doing; there is a suffering which is strictly passive; we have solely to endure. Yet when we speak of any part of Christian character or conduct as passive, it must be a very contrast to apathy.
XV. FAITH REWARDED. The reward of faith is so named because it is given to faith, and not because it is given for faith. The relation therefore of faith to blessing is not the relation of a price to a purchase, but that which the excavation of a channel bears to the water which is afterwards to flow into it. And what of the reward itself? What was it in Abrahams case? One part of that reward was the restoration of Isaac. Yet what was this more than the father would have enjoyed if the son had never been taken to Moriah? Was not Isaac returned, the same Isaac as Isaac given? No! he was not; Isaac after being offered and restored, could not be the same to Abraham as if he had been unoffered and unrestored; he was a different son–a more precious son–a thousand-fold more precious. Could Isaac be the same boy to him? Supposing by some fearful accident I had almost destroyed the child of my love; for days I watched him as life seemed rapidly ebbing; but suddenly a change appeared, and the physician told me he was out of danger; what would be my future feelings to that child? Why! under such circumstances even hatred has been known to warm into affection; and how much more will a fathers ready heart be kindled into an intensity of fondness! Our Saviour Himself founds some of His most beautiful parables on the principle that a thing lost, but restored, is dearer far to the finder than a thing never lost at all. Isaac restored was literally a reward–a thing given to faith–a thing which Abraham never possessed before. And then what a hallowed and sacred association would ever after cling to that boy! he had actually been solemnly offered to God. Isaac was an ever-present image of Gods favour–a living memorial of the Lords faithfulness–he was grace incarnated–grace manifest in the flesh. A trial sanctified is always a trial rewarded; it always sweetens the true believers blessings; and though he may have no more outward causes of happiness than before–yea, though he may have even fewer–yet has the souls palate been so freshened and improved that his actual perception of joy is tenfold greater; the change is not in the food, but in the quickened appetite of the eater. But the consummation of faiths reward in Abrahams case was when, for the first time, he gazed on that incarnate Saviour born of his Isaacs seed. Great must have been his joy when he saw the Eternal Son in all the glory of His Godhead; but when he beheld his Lord becoming in very deed a child of Isaac and a Redeemer of the whole world, oh then he could understand in all their fulness and their depth those promises which were confirmed and enlarged on that mount where his faith was so tried–then could he estimate in all its unmerited richness the infinite value of faiths reward. And doubtlessly Abrahams constant and eager eye was fixed on that great consummation of faith. And if faith thus keeps her constant eye fixed on this bright, holy, and Christ-pervaded consummation of her reward, the result is certain–our efforts will all take the direction of our heart, our steps will follow our eye, our thoughts and actions will tend upwards, and we shall gradually be changed into the same glory we contemplate, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. (D. F.Jarman, M. A.)
The claims of Divinity and humanity reconciled
On Mount Moriah the religious life of Abraham reached its maturity, and his knowledge of the Divine nature attained its greatest spiritual depth. On Mount Moriah, the type of the future Mount Calvary, we may see the synthesis of the infinite truths, the light of which has streamed in its meridian fulness from the Cross of the God-man. Let us proceed to consider:–
I. Gods first commandment, ENFORCING THE CLAIMS OF DIVINITY. They came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
II. Gods second commandment, ORDAINING THE CLAIMS OF HUMANITY. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him.
III. The scene of DIVINE REVELATION. Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. I. THE VOICE OF DIVINE TRUTH, we are clearly told, called upon Abraham to sacrifice the natural life of his only son. The destiny of man, as revealed to us throughout Holy Writ, is to share the attributes of Gods eternal life. The words spoken through Moses in Gen 1:26, God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and the words of 2Pe 1:4, That by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature; and the words of St. John the Divine, Having His Fathers name written in their foreheads, all express the same great truth, that man was created to be a partaker of the attributes of God. It follows, therefore, that the attributes of the uncreated Divine life are the laws of the human life, and that every revelation or glory of God imposes an obligation and a duty on man. The sovereign attribute in the life of God is consequently the ruling principle in the true life of man. What, then, is that sovereign attribute? God is love (1Jn 4:8). Sacrifice on earth in human life is the analogue of love in the Divine life. Consequently the same supremacy which belongs to love among the attributes of God, also belongs to sacrifice among the duties of man. Hence throughout the history of religion, from the earliest passages of the book of Genesis to the visions of the eternal life in the heavenly mansions, unfolded to us in the revelation of St. John the Divine, sacrifice is the highest effort of the human soul, in the exercise of which man finds the approach to God, and the blessed rest of his own nature. Hence it fellows, that the difference between a high-principled and an unprincipled life is simply the difference between a life of love and a life of selfishness; a life of self-indulgence, in which no altar is erected on the low ground; and a life of self-sacrifice, in which man rises above the lower, baser instincts of his being in obedience to the Divine call. This one central law of the Divine kingdom was revealed to Abraham at the first, when he was summoned by the call of principle to leave his country, his kindred, and his fathers house. The faith of Abraham, whereby he obeyed that voice, was simply the submission of his soul to the ruling principle of love expressed in self-sacrifice. The growth in his soul of the power of that Divine principle was the development of his faith. That development was progressive throughout his life, as it is still in the history of every individual soul. In his conduct towards Pharaoh, and towards Abimelech, we see the temporary lapse from the high ground of faith and self-sacrifice to the low level of earthly selfishness and expediency. As time went on, and the patriarchs vision of Divine truth became clearer and fuller, and the new letters were added to his name, significant of a higher destiny and a wider influence, he was inspired by God to express in the outward rite of circumcision that inward and spiritual principle which was the governing law of his life. Circumcision of the heart, in the spirit, and not of the letter, was the expression of the deep truth that man is to reflect the Divine love by self-sacrifice Throughout his career the power of this principle had become stronger and stronger in the soul of Abraham. He had yielded his whole soul in obedience to the first and great commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. The mighty significance of this general principle had overpowered his entire being. The first and great commandment, although it is the sun of human righteousness, has other commandments revolving in the spiritual system, not in antagonism to it, but in harmony with it and deriving their light from it. In ascending Mount Moriah Abraham saw nothing in the universe but the one great principle: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. Whatever sacrifices were necessary in order to give expression to that love, he was ready to make. The firmly-grasped knife and the outstretched arm represent the strong, resolute self-surrender of the soul that has, in obedience to the call of Divine truth, risen to the heights on which it shrinks not from the sharpest pangs of inward agony, that are necessary in order to offer to God the sacrifice which He asks. The great truth taught in this passage is the absolute sovereignty of the love of God over the human soul. The destiny of man is to bear in his being the image of God, in which he was created. That is the highest principle which must reign over all other forces in human life. In the command to sacrifice Isaac, the eternal Spirit is still teaching Abraham the same great principle in a different form of practice. As he had been taught at first to subordinate the love of country and clanship to the love of God, so he is now commanded to bring the love of family under the dominion of the same sovereign principle. The ascent of Mount Moriah, and the sacrifice of Isaac, are an eternal obligation laid upon man. We can inherit no land of spiritual promise without recognizing it. The nation, the family, the individual, is called upon to make this sacrifice. There is no high future promise to the nation that withholds from God the natural life of its Isaac, by regulating its national action in obedience to low temporal expediency, instead of hearkening to the voice of the unseen eternal life. The voice of earthly wisdom, on the level plain of mere natural reason, bids the nation value only the out, ward form of its future life. Its command is: Give to the young life that secular knowledge which will enable it to answer the questions, What shall I eat? what shall I drink? wherewithal shall I be clothed? extend commerce, multiply possessions, and heap up the means of luxury, and then the national future will be great–Isaac will obtain that rich and good land of promise. But if you act on high principles–giving education in the spiritual truths that reveal the love of Christ; maintaining the ministry of the mysteries of God; going even to war for the rescue of the weak nations carried captive by the strong; losing the profits of commerce; and expending the fat of the national frame in the adventurous toils imposed by the behests of national honour and good faith–you will impoverish the earthly future that lies before your posterity.The policy of shrinking from war at the expense of principle is not noble or Christian. There are times in which God demands the greatest sacrifice which a nation can make, namely, the blood of its youth shed upon the field of battle in obedience to an idea. No nation, which resolutely determines to remain upon the low grounds of selfish ease and shameful peace, can inherit a great future, for it is guilty of withholding from the altar the lower life of Isaac, and thereby forfeiting the higher destiny of his spiritual being. The nation which never rises into the high ground of principle to erect an altar of national sacrifices; which never prepares the wood for the burnt-offering, and is fired by no generous enthusiasm, but coldly and calculatingly barters its honour for the extension of its trade; which shrinks from considering itself bound by the obligations of solemnly plighted national faith; which lets the knife of sacrifice fall from its nerveless hand, rather than imperil the ease and luxury of its life–is a nation which is finding its life for the moment, in order to lose it for ever. In the life of the family, God still calls upon the heirs of the land of promise to sacrifice, as the condition of rising into possession of lifes noblest blessing. The ancient voice, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of, is appealing to the conscience of the fathers of England to-day. The man of the world loves his Isaac, and desires to further his prospects, and to see him the heir of a rich future. Without Christ, deaf to the call of the spiritual voice, he lives the low-toned life of the worlds level; his heart knows nothing of the wood of burnt-offerings, or of the fire of spiritual enthusiasm; he coldly calculates his gains, and multiplies his silver and gold; he recognizes no cords of Divine love, but casts away from him the constraining bands of spiritual motives, and relaxes all the higher obligations of the inner life; he performs no sacrifice of homage to the unseen majesty of the King of Life; offers no prayer, no praise, no alms, and never extends a single effort of his soul in painful self-denial. He has the reward of cold, selfish expediency, and low-toned, short-sighted worldly prudence. He becomes rich, and has saved the life of his Isaac to inherit the fat plains of his earthly prosperity. But there is really no land of promise on the plain which he has inherited. That life of low-toned, selfish, prayerless, cold-hearted money-getting, carries within itself a power that disinherits his descendants. The low tone, and the moral feebleness of his career, ensure to his family after him social decay and poverty of destiny. The man who will not ascend the Moriah of the Cross, by living a life of self-sacrifice and obedience to the Divine voice, cannot hope to secure a real Canaan for his race. On the other hand, there are families who, when they seem to be destroying the life and prospects of their Isaac, are in obedience to Gods voice preparing for the certain entrance into Canaan. The noble-hearted, highly-educated young missionary in the Churchs distant fields of labour; the young clergymen of brave energy and keen intellect, toiling in voluntary poverty and noble obscurity amid the haunts of vice and sin in our great cities; the student who, seeking to enlighten his fellow-men, gives himself to the ungainful pursuits of science or literature; the young soldier who devotes his life to the loyal duties of ill-requited service to his country–all these to the vulgar eye of worldly expediency seem to be offered, as Isaac, in obedience to an unpractical idea, and in wanton forfeiture of the Canaan of worldly prospects. To the individual soul, as to the nation and the family, the call to ascend the Moriah of sacrifice comes with authority. To the unspiritual man of the world the obedience of the soul to this strange command seems as great a mystery as the offering of Isaac. To him every hour spent in prayer, in meditation, in gathering the materials that fire the enthusiasm of Christian love, in tightening the cords of religious obligation, and wielding the instrument of searching self-denial, seems wasted, vainly spent in shedding the vital energy that should live to enter that Canaan of the world and the flesh, which is the only land of promise that he can realize. But the true spiritual seed of Abraham for ever acknowledges the love of God as the highest rule of life.
II. Gods second commandment ORDAINING THE CLAIMS OF HUMANITY. The love of God, as a universal principle, demands the sacrifice of mans all. Abraham felt this, and was willing to express the sincerity of his devotion by sacrificing the life of his son. But a corrective voice from heaven revealed to him a second qualifying commandment, not at variance with, but like unto and explanatory of the inner, deeper meaning of the first. The forms of sacrifice, which God imposes upon the soul, are not ends meritorious in themselves, but simply means of cultivating and expressing in the human being the energy of Divine love. As soon as the love has become perfect, the need of the sacrifice passes away. As soon as the principle of love has exacted the homage of perfect self-surrender from man, and acknowledged it in the words, Now I know, seeing thou hast not withheld, then the obligation of sacrifice is abrogated in the words, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. God required from Abraham an unreserved willingness to sacrifice his son, as an expression of obedience to the first law of life, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. But God equally forbade the slaughter of Isaac, in obedience to the second commandment, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Every form of life existing is an expression of Divine love. The sacrifice of physical life is, therefore, for ever inconsistent with the love of God, except when it is required for the creation or preservation of some higher form of life. The consecration of murder, as a means of expressing love to God, would have led to the mutual destruction of mankind, and the extinction of that life in the universe which it is the highest purpose of God to create and sustain. It is true that the expression of the infinite love of God upon the Cross of Calvary was given at the cost of a human life voluntarily laid down. The self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ seems to the superficial the destruction of a human life, and inconsistent with that love of life which flows from the love of God. But the work of Christ and the revelation of God did not end upon the Cross. The second commandment, enforcing the claims of humanity, likewise in the purpose of the Father required obedience. Therefore doth My Father love Me, not simply, because I lay down My life, but because I lay down My life that I might take it again. In the power of the resurrection following upon the sacrifice of Calvary, and loosing the pains of death, we see the operation of that second law, the authority of which arrested the hand of Abraham, saying, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. The fruitless sacrifice of life, which is not justified by a subsequent resurrection of life in a higher form, is based upon an imperfect interpretation of the great commandment, and contrary to the full truth of God. The risen life is the proof of the accepted sacrifice. I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore. A sacrifice which is a mere expenditure of life, leading on to no renewal, is contrary to Gods will. Sacrifices that lead on to no raising of life into a higher form are forbidden by the second voice of God. That there should be in every land witnesses to the supreme claims of Gods love, in the persons of those who forsake the secular toils of the world, and give themselves up entirely to the religious life, is essential, in order to enable the nation to rise to the heights of principle upon which God manifests Himself. In the entire devotion of such lives the nation ascends the Mount Moriah. Where such devotion is withheld, Gods presence is not realized. But it is hardly necessary to point out that, although God demands the submission of human life to His rule in sacrifice, He does not require all men to give themselves up to that unceasing devotion of outward, physical, liturgical sacrifice, which would arrest the growth and healthy progress of society. To injure human society, and cramp the lawful energies of the state in the name of religion, as the Roman Church has often striven to do, is to slay the Isaac of progressive hopeful humanity, the heir of the Promised Land of the future. So also the state and society led into the high places of devotion, bound in willing submission by the cords of religious obligation, and recognizing the penetrating power of the principle of sacrifice, is for ever an offering acceptable to God, and passes on in the career of its history, fitted by its high self-devotion to inherit the land of the promises. But the state and society weakened, maimed, bleeding, dying, under the fruitless, senseless, purposeless bondage of superstitiously tightened restrictions, and the fatal stroke of fanatical self-torture, is a victim slain in defiance of the protestant voice, Lay not thine hand upon the lad. In the same manner the lessons of this passage are applicable to the sacrifices of the individual soul. Prayer and fasting must not be withheld. In them the human being offers to God on his altar its mental and bodily energies in self-sacrifice. When the offering has not been withheld, the soul rises to a nobler walk, stronger existence, and a clearer vision of God. But there is a tendency in the human being to pervert self-sacrifice into self-slaughter. It is possible so to pray and fast as to make the body unhealthy, the mind feeble, and the will morbid and unstrung. They who carry religions exercises into that extreme, which is injurious to the growth and health of true human life, are losing the balance of truth, and are deaf to the Divine protest, Lay not thine hand upon the lad.
III. THE SCENE OF THE DIVINE REVELATION OF TRUTH. Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said to this day, In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. The Mount Moriah, the mount on which the Lord reveals Himself, is the type of the supernatural life of the Church of Christ. As it was upon the mount that Abraham received the teaching of the Divine voice which enabled him to recognize the harmony of the two commandments seemingly contradictory, so it is only the guidance of the Spirit of God in the Church that enables men to reconcile the two great principles opposed to each other in modern life–law and liberty. The old freedom of the plain is not the same as the freedom of the Mount of God. The freedom of the natural man, who knows not the claims of the Divine law of love, is very different from the freedom of the crucified but risen life of man, who ban received the spirit which makes him love God and obey Him, not in the servile fear of the bondsman, but in the glorious liberty of the child. The guidance of the Holy Spirit, which abides in the Church, can alone give us the enjoyment of this blessed freedom, that comes not from the defiance, but from the fulfilment of the law of life in Jesus Christ: Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This realization of blessedness, of power, of widely-extended beneficence to others; this foretaste of the glories of an endless life in the future, only comes to those who have striven to climb the steep, toilsome mount of Christian self-dedication, on which the air of pure life is breathed, and from which the true views of a soul elevated and enlightened are obtained. To nations no less than to individuals is this revelation necessary. The nation which banishes the name of God from the schools of its youth, and from its organism of government, in the hope of increasing human happiness and power, has no promise. That liberty which expresses the love of our neighbour has its root in the love of God, National religion is the guardian of the national liberty. Until the nation has learnt to obey the command of religion enjoining self-denial and self-sacrifice–saying: Take thy growing life and offer him unto Me, it can never hear the true charter of liberty: Lay not thine hand upon the lad. (H. T. Edwards, M. A.)
The ordeal
I. THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAMS FAITH AND OBEDIENCE, AND THE CONDUCT OF THE PATRIARCH UNDER IT.
1. The trial. Fearfully severe.
2. The conduct of the patriarch under the trial. He did not consult with flesh and blood, but listened to the voice of faith, which assured him of the perfect wisdom and unchangeable love of God (Heb 11:17-19). The issue of the trial.
II. THE INCIDENTS RECORDED HERE ARE TYPICAL OF THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. Application:
1. The subject teaches us to cultivate resignation to the Divine will.
2. The time of trial is the time for the exercise of faith in God.
3. Those who believe in Christ, and trust in His vicarious sacrifice, shall be saved; saved from all temporal evil, for nothing shall by any means hurt them; but above all, they shall be saved flora spiritual and eternal death, and enjoy life eternal in heaven. (The Evangelical Preacher.)
The trial of Abraham
I. THE PATRIARCHS PAINFUL TRIAL.
1. The subject of requisition.
2. The prescribed manner of compliance.
II. THE PATRIARCHS EXEMPLARY CONDUCT.
1. The promptness of his obedience.
2. The prudence of his measures.
3. His inflexible perseverance,
III. THE BLESSINGS OF WHICH IT WAS PRODUCTIVE.
1. Isaac was spared.
2. A testimony of Divine approbation was experienced.
3. A gracious repetition of promise was received.
IV. THE INSTRUCTIVE TENDENCY OF THE WHOLE.
1. The will of God revealed to man is a sufficient reason for prompt obedience.
2. Our greatest earthly blessings may be productive of very painful exercises.
3. Severe trials are strictly consistent with the enjoyment of Divine favour.
4. A lively faith in God manifests itself by a regular course of cheerful obedience. (Sketches of Sermons.)
The tried of Abrahams faith
I. THE PERSONAL TEST AND DISCIPLINE.
II. THE GREAT MORAL AND RELIGIOUS LESSON HERE TAUGHT. God was loved better than Son–loved even though He slew.
III. THE FACT BECOMES A TYPICAL PROMISE. God has provided (W. H.Davison.)
Abrahams temptation
I. HIS TRIAL.
II. HIS OBEDIENCE.
1. Prompt.
2. Protracted.
3. Perfect.
III. HIS REWARD.
1. A numerous seed, instead of one Son.
2. To be the progenitor of the Messiah, because willing to give up Isaac.
3. He also received the most express and gratifying assurance of Jehovahs approval and friendship.
Application:
1. God tries the faith of all His people. The principle is, that we are not fit to possess any treasure unless we are ready to give up that treasure at Gods command at any moment. You say you love God; but you also love your child, friend, property, life. Which do you love most?
2. Let our obedience be like Abrahams. As soon as you know Gods will, submit to it.
3. God will reward the patience of faith. (The Congregational Pulpit.)
Trial of Abrahams faith
I. THE SEVERITY OF THIS TRIAL.
1. It was a trial that put the severest possible strain upon him in the tenderest relations of his natural life. Isaac was his son, his only son.
2. It was a trial that put the severest possible strain upon him in the tenderest relations of his spiritual life.
(1) In respect to the promise of God (Gen 17:19).
(2) In respect to the covenant of God.
3. The severity of this trial is unparalleled, save in the experience of Abrahams God (Rom 8:32; Joh 3:16).
II. ABRAHAMS CONDUCT.
1. In obedience he was prompt, believing, perfect.
2. His obedience was inspired by faith.
3. His obedience was perfect (Gen 22:9-10).
III. GODS INTERPOSITION.
1. God did interpose.
2. Gods interposition was timely.
Lessons:
1. It is Gods plan to test the faith of His children (1Pe 1:7).
2. Gods children should rejoice when their faith is tested.
3. The more cheerfully we bear the tests of faith, the more we honour God.
4. No one will be tried beyond what he is able to bear. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Abrahams temptation and obedience
I. WHAT THIS TRIAL WAS.
1. It came from God Himself.
2. It comprehended the loss of a child, and of a peculiarly dear and precious child. He was his Isaac too; and how much does that word comprehend! the son of his old age; his beloved Sarahs child; one who had been promised him and whom he had looked for with eager expectation, not months but years, before he came; a child of miracle, born out of due time, to be regarded as an almost immediate gift from heaven!
3. And he is to lose him, not as we generally lose our children, by sickness, but by a violent death, and that death to be inflicted by his own hand–Abraham is to slay him. And, moreover, he is to be a burnt-offering. This includes more than the slaying of him–a dismembering of him when slain and the consuming of his mangled body in the flames.
4. And the time, too, when this trial fell on Abraham must have made it worse. After these things–i.e., just after losing Ishmael, he is called upon to give up Isaac.
II. His CONDUCT UNDER IT.
1. Prompt obedience.
2. Determined, unflinching obedience.
3. His obedience was also calm.
III. Let us now see what lay at the bottom of all this; WHAT THAT MIGHTY PRINCIPLE WAS WHICH ACTUATED ABRAHAM IN IT. And we are not left in doubt of this point. It was faith. By faith, says St. Paul, Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And by faith, as we apply the term here to Abraham, we mean, not a belief in this or that great gospel-truth only, but a belief in the Divine character and word generally, a faith embracing all the glorious perfections of Jehovah and all the glorious promises and declarations of his lips. This led Abraham to sacrifice his son. There are three things which commonly actuate mankind in their conduct-reason, feeling, and interest. All these we find in this case put aside. Abraham did not act from either of them, but from a principle which was in opposition to them all. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The appointed sacrifice; or, Abrahams faith
I. THE TRIAL OF FAITH. Very heavy must have been Abrahams heart when he heard Gods strange message. But he would not refuse to trust God. Job 23:8-12; comp. 1Pe 1:5-7.)
II. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH. Not a base profession. He obeyed promptly, and without murmuring.
III. THE REWARD OF FAITH.
1. He won Gods approval.
2. He received Gods explanation of what had seemed so strange.
3. He gained Gods solemn assurance to comfort and gladden him.
IV. THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC AS TYPICAL OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
1. It was an appointed sacrifice.
2. It was a willing (self-) sacrifice.
3. It was a mystery of salvation. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
Abraham tempted to offer up his son
I. THE TRIAL ITSELF.
1. The time of it. The same things may be more or less trying as they are connected with other things. If the treatment of Jobs friends had not been preceded by the loss of his substance, the untimely death of his children, the cruel counsel of his wife, and the heavy hand of God, it had been much more tolerable; and if Abrahams faith and patience had not been exercised in the manner they were anterior to this temptation, it might have been somewhat different from what it was. It is also a much greater trial to be deprived of an object when our hopes have been raised, and in a manner accomplished respecting it, than to have it altogether withheld from us. It was after these things that God did tempt Abraham–that is, after five-and-twenty years waiting; after the promise had been frequently repeated; after hope had been raised to the highest pitch; yea, after it had been actually turned into enjoyment; and when the child had lived long enough to discover an amiable and godly disposition.
2. The shock which it was adapted to produce upon his natural affections is also worthy of notice. The command is worded in a manner as if it were designed to harrow up all his feelings as a father: Take now thy son, thine only son (of promise), Isaac, whom thou lovest–or, as some read it, Take now that son . . . that only one of thine . . . whom thou lovest . . . that ISAAC! And what! Deliver him to some other hand to sacrifice him! No; be thou thyself the priest; go offer him up for a burnt-offering! But the shock which it would be to natural affection is not represented as the principal part of the trial; but rather what it must have been to his faith. It was not so much his being his son, as his only son of promise; his Isaac, in whom all the great things spoken of his seed were to be fulfilled.
II. THE CONDUCT OF ABRAHAM UNDER THIS SHARP TRIAL. We have here a surprising instance of the efficacy of Divine grace, in rendering every power, passion, and thought of the mind subordinate to the will of God. There is a wide difference between this and the extinction of the passions. This were to be deprived of feeling; but the other is to have the mind assimilated to the mind of Christ, who, though He felt most sensibly, yet said, If this cup may not pass from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done!
III. THE REWARD CONFERRED UPON HIM. A repetition of the promised blessing.
IV. THE GENERAL DESIGN OF THE WHOLE.
1. Though it was not the intention of God to permit Abraham actually to offer a human sacrifice, yet He might mean to assert His own right as Lord of all to require it, as well as to manifest the implicit obedience of faith in the conduct of His servant. Such an assertion of His right would manifest His goodness in refusing to exercise it.
2. But in this transaction there seems to be a still higher design; namely, to predict in a figure the great substitute which God in due time should see and provide. The very place of it, called the mount of the Lord (verse 14.), seems to have been marked out as the scene of great events; and of that kind, too, in which a substitutional sacrifice was offered and accepted.
3. One reason of the high approbation which God expressed of Abrahams conduct might be its affording some faint likeness of what would shortly be His own. (A. Fuller.)
Temptation a test
Temptation is that which puts to the test. Trials sent by God do this. A test is never employed for the purpose of injury. A weight is attached to a rope, not to break but to prove it. Pressure is applied to a boiler, not to burst it but to certify its power of resistance. The testing process here confers no strength. But when a sailor has to navigate his ship under a heavy gale and in a difficult channel; or when a general has to fight against a superior force and on disadvantageous ground, skill and courage are not only tested but improved. The test has brought experience, and by practice is every faculty perfected. So, faith grows stronger by exercise, and patience by the enduring of sorrow. Thus alone it was that God did tempt Abraham. (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest
Sacrificial obedience
I. THE SACRIFICE DEMANDED BY GOD.
1. That which was prized the most.
2. That which tested faith the most.
3. That which God gave Himself.
II. THE WAY IN WHICH THIS SACRIFICE WAS RENDERED BY ABRAHAM.
1. It was rendered promptly. And Abraham rose up early in the morning.
2. It was rendered prayerfully. Abide ye here, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship. Prayer prepares for sacrifice.
3. It was rendered heroically (Gen 22:8-9).
4. It was rendered observantly. The place which God had told him of. Laid the weed in order.
III. THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE ACCEPTED BY GOD.
1. It was substitutionary.
2. It was sufficient. (The Congregational Pulpit.)
The offering of Isaac
I. THAT WE ARE OFTEN EXPOSED TO GREAT TRIALS WITHOUT ANY REASON BEING ASSIGNED FOR THEIR INFLICTION.
II. THAT EVEN IN OUR SEVEREST TRIALS, IN THE VERY CRISIS AND AGONY OF OUR CHASTISEMENT, WE HAVE HOPE IN THE DELIVERING MERCY OF GOD (Gen 22:5; Gen 22:8). It is often so in human life; the inward contradicts the outward. Faith substitutes a greater fact for a small one. You will get better, we say to the patient, when perhaps we mean that he will be healed with immortality; and when we meet him in heaven, he will tell us that we were right when we said he would live.
III. THAT WE ARE OFTEN MADE TO FEEL THE UTTERMOST BITTERNESS OF A TRIAL IN ITS FORETELLING AND ANTICIPATION. Sudden calamities are nothing compared with the lingering death which some men have to die.
IV. THAT FILIAL OBEDIENCE ON OUR PART HAS EVER BEEN FOLLOWED BY SPECIAL TOKENS OF GODS APPROVAL (Gen 22:16). More than mere Hebrew redundancy of language in the promise. It reads like a river full to overflow. Because thou hast done this thing, &c. I call upon you to witness whether you yourselves have not, in appropriate degrees, realized this same overflowing, and all-comforting blessing of God, in return for your filial obedience.
V. OTHER POINTS OF COINCIDENCE as between the old experience and the new will occur on reading the text, such as–
1. The unconscious aggravations of our suffering made by inquiries such as Isaacs (Gen 22:7).
2. The wonderfulness of the escapes which are often made for us by Divine Providence (Gen 22:13).
3. The sanctification of special places by sweet and holy memories of deliverance and unexpected joy (Gen 22:14). (J. Parker, D. D.)
An educational command
Abraham must have been conscious that the way that led to the perfecting of his faith was the way of renunciation and self-denial. The sight of the Canaanite sacrifices of children must have led Abraham to self-examination, whether he would be strong enough in renunciation and self-denial to do what these heathen did, if his God desired it of him. But if this question was once made the subject of discussion in Abrahams heart, it had also to be brought to a definite and real decision. That was the substratum for the Divine demand in Abrahams soul. Objectively, the following are the deduction from this point of view. The culminating point of worship in the religions of nature was human sacrifice. The covenant religion had to separate itself in this respect from heathenism; the truth in it had to be acknowledged, and the falsehood denied. In the command to offer up Isaac, the truth of the conviction that human life must be sacrificed as an unholy thing, is acknowledged, and by the arresting intervention of God, the hideous distortion of this truth which had arisen in heathenism is condemned and rejected. (Kurtz.)
Human sacrifices among the heathen
No reader of the Old Testament needs to be informed that this hateful kind of offering defiled the religious rites of the Canaanites several centuries later. But there are probably few readers who have sufficiently realized how ancient or how widespread among primitive religions was a custom which has come to be associated only with the lowest type of barbarism. Yet traces of it, reliable enough, though dimmed now through lapse of ages, meet the inquirer among the primitive population of far-sundered localities, and in stages of civilization which even we should call advanced. Its prevalence among all men of Hamitic race who observed the same type of religion as the tribes of Canaan is a fact well known. This of itself fastens the dark stigma on some of the most polished and powerful states of antiquity; on Tyre, for example, and on all the great Punic colonies, such as Cyprus, Rhodes, and Carthage. Egypt itself was not exempt. But what is less generally noticed is, that among Aryan peoples a similar custom widely obtained in the earliest periods, and sprang out of a similar nature-worship. It has left its mark on several of the most familiar legends of Greek literature. It was practised in the Mithras cult of Persia, which lingered to the age of Hadrian. It is found among the ancient Pelasgians, as at Eleuis in the worship of Demeter; in Attica and Arcadia, in that of Artemis; in Tenedos and Chios, in that of Bacchus. It is probable, indeed, that the immolation of a human victim to divinities like Bacchus or Demeter was reserved for great occasions. Among the milder Pelasgians, it did not become so regular a part of worship as those sacrifices, for example, which annually appeased the tutelary sun-god of Carthage, or the massacre of infants by passing them through the fire to the Chemosh of Moab or the Molech of Phoenicia. The general results of research on this painful subject, however, goes to show that even the milder faiths of early Greece sprang out of, or were grafted on, the same original idolatry of the generative and productive forces in nature which found favour among older races in Babylon, Phoenicia, and Canaan. Wherever the influence of that dark religion stretched, it bore of necessity two ghastly fruits–cruelty and lust: the orgies of the grove and the sacrifice of human blood. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
Mature faith–illustrated by Abrahams offering up Isaac
I. THE TRIAL ITSELF. Every syllable of the text is significant. If George Herbert were speaking of it, he would say the words are all a case of knives cutting at Abrahams soul. There is scarce a single syllable of Gods address to him, in the opening of this trial, but seems intended to pierce the patriarch to the quick. Look. Take now thy son. What! a father slay his son! Was there nothing in Abrahams tent that God would have but his son?
II. THE PATRIARCH UNDER THE TRIAL. In Abrahams bearing during this test everything is delightful. His obedience is a picture of all the virtues in one, blended in marvellous harmony. It is not so much in one point that the great patriarch excels as in the whole of his sacred deed.
1. First notice the submission of Abraham under this temptation.
2. Abrahams prudence. Prudence may be a great virtue, but often becomes one of the meanest and most beggarly of vices. Prudence rightly considered is a notable handmaid to faith; and the prudence of Abraham was seen in this, that he did not consult Sarah as to what he was about to do.
3. Abrahams alacrity. He rose up early in the morning.
4. Abrahams forethought. He did not desire to break down in his deeds. Having cleft the wood, he took with him the fire, and everything else necessary to consummate the work. Some people take no forethought about serving God, and then, if a little hitch occurs, they cry out that it is a providential circumstance, and make an excuse of it for escaping the unpleasant task. Oh, how easy it is when you do not want to involve yourselves in trouble, to think that you see some reason for not doing so!
5. Abrahams perseverance. He continues three days in his journey, journeying towards the place where he was as much to sacrifice himself as to sacrifice his child.
III. THE BLESSING WHICH CAME TO ABRAHAM THROUGH THE TRIAL OF HIS FAITH. The blessing was sevenfold.
1. The trial was withdrawn; Isaac was unharmed.
2. Abraham had the expressed approval of God. Now I know that thou fearest God.
3. Abraham next had a clearer view of Christ than ever he had before–no small reward. Abraham saw My day, said Christ. He saw it and was glad.
4. More than that, to Abraham Gods name was more fully revealed that day. He called Him Jehovah-jireh, a step in advance of anything that he had known before. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.
5. To Abraham that day the covenant was confirmed by oath. The Lord swore by Himself.
6. Then it was that Abraham had also a fuller promise with regard to the seed.
7. God pronounced over Abrahams head a blessing, the like of which had never been given to man before; and what if I say that to no single individual in the whole lapse of time has there ever been given, distinctly and personally, such a blessing as was given to Abraham that day! First in trial, he is also first in blessing; first in faithfulness to his God, he becomes first in the sweet rewards which faithfulness is sure to obtain. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The gospel of Abrahams sacrifice of Isaac
If the Messiah be anywhere symbolised in the Old Testament, He is certainly to be seen upon Mount Moriah, where the beloved Isaac, willingly bound and laid upon the altar, is a lively foreshadowing of the Well-beloved of heaven yielding His life as a ransom
I. First, THE PARALLEL. YOU know the story before you; we need not repeat it, except as we weave it into our meditation. As Abraham offered up Isaac, and so it might be said of him that he spared not his own son, so the ever blessed God offered up His Son Jesus Christ, and spared Him not.
1. There is a likeness in the person offered. Isaac was Abrahams son, and in that emphatic sense, his only son; hence the anguish of resigning him to sacrifice. Herein is love! Behold it and admire! Consider it and wonder! The beloved Son is made a sacrifice!
(1) Remember that in Abrahams case Isaac was the child of his heart. I need not enlarge on that, you can readily imagine how Abraham loved him; but in the case of our Lord what mind can conceive how near and dear our Redeemer was to the Father?
(2) Remember, too, that Isaac was a most lovely and obedient son. We have proof of that in the fact that he was willing to be sacrificed, for being a vigorous young man, he might have resisted his aged father, but he willingly surrendered himself to be bound, and submitted to be laid on the altar. How few there are of such sons! Though He were a Son yet learned He obedience. It was His meat and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him.
(3) It must not be forgotten, too, that around Isaac there clustered mysterious prophecies. Isaac was to be the promised seed through which Abraham should live down to posterity and evermore be a blessing to all nations. But what prophecies gathered about the head of Christ I What glorious things were spoken of Him before His coming! He was the conquering seed destined to break the dragons head. He was the messenger of the covenant, yea, the covenant itself.
2. The parallel is very clear in the preface of the sacrifice. Let us show you in a few words. Abraham had three days in which to think upon and consider the death of his son; three days in which to look into that beloved face and to anticipate the hour in which it would wear the icy pallor of death. But the Eternal Father foreknew and foreordained the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, not three days nor three years, nor three thousand years, but or ever the earth was Jesus was to His Father the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Remember, that Abraham prepared with sacred forethought everything for the sacrifice. But what shall I say of the great God who, through the ages, was constantly preparing this world for the grandest event in its history, the death of the Incarnate God? All history converged to this point.
3. We will not tarry, however, on the preface of the sacrifice, but advance in lowly worship to behold the act itself.
(1) When Abraham came at last to Mount Moriah, he bade his servants remain at the foot of the hill. Now, gather up your thoughts, and come with me to Calvary, to the true Moriah. At the foot of that hill God bade all men stop. The twelve have been with Christ in his life-journey, but they must not be with Him in His death throes. Eleven go with him to Gethsemane; only three may draw near to Him in His passion; but when it comes to the climax of all, they forsake Him and flee; He fights the battle singly.
(2) Do you observe that Isaac carried the wood!–a true picture of Jesus carrying His cross.
(3) A point worthy of notice is, that it is said, that they went both of them together. He who was to smite with the knife, and the other who was to be the victim, walked in peaceful converse to the altar. They went both together, agreeing in heart. It is to me delightful to reflect that Christ Jesus and His Father went both together in the work of redeeming love. In that great work which we are saved, the Father gave us Christ, but Christ equally gave us Himself.
(4) They proceeded together, and at last, Isaac was bound, bound by his father. So Christ was bound, and He saith, Ye could have no power against Me unless it was given to you of My Father.
(5) The parallel goes still further, for while the father binds the victim, the victim is willing to be bound. Isaac might have resisted, but he did not; there are no traces of struggling; no signs of so much as a murmur.
(6) Yet the parallel runs a little further, after having been suspended for a moment–Isaac was restored again. He was bound and laid upon the altar, the knife was drawn, and he was in spirit given up to death, but he was delivered. Leaving that gap, wherein Christ is not typified fully by Isaac, but the ram, yet was Jesus also delivered. He came again, the living and triumphant Son, after He had been dead. Isaac was for three days looked upon by Abraham as dead; on the third day the father rejoiced to descend the mountain with his son. Jesus was dead, but on the third day He rose again.
(7) What followed the deliverance of Isaac? From that moment the covenant was ratified.
(8) Isaac, also, had that day been the means of showing to Abraham the great provision of God. That name, Jehovah-jireh, was new to the world; it was given forth to men that day from Mount Moriah; and in the death of Christ men see what they never could have seen else, and in His resurrection they beheld the deepest of mysteries solved. God has provided what men wanted.
II. I have to HINT AT SOME POINTS IN WHICH THE PARALLEL FALLS SHORT.
1. Isaac would have died in the course of nature. When offered up by his father, it was only a little in anticipation of the death which eventually must have occurred. But Jesus is He who only hath immortality, and who never needed to die. His death was purely voluntary, and herein stands by itself, not to be numbered with the deaths of other men.
2. Moreover, there was a constraint upon Abraham to give Isaac. I admit the cheerfulness of the gift, but still the highest law to which His spiritual nature was subject, rendered it incumbent upon believing Abraham to do as God commanded. But no stress could be laid upon the Most High. If He delivered up His Son, it must be with the greatest freeness. Oh! unconstrained love–a fountain welling up from the depth of the Divine nature, unasked for and undeserved! What shall I say of this? O God, be Thou ever blessed! Even the songs of heaven cannot express the obligations of our guilty race to Thy free love in the gift of Thy Son!
3. Isaac did not die after all, but Jesus did.
4. Isaac, if he had died, could not have died for us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A difficulty removed
How could God command Abraham to sacrifice his son? We reply: God never intended the death of Isaac. He saw the end from the beginning, and knew that the life of Isaac would not be taken. The command was only a severe test of the absolute faith and unswerving obedience of His servant Abraham. A story may illustrate this. In the Napoleon wars, it is said that once the emperors of Austria and Russia and the king of Prussia were discussing the relative absolute, unquestioning obedience of their soldiers. Each claimed the pre-eminence, in this regard, for his own soldiers. They were sitting in a room in the second story. To test the matter, they agreed that each in turn should call up the sentinel at the door, and command him to leap out of the window. First the Prussian monarch called his man. Leap out of the window, was the order. Your Majesty, said the soldier, it would kill me. He was then dismissed, and the Austrian soldier was called. Leap out of that window, commanded the emperor. I will, said the man, if you really mean what you say. He was in turn dismissed, and the Czar called his man. Leap out of that window, cried the Czar. Without a word in reply, the man crossed himself, and started to obey, but of course was stopped before he had reached the window. Were the sovereigns guilty of murder? Surely not, because their purpose was not to sacrifice their soldiers, but only to test their obedience. This anecdote may throw more light on the first difficulty than perhaps many a logical argument could do. Gods purpose must be judged, not by His command alone, but by the story in its completeness. Then only will our judgment be a correct one.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXII
The faith and obedience of Abraham put to a most extraordinary
test, 1.
He is commanded to offer his beloved son Isaac for a burnt-offering, 2.
He prepares, with the utmost promptitude, to accomplish the will
of God, 3-6.
Affecting speech of Isaac, 7;
and Abraham’s answer, 8.
Having arrived at mount Moriah he prepares to sacrifice his son, 9, 10;
and is prevented by an angel of the Lord, 11, 12.
A ram is offered in the stead of Isaac, 13;
and the place is named Jehovah-jireh, 14.
The angel of the Lord calls to Abraham a second time, 15;
and, in the most solemn manner, he is assured of innumerable
blessings in the multiplication and prosperity of his seed, 16-18.
Abraham returns and dwells at Beer-sheba, 19;
hears that his brother Nahor has eight children by his wife Milcah, 20;
their names, 21-23;
and four by his concubine Reumah, 24.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII
Verse 1. God did tempt Abraham] The original here is very emphatic: vehaelohim nissah eth Abraham, “And the Elohim he tried this Abraham;” God brought him into such circumstances as exercised and discovered his faith, love, and obedience. Though the word tempt, from tento, signifies no more than to prove or try, yet as it is now generally used to imply a solicitation to evil, in which way God never tempts any man, it would be well to avoid it here. The Septuagint used the word , which signifies tried, pierced through; and Symmachus translates the Hebrew nissah by , God glorified Abraham, or rendered him illustrious, supposing the word to be the same with nas, which signifies to glister with light, whence nes, an ensign or banner displayed. Thus then, according to him, the words should be understood: “God put great honour on Abraham by giving him this opportunity of showing to all successive ages the nature and efficacy of an unshaken faith in the power, goodness, and truth of God.” The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel paraphrases the place thus: “And it happened that Isaac and Ishmael contended, and Ishmael said, I ought to be my father’s heir, because I am his first-born; but Isaac said, It is more proper that I should be my father’s heir, because I am the son of Sarah his wife, and thou art only the son of Hagar, my mother’s slave. Then Ishmael answered, I am more righteous than thou, because I was circumcised when I was thirteen years of age, and if I had chosen, I could have prevented my circumcision; but thou wert circumcised when thou wert but eight days old, and if thou hadst had knowledge, thou wouldst probably not have suffered thyself to be circumcised. Then Isaac answered and said, Behold, I am now thirty-six years old, and if the holy and blessed God should require all my members, I would freely surrender them. These words were immediately heard before the Lord of the universe, and meimera daiya, the WORD of the LORD, did try Abraham.” I wish once for all to remark, though the subject has been referred to before, that the Chaldee term meimera, which we translate word, is taken personally in some hundreds of places in the Targums. When the author, Jonathan, speaks of the Divine Being as doing or saying any thing, he generally represents him as performing the whole by his meimera, which he appears to consider, not as a speech or word spoken, but as a person quite distinct from the Most High. St. John uses the word in precisely the same sense with the Targumists, Joh 1:1; see the notes there, and see before on Ge 21:22, and Ge 15:1.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
After the accomplishment of God’s promises made to Abraham, and especially of that promise concerning the blessed Seed, when now he seemed to be in a most prosperous and secure condition, he meets with a severe exercise from God,
God did tempt Abraham. The word tempt is ambiguous, and signifies either,
1. To entice to sin, in which sense devils and wicked men are said to tempt others, but God tempts no man, Jam 1:13. Or,
2. To prove or try, and in this sense God is said to tempt men. See Deu 8:2; 13:3; Jdg 2:22. Thus God tempted Abraham, i.e. he tried the sincerity and strength of his faith, the universality and constancy of his obedience, and this for God’s great honour, and Abraham’s great glory and comfort, and for the church’s benefit in all following ages.
Beheld, here I am; an expression signifying a man’s attentive hearing what is said to him, and his readiness to execute it, as Gen 22:7,11; 27:1; 1Sa 3:4-6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. God did tempt Abrahamnotincite to sin (Jas 1:13), buttry, provegive occasion for the development of his faith (1Pe1:7).
and he said, . . . Here Iamready at a moment’s warning for God’s service.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass after these things,…. Recorded in the preceding chapter: according to the Talmudists b, the following affair was transacted quickly after the weaning of Isaac, when he was about five years old, which is the opinion of some, as Aben Ezra on
Ge 22:4; makes mention of; but that is an age when it can hardly be thought he should be able to carry such a load of wood as was sufficient to make a fire to consume a burnt offering, Ge 22:6; the age of thirteen, which he fixes upon, is more likely: Josephus c says, that Isaac was twenty five years of age; and in this year of his age Bishop Usher d places this transaction, twenty years after the weaning of him, in A. M. 2133, and before Christ 1871; and near to this is the computation of a Jewish chronologer e, who makes Isaac to be at this time twenty six years of age; but some make him much older: according to the Targum of Jonathan, he was at this time thirty six years old; and it is the more generally received opinion of the Jewish writers f that he was and with whom the Arabic writers g agree: so that this affair, after related, was thirty years after the weaning of Isaac and the expulsion of Ishmael, supposing Isaac to be then five years old. But, however this be, what came to pass was after many promises of a son had been given him, and those fulfilled; and after many blessings had been bestowed upon him; and when he seemed to be well settled in the land of the Philistines, having entered into an alliance with the king of the country; his family in peace, and his son Isaac, the son of the promise, grown up and a hopeful youth; the first appearance of which seemed to threaten the destruction of all his comforts, hopes, and expectations; and it was so,
that God did tempt Abraham; not to sin, as Satan does, for God tempts no man, nor can he be tempted in this sense; and, had Abraham slain his son, it would have been no sin in him, it being by the order of God, who is the Lord of life, and the sovereign disposer of it; but he tempted him, that is, he tried him, to prove him, and to know his faith in him, his fear of him, his love to him, and cheerful obedience to his commands; not in order to know these himself, which he was not ignorant of, but to make them known to others, and that Abraham’s faith might be strengthened yet more and more, as in the issue it was. The Jewish writers h observe, that Abraham was tempted ten times, and that this was the tenth and last temptation:
and said unto him, Abraham: calling him by his name he well knew, and by that name he had given him, to signify that he should be the father of many nations, Ge 17:5; and yet was going to require of him to slay his only son, and offer him a sacrifice to him:
and he said, behold, [here] I [am]; signifying that he heard his voice, and was ready to obey his commands, be they what they would.
b T. Bab. Sanhedrin: fol. 89. 2. c Antiqu. l. 1. c. 13. sect. 2. d Annales Vet. Test. p. 10. e Ganz Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 6. 1. f Zohar in Gen. fol. 68. 2. & 74. 4. & 76. 2. Targ. Hieros. in Exod. xii. 42. Praefat. Echa Rabbat. fol. 40. 2. Pirke Eliezer, c. 31. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 1. p. 3. Juchasin, fol. 9. 1. Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 3. 1. g Patricides, p. 19. Elmacinus, p. 34. Apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 327, &c. h Targum. Hieros. in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Offering Up of Isaac. – For many years had Abraham waited to be fulfilled. At length the Lord had given him the desired heir of his body by his wife Sarah, and directed him to send away the son of the maid. And now that this son had grown into a young man, the word of God came to Abraham to offer up this very son, who had been given to him as the heir of the promise, for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which should be shown him. This word did not come from his own heart, – was not a thought suggested by the sight of the human sacrifices of the Canaanites, that he would offer a similar sacrifice to his God; nor did it originate with the tempter to evil. The word came from Ha-Elohim, the personal, true God, who tried him ( ), i.e., demanded the sacrifice of the only, beloved son, as a proof and attestation of his faith. The issue shows, that God did not desire the sacrifice of Isaac by slaying and burning him upon the altar, but his complete surrender, and a willingness to offer him up to God even by death.
Nevertheless the divine command was given in such a form, that Abraham could not understand it in any other way than as requiring an outward burnt-offering, because there was no other way in which Abraham could accomplish the complete surrender of Isaac, than by an actual preparation for really offering the desired sacrifice. This constituted the trial, which necessarily produced a severe internal conflict in his mind. Ratio humana simpliciter concluderet aut mentiri promissionem aut mandatum non esse Dei sed Diaboli; est enim contradictio manifesta. Si enim debet occidi Isaac, irrita est promissio; sin rata est promissio, impossibile est hoc esse Dei mandatum ( Luther). But Abraham brought his reason into captivity to the obedience of faith. He did not question the truth of the word of God, which had been addressed to him in a mode that was to his mind perfectly infallible (not in a vision of the night, however, of which there is not a syllable in the text), but he stood firm in his faith, “accounting that god was able to raise him up, even from the dead” Heb 11:19). Without taking counsel with flesh and blood, Abraham started early in the morning (Gen 22:3, Gen 22:4), with his son Isaac and two servants, to obey the divine command; and on the third day (for the distance from Beersheba to Jerusalem is about 20 1/2 hours; Rob. Pal. iii. App. 66, 67) he saw in the distance the place mentioned by God, the land of Moriah, i.e., the mountainous country round about Jerusalem. The name , composed of the Hophal partic. of and the divine name , an abbreviation of (lit., “the shown of Jehovah,” equivalent to the manifestation of Jehovah), is no doubt used proleptically in Gen 22:2, and given to the mountain upon which the sacrifice was to be made, with direct reference to this event and the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham there. This is confirmed by Gen 22:14, where the name is connected with the event, and explained in the fuller expression Jehovah-jireh. On the ground of this passage the mountain upon which Solomon built the temple is called with reference to the appearance of the angel of the Lord to David on that mountain at the threshing-floor of Araunah (2Sa 24:16-17), the old name being revived by this appearance.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Abraham Commanded to Offer Isaac. | B. C. 1872. |
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Here is the trial of Abraham’s faith, whether it continued so strong, so vigorous, so victorious, after a long settlement in communion with God, as it was at first, when by it he left his country: then it was made to appear that he loved God better than his father; now that he loved him better than his son. Observe here,
I. The time when Abraham was thus tried (v. 1): After these things, after all the other exercises he had had, all the hardships and difficulties he had gone through. Now, perhaps, he was beginning to think the storms had all blown over; but, after all, this encounter comes, which is sharper than any yet. Note, Many former trials will not supersede nor secure us from further trials; we have not yet put off the harness, 1 Kings xx. 11. See Psa 30:6; Psa 30:7.
II. The author of the trial: God tempted him, not to draw him to sin, so Satan tempts (if Abraham had sacrificed Isaac, he would not have sinned, his orders would have justified him, and borne him out), but to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise, and honour, and glory, 1 Pet. i. 7. Thus God tempted Job, that he might appear not only a good man, but a great man. God did tempt Abraham; he did lift up Abraham, so some read it; as a scholar that improves well is lifted up, when he is put into a higher form. Note, Strong faith is often exercised with strong trials and put upon hard services.
III. The trial itself. God appeared to him as he had formerly done, called him by name, Abraham, that name which had been given him in ratification of the promise. Abraham, like a good servant, readily answered, “Here am I; what says my Lord unto his servant?” Probably he expected some renewed promise like those, ch. xv. 1, and ch. xvii. 1. But, to his great amazement, that which God has to say to him is, in short, Abraham, Go kill thy son; and this command is given him in such aggravating language as makes the temptation abundantly more grievous. When God speaks, Abraham, no doubt, takes notice of every word, and listens attentively to it; and every word here is a sword in his bones: the trial is steeled with trying phrases. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that he should afflict? No, it is not; yet, when Abraham’s faith is to be tried, God seems to take pleasure in the aggravation of the trial, v. 2. Observe,
1. The person to be offered. (1.) “Take thy son, not thy bullocks and thy lambs;” how willingly would Abraham have parted with them by thousands to redeem Isaac! “No, I will take no bullock out of thy house, Ps. l. 9. I must have thy son: not thy servant, no, not the steward of thy house, that shall not serve the turn; I must have thy son.” Jephthah, in pursuance of a vow, offered a daughter; but Abraham must offer his son, in whom the family was to be built up. “Lord, let it be an adopted son;” “No, (2.) Thy only son; thy only son by Sarah.” Ishmael was lately cast out, to the grief of Abraham; and now Isaac only was left, and must he go too? Yes, (3.) “Take Isaac, him, by name, thy laughter, that son indeed,” ch. xvii. 19. Not “Send for Ishmael back, and offer him;” no, it must be Isaac. “But, Lord, I love Isaac, he is to me as my own soul. Ishmael is not, and wilt thou take Isaac also? All this is against me:” Yea, (4.) That son whom thou lovest. It was a trial of Abraham’s love to God, and therefore it must be in a beloved son, and that string must be touched most upon: in the Hebrew it is expressed more emphatically, and, I think, might very well be read thus: Take now that son of thine, that only one of thine, whom thou lovest, that Isaac. God’s command must overrule all these considerations.
2. The place: In the land of Moriah, three days’ journey off; so that he might have time to consider it, and, if he did it, must do it deliberately, that it might be a service the more reasonable and the more honourable.
3. The manner: Offer him for a burnt-offering. He must not only kill his son, but kill him as a sacrifice, kill him devoutly, kill him by rule, kill him with all that pomp and ceremony, with all that sedateness and composure of mind, with which he used to offer his burnt-offerings.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
GENESIS – CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Verses 1, 2:
This trial of Abraham’s faith came many years after the events of chapter 21. The exact time is uncertain. Isaac was at this time likely about thirty years old. He was at least fully grown, capable of making a three day’s journey of more than sixty miles. This trial of faith did not come from Satan (as 1Ch 21:1 with 2Sa 14:1), nor from Abraham himself. It came from God (lit. the Elohim).
“Tempt,” nasah, is “to try, or prove.” There was no solicitation to sin, in the modern sense of temptation (see Jas 1:13). The language implies that God appeared to Abraham in a vision by night, and sought to try his faith by asking him to offer as a free-will sacrifice, not a lamb, as was customary, but his only son Isaac.
“Moriah” is traditionally identified with Jerusalem. Solomon built the Temple on Mt Moriah (1Ch 3:1), where God appeared to David (1Ch 21:15-22:1).
God did not ask Abraham to offer Isaac in spiritual surrender, but as a literal burnt-offering, in the place He would point out. Doubtless this was strange to Abraham, and was not according to previous command. Though not uncommon among the heathen, human sacrifice has never been a part of Divine worship of Jehovah God. Abraham demonstrated his faith, by setting out on the journey without delay.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And it came to pass. This chapter contains a most memorable narrative. For although Abraham, through the whole course of his life, gave astonishing proofs of faith and obedience, yet none more excellent can be imagined than the immolation of his son. For other temptations with which the Lord had exercised him, tended, indeed, to his mortification; but this inflicted a wound far more grievous than death itself. Here, however, we must consider something greater and higher than the paternal grief rind anguish, which, being produced by the death of an only son, pierced through the breast of the holy man. It was sad for him to be deprived of his only son, sadder still that this eon should be torn away by a violent death, but by far the most grievous that he himself should be appointed as the executioner to slay him with his own hand. Other circumstances, which will be noted in their proper place, I now omit. But all these things, if we compare them with the spiritual conflict of conscience which he endured, will appear like the mere play, or shadows of conflicts. For the great source of grief to him was not his own bereavement, not that he was commanded to slay his only heir, the hope of future memorial and of name, the glory and support of his family; but that, in the person of this son, the whole salvation of the world seemed to be extinguished and to perish. His contest, too, was not with his carnal passions, but, seeing that he wished to devote himself wholly to God, his very piety and religion filled him with distracting thoughts. For God, as if engaging in personal contest with him, requires the death of the boy, to whose person He himself had annexed the hope of eternal salvation. So that this latter command was, in a certain sense, the destruction of faith. This foretaste of the story before us, it was deemed useful to give to the readers, that they may reflect how deserving it is of diligent and constant meditation.
After these things God did tempt Abraham. The expression, after these things, is not to be restricted to his last vision; Moses rather intended to comprise in one word the various events by which Abraham had been tossed up and down; and again, the somewhat more quiet state of life which, in his old age, he had lately begun to obtain. He had passed an unsettled life in continued exile up to his eightieth year; having been harassed with many contumelies and injuries, he had endured with difficulty a miserable and anxious existence, in continual trepidation; famine had driven him out of the land whither he had gone, by the command and under the auspices of God, into Egypt. Twice his wife had been torn from his bosom; he had been separated from his nephew; he had delivered this nephew, when captured in war, at the peril of his own life. He had lived childless with his wife, when yet all his hopes were suspended upon his having offspring. Having at length obtained a son, he was compelled to disinherit him, and to drive him far from home. Isaac alone remained, his special but only consolation; be was enjoying peace at home, but now God suddenly thundered out of heaven, denouncing the sentence of death upon this son. The meaning, therefore, of the passage is, that by this temptation, as if by the last act, the faith of Abraham was far more severely tried than before.
God did tempt Abraham. James, in denying that any one is tempted by God, (Jas 1:13,) refutes the profane calumnies of those who, to exonerate themselves from the blame of their sins, attempt to fix the charge of them upon God. Wherefore, James truly contends, that those sins, of which we have the root in our own concupiscence, ought not to be charged upon another. For though Satan instils his poison, and fans the flame of our corrupt desires within us, we are yet not carried by any external force to the commission of sin; but our own flesh entices us, and we willingly yield to its allurements. This, however is no reason why God may not be said to tempt us in his own way, just as he tempted Abraham, — that is, brought him to a severe test, — that he might make full trial of the faith of his servant.
And said unto him. Moses points out the kind of temptation; namely, that God would shake the faith which the holy man had placed in His word, by a counter assault of the word itself. He therefore addresses him by name, that there may be no doubt respecting the Author of the command. For unless Abraham had been fully persuaded that it was the voice of God which commanded him to slay his son Isaac, he would have been easily released from anxiety; for, relying on the certain promise of God, he would have rejected the suggestion as the fallacy of Satan; and thus, without any difficulty, the temptation would have been shaken off. But now all occasion of doubt is removed; so that, without controversy, he acknowledges the oracle, which he hears, to be from God. Meanwhile, God, in a certain sense, assumes a double character, that, by the appearance of disagreement and repugnance in which He presents Himself in his word, he may distract and wound the breast of the holy man. For the only method of cherishing constancy of faith, is to apply all our senses to the word of God. But so great was then the discrepancy of the word, that it would wound and lacerate the faith of Abraham. Wherefore, there is great emphasis in the word, “said,” (445) because God indeed made trial of Abraham’s faith, not in the usual manner, but by drawing him into a contest with his own word. (446) Whatever temptations assail us, let us know that the victory is in our own hands, so long as we are endued with a firm faith; otherwise, we shall be, by no means, able to resist. If, when we are deprived of the sword of the Spirit, we are overcome, what would be our condition were God himself to attack us with the very sword, with which he had been wont to arm us? This, however, happened to Abraham. The manner in which Abraham, by faith, wrestled with this temptation, we shall afterwards see, in the proper place.
And he said, Behold, here I am. It hence appears that the holy man was, in no degree, afraid of the wiles of Satan. For the faithful are not in such haste to obey God, as to allow a foolish credulity to carry them away, in whatever direction the breath of a doubtful vision may blow. But when it was once clear to Abraham, that he was called by God, he testified, by this answer, his prompt desire to yield obedience. For the expression before us is as much as if he said, Whatever God may have been pleased to command, I am perfectly ready to carry into effect. And, truly, he does not wait till God should expressly enjoin this or the other thing, but promises that he will be simply, and without exception, obedient in all things. This, certainly, is true subjection, when we are prepared to act, before the will of God is known to us. We find, indeed, all men ready to boast that they will do as Abraham did; but when it comes to the trial, they shrink from the yoke of God. But the holy man, soon afterwards, proves, by his very act, how truly and seriously he had professed, that he, without delay, and without disputation, would subject himself to the hand of God.
(445) “ Quare magna subest emphasis verbo loquendi.”
(446) God’s usual manner of trying the faith of his people is, by causing the dispensations of his providence apparently to contradict his word, and requiring them still to rely upon that word, notwithstanding the apparent inconsistency. But in Abraham’s trial, He proposed a test far more severe. For His own command, or word, was in direct contradiction to what he had before spoken; His injunction respecting the slaying of Isaac could, by no human method of reasoning, be reconciled to his promises respecting the future destinies of Abraham’s family, of the Church, and of the world. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
ABRAHAMTHE FRIEND OF GOD
Gen 11:10 to Gen 25:10.
ONE week ago we gave this hour to a study in Genesis, our subject being, The Beginnings. The birds-eye view of ten chapters and ten verses brought us to Babel, and impressed upon us the many profitable lessons that come between the record of creation and the report of confusion.
Beginning with the 10th verse of the 11th chapter of Genesis (Gen 11:10), and concluding with the 10th verse of the 25th chapter (Gen 25:10), we have the whole history of Abraham, the friend of God; and while other important persons, such as Sarai, Hagar, Lot, Pharaoh, Abimelech, Isaac, Rebecca and even Melchisedec appear in these chapters, Abraham plays altogether the prominent part, and aside from Melchisedec, the High Priest, is easily the most important person, and the most interesting subject presented in this inspired panorama. It may be of interest to say that Abraham lived midway between Adam and Jesus, and such was his greatness that the Chaldeans, East Indians, Sabeans and Mohammedans all join with the Jew in claiming to be the offspring of Abraham; while it is the Christians proud boast that he is Abrahams spiritual descendant.
It is little wonder that all these contend for a kinship with him whom God deigns to call His friend. The man who is a friend of God is entitled to a large place in history. Fourteen chapters are none too many for his record; and hours spent in analyzing his character and searching for the secrets of his success are hours so employed as to meet the Divine approval.
The problem is how to so set Abrahams history before you as to make it at once easy of comprehension, and yet thoroughly impress its lessons. In trying to solve that question it has seemed best to call attention to
THE CALL AND THE COVENANT.
Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house, unto a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
Did you ever stop to think of the separations involved in this call?
It meant a separation from home. From thy fathers house. How painful that call is, those of us who have passed through it perfectly understand; and yet many of us have gone so short a distance from home, or else have made the greater journey with such extended stops, that we know but little how to sympathize with Abrahams more effective separation from that dear spot. To go from Chaldea to Canaan in that day, from a country with which he was familiar to one he had never seen; and from a people who were his own, to sojourn among strangers, was every whit equal to William Careys departure from England for India. But as plants and flowers have to be taken from the hot-bed into the broad garden that they may best bring forth, so God lifts the subject of His affection from the warm atmosphere of home-life and sets him down in the far field that he may bring forth fruit unto Him; hence, as is written in Hebrews, Abraham had to go out, not knowing whither he went.
This call also involves separation from kindred. And from thy kindred. In Chaldea, Abram had a multitude of relatives, as the 11th chapter fully shows. Upon all of these, save the members of his own house, and Lot, his brothers son, Abram must turn his back. In the process of time the irreligion of Lot will necessitate also a separation from him. In this respect, Abrahams call is in no whit different from that which God is giving the men and women today. You cannot respond to the call of God without separating yourself from all kin who worship at false shrines; and you cannot make the progress you ought and live in intimate relation with so worldly a professor of religion as was Lot.
We may have marvelled at times that Abraham so soon separated himself from Lot, but the real wonder is that the man of God so long retained his hold upon him. No more difficult task was ever undertaken than that of keeping in the line of service a man who, in the lust of his eyes and the purpose of his heart, has pitched his tent toward Sodom. It is worthy of note that so soon as Abraham was separated from Lot, the Lord said unto him,
Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place that thou art, northward and southward, and eastward and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever (Gen 13:14-15).
The men of the broadest view in spiritual things, the men upon whom God has put His choicest blessing, have been from time immemorial men who have separated themselves from idolaters and pretenders that they might be the more free to respond to the call of God, and upon such, God has rested His richest favors.
This call also involves separation from the Gentiles. The Gentiles of Chaldea and the Gentiles of Canaan; from the first he was separated by distance and from the second by circumcision. Gods appeal has been and is for a peculiar people, not that they might be queer, but that He might keep them separatedunspotted from the world. God knows, O so well, how few souls there are that can mingle with the unregenerate crowd without losing their testimony and learning to speak the shibboleth of sinners. Peter was a good man; in some respects greater than Abraham; but Peter in that porch-company was a poor witness for Jesus Christ, while his profanity proved the baneful effect of fellowship with Gods enemies. The call to separation, therefore, is none other than the call to salvation, for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.
But Gods calls are always attended by
GODS COVENANTS.
As this call required three separations with their sacrifices, so its attendant covenant contained three promised blessings. God never empties the heart without filling it again, and with better things. God never detaches the affections from lower objects without at once attaching them to subjects that are higher; consequently call and covenant must go together.
I will make of thee a great nation. That was the first article in His covenant. To the Jew, that was one of the most precious promises. This ancient people delighted in progeny. The Psalmist wrote, As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. If our Puritan fathers, few in number and feeble as they were, could have imagined the might and multitude of their offspring, they would have found in the prospect an unspeakable pride, and a source of mighty pleasure. It was because those fathers did, in some measure, imagine the America to come, that they were willing to endure the privations and dangers of their day; but the honor of being fathers of a nation, shared in by a half hundred of them, was an honor on which Abraham had a close corporation, for to him God said,
I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall also thy seed be numbered.
If the heart, parting from parents and home, is empty, the arms into which children have been placed are full; and homesickness, the pain of separation, is overcome when, through the grace of God, one sits down in the midst of his own.
This covenant contained a further promise. I will . . . make thy name great. We may believe that the word great here refers not so much to empty honors as to merited praise. The Jewish conception of such a promise was expressed by Solomon when he said, A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. And, notwithstanding the fact that our age is guilty of over-estimating the value of riches, men find it difficult to underrate the value of a good name.
Years ago, Jonas Chickering decided to make a better piano than had ever appeared on the market. He spared neither time nor labor in this attempt. His endeavor was rewarded in purity and truthfulness of tone as well as in simplicity of plan, and there came to him the ever-attendant result of success. His name on a piano was that instruments best salesman.
A Massachusetts man, seeing this, went to the Massachusetts legislature and succeeded in getting them to change his name to Chickering, that he might put it upon his own instruments.
As Marden said when referring to this incident, Character has a commercial value.
And, when God promised Abraham to make his name great, He bestowed the very honor which men most covet to this hour.
But the climax of His covenant is contained in this last sentence, In thee shall all the families of the earth be blest. That is the honor of honors! That is the success of all successes! That is the privilege of all privileges!
When Mr. Moody died some man said, Every one of us has lost a friend, and that speaker was right, for there is not a man in America who has not enjoyed at least an opportunity to be better because Moody lived. No matter whether the individual had ever seen him or no; had ever read one of his sermons or no; yet the tidal waves of Moodys work have rolled over the entire land, over many lands for that matter, and even the most ignorant and debased have breathed the better atmosphere on account of him. George Davis claims that Moody traveled a million miles, and addressed a hundred million people, and dealt personally with 750,000 individuals! I think Davis claim is an overstatement, and yet these whom he touched personally are only a tithe of the multitudes blessed indirectly by that evangelism for which Moody stood for forty years. If today I could be privileged to make my choice of the articles of this covenant, rather than be the father of a great nation, rather than enjoy the power of a great name, I would say, Give me the covenant that through me all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Such would indeed be the crowning glory of a life, and such ought to be the crowning joy of a true mans heart.
In the next place, I call your attention to
ABRAHAMS OBEDIENCE AND BLUNDERS.
His obedience was prompt No sooner are the call and covenant spoken than we read,
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him (Gen 12:4).
In that his conduct favorably contrasted with the behavior of some other of the Old Testaments most prominent men. Moses was in many respects a model, but he gave himself to an eloquent endeavor to show God that He was making a mistake in appointing him Israels deliverer. Elijah at times indulged in the same unprofitable controversy, and the story of Jonahs criticism of the Divine appointment will be among our later studies. I am confident that Abraham brings before every generation a much needed example in this matter. In these days, men are tempted to live too much in mathematics and to regard too lightly Gods revelations of duty. That is one of the reasons why many pulpits are empty. That is one of the reasons why many a Sunday School class is without a teacher. That is the only reason why any man in this country can say with any show of truthfulness, No man careth for my soul. If the congregations assembled in Gods sanctuary should go out of them, as Abram departed from his home in Haran, to fulfil all that the Lord had spoken unto them, the world would be turned upside down in a fortnight, and Christ would quickly come.
In his obedience Abraham was steadfast also. There are many men who respond to the calls of God; there are only a few who remain faithful to those calls through a long and busy life. There were battles ahead for Abram. There were blunders in store for Abram. There were bereavements and disappointments to come. But, in spite of them all, he marched on until God gathered him to his people. I thank God that such stedfastness is not wholly strange at the present time. When we see professors of religion proving themselves shallow and playing truant before the smaller trials, and we are thereby tempted to join in Solomons dyspeptic lament, All is vanity and vexation of spirit, it heartens one to remember the history that some have made and others are making. Think of Carey and Judson, Jewett and Livingstone, Goddard and Morrison, Clough and Ashmoremen who, through long years, deprivations and persecutions, proved as faithful as was ever Abraham; and so, long as the world shall stand, stedfastness in obedience to the commands of God will be regarded highly in Heaven. Why is it that we so much admire the company of the apostles, and why is it that we sing the praises of martyrs? They withstood in the evil day, and having done all, stood.
Again, Abrams obedience was inspired by faith.
When he went out from Chaldea to come into Canaan, he was not yielding to reason but walking according to revelation. His action was explained in the sentence, He believed in the Lord. Joseph Parker commenting on the world believed as here employed says, This is the first time the word believed occurs in the Bible. * * * * What history opens in this one word. Abram nourished and nurtured himself in God. * * * * He took the promise as a fulfilment. The word was to him a fact. The stars had new meanings to him, as, long before, the rainbow had to Noah. Abram drew himself upward by the stars. Every night they spoke to him of his posterity and of his greatness. They were henceforward not stars only but promises and oaths and blessings.
One great need of the present-day church is a truer trust in God. Oh, for men who like Columbus can let the craft of life float out on the seas of thought and action, and look to the starry heavens for the guidance that shall land them upon newer and richer shores! Oh, for men that will turn their ears heavenward to hear what God will say, and even though His commissions contain sacrifice will go about exercising it! Such men are never forgotten by the Father. We are not surprised to hear Him break forth in praise of Abraham, saying,
Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, m blessing 1 will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gates of the enemy, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.
No sacrifice made in faith is ever forgotten, and when Gods rewards for service are spoken, good men always regard them more than sufficient. If you could call up today the souls of Carey, Judson, Livingstone and Morrison, and assemble Clough, Ashmore, Taylor, Powell, Clark, Richards and a hundred others worthy to stand with them, and ask them the question Has God failed in any particular to keep with you any article of His covenant? they would answer in a chorus, No. And has God more than met the expectations of your faith? they would reply without dissent, Yes. As He was faithful to our father Abraham, so He is faithful to the present-day servant.
And yet Abraham, the obedient, was
GUILTY OF BLUNDERING.
Twice he lied, and the third time he approached the utmost limits of truth. He told Sarai to say she was his sister. She was his half-sister, and so he thought to excuse himself by dissembling and keeping back a part. But a lie is not a question of words and phrases! It may be acted as easily as spoken! When God comes to make a report upon your conduct and mine, dissembling will be labeled falsehood, for God does not cover up the sins of men. Somebody has asked, Do you suppose, if the Bible had been written by some learned Doctor, revised by a committee of some eminent scholars, and published by some great ecclesiastical society, we would ever have heard of Noahs drunkenness, of Abrams deception, of Lots disgrace, of Jacobs rascality, of the quarrel between Paul and Barnabas, or of Peters conduct on the porch? Not at all. But when the Almighty writes a mans life, He tells the truth about him.
I heard a colored preacher at Cincinnati say, The most of us would not care for a biography of ourselves, if God was to be the Author of it. Yet the work of the Recording Angel goes on, and as surely as we read today the report of Abrams blunders, we will be compelled to confront our own. Let us cease, therefore, from sin.
But Abrams few blunders cannot blacken his beautiful record. The luster of his life is too positive to be easily dimmed; and like the sun, will continue to shine despite the spots. Run through these chapters, and in every one of the fourteen you will find some touch of his true life. It was Abraham whose heart beat in sweetest sympathy with the sufferings of Hagar. It was Abraham who showed the most unselfish spirit in separating from Lot and dividing the estate. It was Abraham who opened his door to strangers in a hospitality of which this age knows all too little. It was Abram who overcame the forces of the combined kings and snatched Lot out of their hands. It was Abraham whose prayers prevailed with God in saving this same weakkneed professor out of Sodom. It was Abraham who trusted God for a child when Nature said the faith was foolish. It was Abraham who offered that same child in sacrifice at the word, not halting because of his own heart-sufferings. It was Abraham who mourned Sarahs death as deeply as ever any bereft bride felt her loss.
The more I search these chapters, the more I feel that she was right who wrote, A holy life has a voice. It speaks when the tongue is silent and is either a constant attraction or a continued reproof. Put your ear close to these pages of Genesis, and if Abraham does not whisper good to your heart, then be sure that your soul is dead and you are yet in your sins.
There remains time for but a brief review of these fourteen chapters in search of
THEIR TYPES AND SYMBOLS
Abrams call is a type of the Church of Christ. The Greek word for Church means the called-out. Separation from the Chaldeans was essential to Abrams access to the Father, and separation from the world is essential to the Churchs access to God and also essential to its exertion of an influence for righteousness. I believe Dr. Gordon was right when, in The Two-Fold Life he said, The truest remedy for the present-day naturalized Christianity and worldly consecration is to be found in a strenuous and stubborn non-conformity to the world on the part of Christians. With the most unshaken conviction, we believe that the Church can only make headway, in this world, by being loyal to her heavenly calling. Towards Ritualism her cry must be not a rag of popery; towards Rationalism, not a vestige of whatsoever is not of faith; and towards
Secularism, not a shred of the garment spotted by the flesh. The Bride of Christ can only give a true and powerful testimony in this world as she is found clothed with her own proper vesture even the fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints.
Isaacs offering is a type of Gods gift of Jesus. He was an only son and Abraham laid him upon the altar of sacrifice. And, if one say that he fails as a type because he passed not through the experience of death, let us remember what is written into Heb 11:17 following,
By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, *** accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him, in a figure.
It might be written in Scripture, Abraham so believed God that he gave his only begotten son, for Gods sake. It is written in Scripture, God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Melchisedec is a type of our High Priest, Jesus Christ. His record in Gen 14:18-20 is brief, but the interpretation of his character in Hebrews 7 presents him as either identical with the Lord Himself, or else as one whose priesthood is the most perfect type of that which Jesus Christ has performed, and performs today for the sons of men.
In Sodom, we find the type of the days of the Son of Man. Of it the Lord said,
Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me.
Jesus Christ referred to that city and likened its condition to that which should obtain upon the earth at the coming of the Son of Man, saying, As it was in the days of Lot, they did eat; they drank; they bought; they sold; they planted; they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
The newspapers some time ago reported great religious excitement in a Southern city through the work of two evangelists. Doctors said, We will prescribe no more liquor for patients, druggists said, We will sell no more liquor as a beverage; gamblers gave up their gambling; those called the toughs of the town turned to the Lord; the people of means put off their jewels, changed their frivolous clothes to plainer style; and wherever one went he heard either the singing of hymns or the utterance of prayers, and a great newspaper said this had all come about because the people in that little college town expected the speedy return of Christ. You may call it fanaticism, if you will, and doubtless there would be some occasion, and yet call it what you may, this sentence will remain in the Scriptures, Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Gen. 22:1. God did tempt Abraham.] Try, prove, or put to the test.
Gen. 22:2. Land of Moriah.] A general phrase for the mountainous district of Jerusalem. But this Moriah is the same with the site upon which Solomon built the Temple, and was so called (2Sa. 24:16-17) when the old name was revived on another occasion than this. (See 2Ch. 3:1.) (Jacobus.)
Gen. 22:4. On the third day.] From Beer-Sheba to the Shalem of Melkizedec, near which this hill is supposed to have been, is about 45 miles. If they proceeded 15 miles on the first broken day, 20 on the second, and 10 on the third, they would come within sight of the place early on the third day. (Murphy.) Saw the place afar off. The Jewish tradition is that the place was pointed out by a luminous cloud.
Gen. 22:5. And come again to you.] This may have been an expression of faith that God would restore his son, even if actually sacrificed. But more probably it was a device to conceal his purpose from his servants. Some fancy that his words were a mere excuse without truth, and refer to his dealings at Egypt and at Gerar. Nor would the inconsistency even at such a time be past example. One part of the moral being may be intensely alive, while another is dead and without sensation. (Alford.)
Gen. 22:6. And he took the fire in his hand.] A brand, or torch, kindled at the spot where he left the servants. Therefore there was but a short distance to the place of sacrifice.
Gen. 22:8. God will provide Himself a lamb.] Heb. God will see for Himself the lamb. The Heb. has no other word for provide than to see. The term is the same as in the name of the place given by Abraham, Jehovah-jirch, i.e., God will see, or provide.
Gen. 22:11. The angel of the Lord.] The names of God here introduced are worthy of note. It was Elohim, the Personal Godin distinction from heathen godswho demanded the sacrificethe God whom Abraham worshipped and served. And now it was the Angel of Jehovahthe Covenant Angelwho arrested him in the very act. God, as the true God, had the sovereign right to demand all that Abraham had; and yet God Jehovah, as the Covenant God, would not suffer His covenant to fail. (Jacobus.)
Gen. 22:12. Now I know that thou fearest God.] The Heb. word denotes that knowledge which is ascertained by experiment. Elohim is the name of God employed herethe general, not the covenant name. This was the trial of Abrahams God-fearing character.
Gen. 22:13. Behind him a ram.] Kalisch renders in the background, behind the things immediately present. The word never occurs in the O.T. as an adverb of place, but it is likely that it should be so understood here. The voice from heaven was heard from behind Abraham, who on turning back and lifting up his eyes saw the ram. (Murphy.)
Gen. 22:14. In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.] In the popular proverb there is an allusion to the name Moriah, the mountain of vision. This is the probable meaning; but other views are given. Keil gives this senseSo that it is said, on the mountain where the Lord appears (yearly), from which the name Moriah arose. Kalisch: On the mount of the Lord His people shall be seen, i.e., they shall worship on that mount. Others give the sensethe Lord will be seen there for His peoples deliverance. Probably we are not far wrong in taking the following as the general meaningthat this was the spot of Gods choice for the manifestation of His visible presence, where the Sanctuary should be erected and sacrifices offered.
Gen. 22:17. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.] The L
XX. has, Shall inherit the cities of their adversaries The most obvious sense is thisIsrael should overcome his enemies and capture their cities, since he should seize and occupy their gates. But the gate here points to a deeper meaning. The hostile world has a gate, or gates, in its susceptibilities, through which the believing Israel should enter it. (Psa. 24:7-9.) The following words prove that this is the sense of the words here. (Lange.)
Gen. 22:18. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.] Heb. Shall bless themselves, or count themselves blessed. The verb is here in the Hithpael conjugation, which has a reflexive force. In Gen. 12:2 (the first form of the promise), the verb is in the Niphal conjugation, shall be blessed.
Gen. 22:20-24.] This family register of Abrahams brother is here inserted to prepare the way for the narrative of Isaacs marriage. This was now the next step for the covenant son. And it was Gods expressed will that the house of Abraham should not intermarry with the heathen. Here, then, is Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel. (Jacobus.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 22:1-18
THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAMS FAITH
God did tempt Abraham. We are not to understand the word tempt in the unfavourable sense in which it is used of Satan. The meaning is, that God proved the faith and obedience of Abraham by putting them to a severe test. The teaching of this narrative is to be judged by the issue, which shows that God did not intend to sanction human sacrifices, but only to give an evident demonstration of Abrahams complete surrender to the Divine will. The command was so given that Abraham could understand it only in one way, i.e., that he was bidden actually to offer up his son in sacrifice. But God had another end in view for his servant, who was by this trial to be selected from the rest of mankind as an extraordinary instance of faith. God meant to prove and to bless himto set him firmly in that position which he was to hold in the history of the Church. Let us see what light the narrative throws upon the nature and meaning of this trial.
I. It was a trial for which Abraham had been carefully prepared.
1. By his spiritual history. His life, as a godly man, was remarkable for intense feeling and a fearless activity. He had been called to a high and singular destiny. He had obeyed that call with unwavering trust and hope in God. The accomplishment of the promises made to him was delayed, so that he was gradually taught to believe the Lord on His simple word. He had been taken into covenant with God. He had submitted to circumcision as the outward seal of that covenant, and in token of that faith which purifieth the heart. He had exercised the offices both of intercessor and prophet. God had at length given to him the child so long promised. By the performance of great duties, and by the experience of extraordinary grace, his character was built up to stability and power. He had acquired more and more a likeness to God. As our word worth signifies that which weareth well, so we may say that Abraham was a man of great spiritual worth. He had qualities of character which wore wellstood the test of time. Here was a strong man who could afford to be put to a severe proof.
2. By a life of trial. Ever since Abraham was called of God he had experienced one trial after another. It may be that in his days of spiritual ignorance he had suffered many things in common with those around him, but the life to which God called him brought with it new and peculiar trials. It was a trial when he left his fathers house to seek the land of Mesopotamiatrial when in the land of Egypt he feared for the safety and virtue of Sarahtrial when he parted from Lot, though his meekness gained the victory over human passiontrial when he was perplexed with the Divine dealings in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and when his soul could only take refuge in the ultimate rectitude of the Judge of all the earthtrial when he was sorrowfully forced to banish Hagar and her childtrial in his final separation from Ishmaeltrial when he found that he had come to old age, and yet had no heir. Abraham was outwardly a prosperous man, and yet what a life of trials and struggles he had to endure! As a spiritual man, he endured the long-continued trial of promises unfulfilled and, to all human appearance, hopeless of fulfilment. It was after these things that God did tempt Abraham.
II. It was a trial of remarkable severity. This last trial was the hardest of all. It was emphatically the trial of Abrahams faith. We may judge of its severity if we consider
1. The violence done to his natural feelings. We read this incident well knowing the issue of it, and are therefore likely to be unmindful of that agony of distress which must have filled the heart of the patriarch on hearing this command. But Abraham did not know that issue. There was nothing before him but that awful word of God which was to be fulfilled with the greatest possible pain to his own feelings. Each successive portion of the command was calculated to fill him with increasing misery and terror. It seems as if each item in his suffering was arranged with cruel ingenuity. Take now thy son. He had been given by a miracle. Every time the father looked upon him he felt that he was a wonderful child. He was a special gift, most dear and precious. Thine only son, Isaac. He with whom all the greatness of thy future is connectedthine heirthe hope of nations. Whom thou lovest. As an only child, and so remarkably given, must be loved. We cannot conceive of a greater violence and outrage done than this to his human feelings as a parent. Moreover, Isaac was to die by his own hand. It would have been some relief to have delivered his beloved son to another to sacrifice him, so that a father might be spared the heart-rending agony of hearing his dying groans. But there was no way of escape. He must himself do the horrid deed. He must come to the appointed place, to the dread moment, and take the knife to slay his son. There was no loophole by which he could slip out of his duty by a sudden turn of circumstancesno possible way of escape. He is bound to face the fact, or to retire.
2. The violence done to his feelings as a religious man. Abraham owed certain duties to his son and to his God. Now these two duties clashed with each other, raising a conflict in his soul of the most terrible kind. It seemed as if conscience and God were at variance, and this to a religious mind must give rise to painful perplexity. Abraham might well doubt the Divine origin of the command. Could it possibly have come from God, who had forbidden murder as the very highest of crimes? Was not such a command contrary to the character of that God who is love? Did not God Himself promise that in Isaac all the families of the earth should be blessed, and if he was thus to be untimely slain how could such a promise be fulfilled? It seemed as if the very ground of all his hope was gone. Such doubts as these must have passed through the mind of Abraham, even though they were momentary and other considerations prevailed.
III. This trial was endured in the spirit of an extraordinary faith. The difficulties which Abraham felt, the doubts which must have raised a storm in his mind, the overwhelming trials of his heartthese are not told us in the Bible. We have only the simple fact that his faith was equal to the occasion. His spiritual strength was severely tested, but it had not given way. He had that heroic faith which could overcome all difficulties, and of this the course of the narrative affords abundant evidence.
1. His obedience was unquestioning. In this account the sacred writer makes no distinct reference to his faith. The thing insisted upon is his obedience. Because thou hast done this thing. Because thou hast obeyed my voice. Thus faith and obedience are one in essence, and we may employ one word or the other merely to describe the same thing from different points of view. In the same way we may speak of life, considered either in its principle or in its results. For faith is no dead sentiment, but a living power which is bound to give all the manifestations of life. The evidence that a man has life is that he is able to work. Where there is this self-determining activity there is life. Thus Abrahams faith was made manifest by his prompt and unhesitating obedience.
2. His obedience was complete. He had nothing reserved, but gave up all to God. He did not devise an ingenious plan of escape from the hard duty, but made every possible provision that the deed should not fail to be done. He did not tell Sarah, for the mothers heart would have pleaded hard and turned him from the steadiness of his purpose. Nor did he tell Isaac till the dreadful moment came. He took care that nothing should interfere with the carrying out of what was to him the will and purpose of God. All this shows that he meant to do the deed commanded. Had he known the issue of the event it would have been no sacrifice. But he expected to come back from the awful scene a childless man. Therefore his act, though interrupted at the critical moment, was a real sacrifice. There was a complete surrender of his will, and that is the life and power of sacrifice.
3. His obedience was marked by humility. There was no display of his heroic earnestness and devotion. He required no witnesses to the deed. He had no consciousness that he was doing any noble act. Abraham arose early in the morning and saddled his ass. When he arrived at the foot of Mount Moriah he left his servants there, and went on alone with Isaac. All was to be done in secret. He had caught the spirit of that precept which our Lord lays down when He commands secrecy to be observed in our prayers, alms, and sacrifices.
4. His obedience was inspired by trust in a personal God. He had overwhelming difficulties to contend with, but he knew that he had to deal with God Himself, and that, in the end, all would be well. He therefore cast himself hopefully upon the future, believing that God in some way would accomplish His promises. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us how he was sustained by the belief that God could raise the dead. (Heb. 11:12-19). The eye of his faith looked beyond this world to the things which are not seen and which are eternal. (2Co. 4:18).
IV. God rewarded his faithful endurance of the trial.
1. By taking the will for the deed. Abraham was permitted to proceed just so far as was necessary to test his obedience, and then God restrained his hand from the awful deed. The God of infinite pity never intended that the deed should be done. Lay not thine hand upon the lad is the final decree. The thing which God required was only the complete surrender of the fathers will. Abraham was spared the outward form of the sacrifice, for he had offered it already, by his real intention, in the depths of his soul.
2. By renewing His promises. There was nothing new in the promises given to Abraham after this trial They were the same as God had given many years before. God had done and promised for Abraham all that He intended to do and promise. And so it is with all the children of faith. The old promises unfold more and more and yield new riches, but they remain the same unchanging Word of God.
3. By turning the occasion of the trial into a revelation of the day of Christ. There is little doubt that our Lord referred to this event when He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. (Joh. 8:56). The saints of the old dispensation looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, but it appears to have been the peculiar privilege of Abraham to see the day of Christ. Abraham saw the chief event in our Lords lifeHis atoning sacrificevividly represented before him. Abraham is made to stand upon Mount Moriah, which, as some think, is the very spot afterwards called the Hill of Calvary. There, after a manner, he sees actually transacted the scenes which we Christians associate with that memorable place.
(1) He sees represented the sacrifice of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of God. Abraham erects the altar, lays the wood in order, binds Isaac, takes the knife and stretches forth his hand to slay his son. His own love as a parent must have been an affecting representation to him of the love of the Infinite Father. And yet Abrahams stern devotion to duty represents that love of God which spared not His own Son, but made Him to be a sacrifice for us.
(2) There is suggested to him the idea of substitution. A ram is substituted in the stead of Isaac. Thus Christ was a ransom found for the doomed and condemnedan acceptable victim put in their place.
(3) The resurrection of Christ and His return to glory are also represented. Abraham verily received Isaac from the dead, and welcomed him to his embrace. So did the Son of God return to His Father, though not without sacrificenot without blood. He endured that death which Isaac only underwent in a figure. Abraham looked forward to that restored state of things which the resurrection of Christ has proved to be possible. He saw how death could spring from life, how joy could be distilled from sorrow, and suffering end in glory. Learn:
(1) That the most distinguished of Gods servants are often subjected to the greatest trials.
(2) That trials test the strength and spirituality of our faith.
(3) That trials well endured set spiritual truths in a clearer and more affecting light. They give us clearer views of the day of Christ, of His atoning work and its blessed issues. We are encouraged to cast ourselves entirely upon the future. The spiritual world opens up before us, and we feel the worth and preciousness of the unseen. We are made to know that there is, beyond this short life of ours, an enduring world where all shall be restored again.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 22:1. Abraham had been assailed by many temptations from various quarters, but out of them all God delivered him. Now God Himself becomes his tempter; not, however, to lead him into sin, but to test his spirit of prompt and unquestioning obedience.
After these things.After five and twenty years of patient waiting; after the promise had been frequently repeated; after hope had been raised to the highest pitch; yea, after it had been actually turned into enjoyment; and when the child had lived long enough to discover an amiable and godly disposition.(Fuller.)
God puts us upon our trial to do us good in our latter end (Deu. 8:16). Satan ever seeks to do us hurt. He, when he comes to tempt, comes with his sieve, as to Peter (Luk. 23:21); Christ with His fan (Mat. 3:12). Now a fan casteth out the worst and keepeth in the best; a sieve keepeth in the worst and casteth out the best. Christ by his trials purgeth our corruption, and increaseth grace; but the devil, if there be any ill thing in us, confirmeth it; if faith, or any good thing in us, he weakeneth it.(Trapp.)
Life is all temptation. It is sad to think so, but surely we would not have it otherwise. For dark and hard as the dispensation seems, trial here is indispensable for the purifying of the soul. There is no strength or real goodness except that which is wrought out of circumstances of temptation. There is no strength in cloistered virtue, no vigour without trial. In some trials Abraham fell; in others he came off victorious. Out of failure was organised strength. Trials do not become lighter as we go on. It was after these things that God did tempt Abraham. What! no repose? No place of honourable quiet for the friend of God, full of years? No. There are harder and yet harder trials even to the end. The last trial of Abrahams was the hardest of all to bear. For the soldier engaged in this worlds warfare, there is an honourable asylum for his declining years; but for the soldier of the cross there is no rest except the grave.(Robertson.)
After these things. The enjoyment of peculiar blessings may be secured by unexpected trials. It is part of Gods way in Providence that life should be a chequered scene, joy and sorrow intermingled, sown with good and evil, light and darkness. From thisas it appearsdisordered mixture many blessings arise. The passive virtues of self-denial and humility are cultivated, and the character acquires features of consistency and worth. In spiritual things God prepares for trial by eminent enjoyments. Moses beheld the burning bush, and received special manifestations of Gods favour. Thus he was prepared for the toils and trials of his embassy to Egypt. Jacob beheld the vision at Bethel, and this prepared him for his long servitude to Laban. Elijah was met by an angel in the wilderness, and received the cake baked on coals and the cruse of water, like a sacrament before suffering, and in the strength of it went fasting forty days. The disciples saw the glory of Christ on the Mount before they witnessed His agony in the garden.
Gen. 22:2. And He said. This was not a temptation of the ordinary kind, by the events and circumstances of life. It was the word of God that tried Abraham.
The fundamental principle of the Mosaic code, is that the first-born is consecrated to God in memory of the salvation of Israels first-born from the slaughter that came upon the households of Egypt (Exo. 13:2; Exo. 22:28). The substitution of an animal victim for the first-born son was allowed, but it is placed thus in the right light; for this adoption by God of the imperfect for the perfect (the animal for the son) is precisely the meaning of the Mosaic system. It is only the highest idea of this picture in the death of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father, which is the basis of the Gospel message and of our Christian hope (Rom. 8:32).(Jacobus.)
Here was everything to make this command a trial, and a heavy one. Take thy son, not thy servant nor the sheep of thy folds; but, verily, the fruit of thy body. Thine only Isaac. Offer him, not see him offered. In a burnt-offering the victim was to be cut in pieces, the separate parts laid in order on the wood, and the whole burnt with fire. All this long and mournful ceremony was to be performed by Abraham himself. So we, in like manner, may be called upon to make sacrifices which are terribly real. Christ speaks of cutting off a right arm, or plucking out a right eye. There are trials which touch our quick sensibilitiesdishonour done to our good nameor the sorrows which fall upon those near and dear to us. God knows and observes the extent of our sacrifice.
Gen. 22:3. He murmured not, nor took counsel with flesh and blood. He waited not to consult with Sarah, nor listened to the misgivings of his own mind. The command was clear and the obedience prompt. The trial was long and painfully drawn out. Towards God, it was endured in the spirit of faith and loving obedience; towards men, in mournful silence.
Reason and feeling were against Abraham. The word of God was his sole warrant.
That which he must do he will do: he that hath learned not to regard the life of his son had learned not to regard the sorrow of his wife.(Bp. Hall.)
Gen. 22:4. A great while for him to be plodding ere he came to the place. But we must conceive that his brains were better busied than many of ours would have been therewhile. We must not weigh the crop, for then it will prove heavy; we must not chew the pill but swallow it whole, else it will prove bitter; we must not plod too much, but ply the throne of grace for a good use and a good issue of all our trials and tribulations.(Trapp.)
In the three days journey there was time given for reflection. The pleadings of nature would be heard, parental affection would revive and assert itself. The society and conversation of Isaac would strengthen the voice of nature against the hard command. Thus the struggle of faith is not short and momentary, but prolonged.
The place was probably pointed out by a luminous cloud, pre-intimative of the Shekinah, which rested upon it. Such is the tradition of the Jews. When God bade Abraham go to the place He would tell him of, and offer his son, he asked how he should know it; and the answer was, Wheresoever thou seest my glory, there will I stay and wait for thee. And accordingly now he beheld a pillar of fire reaching from heaven to earth, and thereby knew that this was the place.(Bush.)
As this sacrifice was typical of that of Christ, so here may be a reference to the third day of His resurrection.
Gen. 22:5. This reminds us of Our Lord in Gethsemane, when He said to His disciples, Tarry ye here while I go and pray yonder. Going into such an agony, He could not admit others to go with Him. The heart knoweth its own bitterness. They would not understand the strange proceedings, and would only embarass Him in it all.(Jacobus.)
He wished not to be interrupted. In hard duties and severe trials we should consider that we have enough to struggle with in our minds without having any interruptions from other quarters. Great trials are best entered upon with but little company.(Fuller.)
We worship God truly when we yield obedience.
Gen. 22:6. Is this a type of our blessed Lord, the New Testament Isaac, bearing His cross? It was a trial to Isaac as well as to Abraham. The son of promise must bear His cross of sacrifice. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all. (Isa. 53:6.) Isaacs faith also triumphs. He inquires, but goes meekly on. It is to be observed that Isaac was not now a mere boy, but a young man able to carry the amount of wood necessary to consume the offering. Josephus makes him to have been twenty-five years old. The Rabbins make him older. Some insist that his age was thirty-three, corresponding with that of the antitype, who was of this average age of man when He died for mans sin.(Jacobus.)
Isaac was ignorant of that awful part which he had to take in this sacrifice, but Jesus knew from the beginning that He must be offered up.
Gen. 22:7-8. If Abrahams heart could have known how to relent, that question of his dear, innocent, and pious son had melted it into compassion. I know not whether that word, my father, did not strike Abraham as deep as the knife of Abraham could strike his son.(Bp. Hall.)
The tenderness of this scene is only to be surpassed by those of Gethsemane and Calvary. But with the antitype that tenderness is heightened beyond our power to feel or know. If we think of mans feeling towards another as involving strong love and self-sacrifice, we are obliged to say of Gods feeling towards us, How much more!
How, like the inquiry of the Great Sacrifice, He looked, and there was none to help, and he wondered that there was no intercessor. But Jesus answered that question. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not (of bulls and goats), but a body hast thou prepared me. (Heb. 10:5.)(Jacobus.)
God will provide. This is one of the faithful sayings of the Old Testament. How many have been comforted by this thought in seasons of deep trial, when all seemed to be lost! When reason gives no light, and faith holds on to the bare command, with no encouraging prospect in sight, the soul can only point to God and rest satisfied.
In the sacrifice of Christ for sin God has provided for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. This incident shows us, in what lies the value of that sacrifice, and with what feelings we should regard it. I. The sacrifice which God approves must be of His own appointing. Men have everywhere, and at all times, felt their need of a religion. They have a consciousness of sin, and they must, therefore, propitiate God. Hence the universal practice of offering sacrifice. The tendency amongst mankind has been towards excessive zeal in outward sacrifices and offerings, and to forget the fact that God requires self-renonciation. Mans religion has devotions every grace except the heart. But, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. God will provide Himself a lamb. He did not require the blood of Isaac, but the full surrender of Abrahams will. He had provided a richer offering than that, the sacrifice of a stronger and more all-embracing love. God so loved the world that He gave, etc. The terms of salvation cannot be discovered by us; we can only know them as the revealed will of God who appoints His own sacrifice. All else is will worship. II. The sacrifice which God has provided is supremely worthy of acceptance, and graciously suited to our condition. Multitudes of the human race have proved the worth of the sacrifice which God has appointed. It has been the joy of faith, and will be for ever the song of heaven. It is the Everlasting Gospel. The value of this sacrifice may be gathered from what it has done.
1. It has reconciled us to God.
2. It has procured the forgiveness of sins.
3. It opens the way to endless bliss. Heaven becomes the purchased possession, and the central object there is the Lamb slain who has procured it for us. III. The acceptance of the sacrifice God has provided is the turning point of mans spiritual history.
1. It includes all the restrepentance, faith, love, obedience.
2. It gives efficiency to all the rest.
3. It is the true test of spiritual character. Gods sacrifice must be accepted by faith; and faith, in the Gospel sense of the term, is the most real and essential difference, the most vital mark of separation between man and man. This is the touchstone of the innermost nature of our heart.
Gen. 22:9. This was a place of trial both of God and man. Abrahams faith was tried, and the gracious purposes of God towards the human race received visible proof. Both the father of the faithful and the faithful covenant of God are here revealed.
He bound Isaac. Here is also the proving of Isaacs faith. Has he indeed trusted God to provide the lamb? Then what if God choose him for the victim? We hear no complaint from the son of promise. He was led as a lamb to the slaughterfor a voluntary death, so far as we can judge from the record. It was not merely filial affection and pious obedience to the parent; it was implicit trust in God, on the ground set forth and accepted; that God will seesee to it and provide. Isaac made no resistance. We see in him the unresisting Son of GodLamb of Godsacrifice for sinners. Isaac on the altar was sanctified for his vocation in connection with the history of salvation. He was dedicated there as the first-born, and the dedication of the first-born, which was afterwards enjoined in the law, was fulfilled in him.(Jacobus.)
Gen. 22:10. The deed is virtually done when the will shows firm determination. God, who looketh upon the heart, regardeth the sacrifice as already made. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac (Heb. 11:17). He will take the will for the deed, but never the deed for the will.
Gen. 22:11. When we cannot see on any side a way of escape, then God comes and often shows us a wonderful deliverance.(Lange.)
A moment more, and the victim would have been smitten; but in that moment the awful mandate is countermanded. A voice, too familiar to Abraham not to be at once recognised as that of God Himself, addresses him out of heaven, and averts the dire catastrophe. Though termed an angel, yet it is evident from the manner in which He here speaks of Himself, and from what is said (Gen. 22:12-16), that He was not a created being, but was no other than the Divine personage so often introduced into the sacred narrative under the title of the Angel-Jehovah, the Angel of the covenant.(Bush.)
And said Abraham, Abraham. Twice for hastes sake; yet not at all till the very instant. When the knife was up the Lord came. God delights to bring His people to the mount, yea, to the very brow of the hill till their feet slip, and then delivers them. He reserves His holy hand for a dead lift. Only be sure you look to your calling; for it was otherwise with Jephthah. (Judges 11).(Trapp.)
The posture of attention to the voice of God will bring us out of all perplexity and trouble. The same voice which called us to duty will speak again, when we are in a great strait, and open up a way for our escape.
The deliverance by which God rescues His people in great emergencies is often as remarkable as the trial itself is severe. Things were brought now to a dreadful crisis, but the deliverance was sudden and complete.
Gen. 22:12. It is the province of God our Saviour to bring that deliverance which man can neither conceive of nor procure, and to bring it at the right time. Christ appeared when the human race was old enough to learn by sad experience that man was unable to save himself without a Deliverer from heaven.
In the work of redemption God has shown that the purpose of the Redeemer is not to destroy mens lives, but to save them.
Here we have the evidence of a voice from heaven that God does not accept of human victims. Man is morally unclean, and therefore unfit for a sacrifice. He is, moreover, not in any sense a victim, but a doomed culprit, for whom the victim has to be provided. And for a typical sacrifice, that cannot take away but only shadow forth the efficacious sacrifice, man is neither fit nor necessary. The lamb without blemish, that has no penal or protracted suffering, is sufficient for a symbol of the real atonement. The intention, therefore, in this case was enough, and that was now seen to be real.(Murphy.)
The voice of God was never so welcome, never so sweet, never so seasonable as now. It was the trial that God intended, not the fact. Isaac is sacrificed, and is yet alive; and now both of them are more happy in what they would have done, than they could have been distressed if they had done it. Gods charges are oftentimes harsh in the beginnings and proceeding, but in the conclusion always comfortable. True spiritual comforts are commonly late and sudden; God defers, on purpose that our trials may be perfect, our deliverance welcome, our recompenses glorious.(Bp. Hall.)
God required not an experiment in order to gain knowledge, but only to make His knowledge evident to mento teach the human conscience by example as well as by principleto place Abraham in history for all time, as a tried and approved believer.
The underlying principle of Abrahams spiritual experience was the complete surrender of himself, and all that was near and dear to him, to God.
It is not distinctly said that it was the faith of Abraham which was thus manifested, but his fear of Godthat filial fear which springs of love, and produces the fruits of obedience.
St. Pauls epistles teach us that believing and obeying are exhibitions of one and the same spiritual character of mind. For instance, he says that Abraham was accepted by faith, yet St. James says he was accepted by works of obedience. The meaning is clear, that Abraham found favour in Gods sight, because he gave himself up to Him. This is faith, or obedience, whichever we please to call it. No matter whether we say Abraham was favoured because his faith embraced Gods promises, or because his obedience cherished Gods commands, for Gods commands are promises, and His promises commands to a heart devoted to Him; so that, as there is no substantial difference between command and promise, so there, is likewise none between obedience and faith. Perhaps it is scarcely correct even to say that faith comes first and obedience follows as an inseparable second step, and that faith, as being the first step, is accepted. For not a single act of faith can be named but what has in it the nature of obedience; that is, implies making an effort and a consequent victory.(J. H. Newman.)
As a sinner, Abraham was justified by faith only; but, as a professing believer, he was justified by the works which his faith produced.(Bush.)
Gen. 22:13. This was, in fact, an accomplishment of what Abraham himself had a little while before unwittingly predicted. In reply to Isaacs question, Where is the lamb for the burnt offering? he had said, My son, God will provide Himself with a burnt offering. By this answer he merely intended to satisfy his sons mind for the present, till the time should come for making known to him the command which he had received from God, in which command that provision was actually made. But now, through the miraculous interposition of Heaven, and the substitution of the ram in Isaacs place, it had been literally verified in a way which he himself had never contemplated.(Bush).
He that made that beast brings him thither, fastens him there. Even in small things there is a great providence.(Bp. Hall).
Animal sacrifice was accepted instead of human. This was the great principle of the Mosaic economy, which pointed forward to the only acceptable substitute for man, the Lamb of Gods own providing.
Gen. 22:14. Jehovah-jireh.
1. A memorial of Gods great goodness.
2. A promise for the future; that He will give deliverance, in times of extremity, to those who trust in Him.
The passage is undoubtedly meant to inform us that the incident here related was so remarkable, the Divine intervention so illustrious, that it gave rise to the well-known proverbial saying, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen; an expression of which, perhaps, the nearest equivalent in English is the familiar apothegm, Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. The circumstance plainly teaches us, that whatever God has at any time done for the most favoured of His saints may be expected of us now, as far as our necessities call for it. Of all the events related in the Old Testament, scarcely anyone was so peculiar and so exclusive as this. Who besides Abraham was ever called to sacrifice his own son? Who besides him was ever stayed by a voice from heaven in the execution of such a command? And yet, this very event was made the foundation of the proverb before us; and from this, particular and exclusive as it was, all believers are taught to expect that God will interpose for them in like manner in the hour of their extremity.(Bush).
On this same Mount Moriah, in the fulness of time, the only-begotten Son of God was offered up. Abraham verily saw the day of Christ.
The summit of the believers afflictions is the place of his deliverance.
Gen. 22:15-18. Here we find the covenant-promise repeated to Abraham, much the same as at first, yet with important variations. It is the same spiritual grant which the apostle designates as Gods preaching before-hand the Gospel unto Abraham (Gal. 3:8; Rom. 4:16-17). It is the promise of salvation to all nations through Abraham. Only here
(1) it is the promise made with the additional sanction of the oath of God. (Heb. 6:18)
(2) It is here expressed that the salvation of all people is to come through the seed of Abraham; whereas in Gen. 12:3, it was In thee. etc. This was fitting, after the offering of Isaac, which brought the promised seed to view so distinctly. St. Paul argues, by the Spirit, that the seed is Christ. The prediction and promise here given is, therefore, the very crown of all promisesas Abraham is father of the faithful.
(3) This concluding crowning form of the promise to Abraham dwells chiefly upon the seed; while, in other passages, it had been the land of promise more especially, and Abraham more personally. This is quite in accordance with the gradual unfolding of the Gospel revelation. The Messianic idea is more and more distinctly brought into view. The multiplying of the seed of Abraham here promised, to one who had now, in his old age, only the first-born of Hagar and Sarah, looks beyond mere natural posterity to the spiritual progeny, which should become innumerable.(Jacobus.)
The multitude of his seed has a double parallel in the stars of heaven and the sands of the ocean. They are to possess the gate of their enemies, that is, to be masters and rulers of their cities and territories. The great promise, that all the nations should be blessed in his seed, was, at first, given absolutely without reference to his character. Now it is confirmed to him as the man of proof, who is not only accepted as righteous, but proved to be actually righteous after the inward man; because thou hast obeyed my voice. In hearing this transcendent blessing repeated on this momentous occasion, Abraham truly saw the day of the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the Son of Man. We contemplate him now with wonder as the Man of God, manifested by the self-denying obedience of a regenerate nature, entrusted with the dignity of the patriarchate over a holy seed, and competent to the worthy discharge of all its spiritual functions.(Murphy.)
The conquests of the seed of Abraham are those of the Christian Church, of which it is said that, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mat. 16:18).
The adherents of non-Christian systems of belief are more numerous than those who have embraced the religion of Christ. But these are the religions of nations which have no future. The nations of the earth are blessed in the seed of Abraham, for He who was emphatically such leads the way in the worlds progress.
The promises of God enlarge in successive revelations. To Adam, Christ was promised as the bruiser of the serpent; to Abraham, as the source of blessing to all nations.
What God had at the outset granted out of free grace alone, and unconditionally, He now confirms as the reward of Abrahams act of faith. This faith which He had created, fostered, and proved, had now brought forth its fruits. God first promises, and by His revelation awakens faith in the heart. He then crowns with reward the works of this faith, which is the result of His grace.(Gerlach.)
Abraham believed in promises which could only be realised long after his death. Though rewarded for obedience he must still live by faith.
The promise to Abraham is the third great patriarchal promise, and it is made to the third head of the race. Noahs prediction of blessings upon Shem, and through Shem upon Japhet, is here taken up and expanded. To this Shemite a further Messianic promise is made, even when the line of Shem had become idolatrous. The great point of the promise is
(1.) That blessings should come upon the whole human family through Abrahams seed. Abraham must have understood that these blessings were spiritual, and that it was by the diffusion of true religion that he should become such a universal blessing. So Peter explains the promise that it was fulfilled in the advent and work of Christ (Act. 3:25-26). Paul declares that in this promise God preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, etc. (Gal. 3:8-16.) The promise is, therefore
(2), Of a universal religion for man, to come through Abraham. This is the great idea of the Bible. The unity of the race and their brotherhood in Christ, the seed of Abraham, is set forth in both TestamentsChrist all and in all.
(3.) This glorious result for men is by means of a chosen family and people, who are to train posterity according to the covenant seal. Christianity did not spring out of Judaism as a natural growth, for the Jewish religion had become corrupt, and so it battled the idea of such a universal Church as Christ came to establish. The idea was of God, and the plan thus prosecuted can be accounted for only as the plan of God, running through the ages, and the golden thread in all history. No heathen philosophy, nor any other religious system, ever proposed this spiritual blessedness of mankind as the object and end.(Jacobus.)
Gen. 22:19. Abrahams return from the scene of his trial.
1. With the blessed consciousness of duty done. He had obeyed the voice of God, and had stifled every other voice.
2. With all his former blessings made more sacred and secure. He had given up his beloved Isaac, and behold he has him still, more dear than ever now, and like a fresh gift from God. No sacrifice is made for Him, but it is rendered back more than an hundred fold, and the offerer is thereby exalted and blest. We have that most surely which we resign to God. When we make our possessions His, then alone do we enjoy their full benefits. When we keep them back from God we lose them. He that saveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
3. With fresh promises and encouragements, God was better to him than all his fears, yea, than all his hopes.
Isaac had never been so precious to his father if he had not been recovered from death; if he had not been as miraculously restored as given. Abraham had never been as blessed in his seed if he had not neglected Isaac for God. The only way to find comfort in an earthly thing is to surrender it in a believing carelessness into the hands of God.(Bp. Hall.)
Abraham had now arrived at the summit of his spiritual vigour and experience. He was, henceforth, to be the grand example of faith.
In the person of Abraham is unfolded that spiritual process by which the soul is drawn to God. He hears the call of God, and comes to the decisive act of trusting in the revealed God of mercy and truth; on the ground of which act he is accounted righteous. He then rises to the successive acts of walking with God, covenanting with Him, and at length withholding nothing that he has or holds dear from Him. Here are the essential characteristics of the man who is saved through acceptance of the mercy of God. Faith in God (ch. 15), repentance towards Him (ch. 16), and fellowship with Him (ch. 18), are the three great turning points of the souls returning life. They are built upon the effectual call of God (ch. 12), and culminate in unreserved resignation to Him (ch. 22). With wonderful facility has the sacred record descended in this pattern of spiritual biography from the rational and accountable race to the individual and immortal soul, and traced the footsteps of its path to God.(Murphy).
Gen. 22:20-24. The genealogy here given is undoubtedly introduced in order to make way for the following account of Isaacs marriage to Rebekah, a daughter of the family of Nahor. It was contrary to the design of heaven that the family of Abraham should intermarry with the heathen races among whom he now dwelt, and to add to the recent tokens of the Divine favour, he is now cheered by the welcome tidings of the prosperity of his brothers house, in which he would not fail to perceive how kindly God was preparing the way for the higher happiness of his son and the further fulfilment of His promises.(Bush).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PART THIRTY-FOUR
THE STORY OF ABRAHAM: CONFIRMATION OF THE COVENANT
Gen. 22:1-24
The Sacrifice of Isaac (124)
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3 And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife; and they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? 8 And Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of Jehovah called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided. 15 And the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, 17 that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18 and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.
20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also hath borne children unto thy brother Nahor: 21 Uz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight did Milcah bear to Nahor, Abrahams brother. 24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she also bare Tebah, and Gaham, and Tahash, and Maacah.
1. The Divine Command, Gen. 22:1-2
Skinner (ICCG, 327328): The only incident in Abrahams life expressly characterized as a trial of his faith is the one here narrated, where the patriarch proves his readiness to offer up his only son as a sacrifice at the command of God. The story, which is the literary masterpiece of the Elohistic collection, is told with exquisite simplicity; every sentence vibrates with restrained emotion, which shows how fully the author realizes the tragic horror of the situation. For many years had Abraham waited for the promised seed, in which the divine promise was to be fulfilled. At length the Lord had given him the desired heir of his body by his wife Sarah, and directed him to send away the son of the maid. And now that this son had grown into a young man, the word of God had come to Abraham to offer up this very son, who had been given to him as the heir of the promise, for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which should be shown him. The word did not come from his own heartwas not a thought suggested by the sight of the human sacrifices of the Canaanites, that he would offer a similar sacrifice to his God; nor did it originate with the tempter to evil. The word came from Ha-Elohim, the personal, true God, who tried him, i.e., demanded the sacrifice of the only, beloved son, as a proof and attestation of his faith. The issue shows, that God did not desire the sacrifice of Isaac by slaying and burning him upon the altar, but his complete surrender, and a willingness to offer him up to God even by death. Nevertheless the divine command was given in such a form, that Abraham could not understand it in any other way than as requiring an outward burnt-offering, because there was no other way in which Abraham could accomplish the complete surrender of Isaac, than by an actual preparation for really offering the desired sacrifice. This constituted the trial, which necessarily produced a severe internal conflict in his mind. . . . But Abraham brought his reason into captivity to the obedience of Faith (BCOTP, 248).
Gen. 22:1. Speiser puts it: God put Abraham to the test (ABG, 161). God tempts no man by enticing him to sin (Jas. 1:13). Nor does the word here signify any such thing, but to try exquisitely; nor doth God try men in order to promote or to confirm his own knowledge of them, but to manifest what they are, to themselves and to the world, that his rewarding or punishing them may appear the more wise and equal, or his blessing them the more gracious (Deu. 3:2; Deu. 13:3; Jdg. 2:22; 2Ch. 32:31; Psa. 139:23-24; 1Co. 10:13; Exo. 15:25; Exo. 16:4; Jas. 1:12; 1Sa. 3:4; 1Sa. 3:6). By this command God tried the faith of Abraham with respect to his believing that in Isaac his seed should be called; and that through the death of the Messiah he and other believers should obtain everlasting salvation; and tried his obedience in the most tender point; that could be conceivedhis deliberate slaying of his own darling, his only son by his wife, his only son now left in his own house, ch. Gen. 21:1; Gen. 21:12; Gen. 21:14 (SIBG, 247248). God put Abraham to the testthe effect is heightened by the definite article with Elohim. The idea is thus conveyed that this was no ordinary procedure, but that God had a particularly important objective in mind (ABG, 162).
Rashi notes how God bore down on Abrahams heart more poignantly with each successive explanatory phrase (SC, 108): Thy son. But I have two sons, Abraham said. Thine only one, was the reply. But each is the only one of his mother! Whom thou lovest, he was told. But I love both! and the answer came, Even Isaac. Why did not God name Isaac at once? Lest Abrahams mind should reel under the sudden shock. Further, to make His command more precious to him. And finally, that he might receive a reward for every word spoken.
The ARV gives the most satisfactory rendering: God did prove Abraham. That is to say, God proved Abraham (his faith, his righteousness) to himself, to his posterity, and to all humanity, as the Father of the Faithful. Surely God knows whether a mans faith will be strong enough to enable him to emerge triumphantly from such an ordeal (cf. 1Co. 10:13). Cf. Jas. 1:12-15 : the real temptation, that of Satan, occurs when one is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed, even as Eveat Satans suggestionwas enticed by her lust for illicit knowledge (Gen. 3:6). James gives us here the true pedigree of sin: Satan, lust, sin, death.
Note that God said to Abraham, etc., Gen. 22:1, possibly in a dream-vision, but surely in an audible voice which previous experience had taught him to recognize. Note the patriarchs simple response, Here am I, a response that combined both humility and readiness: so do the righteous always respond to Gods calls (cf. Act. 22:10, Isa. 6:8).
Into the land of Moriah, i.e., Jerusalem. The Rabbis explained that it was so named because from thence teaching (horaah) went forth to the world. It was the land of the Amorite . . . the land where myrrh grew abundantly (cf. Song of S. Gen. 4:6); it was the site of the Temple, cf. 2Ch. 3:1 (S.C., 109). 2 Chron. Gen. 3:1 identifies Moriah with the hill on which the Jerusalem temple was later built. Subsequent tradition accepted the identification (JB, 39). As in all such cases involving the support of tradition only, modern criticism is inclined to be skeptical about this identification. It has been objected that the region of Beersheba (from which Abraham and Isaac set out) is not sufficiently distant from Jerusalem to have required a journey of three days to get there, and that a topographical feature of the city of Jerusalem is that the Temple hill is not visible until the traveler is quite close. However, the distance from S. Philistia to Jerusalem is about 50 miles, which might well have required three days to traverse, and in Genesis the place in question is not a mount Moriah but one of the several mountains in a land of that name, and the hills on which Jerusalem stands are visible at a distance. There is no need to doubt therefore that Abrahams sacrifice took place in the site of the later Jerusalem, if not on the Temple hill (NBD, 842). Moriah signifies the vision or manifestation of Jehovah. The name is here given to the land on one of whose mountains the sacrifice was to be offered up; it is also given to the mountain on which the temple was built. The common belief is that these two places were identical, and we see no reason to doubt or question it. Mount Moriah is an oblong-shaped hill, or rather point of a ridge, having the deep glen of the Tyropoeon on the west, and the Kidron on the east. The glens unite at the foot of the hill on the south. The elevation of the summit above the bottom of the glens is about 350 feet. Moriah is now crowned by the Great Mosque, and is one of the most venerated sanctuaries of the Mohammedans (SIBG, 248).
2. The Journey, Gen. 22:1-8. The accumulation of brief, sententious clauses here admirably represents the calm deliberation and unflinching heroism with which the patriarch proceeded to execute the Divine command (PCG, 283). Note the preparations: these were begun early in the morning (cf. Gen. 19:27, Gen. 20:8, Gen. 21:14). The patriarch saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with himthe ass for the wood, the young men for the ass; and Isaac his son (probably explaining to him as yet only his intention to offer sacrifice on a distant mountain). Nothing is indicated here but sublime innocence on Isaacs part and unflinching resoluteness and obedience on the part of Abraham. (Did Abraham say anything to Sarah about this journey, especially the purpose of it? We doubt it. From previous attitudes on her part we can hardly believe that she would have accepted this apparently tragic commission with the same unflinching obedience of faith that characterized Abrahams response). While the outward preparations are graphically described, no word is spared for the conflict in Abrahams breasta striking illustration of the reticence of the legends with regard to mental states (Skinner, ICCG, 329). How old was Isaac at this time? Josephus (Antiq., I, 13, 2) follows the tradition which puts his age at twenty-five; other commentators would have him to be some eighteen years old at the time. (He was thirteen, it will be recalled, when he was circumcised, Gen. 17:25). At any rate he was intelligent enough to be a willing party to the sacrifice of his life at Gods command (once the purpose of the journey was revealed to him), and strong enough to carry up the mountain the split wood for the offering.
Without taking counsel with anyone, the solemn procession set out from the Beersheba areathe patriarch, with his son, his two servants, and the ass that bore the woodand on the third day they arrived within sight of the place of sacrifice. (Glueck has called attention to the fact that it would have been odd for Abraham to have carried wood from Beersheba to the wooded country around Jerusalem where he could easily have found all the wood that he needed. He suggests that the land of Moriah of this text might have been in the treeless ranges of Sinai down near Kadesh. However, the three days journey certainly is in accord with the distance of some fifty miles from Beersheba to the region around Jerusalem. At any rate, Abraham on the third day saw the place afar off. It is evident from this statement that by this time the place had been specifically indicated by divine authority (cf. Gen. 22:2). We can hardly imagine the intensity of the pang that shot through the patriarchs heart ordering the two servants to abide where they were with the ass (it seems quite probable that what was about to take place would have been repugnant to them: at any rate they could hardly have thought of it as worship), Abraham said, I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship, and come again to you (Gen. 22:5). Note the we in this promise: Abraham firmly believed that God would restore his son to life from the ashes into which he expected him to be burned, and cause him to came back with him, Heb. 11:19 (SIBG, 248). So they went both of them together up the mountain, Isaac carrying the heavier load, the wood for the offering. The aged Abraham could hardly have carried this load, but with resoluteness of faith he bears the two means of destruction: a container, like a censer, filled with live coals, and the fatal knife (EG, 625). (It is curious that we do not find any allusion in the Old Testament to the method of producing fire). Gen. 22:7-8 : The narrative gives free play to our imagination as it pictures father and son proceeding step by step up the hill. Isaac cannot but sense that some unwonted burden depresses his father past anything that the son had ever observed in the father before. This attitude on the fathers part causes some restraint between the two, and a strange perplexity falls upon Isaac (EG, 625). The pathos of this dialogue is inimitable: the artless curiosity of the child, the irrepressible affection of the father, and the stern ambiguity of his reply, can hardly be read without tears (ICCG, 330). Undoubtedly Abraham now made it clear to his son what was about to take place and why. Isaac, though able to resist, yielded up himself, as typical of Christs voluntary oblation of himself for us, Php. 2:8, Eph. 5:2, Act. 8:32 (SIBG, 248). Cf. also Heb. 12:2note, for the joy that was set before him, i.e., the ineffable joy of redeeming lost souls, he endured the cross, etc. God will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son. The father devises an answer which is a marvelous compound of considerate love and anticipative faith. He spares Isaac undue pain and leaves the issues entirely with God, where in his own heart he left them throughout the journey. In the light of what follows, Abrahams answer is well-nigh prophetic, God will provide. It marks the high point of the chapter, the one thing about Gods dealings with His own that here receives emphatic statement (EG, 62). On Gen. 22:8 : God will provide the lamb; and if not, then you, my son, will be the offering. And although Isaac was aware that he might be sacrificed, yet they went both of them together, with one mind (SC, 110).
3. The Sacrifice Averted. Gen. 22:9-13. The preliminary ritual is now carried out: the altar is built, and the wood laid in order. Isaac is then bound and laid upon the altar, and Abraham lifts the deadly knife to kill. But the sacrifice is averted as again we meet the Angel of Jehovah, speaking from heaven, to stay the patriarchs hand. V: 12Now I know, etc. (Now I can give a reason to all intelligent beings for my love for thee; now I have proved that thou art a Godfearing man, etc. Now I can record in Scripture for all generations to know that you are truly my Friend.) Gen. 22:13The substitution of the ram caught in the thicket for the human victim evidently takes place without express command, the patriarch recognizing by its mysterious presence at the moment of crisis that it was provided. After lying under a sentence of death three days, Isaac was released by the orders of Heaven, as a figure of Christs resurrection on the third day, 1Co. 15:3-4; Mat. 16:21; Mat. 17:23; Mat. 20:19; Luk. 13:32) (SIBG, 248). This ram was directed hither by divine providence, as a figure of Christ appointed of God, and engaged to make atonement for our sins, 1Pe. 1:19, Job. 33:24 (ibid.) In the extremities of distress God interposes as a helper and deliverer, Deu. 32:36, Mic. 4:10, Mat. 15:32. And on Mount Moriah in the temple God was long manifested in the symbols of his presence, 2Ch. 3:1, Psa. 76:2; and there Jesus often appeared while in the flesh, Hag. 2:7; John, chs. 2, 5, 7, 10 (ibid.).
Gen. 22:11Here am I. Abraham heard God call him; he was quick to respond. Had he not been listening he could not have responded; had he been disobedient he would not have answered yes (HSB, 36). Gen. 22:13The ram caught in the thicket was a revelatory event of God to Abraham. When Abraham prepared to offer his only son Isaac in obedience to Gods command, his dilemma was this: how could he reconcile the command of God to slay his son with Gods previous promise that through this son should come a great posterity? He did not solve the problem by deciding to disobey Gods command to offer up Isaac. Rather by faith he concluded that God Himself would raise Isaac from the dead after he had been offered. Spiritually there is a deeper lesson. God, like Abraham, did not spare His own Son (Rom. 8:32). And, as Abraham received back Isaac as though he had been raised from the dead, so Christ has been raised by the Father from the dead (ibid.)
4. Gen. 22:14. Jehovah-jireh, i.e., Jehovah will see, or provide. The plain meaning is: the Lord will see and choose this place for the dwelling of the Divine Presence, i.e., the Temple (Rashi, SC, 111). (Is there contradiction between the Name used here and the statement in Exo. 6:3, where God is represented as telling Moses that He was known to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, but by His Name Yahwe He was not known to them?) Certainly this is not to be taken to mean that the patriarchs were altogether ignorant of the name Jehovah. It was in His attribute as El Shaddai that God had revealed His nature to the patriarchs; but now [at the beginning of the Mosaic ministry] He was about to reveal Himself to Israel as Jehovah, as the absolute Being working with unbounded freedom in the performance of His promises. For not only had He established His covenants with the fathers, but He had also heard the groaning of the children of Israel. . . . On the ground of the erection of His covenant on the one hand, and, what was irreconcilable with that covenant, the bondage of Israel on the other, Jehovah was now about to redeem Israel from its sufferings and make it His own nation (KD, BCOTP, 468). In a word, under the mediatorship of Moses He would reveal Himself fully as the Covenant-God, Yahwe.
Gen. 22:15-19. When God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, etc. Note that the promisethe Abrahamic promiseis now confirmed (by the Angel of Jehovah calling unto Abraham a second time out of heaven) by two immutable things, his word and oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie, etc. The promises here solemnly confirmed by oath are almost wholly related to Abrahams Hebrew and spiritual seed. To possess the gates of their enemies is to obtain their country, or to have dominion over them, and rule among them: Gen. 21:12; Gen. 24:60; Deu. 21:19; Deu. 22:24. The Jews had temporal dominion over their enemies in the time of Joshua, David, etc., cf. Joshua, chs. 619; 2 Sam., chs. 8, 10. And Christ and His people have a spiritual dominion over them, Psa. 2:8-9; Psa. 22:27-30; Dan. 4:34-35; Rom. 8:37, 1Co. 15:25-28, Col. 2:15. What a quiet, poignantly meaningful ending, to an experience unparalleled in the history of man. How striking the final word from heaven: because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now, Abraham, his son, his two servants, and the beast of burden return to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
5. The Progeny of Nahor, Gen. 22:20-24, a list of the Aramaean tribes. Note the division here between legitimate (Gen. 22:23-24) and illegitimate (Gen. 22:24) sons. Concubines were women of a middle state, between wives and harlots; a kind of half-wives, sharing in bed and board, but not in the government of the family, Gen. 25:1-6; Gen. 30:4; Gen. 35:22; Jdg. 19:1, 1Ki. 11:3, 1Ch. 1:32. They served under the lawful wives, if alive, Gen. 16:6-7; Gen. 32:22; and their children had no title to the inheritance, Gen. 25:5-6 (SIBG, 248). The genealogy inserted here is designed, of course, to introduce the family from which Rebekah is to make her appearance in the sacred history.
6. The Significance of Abrahams Sacrificial Act. One most important truth to be derived from it is that the essence of sacrifice is the moral disposition of the suppliant. Moreover, as the essential property of music is harmony, and that of art is beauty, so the essential property of love is sacrifice. This particular episode, however, has significance along other lines. We might well ask whether Gods design in this particular case was in any way related to the pagan practice of human sacrifice, Some authorities think so. For example, from one exegete we read that presumably the intent of the tale was to teach that human sacrifice has no place in the worship of the Lord the God of Israel, cf. Mic. 6:6-8 (IBG, 645). Again (JB, 39, n.): It is the basis of the ritual prescription for the redemption of the first-born of Israel: like all first-fruits these belong to God; they are not, however, to be sacrificed but bought back, redeemed, Exo. 13:11. Lying behind the story, therefore, is the condemnation of child-sacrifice, see Lev. 18:21 ff., so often denounced by the prophets. In this incident Abrahams faith reaches its climaxthe storys second lesson, more profound than the first. In the sacrifice of Isaac, the Fathers saw a prefiguring of the Passion of Jesus, the only-begotten Son. Cf. Speiser (ABG, 165): Was it, then, the aim of the story to extol obedience to God as a general principle? Abraham had already proved himself on that count by heeding the call to leave Mesopotamia and make a fresh start in an unknown land (Gen. 12:1 ff.) The meaning of the present narrative, therefore, would have to become something more specific. And we can hardly go too far afield if we seek the significance of Abrahams supreme trial in the very quest on which he was embarked. The involvement of Isaac tends to bear this out, since the sole heir to the spiritual heritage concerned cannot but focus attention on the future. The process that Abraham set in motion was not to be accomplished in a single generation. It sprang from a vision that would have to be tested and validated over an incalculable span of time, a vision that could be pursued only with singlemindedness of purpose and absolute faithan ideal that could not be perpetuated unless one was ready to die for it, or had the strength to see it snuffed out. The object of the ordeal, then, was to discover how firm was the patriarchs faith in the ultimate divine purpose. It was one thing to start out resolutely for the Promised Land, but it was a very different thing to maintain confidence in the promise when all appeared lost. The fact is that short of such unswerving faith, the biblical process could not have survived the many trials that lay ahead. May we not conclude, just at this point, that one basic aspect of the Divine intention is very simply stated in the recorded affirmation, namely, that God did prove Abraham? But there was another aspect of Gods purpose that cannot be omitted without vitiating the significance of the thing commanded. This is exquisitely stated, as follows (SIBG, 248): While I admire the faith and obedience of Abraham, and the cheerful submission of Isaacwhile I place these bright examples before memy faith directs me to more glorious objects: let me with astonishment think of Jehovah bringing His only begotten Son into the world, permitting him to be laid on the altar, and through his sacrifice forgiving our sins! Let me behold Jesus caught, seasonably caught, in the thickets of mens wilful transgressions of his own compassion, and of our transgressions resting on him, and borne in our stead! Let me listen to the new testament in his blood, in which Jehovah swears that men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed. Thus we see again that the incidents of the Old Testament record are fully clarified only in the light of New Testament fulfilment.
FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING
The Ultimate Degree of Faith
Gen. 22:1And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, etc.
By ultimate we mean the highest, that degree of faith beyond which one cannot go. This implies, of course, that there are lesser degrees of faith. Note that faith is defined scripturally as the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction with respect to things not seen, Heb. 11:1; cf. 2Co. 4:16-18.
A moral command of God requires that a thing be done because it is right in respect to the very nature of things. The Decalogue is a code of moral law: to identify it as such one needs only to follow the principle of universalization, namely, that a man in contemplating a certain action, by asking himself what the effect would be if every person would do the same thing under the same circumstances, can surely see for himself whether his contemplated action is right and good or wrong and bad. Tested by this principle, it becomes obvious that idolatry (of whatever kind), false swearing (blasphemy, perjury), disrespect for parents, murder, adultery, theft, false witness (slander, libel), covetousness, etc., if universalized would destroy social order, and in all likelihood the human race itself. (Recall the venerable doctrine of the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, covetousness (avarice), lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.) The only exception, of course, is the law of the Jewish Sabbath: this was a positive institution, and was superseded, with the establishment of the church, by the Christian Lords Day, the first day of the week (Act. 20:7, 1Co. 16:1-2, Mar. 16:9, Rev. 1:10).
A positive command, in Scripture, requires a thing to be done because Divine authority orders it. The chief characteristic of this kind of command is that there is no necessary logical connection between the thing commanded and the end in view. The primary reason for such a command is simply that God has ordained it, for a specific purpose; and He is to be obeyed if the divine purpose is to be actualized. Unbelief will ask, Why, and Wherefore, when confronted with a positive command, but faith obeys without asking questions. (Of course, such a command has always the moral virtue (excellence) of obedience inherent in its fulfilment). One who obeys a positive command does so solely out of faith in God and love for God; the obedience is a manifestation of the faith and love which motivate it. Positive commands are designed to prove the faith of the professing believer. (Cf. Mat. 7:24-27; Joh. 15:14; Joh. 14:15; Joh. 8:31-32, Heb. 5:9, etc.). There are three degrees, we might well say, in obedience to a positive command in attaining the supreme (ultimate) manifestation of faith: (1) To obey when one can see clearly that there is no logical connection between the thing commanded and the end in view; (2) to obey a divine command when one can see clearly that the thing commanded cannot do any good in itself; (3) to obey when one can see clearly that the thing commanded is in itself wrong, that is, in relation to the structure of the moral life. Now for some examples:
1. Exo. 12:1-14. Can one see any logical connection between the sprinkling of the blood of a lamb on the side-posts and lintel of every Israelite habitation in Egypt and the preservation from death of the firstborn in all those households? What was there in the blood of a lamb to save anyone? Why did it have to be the blood of a male lamb, one without blemish, a male a year old? Why did the blood have to be sprinkled on the side-posts and lintels of all the habitations of the Israelites? Could not God have discerned where His own people were dwelling without all this unnecessary irrelevant claptrap? What an opening here for fulminations about nonessentials, mere forms, mere outward acts, etc.! Had our modern clergy been present, no doubt they would have started an argument with God right on the spot. But how did it all turn out? Precisely as God had said it would: those Israelites were not so unbelieving as to refuse to take God at His word, especially in the exigencies under which they were suffering, and the next morning it was discovered that in every house where the blood was present as God had commanded there was salvation, there was life; and that in every house where the blood was not present as God had ordered, there was death, lamentation, suffering, on account of the death of the firstborn.
2. 2Sa. 6:6-7 : Note the statute in the Mosaic Law that forbade anyone who was not a Levite to touch the Ark of the Covenant: Num. 15:51; Num. 3:10; Num. 3:38; Num. 4:15; Num. 4:19-20. The penalty for the violation of this law was death. But why should it hurt for anyone to touch the Ark, whether of the tribe of Reuben, Gad, Judah, Benjamin, or any of the other tribes, anymore than for a Levite to do it? Surely, the mere touching the ark in itself could not have harmed anyone! But what did happen when a non-Levite did put out his hand, as he thought, to prevent the Ark from falling off the new cart on which David was having it transported to Jerusalem? He fell dead on the spot, 2Sa. 6:7. Does this mean that the Ark was a fetish, that it had magical power of some kind? Of course not. The tragic death which Uzzah suffered was for disobedience to God. Even his good intentions in doing what God had forbidden did not protect him from the infliction of the penalty! Uzzah followed his own wisdom (which should have told him that God Himself would have protected the Ark from any kind of hurt) and not the wisdom of God, as multiplied thousands have done in all ages and are doing today in greater numbers than ever before in the history of the race. What a warning this incident is against trifling with Gods Will and Word!
3. Num. 21:4-9. The story of the brazen serpent. One can see at a glance here, that there was no efficacy in the thing commanded, that is, in itself. What was there in a piece of brass to heal a human being of disease? Did it have magical power of some kind? Of course not. The efficacy was in the willingness of the people to take God at His word; when their faith became active, God kept His promise. It was God who did the healing, not the serpent of brass; the latter was only the means of eliciting their obedience of faith. It will be recalled that this brazen serpent became in itself an object of worship to the Israelites in a later age: they burned incense to it, we are told (2Ki. 18:4-5). Whereupon King Hezekiah, calling it Nehushtan, a piece of brass, ordered it broken into pieces and utterly destroyed.
4. 2Ki. 5:1-14. What an array of details having no power in themselves to effect the healing of Naaman, of his leprosy! What possible connections between the things commanded and the end in view? Was there some special cleansing power in the water of the Jordan River? Why should Naaman have to dip himself seven times: Could not God have healed him without all this fol-de-rol? Certainly., that is, had He chosen to do so? But God could not have proved Naamans willingness to take Him at His word without some sort of procedure such as He ordered. How did things turn out for the Syrian chieftain? Precisely as God said that it would: when Naaman had fully completed the required details, arising from the Jordan after the seventh dipping, his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
5. Jos. 6:1-21. What a war strategy this was, that Yahwe gave to Joshua to capture the city of Jericho! What an array of mere forms, mere outward acts, which apparently had no necessary connection with the end in view! What was there in all this marching to bring down walls that withstood battering rams and other engines of destruction? What special kind of power was generated by the marching of Joshuas army, with the Ark at the center of the procession, once each day for six successive days and seven times on the seventh day? What could the people inside Jericho have been thinking about these repeated military parades? Why the final blowing of trumpets and shouting by Joshuas soldiers on the seventh day? We have heard in recent years of pious and praying and Bible-reading generals, but we doubt very much that any of them would have had the faith to carry out the war program that Joshua executed which brought about the fall of Jericho. Joshua took God at His word. He carried out the Divine strategy to the very letter, not expecting that what he and his army were doing would bring down the walls, but fully believing that if he did his part in faith, God would do the rest. And his faith was rewarded: the wall came tumbling down.
What an array of non-essentials in all these instances of positive law! Think what the response would have been if our theologians had been on the ground when these orders were given by the Ruler of the universe! Why would God authorize all this nonsense? Why all these mere forms, mere outward acts, mere external performances, etc., etc. What is all this but blind obedience to ordinations that are without rhyme or reason? Oh yes, the theologians, the clergy, the princes of the church, all would have had a field day had they been recipients of the Divine instructions in these various instances of the operation of positive divine law.
6. We now come to the ultimate of all proofs, surely the noblest manifestation of the obedience of faith that is recorded in Scripture. This occurred when God did prove Abraham by commanding him to offer up Isaac for a burnt-offering (Gen. 22:1-3). Here was a thing commanded which by the universal judgment of mankind was wrong: no nation has ever been known to have been without a distinction between justifiable and unjustifiable killing, and the kind of killing that is always reckoned to be unjustifiable is murder, the taking of another mans life by ones own authority with malice aforethought. (Of course, in this instance no malice aforethought was involved; nevertheless, by all human standards the act was wrong.) Moreover, it was surely wrong to deliberately kill a son, and the only son at that. And it was doubly wrong, in this instance, to kill the one who had been born out of due season as the Child of Promise. What an argument Abraham might have offered against obedience to this command! How could such an order proceed from the God who is infinite goodness? Was not this ordination a complete disavowal by God Himself of all the promises He had made respecting Abraham and his seed? No such unbelieving talk, however, fell from Abrahams lips. With him there was no occasion for argument: Yahwe had spoken and it was his portion simply to obey. We know the rest of the story, up to the very point of the patriarchs poising the deadly knife above his son, lying bound and helpless on the altar. No doubt he would have carried out the divine order fully, even to the killing itself, because, we are told, his faith was such that he accounted God able to raise Isaac up, even from the dead, from whence he did also in a figure receive him back (Heb. 11:19). It was in this manner that God did actually prove Abraham and the depth of his faith, not only to himself, but to all mankind.
What is the application? In consequence of this incident, the name of Abraham has gone down in sacred history as the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God (Joh. 15:14, 2Ch. 20:7, Jas. 2:23, Rom. 4:11; Rom. 4:16). Moreover, Our salvation under the New Covenant is contingent not on our having the blood of Abraham coursing through our veins, but on having the faith of Abraham in our hearts (Joh. 3:1-8, Rom. 4:13-17, Gal. 3:23-29, Jas. 2:20-26).
Unbelief will call this obedience of Abraham an act of blind faith. It is blind faith, of course, to obey another man implicitly without question. It is never blind faith to obey God, for the reason that God never commands men to do anything simply to benefit Him. His commands are always, ultimately, for our good. Therefore, anything that God commands is made right by the fact that He commands it.
In the process of becoming a Christian on the terms laid down by apostolic authority, the penitent believer is confronted with one basically positive institution. That institution is baptism, as ordained by the Great Commission. It is the only positive institution the Holy Spirit has seen fit to associate with conversion under the New Covenant. That baptism is essentially a positive institution (although it does carry with it the moral excellence of obedience to God) is evident from the following considerations. One can readily see that belief in Christ, repentance from sin, confession of Christall these are necessary to becoming a Christian. Belief is necessary to change the heart; repentance is necessary to change the will, the disposition, the course of life. Confession is necessary as a public commitment and testimonial in the presence of, and for the benefit of, all those who themselves need divine redemption without which they are lost, both in this world and in the world to come. Confession is a public commitment to the new life which the penitent believer has espoused.
But why be baptized? What moral change is effected in baptism, other than the moral benefit that always follows obedience to God? We reply that baptism effects no basic moral change: that change comes in faith and repentance in order that the baptism may be efficacious. Baptism is essentially transitional (1Pe. 3:20-21). It is the abandonment of the old man and the putting on of the new (Rom. 6:1-11). It is the relinquishing of the old life of alienation, and the assumption of the new life of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17, Tit. 3:5). It is the transitional act in which the believing penitent renounces allegiance to the world, the flesh and the devil, and accepts the authority of the Prince of righteousness. It is the formal act of obedience in which the one who was formerly an alien, is adopted into the family of God and thus made an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16-17) of that inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away (1Pe. 1:4; 1Pe. 2:22-25; Act. 26:18). Hence, baptism is administered in the name of Christ (i.e., by His authority), according to the formula, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mat. 28:19). It is the divine appointment wherein the repentant believer receives pardon of his sins (in the mind of God) and is formally inducted into Christ (Act. 2:38, Col. 2:11-12) and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13, 2Co. 1:21-22; cf. discussions of spiritual circumcision, in foregoing sections herein).
It is evident that the dipping of a person in water could not per se have efficacy unto salvation. It is equally evident that there is no power in water per se to take away the guilt of sin. And it is quite evident that God could pardon a believer without baptism as easily as with it, had He chosen to do so. The fact remains, however, that in the light of New Testament teaching, we have no indication that He has chosen to do so. Baptism is said to be for remission of sins (Act. 2:38), for induction into Christ (Gal. 3:27) and is therefore a prerequisite of pardon (Act. 10:47-48). This is sufficient for the man of faith. Unbelief will persist, however, in speaking of baptism as a non-essential, a mere outward act, a mere external performance, etc. The Apostle Paul, on the contrary, writes of it as an act of obedience from the heart (Rom. 6:17), hence an act of faith; and the Apostle Peter describes it as the appeal of a good conscience toward God (1Pe. 3:21).
Here, then, at the very entrance into the Kingdom, at the door to the Fold, the issue is placed squarely before each alien sinner, as to whether he has sufficient faith to obey a positive command which he can see clearly has no logical connection, in itself (i.e., as an immersion in water) with the end in view. Here he must make a choice whether he will do, or not do, what the Lord commands. Here he must decide whether he will yield to the authority of the Head of the Church. The tragedy today is that there are so many to whom religion is little more than a ritual, a sort of insurance policy against hell-fire; so many who follow the line of least resistance in everything they do, who have so little conviction and courage, so little love for God and so little faith in the Lord Jesus, that when they reach the baptismal pool, they will stop and argue the case, and in so many instances will turn aside to accept a meaningless substitute which human theology has provided for the sake of convenience. What a tragedy! Oh ye of little faith! Jesus was willing to go all the way from Nazareth in Galilee to the Jordan River, some seventy to eighty miles, to submit to this divine institution and thus do the Fathers will to the full (Mat. 3:15). This He did, He who was without sin, to please the Heavenly Father and to set the right example for all who would follow in His steps. If we expect to be called His disciples, we certainly will not start an argument at the baptismal pool! If we do hesitate, or turn aside, we not only fall short of that obedience which is necessary for justification, but we also lose the rich spiritual experience which always accompanies the walk of faith such as Enoch walked, such as Noah walked, such as Abraham walked, such as Moses walked, such as all the faithful have walked. Preachers fulminate so glibly about faith, justification by faith, etc. But faith is precisely the thing that is lacking in the professing church of this day and age. We simply cannot be the spiritual children of Abraham unless we have the faith of Abraham in our hearts, the faith that prompts us to realize that we are strangers and pilgrims here, that this world has no rest for us, that we journey to a better country, that is, a heavenly country, where there remaineth eternal rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:9).
Note that the life of Abraham is the story of the continuous expansion and intensification of the covenant and the covenant-promise. There was the initial promise to which Abraham responded in complete obedience (Gen. 12:1-3). As God enlarged the promise, Abraham responded in faith which was reckoned to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6): at this communication the land of Canaan was specifically pledged to the patriarchs fleshly seed. With the promise of the son, God appointed fleshly circumcision to be the sign of the covenant (ch. 17). Both the promise and the covenant were officially sealed as a result of Abrahams obedience of faith in which he proved his faith by his willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac, the Child of Promise, accounting that God would raise him from the dead (ch. 22; cf. Heb. 11:9-19).
Any one who has faith deep enough to prompt him to meet the appointments ordered by Divine grace can be absolutely sure of receiving the blessings which that Grace has connected with the specific appointment. We can be absolutely sure that our God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, will actualize His precious and exceeding great promises (2Pe. 1:4) if and when we, both as sinners and as saints, meet the conditions, by our obedience of faith, which Divine Grace has stipulated. The firm foundation of God standeth always (2Ti. 2:19, Isa. 46:9-11).
REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART THIRTY-FOUR
1.
In what way, according to Chapter 22, did God prove Abraham? What does the verb prove signify in this connection?
2.
Show how each successive phrase in the Divine command here intensified the significance of the command (according to Rashi).
3.
What indicates that God had a particularly important objective in this instance.
4.
What was the patriarchs response to what God said to him?
5.
Where is the land of Moriah traditionally? What facts seem to justify this tradition?
6.
What reason does Glueck give for questioning this tradition?
7.
What preparations did Abraham make for the journey?
8.
Do you suppose that Abraham said anything to Sarah about the purpose of the journey? Explain your answer.
9.
How old probably was Isaac when this incident occurred?
10.
From what place did they start on their journey? How far was it from this place to Jerusalem?
11.
How much time did the journey require? Is this in harmony with the distance traveled, that is, if the place of sacrifice was near Jerusalem?
12.
On reaching the place of sacrifice, what did Abraham and Isaac do? Why did the two go alone to the place of sacrifice?
13.
What did Isaac carry to the place of sacrifice? To what New Testament fact does this point directly?
14.
When, probably, did Abraham explain to Isaac what was to be done? How did Isaac respond? What does this suggest as to Christs Sacrifice on the Cross?
15.
Did Abraham show that he was prepared to make the actual sacrifice of his son? What does the writer of Hebrews tell us about what Abraham thought actually would happen? What is meant by the statement that this did happen in a figure?
16.
How did Abraham reconcile Gods command to sacrifice Isaac, with His promise that through Isaac there should come to Abraham a great posterity?
17.
What did the Angel of the Lord do to avert the sacrifice?
18.
What did the name Jehovah-jireh mean? How can this name be harmonized with what is revealed in Exo. 6:3?
19.
How and in what ways did God renew His divine promises with respect to Abraham and his seed? Explain the twofold significance of the Promise.
20.
What reason did God give for His renewal of the Promise at this time?
21.
Why was the record of Nahors progeny introduced at this point?
22.
What was the basic significance of Abrahams sacrificial act?
23.
Is it reasonable to conclude that this incident was for the purpose of showing Gods disapproval of human sacrifice?
24.
In what ways did the Sacrifice of Isaac prefigure the Sacrifice of Gods Only Begotten?
25.
What is Speisers explanation of the significance of Abrahams supreme trial?
26.
What is meant by the ultimate degree of faith?
27.
Distinguish between Gods moral and His positive commands?
28.
What are the ascending degrees of faith manifested in obedience to a positive divine command?
29.
What is the essential character of the ultimate or highest degree?
30.
Give examples of positive commands which involve the lesser degrees of faith?
31.
What great lesson is derived from the history of the Brazen Serpent?
32.
Why cannot what is called blind faith be involved in obedience to Gods commands?
33.
Explain how Christian baptism, that which is authorized by the Great Commission, is basically a positive command.
34.
What is the distinctly spiritual reason for obedience to Christ in baptism?
35.
Explain what is meant by the transitional significance of baptism?
36.
Why, according to His own statement, was Jesus baptized in the Jordan?
37.
In there any ground on which one can rightly assume that our Lord ever ordained a non-essential act? Would not such a claim be in itself blasphemy?
38.
Review at this point what is meant in Scripture by spiritual circumcision.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXII.
THE OFFERING OF ISAAC ON MOUNT MORIAH.
(1) God did tempt Abraham.Heb., proved him, put his faith and obedience to the proof. For twenty-five years the patriarch had wandered in Palestine, and seen the fulfilment of the promise perpetually deferred, and yet his faith failed not. At length the long wished for heir is born, and, excepting the grievous pain of parting with Ishmael, all went well with him, and seemed to presage a calm and happy old age. He was at peace with his neighbours, had quiet possession of ample pasture for his cattle, knew that Ishmael was prosperous, and saw Isaac fast approaching mans estate (Gen. 22:12). In the midst, nevertheless, of this tranquil evening of his days came the severest trial of all; for he was commanded to slay his son. The trial was twofold. For, first, human sacrifice was abhorrent to the nature of Jehovah, and Abrahams clear duty would be to prove the command. Could such a deed really be enjoined upon him by God? Now no subjective proof would be sufficient. In after times many an Israelite was moved by deep religious fanaticism to give his firstborn in the hope of appeasing the anger of God at his sin (Mic. 6:7); but instead of peace it brought only a deeper condemnation upon his soul. Had Abraham been moved only by an internal and subjective impulse, his conduct would have deserved and met with similar condemnation But when, upon examination, he became convinced that the command came from outside himself, and from the same God with whom on former occasions he had so often held converse, then the antecedents of his own life required of him obedience. But even when satisfied of this, there was, secondly, the trial of his faith. A command which he had tested, not only subjectively by prayer, but objectively by comparison with the manner of previous revelations, bade him with his own hand destroy the son in whom his seed was to be called. His love for his child, his previous faith in the promise, the religious value and worth of Isaac as the appointed means for the blessing of all mankindthis, and more besides, stood arrayed against the command. But Abraham, in spite of all, obeyed, and in proportion to the greatness of the trial was the greatness of the reward. Up to this time his faith had been proved by patience and endurance, but now he was bidden himself to destroy the fruit of so many years of patient waiting (Heb. 11:17-19), and, assured that the command came from God, he wavered not. Thus by trial was his own faith made perfect, and for Isaac too there was blessing. Meekly, as befitted the type of Christ, he submitted to his fathers will, and the life restored to him was henceforth dedicated to God. But there was a higher purpose in the command than the spiritual good of these two saints. The sacrifice had for its object the instruction of the whole Church of God. If the act had possessed no typical value, it would have been difficult for us to reconcile to our consciences a command which might have seemed, indirectly at least, to have authorised human sacrifices. But there was in it the setting forth of the mystery of the Father giving the Son to die for the sins of the world; and therein lies both the value and the justification of Abrahams conduct and of the Divine command.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. After these things After all that has been narrated of Abraham before .
God did tempt Abraham The Hebrew for God is here , the God; emphatic, the same “everlasting God,” who is called Jehovah in Gen 22:33 of the previous chapter. The tempting is a key-word to the whole chapter. The Hebrew word means to try, to test, to prove . Thus Gesenius ( Lex. under ) observes: “God is said to try or prove men, that is, their virtue, Psa 26:2; piety, Deu 8:2; Deu 8:16; their faith and obedience, Exo 15:25; Exo 20:20; 2Ch 32:31. This is done by wonderful works, Exo 20:20; by commands difficult to be executed, Gen 22:1; Exo 16:4; and by the infliction of calamities, Deu 33:8; Jdg 2:22; Jdg 3:1; Jdg 3:4. ” Lange remarks that the word “denotes not simply to prove, or to put to the test, but to prove under circumstances which have originated from sin, and which increase the severity of the proof and make it a temptation . ” And this is an important point to note. Man’s life of probation is in a world of trial; and while the world lies in wickedness, many trials come from evil sources; the god of this world solicits to evil, and seeks whom he may devour. 1Pe 5:8. All such solicitations to evil are among the offences which Jesus deplored, (Mat 18:7; Luk 17:1,) and when thus viewed it is manifest that God tempts no man . Jas 1:13. But even such temptations, when resisted and overcome, will issue in good, and the godly discipline they thus subserve is to be recognised as God’s chastising . Hence the apostle says, in the same chapter, (Jas 1:2,) “Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations,” etc. God’s tempting Abraham was not a malicious solicitation to evil, but a testing commandment to prove the depth and strength of the patriarch’s faith. If now Abraham will, without questioning, obey a commandment that seems to subvert all the promises of the past, and even the words of prophecy touching Isaac, then will the evidence of his faith be perfected. And so it was, that he who before “against hope believed in hope,” (Rom 4:18,) now staggered not at this strange word, “accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” Heb 11:19.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Ultimate Test ( Gen 22:1-19 ).
Abraham had been called by Yahweh to leave his home, his kinsfolk and his country to go to a new land which God had purposed for him. His spiritual life was not smooth. He was not without testing. The very call itself was a test. The long wait for Isaac was a test. The incident of Sodom and Gomorrah was a test. But he had come through it all with his faith enhanced. Now he would face the greatest test of all.
Gen 22:1
‘And so it was that after these things God put Abraham to the test and said to him, “Abraham”. And he said “Here I am”.’
The use of ‘God’ is significant. Previously when ‘God’ has been used it has been when foreign elements have been involved, for example in the wider covenant of chapter 17; with Hagar after Ishmael had been cast out; and in his dealings with Abimelech.
Yet it is not surprising here, for this test is not given by God as Yahweh the covenant God. It strikes at the very heart of the covenant. It is given by ‘God’, God the Almighty, the Most High God, Lord of Heaven and Earth (14:22; 17:1).
We can compare with this how a man who is a judge may have a son whom he loves, but one day, when the son is brought before his court he has to forget the sonship and behave as a judge. In a sense that is what Yahweh does here. This demonstrates that this incident has a larger purpose than just a personal issue between Yahweh and Abraham. It is a vindication before the world. Abraham must be shown to the world as totally beyond reproach.
It is idle to speculate on why the test was made. It may have been because Abraham was questioning his own willingness to do what some people round about him were willing to do, offer their own sons as sacrifices, and was greatly disturbed by the problem. It may have been that he was indeed being chided by others as not loving his God enough because he did not engage in child sacrifice. It may be that he himself felt that he was not sufficiently demonstrating his love for Yahweh. Or perhaps he has become concerned that he loves his son too much so that it has hindered his love for Yahweh.
Certainly the climate in Canaan was such that few would look askance at what he was asked to do, although child sacrifice, while known, was not a common feature of life there (see Lev 18:21; Deu 12:31; Psa 106:37-38; 2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6; Isa 57:5; Eze 16:20-21; Eze 20:26). It was looked on as the ultimate gift to God (Jdg 11:30-40; 2Ki 3:27).
It may not be a coincidence that child sacrifice was linked with Molech (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:3😉 or Melech (Isa 57:9 (translated ‘king’). Melech is the original name, the ‘o’ was a change made to indicate an abomination using the vowel sounds of bosheth, ‘shame’. His name appears in Abimelech. It is possible that these Philistine traders were worshippers of Melech.
But the importance of the narrative is that it demonstrates that, at whatever the cost, Abraham was willing to obey Yahweh, and would not even withhold from Him what he treasured most.
It is noteworthy that the stress is put on the fact that this is a test. We are to suspect immediately that it was not to be literally carried out. As always in the first part of Genesis the narrative is a covenant narrative, for the incident leads on to a re-establishing of the covenant (Gen 22:16-18) in even more emphatic form. Thus it would be put in writing and added to the sacred covenant tablets already held.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
God Tests Abraham’s Faith Gen 22:1-19 gives the account of God testing Abraham’s faith by telling him to offer Isaac upon a burnt altar. Why did God have to test Abraham in this manner? The reason is that it was necessary for Abraham to also believe that this promise must be ultimately fulfilled through the means of a death and a resurrection. Abraham had believed that God would give him a son through Sarah and would make him a father of a multitude. Abraham now believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill His promise. In addition, God had to know that Abraham was not looking to Isaac as the one who would fulfill God’s promises, but to God Himself as the covenant keeper. Abraham had to place his love and devotion to God above what he cherished the most, which was his son of promise. God is a jealous God and will not allow anything on this earth to be placed ahead of Him. God also wanted Abraham to feel what He felt when He offered His Only Begotten Son on Calvary two thousand years later.
The Development of Abraham’s Faith – Abraham had a promise from God that he would have a son by Sarai his wife. However, when we read the Scriptures in the book of Genesis where God gave Abraham this promise, we see that he did not immediately believe the promise from God (Gen 17:17-18).
Gen 17:17-18, “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!”
Instead of agreeing with God’s promise, Abraham laughed and suggested that God use Ishmael to fulfill His promise. However, many years later, by the time God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, he was fully persuaded that God was able to use Isaac to make him a father of nations. We see Abraham’s faith when he told his son Isaac that God Himself was able to provide a sacrifice, because he knew that God would raise Isaac from the dead, if need be, in order to fulfill His promise (Gen 22:8).
Gen 22:8, “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
Heb 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
It was on Mount Moriah that Abraham finally died to himself. He had initially chosen Eleazer as his heir to fulfill God promise. He then conceived a son through Hagar, his handmaid, in an effort to have a son of promise. When Isaac was born, God comes to Abraham and requires his son to be sacrificed upon the altar. Abraham’s desires were laid on that altar and he chose to follow God’s will for his life. After this event, we never see Abraham making a poor decision.
See a reference to the events in this story in Heb 11:17-19.
Heb 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
If we want to be used by God, we must all come to a type of Mount Moriah in our lives, a place where we die to our own will and plan, and we yield ourselves to God’s will for our lives. For example, we see that Jacob died to himself at Peniel. After this night of struggle, Jacob never made selfish decisions any more. At that place he also died to his own will and yielded to God’s plan for his life.
God Also Tests His Children The Scriptures give a number of accounts of God testing His children. For example, God tested Israel in wilderness.
Exo 15:25 – at the water of Marah
Exo 16:4 By giving them manna from heaven – for obedience.
Exo 20:20 By giving His appearance upon Mt. Sinai for fear of God.
Deu 4:34, “Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations , by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”
Why does God test us?
Deu 8:2 To humble, to test, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou would test keep his commandments or no.
Deu 8:16 – By giving them manna – To humble thee, to test thee, to do thee good at thy latter end.
Deu 13:3, “Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Jdg 2:20-23 – Heathen nations were left in Israel to test Israel, to see whether or not they would serve God.
Jdg 3:1-4 – To test them whether they would obey God or not.
There are other examples in the Scriptures:
2Ch 32:31 – God tested Hezekiah
Psa 26:2, “Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”
Psa 105:17-22, “The word of the Lord tried him (i.e. Joseph)”
Psa 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Pro 17:3, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.”
Zec 13:9, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
Mal 3:2, “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”
1Pe 1:7, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
It is important to note that God does not tempt us towards evil; rather, He only tests our faith:
Jas 1:13, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Note these words from Frances J. Roberts about how God tests His children in order to develop their character:
“In the multitude of testings, thou shalt learn courage. It matters not the price ye pay, but at any cost ye must obtain strength of character and the fortitude to endure. I would build thy resources until ye be able to carry unusually heavy loads and withstand intense pressures. Ye shall thus become an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven to whom I can assign critical missions, being confident that ye are equipped to fulfill them. It shall be in vain if ye anticipate resting in a comfortable place. Lo, Zion is already filled with those who are at ease. No, ye shall find thyself put in a place of training and discipline, so that when the moments of crisis come ye shall not become faint-hearted, and ye shall not be the victim of unwonted fear. Trust My instruction in all of this, as ye have in different types of past experiences. I am faithful and loving, and I am doing this in order that ye may meet the future days, and not be found wanting.” [211]
[211] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 128.
Abraham as a Type and Figure of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection – How much this story in Gen 22:1-19 of Abraham offering up his only son compares to God the Father sending Jesus to Calvary. It is a type and figure of Jesus’ death and resurrection
1. Isaac carried wood (Gen 22:6). Jesus carried the wooden cross:
1Pe 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree , that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
2. Abraham carried fire and knife (Gen 22:6).
3. Isaac willingly gave himself, without a struggle (Gen 22:7-10). Likewise, Jesus willingly offered his life allowed the Father’s will to be done, as Isaac allowed his father, Abraham’s, will to be done:
Mat 26:42, “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
Gen 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Gen 22:1
Comments God would not have tested Abraham without their being a close relationship between them. Note verses about Abraham’s relationship with God:
2Ch 20:7, “Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?”
Neh 9:7, “The Lord the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gives him the name of Abraham, and found his heart faithful before thee and madest a covenant with him to give the land.”
Isa 41:8, “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend .”
Isa 51:2, “Look into Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you. For I called him alone, and blessed him , and increased him.”
Gen 22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Gen 22:2
The Hebrew name “Moriah” is used only two times in the entire Old Testament. The other use is found in 2Ch 3:1, when God instructed Solomon to build the Temple on this same mount.
2Ch 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah , where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
Gen 22:2 Comments – The Lord seemed to quicken to me Joh 12:24 while reading Gen 22:2. When Abraham offered his son Isaac to the Lord, he was sowing his greatest offering unto the Lord. A seed must first die in the ground in order to bear fruit. Isaac was Abraham’s seed. In order for Abraham’s seed (i.e. Isaac) to bring forth much fruit, the seed had to die first.
Joh 12:24, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
Gen 22:2 Comments – The Scriptures record a number of accounts in which a person offers his child as a sacrifice upon the altar. God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen 22:2). Jephthah offered his only child as a burnt offering. (Jdg 11:39). The king of Moab offered his firstborn son as a burnt offering (2Ki 3:27). Such forms of pagan worship have been practiced from antiquity.
Gen 22:2, “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Jdg 11:39, “And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,”
2Ki 3:27, “Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.”
The offering of one’s firstborn was not a new concept to Abraham. The culture from which he departed practiced this as a form of idolatry and witchcraft. This wicked practiced is recorded time and again in the Old Testament among the wicked nations who inhabited the Middle East.
Gen 22:2 Comments – It is important to note that the Lord would not ask us to do something that He Himself is not willing to do, for in the fullness of time, God did send His only begotten Son to Calvary as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
Gen 22:3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Gen 22:4 Gen 22:4
Gen 22:4 Comments – Abraham journeyed from Beersheba (Gen 21:33-34) to Jerusalem (2Ch 3:1) in three days.
Gen 21:33, “And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba , and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God. And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.”
2Ch 3:1, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah , where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
Jeffery Arthurs notes how the flow of time in this narrative story hurries through three days of travel “like images flashing from a train.” [212] This story then slows down and describes the details one of these days when Abraham reached his destination for testing. Arthurs explains that the details of the narrative that follow this verse are used to create suspense for the reader. It indicates that the plot is reaching a climax, and the reader anxiously anticipates the outcome of this suspense.
[212] Jeffery D. Arthurs, Preaching With Variety (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 2007), 81.
Gen 22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Gen 22:5
Heb 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead ; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
Gen 22:6
Gen 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Gen 22:8 Gen 22:8
Gen 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
Gen 22:10 Gen 22:11 Gen 22:12 Gen 22:13 Gen 22:13
Gen 22:13 Comments – It is important to understand that God provided His servant Abraham with a seed, not with a provision. God always provides a seed, and man is to sow this seed in order to receive his harvest (2Co 9:10).
2Co 9:10, “Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)”
Gen 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Gen 22:14
Gen 22:15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Gen 22:16 Gen 22:16
Heb 6:13, “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,”
Gen 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:17
NIV, “ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,”
RSV, “ I will indeed bless you , and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
As a missionary in East Africa, and becoming familiar with a local language that shares the primitive grammatical structures that the Hebrew language holds, I have seen some similar ways in bringing out such emphasis. The Luganda language, the national language in Uganda, says, “mpola, mpola,” which means, “slowly, slowly.” But in English, we would say, “very slowy.” They would also say, “kyimpi, kyimpi,” which we would translate as “very short.”
These types of constructions are found in the more simple and less inflecting and developed languages. With the lack of adjectives and adverts, it necessitates such double constructions in order to accomplish the same emphasis. In contrast, the highly inflected and developed Greek language uses a different approach to create emphasis.
Gen 22:17 “as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” Comments – In the heavens, there is nothing more numerous to the human eye than the number of stars in the sky. On the earth, there is nothing that represents a large number than the sand on the seashore. The stars are in the heavens, and the sand is on the earth. Therefore, the stars represent the spiritual seed of Abraham and the sand represents the earthly, natural seed of Abraham. The children of Israel formed the nation of Israel, and the heavenly, spiritual seed is made up of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gen 22:16-17 Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament – Gen 22:16-17 is quoted in Heb 6:13-14.
Heb 6:13-15, “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”
Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Gen 22:18
Act 3:25, “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed .”
Gen 22:19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Ten Genealogies (Calling) – The Genealogies of Righteous Men and their Divine Callings (To Be Fruitful and Multiply) – The ten genealogies found within the book of Genesis are structured in a way that traces the seed of righteousness from Adam to Noah to Shem to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and the seventy souls that followed him down into Egypt. The book of Genesis closes with the story of the preservation of these seventy souls, leading us into the book of Exodus where we see the creation of the nation of Israel while in Egyptian bondage, which nation of righteousness God will use to be a witness to all nations on earth in His plan of redemption. Thus, we see how the book of Genesis concludes with the origin of the nation of Israel while its first eleven chapters reveal that the God of Israel is in fact that God of all nations and all creation.
The genealogies of the six righteous men in Genesis (Adam, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) are the emphasis in this first book of the Old Testament, with each of their narrative stories opening with a divine commission from God to these men, and closing with the fulfillment of prophetic words concerning the divine commissions. This structure suggests that the author of the book of Genesis wrote under the office of the prophet in that a prophecy is given and fulfilled within each of the genealogies of these six primary patriarchs. Furthermore, all the books of the Old Testament were written by men of God who moved in the office of the prophet, which includes the book of Genesis. We find a reference to the fulfillment of these divine commissions by the patriarchs in Heb 11:1-40. The underlying theme of the Holy Scriptures is God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Thus, the book of Genesis places emphasis upon these men of righteousness because of the role that they play in this divine plan as they fulfilled their divine commissions. This explains why the genealogies of Ishmael (Gen 25:12-18) and of Esau (Gen 36:1-43) are relatively brief, because God does not discuss the destinies of these two men in the book of Genesis. These two men were not men of righteousness, for they missed their destinies because of sin. Ishmael persecuted Isaac and Esau sold his birthright. However, it helps us to understand that God has blessed Ishmael and Esau because of Abraham although the seed of the Messiah and our redemption does not pass through their lineage. Prophecies were given to Ishmael and Esau by their fathers, and their genealogies testify to the fulfillment of these prophecies. There were six righteous men did fulfill their destinies in order to preserve a righteous seed so that God could create a righteous nation from the fruit of their loins. Illustration As a young schoolchild learning to read, I would check out biographies of famous men from the library, take them home and read them as a part of class assignments. The lives of these men stirred me up and placed a desire within me to accomplish something great for mankind as did these men. In like manner, the patriarchs of the genealogies in Genesis are designed to stir up our faith in God and encourage us to walk in their footsteps in obedience to God.
The first five genealogies in the book of Genesis bring redemptive history to the place of identifying seventy nations listed in the Table of Nations. The next five genealogies focus upon the origin of the nation of Israel and its patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
There is much more history and events that took place surrounding these individuals emphasized in the book of Genesis, which can be found in other ancient Jewish writings, such as The Book of Jubilees. However, the Holy Scriptures and the book of Genesis focus upon the particular events that shaped God’s plan of redemption through the procreation of men of righteousness. Thus, it was unnecessary to include many of these historical events that were irrelevant to God’s plan of redemption.
In addition, if we see that the ten genealogies contained within the book of Genesis show to us the seed of righteousness that God has preserved in order to fulfill His promise that the “seed of woman” would bruise the serpent’s head in Gen 3:15, then we must understand that each of these men of righteousness had a particular calling, destiny, and purpose for their lives. We can find within each of these genealogies the destiny of each of these men of God, for each one of them fulfilled their destiny. These individual destinies are mentioned at the beginning of each of their genealogies.
It is important for us to search these passages of Scripture and learn how each of these men fulfilled their destiny in order that we can better understand that God has a destiny and a purpose for each of His children as He continues to work out His divine plan of redemption among the children of men. This means that He has a destiny for you and me. Thus, these stories will show us how other men fulfilled their destinies and help us learn how to fulfill our destiny. The fact that there are ten callings in the book of Genesis, and since the number “10” represents the concept of countless, many, or numerous, we should understand that God calls out men in each subsequent generation until God’s plan of redemption is complete.
We can even examine the meanings of each of their names in order to determine their destiny, which was determined for them from a child. Adam’s name means “ruddy, i.e. a human being” ( Strong), for it was his destiny to begin the human race. Noah’s name means, “rest” ( Strong). His destiny was to build the ark and save a remnant of mankind so that God could restore peace and rest to the fallen human race. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning, “father of a multitude” ( Strong), because his destiny was to live in the land of Canaan and believe God for a son of promise so that his seed would become fruitful and multiply and take dominion over the earth. Isaac’s name means, “laughter” ( Strong) because he was the child of promise. His destiny was to father two nations, believing that the elder would serve the younger. Isaac overcame the obstacles that hindered the possession of the land, such as barrenness and the threat of his enemies in order to father two nations, Israel and Esau. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which means “he will rule as God” ( Strong), because of his ability to prevail over his brother Esau and receive his father’s blessings, and because he prevailed over the angel in order to preserve his posterity, which was the procreation of twelve sons who later multiplied into the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, his ability to prevail against all odds and father twelve righteous seeds earned him his name as one who prevailed with God’s plan of being fruitful and multiplying seeds of righteousness.
In order for God’s plan to be fulfilled in each of the lives of these patriarchs, they were commanded to be fruitful and multiply. It was God’s plan that the fruit of each man was to be a godly seed, a seed of righteousness. It was because of the Fall that unrighteous seed was produced. This ungodly offspring was not then nor is it today God’s plan for mankind.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. The Generation of the Heavens and the Earth Gen 2:4 to Gen 4:26
a) The Creation of Man Gen 2:4-25
b) The Fall Gen 3:1-24
c) Cain and Abel Gen 4:1-26
2. The Generation of Adam Gen 5:1 to Gen 6:8
3. The Generation of Noah Gen 6:9 to Gen 9:29
4. The Generation of the Sons of Noah Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:9
5. The Generation of Shem Gen 11:10-26
6. The Generation of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
7. The Generation Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
8. The Generation of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
9. The Generation of Esau Gen 36:1-43
10. The Generation of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
The Genealogy of Terah (and of Abraham) The genealogies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have a common structure in that they open with God speaking to a patriarch and giving him a commission and a promise in which to believe. In each of these genealogies, the patriarch’s calling is to believe God’s promise, while this passage of Scripture serves as a witness to God’s faithfulness in fulfilling each promise. Only then does the genealogy come to a close.
Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11 gives the account of the genealogy of Terah and his son Abraham. (Perhaps the reason this genealogy is not exclusively of Abraham, but rather of his father Terah, is because of the importance of Lot and the two tribes descended from him, the Moabites and the Ammonites, who will play a significant role in Israel’s redemptive history.) Heb 11:8-19 reveals the central message in this genealogy that stirs our faith in God when it describes Abraham’s acts of faith and obedience to God, culminating in the offering of his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. The genealogy of Abraham opens with God’s promise to him that if he would separate himself from his father and dwell in the land of Canaan, then God would make from him a great nation through his son (Gen 12:1-3), and it closes with God fulfilling His promise to Abraham by giving Him a son Isaac. However, this genealogy records Abraham’s spiritual journey to maturity in his faith in God, as is typical of each child of God. We find a summary of this genealogy in Heb 11:8-19. During the course of Abraham’s calling, God appeared to Abraham a number of times. God reappeared to him and told him that He would make his seed as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen 15:5). God later appeared to Abraham and made the covenant of circumcision with him and said, “I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”(Gen 17:2) After Abraham offered Isaac his son upon the altar, God reconfirmed His promise that “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” (Gen 22:17). The event on Mount Moriah serves as a testimony that Abraham fulfilled his part in believing that God would raise up a nation from Isaac, his son of promise. Thus, Abraham fulfilled his calling and destiny for his generation by dwelling in the land of Canaan and believing in God’s promise of the birth of his son Isaac. All of God’s promises to Abraham emphasized the birth of his one seed called Isaac. This genealogy testifies to God’s faithfulness to fulfill His promise of giving Abraham a son and of Abraham’s faith to believe in God’s promises. Rom 9:6-9 reflects the theme of Abraham’s genealogy in that it discusses the son of promise called Isaac.
Abraham’s Faith Perfected ( Jas 2:21-22 ) – Abraham had a promise from God that he would have a son by Sarai his wife. However, when we read the Scriptures in the book of Genesis where God gave Abraham this promise, we see that he did not immediately believe the promise from God (Gen 17:17-18).
Gen 17:17-18, “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!”
Instead of agreeing with God’s promise, Abraham laughed and suggested that God use Ishmael to fulfill His promise. However, many years later, by the time God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, he was fully persuaded that God was able to use Isaac to make him a father of nations. We see Abraham’s faith when he told his son Isaac that God Himself was able to provide a sacrifice, because he knew that God would raise Isaac from the dead, if need be, in order to fulfill His promise (Gen 22:8).
Gen 22:8, “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
Heb 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
The best illustration of being fully persuaded is when Abraham believed that God would raise up Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill His promise. This is truly being fully persuaded and this is what Rom 4:21 is referring to.
What distinguished Abraham as a man of faith was not his somewhat initial weak reaction to the promises of God in Gen 17:17-18, but it was his daily obedience to God. Note a reference to Abraham’s daily obedience in Heb 11:8.
Heb 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed ; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”
Abraham was righteous before God because he believed and obeyed God’s Words on a daily basis. A good illustration how God considers obedience as an act of righteousness is found in Genesis 19. Abraham had prayed for ten righteous people to deliver Sodom from destruction. The angels found only four people who hearkened to their words. These people were considered righteous in God’s eyes because they were obedient and left the city as they had been told to do by the angels.
Abraham’s ability to stagger not (Rom 4:20) and to be fully persuaded (Rom 4:21) came through time. As he was obedient to God, his faith in God’s promise began to take hold of his heart and grow, until he came to a place of conviction that circumstances no longer moved him. Abraham had to learn to be obedient to God when he did not understand the big picture. Rom 5:3-5 teaches us that tribulation produces patience, and patience produces experience, and experience hope. Abraham had to pass through these four phases of faith in order to develop strong faith that is no longer moved by circumstances.
Let us look at Abraham’s history of obedience to God. He had first been obedient to follow his father from Ur to Haran.
Gen 11:31, “And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.”
He was further obedient when he left Haran and went to a land that he did not know.
Gen 12:1, “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”
He was further obedient for the next twenty-five years in this Promised Land, learning that God was his Shield and his Reward. Note:
Gen 15:1, “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
God called Himself Abraham’s shield and reward because Abraham had come to know Him as a God who protects him and as a God who prospers him. Note that Abraham was living in a land where people believed in many gods, where people believed that there was a god for every area of their lives. God was teaching Abraham that He was an All-sufficient God. This was why God said to Abraham in Gen 17:1, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” In other words, God was telling Abraham to be obedient. Abraham’s role in fulfilling this third promise was to be obedient, and to live a holy life. As Abraham did this, he began to know God as an Almighty God, a God who would be with him in every situation in life. As Abraham fulfilled his role, God fulfilled His divine role in Abraham’s life.
God would later test Abraham’s faith in Gen 22:1 to see if Abraham believed that God was Almighty.
Gen 22:1, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.”
God knew Abraham’s heart. However, Abraham was about to learn what was in his heart. For on Mount Moriah, Abraham’s heart was fully persuaded that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill His promise:
Heb 11:19, “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
Abraham had to die to his own ways of reasoning out God’s plan. He had taken Eliezer of Damascus as his heir as a result of God’s first promise. Then, he had conceived Ishmael in an attempt to fulfill God’s second promise. Now, Abraham was going to have to learn to totally depend upon God’s plan and learn to follow it.
The first promise to Abraham was made to him at the age of 75, when he first entered the Promised Land.
Gen 12:7, “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.”
This first promise was simple, that God would give this land to Abraham’s seed. So, Abraham took Eliezer of Damascus as his heir. But the second promise was greater in magnitude and more specific.
Gen 15:4-5, “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
This next promise said that God would give Abraham this land to Abraham’s biological child and that his seed would proliferate and multiply as the stars of heaven. So, Abraham has a son, Ishmael, by Hagar, his handmaid in order to fulfill this promise.
The third promise, which came twenty-five years after the first promise, was greater than the first and second promises. God said that Abraham would become a father of many nations through Sarah, his wife. Abraham had seen God be his Shield and protect him from the Canaanites. He had seen God as his Reward, by increasing his wealth (Gen 15:1). But now, Abraham was to learn that God was Almighty (Gen 17:1), that with God, all things are possible.
It was on Mount Moriah that Abraham truly died to himself, and learned to live unto God. In the same way, it was at Peniel that Jacob died to his own self and learned to totally depend upon God. After Mount Moriah, Abraham stopped making foolish decisions. There is not a fault to find in Abraham after his experience of sacrificing his son. When Abraham was making wrong decisions, he had the wisdom to build an altar at every place he pitched his tent. It was at these altars that he dealt with his sins and wrong decisions.
At Peniel God called Jacob by the name Israel. Why would God give Jacob this name? Because Jacob must now learn to totally trust in God. His thigh was limp and his physical strength was gone. The only might that he will ever know the rest of his life will be the strength that he finds in trusting God. Jacob was about to meet his brother and for the first time in his life, he was facing a situation that he could not handle in his own strength and cunning. He has been able to get himself out of every other situation in his life, but this time, it was different. He was going to have to trust God or die, and Jacob knew this. His name was now Israel, a mighty one in God. Jacob would have to now find his strength in God, because he had no strength to fight in the flesh. Thus, his name showed him that he could look to God and prevail as a mighty one both with God and with man. After this night, the Scriptures never record a foolish decision that Jacob made. He began to learn how to totally rely upon the Lord as his father Abraham had learned.
After Mount Moriah and Peniel, we read no more of foolish decisions by Abraham and Jacob. We just see men broken to God’s will and humble before God’s mercy.
Obedience is the key, and total obedience is not learned quickly. I believe that it takes decades, as we see in the life of Abraham, to learn to be obedient to a God whom we know as Almighty. This is not learned over night.
Abraham had a word from God before he left Ur. When he reached Canaan, he received a promise from God. Don’t mess with a man and his promise. Pharaoh tried to mess with this man’s promise and God judged him. King Abimelech tried to take Abraham’s promise, but God judged him.
Like Abraham, we may start the journey making some poor judgments, but God is greater than our errors.
We will first know God as our shield and our reward. He will protect us throughout our ministry. He will reward us. He will prosper our ministry. As we learn to be obedient, we will come to know our God as the Almighty in a way that we have never known Him before.
Do not mess with a man who has laid Isaac on the altar. I have heard Gen 17:17 taught as the laugh of faith.
Gen 17:17-18, “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!”
I see very little faith in Abraham’s words in these verses. On the other hand, I have heard other preachers criticize Abraham for his lack of faith at these times in his life; yet, I do not see God criticizing his faith. Abraham was not fully persuaded at this point, but he did not fail God. Abraham simply continued being obedient and living holy until the faith grew in his heart. Every wrong decision that Abraham made brought him that much closer to the right decision. We call this the school of hard knocks. As a result, faith continued to grow in his heart. By Genesis 22, Abraham was fully persuaded and strong in faith that God was Almighty.
Watch out, lest you criticize a man learning to walk in his promise. He may look foolish at times, but do not look on the outward appearance. You either run with him, or get out of the way, but don’t get in the way.
When I left Seminary and a Master’s degree, I was given a job driving a garbage truck while learning to pastor a Charismatic church. I was learning to walk in a promise from God. I will never forget riding on the back of these garbage trucks in my hometown, while the church members who had given money to send me to Seminary watched me in disbelief.
God does not measure a man by the size of his ministry, but by the size of his heart. When Jimmy Swaggart fell into sin, Alethia Fellowship Church was one of his partners, so this church was receiving his monthly ministry tapes during this period in his ministry. In a cassette tape immediately after his fall, he gave a testimony of how he told the Lord that he had failed. The Lord replied to him that he had not failed; rather the Lord had to get some things out of his life. [170] That word from God gave him the courage to go on in the midst of failure. You see, God was more pleased with Jimmy Swaggart living a godly life in fellowship with Him than preaching in great crusades while living in sin.
[170] Jimmy Swaggart, “Monthly Partner Cassette Tape,” (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, February 1988), audiocassette.
Joyce Meyer said that if God measured our success by the way the world measured us, He would have called us “achievers” and not “believers.” [171] Abraham was justified by faith and not by his works. Our work is to believe, not to achieve.
[171] Joyce Meyer, Life in the Word (Fenton, Missouri: Joyce Meyer Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Many of my church friends and relatives criticized me as a failure. However, I knew somehow that the walk of faith was obedience to the Word of God, and not a walk of pleasing man. I obviously did not spend much time with people who thought that I was nuts. Instead, I spent so much time in my bedroom studying my Bible that I looked dysfunctional. Yet, the Lord strengthened me. I will never forget, after riding the garbage truck during the day, and hiding in God’s Word in the night. One night, I laid down about 1:00 a.m. and the glory of God filled my room until 5:00 a.m. in the morning. It was during these most difficult times that the Lord strengthened me the most.
The Lord strengthened Abraham in the midst of his questions and errors. If you will just stay obedient, God will see His Word come to pass through you, as did Abraham learn to see God as Almighty.
Gen 11:27 Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.
Gen 11:28 Gen 11:28 “And in the thirty-fifth jubilee, in the third week, in the first year [1681 A.M.] thereof, Reu took to himself a wife, and her name was ‘Ora, the daughter of ‘Ur, the son of Kesed, and she bare him a son, and he called his name Seroh, in the seventh year of this week in this jubilee. And ‘Ur, the son of Kesed, built the city of ‘Ara of the Chaldees, and called its name after his own name and the name of his father. And they made for themselves molten images, and they worshipped each the idol, the molten image which they had made for themselves, and they began to make graven images and unclean simulacra, and malignant spirits assisted and seduced (them) into committing transgression and uncleanness.” ( The Book of Jubilees 11.1-5)
Gen 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah.
Gen 11:29 Gen 20:12, “And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.”
Compare the comments in Gen 11:29 where Nahor, Abraham’s brother, took his niece, the daughter of Haran, as his wife.
Gen 11:29 “and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah” – Word Study on “Milcah” Gesenius tells us that by Chaldean usage the Hebrew name “Milcah” “Milkah” ( ) (H4435) means “counsel.” Strong tells us that the name means, “queen.” PTW tells us it means, “counsel.” She is daughter of Haran and sister to Lot and Iscah. She married her uncle named Nahor and bare him eight children. She is first mentioned in Gen 11:29 in the genealogy of Terah. She is mentioned a second time in Scripture Gen 22:20-24, where Nahor’s genealogy is given. Her name is mentioned on a third occasion in the chapter where Isaac takes Rebekah as his bride (Gen 24:15; Gen 24:24; Gen 24:47). She is mentioned no more in the Scriptures.
Word Study on “Iscah” Gesenius says the Hebrew name “Iscah” “Yickah” ( ) (H3252) means, “one who beholds, looks out” from ( ). Strong tells us that it comes from an unused word meaning “to watch.” PTW tells us it means, “Jehovah is looking” or “who looks.” Iscah was the sister to Milcah and Lot. Nothing more is mentioned of this person in the Scriptures, her significance being her relationship to her siblings, of whom Lot is the best known.
Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Gen 11:30 Gen 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
Gen 11:31 “And Terah went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, he and his sons, to go into the land of Lebanon and into the land of Canaan, and he dwelt in the land of Haran, and Abram dwelt with Terah his father in Haran two weeks of years.” ( The Book of Jubilees 12.15-16)
However, Act 7:1-4 says that it was Abraham who moved out from Ur due to a Word from the Lord.
Act 7:1-4, “Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.”
Gen 11:31 Scripture References – Note:
Jos 24:2, “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah , the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.”
Gen 11:32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
Gen 12:1-3 The Calling of the Patriarchs of Israel We can find two major divisions within the book of Genesis that reveal God’s foreknowledge in designing a plan of redemption to establish a righteous people upon earth. Paul reveals this four-fold plan in Rom 8:29-30: predestination, calling, justification, and glorification.
Rom 8:29-30, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
The book of Genesis will reflect the first two phase of redemption, which are predestination and calling. We find in the first division in Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 emphasizing predestination. The Creation Story gives us God’s predestined plan for mankind, which is to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth with righteous offspring. The second major division is found in Gen 2:4 to Gen 50:25, which gives us ten genealogies, in which God calls men of righteousness to play a role in His divine plan of redemption.
The foundational theme of Gen 2:4 to Gen 11:26 is the divine calling for mankind to be fruitful and multiply, which commission was given to Adam prior to the Flood (Gen 1:28-29), and to Noah after the Flood (Gen 9:1). The establishment of the seventy nations prepares us for the calling out of Abraham and his sons, which story fills the rest of the book of Genesis. Thus, God’s calling through His divine foreknowledge (Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26) will focus the calling of Abraham and his descendants to establish the nation of Israel. God will call the patriarchs to fulfill the original purpose and intent of creation, which is to multiply into a righteous nation, for which mankind was originally predestined to fulfill.
The generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob take up a large portion of the book of Genesis. These genealogies have a common structure in that they all begin with God revealing Himself to a patriarch and giving him a divine commission, and they close with God fulfilling His promise to each of them because of their faith in His promise. God promised Abraham a son through Sarah his wife that would multiply into a nation, and Abraham demonstrated his faith in this promise on Mount Moriah. God promised Isaac two sons, with the younger receiving the first-born blessing, and this was fulfilled when Jacob deceived his father and received the blessing above his brother Esau. Jacob’s son Joseph received two dreams of ruling over his brothers, and Jacob testified to his faith in this promise by following Joseph into the land of Egypt. Thus, these three genealogies emphasize God’s call and commission to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their response of faith in seeing God fulfill His word to each of them.
1. The Generations of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
2. The Generations Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
3. The Generations of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
4. The Generations of Esau Gen 36:1-43
5. The Generations of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
The Origin of the Nation of Israel After Gen 1:1 to Gen 9:29 takes us through the origin of the heavens and the earth as we know them today, and Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:26 explains the origin of the seventy nations (Gen 10:1 to Gen 11:26), we see that the rest of the book of Genesis focuses upon the origin of the nation of Israel (Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26). Thus, each of these major divisions serves as a foundation upon which the next division is built.
Paul the apostle reveals the four phases of God the Father’s plan of redemption for mankind through His divine foreknowledge of all things in Rom 8:29-30, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Predestination – Gen 1:1 to Gen 11:26 emphasizes the theme of God the Father’s predestined purpose of the earth, which was to serve mankind, and of mankind, which was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with righteousness. Calling – Gen 11:27 to Gen 50:26 will place emphasis upon the second phase of God’s plan of redemption for mankind, which is His divine calling to fulfill His purpose of multiplying and filling the earth with righteousness. (The additional two phases of Justification and Glorification will unfold within the rest of the books of the Pentateuch.) This second section of Genesis can be divided into five genealogies. The three genealogies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob begin with a divine calling to a patriarch. The two shorter genealogies of Ishmael and Esau are given simply because they inherit a measure of divine blessings as descendants of Abraham, but they will not play a central role in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. God will implement phase two of His divine plan of redemption by calling one man named Abraham to depart unto the Promised Land (Gen 12:1-3), and this calling was fulfilled by the patriarch. Isaac’s calling can also be found at the beginning of his genealogy, where God commands him to dwell in the Promised Land (Gen 26:1-6), and this calling was fulfilled by the patriarch Isaac. Jacob’s calling was fulfilled as he bore twelve sons and took them into Egypt where they multiplied into a nation. The opening passage of Jacob’s genealogy reveals that his destiny would be fulfilled through the dream of his son Joseph (Gen 37:1-11), which took place in the land of Egypt. Perhaps Jacob did not receive such a clear calling as Abraham and Isaac because his early life was one of deceit, rather than of righteousness obedience to God; so the Lord had to reveal His plan for Jacob through his righteous son Joseph. In a similar way, God spoke to righteous kings of Israel, and was silent to those who did not serve Him. Thus, the three patriarchs of Israel received a divine calling, which they fulfilled in order for the nation of Israel to become established in the land of Egypt. Perhaps the reason the Lord sent the Jacob and the seventy souls into Egypt to multiply rather than leaving them in the Promised Land is that the Israelites would have intermarried the cultic nations around them and failed to produce a nation of righteousness. God’s ways are always perfect.
1. The Generations of Terah (& Abraham) Gen 11:27 to Gen 25:11
2. The Generations Ishmael Gen 25:12-18
3. The Generations of Isaac Gen 25:19 to Gen 35:29
4. The Generations of Esau Gen 36:1-43
5. The Generations of Jacob Gen 37:1 to Gen 50:26
Divine Miracles It is important to note that up until now the Scriptures record no miracles in the lives of men. Thus, we will observe that divine miracles begin with Abraham and the children of Israel. Testimonies reveal today that the Jews are still recipients of God’s miracles as He divinely intervenes in this nation to fulfill His purpose and plan for His people. Yes, God is working miracles through His New Testament Church, but miracles had their beginning with the nation of Israel.
The Journey to Moriah
v. 1. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Behold, here I am. v. 2. And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. v. 3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac, his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. v. 4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place a far off. v. 5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. v. 6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac, his son; and he took the fire in his hand and a knife; and they went both of them together. v. 7. And Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? v. 8. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. EXPOSITION
Gen 22:1
And it cams to passthe alleged mythical character of the present narrative (De Wette, Bohlen) is discredited not more by express Scripture statement (Heb 11:17-19) than by its own inherent difficultiesafterhow long after may be conjectured from the circumstance that Isaac was now a grown lad, capable of undertaking a three days journey of upwards of sixty milesthese things (literally, words, of benediction, promise, trial that had gone beforethat Godliterally, the Elohim, i.e. neither Satan, as in 1Ch 21:1, compared with 2Sa 24:1 (Schelling, Stanley), nor Abraham himself, in the sense that a subjective impulse on the part of the patriarch supplied the formal basis of the subsequent transaction (Kurtz, Oehler); but the El-Olam of Gen 21:32, the term Elohim being employed by the historian not because Gen 21:1-13 are Elohistic (Tuch, Bleek, Davidson,)a hypothesis inconsistent with the internal unity of the chapter, “which is joined together like cast-iron” (Oehler), and in particular with the use of Moriah in Gen 21:2 (Hengstenberg),but to indicate the true origin of the after-mentioned trial, which proceeded neither from Satanic instigation nor from subjective impulse, but from God (Keil)did temptnot solicit to sin (Jas 1:13), but test or prove (Exo 16:4; Deu 8:2; Deu 13:3; 2Ch 32:31; Psa 26:2)Abraham, and said unto him,in a dream-vision of the night (Eichhorn, Lunge), but certainly in an audible voice which previous experience enabled him to recognizeAbraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. “These brief introductions of the conversation express the great tension and application of the human mind in those moments in a striking way, and serve at the same time to prepare us for the importance of the conversation” (Lange).
Gen 22:2
And he said, Take now”the modifies the command, and seems to express that Elohim wished to receive the sacrifice as a free-will offering” (Lange)thy son (not a lamb, but thy child), thine only sonnot (LXX.), but unigenitum (Vulgate), meaning the only son of Sarah, the only legitimate offspring he possessed, the only heir of the promise, the only child that remained to him after Ishmael’s departure (cf. , Joh 1:18)Isaac, whom thou lovest,or, whom thou lovest, Isaac; the order and accumulation of the terms being calculated to excite the parental affection of the patriarch to the highest pitch, and to render compliance with the Divine demand a trial of the utmost severityand get theeliterally, go for thyself (cf. Gen 12:1; Gen 21:16)into the land of Moriah. Moriahvision (Vulgate, Symmachus, Samaritan), worship (Onkelos, Jonathan), high (LXX.), rebellious (Murphy); but rather a compound of and , meaning God is my instructor, alluding to the temple from which the law should afterwards proceed (Kalisch), or, better, of and , and signifying “the shown of Jehovah,” i.e. the revelation or manifestation of Jehovah (Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Keil, &c.); or “the chosen, i.e. “pointed out of God,” with reference to its selection as the site of the Divine sanctuary (Gesenius), or rather because there God provided and pointed out the sacrifice which he elected to accept (Lange). And offer him there for a burnt offeringnot make a spiritual surrender of him in and through a burnt offering (Hengstenberg, Lange), but actually present him as a holocaust. That Abraham did not stagger on receiving this astounding injunction may be accounted for by remembering that the practice of offering human sacrifices prevailed among the early Chaldaeans and Canaanites, and that as yet no formal prohibition, like that of the Mosaic code, had been issued against themupon one of the mountainsnot Moreh in Sicbem (Tuch, Michaelis, Stanley, Grove, et alii), which was too distant, but Moriah at Jerusalem (Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Keil, Kalisch), where subsequently God appeared to David (2Sa 24:16), and the temple of Solomon was built (2Ch 3:1)which I will tell thee ofi.e. point out (probably by secret inspiration) as thou proceedest.
Gen 22:3
And Abraham rose up early in the morning,a habit of the patriarch’s after receiving a Divine communication (cf. Gen 19:27; Gen 20:8; Gen 21:14)and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him (the ass for the wood, and the young men for the ass), and Isaac his son (explaining to him as yet only his intention to offer sacrifice upon a distant mountain), and clave the wood for the burnt offering (obviously with his own bands), and rose up (expressive of resolute determination), and went unto (or towards) the place of which God had told himliterally, the Elohim had spoken to him. The accumulation of brief, sententious clauses in this verse admirably represents the calm deliberation and unflinching heroism with which the patriarch proceeded to execute the Divine command.
Gen 22:4
Then on the third dayJerusalem, being distant from Beersheba about twenty and a half hours’ journey according to Robinson, could easily; be within sight on the third dayAbraham lifted up his eyes,not implying that the object of vision was above him (cf. Gen 13:10)and saw the place (which Calvin conjectures he had previously beheld in vision) afar off. Though Mount Moriah cannot be seen by the traveler from Beersheba till within a distance of three miles, the place or region where it is can be detected (Kalisch).
Gen 22:5
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye (for similar forms of expression cf. Gen 12:1; Gen 21:6; Gen 22:2) here with the ass;partly because the beast required watching, though chiefly because the contemplated sacrifice was too solemn for any eyes but God’s to witnessand I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. An act of dissimulation on the part of Abraham (Knobel, Kalisch, Murphy); an unconscious prophecy; the expression of a hopeful wish (Lange); a somewhat confused utterance (Calvin, Keil); the voice of his all-conquering faith, which last seems the teaching of Heb 11:19.
Gen 22:6
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son;instinctively the mind reverts to the cross-bearing of Abraham’s greater Son (Joh 19:17)and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife (to him terribly suggestive weapons); and they went both of them together. Doubtless in silence on Abraham’s part and wonder on Isaac’s, since as yet no declaration had been made of the true purpose of their journey.
Gen 22:7
And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father,during the progress of the journey, after leaving the young men, solitude inviting him to give expression to thoughts which had been rising in his bosom, but which the presence of companions had constrained him to suppressand said, My father:a term of filial reverence and endearment that must have lacerated Abraham’s heart. As used by Isaac it signified a desire to interrogate his parentand he said, Here am I, my son (literally, Behold me, my sonWell, my son, what is it? in colloquial English). And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering. Another hint that the sacrificial system did not originate with Moses.
Gen 22:8
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:the utterance of heroic faith rather than the language of pious dissimulation (vide on Gen 22:5)so they went both of them together. To see in this twice-repeated expression a type of the concurrence of the Father and the Son in the work of redemption (Wordsworth) is not exegesis.
Gen 22:9
And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there,i.e. upon the mountain summit or slope (Gen 22:2)and laid the wood in order (it is scarcely likely that Isaac was permitted to assist in these affecting preparations), and bound Isaac his son, who must have acquiesced in his father’s purpose, and thereby evinced his faith in the Divine commandment. The term “bound,” though seeming to convey the idea of violence, derives its significance from the binding of the sacrificial victimand laid him on the altar on the wood. The feelings of the patriarch throughout this transaction are simply inconceivable.
Gen 22:10
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his sonwho even in the last moment offers no resistance, but behaves like a type of him who was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isa 53:7).
Gen 22:11
And the angel of the LordMaleach Jehovah (vide Gen 16:7); introduced into the narrative at this point not as a Jehovistic alteration (Bleek, Kalisch, et alii), but because the God of redemption now interposes for the deliverance of both Isaac and Abraham (Hengetenberg)called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham (the repetition denotes urgency, as contrasted with Gen 22:1): and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12
And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him. Abraham’s surrender of the son of his affections having been complete, there was no need to push the trial further. The voice from heaven has been accepted as evidence of God’s rejection of human sacrifices (Lange, Murphy), only that is not assigned as the reason for Isaac’s deliverance. For now I knewliterally, have known; not caused thee to know, but caused others to know (Lange); or the words are used anthropomorphically (Calvin)that thou fearest God,Elohim; the Divine intention being to characterize the patriarch as a God-fearing man, and not simply as a worshipper of Jehovahseeingliterally, and (sc. in proof thereof)thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (LXX.). Cf. (Rom 8:32), as applied to the sacrifice of Christ. In this verse the angel of Jehovah identifies himself with Elohim.
Gen 22:13
And Abraham lifted up his eyes (in the direction of the voice), and looked, and behold behind himeither at his back (Furst, Keil, Lange, Murphy), or in the background of the altar, i.e. in front of him (Gesenius, Kalisch). The LXX; Samaritan, Syriac, mistaking for , read “one,” which adds nothing to the sense or picturesqueness of the compositiona ram; in the component letters of which cabalistic writers find the initial letters of , God will provide for himself. In the animal itself the Fathers rightly discerned a type of Christ, though it is fanciful to detect a shadow of the Crown of thorns in the words that followcaught in a thicket by his horns (the sebach being the intertwined branches of trees or brushwood): and Abraham went and took the ram, and (though not directed what to do, yet with a fine spiritual instinct discerning the Divine purpose) offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his sonwhom be thus received from the dead as in a figure (Heb 11:19).
Gen 22:14
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh:i.e. the Lord will provide (Jonathan, Calvin, Rosenmller, Keil, &c.), rather than the Lord selects, or looks out, i.e.. the sacrifices to be afterwards offered in the temple worship on Morish (Kalisch); or, the Lord shall appear (Oort, Kuenen), which overlooks the manifest allusion to Gen 22:8as it is said to this day,or, so that it is said; cf. Gen 13:16 (Keil)In the mount of the Lord it shall be seenor “it shall be provided” (Gesenius, Rosenmller, Dathe, ‘Speaker’s Commentary’), though by competent authorities it has been otherwise rendered. “In the mount the Lord shall appear, or be seen” (LXX.); “in the mount the Lord will see, or provide” (Vulgate, Syriac, Samaritan); “in the mount of the Lord he will be seen” (Murphy); “in the mount of the Lord one shall be seen,” or “people appear,” i.e. the people of God shall gather on this mountain for worship (Kalisch); “on the mountain where Jehovah appears” (Keil). Amidst such a conflict of interpretations absolute certainty is perhaps unattainable; but the sense of the proverb will probably be expressed by understanding it to mean that on the mount of Abraham’s sacrifice Jehovah would afterwards reveal himself for the salvation of his people, as he then interposed for the help of Abrahama prophecy which was afterwards fulfilled in the manifestations of the Divine glory given in the Solomonic temple and in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Gen 22:15-18
And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,the object of the first call having been to arrest the consummation of the fatal deed which threatened Isaac’s life, and to declare the Divine satisfaction with the patriarch’s complete spiritual surrender of his son, the purpose of the second was to renew the promise in reward for his fidelity and obedienceand said, By myself have I sworn,by my word (Onkelos); by my name (Arabic); equivalent to by himself, by his soul (Jer 51:14), or by his holiness (Amo 4:2)an anthropomorphism by which God in the most solemn manner pledges the perfection of his Divine personality for the fulfillment of his promise; an act which he never again repeats in his intercourse with the patriarchs. The oath here given to Abraham (frequently referred to in later Scripture: Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3; Gen 50:24; Exodus 42:5, 11; Exo 32:13; Exo 33:1; Isa 45:23; Heb 6:13) is confirmed by the addition ofsaith the Lord,literally, the utterance of Jehovah; like the Latin air, inquit Dominus, the usual prophetic phrase accompanying Divine oracles (cf. Isa 3:15; Eze 5:11; Amo 6:8), though occurring in the Pentateuch only here and in Num 14:28for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son (vide supra, Num 14:12; from which the LXX; Syriac, and Samaritan insert hero the words “from me”): that in blessing I will bless thee, and, multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore;literally, upon the lip of the sea; a repetition and accumulation of the promises previously made to the patriarch concerning his seed (cf. Gen 12:2, Gen 12:3; Gen 13:14-16; Gen 15:5; Gen 17:1-8), with the special amplification followingand thy seed shall possess (i.e. occupy by force) the gate of his enemies; shall conquer their armies and capture their cities (Keil, Murphy); though that the spiritual sense of entering in through the doorway of their susceptibilities in conversion (Lange) is not to be overlooked may be inferred from the appended predictionand in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (vide Gen 12:3, where “families of the ground” occur as the equivalent of “nations of the earth”); because thou hast obeyed my voice. Originally unconditional in its grant, the promise is here distinctly declared to be renewed to him as one who, besides being justified and taken into covenant with Jehovah, had through trial and obedience attained to the spiritual patriarchate of a numerous posterity.
Gen 22:19
So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they role up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.
HOMILETICS
Gen 22:1-19
Mount Moriah, or the mount of sacrifice.
I. ABRAHAM‘S TRIAL.
1. Divine in its origin. However explained, the appalling ordeal through which the patriarch at this time passed was expressly created for him by Elohim. Only he who made the human heart can adequately search it; and he alone who has a perfect understanding of the standard of moral excellence can pronounce upon the intrinsic worth of his creatures.
2. Unexpected in its coming. After all that had preceded, it might have been anticipated that not only were the patriarch’s trials over, but that the need for such discipline in his case no longer existed. It shows that neither length of years nor ripeness of grace, neither conscious enjoyment of Divine favor nor previous experience of suffering, can exempt from trial or place beyond the need of testing; and that mostly “temptations” come at unexpected times, and in unlooked for ways.
3. Severe in its form. Trials to be efficient must be graduated to the strength of those they design to test Only a temptation of great force could be of service in the case of moral heroism like Abraham’s. The intensity of the strain put upon his soul by the astounding order to make a holocaust of Isaac simply baffles description. Even on the supposition that Abraham was not unfamiliar with the practice of offering human victims, as it prevailed among the Canaanites and early Chaldeans, painful doubt must have insinuated itself into his mind
(1) as to the character of Jehovah, who in making such a barbarous and inhuman demand might seem little superior to the heathen deities around;
(2) as to his own enjoyment of the Divine favor, which could scarcely fail to be staggered by such an excruciating stab to his natural affection; but,
(3) and chiefly, as to the stability of the promise, which reason could not but pronounce impossible of fulfillment if Isaac must be put to death. Yet, overwhelming as the trial was, it was
4. Needful in its design. The great covenant blessing was still- conditioned on the exercise by the patriarch of full-hearted trust in the naked word of God. Not until that standpoint had been reached by Abraham in his spiritual development was he able to become the parent of Isaac; and now that Isaac was born there was still the danger lest Isaac, and not the naked word of God, should be the ground of the patriarch’s confidence. Hence the necessity arose for testing whether Abraham could resign Isaac and yet cling to the promise.
II. ABRAHAM‘S VICTORY.
1. The splendor of it. The tremendous act of self-immolation was performed not without pain, else Abraham must have been either more or less than human, but
(1) with unhesitating promptitude”Abraham rose up early in the morning,” and “went unto the place of which God had told him;”
(2) with literal exactness”Abraham laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar on the wood;”
(3) in perfect sincerity”Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay his son;” yet
(4) without ostentationAbraham went alone with his son to the mount of sacrifice.
2. The secret of it. This was faith. He accounted that, though Isaac should be slain, God was able to raise him up again from the dead. Hence, though prepared to plunge the knife into his son’s breast, and to reduce his beloved form to ashes, he “staggered not at the promise.”
III. ABRAHAM‘S REWARD.
1. The deliverance of Isaac.
(1) The time of it. At the moment when the sacrifice was about to be consummated, neither too soon for evincing the completeness of Abraham’s obedience, nor too late for effecting Isaac’s preservation.
(2) The reason of it. Because the piety and faith of the patriarch were sufficiently demonstrated. God often accepts the will for the deed.
(3) The manner of it. By the substitution of a ram, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, through whose atoning death the Isaac of the Church is delivered from condemnation.
(4) The teaching of it. If Abraham’s surrender of Isaac was a shadow of the sacrificing love of the eternal Father in sparing not his only Son, and the bound Isaac typical of the Church’s condemned condition before the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, and the substituted ram was emblematic of him who, though he knew no sin, was made a sin offering for us, the deliverance of Isaac was symbolic both of the resurrection life of Christ and of the new life of his redeemed people.
2. The confirmation of the blessing.
(1) A renewal of the promisesof a numerically great, territorially prosperous, and spiritually influential posterity, and more particularly of that distinguished seed in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed;
(2) a specification of the ground on which they were held, viz; the patriarch’s believing obedience to the Divine commandment; and
(3) a solemn oath in guarantee of their fulfillment.
Lessons:
1. The certainty of trial.
2. The omnipotence of faith.
3. The blessedness of obedience.
HOMILIES BY F. HASTINGS
Gen 22:12
Abraham’s perfect fairly.
“Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” “The word of God,” says Coleridge, “speaks to man, and therefore it speaks the language of the children of men. This has to be kept in mind in studying the remarkable incident recorded in this chapter. When God is represented as “tempting” Abraham, it only means that he tried or tested him.
I. THE TESTING OF FAITH. Abraham was to be the head of the faithful and type of the justified, therefore it was essential he should be tested. Entire obedience is the test of perfect faith. Abraham had shown his faith when he left his own land, and when he waited patiently for a son; now he has to show it in a different way. In the two former testings he had a promise to rest on; now he must go far without any promise to buoy him up in the perplexing sea of trial. “Take now thy son,” &c. Surely there is some mistake! Must Abraham offer a human sacrifice? This event has perplexed many, and they have only escaped from the difficulties presented by regarding the event
(1) As exceptional for the purpose of securing a unique type of the future sacrifice of Christ.
(2) As never intended to be actually carried out, God having foreseen the faith of his servant, and having determined at the right moment to interfere and prevent any disaster. There is also a miraculous element in the narrative, both in the special voice and the ram caught in the thicket. Some have thought that the impulse was from Abraham’s own mindthat, seeing human sacrifices around, he wished to rise above all others in devotion to the one God. Had this been the case, the Scriptures would not have represented the testing as from God. In that age a father’s right to do as he would with his son was as unquestioned as his right to do what he would with his slave. The command of God was not out of harmony with this idea, but it helped to correct the mistake. A single act of such self-sacrifice becomes of the highest value; it is even a means of education to the world. God elicited the highest exercise of faith, but not the blood of Isaac. What it must have cost the patriarch to submit to the Divine command! With one blow he must slay his boy and his own ardent hopes. The only gleam of light was in the thought that God who first gave Isaac could also restore him from death. This is indicated in the words he uttered to the young man, “We will come again to you.” Tradition says that the mount was the same on which Adam, Abel, and Noah had offered sacrifice. Here possibly Abraham found an altar to repair or rebuild. Isaac helps in rebuilding the altar and in arranging the wood. Silent prayers ascend from father and son. Isaac wonders where the lamb is to come from. He finds out when his father has bound him and laid him on the altar. The knife gleams aloft, and, but for the arresting voice, would have been plunged in Isaac. The test was satisfactory.
II. GOD‘S MANIFEST APPROVAL OF THE PATRIARCH‘S FAITH AND PERFECT OBEDIENCE.
1. It was by a voice from heaven.
2. It was manifested also by the way in which God took away any pain consequent on obedience to his command. It is remarkable how those who appear to have little faith can become, when trial falls, perfectly submissive to the Divine will.
3. The approval was seen also in the way in which God provided a sacrifice.
4. And God repeated his promise of blessing, confirming it by a solemn covenant. “By myself have I sworn,” &c. No such voice comes to us, and no such promise is audibly given; still we can have, in the inner calm of the soul, an evidence of the Divine approval. When our faith is strongest, after passing through some trial, we get a clearer view of the glory of God’s working, both in our lives and in the world. What approval have we won? Does not Abraham put us to shame? Too many will laud the obedience of Abraham who will never try to emulate it. Abraham was glad to have his Isaac spared; so would the Father have been, but he gave up his “only-begotten, well-beloved Son” for us. Our readiness to accept and follow the Savior given is only another way of showing how we bear the testing of faith. “Thy will be done” should be the utterance of each believer. Perfect faith in the heart should be exhibited by perfect obedience in life.H.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 22:14
The Lamb of God.
“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. The key to this narrative is Joh 1:29. It sets forth in type the way of salvation. Whether Abraham understood this we need not inquire. The lesson is for us. Isaac, i.e. laughter (cf. Luk 2:10), the child of promise (Rom 9:7), type of “the children of the kingdom,” is yet condemned to die (cf. Rom 5:12). So in Egypt the Israelites were not exempted; God’s gift to them was a way of escape. What is that way? (cf. Mic 6:6). Every age of the world has asked this question. A sense of separation from God has led to many efforts for its removal. Hence sacrifices, offerings, austerities, &c; but all in vain (Heb 10:4). Still the soul asked, “Where is the Lamb?” the effectual sacrifice for sin. The answer of prophecy, i.e. God’s answer, “God will provide himself a lamb” (cf. Joh 1:29; Joh 8:56). Man has no claim upon God, yet his need is a plea (cf. Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7). We know not what was in Abraham’s mind; perhaps he was escaping from the direct answer, unable to utter it; perhaps there was a hope that God would in some way preserve or restore his son (cf. Heb 11:19). There are many instances of prophecy unconsciously uttered (cf. Joh 11:50). Isaac was boundtype of man’s helplessness to escape from the curse (cf. Luk 4:18), or from the law of sin in the members. The law of God of itself can only condemn. It can only he fulfilled by one who loves God; but he who is not at peace with God cannot love him. The sacrifice was now complete as far as Abraham could offer it. He had cast down self-will (cf. Mat 26:39); he had sacrificed himself (Rom 12:1). This is the state of mind of all others most prepared to receive blessings (cf. 2Ki 4:3-6). “Lay not thine hand upon the lad.” God’s purpose our deliverance (Rom 8:1). The work of the law, bringing home the conviction of sin, is the prelude to the knowledge of life (cf. Rom 7:10-13)life through death. God’s way of deliverance (Isa 53:6). The type, the ram caught in the thicket; the antitype, Christ fulfilling the Father’s will. The practical application of this shown in brazen serpent (Joh 3:14). Marvelous love of God (Rom 5:8). We had no claim on him, yet he would not that we should perish (Eze 33:11). He wanted, for the fullness of his blessedness, that we should partake of it, and therefore Christ came that he might die in our stead; and now in him we are dead (2Co 5:4). Do not dilute the truth by saying he died for believers only. This is to miss the constraining power of his love. If there is any doubt of his death being for each and all, the gospel is no longer felt to be “whosoever will” (Rev 22:17). Behold the Lamb. We need not now to say, “God will provide; “he has provided (1Jn 2:2). The universe could not purchase that propitiation. No efforts could make thee worthy of it, yet it is freely offered to thee today. And mark what that gift includes (Rom 8:32)the help of the Holy Spirit (Luk 11:13), wisdom (Jas 1:5), help in trials (1Co 10:13), peace (Rom 8:33), needs of this life (Luk 12:30). Bring all thy sins, thy wants, thy hindrances to the mercy-seat (Heb 4:16). The Lord will see, will look upon thy need; and ere thy prayer is offered he has provided what that need requires.M.
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY
Gen 22:15-19
The great trial and the great revelation.
In such a history the representative character of Abraham must be remembered. He was tried not only for his own sake, but that in him all the families of the earth might be blessed.
I. The PREPARATION for this great grace God and Abraham recognizing each other; the servant called by name, responding with the profession of readiness for obedience.
II. The COMMANDMENT is itself a secret communication, a covenant. Do this, and I will bless thee; follow me in this journey “as I tell thee,” and thou shalt see my salvation.
III. The simple, childlike OBEDIENCE of the patriarch is reflected in the quiet demeanor of Isaac bearing the wood of the burnt offering, type of Jesus bearing his cross, inquiring for the lamb with lamb-like innocence and patience. “They went both of them together” (Gen 22:6 and Gen 22:8)”together” in the beginning of the journey, “together” in the end, in the trial and in the blessing.
IV. FAITH which accepts the will of God and takes up the Divine mission WILL COMMIT THE FUTURE TO THE GRACIOUS PROVISION ON WHICH IT DEPENDS. “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen 22:8). Already Abraham was saying, “The Lord will provide.” We say it sometimes with a fearful burden upon our heart; but when we go steadfastly and hopefully forward we say it at last with the remembrance of a great deliverance sending its glory along the way of our future.
V. THE TRIAL OF THE TRUE HEART IS OFTEN STRETCHED OUT TO ITS LAST EXTREMITY, that the revelation which rewards faithfulness may be the more abundant and wonderful (Gen 22:9, Gen 22:10). We must take God at his word, otherwise we shall not experience the promised deliverance. “Take thy son, and offer him there” (Gen 22:2). “And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.” What else could he do? The commandment must be obeyed. The obedience must be “good and perfect and acceptable” as the will of God.
VI. AT THE POINT OF ENTIRE SURRENDER APPEARS THE ANGEL, is heard the voice of relief, the assurance of acceptance, the change in the method of obedience, the opened eyes, the provided sacrifice, THE RETURNING JOY OF SALVATION (Gen 22:11-13). There is a blindness of self-sacrifice which leads to a sight of immeasurable joy. Abraham saw nothing before him but the plain path of obedience; he went on, and at last “lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold’ the self-sacrifice changed into peaceful offering of an appointed substitute (Gen 22:13) “in the stead of his son.”
VII. THE CLIMAX OF OUR EXPERIENCE AND OF DIVINE MERCY BECOMES TO US A NEW NAME OF JEHOVAH. We know him henceforth by that knowledge of fact. “Jehovah-jireh (the Lord will provide): as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided” (or seen) (Gen 22:14).
1. Not before the mount, but in the mount; therefore go to the summit and wait.
2. What the Lord will provide will be better every way than what we could provide.
3. The offering on the mount is the great provision, the whole burnt offering for the sins of the world, by which the true humanity is redeemed and the true “joy” (“Isaac,” laughter) is retained.
4. The last name of Jehovah which Abraham gave him was Jehovah the Everlasting; now he adds to that name that which brings the Everlasting into the sphere of daily life”Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide.” We name that name when we reach the mount where the great sacrifice was providedMount Moriah, Mount Calvary.
5. The end of the great trial and obedience was a renewal, a solemn republication, of the covenant. “God could swear by no greater; he swore by himself” (Heb 6:13). On the foundation of practical faith is built up the kingdom of heaven, which the Lord swears shall include all nations, and be supreme in all the earth. The notes of that kingdom are here in the history of the patriarch
(1) acceptance of the word of God,
(2) self-sacrifice,
(3) faith instead of sight,
(4) withholding nothing,
(5) perseverance to the end.
Beersheba became now a new place to Abraham, for he carried to the well and grove which he had named after the oaths of himself and Abimelech the remembrance of the Divine oath, on which henceforth he rested all his expectations. After this the man in whom all nations shall be blessed looks round and finds the promise being already fulfilled, and his kindred spreading widely in the earth.R.
Gen 22:1. God did tempt Abraham, &c. Did try, or prove him, for the further display of his faith and obedience; which is the only sense in which God can be supposed to tempt his creatures. The apostle to the Hebrews gives us a good comment on this passage, ch. Gen 11:17, &c. assuring us, that Abraham readily obeyed the Divine command, as having an undoubted faith, that God was able to raise his son Isaac again, even from the dead; that son, who was so miraculously born, as it were, from the dead; and who being the heir of the promise, the patriarch could have no doubt, but that God would by some means or other restore his life, if he thought fit thus to take it away. In this confidence he cheerfully obeyed the Divine command, indisputably ascertained, without all controversy, that it was such: and herein he acted an eminently wise and pious part, since there can be no question, that it is the only safe rule of conduct for every man implicitly to obey whatever shall undoubtedly appear to be the direct command of that God, who is the Judge of all the earth, and will most certainly do right: however dark and intricate matters may at first appear, the issue will always prove the propriety of an invariable attention to this rule.
Bp. Warburton, in his Divine Legation of Moses, vol. 4: has considered this event in, I believe, a just light. “It is evident,” says he, “from the words of Christ, Joh 8:56, (Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad), that Abraham was desirous of being acquainted with the manner in which the promise of the redemption of mankind should be effected. The principal intention of this command was to reveal to Abraham by action instead of words, the manner of this redemption; yet, as this was a favour of a very high nature, and conferred on Abraham at his earnest request, it was but fit he should approve himself worthy of it by some proportionable trial. On this account, therefore, God was pleased, by the very manner in which this mystery was revealed, to tempt, to try Abraham. Where the making the favour itself the trial of his deserving it, hath all the superior elegance and beauty which is conceived in the dispensations of Divine Wisdom only. The very manner in which this reason is recorded, shews it an inferior one; for it is not said that God gave this command to try Abraham, which expresses a principal reason, but that, in giving the command, God did try him, which only implies an inferior one.”
TENTH SECTION
The sacrifice of Isaac. The sealing of the faith of Abraham. The completion and sealing of the Divine Promise
Gen 22:1-19
1And it came to pass after these things [preparatory thereto, that God [Elohim] did tempt1 Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: 2and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah [shown or provided of Jehovah];2 and offer him there for a burnt offering3 upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men [servants] with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come [may come] again to you (). 6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife: and they went both of them together. 7And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am [I hear], my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8And Abraham said, My son, God will provide4 himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went [further] both of them together. 9And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid [upon it] the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: 12and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know [I have perceived] that thou fearest God [literally: a God-fearer art thou], seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked [spied, descried], and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh5 [Jehovah will see]: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
15And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, 16And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. 18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed [shall bless themselves; Hithpael]; because thou hast obeyed my voice. 19So Abraham returned unto his young men; and they rose up, and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt [still longer] at Beer-sheba.
GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS
1. The documentary hypothesis [which implies not only that historical documents may have come down to Moses, and were used by him, but also that the book is compacted from distinct and still distinguishable compositions.A. G] meets in this section a very significant rebuke, whose import has not been sufficiently estimated either by Knobel or Delitzsch. Leaving out of view the term Elohim, nothing reminds us, says Knobel, of the Elohistic, but rather, everything is in favor of the Jehovistic author, e.g., in the main point, its whole tendency as thus stated (the knowledge of the unlawfulness of human sacrifices in Israel), the human way in which God is spoken of, etc. We must, therefore, hold that the Jehovist uses Elohim here, so long as he treats of human sacrifices, and then first, after this sacrifice, so foreign to the religion of Jehovah (Gen 22:1), has been rebuked, uses Jehovah. The real distinction of the names of God is thus recognized without considering its consequences. Delitzsch says, the enlarger generally uses the name less exclusively than the author of the original writing the (). This change of the names of God is, at all events, significant, as is every change of the names of God in the original dependence and connection of one of the two narrators. This concession does not agree with his introduction, when he says, a comprehensible distinction between the two names of God, Elohim and Jehovah, is not always to be received; the author has often merely found a pleasure in ornamenting his work with the alternation of these two names (p. 32, 33). The change in the names in this section is explained by the fact, that the revelation of God, which the patriarch received at the beginning of the history, mingled itself in his consciousness with traditional Elohistic ideas or prejudices, while in the sequel, the second revelation of Jehovah makes a clear and lasting distinction between the pure word of Jehovah, and the traditional Elohistic, or general religious apprehension of it.
2. We have already discussed, in the introduction (p. 74. ff.), the peculiar idea in the history of the sacrifice of Isaac, which the traditional theological misunderstanding has transformed into a dark enigma, which lies as a grave difficulty or stumbling block in the history. In his History of the Old Covenant (2d ed. p. 205), Kurtz resumes with great zeal the discussion, with reference to Hengstenbergs Beitrge, iii. p. 145; Lange: Leben Jesu, i. p. 120; Positive Dogmatics, p. 818, and other works, and asserts directly that God demanded from Abraham the actual slaying of Isaac. It is no difficulty, in his view, that God, the true one, who is truth, commands at the beginning of the narrative, what he forbids at the close, as it was not difficult to him to hold that the assumed angels (Genesis 6) were created sexless, but had in some magical way themselves created for themselves the sexual power. [This is the difficulty which Kurtz overlooks. It is not the difficulty in reconciling this command with the prohibition of human sacrifices in the Mosaic law, but in reconciling the command with the prohibition in this history, if the killing of Isaac is referred to in both. Hengstenberg and those who argue with him, urge in favor of their view: 1. That the command relates only to the spiritual sacrifice of Isaac, here termed a burnt-offering because of the entire renunciation of Isaac as a son by nature, which he was to make, so that Isaac was to be dead to him, and then received back again from the dead, no longer in any sense a son of the flesh, but the son of promise and of grace; and then, 2. the numerous places in the Scripture in which these sacrificial terms are used in a spiritual sense (e.g., Hos 14:3; Psa 40:7-9; where the same term, burnt-offering, is used, and the Psalmist describes the entire yielding of his personality as the sacrifice which God required; Psa 51:19; Psa 119:108; Rom 12:1; Php 4:18; Heb 13:15, etc. See also the passage 1Sa 1:24-25); and finally 3. the force and usage of the word here rendered to tempt. But on the other hand it is urged with great force: 1. That the terms here used are such as to justify, if not require, the interpretation which Abraham put upon the command, i.e., that he was required literally to slay his son as a sacrifice; 2. that it is only as thus understood that we see the force of the temptation to which Abraham was subjected. It is obviously the design of the writer to present this temptation as the most severe and conclusive test. He was tried in the command to leave his home, in his long waiting for the promised seed, in the command to expel Ishmael. In all these his faith and obedience stood the test. It remained to be seen whether it would yield the son of promise also. This test, therefore, was applied. The temptation was not merely to part with his son, the only son of his love, but it was in the command to put him to death, of whom it was said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. The command and the promise were apparently in direct conflict. If he obeys the command he would seem to frustrate the promise; if he held fast to the promise and saved his son he would disobey the command. 3. That this interpretation best explains the whole transaction, as it related to Isaac as the channel of blessing to the world, and the type of Christ, who was the true human sacrificethe man for men. 4. That there is no real moral difficulty, since God, who is the giver of life, has a right to require it, and since his command clearly expressed, both justified Abraham in this painful deed and made it binding upon him. 5. That this seems to be required by the words of the apostle, Heb 11:19, accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead. The weight of authority is greatly in favor of the latter interpretation, even among recent commentators, and it is clearly to be preferred. In regard to the difficulty which Hengstenberg and Lange urge, it may be said that the command of God is not always a revelation of his secret will. He did not intend that Abraham should actually slay his son, and there is therefore no change in his purpose or will. He did intend that Abraham should understand that he was to do this. It was his purpose now to apply the final test of his faith (a test needful to the patriarch himself, and to all believers), which could only be the surrender to the will of God of that which he held most dear; in this case his son, the son of promise, in whom his seed should be called. To apply the test, he commands the patriarch, as he had a perfect right to do, to go and offer his son a burnt-offering. When the act was performed in heart, and was about to be actually completed, the test was clear, the obedience of faith was manifest, the whole condition of things was changed, and there was therefore a corresponding change in the formal command, though no change in the divine purpose.A. G.] The actual divine restraint, which even restrained the sacrifice of Isaac in the very act (p. 207), forms the reconciling middle-term between the command to Abraham and the prohibition to Abrahams descendants. We cannot truly yield our assent to such reconciling middle-terms between the commands and prohibitions of God. The question, how could the assumed positive command, Thou shalt slay Isaac, become a ground of the certain faith of Abraham? which is the main difficulty in the ordinary view of the passage, Delitzsch dismisses with the remark (3d ed. p. 418), the subjective criterion of a fact of revelation is not its agreement with the utterances of the so-called pious consciousness which exalts itself above the Scripture, etc., but it is the experience of the new-birth. This accords entirely with the explanation of the Tridentine theologians. The subjective criterion of a fact of revelation is rather that clear, i.e., calm, because free from doubt, firm certainty of faith produced directly by the fact of revelation itself. And this is truly a consciousness of the pious, which does not indeed set itself above the Scripture, but with which, also, the different acts, words, and commands of Jehovah, who ever remains the same in his truth and veracity, cannot be in conflict. The agreement between the declarations of the eternal revelation, and the eternal declarations of the religious consciousness, is so far wanting here, that Delitzsch says: Israel knew that God had once required from Abraham (the human sacrifice) in order to fix for it a prohibition for all time. The law therefore recognizes the human sacrifice only as an abomination of the Moloch-worship (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:1-5), and the case of Jephthah belongs to a time when the Israelitish and Canaanitish popular spirit and views were peculiarly intermingled. Then the abomination of the Moloch-service in Israel rests purely upon the positive ground of the example in this history, an example which with the same extreme positiveness, might be understood to have just the contrary force, if it signifies, perhaps; we may omit the human sacrifice in all such cases, when Jehovah makes the same wonderful prohibition. As to the sacrifice of Jephthah, Delitzsch regards it as a sort of reconciling middle-term between the Moloch-worship of the Canaanites and the prohibition of a Moloch-worship in Israel, that a hero of the time of the Judges should have acted in a heathen (even Canaanitish!) rather than in an Israelitish manner. Jephthah, who with the most definite and triumphant consciousness distinguishes between the Moabitish and Ammonite God, Chemosh, to whom, probably, human sacrifices were offered (2Ki 3:27), and the God of Israel, Jehovah (Jdg 11:24); Jephthah, who made his vow of a sacrifice to Jehovah, after the spirit of Jehovah came upon him (Jdg 11:29), a vow which was connected with a prayer for victory over a Moloch-serving people; Jephthah, who was clearly conscious that he had made his vow to Jehovah that through him he might overcome the children of Ammon under their God Chemosh; offered indeed an abomination to Jehovah; and it is obvious what is meant when it is said, the daughters upon the mountains bewailed her virginity (not the lost, but the illegally fixed) and not her life, although the matter concerned her life; but it is not so evident when it is said that she never knew a man, after her father had put her to death (Jdg 11:39), and it must not surprise us, truly, that it became a custom for the daughters of Israel to spend four days yearly to commemorate and praise a virgin who was entirely in accordance with her father in the most hurtful and godless misunderstanding, and in the most abominable sacrifice.6 We have to observe three oppositions in this history: first, that between and , second, that between and , and third, that between of verse second and of verse tenth.The key to the explanation of the whole history lies in the expression . It denotes not simply to prove, or to put to the test (Knobel, Delitzsch), but to prove under circumstances which have originated from sin, and which increase the severity of the proof, and make it a temptation. And in so far as the union of the elements of the testing and of the tempting, i.e., the soliciting to evil, is under the providence of Jehovah, it denotes, he tempts, in much the same sense that he also punishes sin with sin. It is defined more closely thus: he leads or can lead into temptation (to do wrong) (Mat 6:13). But the closest analysis is this: the proving is from God, the temptation is from sin (Jam 1:13). Thus the promise at Marah (Exo 15:25-26) was in so far a temptation of the people as it had the inclination to misinterpret the same in a fleshly sense; the giving of the manna was a temptation so far as it was connected with the ordinance that the manna should not be gathered upon the Sabbath (Exo 16:4); the terrible revelation of God from Sinai (Exo 20:20) was a temptation of the people, since it could be the occasion for their falling into slavish fear, and flight from the presence of God (Exo 20:19); comp. Deu 8:2; Gen 22:16; especially Gen 13:4; Jdg 2:22. The demand of God from Abraham that he should sacrifice his son, became, through the remaining and overwhelming prejudices of the heathen, to whom to sacrifice was identical with to slay, a temptation to Abraham actually to lay his hands upon the lad. The command of God stands sure, but he did not understand its import fully, viz., that he should, in and under the completion of an animal sacrifice, consecrate and inwardly yield his son to Jehovah, and thus purify his heart from all new fleshly and slavish attachment to him. But it was the ordination of God, that in his conflict with the elements of the temptation, he should come to the point, when he could reveal to him the pure and full sense of his command. Hence also the first revelation was darker than the second. This fact is distorted when Schelling finds here in the Elohim the ungodly principle, which appears in opposition to the Maleach Jehovah as the true God (Delitzsch, p. 417). Even the distinction between a night and dream-voice, and a clear and loud tone at the perfect day (Ewald), decides nothing, although generally the dream-vision is the more imperfect form. But the distinction between an imperfect, vague, and general, and the perfect, definite revelation, is here truly of decisive importance. The history of the prophets (as of Jonah) and of the apostles (as of Peter) confirms abundantly that a true divine revelation can be obscured through an erroneous understanding of the revelation (as indeed the unerring voice of conscience may be obscured through an erroneous judgment of the conscience). This same fact appears and continues in the development of faith. The flame purifies itself from the smoke. We thus hold here, as earlier, with Hengstenberg and Bertheau, that the divine command to Abraham was subject to a misunderstanding in him, through the inner Asiatic sinful tradition of human sacrifice, but a misunderstanding providentially appointed to be finally salutary to Abraham. With this contrast between the imperfect and perfect revelation now referred to, corresponds fully the contrast between hlohim, Elohim on the one side, and Maleach-Jehovah, and Jehovah on the other side. God, as the God of all Gods, whose name breaks through all the impure conceptions of him, gave the first command, which Abraham, in his traditional and Elohistic ideas, with an admixture of some misconception, has yet correctly but vaguely understood, but the God of revelation corrects his misunderstanding, when he seals and confirms his understanding, that he should sacrifice his son to God in his heart. But the third opposition, between the expression to sacrifice and to slay ( and ), is very important. It is a fact that the Israelitish consciousness from the beginning has distinguished between the spiritual yielding, consecration (especially of the first-born), and the external symbolical slaying of a sacrificial animal for the representation and confirmation of that inward consecration; and thus also between the sacrifice and the killing in a literal sense. This fact was also divinely grounded, through the sacrifice of Isaac. It served, through the divine providence, for the rejection of all heathenish abominations, and for the founding of the consecrated typical nature of the sacrifices of the Israelites.
3. According to De Wette, Schumann, von Bohlen and others, this narrative is a pure myth. Knobel is doubtful whether there is not a fact lying at its basis, but which he explains in a rationalistic manner (p. 189). He gives correctly the ideas of the history, the removing of human sacrifice, and the sanctifying of a place for sacrifice at Jerusalem. But the main, idea, the spiritual sacrifice of the son, as well as the unity of the idea and the historical fact escapes him. For the untenableness of mythical interpretations in the Old Testament, see the Introduction.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The command of God to Abraham, and his journey to Moriah (Gen 22:1-3).God did tempt Abraham.For the meaning of the word see above. It is in the highest degree probable that the form of the revelation was a dream-vision of the night, as this was the form of the revealed command to remove Ishmael.Abraham! Behold, here am I.Similarly: My father! Here am I, my son (Gen 22:7). Abraham, Abraham! Here am I (Gen 22:11). These brief introductions of the conversation express the great tension and application of the human mind in those moments, in a striking way, and serve at the same time to prepare us for the importance of the conversation. The call: Abraham! the announcement of a revelation, of a command. Here am I! the expression of hearing and obedience.Take now thy son.. The modifies the command; it seems to express that Elohim wished to receive the sacrifice from him as a freewill offering.Thine only.[Reminding us, as was intended, of the only begotten of the Father. A. G.] The Sept. has , the Vul. unigenitum. The is more significant; it renders emphatic the incomparableness; this term and the two following express the greatness of the sacrifice, but also the thought that God knew well what he demanded from him.Get thee into the land of Moriah.i.e., into the region of the mountain of Moriah, or of Jerusalem. The name Moriah was anticipated; according to Gen 22:14, it was occasioned through the events here recorded.7 Michaelis, Bleek and Tuch understand the word to refer not to Jerusalem, but to Moreh in Sichem. See the counter-reasons in Knobel. One main reason among others, is that the way from Beer-sheba, where Abraham still dwelt, by Hebron and Jerusalem to Sichem, according to Robinson, required about 35 hours, a distance which the old man Abraham and the youth Isaac could not well have accomplished in three days (Gen 22:4). The distance from Beer-sheba to Jerusalem is, according to Robinson, 20 hours. For the meaning of Moriah see below. [Hengstenberg (Beit. ii. p. 263) derives the name from , to see. It is the Hoph. part, with the abbreviated name of Jehovah, or , and signifies the shown or pointed out of Jehovah. The , 2Ch 3:1, has no decisive weight against this since it may be rendered: which was pointed out, shown to David, as well as where Jehovah appeared to David.A. G.] The Samaritans hold Gerizim to have been the place of the sacrifice, but have not altered the text.And offer him there.For a bnrnt offering may mean as a burnt offering, or, also, with a burnt offering, in and under the symbolical presenting of it.Upon one of the mountains.A clear intimation of the region of Jerusalem.Which I will tell thee of.It is not said when this more distinct designation of the place of the sacrifice should be given. The designation is, however, already, by anticipation, contained in Moriah.And Abraham rose up early in the morning. (See Chap. Gen 21:24.)And saddled his ass.Girded, not saddled him. The ass was destined to bear the wood upon his covering. Abraham sets out with the bleeding heart of the father, and the three days journey are, no doubt, designed to give him time for the great conflict within him, and for the religious process of development (see Act 9:9). [As far as the matter of obedience was concerned, the conflict was over. His purpose was fixed. He did not consult with flesh and blood, but instantly obeyed.A. G.]
2. The mountain and place of the sacrifice. (Gen 22:4-10.)Then on the third day.He had now entire certainty as to the place. It is barely intimated how significant, sacred and fearful the place of sacrifice was to him.Abide ye here with the ass.The young men or servants, or young slaves, destined to this service, must not go with him to the sacred mountain, nor be present at the fearful sacrifice.And I and the lad.They could easily see from the wood of the burnt-offering, and the fire, and the knife, that he went not merely to worship, but to sacrifice; but to him the sacrifice was the main thing.And will worship, and come again to you.Knobel remarks: The author appears not to have believed that Abraham would be presented in a bad light, through such false utterances (comp. Gen 12:13; Gen 20:12). We have already seen what are the elements of truth, in the places referred to, here the sense of the word of Abraham is determined through the utterance of the wish in , which, according to the form , might be translated: and may we return againwould that we might. It is the design of the ambiguous term to assure them as to his intention or purpose. [It is rather the utterance of his faith that God was able to raise him from the dead. See Heb 11:19.A. G.]And laid it upon Isaac.From the three days journey of Isaac, and the service which he here performs, we may conclude that he had grown to a strong youth, like Ishmael, perhaps, at the time of his expulsion (the age at which we confirm).The fire.A glimmering ember or tinder wood. Knobel.But where is the lamb?8Isaac knew that a sacrificial animal belonged to the sacrifice. The evasive answer of the father, trembling anew at the question of his beloved child, appears to intimate that he held the entrance of a new revelation at the decisive moment to be possible. Until this occurs he must truly obey according to his previous view and purpose.The terms of the address: My father! my son!The few weighty and richly significant words mark the difficulty of the whole course for Abraham, and present in so much clearer a light, the unwavering steadfastness of his readiness to make the offering.And took the knife.The very highest expression of his readiness.9 Nothing is said of any agitation, of any resistance, or complaint on the part of Isaac. It is clear that he is thus described as the willing sacrificial lamb.10
3. The first call from heaven (Gen 22:11-14).Abraham, Abraham!As the call of the Angel of Jehovah stands in contrast with that of Elohim, so, also, the repetition of the name here, to its single use (Gen 22:1). A clearer, wider, more definite, and further leading revelation is thus described. The repeated call: Abraham! designates also the urgency of the interruption, the decided rejection of the human sacrifice. For the Angel of the Lord, see Genesis 12.Now I know that thou fearest God.Abraham has stood the test. The knowledge of God reflects itself as a new experimental knowledge in the consciousness of Abraham. [I know, in the sense of use, declare my knowledgehave made it manifest by evident proof. Wordsworth, p. 100. An eventual knowing, a discovering by actual experiment. Murphy, p. 341.A. G.]Behind him a ram. for behind, backwards is not used elsewhere in the Old Testament, and from this has arisen the conjectural reading , and also numerous constructions (see Knobel, p. 175). Gesenius explains the word in the background; but we should observe well that it is said that Abraham looked around him, and thus perceived the same behind his back. Unseen, God mysteriously prepares his gifts for his own. He does not receive a positive command to sacrifice the ram instead of his son, although he recognizes in the fact that the ram with his long, crooked horns was caught in the thicket, the divine suggestion. Knobel: In a like way, through a divine providence, a goat is presented as a sacrificial animal for Iphigenia, whom her father, Agamemnon, would sacrifice to Venus at Aulis (Eurip. Iphig. Aulid. 1591 ff.).In the stead of his son.11This expression is of deciding importance for the whole theory of sacrifice. The sacrificial animal designates the symbolical representation of the person who presents the sacrifice; but this representation in the later ritual of the sacrifices, must be interpreted differently, according to the different sacrifices.And Abraham called the name of that place.Delitzsch and Keil explain the word , Jehovah observes, or takes care, but reject the explanation of the Niphal, etc., upon the mount of the Lord it shall be seen, chosen, i.e., be provided, or cared for. They lay aside this signification of the Niphal, and Delitzsch translates: he appears upon the mount of Jehovah. But the Niphal must here certainly correspond with the Kal, although we could point to no other proof for it. The explanation also, upon the mount where Jehovah appears, is far too general, since Jehovah does not appear only upon Moriah. The expression: it will be chosen, provided, does not mean he will care for, but he will himself choose, and hence the Niphal also must be: The mount of Jehovah is the mountain where he himself selects and provides his sacrifice. Moriah is, therefore, indeed, not the mount of the becoming visible, of the revelation of God (Delitzsch), but the mount of being seen, the mount of selection, the mount of the choice of the sacrifice of Godinclusive of the sacrifices of God. [And thus of the sacrifice.A. G.] For Moriah and Zion, compare the Bible Dictionaries and the topography of Jerusalem.
4. The second call from heaven (Gen 22:15-19). The subject of the first call was preminently negative, a prohibition of the human sacrifice, connected with a recognition of the spiritual sacrifice, ascertained, and confirmed through this suggestion of the typical nature of the sacrifice. The second call of the Maleach Jehovah is throughout positive.By myself have I sworn.The oath of Jehovah12 (Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3; Gen 50:24; Exo 13:5; Exo 11:33) is described here as a swearing by himself, also, Exo 32:13; Isa 45:23; Heb 6:13 ff. The swearing of God by himself, is an anthropomorphic expression, for the irrevocable, certain promise of Jehovah, for which he, so to speak, pledges the consciousness of his own personality, the promise as it imprints itself in the perfect sealing of the assurance of the faith of the believing patriarchs. Abraham can only be certain of the oath of God, through its eternal echo in his own heart. Hence this oath is supposed also where the perfection of the assurance of the faith is supposed. Hence, also, Jehovah declares that he had sworn unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and it is not altogether correct, although Keil yields his assent, when Luther says with reference to Psa 89:36; Psa 110:4; Psa 132:11, As the promise of the seed of Abraham descends in the seed of David, so the sacred scriptures transfer the oath given to Abraham, to the person of David. Although there is nothing said in the promise, 2 Samuel 7, and 1 Chronicles 17 upon which these psalms rest, of an oath of God. Knobel. The oath of God reveals itself even in the sealing of the faith, leaving out of view the fact that the promise given to David was much more particular and definite than that which Abraham received.Saith the Lord (the saying of Jehovah).[Compare the rendering of the Sept., thou hast not withheld thy son, with the terms of the apostle, Rom 8:32. The resemblance is striking, and is One of the catch-words of which Wordsworth speaks.A. G.] A solemn statement of the promise, pointing down to the time of the prophets. , address of the Lord, occurs elsewhere in the Pentateuch only (Num 14:28), and without Jehovah in the words of Balaam (Num 24:3-15). In addition to the comparison of the number of the stars of heaven (Gen 15:5), we have that of the sand upon the sea-shore, the strong figure for an innumerable mass (Genesis 32, 13; Jos 11:4).Shall possess the gate of his enemies.The most obvious sense is this: Israel should overcome his enemies, and capture their cities, since he should seize and occupy their gates. But the gate here points to a deeper meaning. The hostile world has a gate or gates in its susceptibilities, through which the believing Israel should enter it (Psa 24:7-9). The following words prove that this is the sense of the words here.And shall be blessed (shall bless themselves).The blessing of the nations (Genesis 12) in which they appear still in a passive attitude, becomes, in its result, the cause of their freely blessing themselves in the seed of Abraham, i.e., wishing blessedness, and calling themselves blessed.Because thou hast obeyed my voice (comp. Gen 22:16).The great promise of Jehovah is no blind, arbitrary, form, but stands in relation to the tried and believing obedience of Abraham (see Jam 2:23). [The closing remarks of Keil on this passage, are as follows: This glorious issue of the temptation so triumphantly endured by Abraham, not only authenticates the historical character of this event, but shows, in the clearest manner, that the temptation was necessary to the faith of the patriarch, and of fundamental importance to his position in the history of salvation. The doubt whether the true God could demand a human sacrifice, is removed by the fact that God himself prevents the completion of the sacrifice, and the opinion that God, at least apparently, comes into conflict with himself, when he demands a sacrifice, and then actually forbids and prevents its completion, is met by the very significant change in the names of God, since God who commands Abraham to offer Isaac, is called , but the actual completion of the sacrifice is prevented by , who is identical with the . Neither , the God of salvation, or the God of the covenant, who gave to Abraham the only son as the heir of the promise, demands the sacrifice of the promised and given heir, nor , God the creator, who has the power to give and take away life, but , the true God, whom Abraham knew and worshipped as his personal God, with whom he had entered into a personal relation. The command (coming from the true God, whom Abraham served) to yield up his only and beloved son, could have no other object than to purify and sanctify the state of the heart of the patriarch towards his son, and towards his God; an object corresponding to the very goal of his calling. It was to purify his love to the son of his body from all the dross of fleshly self-love, and natural self-seeking which still clave to it, and so to glorify it through love to God, who had given him his son, that he should no more love his beloved son as his flesh and blood, but solely and only as the gracious gift and possession of God, as a good entrusted to him by God, and which he was to be ready to render back to him at any and every moment. As Abraham had left his country, kindred, fathers house, at the call of God, so he must, in his walk before God, willingly bring his only son, the goal of his desires, the hope of his life, the joy of his old age, an offering. And more than this even. He had not only loved Isaac as the heir of his possessions (Gen 15:2,) but upon Isaac rested all the promises of God, in Isaac should his seed be called (Gen 21:12). The command to offer to God this only son of his wife Sarah, in whom his seed should become a multitude of nations (Gen 17:4; Gen 17:6; Gen 17:16), appeared to destroy the divine promise itself; to frustrate not only the wish of his heart, but even the repeated promises of his God. At this command should his faith perfect itself to unconditional confidence upon God, to the firm assurance that God could reawaken him from the dead. But this temptation has not only the import for Abraham, that he should, through the overcoming of flesh and blood, be fitted to be the father of believers, the ancestor of the Christ of God; through it, also, Isaac must be prepared and consecrated for his calling in the history of salvation. As he suffered himself, without resistance, to be bound and laid upon the altar, he gave his natural life to death, that he might, through the grace of God, rise to newness of life. Upon the altar he was sanctified to God, consecrated to be the beginner of the holy Church of God, and thus the later legal consecration of the first-born was completed in him (Delitzsch). As the divine command, therefore, shows in all its weight and earnestness the claim of God upon his own, to sacrifice all to him, even the most dear (comp. Mat 10:37, and Luk 14:26), penetrating even to the very heart, so the issue of the temptation teaches that the true God does not demand from his worshippers a bodily human sacrifice, but the spiritual sacrifice, the unconditional yielding up of the natural life, even unto death. Since through the divine providence Abraham offered a ram for a burnt-offering, instead of his son, the animal sacrifice was not only offered as a substitute for the human sacrifice, and sanctioned as a symbol of the spiritual sacrifice of the person himself, well pleasing to God, but the offering of human sacrifices by the heathen, is marked as an ungodly , judged and condemned. And this comes to pass through Jehovah, the God of salvation, who restrains the completion of the external sacrifice. Hence, this event, viewed with respect to the divine preparation of salvation, wins for the church of the Lord prophetic significance, which is pointed out with peculiar distinctness in the place of this sacrifice, the mount Moriah, upon which, under the legal economy, all the typical sacrifices were brought to Jehovah, upon which, also, in the fulness of time, God the Father, gave his only-begotten Son an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, in order, through this one true sacrifice, to raise the shadowing image of the typical animal sacrifice to its truth and real nature. If, therefore, the destination of Moriah, as the place for the offering of Isaac, with the actual offering of the ram in his stead, should be only at first typical, with reference to the significance and object of the Old Testament sacrifice, still this type already, also, points down to that in the future appearing antitype, when the eternal love of the Heavenly Father, itself, did what it demanded here from Abraham, namely, spared not his only-begotten son, but gave him, for us all, up to that death actually, which Isaac only endured in spirit, that we might die with Christ spiritually, and with him rise to eternal life (Rom 8:32; Rom 6:5, etc.), pp. 17717.A. G.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The ruling thought in this whole narrative, is the perfection of the obedience of faith of Abraham, not merely, however, in the sacrifice of his son, but also in his readiness to perceive the revelation of Jehovah, which forbids the killing of his son, and causes the symbolic killing of the sacrifice provided as the seal and confirmation of the spiritual sacrifice. Faith must prove itself in the inward hearty concession of the dearest objects of life, even of all our own thoughts, as to the realization of salvation, present and future, to the providence of the grace of God. But it cannot complete itself with reference to this salvation, without purifying itself, or allowing itself to be purified from all traditional, fanatical ideas, or misconceptions of faith. In the completion of faith, the highest divinity coincides with the purest humanity. The sacrifice of Isaac is, therefore, the real separation of the sacred Israelitish sacrifice from the abominations of human sacrifices. These sacrifices, especially of children, were customary among the pre-Hebraic nations of Palestine (2Ki 16:3; Psa 106:38), among the kindred Phnicians (Porphyr. de abstin. ii. 56; Euseb. Prpar. ev. i. 10, and Laudd. Const. xiii. 4), among their descendants, the Carthaginians (Diod. xx. 14, Plutarch, etc.), among the Egyptians (Diod. i. 88, etc.), among the tribes related with Israel, the Moabites and Ammonites (2Ki 3:27) who honored Moloch with them (Lev 18:21; Lev 20:2), appear also in the Aramaic and Arabian tribes (2Ki 7:31 ff.), as well as in Ahaz among the Israelites (2Ki 16:3 ff.), but were forbidden by the law (Deu 12:31), and opposed by the prophets (Jer 7:31 ff.). They were thus generally spread through the cultus of the nations in contact with Israel, but were entirely foreign to its legally established religion. Knobel. According to Hengstenberg, the human sacrifice does not belong to heathenism in general, but to the darkest aspect of heathenism (Beitrge iii. p. 144). Kurtz believes that he gives the correction (p. 210). The fact that the spirit of humanity among the Greeks and Romans opposed the human sacrifice (see Lange: Positive Dogmatik, p. 862), loses its force with him, since he ascribes this opposition to the religious and rationalistic superficialty of their times; the human sacrifices are, indeed, a fearful madness, but a madness of doubt as to the true sacrifice, of hopelessness as to finding the true atonement. But the true atonement is even in the death of Christ, the obedient concession of Christ to the judgment of God; and the analogy of the crucifixion of Christ in the Moloch-sacrifice, must be distinguished from it both on the side of Judaism and of the world. The entire perversion of the fact that the religion of Jehovah abhors and rejects the human sacrifice, as it has been introduced by Vatke and Von Bohlen (the religion of Jehovah stood originally upon the same plane with the Moloch service), and has been completed by Daumer, Kurtz has examined and exposed in a most satisfactory way (p. 204 ff.). [The arbitrariness and blasphemy of Daumer, and the boldness with which he makes his assertions in the face of all history, render his work unworthy of any serious refutation. And Kurtz justly treats it with ridicule.A. G.] Ghillanys essay: The Human Sacrifice of the Old Hebrews, may be, also, consulted here, but is essentially one with Daumer.
2. The sacrifice of Isaac has an inward connection with the expulsion of Ishmael, which will appear more clearly if we recollect that the age of both at the time of these events must have been nearly the same. Thus must Abraham repent in the history of Isaac, the human guilt which lay in his relation to Ishmael. But as he had surely doubted a long time as to the choice of Ishmael, so also a doubt intrudes itself as to the literal external sense of the divine command in regard to Isaac; a doubt which can no more prejudice or limit the divine revelation than perhaps the doubting thought of Paul upon the way to Damascus, but rather serves to introduce the new revelation. [The narrative of Pauls conversion will not bear out this comparison. He does not seem to have been in any doubt, but was, as he himself says, conscientious. He verily thought that he ought to persecute the Church of God.A. G.] 4. The burnt-offering of Abraham appears here as the foundation and central point of all the typical sacrifices in Israel. Its fundamental thought is the spiritual yielding of the life, not the taking of the bodily life. It receives its wider form in the Passover lamb, in which the division of the offerings is already intimated, viz., the thank or peace-offering and the consecrated killing on the one hand, and the sin-and guilt- (trespass) offering and the imprecatory offering on the other, The peculiar atonement offering is a higher centralization and completion, in which the whole system of offerings points to that which is beyond and above itself. 8. The typical significance of the sacrifice of Isaac is so comprehensive that we may view it, in some measure, as embracing all Old Testament types, just as the sacrifice of Abraham itself may be regarded as including the whole Mosaic system of sacrifices. The sacrifice itself is the type of the sacrificial death of Christ, and indeed, just as truly, in reference to the interest of God, as to the interest of the world in this fact. The self-denial of Abraham is a copy, a symbol (not perhaps a type) of the love of God, who gave his only-begotten Son for the salvation of the world (Joh 3:16 : Rom 8:32). The sacrificial act of Abraham, as also the enduring silence of Isaac, is typical in reference to the two sides of the suffering obedience of Christ, as he is priest and sacrifice at the same time. Isaac received again from the altar is now, in reference to Abraham, a God-given, consecrated child of the Spirit and of promise: in reference to Christ, a type of the resurrection, and therefore, also a type of the new resurrection life of believers.
9. Since Abraham must have reconciled the promise, earlier connected with the person of Isaac, with the command to offer Isaac as he understood the command, he was necessarily driven to the hope of a new awakening, as this is admirably expressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Gen 11:19). Luther remarked upon the obedience of faith: Faith reconciles things which are contrary. [Abrahams faith rested not upon the conclusions of his understanding, but upon the word of God. The nature and strength of his faith appear in that he held to the promise while he went promptly to do what, to human view, seemed to prevent its fulfilment. He set to his seal that God was true. He believed that God would fulfil all that he had promised. How he did not stay to question. This is true faith. It takes the word of God as it is, in the face of all difficulties, and acts upon it.A. G.] But this reconciliation of apparent contradictions does not happen in this method, that faith in blind passivity receives and holds the contradictions, or rather, suffers them to remain (as, e.g., universal grace and particular election), but that faith itself is brought, through the spirit of revelation, to a higher standpoint. [But is not this standpoint just that from which faith receives truths apparently contradictory, upon their own evidence in the word of God, and holds them, though it is not seen how they can be reconciled?A.G.]In the anticipating activity of his faith, Abraham gained the idea of the resurrection, but in the actual issue of the history of the sacrifice he gained the idea of the true sacrifice (Psa 51:18-19 : Heb 10:19 ff.), as also the fundamental form of the Old Testament sacrifice. [In the stead of his son. The wonderful substitution in which God set forth, as in a figure, the plan of the Mosaic economy, for the offering of animal victims instead of human sacrificespointing forward to the only acceptable substitute whom they foreshadowed, who is Gods Lamb and not mansthe Lamb of Gods providing and from his own bosom. His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, the manthe God-man. Jacobus. And this great doctrine, running through the whole system of sacrifice, culminates in the sacrifice of Christthe innocent in the stead of the guilty.A. G.]
10. Delitzsch: The concession unto death at the threshold of the preliminary history of the new-humanity is not completed, but merely a prefiguration, for Isaacs death would have been useless, but the concession unto death at the threshold of the history itself is completed, because the fulfilling and perfection of the death of Christ is the passing of himself, and with him of humanity, into life. Judaism believes differently. It sees in the sacrifice or binding of Isaac an act serviceable for all time, and bringing Israel into favour with God. Where the Church prays for the sake of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Synagogue prays for the sake of the binding of Isaac (p. 418).
11. The oath of Jehovah. It is not merely the basis for the oaths of men, but: 1. The expression of the absolute self-determination, consciousness, and faithfulness of the personal God;14 2. The expression of a corresponding unshaken certainty of faith in the hearts of believers; 3. The expression of the indissoluble union between the divine promise and the human assurance.
12. The name Moriah15 points out that as God himself perceives (selects) his sacrifice in the readiness of an obedient heart to make the sacrifice, man should wait in expectation, and not make an arbitrary and abominable sacrifice.
13. W. Hoffmann: Until now we hear only of the bruiser of the serpent, of a conqueror, of a blessing of the nations, of a dominion; in short only the image of a great king and dominion, could present itself to human thought as the form in which the divine salvation should reach perfection. But now sorrow, concession, death, the rendering of self as a sacrifice, enter into the circle of the hope of salvation, and indeed so enter that the hope of salvation and the sacrifice belong together and are inseparable.
14. The completion of the promise.16 As the whole history of the sacrifice of Isaac is typical, so also is the expression of the completed promise. It refers beyond Israel, to the innumerable children of Abraham by faith, and the conquest of the world, promised to them, appears both in the aspect of a contest, as in that of the solemn feasts of victory and blessing.
15. We cannot say directly that Abraham sacrificed Isaac as a natural son, that he might receive him again sanctified and as a spiritual son. For Isaac was given to him as the son of the promise from his birth. But he sacrificed him in his present corporeal nature, that he might receive him again as the type of a second, new, and higher life. Thus Israel must sacrifice its ideas of the present kingdom of God in order to gain the true kingdom of God which is not of this world. The want of this idea of sacrifice betrays the most of them into unbelief through Chiliastic dreams. It happens similarly to all who, in the sacrificial hour appointed by God, will not sacrifice their inherited ideas that they may gain a glorified form of faith. On the other hand, every arbitrary external sacrifice is regarded and judged as a self-chosen service of God. [In the person of Abraham is unfolded that spiritual process by which the soul is drawn to God. He hears the call of God, and comes to the decisive act of trusting in the revealed God of mercy and truth, on the ground of which act he is accounted as righteous. He then rises to the successive acts of walking with God, covenanting with him, communing and interceding with him, and at length withholding nothing that he has or holds dear from him. In all this we discern certain primary and essential characteristics of the man who is saved through acceptance of the mercy of God proclaimed to him in a primeval gospel. Faith in God (Genesis 15), repentance towards him (Genesis 16), and fellowship with him (Genesis 18), are the three great turning-points of the souls returning life. They are built upon the effectual call of God (Genesis 12), and culminate in unreserved resignation to him (Genesis 22). With wonderful facility has the sacred record descended in this pattern of spiritual biography, from the rational and accountable race to the individual and immortal soul, and traced the footsteps of its path to God. Murphy p. 342.A. G.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Through the traditional exegetical interpretation, the sacrifice of Isaac has often been used homiletically without due caution. What Kurtz in his work asserts with confidence we often hear also from the pulpitGod commanded Abraham to kill his son Isaac. Thus a gross sensuous interpretation in fact transforms a history which is the key to the nature of the whole Old-Testament sacrificial system, which presents in a striking light the humane aspect of the theocracy in contrast with heathenism, into an offence to the human and Christian feeling, i.e., an offence which is burdensome and injurious to a limited and contracted theology, but must be carefully distinguished from the offences or difficulties of unbelief. We make this remark notwithstanding Kurtz thinks that he must administer to us a rebuke for similar utterances (p. 206). Luther also has already spoken of the difficulty in treating this passage correctly.
Gen 22:1. The testing or trying of Abraham, as full of temptation: 1. As a temptation; 2. as a testing. Or: 1. The sacrifice of God; 2. Abrahams obedience of faith.
Gen 22:2. Abrahams sacrifice: 1. The command of God; 2. the leading of God; 3. the decision of God; 4. the judgment of God.
Gen 22:3. Abrahams obedience of faith: 1. Faith as the soul of obedience; 2. obedience as the full preservation of faith.Abrahams sealing.
Gen 22:16. The oath of God: 1. What it means; 2. as it perpetuates and generalizes itself in the sacraments; 3. to whose advantage it will be.The silence of Isaac.
Gen 22:4. Abrahams journey to Moriah an image of the way to all true sacrifice: 1. The journey thither; 2. the journey home.Moriah, or the meeting of God with the sacrificing believer: 1. God sees; 2. he is seen, appears; 3. he cares for, provides; 4. he himself selects his sacrifice; 5. he gives to man in an eternal form what he has taken from him in a temporal form.
Starke: (Moses does not relate the peculiar time of this severe test of Abrahams faith. Some place it in the thirteenth, others in the fifteenth, and still others in the thirty-fifth or thirty-seventh year of Isaac. Because in this whole transaction Isaac was a type of Christ, and he finished the work of redemption, through his death, in the thirty-third, or according to others the thirty-fourth, year of his age, it may well be thought that in this year also Isaac was led out as a sacrifice.The existing incorrect use of the typology still runs through the misconceptions of Passavant and Schwenke. He is three and thirty years old, says Schwenke; and Passavant says he was grown up to be a mature man.)Some reckon ten temptations wherein Abrahams faith was put to the test, among which this was the last and most severe: 1. When he must leave his fatherland at the call of God (Gen 12:1), etc.
Gen 22:2. (Offer him there, put him to death with thine own hand, then burn the dead body to ashes, thus make him a burnt-offering.Luther and others think that Adam, Cain and Abel, Noah also when he came from the ark, held their worship of God and sacrificed upon this mountain. Hence the Arabic and both the Chaldaic interpreters name it the land of the worship and service of God.Various ancient utterances as to the mountain of Moriah and its meaning follow.)
Gen 22:4. God reveals the place where our Saviour should suffer and die, earlier than the city in which he should be born (we must distinguish, however, between verbal and typical prophecy).The two servants of Abraham. It is scarcely, at least not seriously, to be conjectured even, as the Chaldaic interpreters suppose, that they were Ishmael and Eliezer.Neither Sarah nor Isaac knew at the time the special object of the journey. Undoubtedly the mother would have placed many hindrances in the way, and would have sought to dissuade Abraham for entering it.When it is said (Heb 11:19) that he had received him as a figure, we discern what Abraham knew through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.17 (At all events Abraham knew that the sacrifice of the first-born should henceforth be an ordinance of God, and that this should culminate in a closing sacrifice bringing salvation).The three days of the journey.Abraham must in his heart hold his son as dead, as long as Christ should lie in the grave.But one must above all else guard against a self-chosen service of God.Upon Gen 22:8. He stood at the time in the midst of the controversy between natural love and faith.(The altar upon Moriah. The Jews think that it was the altar which Noah had built upon this mountain after the flood, which time had thrown into ruins, but was again rebuilt by Abraham.)Upon Gen 22:13. The LXX render, in the thicket, Sabek. They regarded it as a proper name, which shows the ignorance of the Hebrew language in the Greek commentators, after the Babylonian captivity. Starke records the fact, that some Papists refer the expression of Christ upon the cross, lama sabacthani, to this bush Sabek, and that Athanasius says, Planta Sabek est venerand crux.Comparison of the sacrifice of Isaac with the death and resurrection of Jesus (1Co 10:13).
Gen 22:10. Lange: God knows the right hour, indeed, the right moment, to give his help.Bibl. Wirt.: If our obedience shall please God, it must be not merely according to examples without command, but in accordance with the express word of God.Bibl. Tub.: Gen 22:11. When we cannot see on any side a way of escape, then God comes and often shows us a wonderful deliverance.Hall: The true Christian motto through the whole of life is: The Lord sees me.
Gen 22:15. The last manifestation of God with which Abraham was directly honored, which appears in the Holy Scriptures.The oath of God: just as if he had sworn by his name, or by his life. In place of this form of speech Christ uses very often the Verily.Joh 16:20.What one gives for God, and to him, is never lost. [Not only not lost, but received back again in its higher form and use. Even so every child of Abraham must hold all that is most precious to him as the gift of Gods grace; must first yield to God the blessings which seem to come to him as to others, as mere natural blessings, and then receive them back as coming purely from his grace.A. G.]
Lisco: What could better teach the Jews the true idea and aim of the whole sacrificial service (the perfect yielding to God) than the history of Abraham? Gen 22:6. Thus Jesus bare his cross. Gen 22:18. The great blessing is Christ who brings blessings to all nations (Act 3:25; Gal 3:8).When God brings a dear child near to death, or indeed calls it away, he thus proves us in a like way.Gerlach: The name Moriah signifies, shown, pointed out, by Jehovah, and refers especially to the wonderful pointing to the ram, through which Isaac was saved, since this was for Abraham the turning-point of the history, through which God confirmed his promise and crowned the faith of Abraham.
Gen 22:12. God knows: he knows from experience, from the testing, that the man remains faithful to him, since without the test his faithfulness is uncertain. He foreknew it, in so far as he foreknew the result of the trial.Calw. Hand.: God naturally lays such severe trials not upon children, but upon men.Abraham kept his faith in God, as Jehovah, through his act; now also God will approve himself to Abraham, as Jehovah.This same promise appears here for the third time (Gen 12:3; Gen 18:18) as a reward for Abrahams obedience and triumph of faith.Each new well-endured trial of faith leads to greater strength of faith; the fruit of faith yields nourishment again to faith itself.The act of faith on the part of Abraham here described, is held, not only by Jews and Christians, but even by Mohammedans, as the very acme of all his testing, and as the most complete obedience of his faith.Schrder: Gen 22:1. He is constantly leading us into situations in which what lies concealed in the heart must be revealed.The devil tempts that he may destroy; God tempts that he may crown (Ambrose).The temptation has as a presupposition, that God has not yet been perfectly formed in us (Hengstenberg).The idea of the sacrifice (1Sa 1:25). And they slew the bullock and brought the child to Eli (comp. Hos 14:2; Mic 6:7; Psa 40:7-9; Psa 51:19).For this whole history, see the similar history (Judges 11). That Abraham himself is the priest, and his own heart, his own deepest love, and all his blessing, is the sacrifice, this constitutes the severity of the test (Krummacher).18
Gen 22:5. We cannot regard these words as mere empty words; it is rather the word of hope which had not forsaken Abraham (Baumgarten; also Gerlach).According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, an intimation of the hope of the reawakening of Isaac. But then, indeed, some one objects, the very severe and weighty thing in the sacrifice is taken away. Strauss replies to this by an allusion to the painfulness of the death-beds of children to their parents, even when they are assured of their resurrection.It is a more wonderful faith which supports itself even to the issue which he did not see, as if he saw it (Strauss).
Gen 22:9. The son is silent before the father, as the father before God, and the child obeys the parents as the parents obey the Lord (Strauss).A sacred contention finds place here. One elevates himself above human nature; to the other to resist the father seems more terrible than death (Gregory Nyssa). Gen 22:12. The apostle (Rom 8:32) takes up again the last words of the Angel, and thus indicates the typical relations of the event.
Gen 22:13. The entire Levitical system of sacrifices is only an extension of this sacrifice of the ram (Richter).It is remarkable that the ram is destined among the Greeks and Romans as the substitutionary sacrifice in the gravest cases (Baumgarten). It happens at first according to the ordinance, that God by virtue of his concealed providence places and controls what may serve us, but it follows upon this that he stretches out his hand to us, and reveals himself in an actual experience (Calvin).
Gen 22:18. The blessing given to the nations in the seed of Abraham, they shall themselves come to desire and wish (Baumgarten). Abrahams obedience is named here as a reason of the promise. This is, too, a new reason (Baumgarten).(Abrahams obedience is, however, not so much a reason of the promise as of the sealing of the promise through an oath.)The promise is the promise of the covenant. On the one hand it rests fundamentally upon the grace of God, on the other it is introduced for Abraham through the obedience of faith.Abraham receives the name of the father of believers through this completion of his faith (Baumgarten). (Certainly also through the whole development of his faith.)
Gen 22:16. There is a constant reference to this passage, as to the solemn, great, and final explanation. Thus in Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3; Exo 33:1; Num 32:11; Deu 29:13; Deu 30:20; Deu 34:4; Luk 1:73; Act 7:17; Heb 6:13 (Drechsler).It claims our notice still, that the Jews hold the binding, of Isaac (Gen 22:9) as a satisfaction, and use in prayer the words, Consider the binding of thine only one (see above). Indeed, one hundred and sixty millions of Mohammedans, also read in their Koran to-day. This truly was a manifest testing (Zahn).Robinsons description of Beersheba.Schwenke: The Lord knows how to reward his own.Passavant: Abraham journeys the first, the second, the third day in silence.Precious school of faith, the highest, the most sacred school, how art thou now so greatly deserted?Abraham has become the father of Christians.
Gen 22:14. God sees, he will see, choose.Reflection upon the children of Abraham.The future of Israel, of believers, etc.(Passavant closes his work with these reflections.)W. Hoffmann: The consecration of the promise through sacrifice: 1. The concession of the promised Song of Solomon 2. the new reception of the promised son.According to this history God tempted Abraham. There the key is placed in your hand. It was said indeed before, that the purpose of God was not to secure an external offering, but an inward sacrifice, etc. In this inbeing of the internal and external, in this interworking of the divine and human, of the eternal and the earthly, there lay a severe temptation, a constant inducement, to the believers of the Old Testament, to rest satisfied with the mere external, the mere shell, the sweet kernel, the fruit of life itself being forfeited, to go on in security, indeed oftentimes to grow proud of their possession.
Gen 22:1. In how many ways he enters the family and calls to the father Abraham! and when you know the voice of the Lord, thus answer: Here am I.Upon Isaac. Almost entirely a feeble repetition of what has appeared in the life of Abraham. Gen 22:9. But he lay upon the altar in full consciousness and in silence. There he lay himself, as a dumb sacrificial lamb, at the feet of God. This is sufficient for a lifetime of more than a century, and imparts to it, contents, and a character, which admit of no exchange for the better.He gives Isaac to him in another way than that in which he had called him his own at first. The whole glory of a wonderful future surrounds the head of Isaac.Taube: The obedience of faith, or how first in the yielding of that which is most precious faith is tested: 1. God brings us to this proof at the right time; place yourselves therefore in his hands, as Abraham; 2. these tests are very severe, and will ever grow more severe in their progress, for they demand the death of self; 3. these tests have a blessed end for the tried and approved believer; therefore let us follow the footsteps of Abraham.Heuser: The way of Abraham to the sacrifice.The offering up of Isaac: 1. In its historical detail; 2. in its inward typical meaning.
Footnotes:
[1][Gen 22:1., to try, to prove, to put to the test. And, since men are tested only as they are placed in circumstances of temptation, to tempt.A. G.]
[2][Gen 22:2.Or where Jehovah is seen, appears, is manifested.A. G.]
[3][Gen 22:2.Heb., Make him ascend for a burnt offering.A. G.]
[4][Gen 22:8.Will see for himself a lamb.A. G.]
[5][Gen 22:14.Lit., Jehovah shall be seenor appearor be manifested. Most of the early versions render Jehovah in the nominative.A. G.]
[6]We congratulate ourselves upon securing Dr. Paulus Cassel to prepare the Bibelwerk upon the book of Judges, who has shown in his condensed article, Jephthah, in Herzogs Real Encyclopedia, that he will not suffer himself to be imposed upon by the massive traditional misinterpretation of this passage (for whose exegetical restitution Hengstenberg has rendered important service), to the injury of a free and living interpretation of it.
[7][Comp. with this history the revelation of God in the mount, recorded in 2Sa 24:25; 2Ch 7:1-3, and Luk 2:22-28.A. G.]
[8][God will provide himself. Another prophetic speech; and how significant!A. G.]
[9][All the commentators dwell upon the tenderness and beauty of the scene here described. But no words can make it more impressive.A. G.]
[10][How it brings before us the Lamb who was led to the slaughter.A. G.]
[11][Abraham offers the ram as a substitute for Isaac. He withholds not his only son in intent, and yet in fact he offers a substitute for his son. Murphy, p. 341.A. G.]
[12][This is the only instance of Gods swearing by himself in his intercourse with the patriarchsa proof of the unique importance of this event. Wordsworth, p. 101.A. G.]
[13][This assumes what, to say the least, is a matter of doubt, and is against the general faith of the Church, that the conscience itself has not suffered in the ruins of the fall. There is ground for the distinction, but we cannot hold that the conscience is infallible.A. G.]
[14][An oath with God is a solemn pledging of himself in all the unchangeableness of his faithfulness and truth to the fulfilment of the promise. Murphy, p. 341.A. G.]
[15][The Mount of the Lord here means the very height of the trial into which he brings his saints. There he will certainly appear in due time for their deliverance. Murphy, p. 341.A. G.]
[16][In this transcendent blessing, repeated on this momentous occasion, Abraham truly saw the day of the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the Son of man. Murphy, p. 342.A. G.]
[17][Isaacs deliverance was a parable or figure, viz., of Christs resurrection. Wordsworth, p. 101.A. G.]
[18][What God required of Abraham was not the sacrifice of Isaac, but the sacrifice of himself. Wordsworth, p. 97.A. G.]
This Chapter contains the account of that memorable instance of the trial of Abraham’s faith, in respect to the proposed sacrifice of his son Isaac; the result of which hath handed down the Patriarch’s character, with such honourable testimony in the church; and as deservedly hath procured him the name of the father of the faithful. God’s command to Abraham to perform this service; the Patriarch’s ready obedience; his journey to the place appointed, with Isaac his son; his resolute perseverance in the intended sacrifice; an angel from heaven staying his hand and, in the moment of doing it; the Substitution of a ram in the place of his son; God’s gracious approbation; and the renewal of the promises of the covenant; these form the subject of this chapter.
And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Tempt, i.e. try to prove. Heb 11:17-19 for a right idea of temptations, consult Jas 1:13-14 , compared with Jas 1:12Jas 1:12 ; 1Pe 1:6-7 .
Mount Moriah, where the temple was afterward built. 2Ch 3:1 .
The Temptation of Abraham
Gen 22
This narrative has been an awful difficulty to many. Some, who have not quite cast the Bible away as God’s Word, yet go near to saying that we cannot see God’s Word in this passage. It is said by some that the whole incident must be explained by ideas in Abraham’s mind, suggested by the practice of human sacrifices around him. Abraham thought on these till the feeling arose that his God also demanded nothing short of the life of his best beloved treasure; then this feeling mastered him as a passionate resolve, till he all but slew his son.
Such a view I refuse to accept. I am quite sure it is not the view meant to be given by the narrative, and I am quite sure that the narrative had the approval of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a true account of His Father’s will and work. So I am sure that, somehow, God supernaturally conveyed to Abraham His command, as the absolute Lord of the life of His creatures; that Abraham obeyed not his own feelings, but that command; that he was supernaturally prevented from the final act, when his willingness to do even it at his Lord’s word had been shown, and that his whole conduct received a glorious crown of approval, then and there, from heaven. All this I steadfastly believe; but I do not wonder at the difficulties many hearts have felt over the story.
Now here note some of the ‘messages’ of Abraham’s temptation.
I. First, it was obviously a case where ‘test’ and ‘enticement’ might, and no doubt did, beset Abraham at the same time. His heavenly Friend was testing him. His dark Enemy is not mentioned; Genesis has no clear reference to him at all after Chapter III. But we may be sure he was watching his occasion, and would whisper deep into Abraham’s soul the thought that if this call was from the Lord, the Lord was an awfully ‘austere’ Master; would not some other Deity, after all, be more kind and tolerant?
II. Then, we see where the essence of the awful test lay. Abraham was asked, in effect, two questions through it. He was asked whether he absolutely resigned himself to the Lord’s ownership, and also whether he absolutely trusted his Owner’s truth and love. The two questions were not identical, but they were twined close together. And the response of Abraham, by the grace of God in his heart, to both questions was a ‘yes’ which sounds on for ever through all the generations of the followers of the faith of Abraham. He so acted as to say, in effect, ‘I am Thine, and all mine is Thine, utterly and for ever’. And this he did, not as just submitting in stern silence to the inevitable, but ‘in faith’. He was quite sure that ‘He was faithful who had promised.’ He was sure of this because of His character; because he knew God, and knowing Him, loved Him. So he overcame. So he received the crown; he was blessed himself, and a blessing to the world.
III. Are we ever ‘proved’ in ways which in the least remind us of Abraham upon Moriah? Is it very strange, very dreadful, very arbitrary, to our poor aching eyes? Let us remember whose we are, and whom we trust, because we know Him. We belong to Him by purchase, by conquest, by surrender. Therefore all our ‘belongings’ belong to Him, in the sense that He has perfect right to detach them from us if He thinks it well. And we rely on Him to whom we belong. We know that not only are His rights absolute, but so also is His love, which abideth, is Himself.
The Divine command to Abraham, not merely to surrender Isaac but to kill him, is of course the mystery of the story. I believe it is enough to say that the absolute Lord of the lives of Abraham and of Isaac had the right not only to call for Isaac’s life, but to call for it so having already trained Abraham up to a full reliance on His character. But we should also observe that the command would appeal to a human fact of that age, and of ages after; the fact that family was then so constituted that the child was regarded as the property of the parent. In the full light of the Gospel, while every filial duty is deepened and glorified, such a constitution is not possible. We may be sure that no such command will be given in the Christian age.
Bishop H. C. G. Moule.
Abraham’s Faith
Gen 22:1-2
I. The word tempt here means try. To those dwelling out of the Kingdom of Faith such a command as this must appear strange indeed, one exacting from a father, it seems so contrary to nature, so opposed to the very feelings sown in the heart of man; and doubtless multitudes think the same of the entire plan of salvation, as also of affliction, or trials of any sort. But there are those who have gone through difficulties, and sufferings, and have felt, however painful the trials, yet were they accompanied with brightening, purifying influences; they drew those tried ones nearer to God, in proportion as they had faith and grace to bear.
II. The conduct of men in general is influenced by reason, by feeling, by interest, but in this act of Abraham’s we find all these laid aside. Abraham did not act from any of these motives, but from a principle which was in opposition to them all. Therefore when the command came, it might have startled him perhaps, but he did not criticize it, he did not sit in judgment on it, he knew where it came from, it must be right, and it must be obeyed.
III. Not only were Abraham’s reason and feelings opposed to his faith, but also his highly cherished interests. In Isaac were wrapped up the father’s fond affections, all his worldly hopes and prospects; through him he was taught to expect that his descendants should become a mighty nation, that from him should spring a race of kings, yea, the Messiah, the King of kings; yet when the command came to slay that son, faith led him to obey it.
IV. Besides Abraham being set before us in this Scripture as a noble example of faith and obedience to God’s commands, there is another lesson which this narrative seems evidently intended to teach. We have here a lively type and illustration of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of men. The whole history is, in several parts, a sort of breathing picture, prefiguring by actual persons and actual sufferings the great sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross.
E. J. Brewster, Scripture Characters, p. 20.
References. XXII. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vols. xxii. xxiii. No. 37. XXII. 1-14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, p. 152. XXII. 1-19. J. Clifford, Daily Strength for Daily Living, p. 19. J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons. p. 332.
Isaac the Domesticated
Gen 22:2
Isaac is distinctively a female type. He reveals human nature in a passive attitude precisely that attitude which the old world did not like.
I. The life of Isaac is from beginning to end a suffering in private. His was that form of sacrifice which does not show, which wins no reputation for heroism.
II. Our first sight of him is the sight of an unresisting victim on an altar of sacrifice, but his attitude is not that of a mere victim. It is that of acquiescence. In the deepest sense Isaac has bound himself to the altar. He has submitted to self-effacement for the sake of his family. That submission is the type of his whole life.
III. Most probably this self-effacement on the part of Isaac did not come from a quiet nature. His sacrifice takes the form of personal divestiture. It is all inward, but the man who can give his will has given everything. His was the surrender and not the crushing of a will. The crushing of a will brings vacancy, but the surrender of a will is itself an exercise of will power.
G. Matheson, The Representative Men of the Bible, p. 131.
References. XXII. 2. J. Parker, Adam, Noah, and Abraham, p. 191. C. D. Bell, Hills that Bring Peace, p. 45. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 868.
The Offering of Isaac
Gen 22:2-18
Certain features of this severe trial closely resemble some of the operations of Divine providence known to ourselves.
I. We are often exposed to great trials without any reason being assigned for their infliction. When such trials are accepted in a filial spirit, the triumph of faith is complete.
II. Even in our severest trials, in the very crisis and agony of our chastisement, we have hope in the delivering Mercy of God. This is often so in human life; the inward contradicts the outward. Faith substitutes a greater fact for a small one.
III. We are often made to feel the uttermost bitterness of a trial in its foretelling and anticipation. Sudden calamities are nothing compared with the lingering death which some men have to die.
IV. Filial obedience on our part has ever been followed by special tokens of God’s approval. We ourselves have in appropriate degrees realized this same overflowing and all-comforting blessing of God in return for our filial obedience.
V. The supreme lesson which we should learn from this history is that almighty God, in the just exercise of His sovereign and paternal authority, demands the complete subjugation of our will to His own. We are distinctly called to give up everything, to sink our will in God’s; to be no longer our own; to sum up. every prayer with, ‘Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done’.
Joseph Parker, The Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v. p. 154.
The Backgrounds of Life
Gen 22:4
Abraham was on his way to offer up Isaac, and ‘the place afar off’ was the mountain on which he had been told to perform the sacrifice. Let me put aside at once any consideration of the object of his journey and any discussion of the disputed question of the locality. I am taking the words of the text as simply suggesting the idea of a distant view closed in by a mountain range. Views of this kind are common in Palestine. There are few parts of the country where the horizon is not bounded by a mountain outline, and though the heights are not great when compared with the higher Alps, yet the shapes and the structures are those of mountains, not hills. Our personal memories of mountain scenery in other lands are enough to give us an idea of the view which lay before Abraham. We think of distant, delicate, changing tints, purple or blue or grey, seen across a foreground of plain or valley; we think of the charm of what Ruskin calls mountain gloom and mountain glory. That was not, of course, the way in which the Jews of the Old Testament regarded their mountains. It was not love of their beauty which they felt; it was rather a sense of their awfulness. They associated mountain heights, as in the case of Mount Sinai, with the immediate presence of God. ‘He that treadeth on the high places of the earth,’ says the prophet Amos, ‘the Lord the God of Hosts is His name.’ If this belief inspired a feeling of awe about mountains, from another point of view it was not devoid of comfort. To the Psalmist the mountain horizons of his fatherland suggested the assurance of God’s protection. ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains from whence cometh my help.’ ‘As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and for evermore.’
We have all felt, I suppose, the beauty of the Psalmist’s simile. May we not claim that it still has a meaning of value for us? Let us think for a little about the mountain backgrounds of life. Our lives are like a great landscape; each life has its own foreground and background; the foreground full of detail, full of the movement of our daily work, looming much larger on our sight than the distance beyond it, pressing upon us calls of business that we cannot put off, keeping our thoughts immersed in the ceaseless hurry and hustle of our professional career, calling continually for our immediate attention to this or that thing that has to be done. Such is the foreground of life. And then behind all this multiplicity of detail and movement come the wider horizons, the larger aspirations, the deeper convictions, the eternal truths, the unchangeable principles to which we must continually lift up our eyes if our life is to have any general plan or purpose. These are the mountain backgrounds. Both foreground and background are equally indispensable. No life can be complete that ignores either of them. But there is this difference between them. Men as a rule are naturally inclined to pay far more attention to the foreground than to the background. There are indeed sluggish or visionary natures which are content to stand aside from the ordinary activities of life, but these are exceptional. Most men find their immediate daily duties so engrossing that they are apt to neglect the view beyond. The mountain distances become blurred or blotted out. That is a great loss how great a loss our Lord teaches us Himself by His own example. We cannot suppose that He, in His busy daily life, ever really put God out of His thoughts; always He must have had with Him the sense of His Heavenly Father’s presence. Yet none the less He felt the need of going up into a mountain apart to pray.
The idea that life is like a landscape is a mere metaphor of course, but it may be helpful and suggestive. Let me try to give one or two illustrations.
I. There is the background of the inner personality, for instance. Behind the foreground of conduct comes the background of character. The teaching of Jesus covers the whole range of this spiritual landscape. He says, ‘Keep My commandments’ that is the rule of conduct. But He also says (and we feel that it is a still deeper saying) ‘Ye must be born again’. That is the need of regeneration of character. These two sayings are closely connected. Conduct and character must be in harmony, or there can be no real sincerity of life. Many lives, we all know, never attain this sincerity. That means a discrepancy, a want of harmony between foreground and background.
II. Then, again, there is the background of prayer. Every true prayer, it has been said, has its background and its foreground. The foreground of prayer is the intense immediate longing for some blessing which seems to be absolutely necessary for the soul to have; the background of prayer is the quiet, earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may be, should be done. Examine from this point of view our Lord’s perfect prayer at Gethsemane. In front we see the intense longing that the cup of agony and death might pass away from Him; but behind there stands the strong, steadfast desire that the Will of God should be done. Take away either of these conditions and the prayer becomes less perfect. Leave out the foreground (I quote the words of a great preacher) let there be no expression of the wish of him who prays and there is left a pure submission which is almost fatalism. Leave out the background let there be no acceptance of the Will of God and the prayer is only a manifestation of self-will, an ill-regulated petition for personal gratification, without reference to any higher law. It is just this background of prayer on which we need to keep our eyes fixed.
III. Take again the background of Divine truth. What do we see as we look down on the foreground of our lives in these days of controversy? There lies before us a series of battle-scenes full of noise and confusion the conflict of parties within our Church, the conflict of Church and Church, the conflict of Christian and non-Christian belief, the conflict of religion and agnosticism. We must lift up our eyes to the still, solemn mountain background which rises far away beyond the scene of conflict. There, on the distant horizon of our lives, we shall find, if we have but faith to see, that eternal truth which is one aspect of the nature of God, that truth which tests and explains and reconciles our partial and conflicting beliefs. There are times, no doubt, when to some of us the truth may be hidden from our eyes. The mountains may be veiled in clouds which we cannot pierce. But some of us perhaps have had experience of moments and moods when Divine truth seems to burst in upon the eye of the soul, and it is an immense help to be able to believe that, whether we see it or not, it is always there in the background of life, the one eternal, unchangeable goal of all the faith and of all the intellectual effort of mankind.
IV. One other spiritual background let me mention it is the background of the Christian ideal. Behind the foreground of the actual daily lives lived by Christian men and women comes the distant ideal and do we not constantly feel that it is unattainably distant? which the Master has set before His Church. The teaching which presents that ideal is no mere dead record of a life that has passed away: it is a perennial reservoir of suggestiveness. Age after age has witnessed the reincarnation of the Christian ideal. It has been assailed in these days, as it has often been assailed in times past. But the movement of modern thought has not been without its compensating advantages to Christianity, and I think we may claim that in some respects we are in closer touch than men used to be with the mind and the heart of Jesus Christ.
H. G. Woods, Master of the Temple.
References. XXII. 6. J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p. 454. XXII. 7. M. Biggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p. 53. XXII. 7, 8. F. D. Maurice, Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 83. R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 19. XXII. 9. Bishop Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 172. XXII. 9, 10. C. Bradley, The Christian Life, p. 206. E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation (2nd Series), p. 163.
The Highest Self-offering
Gen 22:10-12
This chapter teaches us that Abraham had to discover something about God. God did not tempt Abraham to any deed of violence. Instead of that He raised the faith of Abraham and the service and even the character of Abraham to a higher level than they had ever occupied before.
I. Abraham having discovered his God of righteousness proceeds to test himself with regard to the validity of all earthly affection, and I can imagine, as he feels his pride in his dear son growing day by day, that the influence of early training would come over him. ‘Would it be a sublime thing, in fact does God want it that I offer my boy, as my father and my father’s father have offered their boys to their Gods?’ Then the moment comes, the resolution is taken, he sets out upon his journey, and the lad who is to be his victim accompanies him, unquestioning, for Isaac had a part in this event. Abraham binds him who is dearer than life itself to the old man, lays him on the altar, and prepares for the last dread blow. But something cries, ‘Hold, lay not thine hand upon the lad.’ It was as though an angel spoke to him, for God did speak in the mind of this heroic single-minded servant, who with a very dim light shining in his soul chose to serve at his best.
II. The principle herein declared, the situation herein described, has repeated itself in human history a thousand times since that far-off day a thousand times? may be a thousand thousand times. It teaches us this God requires no meaningless sacrifices from any man. I said no meaningless sacrifices, but there are occasions in life when earthly affection has to be sacrificed to eternal truth, when a lower love has to be offered up in the name of a higher. John Bunyan went to prison for his faith in a day when it meant much to suffer, and he endured within those prison walls some things which were harder than death. Here was a man to whom the stake would have meant nothing, a man who could have faced torture and shame and death with equanimity. He was putting on the altar what was dearer to him than a thousand lives. His blind child, his wife, his other dear ones, were offered to the service of the Most High and for love of Jesus Christ.
III. But there is a love for which men and women will sin. The wife will lie for the husband, mothers will do wrong for their children, fathers will sin for home, friend will sacrifice to the devil for friend. Know then that in every case where such decision is taken you have sacrificed husband, wife, child, self, to the lower, and not to the higher. The highest love is the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, and by. that I mean the love of Christ which never spared, never will spare those whom He calls. Consecrate all earth’s affection at the altar, and if from the altar you must go to Calvary, then go! Love’s highest is called for, the worthiest, the only one which you can offer in the presence of the Lamb of God.
R. J. Campbell, Sermons Addressed to Individuals, p. 171.
References. XXII. 10. R. Hiley, A Year’s Sermons, vol. iii. p. 83. S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 213.
Jehovah-jireh
Gen 22:14
I. The Intended Sacrifice by Abraham of Isaac. It may be worth our while to ask for a moment what it was exactly that Abraham expected the Lord to provide. We generally use the expression in reference to outward things. But there is a meaning deeper than that in the words. What was it God provided for Abraham? What is it God provides for us? A way to discharge the arduous duties which, when they are commanded seem all but impossible for us. ‘The Lord will provide.’ Provide what? The lamb for a burntoffering which He has commanded. We see in the fact that God provided the ram which became the appointed sacrifice, through which Isaac’s life was preserved. A dim adumbration of the great truth that the only sacrifice which God accepts for the world’s sin is the sacrifice which He Himself has promised.
II. Note on what Conditions He Provides. If we want to get our outward needs supplied, our outward weaknesses strengthened, power and energy sufficient for duty, wisdom for perplexity, a share in the sacrifice which taketh away the sins of the world, we get them all on the condition that we are found in the place where all the provision is treasured.
Note when the provision is realized. Up to the very edge we are driven before the hand is put out to help us.
III. Note what we are to do with the Provision when we get it. Abraham christened the anonymous mountain-top not by a name which reminded him or others of his trial but by a name that proclaimed God’s deliverance. He did not say anything about his agony or about his obedience. God spoke about that, not Abraham. Many a bare bald mountain-top in your career and mine we have got names for. Are they names that commemorate our sufferings, or God’s blessings?
A. Maclaren, The God of the Amen, p. 209.
References. XXII. 14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, p. 165. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1803. S. Martin, Sermons, p. 159. XXII. 15-18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2523. XXII. 16-18. E. H. Gifford, Voices of the Prophets, p. 131. XXII. 18. Expositor (2nd Series), vol. viii. p. 200. XXII. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 53. XXIII. 19. J. Baines, Sermons, p. 139. XXIII. F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 62.
The Offering of Isaac
Gen 22:2
It must have seemed hardly possible to the patriarchs, and the elder Hebrews generally, that God could have made the heavy demands upon their trust and love which they were almost daily required to satisfy. In saying this I am judging primitive faith by modern religion: I am in fact judging Abraham by ourselves! Suppose that it should be borne in upon our mind, as the current phrase is, that we should do this or that great thing, requiring special self-denial and personal suffering, we should instantly reason that such a mental impression was the result of mental disorder or of physical derangement; the very last idea that would occur to us is that God meant to bereave and humble us until he had by suffering perfected the sanctification of our will. It is, therefore, the more startling to find Abraham, instantly, without fretful appeal or pathetic argument, going forth to a deed so terrible as the offering of his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved. I propose to point out certain features of this severe trial, which closely resemble some of the operations of Divine Providence known to ourselves, and thus to confirm ancient and modern revelation, and so get some notion of the unity and completeness of human discipline and training. In a word, I want to show that the God of the Jew is the God of the Christian, and that the God of Abraham is, in the widest sense, “the God of the living,”
1. The experience of Abraham and our own experience are strikingly coincident in the fact that we are often exposed to great trials without any reason being assigned for their infliction. Notice this in the case of Abraham. In the very midst of his domestic joy this desolating word falls. We do not read that Abraham had been committing sin, or that in any way he had been provoking the Most High to anger. From our point of view this trial is wholly without cause or reason, and the terms read like an edict of wanton and ruthless cruelty.
Such experiences are far from uncommon in our own day. We see human fortunes reversed without any apparent reason; the innocent are impoverished and scourged; men are paralysed in the very attitude and act of prayer; honestly-gotten wealth is scattered beyond recovery; the most useful workers in the Church are laid aside by sickness; and they who would gladly be foremost in the fight are made to stand still because of pain and helplessness. No reason is given. No justification is offered. The fearful demand is made point-blank, and no compromise is possible. God sometimes insists upon a distinct Yes or No, and then to falter is to rebel.
In this part of the case it is not proper to say that all men have sinned, and that the universal fact is explanation enough of the particular instance. That suggestion would cover too much ground; more, indeed, than is covered by the kind of providences now being considered. Universal depravity is of course the most mournful fact in human history, and, if followed in each instance with a trial as special as Abraham’s, the reasoning would be sound. But we are looking at the case of men who stand nearest God, who love him most, and whom he himself most delights to honour, and we find that they are called upon to bear trials of unexampled and intolerable severity, without one word of explanation or argument. When such trials are accepted in a filial spirit, the triumph of faith is complete. Such faith is counted unto men for righteousness. It is not a faith that hesitates and falters and struggles; it is a faith victorious in its way even infinite and omnipotent.
2. The experience of Abraham and our own are further coincident in the fact that even in our severest trials, in the very crisis and agony of our chastisement, we have hope in the delivering mercy of God. This is strikingly shown twice in the story before us. “Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” ( Gen 22:5 ). Mark the promise to come again! It would be pitiful trifling with the solemn occasion to say that Abraham lied unto the young men. The man who could offer such a sacrifice was not the man to tell lies to the on-lookers In the next instance, Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” ( Gen 22:8 ), when he knew that Isaac was appointed to the altar! It is so often in human life that the inward contradicts the outward, and that the unseen controls that which is seen. Terrible as the storm may be, yet far away in some dim chamber of the heart is an angel singing softly of hope, and light, and rest. Sometimes it is a voice without words; a solemn sound that never comes within the narrow range of articulation; yet it is as a rock on which the soul builds. “We will come again,” said Abraham, when the very earth was reeling under his feet! “God will provide himself a lamb,” said he, when the appointed victim was walking at his side. All this is true to life, as we ourselves know it. We have said these very words. We have said things to dying friends which would not bear a strictly literal test of accuracy, yet which were true in larger interpretations than literal exactness could comprehend or contain. Sometimes we have spoken in the power of the spirit, when men have limited us by the poverty of the letter. It was so that Jesus Christ himself was often misunderstood. He gave infinite meanings to finite words, and so he was constantly being contradicted by students of the mere letter. He said he would “build the temple in three days”; he said that he was “before Abraham”; he said that the dead Lazarus was “asleep.” Faith often substitutes a greater fact for a small one. The parable overruns the mere history. “You will get better,” we say to the patient, when perhaps we mean that he will be healed with immortality; and when we meet him in heaven he will tell us that we were right when we said he would yet live. Sometimes we wist not what we say. Let us then be careful how we charge one another with false speech, for there is a fiction that is not untrue.
3. The experience of Abraham is coincident with our own in the fact that we are often made to feel the uttermost bitterness of a trial in its foretelling and anticipation. Say whether you ever read anything so terrible as the second verse: “Take now thy son thine only son Isaac thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest and offer him for a burnt-offering”! The words must have dropped into Abraham’s heart like molten lead. But not more hotly into his heart than some words have dropped into our own. Slowly has the finger of God moved over our most cherished treasures, marking them for ruin. They have not been spoken of in the gross, or hurriedly, as if with reluctance, but slowly, lingeringly, with a deliberation that aggravated the cruelty, until the steadiness of reason itself has been threatened. It was so with the regular and inexorable “calls” of the bankrupt bank in which you placed the savings of an industrious lifetime it was so in the accursed chancery suit which remorselessly stripped you of everything; and it was so in the shutting of door after door, until your last hope died, and you plunged into the black river of despair. A sudden reversal is nothing compared with the lingering death which some men have to die. They die upwards, inch by inch the light brings them no hope, and spring brings no renewal of their withered strength. If we meditate on these things, and study their plain and solemn meaning, we shall see that we ourselves and Abraham have been afflicted with common sorrows.
4. The experience of Abraham and our own are coincident in the fact that filial obedience on our part has ever been followed by special tokens of God’s approval. We have something more than mere Hebrew redundancy of language in the promise made to Abraham by the Almighty. Hear how that promise reads. It reads like a river full to overflow: “Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” I do not know of a more striking realisation of the promise, “I will open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” I call upon you to witness whether you yourselves have not, in appropriate degrees, realised this same overflowing and all-comforting blessing of God, in return for your filial obedience. Have you ever given money to the poor without repayment from the Lord? Have you ever given time to God’s cause without the sun and the moon standing still until you had finished the fight, and made up for the loss? “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” Exceeding great and precious are the promises of God! He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think!
Other points of coincidence as between the old experience and the new will occur on reading the text, such as (1) the unconscious aggravations of our suffering made by inquiries such as Isaac’s ( Gen 22:7 ); (2) the wonderfulness of the escapes which are often made for us ( Gen 22:13 ) by Divine Providence; and (3) the sanctification of special places by sweet and holy memories of deliverance and unexpected joy ( Gen 22:14 ). But the supreme lesson which I would learn from this history is that Almighty God, in the just exercise of his sovereign and paternal authority, demands the complete subjugation of our will to his own. This is a hard lesson for man to learn. Man loves his own will. He thinks it best. He clings to it long. It is just here that the great battle must be fought. We are not called upon to give up one taste out of many; one pursuit out of many; one wish out of many; we are distinctly called upon to give up everything to sink our will in God’s; to be no longer our own; to sum up every prayer with “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” That is pure religion before God and the Father. “Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily, he cannot be my disciple.” If God wants your only child to be a poor missionary, when you mean him to be a rich merchant, let him be laid upon the altar if you love and honour God! If God strip your vines, and take away the one ewe lamb; if he bark your fig-tree, and cause the herd to die in the field you are to say “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” And never can we say this with the heart’s full consent until we are crucified with Christ. We must say our greatest lesson after him. He speaks first, we speak second. He is the Master, we are the scholars. Lord, if thou wilt break the last link, break it; if thou wilt take away my last morsel of breads take it; “though thou slay me, I will trust in thee.”
XX
THE COVENANTS WITH ABRAHAM (PART ONE)
Gen 12:1-3 We now come to consider one of the most important subjects of religious history the covenants made with Abraham. The lessons in Genesis that bear directly upon the matter are in Gen 12:1-3 ; Gen 15:1-21 ; Gen 17:1-15 ; Gen 22:1-19 . All of these should be carefully studied in themselves and with their New Testament connections.
The investigation will show that there are either two distinct covenants, or what amounts practically to the same thing, two distinct lines of thought; one fleshly, the other spiritual, with equally distinct developments. Let us go over the whole matter step by step.
In general terms a covenant is an arrangement or agreement between two or more parties. Its terms are the stipulations or conditions which set forth the reciprocal relations and obligations of the parties entering into the agreement. The word “covenant” is frequently employed in both Testaments to express an agreement between men, or between God and men. It first appears in Gen 6:18 , where God says to Noah, “I will establish my covenant with thee.” As examples of a covenant between men we should study the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech (Gen 21:27-32 ); the covenant between David and Jonathan (1Sa 15:1-4 ; 1Sa 20:12-16 ), the covenant between David and the elders of Israel (1Ch 11:1-3 ). Figurative use of the word appears in Job’s covenant with his eyes (Job 31:1 ), Ephraim’s covenant with death and hell (Isa 28:15-18 ).
The root of the Hebrew word signifies to cut or divide, referring to the custom of cutting or dividing in two the animal sacrifice in order to ratification by the covenant-makers passing between the parts. As vivid examples of this consider: “And God said unto Abraham, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtledove and a young pigeon. And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other; but the birds divided he not. . . . And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces” (Gen 25:9-10 ; Gen 25:17 ). “And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, that had not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof” (Jer 34:18 ). “Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Psa 1:5 ).
This is of great importance in determining the Bible meaning of covenant. It shows that covenants were ratified by very vivid, religious services in which an appeal was made to God to witness the integrity and sincerity of the covenant makers and to judge the violators of it. In these religious ceremonies both parties took a most sacred oath to observe the stipulations of the agreement under penalty of divine judgment. For example: “I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee,” says Jehovah to Jerusalem (Eze 16:8 ). “And Jonathan caused David to swear again” (1Sa 20:17 ). “Swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me,” says Abimelech to Abraham. And Abraham said, “I will swear.” “Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them” (Gen 21:23-24 ; Gen 21:31 ). Upon this point a New Testament statement is conclusive: “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing will I bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation. Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us” (Heb 6:13-18 ). Because, therefore, of the oath and the sacrifice, to violate a covenant was regarded not only as most dishonorable but also a profane action, indicating great depravity and irreligion. The Romans charged the Carthaginians with habitual disregard of treaties so made, and pilloried them in history with the proverb, “Punic Faith.” But Paul in his letter to the Romans characterizes them, with other heathen, as “covenant breakers” (Rom 1:31 ). On the other hand, David in delineating a citizen of Zion, says, “He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not” (Psa 15:4 ).
Usually covenants were accompanied by some sign, token, or memorial. The rainbow was the token of the covenant with Noah. The seven ewe lambs were a token of the covenant with Abimelech, and Abraham also planted a tamarisk tree as a memorial. Jonathan gave David his own raiment as a token of their covenant. Circumcision was the sign of one of God’s covenants with Abraham. We have said that the first Bible use of the term is in Gen 6:18 . But this is not the first Bible record of the fact that a covenant was made. There were before this two covenants with Adam as the head of the race; one of works before the fall, and one of grace after the fall. The terms of the first covenant with Adam are clearly expressed in Gen 2:16-17 . A violation of terms by either party nullifies the covenant. This covenant was broken by Adam, as saith the prophet: “But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant” (Hos 6:7 ). A failure to be circumcised was a breach of the covenant of which it was not only a sign but a stipulation (Gen 17:14 ). The unchangeableness of the divine being was manifested in his keeping every covenant made with man (Psa 89:34-35 ). Having prepared the way by these general observations, we will not examine the four scriptures cited in Gen 12 ; Gen 15 ; Gen 17 ; Gen 22 .
The word, “covenant,” is not mentioned in Gen 12:1-4 . But Paul in the letter to the Galatians refers to a covenant of grace made with Abraham which was an anticipation of the gospel, and which he fixes by a date which exactly fits this paragraph in Gen 12 , and no other. The date is 430 years before the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. The anticipated gospel is in Gen 12:3 : “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” This very passage is quoted by the apostle Peter, and expressly called a covenant: “Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Act 3:25 ). So that both Paul and Peter call this covenant of grace. This covenant of grace made with Abraham when seventy years old, and 430 years before the giving of the law, is confirmed with an oath when years afterward he offered up Isaac on the altar: “And the angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Gen 22:15-18 ).
To this confirmation Paul thus refers: “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise” (Gal 3:15-18 ). This language makes clear these points:
That the gospel covenant with Abraham in Act 7:2-3 , when Abraham was seventy years old, and restated in Gen 7:1-3 , when he was seventy-five years old.
That this covenant with Abraham is confirmed by the divine oath as recorded in Gen 22:15-18 . This is also the confirmation set forth in Heb 6:16-18 .
That this covenant was made 430 years before the giving of the law.
An examination of the grace covenant in Gen 12 , and of its confirmation in Gen 22 , shows that it has one distinguishing peculiarity, namely, its blessings for all the world. Let us next examine the record in Gen 15 .Gen 15:8 , Abraham asks God how he may know that he would inherit the land of Palestine. Whereupon follows an exact account of a covenant, and expressly called a covenant, whose terms are clear that God will give his lineal descendants, according to the flesh, this very land whose metes and bounds are clearly set forth. There is nothing here for the world at large. It is strictly a national covenant. Examine all its terms and see. Now if we examine the record in Gen 17 , we find again this national covenant and a sign is added, namely, circumcision.
So that we may say that two distinct covenants were made with Abraham:
The covenant of grace, Gen 7 , which was confirmed with an oath, Gen 22 , and that this covenant is so recognized by both Peter and Paul.
A national covenant (Gen 15 ), whose sign of circumcision was added (Gen 17 ). This national or circumcision covenant reappears in the law covenant at Mount Sinai. And this law covenant is expressly contrasted with the grace covenant in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. Howbeit what saith the Scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman (Gal 4:22-31 ).
To settle this matter beyond controversy we have only to prove from the Scriptures that the circumcision, or national covenant, was passed over and merged into the Sinai covenant and the case will be complete. This will be shown later in the argument. So we have before us the Abrahamic covenants. There are distinctly two, widely differing in range and terms. The plurality of these covenants is thus expressed by Paul: “Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Rom 9:4 ).
The principal difference between the circumcision covenant and the Sinai or law covenant is that the latter is an enlargement of the former. One is seed; the other is fruit.
QUESTIONS 1. Where are the scriptures on the covenants with Abraham?
2. What two covenants made with him?
3. In general terms what is a covenant and what are the terms of a covenant? Give examples.
4. Etymologically, what does the word mean? Illustrate.
5. How were covenants ratified and what was the meaning of that action? Illustrate.
6. What New Testament proof of God’s oath to Abraham and what the purpose of it?
7. How was the violation of a covenant regarded, what was charge of the Romans against the Carthaginians and how did Paul characterize all of them?
8. What was the token of the several covenants, viz.: Between God and Noah; Abraham and Abimelech; Jonathan and David; God and Abraham?
9. What covenants had God made with the race prior to his covenant with Abraham and what nullified the covenant in each case?
10. Since the word “covenant” does not occur in Gen 12:1-4 , how do we know that this contains a covenant?
11. What covenant was this and what was the date?
12. How old was Abraham and when was this covenant confirmed with him?
13. What three points are made clear by Paul’s statement in Gal 3:15-18 ?
14. What covenant was made with Abraham in Gen 15 and what was its sign?
15. Restate the two covenants with Abraham, where found, the relation of the second to the Sinaitic covenant, and how contrasted with the grace covenant.
XXI
THE COVENANTS WITH ABRAHAM (PART TWO)
Gen 12:1-3 One’s understanding of these covenants affects all of his theological and church relations. If he confounds them, or reckons them as identical, he never gets out of the Old Testament for a plan of salvation, system or doctrines, idea of the church, nature, objects, and subjects of church ordinances. Hence it is easy for him to drift into ritualism, accept the doctrine of union of church and state and coercion of conscience by the magistrate. If he regards them as distinct, one to replace the other, he finds in the New Testament a plan of salvation, system of doctrine, idea of the church, number, nature, object, and subjects of church ordinances. He naturally rejects union of church and state, believes in liberty of conscience, opposes all hierarchies, advocates congregational form of church organizations and their independence of each other.
The covenants have been a battleground between Baptists and pedobaptists throughout their history. A man’s views on the covenants easily locate him in one or the other rank. While multitudes of books have been written, the strongest pedobaptist argument in favor of their construction of the covenants is a brief statement by that eminent Presbyterian divine, Dr. N. L. Rice. The substance of his argument is this:
(1) “The covenant with Abraham is the covenant of grace, therefore it did not belong to the Jewish dispensation and did not pass away with it.
(2) The covenant confessedly embraced believers and their infant children, and since it remains unchanged it embraces them still.
(3) All who were in the covenant had a right to its seal, and those embraced in it now have the same right. And since professed believers and their infant children did receive the seal of the covenant by expressed command of God, the same characters must receive it still.
(4) As circumcision was the first seal, and was administered to professed believers and their infant children, so baptism is now the seal and must be administered to the same characters. Or (1) the Abrahamic covenant was and is the covenant of grace; and the church of God, as a people in covenant with him, was organized on this covenant. (2) As the church was organized on this covenant, it embraced in its membership all who were embraced in the covenant, namely, professed believers and their infant children. (3) The Christian church stands on the same covenant and is identical with the Abrahamic church, and embraces the same characters in its membership, viz.: professed believers and their infant children. (4) All embraced in the covenant and in the church membership are entitled to the initiatory rite, and since professed believers and their infant children did receive circumcision, the first initiatory rite, the same characters, being still embraced in the same covenant, have a right to baptism, which is now the initiatory rite.”
To this very able statement of his case we submit the following reply: Dr. Rice assumes instead of proving his premises:
(1) He ignores the fact of two covenants with Abraham the covenant of grace and the covenant of circumcision, which he blends with great confusion of thought.
(2) As the covenant of grace made with Abraham was but a continuation and enlargement of previous covenants and promises reaching back to the fall of Adam, any church argument based on this covenant should no more commence with Abraham than with Noah or Seth, why not commence with Adam?
(3) Neither the covenant of grace nor the covenant of circumcision “confessedly embraced believers and their infant children.” Ishmael, the first descendant of Abraham who received the rite, was neither a believer nor an infant. The adult slaves of Abraham who received it at the same time were certainly not “infant children” of any believer, nor did the law require that they themselves be believers. They were circumcised because they were Abraham’s slaves, without any regard to age or personal faith. The law as to such subjects of circumcision was never changed.
So far as Abraham’s lineal descendants are concerned, on all millions of them, circumcision, if performed according to law, could never by any possibility be administered to a believer. The law requiring its performance when the subject was eight days old must be neglected or violated before a believer could have any chance to reach circumcision. By its own provisions of enforcement it perpetually excluded believers from its reception, just as infant baptism necessarily tends to drive believer’s baptism from the face of the earth. Dr. Rice’s plural, “believers,” is an impossibility; therefore, under the regular workings of the law, Abraham would be only one. So much for Abraham’s fleshly descendants.
In the case of a proselyte from the Gentiles who voluntarily became a Jew, he need not be a believer in the New Testament sense, and no descendant of his till the judgment day could reach circumcision by faith. We thus see what becomes of the doctor’s fundamental premise: “Believers and their infant children.”
(4) Dr. Rice makes an utterly unscriptural use of the word “seal.” To Abraham personally, unto him alone, is circumcision declared to be a seal, a seal of his faith which he had before he was circumcised. It could never be this to any of his descendants under a proper enforcement of the law. To them it might be a sign. The Bible never calls baptism a seal in any sense. New Testament believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit, not by water.
(5) Dr. Rice assumes the identity of the Christian church with what he is pleased to call the “Abrahamic church.” “The Abrahamic church” is too vague a term for such an important premise. It needs to be defined somewhat. The Christian church is a visible organization. The only visible Abrahamic organization is national Israel. Substitute “national Israel” for “Abrahamic church” in the premise, and the identity theory perishes by its own weight. You need not argue against it it falls to pieces if you look at it!
(6) Dr. Rice assumes that baptism came in the place of circumcision, which is at war with both Scripture and history. If he means only that there is some analogy between the place occupied in the Christian system by baptism and the place occupied in the Jewish system by circumcision, this is cheerfully granted, but all the force of the analogy is against infant baptism, thus: Circumcision was administered to Abraham’s fleshly seed; baptism must be administered to Abraham’s spiritual seed.
It is well just here to fix carefully in our minds the elements of the law of circumcision. Circumcision was administered,
(1) to Abraham’s natural seed;
(2) and to their slaves;
(3) but to males only;
(4) when eight days old;
(5) was by obligation a family rite;
(6) could be legally performed by man or woman;
(7) it obligated to keep the whole Sinaitic law, with which it was incorporated, as a means of justification and life, under a covenant of works;
(8) is guaranteed by an earthly domain for a possession.
With these elements before us, it will be easy to show why baptism did not come into its place, and what did come into its place, and how the analogy between baptism and circumcision is destructive to infant membership. This may be made manifest under the following heads:
(1) Both are “shadows.” A shadow cannot cast a shadow.
(2) Its antitype, regeneration, came in the place of circumcision.
(See Rom 2:28-29 ; Phi 3:3 ; Col 2:11 .)
(3) In the New Testament, the same people, if Jews, were baptized after being circumcised, as in the case of Jesus and his apostles, or were circumcised after baptism, as in the case of Timothy by Paul.
(4) The case in Act 15:1-30 , settles the question:
(a) The Judaizing teachers who tried to force circumcision on the baptized Gentiles at Antioch could not have understood that baptism was appointed to succeed circumcision;
(b) the apostles and elders at Jerusalem could not have so understood it either, for while the question was argued at length and exhaustively, no one referred to such a simple fact, which, if true, would have settled the whole controversy in a word. Their silence about it on this occasion was both inexcusable and criminal, if it were true.
(5) Utterly unlike circumcision, baptism is for Jew and Gentile, male and female, for believers, only, when they believe, without regard to age, is an ecclesiastical and not a family rite, is administered by special officers; as a mere memorial rite to the covenant of grace, it is in no sense essential to justification and life, and guarantees neither an earthly nor a heavenly Canaan.
(6) If baptism came in the place of circumcision, then it must be confined in its administration either to Abraham’s natural seed, or to his spiritual seed. If his natural seed only, that excludes the Gentile pedobaptists, as well as their children, and contradicts the Scriptures
(Mat 3:7-9 ). If to his spiritual seed, that excludes their infants for whose benefits the argument is made and establishes the true scriptural position baptism for believers only. (Compare Act 8:12 ; Act 8:37 ; Act 16:33-34 ; Act 18:8 .)
The next point necessary in this argument is to show that circumcision was passed over to Moses and became an integral part of the covenant of Sinai. The proof is this: In Gen 17 , God proposes an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his natural seed after him. The stipulation on God’s part was to give them the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. The stipulation on their part was to keep the ordinance of circumcision and all that is involved. Any male not circumcised was cut off from the people and the inheritance. In Exo 4:24-26 , we learn that God sought to slay Moses because, on account of his wife’s objection, his child had not been circumcised. Moses was not relieved from the hazard until his wife, Zipporah, to save the husband’s life, yielded, though reluctantly, and circumcised the child.
Moses was now the appointed deliverer to lead the children of Israel into the land which God, according to his stipulation of the covenant, was to give them (Exo 6:4-8 ). Their final deliverance was accomplished by the Passover, which they were commanded to celebrate by a memorial feast. But no uncircumcised male was allowed to eat this feast (Exo 12:44-48 ). Thus Moses gave them circumcision in a national and perpetual statute. Then the nation was organized at Sinai and the covenant re-enacted and the law given; circumcision was incorporated in it as an essential feature of it (Lev 12:3 ). Thus, according to our Lord, Moses gave them circumcision as a national statute, and not as originating it, but as a requirement from the fathers when the original covenant was established (Joh 7:22-23 ). So it is testified that all who went out of Egypt to seek the land promised were circumcised (Jos 5:5 ). Again, when Joshua led them across the Jordan into the Promised Land, the Lord halted them at Gilgal until all born in the forty years of wanderings should be circumcised (Jos 5:6 ). They could not secure title to the land until their stipulation was fulfilled.
Thus we see circumcision made an essential feature of the Sinai covenant, since that is only an enlargement of the original covenant of circumcision. The proof becomes conclusive when we consider the relation of circumcision to the Sinai law. This is set forth by Paul: “For circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the law; but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision” (Rom 2:25 ). “Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law” (Gal 5:2-3 ).
This Sinai covenant was strictly a covenant of works. It promised life solely on the condition of exact, implicit, and complete obedience to all its mandates. So testify the Scriptures: “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and mine ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them; I am Jehovah” (Lev 18:5 ). “For Moses writeth that the man that doeth the righteousness which is of the law shall live thereby” (Rom 5:5 ). “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (Jas 2:10-11 ).
On this very account there could be no life by it. It gendered to bondage and was a yoke of bondage, which their fathers were unable to bear (Gal 4:24 ; Gal 5:1 ; Act 15:10 ).
Their circumcision covenant said, “Do and live.”
The grace covenant said, “Believe and live.”
The clearest exhibition, perhaps, in the Bible of the contrast between this covenant and the covenant of grace made with Abraham, appears in Paul’s allegory (Gal 4:21-31 ). Just here dates become very important. That you may for yourself compare the respective dates of the covenant of circumcision and the covenant of grace we submit the following orderly statement: Paul says (Gal 3:17 ) that it preceded the law by 430 years. Reckoning back from the giving of the law, we have, first, the stay of the Israelites in Egypt 210 years, Second/Jacob was then 130 years old. Third, when Jacob was born Isaac was sixty years old. Fourth, the covenant of Act 7:2-3 , and Gen 12:1-4 , was thirty years old before the birth of Isaac, making exactly 430 years. Or Abraham was seventy years old when the covenant of grace was made with him (Act 7:2-3 ; Gen 12:1-4 ), which was thirty years before Isaac’s birth (Gen 21:5 ; Gen 25:26 ); Jacob was 130 when he entered Egypt (Gen 47:9 ), accordingly, their stay in Egypt was 210 years. So 30, 60, 130 and 210 is 430. But the covenant of circumcision was twenty-nine years later, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old (Gen 27:1-14 ). There is a great distinction in the law of descent between the two covenants; one national or fleshly, the other spiritual or supernatural.
QUESTIONS 1. How does one’s understanding of these covenants affect his theology and idea of the church?
2. What is the substance of N. L. Rice’s argument to prove that the church commenced with Abraham and that infants are members of it?
3. How does the expositor answer it?
4. What are the elements of the law of circumcision?
5. Show why baptism did not come in its place, what does come in its place, and how the analogy between baptism and circumcision destroys infant baptism.
6. Give Scripture proof that circumcision was passed over to Moses and became an integral part of the Sinaitic covenant,
7. What is the relation of circumcision to the Sinaitic law?
8. What did these covenants say respectively?
9. How does Paul get his 430 years of Gal 3:17 , and when was the covenant of circumcision given?
10. What New Testament allegory contrasts this covenant sharply with the covenant of grace?
11. What is the great distinction in the law of descent between the two covenants?
XXV
THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM–(Concluded)
Gen 19:29-25:18
This chapter concludes the life of Abraham. It covers over five chapters of Genesis. The important events are varied:
1. Lot’s history after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the incestuous origin of the Ammonites and Moabites.
2. Abraham’s dealing with Abimelech, the Philistine king.
3. The birth and weaning of Isaac.
4. The casting out of the handmaiden, Hagar, and Ishmael.
5. The great trial of Abraham’s faith.
6. The death and burial of Sarah.
7. The marriage of Isaac.
8. Abraham’s marriage with Keturah their children.
9. Abraham’s disposition of his property.
10. Death and burial.
11. Character.
All these events wonderfully illustrate Oriental life of that age.
Our lesson commences with Gen 19:29 : “And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the Plains, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.” An examination question will be, To whom was Lot indebted for his rescue from the destruction of Sodom? Gen 19:30 gives the origin of two famous should say infamous nations: Moabites and Ammonites. They resulted from the incest with his daughters on the part of Lot. No nations have developed so harmoniously with their origin. They were immoral, untrustworthy, every way a blot upon civilization, the bitterest enemies of the Israelites, except the Amalekites and Philistines.
The twentieth chapter returns to Abraham. He located in the territory of the Philistine king. The Philistines, descendants of a son of Ham, originally located in Egypt. But they get their name from their migratory habits. Leaving the place that God assigned to them, they took possession of the southwestern coast of the land which derives its name from them, in our time called Palestine. They had not yet developed the confederacy of the five cities, like the Swiss cantons, which they established later. Abimelech is not a name, but a title, like Pharaoh. The Philistine king has more honor than any subsequent king. We have discussed the responsibility of Abraham, making Sarah say that she was his sister. She is eighty years old, but a most beautiful young woman. God has restored youth to her and Abraham. Abimelech takes Sarah, but is prevented from harming her through a dream God sent, warning him that she was the wife of one of his prophets, and that he would die if he did not return her. Abimelech justly rebukes them both. In Gen 19:9 he says to Abraham, “What hast thou done unto us? and in what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and my kingdom a great sin?” Abraham makes a very lame excuse. Isaac repeats the very same thing with another Abimelech. To Sarah, Abimelech says, “Behold, I have given a thousand pieces of silver; behold it is for thee a covering of the eyes to all that are with thee; and in respect of all thou art righted.” The wrong that had been done by her captivity was thus amply compensated. The text of the King James Version says she was reproved. I think it was a gentle rebuke. Note the healing of Abimelech in Gen 19:17 at the prayer of Abraham, just as we see the friends of Job forgiven at the intercession of Job, and Israel forgiven at the intercession of Samuel and Moses. What mighty power has the intercessory prayer of good men with God!
According to promise Isaac was born. Then Sarah becomes both inspired and poetical. Her Magnification sounds like that of the virgin Mary. She said, “God hath made me to laugh; every one that heareth will laugh with me.” The child was named Isaac, which means laughter. Some children are born to make parental hearts sing with joy. Many children cause the parental heart to ache.
We come to another incident: “The child grew, and was weaned.” And Abraham made a great religious festival in honor of the weaning of Isaac. Sarah saw the son of Hagar making sport and said to Abraham, “Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.” It was a little hard on Ishmael. He had been the only child, much loved by his father. He was taking a pretty wide swing in affairs at the birth of Isaac, which, according to an old saying, “broke his nose,” and put him out of commission. So, although it was a religious ceremony, Ishmael mocked, sinning against God, the father, mother, and child. Sarah seems rather hard, but she was exceedingly wise. It was very difficult to bring up two seta of children in a house where there is already a spirit of jealousy. Ishmael would not have been a safe guide for his little brother. It hurt Abraham very much. That night God appeared to him in a vision and confirmed what Sarah had said. Paul quotes the words of Sarah in Gal 4 , “Cast out the handmaid and her son.” In that famous letter he says that Hagar and Sarah are allegorical, representing two covenants: one according to the flesh, Hagar, typifying Israel; the other according to the spirit, in which Sarah represents the Jerusalem which is above. All true spiritual children of Abraham are children of promise, born of the spirit. This interpretation throws a great light on the incidents recorded here.
The story becomes still more pathetic when early next morning Abraham puts a goatskin full of water and some bread upon Hagar’s shoulder, and starts her and the boy off. She struck out, trying to find the way to Egypt. But she got tangled up in the desert. In a hot dry, sandy country it does not take long to drink all the water a woman can carry. The water gave out. Ishmael was famishing with thirst. The mother could not bear to see him die. So she put him under a little bush to shelter him as much as possible, and drawing off to a distance, wept and sobbed in anguish of spirit. And the angel of God spoke to her, “What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.” The boy, too, was praying. Once in preaching a sermon to children I took that text. The other night my little boy asked me to repeat a scripture before we had family prayer. I told him of the boy born to be a wild man, against whom was every man’s hand, and whose hand was against every man. How that he and his mother had to leave home when he was a little fellow. That hot walk in the desert, the insatiable thirst, and the mother going off to pray. How it occurred to the little boy to pray, and how when he prayed God heard the voice of the lad himself. Instantly my little boy spoke up and began to tell of two or three times when he had prayed and God had heard him. I encouraged him in that thought. I told him whenever he got into trouble, no matter how small, to pray; just as a child to tell God, and while nobody on earth might hear him, his Heavenly Father would hear even a whisper. I tell you this that you may impress upon young people the fact that God heard the voice of the lad himself. At the Arkansas convention in Texarkana, I preached a sermon for Dr. Barton’s church. A mother came to me before preaching and said that she had two boys in whom she was very much interested, and wanted me to pray for them that day. I said, “Suppose you tell those boys to pray while I preach.” She told them, and at the close of the sermon they were happily converted. Dr. Barton baptized them that night, both at one time, holding each other’s hands. It made a very impressive sight. Having heard about this, when I returned later to Texarkana, another mother came and stated a similar case. I told her to ask the lad to pray himself. That boy was converted and joined the church at the close of the service. In lecturing to the Y. M. C. A. in the afternoon, before I commenced my talk, I raised the point that God could hear anybody in that audience of five hundred men. There were some very bad cases, men who had stained their homes, grieved their wives, darkened the prospect of their children. I told them that God would hear them even on the brink of hell, if they would turn to him and pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” One man stepped right up and gave me his hand. At night all the churches worshiped at one church. I preached to within ten minutes of train time, and left without knowing the result. But with two preachers to call out from the audience the people who would take God at his word, and judging from the seeming impression, there ought to have been a great many conversions there that night. I would be glad if every preacher would take that text, “I have heard the voice of the lad where he is,” and preach a sermon. Get it on the minds of the children that God will hear them. “God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad.” That is the second part of the text. First, I have heard the voice of the lad himself; second, God was with the lad.
His mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt, and he became the father of twelve nations. I have told you about the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael. They hold the ground where Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Leah, Isaac, and Rachel were buried. There is an immense structure built at that place. Until 1869 they would not allow a Gentile to enter, but in that year the Prince of Wales was permitted to go inside. The remainder of the chapter states a remarkable covenant between Abraham and Abimelech. It became evident that God was with Abraham and nobody could harm him. Abimelech wanted a covenant with that kind of a man. In my preaching I used to advise sinners never to go into business with a backslidden Christian, for God will surely visit him with Judgments, and he may come with fire to burn up the store. Anyway, a backslidden Christian is an unsafe partner. But what a fine partner is a Christian who is not a backslidden one. Abraham said that he ought to rectify a certain offense. “I dug this well in order to water my stock and your servants took it.” Abimelech righted the wrong. They took an oath of amity toward each other, so that the place was called Beersheba, i.e., the well of the oath. That marks the southern boundary of Palestine as we regard it.
I am going to give you the salient points of the twenty-second chapter, which presents the most remarkable incident in the life of Abraham. God had said that in Isaac was all Abraham’s hope for the future. God determined to try the faith of Abraham. It has been forty years since his conversion, and he has been stepping up higher and higher until you would think he must have reached the heights and graduated. But the crowning touch to his faith is to come now. God said, “Take now thy sou, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering.” It was a staggering request, and yet Abraham staggered not in unbelief. He thought, “What will become of God’s promise?” In Hebrews it is explained how he argued it out and trusted. If God said, “Put Isaac to death,” he would do it, but God had said that through Isaac was to come the Messiah. So it would be necessary for God to raise Isaac from the dead. They set out early. If they had waked Sarah and told her what they were going to do, there probably would have been a row. So they took their servant, a mule, and some wood, and started to distant Mount Moriah, where Jerusalem is. As they drew near the place, Isaac, who had been doing some thinking, says, “Father, here is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” It had not been mentioned what his part was. Abraham answered, “My son, the Lord will pro-, vide a sacrifice.” They reached the place near where Christ was later crucified. Abraham built the altar and placed the wood upon it. He commenced binding Isaac. The son, never saying a word, submitted. He stretched him over that altar, and drew his knife over the boy, and already in Abraham’s mind Isaac was dead. But just as the knife was about to descend, God said, “Abraham, Abraham, stay thy hand. Isaac shall not die.” He looked around and there in a bush was a ram caught by its horns. He took that and offered it.
There are two marvelous lessons to be derived from this incident. The most significant is that God made Abraham feel the anguish that God felt in giving up his only begotten Son to die for man. Abraham is the only man that ever entered into the sorrow of the Divine Mind in giving up Jesus to die. When he is bound on the cross and prays, “Save me from the sword,” the Father cries out, “Wake, O sword, and smite the Shepherd.” When he cries, “Save me from the enemy that goeth about like a roaring lion,” and when he prays, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” it was not possible if anybody was to be saved. The other thought is that as the Father consented to give up his Son, so the Son obediently submitted. Thus Isaac becomes the type of Christ. And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh, “it shall be provided.” When I was a young preacher I preached a sermon on all the double names of Jehovah found in the Old Testament, such as Jehovah-Elohim, Jehovah-Tsidkena, Jehovah-jireh, etc.
Now we come to a passage that made a great impression on the mind of the author of the letter to the Hebrews. “And the angel of the Lord called unto Abram in a second time out of heaven, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” That matter is discussed in Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians. When I was a young preacher I used to delight in preaching from this passage, and I like it yet, Heb 6:16 , “For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” In order to assure every child of God that his hope is well grounded and that he cannot be disappointed, two things in which it is impossible for God to lie are joined and twisted together to make a cable which is fastened to the anchor of hope: one, the promise of God, the other the oath of God. In commenting upon that Paul said that, though it was a covenant with a man, because it was confirmed by the oath of God, it could not be disannulled.
In Gen 22:20 we find, “And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also borne children unto thy brother Nahor; Uz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram, and Chesed, and Hazo and Pildash, and Jidlaph and Bethuel. And Bethuel begat Rebekah.” That incident is put in to prepare for a subsequent chapter, showing where Isaac got his wife. My wife’s brother, when he was a little fellow, came to his mother and wanted to know who were the boys that milked a bear. She said she did not know. He said it was in the Bible, so he read, “Those eight did Milcah bear.” Then his mother told him of the old Hardshell preacher’s sermon on that text, to this effect: They got out of milk at a certain house. The only available source was a she bear, and so the sturdy boys roped her and brought in the milk.
The twenty-third chapter, which gives an account of the death of Sarah, and the purchase of a burial place by Abraham, is a very interesting historical account because it gives all the details of a noted business transaction, showing how Orientals dealt in their trades. Notice particularly the Gen 23:11 , what Ephron says, “Nay, my lord, hear me: the field I give thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the children of my people gave I it thee: bury thy dead.” If an Englishman or an American had said that, it would have meant an outright gift, but for an Oriental or a Mexican, he expects the full price. If you enter a house in Mexico they will tell you everything is yours, cows, lambs, etc., but don’t you take for granted that it is so; it is just soft speech. Notice in closing this transaction that the currency was not coin, but weighed silver. Silver and gold were not put in pieces of money, but in any form; as, rings, bracelets, or bars, counted by weight; not numbered.
The twenty-fourth chapter tells how marriages were contracted in the East, and is an exceedingly interesting bit of history on that subject. Abraham brings out a revelation that God had previously made that we have no account of elsewhere, viz.: that God had told him not to marry his son to any of the idolaters of the land, but to his own people who were worshipers of God. So Abraham took Eliezer and swore him. The form of the oath is given, showing how these solemn oaths were taken between man and man. This head servant, taking ten camels, struck out from the southern part of Palestine, going to the Euphrates, a long trip, though common for caravans. He is much concerned about his mission and says to Abraham, “You tell me not to take Isaac there because God told you never to take your son back to that country.” There is another revelation, not previously recorded. “Now, suppose when I get there the girl won’t come to me?” Abraham said, “That will exempt you from your responsibility, but God will prosper you in this, his arrangement, and will govern you in everything.” We have a description of this old man falling on a plan by which a sign would be given. He sat down near a well and waited for the women to come and draw water. In this country men draw the water we don’t expect women to draw enough water for a herd of cattle. His plan was that he would steadily look at the women who came and fixing his mind on one, he would ask her to give him a drink, and if she inclined the bucket to him and said, “Let me water your camels,” she would be the one. Later we find Jacob falling upon the same method. In our time young men manage to find their wives without signs or omens. So when Rebekah, granddaughter of Nahor, brother of Abraham, came out, a beautiful virgin, and he asked her for a drink, and she let her pitcher down and held it in her hand, and then offered to water the camels, Eliezer knew she was the right one. He took a ring of gold, a half-shekel in weight, two bracelets for her hands, ten shekels in weight, and said, “Whose daughter art thou? Is there in thy father’s house a place for us to pass the night?” She told him who she was, and that there was a place and abundant provisions for him and his camels.
So when she got to the house she reported the case and her brothers came out. Her father was a polygamist, and the eldest of each set of children was the head. So Laban, Rebekah’s brother, came out and invited old Eliezer in. Food is set before him, but he says, “I will not eat until I have told my message.” Laban told him to tell it. And he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. And Jehovah hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great; and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men servants and maid servants, and camels and asses. And Sarah, my master’s wife, bare a son to my master when she was old; and unto him hath he given all that he hath.” That was a very fine introduction. Whenever you open negotiations with a young lady’s father for marriage in the case of a young man whose father is very wealthy and this son his only heir, you have paved the way for a fair hearing. He strengthened the case by stating that under the inspiration of God he was forbidden to take a wife from among the idolaters, but was commanded to come to this place for a wife, the idea of appointment by God, a match made in heaven. Some matches are made of sulfur, not in heaven. He gave his third reason. “Not only is my master’s son rich, and I am here under the arrangement of God, but after I got to this place, I let God give me a sign to determine the woman.” Having stated his case he says, “If you will deal truly and kindly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.”
In the King James Version, Eliezer’s speech has a translation that used to be very famous as a text. He says, “I have come to seek a bride for my lord.” A Methodist preacher in Edward Eggleston’s Circuit Rider, preaching from that text before an immense congregation, says, “My theme is suggested by the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis,” and gave a little of the history. “Now,” he says, “I am here to seek a bride for my Lord, to espouse a soul to God. And like old Eliezer, I am under an oath of God. Like him I am not willing to eat until I have stated my case. And like him I have come by divine appointment. And like him I have tokens of his spirit that somewhere in this congregation is the bride of God. And like him I commence wooing for my Lord by stating whose son he is. He is the Son of God. He is very rich. He is the heir of all things in the world.” Edward Eggleston, in telling that story, relates that Patsy, a beautiful girl, who had despised religion and circuit riders, was wonderfully impressed by the sermon. It was the custom in the early days of Methodism to demand that women should eschew jewels, basing it on a New Testament expression about bad worldly ornaments. So while the preacher was exhorting and pleading for a bride for his master, Patsy commenced taking off her earrings, loosening her bracelets, and putting them all on the table. Then she said, “I seek to be ornamented by the One to whom you propose to espouse me, even the Lord Jesus Christ. I lay aside the trappings of external wealth and splendour, and look for that quality of spirit that best ornaments a woman.” Paul says, showing that the Methodist preacher was not going out of the record, “I have espoused you to Christ.”
The custom was for the betrothal to take place at the house of the bride’s father, and Eliezer comes in the name of his master and the betrothal is undertaken. The marriage is consummated whenever the bride is taken to the bridegroom’s house, and he meets and takes her in. The virgins of Mat 25 are all espoused, but the bridegroom has not yet come to take them to his house. When Eliezer had stated his case the father and brother say, “This thing proceeds from Jehovah, and it is a question we cannot answer. Behold Rebekah is before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife of thy master’s son.” As soon as the betrothal is completed, Eliezer according to custom, takes the lady to his camel and hands out the presents sent by the bridegroom. “And the servants brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah, and he gave also to her brother and her mother precious things.” We perpetuate that somewhat in our marriage festivals when friends bring bridal presents. According to an Eastern custom a bridegroom makes presents to the bride’s mother and family. As these samples of the richness of Abraham were displayed, they felt still better satisfied about the judiciousness of the marriage.
Next morning Eliezer wants to start right home, but they said, “Let the damsel stay awhile. You stay a couple of weeks or months.” But Orientals always expect the answer, “No, I am in a hurry. I must go.” So they proposed to leave it to the girl. I have often wondered if they were going to leave anything to her. They called Rebekah and she said, “I will go.” That leads me to remark what a singular thing it is that a girl raised in a loving family, sheltered by parental care from even a cold breath of air, the pride and light of the house, all at once, on one night’s notice, pulls up stakes and leaves the old home, saying to a man pretty much what Ruth said to Naomi, “Where thou goest I will go. Where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy God shall be my God, and thy people shall be my people, and God do so to me, if I ever cease from following after thee.” And yet, it is God’s providence. So Rebekah and her maids, and the servant of Abraham and his men struck out from Haran on the Euphrates, on that long pilgrimage, south to Damascus; to the headwaters of the Jordan; then down either side of the river until you come to Hebron, where the bridegroom was. Just before Rebekah gets to Hebron, it happened that Isaac was out, taking a walk for meditation. In such a period of a young man’s life, he is given to meditation. When you see a young fellow that has always wanted to be surrounded by a crowd of boys, getting up early in the morning and taking a long walk by himself, there is something up. So Isaac was out on this meditating expedition, and Rebekah saw him. She instantly slipped down from the camel and put the veil over her face. The bridegroom could never see the face of the bride until he took her into his house. That part I do not think I would like. In the East the women are secluded until after their marriage.
The next chapter gives us an account of Abraham we hardly expect. Sarah has been dead sometime, and he took another wife, Keturah. Then there is a statement of their children and the countries they inhabit. They become mostly Arabs. We find this in Gen 25:5 : “And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, Hagar and Keturah, that Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts; and he sent them away from his son Isaac, while he yet lived, eastward unto the east country.” Though he made provisions for all, his general estate went to the child of promise.
Abraham lived 175 years and died in a good old age, full of days. Brother Smith used that expression in conducting the funeral of President Brooks’ father. Going from the funeral I asked my wife, who is a good listener to a sermon of any kind, what Brother Smith said. She said, “He had the usual things to say on such occasions, but brought out the biblical interpretation I am not sure about. He interpreted ‘full of days’ to mean ‘satisfied with his days.’ ” I said, “He certainly is right. Old age and full of days are distinguished thus. A man might live to be an old man and not be full of days. Every retrospect of his life might bring him sorrow.” I am afraid few people, when they come to die, can say with Paul, “The time of my exodus is at hand, and I am ready to be poured out full of days. I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up a crown which God the righteous judge shall give to me.”
The next noticeable expression is, “He was gathered to his people.” That does not mean that his body was deposited in the family burying ground. As yet no member of his family was in the cave of Machpelah except his wife. In the Old Testament the expression refers to the soul and is one of those expressions that teach the belief in the immortality of the soul and the existence of the soul separate from the body. Next, Isaac and Ishmael bury him. The last time we saw Ishmael was at the weaning of Isaac, when he was mocking. Both are married. Ishmael has a large family. The fathers of these nationalities that are to be distinct until the second coming of Christ, come together at the father’s grave. It is very touching that these two boys whom the antagonism of life had parted, whom the very trend of destiny had led separate, when the father died, came back without antagonism to bury him.
The chapter then gives a brief account of the generations of Ishmael, which constitutes one of the sections of the book of Genesis. Note the fact that according to the promise made to Ishmael, he becomes the father of twelve tribes. He died at the age of 137. Gen 25:18 says, “Before the face of his brethren he abode.” That expression means that he dwelt in the sight of his brethren, yet separated from them, living his own independent life.
Abraham is now dead. Here is a question I put to every class in Genesis. Analyze the character of Abraham and state the constituent elements of his greatness. I give you some hints.
(1) His mighty faith, the father of the faithful, whose faith took steps and staggered not through unbelief, no matter how often or hard it was tried. That is the supreme element of his greatness.
(2) His habit of religion. He took no “religious furloughs” when he travelled, as some men do. Wherever he stopped he erected an altar to God. Some years ago at Texarkana, some young men got on the train, and among them a Baptist preacher, and all were drinking. Finally one of them turned to him and said, “I won’t drink with you any more unless you will promise to quit preaching.” He was away from home and thought nobody knew him.
(3) His capacity for friendship. He was one of very few men counted the friend of God. Christ says concerning some of his people, “I call you not servants. I call you friends, and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Abraham was also a friend of his fellow men. No man or woman, no matter what the external conditions, who is not capable of great, strong, undying friendship, can be very great.
(4) His love of peace. He said to Lot concerning the strife between the herdsmen, “Let there be no strife between us. Though I am the older and came here first, you can take the land you want and I will take what is left.” Lot selected the fertile plain of the Jordan and pitched his tent. Wherever Abraham went there were warlike, quarrelsome tribes, men who lived with swords on and daggers in hand, yet he had no quarrels.
(5) But as we have seen, when necessary to make war, he struck fast, hard, and effectively. He evinced great courage.
(6) His independence of character. He would not accept a gift from Ephron the Hittite a burying place for his dead. He would not accept as much as a shoestring from the spoils of the Sodomites, which he had recovered in battle from the Babylonians, lest the king of Sodom should say, “I have made Abram rich.”
(7) His justice. In an old reader there is a legend that a stranger, lost and in trouble, came to his tent. Abraham cared for his stock, washed his feet, gave him food and a place to sleep. But when the man started to lie down, Abraham seized him and said, “You cannot sleep under my tent. You propose to lie down without thanking God for these blessings!” He put him out and the man went to sleep outside of the tent. In the night came a voice from heaven, “Abraham, where is the guest I sent?” “Lord, he came; I treated him kindly, but when I saw how unthankful to thee he was, I cast him out.” “Abraham, I have borne with that man many years. Could you not bear with him one night? I sent him that you might lead him to me.” Abraham, weeping, went out, and brought the man back in his arms.
(8) Governing his family. “I know Abraham, that he will command his children after him.”
(9) His unswerving obedience.
(10) His affection and provision for his family. He loved his wife very much, and made provision for every member of his family before he died. These are some of the characteristics of the greatness of Abraham. They are homely virtues, but they are rare on that account.
QUESTIONS 1. To whom was Lot indebted for his rescue from the destruction of Sodom? Proof?
2. What was the origin of the Moabites and Ammonites and how does their history harmonize with their origin?
3. In whose country does Abraham locate after the destruction of Sodom, of which son of Noah were they descendants and what the origin of their name?
4. Who was king of this people, what was Abraham’s aim here and what notable example of intercessory prayer?
5. Recite Sarah’s Magnification and give a New Testament parallel.
6. What was the occasion of Ishmael’s sin that drove him and his mother from home, what was the sin itself, the wisdom of Sarah, the divine approval and the New Testament use of this incident?
7. Tell the story of Hagar and Ishmael as outcasts, what text cited in this story, and what the application?
8. Whom did Ishmael marry, how many nations of his descendants and who are his descendants today?
9. What was the covenant between Abimelech and Abraham and what advice to businessmen is based thereon?
10. What great trial of Abraham’s faith and how did he stand the test?
11. What two marvelous lessons from this incident?
12. What blessing from heaven on Abraham because of his obedience in this test and what New Testament impress of this passage?
13. In the great trial of his faith when Isaac was offered, how was Abraham a type of the Father?
14. Why the incident of Gen 22:20-24 , given here, and what the text and Hardshell sermon cited?
15. What of particular interest in the twenty-third chapter, what Oriental custom here exemplified and what was the medium of exchange?
16. What two new revelations in Gen 24 , and tell the story of how Isaac got his wife.
17. What famous text is in this passage and what noted sermon cited on it?
18. What was the custom of Oriental marriages and what New Testament scripture does it illustrate?
19. What part of the Oriental marriage do we perpetuate in our marriages and with what modifications?
20. What part did Rebekah have in this affair and what eastern custom does she comply with upon her first sight of Isaac?
21. Who was Abraham’s second wife and who were his descendants by this wife?
22. How old was Abraham when he died and what is the meaning of “full of days”?
23. What is the meaning, both negatively and positively, of the expression: “He was gathered to his people,” what touching thing occurred at his funeral and what was the meaning of “Before the face of his brethren he abode”?
24. Analyze the character of Abraham and state the constituent elements of his greatness.
Gen 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am].
Ver. 1. God did tempt Abraham. ] Temptation is twofold – (1.) Probationis (2.) Perditionis The former is of God; the latter, of the devil. God is said to tempt, when he puts us upon the trial of our faith and obedience, that he may “do us good in the latter end”. Deu 8:16 Satan ever seeks to do us harm. He, when he comes to tempt, comes with his sieve, as to Peter. Luk 23:21 Christ with his “fan”. Mat 3:12 Now a fan casteth out the worst, and keepeth in the best; a sieve keepeth in the worst, and casteth out the best. Right so Christ (and his trials) purgeth our corruption, and increaseth grace: contrarily the devil, if there be any ill thing in us, confirmeth it; if faith, or any good thing in us, he weakeneth it. Now the temptations of Satan are either (1.) of seducement; Jam 1:15 or (2.) of buffeting and grievance. 2Co 12:7 In seducement we are pressed with some lesser or darling corruption, whereto our appetites by nature are most propense. And here Satan hath his machinations; 2Co 2:11 methods; Eph 6:11 “depths”; Rev 2:24 “darts”; Eph 6:16 “fiery darts” pointed and poisoned with the venom of serpents, which set the heart on fire from one lust to another. In buffetings we are dogged with the foulest lusts of atheism, suicide, &c., such as nature startleth at, and abhorreth; and these, if we resist, and be merely passive, are only our crosses, Satan’s sins. For before a temptation can be a sin, it must have somewhat of coveting in it. And trials are only taps to give vent to corruption.
Genesis
FAITH TESTED AND CROWNED
Gen 22:1 – Gen 22:14 I
1. The very first words of this solemn narrative raise many questions. We have God appointing the awful trial. The Revised Version properly replaces ‘tempt’ by ‘prove.’ The former word conveys the idea of appealing to the worse part of a man, with the wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal to the better part of a man, with the desire that he should stand. Temptation says: ‘Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is wrong.’ Trial, or proving, says: ‘Do this right and noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is painful.’ The one is ‘a sweet, beguiling melody,’ breathing soft indulgence and relaxation over the soul; the other is a pealing trumpet-call to high achievements.
God’s proving does not mean that He stands by, watching how His child will behave. He helps us to sustain the trial to which He subjects us. Life is all probation; and because it is so, it is all the field for the divine aid. The motive of His proving men is that they may be strengthened. He puts us into His gymnasium to improve our physique. If we stand the trial, our faith is increased; if we fall, we learn self-distrust and closer clinging to Him. No objection can be raised to the representation of this passage as to God’s proving Abraham, which does not equally apply to the whole structure of life as a place of probation that it may be a place of blessing. But the manner of the trial here presents a difficulty. How could God command a father to kill his son? Is that in accordance with His character? Well, two considerations deserve attention. First, the final issue; namely, Isaac’s deliverance, was an integral part of the divine purpose from the beginning of the trial; so that the question really is, Was it accordant with the divine character to require readiness to sacrifice even a son at His command? Second, that in Abraham’s time, a father’s right over his child’s life was unquestioned, and that therefore this command, though it lacerated Abraham’s heart, did not wound his conscience as it would do were it heard to-day. It is impossible to conceive of a divine injunction such as this being addressed to us. We have learned the inalienable sacredness of every life, and the awful prerogative and burden of individuality. God’s command cannot enforce sin. But it was not wrong in Abraham’s eyes for a father to slay his son; and God might shape His message to the form of the existing morality without derogation from His character, especially when the result of the message would be, among other things, to teach His abhorrence of human sacrifices, and so to lift the existing morality to a higher level.
2. The great body of the history sets before us Abraham standing the terrible test. What unsurpassable beauty is in the simple story! It is remarkable, even among the scriptural narratives, for the entire absence of anything but the visible facts. There is not a syllable about the feelings of father or of son. The silence is more pathetic than many words. We look as into a magic crystal, and see the very event before our eyes, and our own imaginations tell us more of the world of struggle and sorrow raging under that calm outside than the highest art could do. The pathos of reticence was never more perfectly illustrated. Observe, too, the minute, prolonged details of the slow progress to the dread instant of sacrifice. Each step is told in precisely the same manner, and the series of short clauses, coupled together by an artless ‘and,’ are like the single strokes of a passing bell, or the slow drops of blood heard falling from a fatal wound. The homely preparations for the journey are made by Abraham himself. He makes no confidante of Sarah; only God and himself knew what that bundle of wood meant. What thoughts must have torn his soul throughout these weary days! How hard to keep his voice round and full while he spoke to Isaac! How much the long protracted tension of the march increased the sharpness of the test! It is easier to reach the height of obedient self-sacrifice in some moment of enthusiasm, than to keep up there through the commonplace details of slowly passing days. Many a faith, which could even have slain its dearest, would have broken down long before the last step of that sad journey was taken.
The elements of the trial were two: first, Abraham’s soul was torn asunder by the conflict of fatherly love and obedience to God. The narrative intimates this struggle by continually insisting on the relationship between the two. The command dwells with emphasis on it: ‘thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.’ He takes with him ‘Isaac his son’; lays the wood on ‘Isaac his son.’ Isaac ‘spake unto Abraham his father’; Abraham answers, ‘Here am I, my son’; and again, ‘My son, God will provide.’ He bound ‘Isaac his son’; he ‘took the knife to slay his son’; and lastly, in the glad surprise at the end, he offers the ram ‘in the stead of his son.’ Thus, at every turn, the tender bond is forced on our notice, that we may feel how terrible was the task laid on him-to cut it asunder with his own hand. The friend of God must hold all other love as less than His, and must be ready to yield up the dearest at His bidding. Cruel as the necessity seems to flesh and blood, and specially poignant as his pain was, in essence Abraham’s trial only required of him what all true religion requires of us. Some of us have been called by God’s providence to give up the light of our eyes, the joy of our homes, to Him. Some of us have had to make the choice between earthly and heavenly love. All of us have to throne God in our hearts, and to let not the dearest usurp His place. In our weakness we may well shrink from such a test. But let us not forget that the trial of Abraham was not imposed by his own mistaken conceptions of duty, nor by a sterner God than the New Testament reveals, but is distinctly set before every Christian in essence, though not in form, by the gentle lips from which flowed the law of love more stringent and exclusive in its claims than any other: ‘He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.’
The conflict in Abraham’s soul had a still more painful aspect in that it seemed to rend his very religion into two. Faith in the promise on which he had been living all his life drew one way; faith in the later command, another. God seemed to be against God, faith against faith, promise against command. If he obeys now, what is to become of the hopes that had shone for years before him? His whole career will be rendered nugatory, and with his own hand he will crush to powder his life’s work. That wonderful short dialogue which broke the stern silence of the journey seems to throw light on his mood. There is nothing in literature sacred or secular, fact or fiction, poetry or prose, more touching than the innocent curiosity of Isaac’s boyish question, and the yearning self-restraint of the father’s desperate and yet calm answer. But its value is not only in its pathos. It seems to show that, though he knew not how, still he held by the hope that somehow God would not forget His promise. Out of his very despair, his faith struck, out of the flint of the hard command, a little spark which served to give some flicker of light amid the darkness. His answer to his boy does not make his sacrifice less, but his faith more. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives a somewhat different turn to his hopes, when he tells us that he offered up the heir of the promises, ‘accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead.’ Both ways of clinging to the early promise, even while obeying the later command, seem to have passed through his mind. The wavering from the one to the other is natural. He is sure that God had not lied before, and means what He commands now. He is sure that there is some point of reconciliation-perhaps this, perhaps that, but certainly somewhat. So he goes straight on the road marked for him, quite sure that it will not end in a blind alley, from which there is no exit. That is the very climax of faith-to trust God so absolutely, even when His ways seem contradictory, as to be more willing to believe apparent impossibilities than to doubt Him, and to be therefore ready for the hardest trial of obedience. We, too, have sometimes to take courses which seem to annihilate the hope and aims of a life. The lesson for us is to go straight on the path of clear duty wherever it leads. If it seem to bring us up to inaccessible cliffs, we may be sure that when we get there we shall find some ledge, though it may be no broader than a chamois could tread, which will suffice for a path. If it seem to bring us to a deep and bridgeless stream, we shall find a ford when we get to the water’s edge. If the mountains seem to draw together and bar a passage, we shall find, when we reach them, that they open out; though it may be no wider than a canon, still the stream can get through, and our boat with it.
3. So we have the climax of the story-faith rewarded. The first great lesson which the interposition of the Divine voice teaches us, is that obedience is complete when the inward surrender is complete. The outward act was needless. Abraham would have done no more if the flashing knife had buried itself in Isaac’s heart. Here is the first great proclamation of the truth which revolutionises morality and religion, the beginnings of the teaching which culminates in the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, and in the gospel of salvation, not by deeds, but through faith. The will is the man, the true action is the submission of the will. The outward deed is only the coarse medium through which it is made visible for men: God looks on purpose as performance.
Again, faith is rewarded by God’s acceptance and approval. ‘I know that thou fearest God,’ not meaning that He learned the heart by the conduct, but that, on occasion of the conduct, He breathes into the obedient heart that calm consciousness of its service as recognised and accepted by Him, which is the highest reward that His friend can know. ‘To be well pleasing to Him’ is our noblest aim, which, cherished, makes sacrifice sweet, and all difficult things easy. ‘Nor know we anything more fair Than is the smile upon Thy face.’
Again, faith is rewarded by a deeper insight into God’s will. Much has been said about the sacrifice of Isaac in its bearing upon the custom of human sacrifice. We do not believe that Abraham was led to his act by a mistaken idea, borrowed from surrounding idolatries. His position as the sole monotheist amid these, the absence of evidence that human sacrifice was practised then among his neighbours, and, above all, the fact of the divine approval of his intention, forbid our acceptance of that theory. Nor can we regard the condemnation of such sacrifices as the main object of the incident. But no doubt an incidental result, and, we may perhaps say, a subsidiary purpose of it, was to stamp all such hideous usages with the brand of God’s displeasure. The mode of thought which led to them was deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Old World, and corresponded to a true conception of the needs of humanity. The dark sense of sin, the conviction that it required expiation, and that procurable only by death, drove men to these horrid rites. And that ram, caught in the thicket, thorn-crowned and substituted for the human victim, taught Abraham and his sons that God appointed and provided a lamb for an offering. It was a lesson won by faith. Nor need we hesitate to see some dim forecast of the great Substitute whom God provided, who bears the sins of the world.
Again, faith is rewarded by receiving back the surrendered blessing, made more precious because it has been laid on the altar. How strange and solemn must have been the joy with which these two looked in each other’s faces! What thankful wonder must have filled Abraham’s heart as he loosed the cord that had bound his son! It would be many days before the thrill of gratitude died away, and the possession of his son seemed to Abraham, or that of life seemed to Isaac, a common thing. He was doubly now a child of wonder, born by miracle, delivered by miracle. So is it ever. God gives us back our sacrifices, tinged with a new beauty, and purified from earthly alloy.
We never know how sweet our blessings are till we have yielded them to Him. ‘There is no man that hath left’ anything or any person for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s who will not ‘receive a hundred-fold more in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.’
Lastly, Abraham was rewarded by being made a faint adumbration, for all time, of the yet more wondrous and awful love of the divine Father, who, for our sakes, has surrendered His only-begotten Son, whom He loved. Paul quotes the very words of this chapter when he says: ‘He that spared not His own Son , but delivered Him up for us all.’ Such thoughts carry us into dim regions, in which, perhaps, silence is best. Did some shadow of loss and pain pass over the divine all-sufficiency and joy, when He sent His Son? Was the unresisting innocence of the son a far-off likeness of the willing eagerness of the sinless Sufferer who chose to die? Was the resolved surrender of the father a faint prelude of the deep divine love which gave His only Son for us? Shall we not say, ‘Now I know that Thou lovest me, because Thou hast not withheld Thy Son, Thine only Son, from me’? Shall we not recognise this as the crown of Abraham’s reward, that his act of surrender of his dearest to God, his Friend, has been glorified by being made the mirror of God’s unspeakable gift of His Son to us, His enemies?
Genesis
THE CROWNING TEST AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH
II
Our best way of knowing ourselves is to observe our own conduct, especially when it is hard to do nobly. We may easily cheat ourselves about what is the basis and ruling motive of our lives, but our actions will show it us. God does not ‘test’ us as if He did not know what was gold and what base metal, but the proving is meant to make clear to others and ourselves what is the worth and strength of our religion. The test is also a means of increasing the faith which it demonstrates, so that the exhortation to ‘count it all joy’ to have faith tried is no overstrained counsel of perfection.
The narrative plainly declares that the command to sacrifice his son was to Abraham unmistakably divine. The explanation that Abraham, living beside peoples who practised child-sacrifice, heard but the voice of his own conscience asking, ‘Canst thou do for Jehovah what these do for Moloch?’ does not correspond to the record. No doubt God does speak through conscience; but what sent Abraham on his terrible journey was a command which he knew did not spring up within, but came to him from above. We may believe or disbelieve the possibility or the actuality of such direct and distinguishable commands from God, but we do not face the facts of this narrative unless we recognise that it asserts that God made His will known to Abraham, and that Abraham knew that it was God’s will, not his own thought.
But is it conceivable that God should ever bid a man commit a crime? To the question put in that bald way, of course there can be but one answer, No. But several conditions have to be taken into account. First, it is conceivable that God should test a man’s willingness to surrender what is most precious to him, and what all his hopes are fixed on; and this command was given with the purpose that it should not be obeyed in fact, if the willingness to obey it was proved. Again, the stage of development of the moral sense at which Abraham stood has to be remembered. The child-sacrifices around him were not regarded as crimes, but as worship, and, while his affections were the same as ours, and his father’s heart was wrung, to slay Isaac did not present itself to him as a crime in the way in which it does so to us. God deals with men on the moral and spiritual level to which they have attained, and, by descending to it, raises them higher.
The purpose of the command was to test faith, even more than to test whether earthly love or heavenly obedience were the stronger. There is a beautiful and instructive climax in the designations of Isaac in Gen 22:2 , where four times he is referred to, ‘thy son, thine only son,’ in whom all the hopes of fulfilment of the divine promise were concentrated, so that, if this fruit from the aged tree were cut off, no other could ever grow; ‘whom thou lovest,’-there the sharp point pierces the father’s heart; ‘even Isaac,’ in which name all the ties that knit him to Abraham are gathered up. Each word heightens the greatness of the sacrifice demanded, and is a fresh thrust of the dagger into Abraham’s very life. Each suggests a reason for not slaying Isaac, which sense might plead. God does not hide the painfulness of surrender from us. The more precious the treasure is, the more are we bound to lay it on the altar. But it was Abraham’s faith even more than his love that was tested. The Epistle to the Hebrews lays hold on this as the main element in the trial, that he who ‘had received the promises’ was called to do what seemed to blast all hope of their being fulfilled. What a cruel position to have God’s command and God’s promise apparently in diametrical opposition! But faith loosened even that seemingly inextricable tangle of contradiction, and felt that to obey was for man, and to keep His promise was for God. If we do our duty, He will see to the consequences. ‘Tis mine to obey; ‘tis His to provide.’
Nothing in literature is more tenderly touched or more truly imagined than that long, torturing journey-Abraham silent, Isaac silently wondering, the servants silently following. And, like a flash, at last ‘the place’ was seen afar off. How calmly Abraham speaks to the two followers, mastering his heart’s throbbing even then! ‘We will worship, and come again to you’-was that a ‘pious fraud’ or did it not rather indicate that a ray of hope, like pale light from a shrouded sun, shone for him? He ‘accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.’ Somehow, he knew not how, Isaac slain was still to live and inherit the promises. Anything was possible, but that God’s word should fail was impossible. That picture of the father and son alone, the one bearing the wood, the other the fire and the knife, exchanging no word but once, when the innocent wonder of Isaac’s question must have shaken Abraham’s steadfastness, and made it hard for him to steady his voice to answer, touches the deepest springs of pity and pathetic sublimity. But the answer is in the same spirit as that to the servants, and indicates the same hope. ‘God will provide Himself a lamb, my son.’ He does not know definitely what he expects; he is ready to slay Isaac, but his faith is not quenched, though the end seems so inevitable and near. Faith was never more sharply tested, and never more triumphantly stood the test.
The divine solution of the riddle was kept back till the last moment, as it usually is. The place is slowly reached, the hill slowly climbed, the altar built, the unresisting Isaac bound with what deep thoughts in each, who can tell?, the steady hand holding the glittering knife lifted-a moment more and it will be red with heart’s blood, and not till then does God speak. It is ever so. The trial has ‘its perfect work.’ Faith is led to the edge of the precipice, one step farther and all is over. Then God speaks, all but just too late, and yet ‘right early.’ The willingness to make the sacrifice is tested to the utmost, and being proved, the sacrifice is not required.
Abraham had said to Isaac, ‘God will provide a lamb,’ and the word ‘provide’ is that which appears in the name he gave to the place-Jehovah- jireh . The name, then, commemorated, not the servant’s faith but the Lord’s mercy, and the spirit of it was embodied in what became a popular saying, ‘In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.’ If faith dwells there, its surrenders will be richly rewarded. How much more dear was Isaac to Abraham as they journeyed back to Beersheba! And whatever we lay on God’s altar comes back a ‘hundred-fold more in this life,’ and brings in the world to come life everlasting.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Gen 22:1-8
1Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” 3So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 5Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Gen 22:1 “God” This is the Hebrew word Elohim (see Special Topic: Names for Deity ). This is one of the common names for God which is found in the early parts of Genesis. We are uncertain of its etymology, but because of the play on words found in Gen 31:29, it seems to be related to the phrase “be strong.” Critical scholarship of the 18th and 19th centuries have used the terms Elohim and YHWH, found in different chapters of the book of Genesis, to postulate a documentary hypothesis of several sources. However, the rabbis say that the distinction between these names is found in the character of God which they represent. Elohim represents God’s power and concern as Creator, while YHWH represents God’s covenant mercies. I think the rabbinical explanation is much to be preferred.
“tested Abraham”
SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD TESTS HIS PEOPLE
“Abraham” God changed his name from Abram, which means “exalted father,” to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” God is about to ask Abraham to do something that will jeopardize his new name! The Septuagint doubles God’s address to Abraham, but the Hebrew manuscript has only a single “Abraham” in Gen 22:1, while the double is in Gen 22:11.
“Here I am” This is a Hebrew idiom of availability (cf. Gen 22:11; Exo 3:4; 1Sa 3:4; Isa 6:8).
Gen 22:2 Notice the series of commands given to Abraham concerning Isaac.
1. “Take now your son,” BDB 542, KB 534, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. “Go to the land of Moriah,” BDB 229, KB 246, Qal IMPERATIVE (it is interesting to note that this VERB in this form is found only here and Gen 12:1, which links these two tests as promise and fulfillment [also note Gen 22:18; Gen 12:3])
3. “Offer him there,” BDB 748, KB 828, Hiphil IMPERATIVE
“Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac” This seems to be a purposeful series of phrases referring specifically to Isaac, the special son of promise. Also notice that he is the “only” (BDB 402) son (cf. Gen 22:2; Gen 22:12; Gen 22:16). Ishmael was not the son of promise and he has been sent away! All of Abraham’s hope for descendants is in this boy, and YHWH directs him to sacrifice!
“to the land of Moriah” This term (BDB 599) has been translated many ways.
1. the Vulgate and the Samaritan Pentateuch have “visions”
2. the Targums translate it as “worship”
3. the Septuagint has “high”
4. the Peshitta has “of the Amonites”
5. some scholars translate it as “shown of YHWH”
6. others “the chosen”
7. still others “the place of appearing”
It seems that “the place of appearing” might be the best possible translation based on the other use of this term in 2Ch 3:1, which mentions that the temple was built on Mt. Moriah, the place where God appeared to David. This can either refer to 2Sa 24:16 or more probably, 1Ch 21:18-30. The mention of Abraham offering Isaac in that context is either omitted because it was so well known or it was unknown to the author of 1 Chr.. Also Moriah seems to relate to the city of Melchizedek, Salem (Gen 14:18), later called Jebus, which became Jerusalem.
“a burnt offering” This is the Hebrew term “holocaust” which means “a completely burned sacrifice” (BDB 750). Not only did it involve ritually cutting his throat, but also ritually butchering him. What a shocking command from the Deity who promised him a son and caused him to send Ishmael away! Abraham must trust God without understanding, much like the Numbers 21 incident alluded to in Joh 3:14.
Gen 22:3 “Abraham rose early in the morning” Notice that there is no hesitation or questioning on Abraham’s part recorded, but what a bad night it must have been. Whether this is an omission or a sign of the development of Abraham’s faith is uncertain. Abraham is certainly not perfect, but the greatness of his trust in God can surely be seen in this account. This was the climactic test of trust.
Gen 22:4 “on the third day” The distance between Beersheba and Mt. Moriah is about a two and a half days walk, but with a donkey and the other supplies, it may have taken longer.
Gen 22:5 Notice the commands to his servants and the description of his intent.
1. “stay here,” BDB 442, KB 444, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. “I and the lad will go yonder,” BDB 229, KB 246, Qal COHORTATIVE
3. “we will worship,” BDB 1005, KB 295, Hishtaphel COHORTATIVE
4. “we will return to you,” BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal COHORTATIVE
“we will worship and return to you” Abraham’s faith in God is so certain that Heb 11:17-19 assumes that Isaac will be raised from the dead if necessary in order to accompany Abraham back to their home. This is in line with God’s previous promise to Abraham in Gen 21:12 that Abraham would have descendants through Isaac. Although Abraham did not understood the how or why, he certainly knew and understood the God who was able.
Gen 22:6 “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son” There are many connections between what happens to Isaac and what later happens to Jesus. Personally, I am nervous about any allegory and typology which is not mentioned specifically in the NT because of how much it has been abused by commentators throughout the life of the church. There is obviously an allusion between Isaac and Jesus. What God would not allow Abraham to do to Isaac, He did Himself to His own Son. I think we can understand something of the intensity of the love of God when we empathize with the love and faith of Abraham.
“the fire and the knife” Whether this fire refers to the coals of the previous night’s campfire or to the small bag of flint and kindling is uncertain. The knife is the term for a “butcher knife” (BDB 38), a very large knife which was used for cooking purposes (cf. Jdg 19:29; Pro 30:14).
Gen 22:7 “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering” Isaac’s question must have cut Abraham to the heart, to which Abraham expresses his faith in God so beautifully in Gen 22:8. The fact that Isaac was acquainted with sacrifices shows that the sacrificial system predates the Mosaic legislation. This can be seen (1) in Cain and Abel (Genesis 4); (2) in Noah (Gen 8:20); and (3) in Job (Job 1:5).
Gen 22:8 “and Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb'” The phrase “God will provide” later becomes a name for God in Gen 22:14 (“YHWH,” BDB 217 and “see,” BDB 906). We have seen how common it is for the acts of God to result in a new name to describe His character and actions. The Hebrew term “will provide” is really “will see to it” (BDB 906, KB 1157, Qal IMPERFECT), but it came to be used in this specialized sense (the One who sees is the One who provides).
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
after, i.e. after 40 or 50 years in Canaan.
tempt. Hebrew. prove, so Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4; Exo 20:20. Deu 8:2, Deu 8:16. Jdg 2:22; Jdg 3:1, Jdg 3:4. Ecc 2:1; Ecc 7:23. 1Sa 17:39. 1Ki 10:1, &c. Compare Deu 4:34 (assayed). In later usage trial meant trouble. Book of Wisdom 3.5; 11.10. Sir. 2.1. Judith 8:24-27. Luk 8:13 (compare Mat 13:21). Act 20:19. Heb 2:18. 1Pe 1:6.
Behold, &c. = behold me.
Chapter 22
Now it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham ( Gen 22:1 ),
Or tested Abraham or proved Abraham. “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted of God: because God never tempts a man to do evil” ( Jas 1:13 ). Our enticements to evil come from our own flesh, the lust of our own flesh. God doesn’t tempt you to do evil things. God does test us. Jesus went through great testings and He learned obedience through the things that He suffered.
We as Christians experience testings but the purpose of testings are manifold. There is not just a single purpose for a test, it isn’t always just to make you fail, it’s oftentimes to prove how much you do know, how far along you’ve come in your understanding, in your development.
Our scientists today have created many exotic materials for use in space. But these materials are subjected to all kinds of testing procedures. Now the purpose of these testing procedures isn’t to destroy the material, but to prove whether or not the material will stand up in particular kinds of stresses. We want to prove the value of the material. And so the testing is to prove the worth, the value of the material. Will it stand up under stress, under strain, under heat, under cold, under pressure?
And so we are tested as Christians, not by evil from God. “Let no man say when he is tempted I am tempted of God” ( Jas 1:13 ). God tempted me to do an evil thing. Now God doesn’t do that. I’m tempted to do an evil thing when my own lust is drawn away, I’m enticed. But God does bring me into many testings and God was testing Abraham, proving him. In this manner,
God said unto Abraham, He called him and said, Abraham: Abraham said, Here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah ( Gen 22:1-2 );
This is the first time the word “love” is used in the Bible. And it’s interesting it’s not used of a mother’s love for her children or a husband’s love for his wife, but it’s used of a father’s love for his son as the greatest love, because we have a picture here of the love of the heavenly Father for His own only begotten Son, that relationship that exists between the father and his son. So “take now thy son, thine only son.” Wait a minute, we’ve just sent Ishmael away. He was a son of Abraham through Hagar. God doesn’t even recognize him. Why? Because Hagar was the product of the flesh and God does not recognize the works of the flesh.
Jesus said that “in that day, many were going to come saying, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name and we healed in thy name and we cast out devils in thy name and did marvelous works in thy name? And Jesus said, I will say unto them, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity; I never knew you” ( Luk 13:27 ). They were works actually of the flesh, not really of the Spirit, directed and guided by the Spirit.
There are a lot of our works that we have done for God that are totally unrecognized by God because they are works of the flesh. The Bible says “in that day our works are going to be tried by fire to determine what sort they are” ( 1Co 3:13 ). And if your works will endure the fire, then you’ll be rewarded for them. But much of our works are as wood, hay and stubble. They will be consumed in the fire. You’re not going to get a reward for it because of the motivation behind it.
Jesus said, “Take heed to yourself and your righteousness that you do not your righteousness before men to be seen of men” ( Mat 6:1 ). And so if the works that you’re doing for “God” are really being done with the thought in your mind of recognition by men, they’re going to know how spiritual I am, they’ll know how wonderful I am, they’re going to be saying, “Oh, isn’t he great? Isn’t that marvelous what he’s doing and all?” And I’m doing them in such a way as it draws attention to myself and praise and glory unto me, Jesus said, “Hey, you’ve got your reward. Take heed to yourself and your righteousness that you do not your works before men to be seen of men.” Don’t let that be your motivation. So our-the motivation behind what I’ve done.
Much of what we do for “God”, again in quotes, is really done for our own glory or honor or benefit or recognition. God does not recognize your works of the flesh. That means that a lot of people are going to be totally wiped out, as far as rewards go, for the motivation behind their works or service for God was all wrong.
Now it is tragic that so many times we are motivated by ministers to works of the flesh. I was in a conference in the denomination where I was once serving the Lord, where the supervisor came before the ministers and he said, “Now we know that motivating people through competition is carnal. But it’s time we face the fact that the majority of the people we minister to are carnal, and thus we must use carnal motivation. And so we’re going to have a great contest in which we want each of you pastors to challenge another pastor and his church to an attendance contest and get this competitive thing going”. Put up a comparative kind of a graph on the platform and at ten o’clock, one church calls the other, “How many did you have this morning?” And you give the number and you put up their number, and then you put up your number and you get the people all stirred through competition to beat the other church.
And then one of his cronies by pre-arrangement stood up and said, “That’s a tremendous idea but I make a motion that our whole division challenge another division to a contest”. And another crony by pre-arrangement stood up and said, “Marvelous, I second the motion”, whipping them into a frenzy. The superintendent said, “All in favor stand to your feet”. And they all stood but me. And some of the other young ministers that I have been in some of the sidewalk seminars with, seeing me sit down sat down also.
So after the meeting the superintendent called me. And he began to talk to me about rebellion and cooperation and things of that nature. And I said to him, “Well, let me tell you that I am really in a quandary over this because when you introduced the whole concept of competition, you yourself admitted that it was carnal motivation but that we had to recognize that most of our people were carnal; and thus, we needed to use carnal motivation”.
I said, “I don’t think that I agree with that in principle. I don’t think that we should come down to their level, but we should seek to stay on a higher level and lift them to a higher level of relationship where they don’t need carnal motivation”. But I said, ‘The thing that bothered me even more than that is that then you went ahead, endorsed the motion of the competition between the districts, whipping these ministers into an activity through competition, thus you must assume that all of the ministers are also carnal”. And I said, “I will admit that I am more carnal than I want to be, but God knows I don’t want carnality. I want to be spiritual and walk after the Spirit”.
And so we parted, and as I was praying over the thing saying, “God, I don’t want to be a rebel and I don’t want to be in that position of being classified a rebel. You know that I am not rebelling against You. You know that I’m seeking a spiritual walk and a spiritual life. I just want to walk with You, Lord”. And the Lord spoke to my heart a very special way and He gave me the scripture, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” ( Act 2:47 ). I said, “Oh, thank You, Lord, that’s all I need”.
At the end of this contest period, we received an interesting telegram that said, “Congratulations, your church won first place in the Class A division” and come to a combined rally of the two districts and pick up a trophy and so forth. And take twenty minutes on the program to explain, you know, all that you did to motivate your people. And I had to write back to them and decline the trophy and decline the position and I said, “It would be embarrassing to bring a trophy” and the people never knew there was a contest going on. But “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Naturally I couldn’t stay with the denomination much longer.
But I will confess that I have been guilty of in the early ministry, in the early years of ministry of motivating people to carnal works, through carnality, dividing the church into the reds and the blues, giving away bicycles and giant lollipops and beach balls and the whole thing, you know, to try to motivate people to work for God through carnal motivation. But God does not recognize the works of our flesh; doesn’t even acknowledge them.
“Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac.” God doesn’t even recognize Ishmael, the work of the flesh. In another way, that’s sort of a glorious thing that God doesn’t recognize the works of my flesh. I am glad He doesn’t. In my flesh I’ve done some pretty lousy things and I’m glad that God doesn’t acknowledge those works of my flesh. “Take now thy son, thine only son.” Of course, it brings us to the New Testament, “God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son” ( Joh 3:16 ), and you can only understand the twenty-second chapter of Genesis as you compare it with the New Testament and God giving His only begotten Son.
Here Abraham is called to do what God later did in giving His Son, His only begotten Son as a sacrifice. And “take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, get thee into the land of Moriah”
and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place which God had told him of ( Gen 22:2-3 ).
Notice the repetition of the word “and.” It is a form of Hebrew grammar known as polysyndeton which speaks of a continued deliberate action; in other words, no hesitation. Notice Abraham rose up early in the morning; the immediate obedience to God. There wasn’t any hesitation. And the implication of this polysyndeton is that his actions now are deliberate and willful and continued. There is no stopping, no hesitation in obedience to the command of God.
And on the third day ( Gen 22:4 )
Significant. “Third day,”
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off ( Gen 22:4 ).
For Isaac was dead in the mind of Abraham for these three days. And yet though he was dead in the mind of Abraham, somehow Abraham was believing in the resurrection. Now Paul said, “The gospel that I preach, how that Jesus died, according to the scriptures; and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures” ( 1Co 15:3-4 ). I can give you plenty of scriptures in the Old Testament that speak of the death of Jesus Christ. But where in the Old Testament do you find the Scriptures speaking of His being dead for three days and rising again? Here it is.
Now Abraham by faith offered Isaac as a sacrifice unto God believing that God would, if necessary, raise him from the dead to fulfill His promise, for God had said, “Through Isaac shall thy seed be called”, Hebrews the eleventh chapter speaking of Abraham’s faith in this test. You see, Abraham had a promise of God. The promise of God was this: “Through Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
Now Isaac did not have any children yet. He was not married yet. But Abraham knew that God’s word had to be fulfilled. He had that kind of confidence in the word of God. If God said it, God is going to do it. And having that confidence that God would keep His word, when God called upon him to make the sacrifice of his son, he knew that somehow Isaac would be raised from the dead, if necessary, because God’s word had to be fulfilled, “through Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
And so because of the promise that through Isaac his seed was to be called, he was obedient to the call of God to offer now his son, his only son Isaac as a burnt offering on the mountain that God would show him. And so he got together the altar, the wood and the materials for the altar and the servants, and they journeyed for three days until they came to the place that God showed to him.
And now again, in verse five, the use of this Hebrew grammar again, the polesintudon, the repetition of the “and.”
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you ( Gen 22:5 ).
Now “will go yonder and worship, and come again.” The two verbs are associated with the nouns “I and the lad” so that Abraham is saying, I and the lad are going to go, we’re going to worship and we’re going to come again. He’s declaring that Isaac is going to come again with him. Isaac’s coming back. “I and the lad are going to go and worship, and we’ll come again.” Confidence in the promise of God that through Isaac shall his seed be called.
And so notice verse six.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son ( Gen 22:6 );
A picture of Christ who bore his own cross. They laid the cross upon Him and He bore His own cross. So he put the wood on Isaac and Isaac was carrying the wood. And it is at this point
he took the fire and the knife in his hand; and they journeyed both of them together. And Isaac broke the silence, he said to his father, Father: Abraham said, What do you want, son. And he said, Here’s the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together ( Gen 22:6-8 ).
What a beautiful prophecy; God will provide not for Himself a lamb, but God will provide Himself a lamb, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And here Abraham is prophesying the fact that God is going to provide Himself as a lamb for the burnt offering. A prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh who was offered as a sacrifice for man’s sins. So they journeyed both of them together.
Now don’t let the term “lad” confuse you. This term “lad” is used for an unmarried man. Till you were married you were still a lad. So Isaac at this point was probably twenty-five, twenty-six years old. The word is translated actually young man in other places and it doesn’t mean a little child of six or seven. Isaac could, at this time because of his age and physical maturity and because of the age of his father, who at this point was nearing a hundred and thirty; he could have overpowered Abraham. When Abraham decided, started to tie him and lay him on the altar, “Hey, what’s going on here? Getting senile, dad”. It’s far enough. And he could have overpowered his dad, but he was obedient unto the call of God upon his father’s life.
Submitting, even as Jesus could have escaped the cross. When Peter drew the sword and began to strike out against the soldiers and the servants that had come to take Jesus, Jesus said to Peter, “Put away thy sword, Peter. Don’t you realize that at this moment I could call ten thousand angels to deliver Me?” One angel went through the camp of the Assyrians and wiped out one hundred and eighty-five thousand in one night. Imagine what ten thousand could do. But Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, submitting to the will of the Father for He prayed, “Father, not my will, thy will be done” ( Luk 22:42 ). And thus submitting Himself to the will of the Father, even as Isaac was submitting unto the will of his father Abraham.
So interesting picture all the way through.
Abraham and they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built the altar there, and they laid the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here I am. And he said, Don’t lay your hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and behold behind him there was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham took the ram, and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovahjireh ( Gen 22:9-14 );
Or “Jehovah sees literally”. It has come to be interpreted, “Jehovah provides” but literally in the Hebrew it is “Jehovah sees”. But with God there is very little difference between vision and provision. God sees. Jesus said over and over, “I know thy works” ( Rev 2:2 ). God sees. God sees your need. God sees your heart. God sees the problems that you’re facing. God sees the tests you’re going through. And because God sees, He provides. Jehovahjireh.
and it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen ( Gen 22:14 ).
So they started saying, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
Mount Moriah, in Second Chronicles, the second chapter, “And so Solomon began to build the temple in Mount Moriah” ( 2Ch 3:1 ). And so the place where the sacrifices were to be offered through the history of the nation is the same place where Abraham, the same mountain where Abraham was offering the sacrifice of his son. But the prophecy was, “the Lord will provide himself,” and then, “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
And so it is significant that when Jesus was crucified, they led Him out of the city to a place called Calvary or Golgotha, the place of the skull. And today if you go to Jerusalem and you stand there in the garden tomb, just above the Arab bus depot, and you look to the left there on the face of the mountain, you distinctly see the impression of the skull there on the mountain.
But standing there, look over to your right and look at the city wall near Herod’s gate and you’ll see that the wall has been built up over the mountain, over the bedrock. And that this valley where the bus stop is, is actually been quarried out. And that the mountain that you see on the right, on the walls where the walls of Jerusalem are built over, were actually once a continuation of this same mountain. And that the top of the mountain is to your left where the skull is.
Now going on the other side and following the topography, you see that this mountain slopes right on down to the temple mount, the place of the sacrifices or Mount Moriah. So really, the place of the crucifixion Golgotha was the top of Mount Moriah. There are several mountains around Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives, Mount Escopas, but the most important was Mount Moriah. And Mount Moriah crested above the area where the skull is, the place where Jesus was crucified.
Abraham no doubt took Isaac to the top of the mountain, because usually when they would build their altars, they would build them right at the top of the mountain. And so at the very spot where Abraham built the altar in obedience to God, and he prophesied “God will provide himself a lamb,” and the people picked it up and said, “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” Two thousand years later God provided Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. It was seen, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And in the very spot where Abraham built his altar, the cross of Christ was placed as God gave His only begotten Son because He loved the world.
And so we have that beautiful picture here in the Old Testament as Abraham was acting out a drama that would later on in history become a reality where God gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.
And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself ( Gen 22:15-16 )
Now the angel of the Lord here is, of course, Jesus Christ, for He said, “By myself”
have I sworn, saith the LORD, [saith Jehovah] for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee ( Gen 22:16-17 ),
Now in Hebrews tells us that God, because He cannot swear by any higher, has to swear by Himself. Now man when he takes an oath, he swears by something greater: By my mother’s honor, I swear by God I will do it. We swear by something greater, but if God wants to make an oath that is very positive, who can He swear by? Nothing greater than God so He has to swear by Himself. And so the Lord swore by Himself in order to confirm the oath, to give force to it. “By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, for because you have done this thing, and not withheld thy son, thine only son. That in blessing I will bless thee,”
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ( Gen 22:17 );
So God promised great posterity, “As the stars of heaven, as the sands of the sea.” Now in both of them you have an innumerable multitude. And that’s the idea. It’s just numberless that are going to come from thee. You won’t be able to number them or count them.
It is interesting that God relates two things: the stars of heaven, the sand of the sea. Now in those days, the scientists believed that there were six thousand one hundred and twenty-six stars. Now it’s obvious there are many more sands of the sea than there are stars. So there were no doubt the critics in those days saying, “Look, you know, how foolish the Bible is. If God really knew, you know, what He was talking about, He wouldn’t have said ‘As the stars of the heaven and the sand of the sea’ because you can’t compare the two of those”. We know there’s only 6,126 stars but my, who can count the sands of the sea? And the critics were no doubt making fun of God’s word in those days because He related the two together.
But then came the advent of the telescope and we found out that there were far more than the six thousand one hundred and twenty-six stars. In fact, it is now estimated in all the galaxies and so forth that there are ten to the twenty-fifth power stars in the universe. But also if you count the number of sands in a bucket or in a square foot and figure how many square feet there are in the earth, you find out there are about ten to the twenty-fifth power grains of sand upon the earth. So there is a close relationship between the number of stars in the heaven and the grains of sand upon the earth, ten to the twenty-fifth power. Now you can go ahead and count them if you want or you can take my word for it.
But what God was actually saying is that they’ll not be counted. Now that is why David got in trouble when he decided to have a census. David numbered the people and the judgment of God came upon Israel because God said, “Hey, you’re not going to be able to number them”. But David decided he liked to know how many people were in His kingdom and so he took the census. And the judgment of God fell upon David for the taking of the census because God said, “They’re going to be innumerable. You’re not going to be able to number them”.
So from the time of God’s judgment upon David, the Jews refused to take census. In fact, what they have began to do was everybody had to put a temple shekel in and so they would count the shekels then. Everybody throw in the shekel, they count the shekels. They wouldn’t count people. And the Orthodox Jew today still won’t count people. You’re at a party. You need the number for a game. They’ll say, Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five; ways of getting around everything, I guess.
So Abraham returned unto his young men ( Gen 22:19 ),
Wait a minute.
they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba ( Gen 22:19 ).
Where was, where was Isaac? It says, Abraham returned to his young men and they rose up and went to Beersheba. But then what,-what about Isaac? Where’s Isaac? It’s interesting it doesn’t say Isaac, does it? In fact, it’s interesting that you’re not going to read anymore about Isaac for awhile. And it’s interesting that the next time you’ll read about Isaac is when the servant is bringing his bride to him. He is out in the field meditating and he rises up and goes out to meet his bride. Even as Jesus after His sacrifice ascended into heaven and He’s just waiting now for the Holy Spirit to bring His bride. And He’s waiting actually, as the Bible said, until His enemies are made His footstool, until all things are brought in subjection, until the Holy Spirit brings His bride.
And so I’m sure that Isaac was with Abraham but it’s interesting and significant that the Bible doesn’t mention it. What the Bible doesn’t say is quite often as important or significant as what the Bible does say.
For instance, in the book of Daniel, which we’ll be studying starting Thursday night, you remember when Nebuchadnezzar built this great golden image and demanded everybody bow down and worship it. But the three Hebrew children refused to do so and they were brought in and thrown in the fiery furnace. Where was Daniel? Did Daniel bow down? I’m sure he didn’t. Where was he? Bible doesn’t say. It’s silent.
Now that’s very interesting because it calls them the three Hebrew children. Daniel is a type of the church and somehow he is missing when there is this great fiery furnace. He shows up afterwards. But the three Hebrew children are sealed and they go through it, even as God is going to seal Israel to take them through the Great Tribulation, but the church will be gone.
So Isaac, the type of Christ; gone after the sacrifice and doesn’t appear again until the servant is bringing his bride. And he arises and goes forth to meet his bride as she comes.
So it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor ( Gen 22:20 );
And so they brought a message to Abraham telling him about his family back in the land and how that the various children, his brothers, the children that they had and the children of his brother’s children.
Chapter 23
And so Sarah was a hundred and twenty-seven years old. And she died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah ( Gen 23:1-2 ),
Now evidently Abraham had been away with the flocks or something when Sarah died and he wasn’t at her side at her death, which is a sad thing indeed. He came to mourn,
and to weep for her. And he stood up from before his dead, and he spake to the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession for a buryingplace with you, that I might bury my dead out of my sight ( Gen 23:2-4 ).
Now Abraham didn’t really possess anything. He was a stranger and a sojourner in the land of promise, knowing that God was going to someday give that land to him and to his descendants.
The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us will withhold from thee his sepulchre, that you may bury your dead ( Gen 23:5-6 ).
So Abraham called the men together and he said, Look, I need a place to bury my dead. And they said, “Take your pick. All of our sepulchres, none of us will hold back from you and you can just use ours”.
Abraham stood up, and he bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be in your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth and give it to me for a possession for a buryingplace among you ( Gen 23:7-9 ).
And so he’s asking now for a particular area and he’s asking that they will entreat this man that he will sell or that he would give this area to Abraham.
Now Ephron was among the children of Heth ( Gen 23:10 ):
And he was in the crowd that was there.
And so he answered Abraham in the audience of all the children, and he said, Nay, my lord, hear me: the field I will give to you, and the cave that is therein, I will give it to you; in the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you: to bury thy dead ( Gen 23:10-11 ).
And so he gives a very generous offer, which is typical of the culture. In other words, the polite thing was to say, “Oh, I give it to you”. But it would be extremely impolite for Abraham to take it. In other words, it was one of those things, you know, it’s the way that they would deal and barter with each other; bow and they’d say, you know, “Oh”, in the audience of all the people I give it to you. But it would be, oh, if Abraham took it then man, you know, flames and fire and all would come.
And so,
Abraham bowed himself before the people of the land. And he spake to Ephron in the audience of the people, and he is saying, But if you wilt give it, I pray, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. So Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; but what is that between us? You take and bury your dead ( Gen 23:12-15 ).
Now four hundred shekels of silver is greatly overpriced. They always start off with a high price. And then they enter into this haggling where the guy offers a high price and you come back with about forty percent of what he offered and you expect to buy it for about fifty to sixty percent. But it’s just like a game. They’ll never give you the selling price for the first price. First price is always the sucker’s price.
You go over there today, the same thing. They, if you don’t haggle with them, they get disappointed, because it’s just like a game. They love the haggling. It’s just a part of their culture and you’ve got to say, “Ah, no, I don’t want it, you know, at that price”; and you go to turn. “Wait a minute, wait, come back, come back. How much will you give me for it?” “Oh, I’ll only give you fifty cents”. That’s not worth much. Oh, fifty cents, go away. That’s terrible. Get out of here. You start to leave. “Come back, come back, come back. If I sell this to you for fifty cents, the business is going to be lost. I can’t afford to. My grandfather owned this business and he gave it to my father, my father has given it to me. And now we’re going to lose the business if I sell for fifty cents. Sixty-five”. You know. And it’s just a game with them. They love to haggle like that.
And so Abraham is going through the old typical thing, you know, I will not take it but I want to buy it from you. Oh, it’s worth four hundred shekels of silver but what’s that between us? And suddenly, surprise, Abraham pulls out and rather than haggling, because of course it’s the thing now of a place to bury his dead and all, he doesn’t enter into the game. He just measures out the four hundred shekels of silver and he buys it at the inflated price. Everybody’s disappointed. Abraham didn’t get into the haggle but because of the death and the whole emotional thing, rather than haggling he pays the inflated value for the land in order that he might have the burying place for Sarah. And thus he buried Sarah in this cave there at Machpelah, which is in view of Mamre, where he was dwelling near Hebron.
Now there is one difficulty with this. According to the seventh chapter of Acts in the New Testament, as Stephen is rehearsing their history, he speaks of Joseph and Jacob being buried in the cave in Shechem that Abraham bought from Hamor. And so either Stephen didn’t know the facts or made a mistake in the facts or a copyist made a mistake in the facts or what is probably correct is that not recorded. Abraham also bought a field in Shechem at an earlier or a later time from Hamor, also for a burying place. So that Abraham actually purchased two parcels; one in Shechem, the place where he first came, and now this parcel in Hebron, the cave of Machpelah where Sarah was buried. But it’s nothing to lose your faith over. There’s easy explanations.
Next week we get into the bride for Isaac, one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible as the servant goes into the far country to get a bride for his master’s son and we see the beautiful sequel of the Holy Spirit in this world, drawing out a bride for the son of God, Jesus Christ. “
Gen 22:1. And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt-
That is, God did test or try-
Gen 22:1-2. Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son,
But, Lord, I have two sons, Ishmael and Isaac.
Gen 22:2. Thine only son,
But, Lord, both Ishmael and Isaac are my sons, and each of them is the only son of his mother.
Gen 22:2. Isaac, whom thou lovest,
See how definitely God points out to Abraham the son who is to be the means of the great trial of his fathers faith: Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou loves,-
Gen 22:2. And get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
It was usually the way, in Gods commands to Abraham, to make him sail under sealed orders. When he was first bidden to leave his country and his kindred, and his fathers house, he had to go to a land that God would shew him. They have true faith who can go forth at Gods command, not knowing whither they are going. So Abraham did, and now the Lord says to him, Take Isaac, and offer him for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Gen 22:3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning,-
Obedience should be prompt, we should show our willingness to obey the Lords command by not delaying: Abraham rose up early in the morning,-
Gen 22:3. And saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
All the details are mentioned, for true obedience is very careful of detail. They who would serve God aright must serve him faithfully in little things as well as in great ones. There must be a saddling of the ass, a calling of the two young men as well as Isaac, and a cleaving of the wood for the burnt offering. We must do everything that is included in the bounds of the divine command, and do it all with scrupulous exactness and care. Indifferent obedience to Gods command is practically disobedience, careless obedience is dead obedience, the heart is gone out of it. Let us learn from Abraham how to obey.
Gen 22:4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
His was deliberate obedience; he could bear suspense, thinking over the whole matter for three days, and setting his face like a flint to obey his Lords command.
Gen 22:5. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Abraham did not deceive the young men, he believed that he and Isaac would come to them again. He believed that though he might be compelled to say his son, God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Abraham bade the young men stay where they were, they must not see all that he was to do before the Lord. Oftentimes, our highest obedience must be a solitary one; friends cannot help us in such emergencies, and it is better for them and better for us that they should not be with us.
Gen 22:6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife;
That knife was cutting into his own heart all the while, yet he took it. Unbelief would have left the knife at home, but genuine faith takes it.
Gen 22:6-8. And they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Abraham here spoke like a prophet; in fact, throughout this whole incident, he never opened his mouth without a prophetic utterance; and I believe that, when men walk with God, and live near to God, they will possibly even without being aware of it, speak very weighty words which will have much more in them than they themselves apprehend. Is it not written, concerning the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, his leaf also shall not wither? Not only shall his fruit be abundant, but his casual word, his leaf also shall not wither. So was it with it Abraham. He spoke like a prophet of God when he was really speaking to his son in the anguish of his spirit, and in his prophetic utterance we find the sum end substance of the gospel: My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. He is the great Provider, and he provides the offering, not only for us, but for himself, for the sacrifice was necessary to God as well as to man. And it is a burnt offering, not only a sin-offering but an offering of a sweet savour unto himself. So they went both of them together. Twice we are told this, for this incident is a type of the Father going with the Son and the Son going with the Father up to the great sacrifice on Calvary. It was not Christ alone who willingly died, or the Father alone who gave his Son, but they went both of them together, even as Abraham and Isaac did here.
Gen 22:9. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there,
See him pulling out the large, rough, unhewn stones that lay round about the place, and then fling them up into an altar.
Gen 22:9-10. And laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
So that, in intent and purpose, he had consummated the sacrifice, and therefore we read in Hebrew 11:17, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son. He had virtually done so in the esteem of God though no trace of a wound could be found upon Isaac. How often God takes the will for the deed with his people! When he finds them willing to make the sacrifice that he demands, he often does not require it at their hands. If you are willing to suffer for Christs sake, it may be that you shall not be caused to suffer and if you are willing to be a martyr for the truth, you may be permitted to wear the martyrs crown even though you are never called to stand at the stake, the scaffold or the block.
Gen 22:11. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Abraham always gives the same answer to the Lords call, Here am I.
Gen 22:12. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
The needful test had been applied, and Abrahams faith had endured the trial. God knows all things by his divine omniscience, but now he knew by this severe test and trial which he had applied, that Abraham really loved him best of all. Notice that the angel says, Now I know that thou fearest God. I do not think that the gracious use of godly fear has ever been sufficiently estimated by the most of us; here, the stress is not laid upon the faith, but upon the filial fear of Abraham. That holy awe, that sacred reverence of God is the very essence of our acceptance with him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him. This is a very different thing from slavish fear; it is a right sort of fear, the kind of fear that love does not cast out, but which love lives with in happy fellowship.
Gen 22:13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Here is another type of our Saviours great sacrifice on Calvary,-the ram offered in the place of Jesus. How often do you and I have our great Substitute very near to us, yet we do not see him because we do not lift up our eyes and look. Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. So, if you lift up your eyes, and look the right, ay, you will see the great sacrifice close by you held fast for you, even as this ram was caught to die instead of Isaac. Oh, that you may have grace to turn your head in the right direction, and look to Christ and live!
Gen 22:14. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
God will foresee; God will-as we usually say,-provide, which is being interpreted, fore-see. He will have everything ready against the time when it will be needed. He who provided the ram for a burnt offering in the place of Isaac will provide everything else that is required; and you may depend upon it that he who, in the greatest emergency that could ever happen, provided his only-begotten and well-beloved Son to die us the Substitute for sinners, will have foreseen every other emergency that can occur, and will have fore-provided all that is needful to meet it. Blessed be the name of Jehovah-jireh!
Gen 22:15-16. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD,
Because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself.
Gen 22:16-18. For because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
There stands the old covenant, the covenant of grace made with Abraham concerning his seed. Paul writes to the Galatians, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. It is in Christ that all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. If there is a nation that has not yet heard the gospel, it must hear it, for so the promise stands, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. We may look for a glorious future from the preaching of Christ throughout every land, for so the covenant was made with Abraham because he had obeyed Gods voice.
God had been good to Abraham before that time, for he was his beloved friend, but now he lifts him up to a higher platform altogether, and makes him a greater blessing than ever. It may be that God is about to test and try some of you in order that he may afterwards make you to be greater and more useful than you have ever been before.
Gen 22:19. So Abraham returned unto his young men,
As he said that he would.
Gen 22:19. And they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
So the Lord bore his servant through this great trial, and blessed him more than he had ever blessed him before.
In this chapter we have the account of the seventh appearing of Jehovah to Abraham and it is that of his supreme testing and consequent bringing into fellowship with God. It must have been in many ways a desolating trial, without apparent reason, coming suddenly and without explanation. Nevertheless, it is the story of the triumph of faith. Abraham passed through the fiercest fire and endured the greatest pressure as his faith was put to the most tremendous strain.
The statement that “God did prove Abraham” is in itself suggestive. He confers honor where He proves. He did not prove Lot. Sodom did that. God proves the man who is proof against Sodom. The outstanding revelation of Abraham is that of one who walking by faith and not by sight rendered active, ready, and quick obedience. The man who really believes in God is always able cheerfully to obey Him, because present sacrifice is set in the light of the necessity for the fulfillment of God’s declared purpose. Abraham rested in God rather than in any blessing He bestowed, even though that were Isaac. Faith depending on the divine promises saw beyond the sacrifice and was able to obey.
It may be that the story can never be interpreted in the realm of the natural, and the only thing we can say about it is that through the experience Abraham was brought into fellowship with the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
The testing was followed by the repetition to Abraham of all the great and gracious promises already made to him.
Abraham Ready to Offer Isaac
Gen 22:1-13
Faith must be proved. Only in trial does she put forth her strength or dare the impossible. Satan tempts to bring forth the bad, God to call forth into exercise our highest and best. God went every step of the way with His servant, who was called into closer fellowship with himself than any other of the human race. Moriah was a miniature of Calvary, where God spared not His only Son. Abrahams obedience was immediate. He arose early in the morning. It was exact. It was performed in the spirit of worship. It was contagious, for Isaac used the same expression to his father, as he to God-Here am I. Apparently he had no need to acquaint Sarah with the object of his journey; he was so sure that the divine promise could not fail. He said to his young men, We will come unto you. If it were necessary, he knew that God would raise him from the dead. See Heb 11:19. Isaac asked, Where is the lamb? John the Baptist answered in Joh 1:29.
Gen 22:1
Consider:-
I. The circumstances of Abraham when this trial came. His hope was set on Isaac as the medium through which God’s promise could be fulfilled, and he had been encouraged by observing him rising year after year to the age and stature of manhood.
II. God’s connection with the trial. He subjected Abraham to a testing trial in order to prove his faith. (1) There was no attempt in the action of God, bearing upon Abraham, in the least to diminish the patriarch’s affection for his son. (2) In the command binding Abraham to offer up his son there was an assertion of Jehovah’s right to be regarded as the supreme object of His creatures’ love.
III. Abraham under and after the trial. (1) His fear of God was tested by this trial; (2) his faith in God was tested by the trial. But the result was blessed to him in these four ways: (a) He obtained an attestation from heaven of his fear and of his faith; (b) he obtained a new revelation of Messiah as the atoning Surety; (c) he brought back with him alive his only son, whom he loved; (d) he held “Jehovah Jireh” in the grasp of his faith, and had Him pledged to care for him always.
Application.-(1) Learn from this text that true faith is sure to be tested faith. (2) The text teaches us that all love must be subordinated to love for God. (3) Learn from this passage that the only way to be truly strong is to have faith in God. (4) Learn from this text that God will never fail under the leanings of faith. (5) Learn from this text that no one need expect an attestation of his fear and faith except when these are revived and exercised.
J. Kennedy, Sermons, No. 40.
References: Gen 22:1.-Sermons for Boys and Girls (1880), p. 48; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 261. Gen 22:1, Gen 22:2.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 134.
Gen 22:1-8
It is by trial that the character of a Christian is formed. Each part of his character, like every part of his armour, is put to the proof; and it is the proof that tests, after all, the strength both of resistance and defence and attack.
I. The voice of God to Abraham was not heard in audible words; it was a voice in the soul constantly directing him to duty and self-sacrifice. The voice told him, as he thought,-I do not for a moment say as God meant,-that his duty was to sacrifice his son. The memories of olden days may have clung and hovered about him. He remembered the human sacrifices he had seen in his childhood; the notion of making the gods merciful by some action of man may still have lingered in his bosom. We have here the first instance of that false and perverse interpretation which made the letter instead of the spirit to rule the human heart.
II. As Abraham increases in faith he grows in knowledge, until at last more and more he can hear “Lay not thy hand upon thy son.” “God will provide Himself a sacrifice” bursts from his lips before the full light bursts upon his soul. In this conflict Abraham’s will was to do all that God revealed for him to do. In every age and in every station faith is expressed in simple dutifulness, and this faith of Abraham is, indeed, of the mind of Christ. We may be perplexed, but we need not be in despair. When we arrive on Mount Moriah, then the meaning of the duty God requires of us will be made clear. And as we approach the unseen, and our souls are more schooled and disciplined to God, we shall find that to offer ourselves and lose ourselves is to find ourselves in God more perfect.
T. J. Rowsell, Family Churchman, March 16th, 1887.
Gen 22:1-19.
Abraham is the first, if not the greatest, of the heroes of the Hebrew people. A man dazed by life’s illusions, a dreamer of strange dreams and a seer of impossible visions, he has yet a firm hold of solid fact, and is ready, in the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers, to cross the Euphrates and travel to Damascus, that he may separate himself from idolatry. From his many days of trial, take those in which he needs the strength of God the most, and see whether he has it, what he does with it, and what comes of his use of it.
I. Could any day have exceeded in misery the time when Abraham first felt he must offer his son, or be guilty of disobedience to God? It was a day of fearful temptation; but Abraham made it unspeakably worse by misreading God’s message and mistaking the significance of the strong impulse that disturbed and tempted him. God said to him, “Offer thy son,”-not “Slay thy son,” but simply surrender him as an offering into God’s hands. Abraham fell into the sin of the heathen world around by reading God’s command as a commission to murder his own child. It was a grievous fault, and grievously did Abraham answer it.
II. Abraham was not left in this day of trial and mistake to himself. God met him in his difficulty and aided him in his dilemma. Abraham’s mistake was on the surface of his life, and not at its heart; in the form of his offering, and not its spirit. God reckoned his calmly persisting faith, his actual and suffering obedience, as righteousness. He followed it with a fuller statement of the Abrahamic gospel, and exalted Abraham to the fatherhood of the faithful all the world over.
J. Clifford, Daily Strength for Daily Living, p. 19. (See also Appendix, p. 425.)
The birth of Isaac brought Abraham nearer to God; though he had believed in Him so long, it was as if he now believed in Him for the first time-so much is he carried out of himself, such a vision has he of One who orders ages past and to come, and yet is interested for the feeblest of those whom He has made. Out of such feelings comes the craving for the power to make some sacrifice, to find a sacrifice which shall not be nominal but real.
I. The Book of Genesis says, “God did tempt Abraham.” The seed did not drop by accident into the patriarch’s mind; it was not self-sown; it was not put into him by the suggestion of some of his fellows. It was his Divine Teacher who led him on to the terrible conclusion, “The sacrifice that I must offer is that very gift that has caused me all my joy.”
II. Abraham must know what God’s meaning is; he is certain that in some way it will be proved that He has not designed His creature to do a wicked and monstrous thing, and yet that there is a purpose in the revelation that has been made to him; that a submission and sacrifice, such as he has never made yet, are called for now. He takes his son; he goes three days’ journey to Mount Moriah; he prepares the altar and the wood and the knife; his son is with him, but he has already offered up himself. And now he is taught that this is the offering that God was seeking for; that when the real victim has been slain, the ram caught in the thicket is all that is needed for the symbolical expression of that inward oblation.
III. When this secret had been learnt, every blessing became an actual vital blessing; every gift was changed into a spiritual treasure. Abraham had found that sacrifice lies at the very root of our being; that our lives depend upon it; that all power to be right and to do right begins with the offering up of ourselves, because it is thus that the righteous Lord makes us like Himself.
F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from the Scriptures, p. 33.
References: Gen 22:1-19.-J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, p. 332 (also Sunday Magazine, 1871, p. 345); Expositor, 1st series, vol. i., p. 314; 2nd series, vol. i., p. 305; W. Hubbard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 228; J. B. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, pp. 31, 64. Gen 22:1-20.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 156. Gen 22:2.-Parker, vol. i., p. 235; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 868; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 5; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvii., p. 148. Gen 22:6.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year (Holy Week), p. 454.
Gen 22:7
Thus unconscious spoke our human nature of its terrible want, and of the almost hopelessness of the remedy for that want. The want was occasioned by sin. That terrible evil still exists in the world, and there is no real remedy but from this one source of revelation and belief in Christ. Those who on that day ascended the mount found the remedy provided. A sacrifice was found and substituted, and it was a type of what befell long afterwards, when God provided His own beloved Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Bishop Claughton, Penny Pulpit, No. 565. Reference: W. Meller, Village Homilies, p. 158.
Gen 22:7-8
These words are twice repeated in this narrative; they mean something more than that Abraham and Isaac climbed the mountain track side by side: they were together in heart as well as in bodily presence; in submission of will as well as in direction of steps. Isaac was at this time in the vigour of his youth; his father was a very old man. Unless he had been a willing victim there could have been no question at all of his being sacrificed.
I. Abraham and Isaac are an example of the unhesitating obedience of faith. Abraham knew that his own son had been named as the appointed victim; yet even so he could feel that God would provide that victim, and therefore he could submit. Isaac acquiesced in his father’s submission, content that God should provide the victim, even though it were himself.
II. We have here an example which finds its perfect antitype in the compact of sacrifice between God the Father and God the Son. The sacrifice of Calvary was as much the eternal design of the Son as of the Father: the Father laid nothing on the Son but what the Son freely took on Himself.
III. The conduct of Isaac has not only a prophetic significance, but a Christian beauty also; it embodies the doctrine of sacrifice not only in Christ the Head but in us the members.
R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 19.
Gen 22:7-8
Abraham was not picked out as a model of excellence. He was apt to fear, apt to lie. What he was apart from his Teacher we see in his journey to Egypt: a very poor, paltry earthworm indeed, one not to be despised by us, because we are earthworms also, but assuredly worthy of no reverence which was his by birth or which became his merely in virtue of his call. What he was when he was walking in the light, when that transfigured him from an earthworm into a man, his after history will help us to understand.
I. The thought may have struck our minds that the circumstances of Abraham were eminently favourable to the cultivation in him of a pure, simple, monotheistic faith. A man living under the eye of Nature-on open plains, amidst flocks and herds-was likely, it may be said, to preserve his devotion unsullied and to give it a healthy direction. But we must remember that there was nothing in the perpetual beholding of natural objects which could preserve him from the worship of those objects. You cannot, by considerations of this kind, escape from the acknowledgment of a distinct call from an actual, personal, unseen Being, addressed to the man himself and confessed by him in his inmost heart and conscience. But if you begin from the belief of such a call, the more you reflect upon Abraham’s outward position the better. His work was the image of a Divine work; his government over the sheepfold, and still more in the tent, was the image of the Divine government of the world.
II. This we shall find is quite as important a reflection with a view to Abraham’s personal character as it is with a view to his position and office as a patriarch. His faith carried him out of himself; it made him partaker of the righteousness of Him in whom he believed. He became righteous in proportion as he looked forward to that which was beyond himself, and as his own life was identified with the life of his family.
III. Abraham’s intercession. Abraham believed God to be a righteous Being, not a mere sovereign who does what he likes. On that foundation his intercession is built. It is man beseeching that right may prevail, that it may prevail among men,-by destruction if that must be, by the infusion of a new life if it is possible. It is man asking that the gracious order of God may be victorious over the disorder which His rebellious creatures have striven to establish in His universe.
IV. As the life of the family is inseparably involved with the life of the individual, the most awful experience in the personal being of the patriarch relates to the child of promise-the child of laughter and joy. If we take the story as it stands, we shall believe that God did tempt Abraham-as He had been all his life tempting him-in order to call into life that which would else have been dead, in order to teach him truths which he would else have been ignorant of. God did not intend that a man should be called upon to make a sacrifice without feeling that in that act he was in the truest sense the image of his Maker. A filial sacrifice was the only foundation on which the hearts of men, the societies of earth, the kingdom of heaven, could rest.
F. D. Maurice, Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 83.
References: Gen 22:8.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. vi., p. 98. Gen 22:9.-Bishop Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 172. Gen 22:9, Gen 22:10.-Ed. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 2nd series, p. 163.
Gen 22:10
A temptation had come upon Abraham; he thought that it was the right thing to do, and that he was called to do it; so after brooding over it intensely for several days, he was irresistibly drawn to take the knife for the purpose of slaying his son.
I. Since the child of promise had been born to him, his natural tendency had been to repose on Isaac rather than on God. After a while he would awake to the troubled consciousness that it was not with him as in other days; that he had sunk from the serene summit on which he once stood. Brooding thus from day to day he came to feel as if a voice were calling him to prove himself by voluntarily renouncing the son that had been given him. He was driven wild, fevered into madness, through the fervour of his desire to maintain trust in the great Father, even as now men sometimes are by the lurid burning of distrust.
II. But did not God tempt him? you say. Is it not so recorded? Yes, undoubtedly; in the Patriarch’s mind it was God tempting him. The narrative is a narrative of what took place in his mind; the whole is a subjective scene, portrayed objectively. The old Canaanite practice of offering human sacrifices suggested to Abraham the cultivation and manifestation of trust by immolating his son.
III. Although God did not suggest the crime, yet He was in the trial-the trial of maintaining and fostering trust without allowing it to lead him by perversion into crime. He spoke at length to the heart of Abraham with irresistible force, bidding him stay his hand. The Lord could not contradict Himself in the Patriarch’s breast, bidding him one day kill, and another day crying out “Thou shalt not kill”; and the historian means us to understand that the latter was the true voice of God, contradicting and prevailing against the voice that had been mistaken for His.
IV. We see God penetrating and disengaging the grace in Abraham which lay behind the wrongness. He divided between the true motive of the heart and the false conclusion of the weak brain. He notes and treasures every bit of good that blushes amidst our badness.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 213. Reference: Outline Sermons to Children, p. 8.
Gen 22:12
I. There come times in human life when men must undergo a crucial test. A man can have but one trial in his lifetime; one great sorrow, beside which all other griefs dwindle into insignificance.
II. The crucial test can only take place in relation to that which we love and value most. The question here is, Do we so hold that which is dearest to us upon earth that we could surrender it at the Divine bidding?
III. Abraham’s answer, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb,” is the sum of all mediational history; it is the main discovery of love. After all, what has the world done but to find an altar? It formed the cross; it never could have found the Saviour.
IV. The narrative shows what God intends by His discipline of man. He did not require Isaac’s life; He only required the entire subordination of Abraham’s will.
Parker, The Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 265.
Gen 22:14
From this passage we learn: (1) the lesson that God taught Abraham that all souls and all beings are His, and that our greatest and dearest possessions are beneath His control and within His grasp. (2) We learn also a lesson of obedience. Abraham was called upon to make the greatest possible sacrifice, a sacrifice that seemed to clash with the instinct of reason, affection, and religion alike, and yet without a murmur he obeyed the command of God. (3) We learn, too, that for wise reasons God sometimes permits the trial of His people’s faith-not to weaken, but to strengthen it, for He knows that if it be genuine, trial will have the same effect which the storm produces on the kingly oak, only rooting it more firmly in the soil. (4) We learn that God’s provisions are ever equal to His people’s wants. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.
J. W. Atkinson, Penny Pulpit, No. 772.
I. Jehovah-Jireh-the Lord will provide for the body. Temporal blessings, no less than spiritual, come to us through the medium of the covenant of grace. (1) The Lord will provide food for the body. He will bring round the seasons without fail, and make corn to grow for the service of man. (2) The Lord will provide raiment for His people. For forty years in the wilderness, amid the wear and tear of journey and of battle, the raiment of the Israelites waxed not old, because Jehovah provided for them; and doth He not still remember His own? (3) The Lord will provide for His people protection. Many times are they delivered in a most wonderful way, and to the astonishment of the world.
II. Jehovah-Jireh-the Lord will provide for the soul. (1) Jehovah has provided a Lamb; in the gift of His Son we have the guarantee for the supply of every needed blessing. (2) The Lord will provide for you His Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit comes to us through the atonement of Christ, and the sufficiency of the Sacrifice entailed and implied the promise of the Spirit, so that He who hath provided the Lamb is confidently to be trusted for this also. (3) The Lord will provide for the soul an eternal home, as is clear from that word, “I go to prepare a place for you.” When the toils of life’s pilgrimage are over, there remaineth a rest for the people of God.
J. Thain Davidson, Sermon Preached in Montrose, Nov. 19th, 1856.
References: Gen 22:14.-S. Martin, Sermons, p. 159; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1803; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 346.; Gen 22:16-18.-E. H. Gifford, Voices of the Prophets. p. 131. Gen 22:18.-S. Leathes, Bampton Lecture, 1874, p. 49; Expositor, 2nd series, vol. viii., p. 200; Old Testament Outlines, p. 10; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 140. Gen 22:20-24.-R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. i., p. 383. Gen 22-M. Dods, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, p. 3; F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 53; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. i., p. 364. Gen 23:1, Gen 23:2.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 182. Gen 23:2.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 86. Gen 23:4.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 102. Gen 23-F. W. Robertson, Notes on Genesis, p. 62; Parker, vol. i., p. 240; R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis, vol. i., p. 388.
CHAPTER 22 The Testing of Abraham
1. Gods command (Gen 22:1-2)
2. Abrahams obedience (Gen 22:3-6)
3. Isaacs question and Abrahams answer (Gen 22:7-8)
4. Isaac upon the altar (Gen 22:9-10)
5. The interference from above (Gen 22:11-12)
6. Jehovah-jireh (Gen 22:13-14)
7. The second message and Abrahams return (Gen 22:15-19)
8. Nahors offspring (Gen 22:20-24)
God now tested Abraham. True faith has to be tested; it is an evidence that there is faith when tests come upon the believer. God knew Abraham, and when the proper moment had come in his life, God spake the words to him by which he was to be tested. What a test it was! That promised son, that beloved one to take him and to slay him upon an altar! Reason might have said, God promised this son, he was given by Gods own power, all my hope and expectation center in him; how can God demand him to be slain? But faith does not question Gods Word, and has no why? to ask of God. Such faith was manifested by Abraham when in the beginning God told him to go out of his land, to a land that He would show him. He went out in faith and knew not whither he went. But God brought him to the land. He knew Gods faithfulness. And now once more he is asked to go out, to the land of Moriah to an unknown mountain, and to take his beloved son along to give him up. Was his heart really all for God? Does he love Him and depend on Him supremely? Would he be willing to part with the only one and give him up? This is the test. The record shows there was not a moments hesitation on Abrahams side. No word escaped from his lips. The only answer which he gave to God was that he rose up early in the morning and began at once the journey with Isaac. What an obedience it was!
What a word of faith it was when he said, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Heb 11:17-19 gives us the secret of it.
We behold them going together, Isaac now carrying the wood. Abraham laid the wood upon him. An old Hebrew exposition of Genesis paraphrases this by saying he laid the wood upon him in the form of a cross. And only once does Isaac speak asking for the lamb. To which Abraham replied, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering. Then they go together, and Isaac opened not his mouth again like a lamb led to slaughter. He allows himself to be bound upon the altar. He had absolute confidence in his father and is willing to be slain by him; there was no struggle to be free. He is obedient to his father Abraham, even obedient unto death. The typical meaning of the event is as simple as it is precious. Isaac is the type of that Only Begotten. In Abraham we behold the Father, who spared not His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up for us all. But how great the contrast! God gave Him, the Son of His love for a sinful, rebellious world. And when the hour came and the Son was nailed upon the wood there was no hand to stay. He was led to slaughter like a lamb and opened not His mouth; and then we hear Him cry, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Gods hand was upon Him and He, the Holy One, was smitten by God. This is the Lamb God Himself has provided; the ransom He has found, typified also by the ram caught in the thicket. And in the angel of Jehovah, He Himself was present upon the scene, knowing all that which He would do and suffer, when the appointed time had come. How wonderful is His written Word! And we touch in these brief notes but a little of the foreshadowings and truths revealed in this chapter. The binding of Isaac upon the altar and the taking from the altar foreshadow the death and resurrection of Christ.
Jehovah-jireh, the Lord has seen, is the great foundation. From that provision, the gift of His Son and His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, flows forth the great redemption: Jehovah-Rophecah (Exo 15:26), the Lord thy healer, is next. Then follow Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner, (victory Ex. 17); Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah is peace (Jdg 6:24); Jehovah Roi, Jehovah, my shepherd (Psa 23:1); Jehovah Zidkenu, Jehovah our righteousness Jer 23:5-6); Jehovah Shamma, Jehovah is there (Eze 48:35).
Chapter 25
THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Gen 22:1-18
In Heb 5:8 we read that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And that which was true of our Redeemer, when he walked upon this earth as a man, is true of us. If we are the children of God, as long as we live in this body of flesh, we will be required to learn obedience. And we learn obedience by the things which we suffer by the hand of Gods wise and good providence.
The life of the believer is a series of trials, by which his faith is tested, proved, and strengthened. Christian character is developed by discipline. And God will develop the character of his saints. It appears that frequently there is one great trial of faith, for which all other trials seem to be preparatory. Certainly, that was the case with Abraham and the great trial of his faith revealed to us in Genesis 22.
This is one of the great chapters of the Bible. Here, for the first time, God shows us, in a vivid picture, the necessity of a human sacrifice for the ransom of our souls. Because it was a man who brought sin into the world, sin must be removed by a man. Because man had sinned, a man must suffer the wrath of God and die. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But the Man, Christ Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God…For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified (Heb 10:4; Heb 10:12; Heb 10:14).
Genesis 22 records Abrahams greatest trial and the greatest revelation of the gospel which God made to Abraham. I am sure our Lord was referring to this chapter when he said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad (Joh 8:56). This chapter is full of Christ and full of redemption. Someone suggested, It could rightly be called, The Gospel of Moriah. Many, with good reason, believe that Mt. Moriah and Mt. Calvary were the same place.
Everything in this chapter portrays Gods great sacrifice of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the place of sinners. We have before us examples of great faith in Abraham and in Isaac. Gods great purpose of grace in Christ is displayed in Abrahams confident declaration, God will provide himself a lamb, and in his calling the name of the place Jehovah-jireh. However, the dominant theme of the chapter is the picture set before us of substitutionary redemption and Gods great provision for his people in Christ. As the ram caught in the thicket was sacrificed in Isaacs stead and God provided in that ram everything Isaac needed, so Christ died in the room and stead of his people, and God has given his elect all we need for time and eternity in Christ (Eph 1:3).
The Time
Notice first the time when this trial was brought upon Abraham (Gen 22:1). And it came to pass after these things – After all the other trials, hardships, heartaches, and difficulties he had already endured, perhaps Abraham had begun to think, At last, the storms are over. This is the man who had been called to leave his home and family. — This is the man who had buried his father, Terah, in Haran. — This is the man who had to endure the family strife with Lot. — This is the man who had to go to war with the heathen kings to save Lot. — This is the man who had to wait 25 years for God to fulfil his promise in giving him a son, the son he is now required to sacrifice. — This is the man who had seen his brother Lots family swept away in Gods wrath. — This is the man who had been required to cast his son out of his house.
Abraham must have thought to himself, after all he had been through, Now the worst is over. Now I will live in peace. Ishmael is gone. Hagar is gone. Lot is gone. But I have Sarah and Isaac. All is well. But it was not so. It came to pass after these things that God did tempt, test, try, and prove, Abraham. Abraham had been tested again and again. But now the Lord seems to say, My son, give me thine heart (Pro 23:26).
The Tempter
The one who brought this trial upon Abraham was the Lord his God. — God did tempt Abraham (Gen 22:1). The word tempt here means, to try, to test, or to prove (Jas 1:2-3; Jas 1:12). God brought this trial upon Abraham, not because he was angry with him, but because he loved him. The purpose of the trial was to prove to Abraham the reality of his faith and to reveal to Abraham the glory of Gods grace in Christ. When the trial was over, Abraham knew himself better than he did before; and he knew Christ better than he did before.
All through his life God had been preparing Abraham for this event. Now, it came to pass after these things. Our great, sovereign God does all things in due time (Rom 5:6), in the fulness of time (Gal 4:4). After these things – After the fall, the flood, the exodus, the tabernacle, the law, the prophets, the kings, and the priests had all run their course, it pleased God to fulfil every prophecy, pattern, and promise of Holy Scripture by the sacrifice of his only begotten Son. All that came before were preparatory events, picturing and pointing to the hour when Christ would die (Act 10:43; Luk 24:27; Luk 24:44-46).
Gods providence is always on time. All things are of God (2Co 5:18). God does all things well. Let us learn these three things, and we will learn to live in peace:
1.Our trials always come from our heavenly Father.
2.Our trials are brought upon us by God to prove and improve our faith.
3.Our trials reveal Christ and make him more precious.
Read Gen 22:2 and try to realize something of the magnitude of this great trial, which Gods friend and faithful servant was here called upon to endure. “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
The words of this verse, taken one by one, reveal the greatness of Abrahams sacrifice, the love behind it, and the agony he endured through it. Can you imagine Abrahams grief when he received this command? Who can enter into the sorrow he suffered as he contemplated the death of his son by his own hand? What great love he must have had for God to willingly sacrifice his darling Isaac? No mere man ever man such a supreme sacrifice to God.
Every word in this verse must have been like a sword in his heart! Yet, there is a greater Sacrifice than that of Abraham. Here the Lord God himself is telling us what he has done for us. Take now thy son – The Lord Jesus Christ, whom God sacrificed for us, is himself the Son of God. Thine only son – Our Savior, whom God gave for the ransom of our souls, is Gods only begotten Son (Joh 3:16). Isaac – Isaac means laughter, or delight. And Christ is the one, the only one, in whom God is well pleased. Whom thou lovest – God said, This is my beloved Son. Yet, he sacrificed his darling for us, the very chief of sinners! And offer him for a burnt offering – Not just a sacrifice, a burnt offering! The Lord Jesus Christ is our burnt-offering, our sin-offering, sacrificed for us by the hand of God, according to the will of God (Isa 53:10; Heb 10:9-10). Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift! (1Co 9:15).
Try to imagine the difficulties Abraham had to overcome to obey Gods command. There were many things Abraham might have argued as reasons for disobedience; but he consulted not with flesh and blood. God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, but gave him no reason for requiring such a sacrifice – All Abraham had was Gods command. The commandment was contrary to nature, reason, and love; but it was crystal clear. The commandment appeared to be contrary to the promise of God; but it came from God who made the promise. If Abraham obeyed God, as he knew he must, he was sure to suffer much ridicule, persecution, and reproach for it. What would he tell Sarah? What would he say to the Egyptians?
Matthew Henry correctly informs us that, Gods commands must not be disputed, but obeyed. We must not consult with flesh and blood about them (Gal 1:15-16), but with a gracious obstinacy persist in our obedience to them. Whatsoever he saith to you, do it! (Joh 2:5).
Now read Gen 22:3-10. As you do, turn your thoughts away from Abraham. This is a picture of Gods whole purpose of grace and his work of redemption by the sacrifice of Christ. Abraham rose up early in the morning, and prepared everything with great care (Gen 22:3-4).
Abraham had three long days to think about what must be done. As they journeyed those days and slept through those nights, the burden and sacrifice constantly lay upon his heart. But our heavenly Father planned, purposed, and ordained the sacrifice of his Son for us, not three days, nor three thousand days, but from eternity, before ever the world was made (Revelation 13; Revelation 8; Eph 1:3-4). And he never thought about altering his purpose!
Abraham carefully prepared everything for the sacrifice. And our great God carefully prepared everything for the sacrifice of his darling Son for us (Act 2:23; Act 4:27-28).Abraham saw the place afar off. So the Lord God, from everlasting set his heart and mind upon the place of sacrifice – Mt. Calvary.
Abraham and Isaac went to the mountain of sacrifice together alone (Gen 22:5-8). Redemption was the work of God alone, a transaction between God the Father and God the Son. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself (2Co 5:19). Twelve went with the Son of God to the Passover. Eleven went with him to the garden. Three went with him to pray. But when he went to the cross, our Savior was alone (Heb 1:3). The wood was laid upon Isaacs back. Christ carried his cross. The instruments of death were in the fathers hands.
In verse seven, Isaac asked, Where is the Lamb for a burnt offering? He knew that God could not be worshipped without a blood sacrifice (Exo 12:13; Lev 17:11; Heb 9:22). His father answered, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering (Gen 22:8). This is clearly a prophecy of Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ the Sacrifice for God. He is the Sacrifice from God. God requires only what he gives; and he will always accept that which he has given. Jesus Christ is here described as that Sacrifice who is God!
At last Abraham and Isaac came to the place of sacrifice (Gen 22:9-10).Abraham built the altar and laid the wood upon it. He bound his son and laid him on the altar. Isaac willingly submitted to his fathers will. Abraham stretched forth his hand to kill his Son. No explanation is needed. This is a picture of our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was delivered to death by the will of God, and put to death as our Substitute by the hand of divine justice (Act 2:23; Isa 53:8-10; Zec 13:7). Yet, he freely volunteered to be our sin-atoning sacrifice (Joh 10:17-18; Heb 10:5-14; 1Pe 2:24).
Once Abrahams faith was proved, God intervened to save Isaac; and the type changes. Gen 22:11-13 reveal the beautiful, blessed picture of substitutionary redemption. When God spoke, Abraham looked . When he looked, he saw a ram caught in the thicket, which he offered in the stead of his Son! (2Co 5:21). That ram represents Christ.
Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-jireh (Gen 22:14). That name might be properly translated in three ways. Each translation reveals blessed, soul cheering, gospel truths by which the believers heart is encouraged and comforted throughout his earthly pilgrimage. Jehovah-jireh means, The Lord will see. He sees all our needs. Particularly, he sees our need for righteousness and atonement. Jehovah-jireh means, The Lord will provide. He who is our God provides all that we need in his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is made of God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1Co 1:30). And, Jehovah-jireh means, The Lord will be seen. In the provision he makes for his people, in the substitutionary sacrifice of his dear Son for the salvation of his people, the Lord God reveals the glory of his great Being ((2Co 4:4-6; Rom 3:24-26; Psa 108:6; Eph 2:7).
When the whole work was done, Isaac, the object of his fathers love, was exalted (Gen 22:15-18). He was promised a great posterity – He shall see his seed! He was made to be a great ruler, possessing the gate of his enemies. He became the source of universal blessedness. In all these things, Isaac portrays that greatness, glory, and exaltation given to our Lord Jesus Christ as our Mediator, when he had finished his work of redemption upon the earth and put away the sins of his people (Php 2:9-11; Heb 10:10-14; Joh 17:2; Psa 2:8; Eph 1:3).
In the light of these things, considering what the Lord God has done for chosen sinners in the sacrifice of Christ for the ransom of our souls, lets us lay to heart the following three question.
1.What trial is too great for me to endure for him who endured such great agony for me?
2.What sacrifice is too costly for me to make for my Savior, a sinner redeemed by the precious blood of Christ?
3.What work is too demeaning or too demanding for one who has been purchased by a Savior so demeaned in obedience which demanded his death under the wrath of God as my Substitute?
And it came to pass
The spiritual experience of Abraham was marked by four great crises, each of which involved a surrender of something naturally most dear. These were:
(1) Country and kindred Gen 12:1; Mat 10:34-39; 2Co 6:14-18
(2) His nephew, Lot; especially dear to Abraham by nature, as a possible heir and as a fellow believer 2Pe 2:7; 2Pe 2:8; Gen 13:1-18. The completeness of Abraham’s separation from one who, though a believer, was a “vessel unto dishonour,” is shown by; Gen 15:1-3; 2Ti 2:20; 2Ti 2:21; Act 15:36-40.
(3) His own plan about Ishmael Gen 17:17; Gen 17:18; 1Ch 13:1-14; 1Ch 15:1; 1Ch 15:2.
(4) Isaac, “thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest” Gen 22:1-19; Heb 11:17; Heb 11:18.
The Proving of Abraham
And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.Gen 22:1-2.
Few scenes in the whole compass of the Bible are more familiar than the sacrifice of Isaac. We knew the charm of it when we were children, and as we recur to it, time and again, amid the deepening experience of the years, we find that the story has not lost the power and beauty that so arrested us in bygone days. This indeed is one of the wonders of Gods Word, that we never leave it behind us as we travel. With all our growth through activity and sorrow, it grows in richness of interpretation. There are books which we very speedily outstrip; we read them, and we lay them aside for a period, and then we come back to them and find them thin and inadequate. But with all our growth, the Bible seems to grow; coming back to it we do not find it empty; rather with the increasing knowledge of the years, and the crosses and burdens they inevitably bring, new depths of Divine help and wisdom open themselves before us in Gods Word. It is peculiarly so with such a passage as this. We can never exhaust its spiritual significance. To our childish ears it is a delightful story; it appeals as powerfully as any fairy-tale; but gradually we come to see beneath the surface, and to discern the mind of God within the picture, until at last we reach the sweet assurance that underneath are the everlasting arms.
Looking at the whole chapter as we should at any merely human composition, we must admit that for profound pathos, for tragic force of description, it has never been surpassed. Each time that we hear it, says St. Augustine, it thrills us afresh. Compare it even with that exquisitely touching passage in the Agamemnon of schylus, which describes in words of such wonderful beauty the anguish of the father constrained to sacrifice his child, and it will not suffer by the comparison. Listen to the brief dialogue: My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt-offering? My son, God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt-offering. The hearts deepest grief was never more eloquently portrayed. No sobs, no tears, no words telling of the struggle within. The anguish lies too deep for utterance. The sculptor, when he would express a grief that he could not express, bowed and veiled the face of the mourner; and the veiling of the agony here is in fact its most pathetic expression.1 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne.]
It is most important that this great text should be approached from the right side. There is a moral difficulty in itGods command to Abraham to sacrifice his sonwhich arrests the attention so strongly that it usually occupies the mind almost entirely. Accordingly the common title is the Sacrifice of Isaac. But the subject is the testing or proving of faith; the sacrifice of Isaac being the special manner in which, for Abraham, faith was tested. If we begin with the proving of faith we shall come to the sacrifice of Isaac when we have understood the reason for it. It will then fall into its proper place, and we shall be able to see the moral difficulty in the light of an eternal truth.
I
The Proving of Faith
1. First of all, take the general statement that Faith needs to be tried or proved. Ewald says: That only is a spiritual and therefore true and abiding blessing which we are able to make our own in the strife and wrestling of a faithful spirit. That is to say, Gods gifts are not in the best sense our own till we have been taught by experience that they continue to be His still. It may even be questioned whether in the unthreatened secure enjoyment of a great joy, there does not always mingle some dash of sin. It may be doubted whether a hot trial does not always find its occasion in some moral need of the tried soul. At all events, as Augustine reminds us, there is no way to self-knowledge but through trial, through what he calls some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation. In other words, Gods stern providence must step in to test the latent capabilities of the soul. No scrutiny of our own, however honest, will ascertain what is really in us. When He takes in hand to try us, because He loves us, it is that He may discover, not to Himself who sees all hearts, but to us and to our brethren, that which His grace has planted deep within. Moreover, He designs, by lending to our unfledged virtue scope and a call to exercise itself, to train its strength of wing for bolder flights to follow.
False gold says to true gold every moment,
Wherein, brother, am I less than you?
True gold in reply but maketh comment,
Wait, O brother, till the touch-stone come in view.1 [Note: Jalaluddin Rumi, in A Little Book of Eastern Wisdom , 11.]
2. Not only does Faith need to be tried but Faith needs to be tried all through life. And trials do not become lighter as we go on. The text says, And it came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham. What, no repose? No place of honourable quiet for the friend of God, full of years? No. There are harder and yet harder trials even to the end. The last of Abrahams trials was the hardest of all to bear. And this is the history of our existence. For the soldier engaged in this worlds warfare, there is an honourable asylum for his declining years; but for the soldier of the Cross there is no rest except the grave. Conquer, and fresh trials will be yours, followed by fresh victories. Nay, even Abrahams last victory did not guarantee the future.
There is a deep truth contained in the fabled story of old, where a mother, wishing to render her son invulnerable, plunged him into the Styx, but forgot to dip his heel by which she held him. We are baptized in the blood and fire of sorrow that temptation may make us invulnerable; but let us remember that trials will assail us in our most vulnerable part, be it the head, or heart, or heel. Let us therefore give up the idea of any moment of our lives coming when we may lay aside our armour and rest in perfect peace.2 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]
3. But there is usually in our life one trial, one crisis, to which great issues are attached. As we pass along the path of life there may come to us, in some form or other, the Divine command, to give up something very dear, because God wills it. And we must learn to do it, to do it cheerfully and willingly, as Abraham did,to do it without murmuring, with a calm confiding trust in our Fathers Love and in His Wisdom, that what He wills is surely good, what He orders must be for the best.
This was not the first time that God had tried Abraham. He had tried him all his life. He tried him when He commanded him to leave his native land. He tried him in suffering him to wander as a stranger in the land given him by promise. He tried him in the peril of Sarah in Egypt and in the peril of Lot in Sodom. He tried him in causing him to wait twenty-five long years before Isaac was born. He tried him severely when He bade him thrust out his son Ishmael from his home. But here it is said in marked phrase that God did try Abraham, because it is the crucial instance of his life, the hardest trial, perhaps, of all history.1 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne.]
If God speak to thee in the summer air,
The cool soft breath thou leanest forth to feel
Upon thy forehead; dost thou feel it God?
Nay, but the wind: and when heart speaks to heart,
And face to face, when friends meet happily,
And all is merry, God is also there;
But thou perceivest but thy fellows part;
And when out of the dewy garden green
Some liquid syllables of music strike
A sudden speechless rapture through thy frame,
Is it Gods voice that moves thee? Nay, the birds,
Who sings to God, and all the world and thee.
But when the sharp strokes flesh and heart run through,
For thee, and not another; only known,
In all the universe, through sense of thine;
Not caught by eye or ear, not felt by touch,
Nor apprehended by the spirits sight,
But only by the hidden, tortured nerves,
And all their incommunicable pain,
God speaks Himself to us, as mothers speak
To their own babes, upon the tender flesh
With fond familiar touches close and dear;
Because He cannot choose a softer way
To make us feel that He Himself is near,
And each apart His own Beloved and Known.2 [Note: Harriet Eleanor Hamilton King.]
4. God sends us no trial, however, whether great or small, without first preparing us. He will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it (1Co 10:13). Trials are, therefore, Gods vote of confidence in us. Many a trifling event is sent to test us, ere a greater trial is permitted to break on our heads. We are set to climb the lower peaks before being urged to the loftiest summits with their virgin snows; are made to run with footmen before contending with horses; are taught to wade in the shallows before venturing into the swell of the ocean waves. So it is written: It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.
The trial of faith is the greatest and heaviest of all trials. For faith it is which must conquer in all trials. Therefore, if faith gives way, then the smallest and most trifling temptations can overcome a man. But when faith is sound and true, then all other temptations must yield and be overcome.1 [Note: Luther, Watchwords for the Warfare of Life, 46.]
5. And now, lastly, let us remember that our experience is that filial obedience on our part has ever been followed by special tokens of Gods approval. We have something more than mere Hebrew redundancy of language in the promise made to Abraham by the Almighty. Hear how that promise reads. It reads like a river full to overflowing: Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. Is there a more striking realization of the promise, I will open the Windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing until there shall not be room enough to receive it? Have we not ourselves, in appropriate degrees, realized this same overflowing and all-comforting blessing of God, in return for our filial obedience? Have we ever given money to the poor without repayment from the Lord? Have we ever given time to Gods cause without the sun and the moon standing still until we had finished the fight, and made up for the loss? Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life (Mar 10:29-30). Exceeding great and precious are the promises of God! He is able to do very exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Unless above himself he can erect himself, how mean a thing is man. He that sets himself with his whole heart on this task, will find at some stage or other of the work, that, like Abraham, he has to offer up his first-born, his dearest possession, his ruling love,whatever that may be. He must actually lift the knife,not so much to prove his sincerity to God as to himself; for no man who has not thus won assurance of himself can advance surely. But he will find that he has killed a ram, and that his first-born is safe, and exalted by this offering to be the father of a great nation; and he will understand why God called the place in which this sacrifice was offered The Land of Vision.1 [Note: Coventry Patmore.]
I stood and watched my ships go out,
Each, one by one, unmooring free,
What time the quiet harbour filled
With flood-tide from the sea.
The first that sailed,her name was Joy;
She spread a smooth and ample sail,
And eastward strove, with bending spars,
Before the singing gale.
Another sailed,her name was Hope;
No cargo in her hold she bore,
Thinking to find in western lands
Of merchandise a store.
The next that sailed,her name was Love;
She showed a red flag at the mast,
A flag as red as blood she showed,
And she sped south right fast.
The last that sailed,her name was Faith;
Slowly she took her passage forth,
Tacked and lay toat last she steered
A straight course for the north.
My gallant ships they sailed away
Over the shimmering summer sea;
I stood at watch for many a day,
But only one came back to me.
For Joy was caught by Pirate Pain;
Hope ran upon a hidden reef;
And Love took fire, and foundered fast
In whelming seas of grief.
Faith comes at last, storm-beat and torn;
She recompensed me all my loss,
For as a cargo safe she brought
A Crown, linked to a Cross!
II
The Proving of the Faith of Abraham
1. The word tempt.God did tempt Abraham (R.V. prove). A better rendering might be, God did put Abraham to the test. Satan tempts us that he may bring out the evil that is in our hearts; God tries or tests us that He may bring out all the good. In the fiery trial through which the believer is called to pass, ingredients of evil which had counteracted his true development drop away, shrivelled and consumed; whilst latent qualitiesproduced by grace, but not yet brought into exerciseare called to the front, receive due recognition, and acquire a fixity of position and influence which nothing else could possibly have given them. In the agony of sorrow we say words and assume positions which otherwise we should never have dreamt of, but from which we never again recede. Looking back, we wonder how we dared to do as we did; and yet we are not sorrybecause the memory of what we were in that supreme hour is a precious legacy, and a platform from which we take a wider view, and climb to the further heights which beckon us.
Tempt in Old English, like the Latan tentare, was a neutral word, meaning to test or prove a person, to see whether he would act in a particular way, or whether the character which he bore was well established; in modern English, it has come to mean to entice a person in order to do a particular thing, especially some thing that is wrong or sinful. God tests or proves man, when He subjects him to a trial to ascertain whether his faith or goodness is real; man is said to test or prove God, when he acts as if doubting whether His word or promise is true.1 [Note: S. R. Driver.]
2. The particular form of Abrahams trial.The command given by God was fitted as perhaps no other command could have been to purify Abrahams faith. God had been training him from the first to live only by His promise. He called him out of his own land, He promised him another land, but Abraham lived a stranger in it, and was never able to call it his own. He promised him a son in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed, and for many long years Abraham had lived by that promise, seeing no hope of its fulfilment. At last Isaac was born, and he welcomed him as the child of promise. But years pass on. The child has grown up before him and twined himself about his heart, till at last he has almost forgotten the promise in the child of promise. Isaac, it has been strikingly said, the precious latewon gift, is still for Abraham too exclusively a merely natural blessing, a child like other children, though born of the true mother, Abrahams son only because he has been born to him and been brought up in his house. Pangs, the pangs of a soul wrestling in faith, he has not felt for him since his birth, and yet that is the only spiritual and therefore the only really abiding blessing which we are able to make our own, through the fightings and wrestlings of the believing heart. Therefore, now that in Isaac the supreme blessing has been won, there must also take place the supreme trial of Abrahams faith and obedience.
Abraham was in a special sense the creature of promise. His whole life rested upon the promise; all his hopes centred in and were dependent upon the promise; and the whole object of Gods discipline and training seemed to be to isolate him from all else, and to make him hang only on the promise. The promise is all. Is Gods promise enough for him? Can he live by that? Can he trust to it with unhesitating reliance in spite of all that seems contrary? Can he trust even when Gods own word seems to contradict it? This was the exact nature of Abrahams trial.2 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne.]
3. Abrahams recognition of it.How was Abraham able to recognize as Divine a command to sacrifice his son? We could not so regard such a command: an alleged command of God to sacrifice a child could not be accepted as such; and if it were acted upon, the action would be condemned as a violation of conscience by the whole Christian Church; there had been, it would be said, some hallucination or delusion. The reason is that we live in an age, and under a moral light, in which we could not regard as Divine a command to violate not only our sense of what was morally right, but even our natural instincts of love and affection. It was possible for Abraham so to regard it, because he lived under the mental and moral conditions of an age very different from ours. He lived not only in an age when such sacrifices were common, but also in an age in which the rights of the individual were much less clearly recognized than they are now, when it was still a common thing, for instance, for the family of a criminal to be punished with him, and when also a fathers power over his son was far more absolute than it is now. The command would not therefore shock the moral standard to which Abraham was accustomed, as it would shock ours. It would not be out of harmony with what he might suppose could be reasonably demanded by God.
The custom of human sacrifice was widely spread in the ancient world, as it is still among savage or half-civilized tribes, the idea lying at the bottom of it being that the surrender of something of the highest valueand so especially of a relative or a childto the deity, would have extraordinary efficacy in averting his anger, or gaining his help. The custom was thus practised among the Phnicians and other neighbours of Israel (cf. 2Ki 3:27; 2Ki 17:31); the Carthaginians, Greek writers tell us, in times of grave national danger or calamity, would sacrifice by the hundred the children of their noblest families. Under the later kings, especially Ahaz and Manasseh, the custom found its way into Judah, in spite of its being strenuously forbidden by legislators and condemned by prophets. In view of this prevalence of the practice among Israels neighbours it is quite possible that Jehovahs claim to the first-born in Israel (Exo 22:29; Exo 13:12-15, al.) stands in some relation to it; Jehovah took the first-born, but gave it back to its parents upon payment of a redemption price.1 [Note: S. R. Driver.]
4. The moral difficulty which we feel would not exist for Abraham.Living in an age and a country where human sacrifice was common and approved of, held generally to be the highest mark of devotion, most sacred, most acceptable, it could have been no stumbling-block to him. Now, on the other hand, faith would be shown in refusing any such seeming Divine intimation, however vouched for by the senses. We should regard it, and rightly regard it, as only an hallucination. We should and ought to say, My eyes, my ears may deceive me, a dream may seem like reality, bodily disorganization may cheat my working mind, but that God should bid me slay my child is impossible. No miracle even could attest such a command. If I heard such a voice, if I saw such a miracle, I must only say, being in the full possession of my intellect and my faculties, I am the victim of some strange hallucination. I believe in Gods character as revealed by conscience, as declared to me in Holy Scripture, and I must believe in it against any outward seeming evidence, however strong. And to act in accordance with such a belief would be the proof of our faith, a faith in the unseen against the verdict of bodily sense.
Here we may learn the necessity which is laid upon us of obeying under all circumstances the voice of conscienceof following the promptings of that inner sense of duty, which we all have, if we will only heed it, and which will urge us, from time to time, to do this or to do thatnot because it is pleasant, or because it is profitable, but simply because it is right. This is, in fact, what makes a manwhat makes him essentially different from the brutes that perishthat he has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, an inward voice which bids him do this and do that, simply because it is right for him to do it. Many brute creatures are very strong and very clever; but to do what is right and true and good belongs not to brutes, it belongs only to men.1 [Note: J. W. Colenso.]
III
The Use of the Proving of Abrahams Faith
i. Its Use to Abraham
The command to slay his son was not to Abraham that abrupt, startling, unaccountable command which at first sight it appears. God was leading him, as He leads us all, in the way of His providence. Abraham was living among idolaters; he had been an idolater himself. He must often have witnessed the cruel rites, the impure and debasing practices, associated with idol worship. He may not have been free from temptation to fall back into idolatry. On all the high places, by sacred rock, and in sacred grove, fathers shed the blood of their sons and of their daughters to the idols of Canaan, and the land was defiled with blood. When he saw or heard of these awful sacrifices, do we suppose he could see or hear of them unmoved? Do we think they stirred in him no searchings of heart? The triumph of religious faith, however mistaken, over natural affection must surely have moved him to serious and painful reflection. Abraham was a man, as all his history shows, of the tenderest affectiona man who loved his children with no common love. He was also a man, as all his history shows, conspicuous for his faith and obedience to God. Trusting in God, then, and loving Him with all his heart, and feeling, too, that his child was dearer to him than life itself, must he not have asked himself the question, forced upon him by the scenes which he saw around him, What if my love to God and my love to my child should ever be brought into this painful conflict? Can I give Him my son? Can I give Him, if He asks it, the child who has been the light of my home, the music of my life, the stay and hope of my falling years? Such questions, we say, must have forced themselves upon Abraham; and we may see in this temptation, this trial, Gods answer to such thoughts. God showed His servant what was in his heart; He showed him that he could do all this, that he could do more than the heathen did; for he yielded a sacrifice no less costly, and he yielded it not out of fear, but in simple, unquestioning, childlike obedience.
In contrast with the heathen sacrifices, Abrahams sacrifice, as Philo long ago argued, shines by its moral superiority. It was not offered, he says, from any selfish motive, under the compulsion of a tyrant, or through fear of man, from desire of present glory or hope of future renown. He did not offer his son to win a battle, or to avert a famine or a pestilence, or to obtain some coveted gift of the gods. Nor did he give up one child out of many. He was ready to sacrifice his only son, his beloved son, the son of his old age, and he did this simply because God commanded it. His sacrifice in itself went far beyond all heathen sacrifices, as in its motives it infinitely surpassed them. He gave all that he had, and he gave it not from fear, or from interest, but out of love to God.1 [Note: J. J. S. Perowne.]
The practical test of faith is obedience, and such obedience has to be learned through suffering. But how rarely does it happen that any bystander can guess what tragedies are being enacted in human bosoms! A little excursion by the pious chief and his son for purposes of devotion may have been too ordinary an incident to do more than gently stir the monotony of their pastoral life. Yet few passages in literature carry a deeper pathos than the words which tell how, in the fresh dawn, the aged lord of that camp crept away on foot out of the midst of his retainers tents, while the cattle, marshalled with merry call and tinkling bell, were going forth in long strings to their several grazing-grounds, and all the landscape grew busy with cheerful stir.2 [Note: J. O. Dykes.]
When one asked what was that service of God which pleased Him best, Luther said, To hear Christ, and be obedient to Him. This is the highest and greatest service of God. Beside this, all is worth nothing. For in heaven He has far better and more beautiful worship and service than we can render. As it was said to Saul, To obey is better than to sacrifice. As also soldiers say in time of war; obedience and keeping to the articles of warthis is victory.
It is recorded of the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia that they were one day discussing the relative unquestioning obedience of their soldiers. Each claimed the palm, of course, for his own soldiers. They agreed to test the matter at once. They were sitting in a room on the second storey in a house, and they determined each to call up a soldier, and to order him to leap out of the window. The Prussian monarch first called his man. Leap out of that window, he said to him. Your Majesty, it would kill me, was the reply; and he was sent down. Then an Austrian soldier was called, and the emperor ordered him to leap out of the window. I will, said the man, if your Majesty really means it. He was sent down, and the Czar of Russia called his man, and gave him the same order. Without a word the man crossed himself, and started for the window to do it. Of course, he was stopped ere he could leap outbut to all intents and purposes he did make the leap; and whatever there was of agony of feeling connected with that leap, he felt.3 [Note: A. C. Price.]
ii. Its Use to us
There are various lessons to be learned from it.
1. They that are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.It was designed to reveal to posterity the fitness of this man for the unparalleled honour to which God had summoned himthe honour of entering first into friendly alliance with Heaven, of receiving in the name of the universal Church Heavens promise of eternal blessing, and of becoming to after ages the exemplar of that trust in God to which it has pleased Him to attach His favour and forgiveness. The issue of that probation was to justify the confidence reposed in Abraham by Abrahams almighty Friend.
2. True sacrifice is the surrender of the will.The sacrifice, though commanded, was not exacted. Abrahams hand was stayed, before the fatal act was completed. This showed, once for all, clearly and unmistakably, that in contrast to what was imagined of the heathen deities worshipped by Israels neighbours, the God of Israel did not demand human sacrifices of His worshippers. He demanded in reality only the surrender of Abrahams will. Abraham, by his obedience, demonstrated his readiness to part with what was dearest to him, and with something, moreover, on which all his hopes for the future depended; thus his character was proved, the sincerity of his religion was established, and his devotion to God confirmed and strengthened. It was the supreme trial of his faith; and it triumphed. And so the narrative teaches two great lessons. On the one hand, it teaches the value set by God upon the surrender of self, and obedience; on the other, it demonstrates, by a signal example, the moral superiority of Jehovahs religion over the religions of Israels neighbours.
We must take the history as a whole, the conclusion as well as the commencement. The sacrifice of Isaac was commanded at first, and forbidden at the end. Had it ended in Abrahams accomplishing the sacrifice, I know not what could have been said; it would have left on the page of Scripture a dark and painful blot. My reply to Gods seeming to require human sacrifice is the conclusion of this chapter. God says, Lay not thine hand upon the lad. This is the final decree. Thus human sacrifices were distinctly forbidden. He really required the surrender of the fathers will. He seemed to demand the sacrifice of life.1 [Note: F. W. Robertson.]
Abraham never needed, himself, to be taught a second time that God does not wish the offering of blood. No Hebrew parent, reading that story in after years, and teaching it to his children, would ever think of pleasing the God of Abraham by offering to Him his first-born son; it became an abomination in Israel to cause children to pass through the fire to Moloch, and the later prophets knew that God loves mercy rather than sacrifice. Though the influence of surrounding idolatries may on rare occasions have led Israel into the tragic sin of offering human sacrifices, the Hebrew law and custom, and the whole providential leading of the people from Abrahams day were against it; and they who would sit in judgment upon this Divine procedure should not be suffered to ignore the decisive fact that the God of Abraham is the God whose course of moral education succeeded in destroying the fatal errors, and saving the vital truth, of sacrifice; and that the beginning of this great, beneficent, providential instruction in the true meaning of sacrifice was the vivid historical object-lesson which God taught Abraham of old, and which Israel has not forgotten to this day.1 [Note: Newman Smyth.]
3. Give God the first place.In that most cruel rite of human sacrifice there is a truth providentially to be cared for, as well as a fearful evil to be abolished. At the heart of it lies this idea, that he who would be a friend of God must love nothing better than God, nor hold back anything which Gods service demands. This is the same everlasting law which on the lips of our Lord Jesus found explicit and reiterated utterance: He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me. To disentangle this precious truth from the false and hateful inference which had become involved with it, that the literal slaying of a beloved child could constitute an act of worship pleasing to the Deity, formed beyond question one design of the strange command, Take now thy son Isaac and offer him up.
Do you say that such an act could not be done now? That is all the more reason why it should have been done;why it should have been done when it could be done; when the state of evidence admitted of it; when the primitive standard of human rights gave the son to be the property of the father, to be surrendered by him, upon a call, as his own treasure. That ideathat very defective idea of the ageit was, which rendered possible the very point of the act, the unsurpassable pang of it, the self-inflicted martyrdom of human affection, the death of the son in will, by the fathers hand. That idea of the age, therefore, was used to produce that special fruit which it was adapted to produce; the particular great spiritual act of which it supplied the possibility, and which was the splendid flower of this stock.1 [Note: J. B. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, 60.]
To refuse sacrifice is to refuse the love that is one aspect of Gods being. Love lays down its life unceasingly, but so it transcends time, and conquers death. It is the fulfilling of the law, but its necessity is perfect freedom. And it dies to the finite self; but it has found the universal self, and life eternal.2 [Note: May Kendall.]
4. Redemption is by blood.Viewed as a part of the Divine teaching of the world, we find in this history the wisdom of God. We find an answer to that first and deepest of questions that the human heart can ask, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? We do not find it indeed in doctrine or even in words at all. But we do find it in fact. We find it just in that mode of revelation which was best suited to the wants and capacities of those to whom it was addressed. Precisely as we ourselves teach children by pictures, whose meaning, however, they cannot themselves fully understand, so God taught the childhood of the world. Not till the great act had itself been accomplished on Calvary could all its Interpretation be given. First came the picture, then, so to speak, the comments on the picture in the mouth of prophets and holy men of old. Then the great fact itself was exhibited; and then from the hallowed lips of the Apostles of the Lord came the eloquent interpretation of the fact. It is one truth throughout. Christ Jesus came to do the Fathers will, and to give his life a ransom for many; by his obedience we are made righteous, he hath redeemed us by his bloodwhat are words like these but the filling in, so to speak, of the fainter lines of that ancient picture?
5. God spared not His own Son.At this point the wonderful story begins to burn inwardly with the fire of prophecy. It grows prophetic of the transcendent sacrifice on the cross, not through ingenious accommodation, or making the most of any accidental surface resemblances, but because at its very core it was an inspiration of the same self-subduing love that inspired and glorified the offering of Golgotha. Abrahams best praise is found in this, that his act can be described in those identical terms which were to be selected by the noblest spokesman of the New Testament Church as the most fitting to describe the supreme act of eternal love: He spared not his own son. With perfect justice, therefore, has the Christian Church delighted since the beginning of her history to place the sacrifice of Isaac over against the mysterious and adorable sacrifice of her Lord, as its most splendid Old Testament prefiguration.
Gods true children must climb their mount of sacrifice. When our own hour shall have come, may we arise forthwith, cleave the wood for the burnt-offering, and go unflinching up the path by which our Heavenly Father shall lead us. So shall the mount of trial become the mount of blessing. We shall have a wider horizon; we shall breathe a purer atmosphere; we shall set our affection more entirely upon things above; we shall walk more closely with God. And so when He asks something very dear to us, let us think not only of Moriah, but of Calvary, where He Himself gave infinitely more than He can ever ask of us.
The dearest offering He can crave
His portion in thy soul to prove,
What is it to the gift He gave,
The only Son of His dear love?
In the moral significance of this history the Jew and the Christian are agreed. Even to the present day the Jew, though he has rejected the true propitiation, sees in the binding of Isaac on the altar a meritorious deed which still pleads on behalf of Israel with God. And whilst the Christian Church prays to God for pardon and blessing on account of the merits and death of Jesus Christ, the Jewish synagogue beseeches Him to have compassion upon it for the sake of the binding of Isaac.
How seemed it to the lad,
As down Moriahs slope they slowly went,
They who had glimpsed th eternal plan of God?
Behind, the pressure of encircling cords,
The vision of a sacrificial knife,
And dying ashes upon altar stones.
Before, a life that nevermore might be
The glad, free life of sunny-hearted youth
For he had looked into the face of death.
How seemed it to the lad,
When at the mountains base they ran to meet
And welcome back the chieftain and his son?
Marked they upon his brow a graver shade?
Within his eyes a stronger, clearer light,
As panoplied with power beyond his own?
And said they, under breath, from man to man,
The while they passed along the homeward way,
The prince has seenhas seen and talked with God?
How seemed it to the lad,
When for his mothers greeting low he knelt,
And felt her welcoming kiss upon his cheek?
Oh, did she see, with tender mother sight,
A change had come? And think you that he told
The tale to her? Or did he hold it close,
Too sacred for the common speech of earth,
While dimly seeing through the mist of years,
In one great Sacrifice, the type fulfilled?
Literature
Aglionby (F. K.), The Better Choice, 10.
Banks (L. A.), Hidden Wells of Comfort, 130.
Brooks (Phillips), The More Abundant Life, 137.
Colenso (J. W.), Natal Sermons, i. 356.
Dykes (J. O.), Abraham the Friend of God, 243.
Hessey (J. A.), Moral Difficulties connected with the Bible, i. 83.
Horton (R. F.), Lyndhurst Road Pulpit, 103.
Matheson (G.), Times of Retirement, 184.
Maurice (F. D.), The Doctrine of Sacrifice, 33.
Meyer (F. B.), Abraham, 167.
Morrison (G. H.), The Footsteps of the Flock, 67.
Mozley (J. B.), Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, 31, 64.
Parker (J.), Adam, Noah, and Abraham, 169.
Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, iv. 188; vi. 181.
Perowne (J. J. S.), Sermons, 332.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, x. 193.
Robertson (F. W.), Notes on Genesis, 53.
Smyth (N.), Old Faiths in New Light, 48.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xv. Nos. 868, 869.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Contemporary Pulpit Library, i. 144.
Waddell (R.), Behold the Lamb of God, 28.
Christian World Pulpit, xiv. 228 (Hubbard).
Expositor, 1st Ser., i. 314 (Cox); 2nd Ser., i. 305 (Godwin).
Expository Times, iii. 301 (Perowne).
am 2132, bc 1872, Jos, Ant
God: Exo 15:25, Exo 15:26, Exo 16:4, Deu 8:2, Deu 13:3, Jdg 2:22, 2Sa 24:1, 2Ch 32:31, Pro 17:3, 1Co 10:13, Heb 11:17, Jam 1:12-14, Jam 2:21, 1Pe 1:7
tempt: Or prove, or try, as tempt, from tento, originally signified.
Behold, here I am: Heb. Behold me, Gen 22:7, Gen 22:11, Exo 3:4, Isa 6:8
Reciprocal: Gen 21:11 – because Gen 31:11 – Here am I Gen 37:13 – Here am I Gen 46:2 – Jacob Exo 4:4 – put forth Exo 20:20 – prove Jdg 7:4 – I will 1Sa 3:4 – called Samuel 1Ki 17:13 – make me thereof 1Ki 17:17 – the son of the woman Job 7:18 – try Psa 11:5 – trieth Mat 6:13 – lead Joh 6:6 – prove Joh 20:16 – Mary Act 9:10 – Behold Act 22:7 – Saul
THE TRIAL OF FAITH
God did prove Abraham.
Gen 22:1 (R.V.)
We look on the demand which Jehovah here makes as a forward step in Abrahams spiritual training. We believe that it answered the two purposes, first of showing him what was the principle at the heart of sacrifice, and second of condemning human sacrifices finally and for ever among the people of God.
I. Think, then, first, what Abraham needed. This is best expressed in the Revised Version. And it came to pass after these things that God did prove Abraham. He needed to suffer that so he might be strong. But had he not been sufficiently tried? For an ordinary manyes; but not for the father of the faithful. Nor is it true that our trials diminish as we get on in life. Abraham was put through his fiercest test when it seemed as though all tests were over. He had settled down into a tranquil old age when Isaac was born. The succession was assured. And then came the hardest trial of all. It tried alike his faith and his affections. His faith in God might have been shaken under this dreadful demand. All he knew of Jehovah up to this time had prepared him for anything rather than for this. And his tenderest love was wrenched. The words of God were so arranged that each seemed keener than the one before.Thy sonthine only sonwhom thou lovestIsaac. We can fancy, as the voice went on, that it seemed as if God took malignant pleasure in dwelling on every item of the suffering He was inflicting on Abraham. The dreadfulness of all this was that Abraham had to think that God required this of him.
II. Turn, secondly, to inquire into the purpose which the trial of Abrahams faith was intended to serve.Was it not meant once and for all time to clear up the matter of sacrifice?
Three things Abraham gained by this test.
(1) He understood what true self-surrender was.Let us think what it involves. For one thing, sacrifice. Now what is the truth lying at the heart of all sacrifice? Is it not this: that we belong to another and greater than we? We are Gods husbandry. The lamb, the fruit, the tithe given up, speak of this. We are stewards, not proprietors. Then, for another thing, sacrifice involves the surrender of our wills. This Abraham was slowly learning. God had a will for him, but in Egypt and at the court of Abimelech he had interposed his own will, and had suffered for it. God seemed to demand the sacrifice of life. He really required the surrender of the fathers will. But another feature in self-surrender is that we are called upon to give up what we most prize. Had Abraham not been willing to part with Isaac into the hands of God, his love, even to Isaac, would have been feeble. He who prefers his dearest friend or his well-beloved child to the call of duty will soon show that he prefers himself to his dearest friend, and would not sacrifice himself for his child.
(2) Abraham saw more clearly into the true nature of God.Human sacrifices must always have been abhorrent to Him. He does not change in His essence. But now let this true man, and all time to come, learn what pleases God in sacrifice is self-surrender. Abraham never needed himself to be taught a second time that God does not wish the offering of blood. No Hebrew parent reading that story in after years and teaching it to his children would ever think of pleasing the God of Abraham by offering to Him his first-born son; it became an abomination in Israel to cause children to pass through the fire of Moloch, and the later prophets knew that God loves mercy rather than sacrifice.
(3) Abraham came back from the mountain with his faithbecause it was clearertherefore stronger than before.Note these few points in his faith: (a) Unresisting obedience. Not a word had he said to Sarah. He was now alone with God. God must see a reason for this act which mortal eye could not. (b) Deliberate isolation. Faith grows and fills out in solitude. Probably nothing was said when Abraham rose early, made the preparations himself, and started on that sad journey to Moriah. Be still and know that I am God. (c) A larger confidence. My son (most pathetic words), God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Already his quiet meditation had brought him to believe that in some way or other the Lord will provide. (d) Entire submission. Lay not for now I know, etc. This was all that was necessary. The education of Abraham was now complete.
Illustration
(1) It is related that about a century ago there was a day of remarkable gloom in America, when the light of the sun was slowly extinguished, as if by an eclipse. The Legislature of Connecticut was then in session, and some one, in the consternation of the hourit was thought the day of judgment had comemoved an adjournment. Then there arose an old Puritan legislator, Davenport, of Stamford, who said that if the last day had come he desired to be found in his place, doing his duty, and therefore moved that candles be brought in so that the house could proceed with its duty. It was this that nerved the old patriarch to plod on so unflinchingly to the place where Isaac was to be offered; he was in the way of duty, and in the way the Lord would provide. Even in the Mount, in mans extremity, the Lord would provide. Like capital safely invested, the way of duty yields a sure though modest return, and is never more comfortable than in time of panic and anxiety.
(2) Abraham christened the anonymous mountain-top, not by a name reminding him or others of his trial, but by a name that proclaimed Gods deliverance. He did not say anything about his agony or about his obedience. God spoke about that, not Abraham. He did not want these to be remembered, but what he desired to hand on to later generations was what God had done for him. Is that the way in which we look back upon life? Many a bare, bald mountain-top in your career and mine we have got our names for. Are they names that commemorate our sufferings or Gods blessings? When we look back on the past, what do we see? Times of trial or times of deliverance? Which side of the wave do we choose to look at, the one that is smitten by the sunshine or the one that is all black and purple in the shadow? The sea on the one side will be all a sunny path, and on the other dark as chaos. Let us name the heights that lie behind us, visible to memory, by names that commemorate, not the troubles that we had on them, but the deliverances that on them we received from God.
Two episodes in the life of Abraham stand out with special prominence. The first, when against all natural hopes, he “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3). In the second he was, “justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar” (Jam 2:21). To this second great event we come in Gen 22:1-24.
“After these things,” we read, God put Abraham to the test, and this is ever His way. Peter speaks of “the trial of your faith,” and declares that it is “much more, precious than of gold that perisheth” (1Pe 1:7). At the outset Abraham’s faith laid hold of God as One who was able to raise the dead. Under test he was now to demonstrate that such was his faith, in a way that would be apparent to any thoughtful observer. He showed his faith by his works.
If considered typically the chapter has remarkable significance. Here we get father and son both going up together to the sacrifice. In a figure the son is sacrificed and raised from the dead. We have already seen the death of Christ typified (1) as atonement, covering the guilty sinner, in the coats of skins (Gen 3:1-24); (2) as the basis of approach to God, in Abel’s sacrifice (Gen 4:1-26); (3) as the ground of acceptance, in Noah’s burnt offering (Gen 8:1-22). Now we find a fourth and fuller type in the offering up of the son, and this brings in not only death but resurrection also. Consequently we find in this story details of very striking significance.
In verse Gen 22:2 Isaac is mentioned as Abraham’s “only” son, which is rendered in Hebrews as, “his only begotten son” (Gen 11:17). ‘This makes it abundantly clear that Isaac was a type of our Lord, and further, it sheds light on the meaning of the words “Only begotten” as applied to Him. Ishmael indeed sprang from Abraham but being after the flesh he did not count in the Divine reckoning, and Isaac was quite unique. So our Lord Jesus Christ was Son of God in a perfectly unique sense.
It was God who declared Isaac to be Abraham’s “only” son, and He also added, “whom thou lovest.” Now this is the first time that love is mentioned in the Bible, which is remarkable, seeing it prefigures the love in the Godhead of the Father for the Son. Not until we reach the New Testament and such a statement as, “Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world” (Joh 17:24), do we get that love fully revealed; but now that it is revealed, we can better understand the great statement that, “God is love.” How fitting that the first mention of love should be typical of that supreme love, which is the fountain from which flows all true love of which we have any knowledge.
The command of God was that this only son of Abraham’s love should be offered by him as a sacrifice upon a mountain, chosen of God in the land of Moriah. He was to deliver to death the son, in whom all the promises were vested. This, was indeed a tremendous test of faith, as is made so plain in Heb 11:17-19. That he did not fail under it was due to the fact that he believed that God was able and prepared to raise him from the dead.
The spot chosen for the sacrifice was that whereon, centuries after, the temple was built, and where Jewish sacrifices were made at the altar of burnt offering. Though Abraham cannot have known it the circumstances were divinely arranged to complete the typical picture. What we do see in Abraham is the energy with which he responded, rising up early in the morning, and’ the preparation he made to act in obedience. He departed with son, servants and wood for sacrifice.
On the third day Abraham saw the chosen spot; this was significant, for in after days he would look back to it not so much as the place of sacrifice as the place where in figure he received him as from the dead – the place of resurrection, in fact. That the faith of Abraham embraced resurrection is borne witness to by the closing words of verse Gen 22:5. The sacrifice of Isaac was contemplated as “worship,” and the lad as well as his father was to “come again.” Abraham’s confidence as to this coming again is the more striking as he carried both a knife and the fire, as the next verse records. The wood was laid on Isaac. We may see in this a foreshadowing of that which is recorded in John’s Gospel – “He, bearing His cross, went forth into a place called… Golgotha.”
The sacrifice commanded was to be a burnt offering, hence to the eyes of Isaac the fire and the wood were perfectly natural, and the only question raised in his mind was, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham’s answer, though he may not have known it, was prophetic of something far beyond his own days: “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” No lamb that ever died on any altar, patriarchal or Jewish, was other than provisional, and in view of that which was to come. The question, “Where is THE lamb?” was unanswered until John the Baptist was able to declare, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Abraham, however, was fully persuaded that God would provide the lamb for this occasion, and in that faith both father and son went together.
Verses Gen 22:9-10 relate how full was the measure of Abraham’s obedience. Nothing was lacking up to the point where the death stroke would have taken place. At the last possible moment the Angel of the Lord intervened. His obedience had been tested to the full and had stood the test. He had not withheld his only son. This not only proved beyond question that he believed in God as the God of resurrection, but also furnished a foreshadowing of the infinitely greater moment when God “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”
Though not stated in the narrative, we must not fail to notice the submission of Isaac. No word of remonstrance on his part is mentioned. He typifies the One of whom the prophet testified, “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isa 53:7). His experience must have typified that which our Lord passed through, in infinitely greater measure, in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The voice from heaven arrested the death stroke that was to have fallen on Isaac, and now Abraham’s eyes were directed to God’s immediate provision; not a lamb merely but a ram. If we desired to have the strongest and most vigorous specimen from among the sheep, we should have to select a ram. This one moreover was caught in the thicket by its horns, symbolic of its strength, and it was offered as a burnt offering “in the stead of his son.” Though the actual words, substitute, or substitution, do not occur in our English Bible, here we have exactly that which the words mean. A substitute is one who stands in the stead of another.
So in this incident, which presents to us the fourth type of the death of our Saviour, we have before us salvation by a substitutionary sacrifice. And further, since the ram was detained to be the sacrifice by its horns, the strongest part of its frame, we may see how our blessed Lord was held to His sacrificial work by the strength of His love. No nail that ever was forged could have detained him on the cross. What held Him there was love to the Father, and love to us. (See Joh 14:31; Joh 13:1).
Abraham recognized the wonderful way in which God had provided the lamb for a burnt offering, and signalized it by naming the place Jehovah-jireh, meaning, ”The Lord will provide.” And out of that sprang a saying which was still current when some four centuries later Moses wrote these things: “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen,” or “shall be provided.” That was the language of faith, for another four centuries, or so, after Moses, there stood on Moriah the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and years after that Solomon’s temple was built there, and so it became the place for Jewish sacrifices. That to which all these sacrifices pointed took place “without the gate,” for the Lord Jesus was the rejected One.
The first call out of heaven had acknowledged the completeness of Abraham’s obedience: the second call pronounced great blessing, confirmed by an oath. This is the occasion referred to in Heb 6:1-20 when God, “because He could sware by no greater,” “sware by Himself.” The extent of the blessing might well have staggered Abraham. His seed was to be multiplied (1) “as the stars of the heaven,” (2) “as the sand which is upon the sea shore;” it was (3) to “possess the gate of his enemies,” and in it (4) “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” It is not surprising, therefore, that God reinforced His bare word by His oath, that there might be “two immutable things” on which to rest.
The ancients knew but the stars that are visible to the naked eye. Only in our day has it been discovered that they are literally as numerous as the grains of sand on the sea shore. But we think we may see in (1) his spiritual seed, whose destiny is heaven (see, Gal 3:7); in (2) and (3) his earthly seed who, born again and redeemed, will enjoy millennial blessing and victory; and in (4) a prediction to be fulfilled in Christ, who is the Seed – in the singular, as Gal 3:16 points out – in whom all nations shall be blessed. All this blessing is guaranteed by the mighty oath of God.
All this accomplished, Abraham returned to Beer-sheba, and there he dwelt. That was the place of the oath between Abraham and Abimelech. Was it now to be connected in Abraham’s mind with the vastly greater oath to which he had listened at Moriah?
The closing verses of our chapter give us a little further genealogy, and that evidently for the purpose of introducing Rebekah, of whom we are to hear in Gen 24:1-67 as the bride of Isaac, who is now in type the risen seed. Before we reach that point, however, we have to see Sarah disappear from the picture.
When we start Gen 23:1-20 we are carried on about twenty years from the events of Gen 22:1-24. Abraham was at Hebron when Sarah died, an event which also has typical significance. In the next chapter Isaac, the risen seed, is to find his bride, typical of the church, who is to be united to the risen Christ. But before Christ takes His church, Israel, out of whom He sprang according to the flesh, is set aside. The death of Sarah is a type of this severing of the earthly links for a time. This severance is expounded for us in Rom 11:1-36, as also the fact that a redeemed and renewed Israel will come into blessing when the church period is over.
The details as to the burial of Sarah take up the whole of this chapter, and we may be inclined to wonder why the story should be given us at such length. We believe it to be with the object of impressing us with the fact that Abraham was truly a stranger and a sojourner in this land which was to be his according to the promise of God. In verse Gen 22:4 Abraham claims to be this, and makes it his plea, supporting his request for a burying-place in the land.
This was indeed a remarkable fact. It was stated in very concise fashion by Stephen, as recorded in Act 7:1-60, when he said that God “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on,” and that, though God had “promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him.” But though this chapter makes the fact so clear, what is not divulged here, nor anywhere else in the Old Testament, is the spiritual understanding given of God, which enabled him to take such a course.
We have to travel on to Heb 11:9-16, to get light on that point. There we discover that he had expectations connected with a scene which lay, not only outside the land of promise, but outside the earth altogether. “He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,” but that was because ” he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” We further read that he desired “a better country, that is, an heavenly.” These facts, which only come to light in the New Testament, disclose to us that these patriarchal men of faith received from God the knowledge of heavenly things, which in their day were not the subject of public revelation.
In Old Testament times, and up to the cross of Christ, man was under probation, and that trial was in its earlier stages in patriarchal days. The test was as to whether any man could prove himself to be exempt, from death as the wages of sin, and thus establish his title to live on the earth. The test reached its conclusion in the rejection and death of Christ, when all men were proved to be lost. The Lord Jesus had come, speaking of “heavenly things” as well as “earthly things ” (Joh 3:12), and it was when “His life was taken from the earth” (Act 8:33), that the heavenly things came into full revelation. To have made public disclosure of the heavenly things before the earthly test was completed would not have been according to the Divine order.
Abraham had left a city of no mean standard of civilization, when he turned his back on Ur of the Chaldees. He was now but a stranger and a sojourner in the very good earthly country that had been promised to him. This was possible because he was looking for a city that God would build and a country that, being heavenly, was better than any earthly country could be.
The contrast between verses Gen 22:4; Gen 22:6 is very striking. The man who confessed himself to be a stranger and sojourner is acknowledged by the children of Heth as “a mighty prince.” Notice too, that they said “among us,” and not “over us.” Abraham moved among them but as a stranger he did not meddle in their concerns or interfere with their politics. Just because he did not, his moral greatness was fully apparent to them. As the friend of God he possessed something to which they were strangers.
Having so favourable a reputation, he was able without difficulty to negotiate the purchase of the burying-place for Sarah. All was concluded in the presence of witnesses according to the customs of that land at that time: and subsequent history shows that the transaction was respected and made sure. In all this Abraham may well be an example to us, as is indicated in 1Pe 2:11, 1Pe 2:12. If we, as “strangers and pilgrims” have our “conversation honest among the Gentiles,” we may, by reason of the reproach of Christ, be spoken against. Yet beholding good works, they will eventually “glorify God” in the day of visitation. There is clearly an analogy between this passage in Peter and this incident as to Abraham.
Sarah died when Isaac was thirty-seven, predeceasing Abraham by thirty-eight years; and since Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah (Gen 25:20), only about three years can have elapsed between the incidents recorded in Gen 23:1-20 and Gen 24:1-67. At the age of 140 Abraham was old. Also he was “a mighty prince,” for the Lord had blessed him in all things. It was a day when His blessing was largely expressed in earthly things, and thus it was with Abraham, though he had been given some knowledge of things lying outside the earth. Isaac was his heir in whom the promise was vested, and it was most important that his marriage should be rightly arranged.
Gen 24:1-6 show that two things were stipulated: first, that the wife should not be taken from among the Canaanites, then in the land; second, that though she should be of his own kindred, the union should not be allowed to lure Isaac back to the land whence he had come out. The chosen woman must be willing to share the stranger position which Isaac occupied, and come to him. He was not to go to her.
If in our day every Christian contemplating marriage were to observe carefully the principles underlying these two things it would make for spiritual prosperity. The breach of them has brought about untold disaster, as is too often painfully manifest.
Abraham Offers Up Isaac
Gen 22:1-6
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The earliest sacrificial offerings. The story of the Cross is as old as the sin of man. Sacrifices looking forward to, and anticipating the substitutionary Calvary work of our Lord began back in the days of Abel. We even believe that when God took the skins of the beasts, that He was then, purposefully suggesting the method by which man’s sins were to be washed away, and his iniquity was to be covered.
2. The meaning of these sacrifices. There are some who imagine that Abel and others who followed after him, including Job and Abraham, etc., knew nothing of the far-flung vision which those sacrifices anticipated. With this contention we cannot agree for the following two reasons:
(1) God’s acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice and of all other sacrifices was dependent upon the faith of the offerers. In Isaiah, chapter one, we read definitely that God has no pleasure in the blood of bullocks and of lambs. God even cried out, “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?” He called their oblations vain. He told them that their appointed feasts His soul hated. The reason for all this is plain. Israel was carrying out the rites which God had commanded but she had entirely lost the meaning of those sacrifices. In addition to this, she was living in abomination which entirely belied the cleansing power of the Blood which was shed.
(2) God’s acceptance of Abel’s sacrifice, and that of Noah and of all others, was dependent upon the faith of the offerer.
The sacrifices from God’s viewpoint anticipated the death of Christ. That, however, was not enough. God demanded that the individual offering the sacrifices should likewise see the Cross.
It was for this cause that of Abel we read, “By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.”
If we, in the ordinances of the church, fail by our faith to get the backward look which links us to Calvary and to the empty tomb, our ordinances are just as vain before God as the sacrifices of that early period would have been.
3. The culmination of sacrificial offering. Long before Christ came, the Prophets testified that during the Millennium, the Jews would, year by year, keep certain feasts in Jerusalem.
When we consider how the Blood of the Cross takes a poignant part in the earliest history of man, we are prone to look into our Bibles and to discover that the same precious Blood of Christ holds just as vital a place in the last days of man’s history. In fact, the Book of Revelation almost closes with, “These are they which * * have washed their robes.”
I. AN EARNEST CALL AND A PROMPT REPLY (Gen 22:1)
1. God did tempt Abraham. This verse by no means suggests that God tried to get Abraham to do something which was wrong. God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man. God’s temptations are testings, trials, in which He would prove the heart of His children in order that He might lift them up to higher altitudes of faith and to larger enrichment. Satan’s temptations or testings are malicious in intent and. design. Their import is to drag man down, to cause him to break connections with God, and to spoil fellowship.
2. God’s call. God said unto His servant, “Abraham!” It was wonderful that God would deign to personally address one of His children, but God frequently did this very thing in the case of this mighty patriarch. Nor is that all. God spoke to many men of yore, and He is speaking to many today. His method of approach is not now with audible voice, nevertheless, His approach is real, and to those who walk with God, it is easily discerned.
3. Abraham’s reply. Abraham replied, “Behold, here I am.” God grant that we may be always as ready and as willing to answer when God speaks. In Abraham’s expression there were the pulsings of a willing and obedient soul. Abraham spoke as one would speak who is ready to be, or to do, or to go, for his God.
The patriarch did not know what might be entailed in his response; yet, he was willing to go without knowing. To us, it seems that when Abraham said, “Behold, here I am,” that he was signing his name as an obedient servant at the foot of a blank page, before the orders of his Master and Lord had been filled in.
II. GOD ASKS FOR ABRAHAM’S BEST (Gen 22:2)
1. The call was for Isaac. God said to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.” Remember, that in Isaac every promise God had ever made to Abraham was vested. It was through Isaac that Christ, the Seed, was to be born. It was through Isaac that the chosen nation was to spring forth.
The lad had been called “Isaac” because of the great joy, the laughter, which had come to his father’s house, when his birth was assured.
2. Isaac was a type of his Lord. God said to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.” Jesus Christ was God’s Son, He was God’s only begotten Son, He was the Son of His love.
How marvelous it is that man can stand forth in Scripture symbolical of the Eternal. This, however, is often the case. No one man could be a type of Christ in everything, but, combining the various symbolic characters of the Word of God, we will have many of the outstanding features, which marked the character and Person of our Lord, set forth.
In addition to the suggestions above, how Isaac was a son, an only son, a son beloved, there is this further statement,-Isaac was the son of his father’s old age. We speak reverently, for what we mean to suggest is that Jesus Christ was the Son of Eternity. This is suggested in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, where it says, “From the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth.” Jesus Christ was ever young, and yet He came from the morning-before the beginnings of all things. In Revelation, He is described with hairs as white as snow,-suggestive not only of His purity, but also of His eternity.
III. THE COMMANDED SACRIFICE (Gen 22:2)
First of all, Abraham was to take his son. Thus, God was the One who took Christ and made Him an offering for our sins. Jesus Christ was not crucified by the overwhelming powers of a maddened mob, who carried Him to the Cross against His will; Jesus Christ was not crucified by our sins. Both of the above had important parts to play in the death of Christ. The Jews, the Romans and our sins all were set against the Son of God, but none of these could have nailed the Lord to the Tree. Unless Christ had been delivered by the Father, He had never been delivered.
In the second place, Jesus Christ had a designated spot upon which He was to be crucified. He was destined to die outside the camp. He was to be offered upon Mount Calvary, or Golgotha, the Place of Skulls.
In that memorable day, in which our Lord died, there was no outstanding event that had not long before been recorded, both in the typology of the Old Testament and also in its direct statements.
In the third place, Isaac was to be offered as a burnt-offering, so also, the Son of God was made an offering for us, a sacrifice full and complete for our sins.
The sacrifices and burnt-offerings according to the Law brought God no pleasure save as they anticipated the sacrifice of Christ. Those sacrifices could not take away sins, but Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sin, forever. Thus it was that Isaac in his offering was pleasing unto God in the fact that Abraham in the offering of Isaac anticipated Christ.
IV. ABRAHAM’S PROMPT OBEDIENCE (Gen 22:3)
Four things are noted in this verse:
1. Abraham rose up early in the morning. There was no hesitancy on the part of God’s servant. There was nothing by way of argument and bickering and delay. The sacrifice was great, the grief was overwhelming, and yet, Abraham brooked no delay. God did not refuse to give His only begotten Son. There was nothing to suggest God’s unwillingness to make so great a sacrifice for His creatures.
2. Abraham, “TOOK two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son.” If Abraham could have sent Isaac away and not have been present, it might have been easier to know him slain, but when Abraham was compelled to take his son, to go with his son to the place of offering, it was different.
All this is exactly what God did. God sent His Son to be killed, but there was never a moment that God was not with Him. It was not until the darkness shrouded the Cross, as Christ went round the cycle of His suffering, that the Father hid His face. Even then, the Father saw the Son, although the Son saw not the Father. God accompanied His Isaac to the Cross.
3. Abraham “clave the wood for the burnt-offering.” Once again, we see the personal part which Abraham played as he raised his axe to cleave the wood, he knew that he was, as it were, already undertaking in behalf of slaying his beloved Isaac.
Every step of the way toward the Cross was a step into deeper darkness. Long before Christ came to earth, He had begun with His Father the strange, but stately stepping toward Calvary. God was, as it were, all the time cleaving the wood for the burnt-offering.
4. Abraham “went unto the place of which God had told him.” There was nothing haphazard, nothing by way of guess, or accident, that marked the journey of that day. As Jesus Christ went to the Cross there were no unexpected events taking place. From the Garden of Eden to Calvary, all was according to the plan and purpose marked out by the Father.
V. ABRAHAM’S FAR-AWAY LOOK (Gen 22:4)
How the words halt our attention: “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.”
The place he saw was the place of sacrifice. He saw the place from a distance. He saw the place with deep forebodings. He saw the place with faith that God would undertake and restore back to him his son.
1. God saw the Cross of Christ back of the creation of the world. Jesus Christ is spoken of as “A Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.” Peter said that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Down through aeons upon aeons God looked and saw the supreme sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. As events transpired, during the centuries lying between the Garden of Eden and Golgotha, nothing happened that was unforeseen of the Father. He saw the strategies of Satan long before Satan sought to put them across. He saw the race hastening on in its wickedness and God-rejecting attitude. He saw the Sanhedrin as it met to cast its lot for the death of Christ. He saw it all-saw it before the world was.
2. God saw the Cross of Christ with forebodings of the anguish of its cost. Not one thing passed His all foreseeing eye. He saw the bitterness of Christ’s cup of death-the physical, the mental, the soul anguish.
God saw Christ uplifted, the inflamed wounds, the unnatural position, the maddened mob wailing out their maledictions, the word-thrusts of the thieves, the darkness, the weeping women,-He saw it all.
But God saw more. He saw the fruitage of the Cross. He saw that the Lord would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. He saw the multitude of the redeemed around about the throne as they voiced their eternal praises to God and to the Lamb. He saw the golden city and its joys, the new heaven and the new earth, and its peace-saw both as the result of the Cross.
VI. ABRAHAM’S FLIGHT OF FAITH (Gen 22:5)
Abraham said three things: 1, “Abide ye here.” 2. “I and the lad will go yonder.” 3. “I and the lad will * * come again to you.” There are three things we can learn from this.
1. Where man cannot go. When Christ died upon the Cross, there were certain ones who stood about the Cross. There was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John, and Peter, and many, others. They were there, and yet they could not go into the cycle of His suffering. How helpless they must have felt as they stood there, all alone; so near, and yet so far from the Lord.
Today we are just as helpless. We can never fathom the depths of the anguish nor the full reach of the sorrow that befell our Savior. We may go with Him outside the camp, we may suffer His reproach, but we cannot feel the weight of the world’s woe of sin. We cannot suffer the just for the unjust. We have no capacity for such a grief.
2. Where God and Christ together did go. Here is a glimpse of the eternal sacrifice of Christ that we are in danger of overlooking. God and Christ went together. They returned together. In death and in resurrection both were there. We do not mean that Christ saw the Father during the three hours of darkness. He did not. We do mean that the Father hid His face but for the while-they Two went together.
3. The certainty of the resurrection. Abraham offered up Isaac by faith, accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead. Abraham spoke truly, when he said, “We will come again.” He did not know that God would call unto him, “Stay thy hand”; he did know that God would keep His promise to him, that, through Isaac and his seed, the Seed of the woman, the Son of God would come. Abraham seeing Isaac slain, saw Isaac risen because God had promised. David saw Christ crucified, but he also saw Christ risen because God had promised that Christ would sit on His throne.
Thus also, did God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost revel in the joy of Christ’s resurrection.
VII. THE MARCH TOWARD THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE (Gen 22:6)
Isaac bore the wood of the burnt-offering. Abraham bore the fire and the knife. Both of them went together. Thus may we sum up the three typical statements of our verse. Let us examine them one at a time.
1. Isaac bore the wood. Our Scripture says, “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son.”
Here was something so unusual, that it appears most striking. Why should Isaac bear the wood, save that, in all of this, God was foreshadowing the picture of Christ? We read, “And He bearing His Cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha” (Joh 19:17).
2. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Thus, it was again set forth in unmistakable symbolism, that the Father God, delivered the Son to the Cross. To be sure, this delivery was not against the will of the Son, for Christ, Himself, was sent as a Lamb to the slaughter. He freely gave Himself for us.
It still remains true, nevertheless, that the Father offered up the Son as a willing sacrifice for our sins. “He hath made Him to be sin for us.” He made “His soul an offering for sin.”
3. Abraham and Isaac went together. Once more the words, “They two went together” sound forth with a marvelous pictorial message. Thrice already in this lesson we have seen this same suggestion.
In Gen 22:2, “Take now thy son.” Here Abraham and Isaac went together. The father taking the son. In Gen 22:3, Abraham took his son and they went to the place of which God had spoken. In Gen 22:5 Abraham said, “I and the lad will go yonder.” Finally, in our Gen 22:6, “They went both of them together.”
The Lord certainly puts emphasis upon the fact that God went along the pathway with the Son as He. pressed through the centuries toward the Cross. We often speak of Christ being alone; yet, He was not alone until during the three hours of His dying for us, when the Father hid His face. This was suggested by the cry of Christ: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It was as though Christ would acknowledge the fact that they had always been together, save in those three hours, and then, because Christ took in full the sinner’s place, the Father of necessity hid His face.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE PRICELESS PRICE
“‘The satisfaction must carry proportion with the merit of the offense. A debt of a thousand pounds is not discharged by two or three brass farthings. Creatures are finite, their acts of obedience are already due to God, and their sufferings for one another, if they had been allowed, would have been of limited influence.’ Jesus alone, as the Son of God, could present a substitution sufficient to meet the case of men condemned for their iniquities. The majesty of His nature, His freedom from personal obligation to the Law, and the intensity of His griefs, all give to His atonement a virtue which elsewhere can never be discovered. None of the sons of men ‘can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.’ Jesus only could stand in our soul’s stead, and pay the dreadful price.
What sinners we are! What a sacrifice has been presented for us! No brass farthings were our price; nay, gold and silver are called ‘corruptible things’ when compared with the precious Blood which has paid our ransom.”
Subdivision 5. (Gen 22:1-24; Gen 23:1-20; Gen 24:1-67; Gen 25:1-34; Gen 26:1-33.) Isaac.
Self-surrender, the responsibility of sonship; and the recompense of obedience.
Isaac is the double type of the Son and of the sons of God; and in him the dispensational application is very prominent. No wonder, when the object of the Spirit is to take of the things that are Christ’s and show them unto us. In fact, the individual application, which is elsewhere generally the main thing, seems almost to fail us, just where the other acquires fullness of detail. This may be, of course, only due to our ignorance; for the types of life, involving as they do often the appeal to inward experience, become naturally harder to read as we go on.
1. The twenty-second chapter is a most striking picture of Christ in the fulfillment of the responsibility which He undertook for us. Here it pleased God for a moment almost to remove the vail from the sacrificial types, and to show the reality that lay under them. Man it is that must suffer and die, although not Isaac, who is saved by the substituted ram. Isaac is withdrawn, but we have the witness that God will provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt-offering.
At the same time, the Father’s gift of the Son is no less brought before us than the Son’s obedience. The God who provides the Lamb is in the antitype the Father Himself; and to the cost to Him of that wondrous gift our attention is especially called. Our human hearts are arrested by this spectacle of a father’s trial, but to find in it all the heart of God declared.
Isaac is only as “in a figure” received back from the dead (Heb 11:19); Christ in reality; and to Him thus the promises belong: it is Christ raised from the dead who is the source of blessing to all the families of the earth.
The individual application is still in this chapter plain. The responsibility of a son is obedience to the father’s will, and according to it we are to present our bodies a “living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” (Rom 12:1-21.) Here, Isaac’s being in will and intent offered, and yet spared from death, becomes completely intelligible; while the substitution of the ram in death is divinely significant. It is with Christ we have died, He bearing the burden of it but we are taught also to reckon ourselves dead, while yet we live, and live in the power of His resurrection. Not only are we justified, but sanctified also (set apart to God), in the offering of Christ for us. So comes the blessing also through us to others: the dead men who live are the great means of blessing to the world.
2. In Sarah’s death it is not hard to read the passing away of the nation of whom after the flesh Christ came (Rom 9:5), and their committal to a stranger’s tomb, though in the faith of resurrection. Thus Israel makes way for the Church, the bride of the true Isaac.
Although unable to see fully the individual application here, yet Machpelah seems a beautiful testimony. Purchased out of the hands of the sons of Heth (fear) with the silver money (of atonement), it becomes the portion of faith, -a sepulchre, indeed, but with a fruitful field attached, and right opposite Hebron; in view, that is, of “participation” (with Christ). For Christ has been in death, and through death annulled him who had the power of it, that He might deliver those who all their lifetime through fear of death were subject to bondage. (Heb 2:14-15.) Death thus becomes but conformity to His death. No wonder Jacob should desire to be buried in Machpelah!
The name “Machpelah” means a “doubling,” or turning back upon itself, -a hint, as it would seem, of resurrection.
3. We have typified in the next section the mission of the Spirit to find among the family of faith (Abraham’s kindred) a bride for the risen Christ, the Father’s heir. The story is told at a length which shows how much God’s heart is occupied with it: first, the mission of Him who comes in servant-character. Striking lesson for those through whom the Spirit of God acts, the servant’s name is not made known to us: he is content to speak only of his master.
His course is marked by dependence: he waits upon God in simplicity of faith, taking his stand by the spring of water, -the Word of God in its living power; and there Rebekah is found. Evidently it is not the call of sinners by the gospel, but of saints to a special relationship with Christ on high. This is what began at Pentecost, plainly, where the hundred and twenty gathered were already of the “kindred.” Rebekah has the well when the call is received to be Isaac’s bride in Canaan. Indeed, Isaac’s gifts are already upon her before she receives this: she is betrothed and endowed before she realizes or has received the message. So at Pentecost, and for years after, the Church, already begun, knew not yet the character of what had begun. It is only through Paul’s ministry that her place with Christ is at last made fully known.
The ways of God leading up to this are also made known, and although she is really Isaac’s, her choice is pressed upon her. Then she must break through all hindrances, resist all temptations to delay, do but one thing, and go out to meet the Bridegroom, with the earnest of what is before her already on her.
The individual application here I cannot give, though Rebekah should have some significance; but I prefer to omit what is conjectural.
4. After Rebekah -the Church, Keturah’s sons would seem to represent the millennial nations; and these, with Ishmael’s seed, the plain type of Israel, give us the rest of the family of Abraham, and the picture of the various blessing through him for the families of the earth. Isaac comes into this picture to show the relation to it of the heavenly saints, who live by the “well of” a higher “vision,” but in connection also with those blessed on earth. While Abraham’s death may have place here as showing how now faith passes into this higher state, as Abraham gives way to Isaac. Thus a very complete view is given.
5. We come now to a section in which the history of Isaac is linked with that of Jacob, just as Abraham’s before was linked with that of Isaac. The life of Jacob gives us as its lesson the story of that fruitful discipline by which the Spirit of God brings us from weakness to power, -from nature’s strength and strivings to that wholesome weakness in which alone is strength. But, for this, natural strength has to be crippled; and this is provided for in two ways: first, in allowing us to realize the power of another nature (Esau), which we cannot subdue in any strength of our own; and secondly, in the direct dealing of God with our souls. The germ of this history we find already in Isaac’s life, because discipline and the need of it grow out of sonship: “what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” But the lesson is given us at full length presently: it is too important to be merely treated as a secondary theme; so that Jacob comes to the front in a little while, and then accompanies us, to some extent, (and we see for what reason,) practically to the end of the book.
No wonder that this section, then, has stamped on it the number which reminds us of governmental ways, and also (as in the addition to Abram’s name) of the weakness of the creature in the presence of the almighty God!
First, we learn here that Rebekah is as barren as Sarah, except for the power of God. No principle of truth, no inherent power of grace, suffices for us apart from the direct operation of God Himself. And this is the basis-truth for Jacob’s history.
But Rebekah conceives, and then a struggle is felt within her, which is once more that internal struggle of contrary natures, realized all through our course here, beginning before it has become an outward manifest thing, and the true meaning of which God must teach us. Then we learn the meaning of the struggle, and that in God’s purpose and election lies the strength of the younger over the elder -for “that which is first is natural” still, -and that the elder is to serve the younger: strange mystery this, whereby the very evil in us is made to work for blessing to us. ”But so it is; our senses are, by reason of use, exercised to discern both good and evil; and the wonder of God’s grace is known as else it could not be.
Later, these tendencies come into open light, and get their names: Esau is red, and all over like a hairy garment, -unmistakably of the earth, but full of strong, wild life. Jacob is seen in this, from which he gets his name of “heel-catcher” -“supplanter” -that his hand lays hold of Esau’s heel. Here is seen the spirit that would by fleshly effort set aside the flesh. Therefore the power of the flesh is felt, and the power of God is not felt, or felt in opposition. Yet Jacob after all is the simple and homely spirit, kept by his affections, and living in tents, as customary with the men of faith. Esau is the free rover, bound but by his own will, pursuing his own objects, -the hunter, Nimrod-like, who can pursue indifferently beasts or men.
Presently the manifestation comes. Esau is seen in despising his birthright to be profane; Jacob values it, but seeks it in crooked ways. Esau now is seen openly as Edom, -that is, Adam, only a little changed outwardly, and not in heart.
6. And now we have two sections which almost repeat the history of Abraham which we have considered. We are, as there, in the Philistines’ land where Isaac denies his wife as Abraham did, and is exposed and rebuked by Abimelech in like manner; while the strife for the wells is found here as there, ending in the covenant at the same place -Beersheba, which receives its name again from the similar oath of the covenant. The numbers of the sections are also the same.
Isaac, however, does not lose Rebekah, even for a time, and grows very great during his stay in Gerar, so that they pray him to depart, as mightier than they. He digs again, and renames Abraham’s wells, but gives up well after well rather than contend with the Philistines, at last finding one for which they do not contend.
7. At Beersheba, God appears to him once more, and blesses him. The Philistines make here a covenant with him, owning that Jehovah (not merely God, as in Abraham’s case,) is with him in all he does.
It is easy to see in all this blessing, so uniform and unbroken as it is, the recompense of the obedience with which Isaac’s life begins. There are no changes, no experiences such as we find in Jacob. He never leaves the land, and seems already almost in possession of it, Hagar’s well and the Philistines’ land are alike his own, as the children of grace now inherit the portion of the Jew and the legalist, -all the riches of God’s Word from the beginning, -finding every where a new fruitfulness, and the face of God revealed.
Offer Your Only Son as a Burnt Offering
Abraham and Sarah waited a long time for a child. Then, they experienced the great joy in having him. It is hard to imagine how Abraham must have felt when God tested him by commanding him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘take now 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'” ( Gen 22:1-2 ).
Isaac is called his only son because he is uniquely the son of promise. While human sacrifice was practiced by some of the people around Abraham in worship of false gods, it was out of character for the loving God of heaven. Yet, Abraham went without asking a single question.
Gen 22:1. Here is the trial of Abrahams grace, and especially of his faith, whether it continued so strong, so vigorous, so victorious, after a long settlement in communion with God, as it was at first, when by it he left his country: then it appeared that he loved God better than his father; now, that he loved him better than his son. After these things After all the other exercises he had had, all the difficulties he had gone through: now perhaps he was beginning to think the storms were blown over; but, after all, this encounter comes, which was sharper than any yet. God did tempt Abraham Not to draw him to sin, so Satan tempts; but did try him, as the word here used signifies, to discover his graces, how strong they were, that they might be found to praise, and honour, and glory. Behold, here am I What saith my Lord unto his servant? Probably he expected some renewed promise, like those, Gen 15:1; Gen 17:1; but to his great amazement that which God hath to say to him is in short, Abraham, go, sacrifice thy son And this command is given him in such aggravating language as makes the temptation abundantly more grievous, every word being as a sword in his bones. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that he should afflict? No, it is not; yet when Abrahams faith is to be tried, God seems to take pleasure in the aggravation of the trial.
Gen 22:1-18. God did tempt Abraham, who had now attained the height of all his earthly joys; and seen in Isaac the long-suspended promises fulfilled. He saw nature aided by divine power in his birth, and in his conduct daily proofs of genius, of piety, and filial obedience. The lad everywhere accompanied his aged father, and gained on his affections, not less by his love of virtue than by his other engaging qualities, and hopeful indications of future greatness. In such circumstances it were no wonder, if the patriarch loved his son a little too well; and that the Lord God, desirous of giving an early type of the promised Saviour, should also at the same time resolve to purify his beloved and faithful friend from inordinate affections.
With these views, everyway becoming the wise and holy One, he said, Take now thy son. And what could Abraham now expect, accustomed as he had been to hear the promises concerning Isaac enlarged, but that they should now be larger still! Take now thy son, the only son now in thy house, even Isaac, whom thou lovest, whose birth occasioned thee so much joy, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Every word in this command was as a two-edged sword, dividing asunder soul and spirit, the joints and the marrow. The divine injunction was clear and distinct; and the patriarch, long accustomed to the visions of God, well knew the voice which spake. A doubt, or shadow of a doubt, which often proves painful to others, would have afforded him the greatest relief.
It being probably after the evening devotion when this command was received, let us cast our eye on the astonished patriarch, and trace the workings of a wounded mind. See him extended this night on his sleepless couch, labouring with thought, embarrassed with darkness, and groaning with grief. He had no friend to whom he could disclose his burdened heart; for no friend had ever known the griefs which now assailed him; and a friend destitute of experience would have proved his greatest foe, by tempting him to disobedience; or by advising, as the priests of Crete advised Idomeneus, to substitute a hundred bulls for the life of his son.
In the morning, unrelieved by thought, he rises early with a trembling but obedient heart. He saddles his ass, cleaves the wood, and taking two young men and Isaac his son, sets his face, like the Saviour, stedfastly to go up to Salem. Oh what a day of pensive grief and labouring thought! As a bird caught in the net of the fowler, runs round a thousand and a thousand times, and seeks in vain some avenue of escape, and then sits down to breathe; so this weary traveller, having revolved in fruitless toil all his stores of ancient knowledge for comfort, lays down at night to enjoy his grief.
The second day arrives, and after a long and labouring night which seemed too short; the patriarch rises to travel a new road indeed, but his mind still revolved the same train of thought. Whether he reviewed a vast pilgrimage of chequered life, or whether he considered the traditions of his long-lived Sires, nothing was pertinent to his case, nothing afforded him comfort, or even a vestige of hope. Whether he considered the awful effects which Isaacs tragic death would produce on Sarah, on his household, and on his pagan neighbours; or whether he considered the forlorn and languishing remains of his own old age, destitute of a son, and a dejected wife; all presented some new gloom, some fresh cup of bitterness, some additional woe. Big with these thoughts, and thoughts which inexperience cannot trace, he lays down the third night, but not to sleep. A dark and gloomy tempest still assailed his soul; waves of trouble still rolled over his head, and merciless as the roaring ocean, menaced his feeble age with never- ceasing fury.
The third day at length began to obtrude an unwelcome lustre on his wakeful eyes. But when calamities come to a crisis they often take a favourable turn; so even now, a ray of hope sprung up in the patriarchs mind, but hope of the saddest kind. He knew, he well knew that God was true, and that he had promised to multiply Isaacs seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sands on the seashore which are innumerable. His fainting soul therefore catched at the only vestige of presumptive comfort admissible in his case: he assuredly gathered, that God would raise his Isaac from the ashes of the altar, and so fulfil his faithful word. Oh what a tragic faith! Faith in a God unseen, faith in a God surrounded with clouds of thickest darkness. Somewhat cheered with this sad hope, he rises this morning also; and after adoring his Maker, throws his weary limbs across the beast, and stedfastly pursues his way.
He had not travelled far, before he saw the place afar off, the place already seen in vision. The word being in the plural, we cannot say whether it were mount Calvary or mount Zion; but Josephus thinks the mount was the scite on which the temple was afterwards built. Here all his wounds bleed afresh, and all his soul he yields a willing prey to grief. Here nature made her last recoil. But shrinking more at disobedience to his God, than at the oblation of his son, he delivers his beast to the young men, promising that both would soon return. He laid the wood on Isaac, and taking the knife in one hand and the censer in the other, proceeds with the lad to devotion. But ere they reach the awful place, ere the father slays his son, it was the lot of Isaac to pierce the Sire with the deepest wound. Isaac, trained to devotion, Isaac, accustomed to attend the altar, observed a defect in his fathers preparations. My father, said the unsuspecting youth, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? The father, unable as yet to afflict his unoffending son, answers, the Lord will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. So they walk on, both of them together, and arrive at the awful spot. Abraham with a slow and trembling hand prepares the rude but mystic altar; he lays the wood in order, and then is compelled to disclose the strange revelation to his beloved son.
See the astonished youth turn pale with awe. See him rapidly revolve a train of thoughts in his astonished mind concerning God, providence, his mother, and a future state. See reflection soften his soul into tears; and the heroic faith of the father gradually inspire the heart of his obedient son. Isaac was now approaching 25 years of age, and Abraham 125, so that it is doubtful whether he could have bound him, unless Isaac had been willing. See Isaac now all irradiated in countenance by this faith, offer himself a willing victim to the divine command, and even exhort his shrinking father to persevere in obedience. So it is, that heaven gives to faithful martyrs a courage more than human, and arrays the soul with a lustre all divine. The courage of the son, now animates the trembling Sire to perfect his obedience. But what can language say. It has lost all its force. The aged patriarch raised his arm, to slay his only son!
The act of obedience being now completed, immediately the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, and stayed his hand. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from ME. In that happy moment heaven poured its full tide of joy and glory on the patriarchs soul, chased before it all his griefs, and left eternal serenity behind. In that happy moment God the Messiah renewed his covenant once for all with the venerable prophet; and to banish all doubt for ever from his mind, he confirmed the promise with an oath, that his seed should possess the gates of their enemies, and bring the promised blessing on all the nations of the earth.
This most extraordinary transaction, of Abrahams offering up his son, was afterwards incorporated into the mythology of the heathen, who preserved the memory of it in the fables of their gods. What else is meant by Saturn, the Chronos or time of the Greeks, devouring the male children; and what by the scythe or sickle put into his hand to reap the earth. Eusebius reports, out of Sanchoniotho, that Ham, in time of surrounding war and grievous danger, offered up Jeoud, the only son of a certain poor woman, called Anobret. Prp. lib. 1. c. 10. This is the first human victim of which we have any trace in history. Since then the numbers offered by the progeny of Shem, and of Ham, and of Japhet is countless. They did it in Otaheite, as Captain Wilson reports, prior to his carrying missionaries there. In the nations of India, once in about three years, they still catch a young man about twenty five years of age, and offer him up in one of the larger temples to appease the gods; the king is always made acquainted with such sacrifices. These awful results of paganism have mostly been connected with the terrors of impending danger, and with the largest promises to voluntary victims. And whence could they originate, but in the gross and mistaken notions that the womans Seed was to die by the serpents biting his heel? All those sacrifices are regarded by Eusebius as having been effected by the influence of demons. How strange then must it appear to Abraham, that God should have required of him such a sacrifice!
Gen 22:21. Uz, after whom a district was called, and from whom Job descended. Buz, his brother, was ancestor of Elihu, one of Jobs three friends. Kemuel, Father of Aram. The LXX read here, father of the Syrians, who were no doubt Arams posterity.
Gen 22:24. Concubine, the partner of his bed. Our Saviour decides against polygamy in these words: from the beginning it was not so. Custom then sanctioned it in princes and great men, often to the bitterness of their own minds, and the destruction of their children. Instead of building their regal houses, it often pulled them down. The average of births Isaiah 24 females and 25 males, God foreseeing that men would perish in various ways, provided that one male and one female should be one flesh, and as one soul in two bodies. Such was the marriage in paradise, the purest model of posterity. The Hebrew pilgesh, is certainly a low word, and cannot be derived from the root Peleg, he divided; for concubines were servants, and their children were not heirs. Whatever honour or respect they might sometimes acquire, it was on the law of custom, not of right.
REFLECTIONS.
If God tried the purity of Abrahams faith, he will in like manner try our faith and obedience. He will require the sacrifice of every Isaac, and the mortification of every sin. He will allow us to love no creature but in himself, and only for his sake. Christian, the day is near when he will require fortune and family, body and soul to be offered up.
We have here an assurance of the truth of revealed religion, not only from the exact accomplishment of the promises made to Abraham, but also from the nature of the vision. The divine communications were clear and explicit, leaving not a doubt behind. On many occasions the prophets strove with God to be excused from their mission; and our patriarch had every motive to deprecate this strange sacrifice, but conscious of the communication, he did not dare to speak a word. Hence our unbelief has no plea on the ground of error and mistake.
In Isaac we have a striking type or figure of the Son of God. Isaac was the promised seed, long promised to Abraham; he was born by supernatural assistance afforded to Sarah; he bore the wood of the sacrifice, and then the wood bore him; on the third day he was raised up from the altar, and made the father of nations. In Jesus Christ these circumstances were almost exactly the same. God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son to bare our sins in his own body on the tree.
The recollection of past mercies should banish future doubts. Abraham called the name of that place JEHOVAH-JIREH, saying, in the mountain of the Lord it shall be seen, or the Lord will provide. How often have we in moments of salvation promised that we would doubt no more; we have been ashamed of our weakness in distrusting the faithfulness of God. Let us at last become strong, and pay our vows unto the Lord.
While all heaven seemed to rejoice over Abrahams faith and obedience, God added the strongest oath of confirmation to the ancient promise: he swore by himself, by his life, his name, or his holiness. Hence we learn, that in the time of trouble and sincere obedience, he will comfort us by the powerful application of promises, and the strongest assurances of support; that by two immutable things, his word and oath, we may have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. In Isaac we have also a view of the resurrection, and of the future life. He was one, as good as dead, when extended on the pile, but he was raised up to enjoy the promise, even life everlasting.
In Abraham likewise we have proof, abundant proof, that the aids of revelation can carry mankind to greater virtue than was ever found in the heathen world. From the moment his faith was made perfect by works, he appears to have entered into all the glorious liberty of the New Covenant, and to have attained the full assurance of hope. His faith, his love, his obedience were all now made perfect; and he henceforth walked in the closest friendship and communion with his God. What an example for christians to follow!
Genesis 22
Abraham is now in a fit moral position to have his heart put to a most severe test. The long-cherished reserve being put forth from his heart, in Gen. 20 – the bond-woman and her son being put forth from his house, as in Gen. 21, he now stands forth in the most honoured position in which any soul can be placed, and that is a position of trial from the hand of God Himself. There are various kinds of trial-trial from the hand of Satan; trial from surrounding circumstances; but the highest character of trial is that which comes directly from the hand of God, when He puts His dear child into the furnace for the purpose of testing the reality of his faith. God will do this: He must have reality. It will not do to say “Lord, Lord,” or, “I go, sir.” The heart must be probed to the very bottom, in order that no element of hypocrisy, or false profession, may he allowed to lodge there. “My son, give me thine heart.” He does not say, “give me thine head, or thine intellect, or thy talents, or thy tongue, or thy money;” but “give me thine heart:” and in order to prove the sincerity of our response to this gracious command, He will lay His hand upon something very near our hearts. Thus he says to Abraham, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” This was coming very close to Abraham’s heart. It was passing him through a searching crucible indeed. God “requires truth in the inward parts.” There may be much truth on the lips, and much in the intellect, but God looks for it in the heart. It is no ordinary proof that will satisfy God, as to the love of our hearts. He Himself did not rest satisfied with giving an ordinary proof. He gave His Son, and we should aim at giving very striking proofs of our love to Him who so loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.
However, it is well to see that God confers a signal honour upon us when He thus tests our hearts. We never read that “the Lord did tempt Lot.” No; Sodom tempted Lot. He never reached a sufficiently high elevation to warrant his being tried by the hand of Jehovah. It was too plainly manifest that there was plenty between his heart and the Lord, and it did not, therefore, require the furnace to bring that out. Sodom would have held out no temptation whatever to Abraham. This was made manifest in his interview with Sodom’s king, in chapter 14. God knew well that Abraham loved him far better than Sodom; but He would make it manifest, that He loved him better than any one or anything, by laying his hand upon the nearest and dearest object. “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac.” Yes, Isaac, the child of promise; Isaac, the object of long-deferred hope, the object of parental love, and the one in whom all the kindreds of the earth were to be blessed. This Isaac must be offered as a burnt-offering. This, surely, was putting faith to the test, in order that, being more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory. Had Abraham’s whole soul not been stayed simply on the Lord, he never could have yielded unhesitating obedience to such a searching command. But God Himself was the living and abiding support of his heart, and therefore he was prepared to give up all for Him.
The soul that has found all its springs in God, can, without any demur, retire from all creature streams. We can give up the creature, just in proportion as we have found out, or become experimentally acquainted with, the Creator, and no further. To attempt to give up the visible things in any other way, save in the energy of that faith which lays hold of the invisible, is the most fruitless labour possible. It cannot be done. I withhold fast my Isaac until I have found my all in God. It is when me are enabled, by faith, to say “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” that we can also add, “therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.” (Ps. 46: 1, 2)
“And Abraham rose up early in the morning.” There is ready obedience. “I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” Faith never stops to look at circumstances, or ponder results; it only looks at God; it expresses itself thus; “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (Gal. 1: 1, 5, 16) The moment we confer with flesh and blood, our testimony and service are marred, for flesh and blood can never obey. We must rise early, and carry out, through grace, the divine command. Thus we are blessed, and God is glorified. Having God’s own word as the basis of our acting will ever impart strength and stability to our acting. If we merely act from impulse, when the impulse subsides, the acting will subside also.
There are two things needful to a course of steady and consistent action, viz., the Holy Ghost, as the power of action, and the word to give proper direction. To use a familiar illustration: on a railway, we should find motive-power of little use without the iron rails firmly laid down; the former is the power by which we move; and the latter, the direction. It is needless to add that the rails would be of little use without the steam. Now, Abraham was blessed with both. He had the power of action conferred by God; and the command to act given by God also. His devotedness was of a most definite character; and this is deeply important. We frequently find much that looks like devotedness, but which, in reality, is but the desultory activity of a will not brought under the powerful action of the word of God. ALL such apparent devotedness is worthless, and the spirit from which it proceeds will very speedily evaporate. We may lay down the following principle, viz., whenever devotedness passes beyond divinely appointed bounds it is suspicious. If it comes not up to these bounds it is defective; if it flows without them it is erratic. I quite admit that there are extraordinary operations and ways of the Spirit of God, in which He asserts His own sovereignty, and rises above ordinary bounds; but, in such cases, the evidence of divine activity will be sufficiently strong to carry home conviction to every spiritual mind; nor will they, in the slightest degree, interfere with the truth of the principle that true devotedness will ever be founded upon and governed by divine principle. To sacrifice a son might seem to be an act of most extraordinary devotedness; but, be it remembered, that, what gave that act all its value, in God’s sight, was the simple fact of its being based upon God’s command.
Then, we have another thing connected with true devotedness, and that is a spirit of sonship. “I and the lad will go yonder and worship.” The really devoted servant will keep his eye, not on his service, be it ever so great, but on the Master, and this will produce a spirit of worship. If I love my master, according to the flesh, I shall not mind whether I am cleaning his shoes or driving his carriage; but if I am thinking more of myself than of him, I shall rather be a coachman than a shoe black. So is it precisely in the service of the heavenly Master: if I am thinking only of Him, planting churches and making tents will be both alike to me. We may see the same thing in angelic ministry. It matters not to an angel whether he be sent to destroy an army, or to protect the person of some heir of salvation. It is the Master who entirely fills his vision. As some one has remarked, “if two angels were sent from heaven, one to rule an empire, and the other to sweep, the streets, they would not dispute about their respective work.” This is most true, and so should it be with us. The servant should ever be combined with the worshipper, and the works of our hands perfumed with the ardent breathings of our spirits. In other words we should go forth to our work in the spirit of those memorable words, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship.” This would effectually preserve us from that merely mechanical service into which we are so prone to drop; doing things for doing’s sake, and being more occupied with our work than with our Master. ALL must flow from simple faith in God, and obedience to His word.
“BY faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only-begotten.” (Heb. 11: 17) It is only as we are walking by faith that we can begin, continue, and end our works in God. Abraham not merely set out to offer his son, but he went on, and reached the spot which God had appointed. “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife: and they went both of them together.” And further on we read, “And Abraham built an altar there; and laid the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.” This was real work, “A work of faith and labour of love,” in the highest sense. It was no mere mockery no drawing near with the lips, while the heart was far off – no saying “I go, sir, and went not.” It was all deep reality, just such a faith ever delights to produce, and which God delights to accept. It is easy to make a show of devotedness when there is no demand for it. It is easy to say, “though all shall be offended because of thee, yet will never be offended . . . . . . though I should die with thee, yet will not deny thee;” but the point is to stand the trial. When Peter was put to the test, he entirely broke down. Faith never talks of what it will do, but does what it can in the strength of the Lord. Nothing can be more thoroughly worthless than a spirit of empty pretension. It is just as worthless as the basis on which it rests. But faith acts “when it is tried;” and till then it is content to be unseen and silent.
Now, it needs hardly to be remarked that God is glorified in those Holy activities of faith. He is the immediate object of them, as He is the spring from whence they emanate. There was not a scene in Abraham’s entire history in which God was so much glorified as the scene on Mount Moriah. There it was that he was enabled to bear testimony to the fact that he had found all his fresh springs in God – found them not merely previous to, but after, Isaac’s birth. This is a most touching point. It is one thing to rest in God’s blessings, and another thing to rest in Himself. It is one thing to trust God when I have before my eyes the channel through which the blessing is to flow; and quite another thing to trust Him when that channel is entirely stopped up. This was what proved the excellency of Abraham’s faith. He showed that he could not merely trust God for an innumerable seed while Isaac stood before him in health and vigour; but just as fully if he were a smoking victim on the altar. This was a high order of confidence in God; it was unalloyed confidence; it mss not a confidence propped up, in part, by the Creator, and in part by the creature. No it rested on one solid pedestal, viz., God Himself. “He accounted that God was able.” He never accounted that Isaac was able. Isaac, without God, was nothing; God, without Isaac, was everything. This is a principle of the very last importance, and one eminently calculated to test the heart most keenly. Does it make any difference to me to see the apparent channel of all my blessings dried up? Am I dwelling sufficiently near the fountain-head to be able, with a worshipping spirit, to behold all the creature streams dried up? This I do feel to be a searching question. Have I such a simple view of God’s sufficiency as to be able, us it were, to “stretch forth my hand and take the knife to slay my son.” Abraham was enabled to do this, because his eye rested on the God of resurrection. “He accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.”
In a word, it was with God he had to do, and that was quite enough. He was not suffered to strike the blow. He had gone to the very utmost bounds; be had come up to the line beyond which God could not suffer him to go. The Blessed One spared the father’s heart the pang which He did not spare His own heart, even that of smiting His Son. He, blessed be His name, passed beyond the utmost bounds, for “he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.” There was no voice from heaven when, on Calvary, the Father offered up His only-begotten Son. No; it was a perfectly accomplished sacrifice; and, in its accomplishment, our everlasting peace is sealed.
However, Abraham’s devotedness was fully proved, and fully accepted. For now “I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” Mark it is “now I know.” It had never been proved before. It was there, no doubt, and, if there, God knew it; but the valuable point here, is, that God founds His knowledge of it upon the palpable evidence afforded at the altar upon Mount Moriah. Faith is always proved by action, and the fear of God by the fruits which flow from it. “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar” (James 2: 21) Who could think of calling his faith in question Take away faith, and Abraham appears on Moriah as a murderer, and a madman. Take faith into account, and he appears as a devoted worshipper – a God-fearing, justified man. But faith must be proved. “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works” (James 2: 14) Will either God or man be satisfied with a powerless and profitless profession? Surely not. God looks for reality and honours it where He sees it; and as for man, he can understand nought save the living and intelligible utterance of a faith that shows itself in acts. We are surrounded by the profession of religion; the phraseology of faith is on every lip; but faith itself is as rare a gem as ever-that faith which will enable a man to push out from the shore of present circumstances, and meet the waves and the winds, and not only meet them, but endure them, even though the Master should seem to be asleep on the pillow.
And here I would remark: the beautiful harmony between James and Paul, on the subject of justification. The intelligent and spiritual reader, who bows to the important truth of the plenary inspiration of holy scripture, knows full well that, on this question it is not with Paul or James we have to do, but with the Holy Ghost, who graciously used each of those honoured men as the pen to write His thoughts, just as I might take up a quill pen or a steel pen to write my thoughts, in which case it would be quite preposterous to speak of a discrepancy between the two pens, inasmuch as the writer is one. Hence it is just as impossible that two divinely-inspired penmen could clash, as that two heavenly bodies, while moving in their divinely appointed orbits, could come into collision.
But, in reality, as might be expected, there is the fullest and most perfect harmony between these two apostles; indeed, on the subject of justification, the one is the counterpart or exponent of the other. Paul gives us the inward principle, James the outward development of that principle; the former presents the hidden life, the latter the manifested life; the former looks at man in relation to God, the latter looks at him in his relation to man. Now we want both: the inward would not do without the outward; and the outward would be valueless and powerless without the inward. “Abraham was justified” when “he believed God;” and “Abraham was justified” when” he offered Isaac his son.” In the former case we have his secret standing; in the latter, his public acknowledgement by heaven and earth. It is well to understand this distinction. There was no voice from heaven when “Abraham believed God,” though in God’s view he was there, then, and that “counted righteous;” but “when he had offered his son upon the altar,” God could say, “now I know;” and all the world had a powerful and unanswerable proof of the fact that Abraham was a justified man. Thus will it ever be. Where there is the inward principle, there will be the outward acting; but all the value of the latter springs from its connection with the former. Disconnect, for one moment, Abraham’s acting, as set forth by James, from Abraham’s faith as set forth by Paul, and that justifying virtue did it possess? None whatever. All its value, all its efficacy, all its virtue, springs from the fact that it was the outward manifestation of that faith, by virtue of which he had been already counted righteous before God. Thus much as to the admirable harmony between Paul and James, or rather, as to the unity of the voice of the Holy Ghost, whether that voice be uttered by Paul or James.
We now return to our chapter. It is deeply interesting to mark here how Abraham’s soul is led into a fresh discovery of God’s character by the trial of his faith. When we are enabled to bear the testings of God’s own hand, it is sure to lead us into some new experience with respect to His character, which makes us to know how valuable the testing is. If Abraham had not stretched out his hand to slay his son, he never would have known the rich and exquisite depths of that title which he here bestows upon God, viz., “Jehovah Jireh.” It is only when we are really put to the test that we discover what God is. Without trial we can be but theorists, and God would not have us such: He would have us entering into the living depths that are in Himself-the divine realities of personal communion with Him. With what different feelings and convictions must Abraham have retraced his steps from Moriah to Beer-sheba ! from the mount of the Lord to the well of the oath! What very different thoughts of God! What different thoughts of Isaac! What different thoughts Of every-thing! Truly we may say, “Happy is the man that endureth trial. It is an honour put upon one by the Lord Himself, and the deep blessedness of the experience to which it leads cannot be easily estimated. It is when men are brought, to use the language of Psalm 107, “to their wits’ end,” that they discover what God is. Oh! for grace to endure trial, that God’s workmanship may appear, and His name be glorified in us.
There is one point which, before closing my remarks on this chapter, I shall notice, and that is the gracious way in which God gives Abraham credit for having done the act which he had showed himself so fully prepared to do. “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: because thou hast obeyed my voice.” This beautifully corresponds with the Spirit’s notice of Abraham’s acting, as put before us in Heb. 11 and also in James 2, in both of which scriptures he is looked upon as having offered Isaac his son upon the altar. The grand principle conveyed in the whole matter is this: Abraham proved that he was prepared to have the scene entirely cleared of all but God; and, moreover, it was this same principle which both constituted and placed him a justified man. Faith can do without every one and everything but God. It has the full sense of His sufficiency, and can, therefore, let go all beside. Hence Abraham could rightly estimate the words, “by myself have I sworn.” Yes, this wondrous word,” myself,” was everything to the man of faith. “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself…… For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.” The word and oath of the living God should put an end to all the strivings and workings of the human will, and form the immovable anchor of the soul amid all the tossing and tumult of this stormy world.
Now, we must condemn ourselves consistently, because of the little power which the promise of God has in our hearts. There it is, and we profess to believe it; but ah! it is not that deep, abiding, influential reality which it ought ever to be; we do not draw from it that ‘strong consolation” which it is calculated to afford. How little prepared are we, in the power of faith, in the promise of God, to slay our Isaac! We need to cry to God that He would be graciously pleased to endow us with a deeper insight into the blessed reality of a life of faith in Himself, that so me may understand better the import of that word of John, “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.” We can only overcome the world by faith. Unbelief puts us under the power of present things; in other words, it gives the world the victory over us. A soul that has entered, by the teaching of the Holy ghost, into the sense of God’s sufficiency, is entirely independent of things here. Beloved reader, may we know this, for our peace and joy in God, and His glory in us.
Gen 12:1 to Gen 25:18. The Story of Abraham.In this section the three main sources, J. E, P are present. Gunkel has given strong reasons for holding that J is here made up of two main sources, one connecting Abraham with Hebron, the other with Beersheba and the Negeb. The former associates Abraham with Lot. (For details, see ICC.) On the interpretation to be placed on the figures of Abraham and the patriarchs, see the Introduction. The interest, which has hitherto been diffused over the fortunes of mankind in general, is now concentrated on Abraham and his posterity, the principle of election narrowing it down to Isaac, Ishmael being left aside, and then to Jacob, Esau being excluded.
THE TRIAL OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH
The time comes when God gives to Abraham one of the most sever trials of faith possible. When He calls his name, Abraham is fully alert and responsive, “Here I am.” Surely he would not be really prepared for the message God gave him, that he must take his on, of whom God says, “your only son Isaac whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Who can measure what a shock this would be to a father who greatly loves his son?
Yet on Abraham’s part we read of no protest or no hesitation as to obeying the word of God. He rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and split the wood for a burnt offering. Taking two of his servants with him as well as Isaac, he began the long journey of three days. We can well imagine what thoughts would fill his heart. Why would God so miraculously give him a son, only to ask him to give him up again? What was God’s purpose in asking of such a sacrifice? But he had learned through much experience that God was to be fully trusted in everything, whether or not Abraham understood what God was doing. This simplicity of faith is beautiful. Heb 11:17-19 shows us that at this time Abraham considered that if Isaac died, God would raise him up again, because God had promised that Isaac would be a father.
However, God had reasons for this engrossing occasion far higher than Abraham could possibly know at the time, for it beautifully illustrates the wonder of the greatest sacrifice that could be possible, the sacrifice that God the Father was made in giving His own Son, to bear what Isaac could never bear the overwhelming burden of suffering for sins that were not His own, but ours. This three day journey reminds us that God too had plenty to time to fully consider the tremendous sacrifice of giving His Son.
In making the great sacrifice of his son, it was no sudden spur of the moment feeling of devotion that moved Abraham, but deliberate, well considered obedience to the word of God. So our great God, knowing fully all that was to be involved in the sacrifice of His own Son, calmly, deliberately counseled this great event in the past, and carried it out with sublime, unwavering decision.
Abraham left the young men behind while he and Isaac proceeded to the mountain to worship. This was to be a matter strictly between the father and his son. Yet he tells his servants that he and the lad would worship and come back to them. Though God had told him to offer Isaac, he had no doubt he would return with Isaac, since he counted that God was able to raise him from the dead (Heb 11:17-19).
Isaac carried the wood for the burnt offering, and Abraham took both the means of lighting a fire and a knife. In Isaac we are reminded of the Lord Jesus bearing His cross before His actual sacrifice took place. In verse 6 and verse 8 we are told, “they went both of them together.” How much more wonderful to think of God the Father and His well beloved Son going together to the cross of Calvary. For the sacrifice of the Father was just as great as that of the Son. The Son gave Himself: the Father gave His only begotten Son.
The words of Isaac and of Abraham in verses 7 and 8 indicate a lovely relationship of respect and trust toward one another. When Isaac questions as to where the lamb for a burnt offering was, Abraham did not yet tell him he was to be the sacrifice, but that God would provide a lamb. This was indeed a prophecy that Abraham himself did not realize the significance of. Only God would provide the lamb who could be as satisfactory offering to take away sins.
At God’s appointed place Abraham built an altar, arranged the wood on the altar, then bound Isaac, laying him on the wood. We read of no resistance on Isaac’s part, yet of course terror must have gripped his heart, and we know that Abraham’s heart must have been affected to its depths. But Isaac’s evident submission reminds us of the more marvelous submission of the Lord Jesus when He was hung on the cross of Calvary. “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa 53:7).
Then Abraham took the knife, being prepared to fully carry out what God had told him, in actually killing his beloved son (v.10). At this crucial moment he was interrupted by the urgent voice of the angel of God calling him by name. How great must have been his relief, and that of Isaac too, when he is told to do nothing to the lad. Then it is made clear to him that this was “only a test,” the trial of his faith, which is “much more precious than of gold that perishes” (1Pe 1:7). The reality of Abraham’s faith had been proven, and the trial must end before Isaac is actually sacrificed. Yet this historical record is inscribed in the word of God for eternity, not only as a commendation of genuine, unquestioning faith, but as a striking picture of the Father sacrificing His Son.
But also the Lord has a substitute for Isaac ready at that very spot. He cause Abraham to look behind him, where a ram was caught in a thicket by his horns (v.13). How a domesticated animal came to be there we do not know, except that God led it there. At least Abraham recognized it as an acceptable offering and offered it to God as a burnt offering instead of his son. Isaac would surely be thankful for such a substitute, just as believers today thank God for the Lord Jesus and His great substitutionary work at Calvary for our sakes.
Appropriately, Abraham named that place “Jehovah Jireh,” meaning “the Lord will provide.” Added to this we are told it is “the mount of the Lord.” Later Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are called “the mount of God” and “the mount of the Lord,” for the expression speaks of the height from which God deals with mankind. But this mountain, speaking of the grace of God in the gift of His Son, is the first mentioned, for it is nearest to God’s heart. The law must take a lower place.
Following this the angel of the Lord (that is, the Lord Jesus Himself) called to Abraham the second time from heaven. Actually, He confirms the promise He had made before to Abraham (vs.17-18), and yet tells him that He will bring this promise to pass because Abraham had obeyed His voice in this matter. One might ask, if Abraham had not obeyed, would the promise be ineffective? The answer is simply that God’s promise can never fail, and that He knew beforehand that Abraham would obey Him; in fact it was His own sovereign work in Abraham’s heart that caused this act of willing obedience. In other words, God’s promise was vitally bound up with the faith He had given to Abraham.
Then Abraham, Isaac and the young men returned to Beersheba, where he was living. This is “the well of the oath,” therefore speaking of living in the calm confidence of the faithfulness of God’s sworn promise.
NATIONS BLESSED FOLLOWING THE SACRIFICE
Though Abraham had left his former house, yet his brother Nahor is not forgotten. When God blesses Israel He does not forget Gentiles. After Abraham’s experience as to the virtual offering of Isaac, he is told that Nahor has had children. This reminds us that the offering of Christ was not for the nation Israel only, “but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad” (Joh 11:51-52). But the special reason for verses 20-23 is to bring Rebecca to our attention (v.23). She was to be the bride for Isaac, as a type of the Church united to Christ following His wondrous sacrifice. The names of these descendants of Nahor will surely have some significance in illustrating God’s work among Gentiles as a result of the sacrifice of His beloved Son.
14. The sacrifice of Isaac 22:1-19
In obedience to God’s command Abraham took his promised heir to Moriah to sacrifice him to the Lord. Because Abraham was willing to slay his uniquely begotten son God restrained him from killing Isaac and promised to bless him further for his obedience. Abraham memorialized the place as "the Lord will provide."
God called on Abraham to make five great sacrifices: his native country, his extended family, his nephew Lot, his son Ishmael, and his son Isaac. Each sacrifice involved something naturally dear to Abraham, but each resulted in greater blessings from God.
This incident also demonstrates the strong confidence that Abraham had in God at this time. He believed God was even able to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb 11:19). This is why he was willing to slay him. Jewish tradition refers to this chapter as the Akedah, from the Hebrew word wayya’aqod, translated "bound," in Gen 22:9. [Note: See Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, pp. 300-306.]
"With this chapter we reach the climax of the faith life of Abraham-the supreme test and the supreme victory." [Note: Leupold, 2:616. Cf. Wenham, Genesis 16-50, pp. 99, 112. This writer also noted parallels between chapters 21 and 22 on pp. 99-100.]
"The seventh crisis [I believe it is the eleventh] comes at a point in the narrative when we least expect it and is without question the greatest crisis of all. After all obstacles have seemingly been surmounted and all potential rivals eliminated, God now asks for Abraham’s only son whom he loves. The gracious intervention of God and the reaffirmation of the basic promise of 12.1-3 in 22.15-18 would seem to conclude the Abraham cycle at the moment when faith triumphs over the greatest obstacle of all, death." [Note: Helyer, pp. 84-85.]
This incident took place some time after the events recorded in the chapters immediately preceding this one, evidently several years later.
God’s revelation to Abraham (His eighth recorded in Scripture) came to test Abraham’s faith (i.e., to prove its character and strength; cf. Jas 2:21-23).
"Life is a succession of tests, for character is only possible through discipline." [Note: Thomas, p. 195.]
God was testing Abraham’s love for Himself as well as his faith (Gen 22:2). Such testing (Heb. nsh) shows what someone is really like, and it usually involves difficulty or hardship (cf. Exo 15:25; Exo 16:4; Exo 20:20; Deu 8:2; Deu 8:16; Deu 13:3; Jdg 2:22; Jdg 3:1; Jdg 3:4; 1Ki 10:1; Dan 1:12; Dan 1:14).
"This scene presents the radical nature of true faith: tremendous demands and incredible blessings." [Note: Waltke, Genesis, p. 301.]
"The . . . best approach to the passage is that God commanded an actual human sacrifice and Abraham intended to obey Him fully." [Note: Davis, p. 217.]
The land of Moriah was the mountainous country around Jerusalem. It stood about 45 miles north of Beersheba. On these mountains God later appeared to David who built an altar to the Lord (2Sa 24:16-25). Here also Solomon built his temple (2Ch 3:1) and Jesus Christ died. A mountain was a suitable place for Abraham to meet God (cf. Gen 22:14). [Note: See Appendix 3 at the end of these notes for an article about Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.]
Gen 22:1-2 relate another call God gave Abraham that parallels the one in Gen 12:1-3 where God told him to leave where he was and go to another land.
"The repetition of these motifs forms an inclusio in the narrative structure of the Abrahamic narrative, pointing out the complete cycle in the patriarch’s experience. The allusion to the former call would also have prompted obedience to the present one, in many ways a more difficult journey in God’s direction." [Note: Ross, Creation and . . ., p. 394. Cf. Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p, 283.]
The Lord was not asking Abraham to make any greater sacrifices to Him, the true God, than his pagan neighbors were willing to make to their false gods. Canaanite religion involved child sacrifice, but we do not know for sure that the Canaanites practiced it as early as Abraham’s time. [Note: See Everyday Life in Bible Times, p. 91; and The New Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Canaan, Canaanite," p. 186.]
"The demand [to sacrifice Isaac] was indeed only made to prove that Abraham was not behind the heathen in the self-denying surrender of his dearest to his God, and that when the demand had been complied with in spirit, the external fulfillment might be rejected." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:91.]
The words used to describe Isaac in this chapter, as well as what Moses said of him, indicate that he was probably a young man at this time (Gen 22:6). Josephus said he was 25 years old. [Note: Josephus, 1:13:43.]
"There are indications to suggest that the meaning of Abba in Mar 14:36 is to be found in the light of its whole context and Genesis 22. Jesus’ final trial in Gethsemane appears to be modelled on the supreme trial of Abraham and Isaac. Despite his horror and anguish before the prospect of an imminent sacrificial death, Isaac calls to Abraham his Abba and, as a faithful son, obeys the voice of God speaking through his father. Parallel to this, Jesus says Abba to God in the same way that Isaac does to Abraham. In this context, Abba has the meaning of ’father’ in the sense of a relationship to a devoted and obedient son. In Jesus’ supreme hour of trial, it is his trust and obedience to God as Abba that carries him through, even to the cross. This meaning of Abba may prompt further study of the significance of son in other NT texts to discover whether the obediential aspect may be more prominent than has been suspected. The father-son relationship in Genesis 22 may be a far-reaching New Testament model of that between Jesus and God." [Note: Joseph A. Grassi, "Abba, Father (Mark 14:36): Another Approach," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 50:3 (September 1982):455.]
Abraham referred to the sacrifice he would offer, supposedly Isaac, but really God’s substitute for Isaac, as "the lamb." This statement (Gen 22:8), of course, proved prophetic of Jesus Christ as well (Joh 1:29). Abraham spoke better than he knew.
SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
Gen 22:1-24
THE sacrifice of Isaac was the supreme act of Abrahams life. The faith which had been schooled by so singular an experience and by so many minor trials was here perfected and exhibited as perfect. The strength which he had been slowly gathering during a long and trying life was here required and used. This is the act which shines like a star out of those dark ages, and has served for many storm-tossed souls over whom Gods billows have gone, as a mark by which they could still shape their course when all else was dark. The devotedness which made the sacrifice, the trust in God that endured when even such a sacrifice was demanded, the justification of this trust by the event, and the affectionate fatherly acknowledgment with which God gloried in the mans loyalty and strength of character-all so legibly written here-come home to every heart in the time of its need. Abraham has here shown the way to the highest reach of human devotedness and to the heartiest submission to the Divine will in the most heartrending circumstances. Men and women living our modern life are brought into situations which seem as torturing and overwhelming as those of Abraham, and all who are in such conditions find, in his loyal trust in God, sympathetic and effectual aid.
In order to understand Gods part in this incident and to remove the suspicion that God imposed upon Abraham as a duty what was really a crime, or that He was playing with the most sacred feelings of His servant, there are one or two facts which must not be left out of consideration. In the first place, Abraham did not think it wrong to sacrifice his son. His own conscience did not clash with Gods command. On the contrary, it was through his own conscience Gods will impressed itself upon him. No man of Abrahams character and intelligence could suppose that any word of God could make that right which was in itself wrong, or would allow the voice of conscience to be drowned by some mysterious voice from without. If Abraham had supposed that in all circumstances it was a crime to take his sons life, he could not have listened to any voice that bade him commit this crime. The man who in our day should put his child to death and plead that he had a Divine warrant for it would either be hanged or confined as insane. No miracle would be accepted as a guarantee for the Divine dictation of such an act. No voice from heaven would be listened to for a moment, if it contradicted the voice of the universal conscience of mankind. But in Abrahams day the universal conscience had only approbation to express for such a deed as this. Not only had the father absolute power over the son, so that he might do with him what he pleased; but this particular mode of disposing of a son would be considered singular only as being beyond the reach of ordinary virtue. Abraham was familiar with the idea that the most exalted form of religious worship was the sacrifice of the first-born. He felt, in common with godly men in every age, that to offer to God cheap sacrifices while we retain for ourselves what is truly precious, is a kind of worship that betrays our low estimate of God rather than expresses true devotion. He may have been conscious that in losing Ishmael he had felt resentment against God for depriving him of so loved a possession; he may have seen Canaanite fathers offering their children to gods he knew to be utterly unworthy of any sacrifice; and this may have rankled in his mind until he felt shut up to offer his all to God in the person of his son, his only son, Isaac. At all events, however, it became his conviction that God desired him to offer his son; this was a sacrifice which was in no respect forbidden by his own conscience.
But although not wrong in Abrahams judgment, this sacrifice was wrong in the eye of God; how then can we justify Gods command that He should make it? We justify it precisely on that ground which lies patent on the face of the narrative-God meant Abraham to make the sacrifice in spirit, not in the outward act. He meant to write deeply on the Jewish mind the fundamental lesson regarding sacrifice, that it is in the spirit and will all true sacrifice is made. God intended what actually happened, that Abrahams sacrifice should be complete and that human sacrifice should receive a fatal blow. So far from introducing into Abrahams mind erroneous ideas about sacrifice, this incident finally dispelled from his mind such ideas and permanently fixed in his mind the conviction that the sacrifice God seeks is the devotion of the living soul, not the consumption of a dead body. God met him on the platform of knowledge and of morality to which he had attained, and by requiring him to sacrifice his son taught him and all his descendants in what sense alone such sacrifice can be acceptable. God meant Abraham to sacrifice his son, but not in the coarse material sense. God meant him to yield the lad truly to Him; to arrive at the consciousness that Isaac more truly belonged to God than to him, his father. It was needful that Abraham and Isaac should be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. Only by being really and absolutely in Gods hand could they, or can any one, reach the whole and full good designed for them by God.
How old Isaac was at the time of this sacrifice there is no means of accurately ascertaining. He was probably in the vigor of early manhood. He was able to take his share in the work of cutting wood for the burnt offering and carrying the faggots a considerable distance. It was necessary too that this sacrifice should be made on Isaacs part not with the timorous shrinking or ignorant boldness of a boy, but with the full comprehension and deliberate consent of maturer years. It is probable that Abram ham was already preparing, if not to yield to Isaac the family headship, yet to introduce him to a share in the responsibilities he had so long borne alone. From the touching confidence in one another which this incident exhibits, a light is reflected on the fond intercourse of former years. Isaac was at that time of life when a son is closest to a father, mature but not independent; when all that a father can do has been done, but while as yet the son has not passed away into a life of his own.
And Isaac was no ordinary son. The man of business who has encouraged and solaced himself in his toil by the hope that his son will reap the fruit of it and make his old age easy and honoured, but who outlives his son and sees the effort of his life go for nothing, the proprietor who bears an ancient name and sees his heir die-these are familiar objects of pathetic interest, and no heart is so hard as to refuse a tear of sympathy when brought into view of such heart-withering bereavements. But in Abraham all fatherly feelings had been evoked and strengthened and deepened by a quite peculiar experience. By a special and most effectual discipline he had been separated from the objects which ordinarily divide mens attention and eke out their contentment in life, and his whole hopes had been compelled to centre in his son. It was not the perpetuation of a name nor the transmission of a well-known and valuable property; it was not even the gratification of the most justifiable and tender of human affections, that was crushed and thwarted in Abraham by this command; but it was also and especially that hope which had been aroused and fostered in him by extraordinary providences and which concerned, as he believed, not himself alone but all men.
Manifestly no harder task could have been set to Abraham than that which was imposed on him by the command, “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest,” this son of thine in whom all the promises are yea and amen to thee, this son for whose sake thou gavest up home and kindred, and banished thy firstborn Ishmael, this son whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering. This son, Abraham might have said, whom I have been taught to cherish, putting aside all other affections that I might love him above all, I am now with my own hand to slay, to slay with all the terrible niceties and formalities of sacrifice and with all the love and adoration of sacrifice. I am with my own hand to destroy all that makes life valuable to me, and as I do so I am to love and worship Him who commands this sacrifice. I am to go to Isaac, whom I have taught to look forward to the fairest happiest life, and I am to contradict all I ever told him and tell him now that he has only grown to maturity that he might be cut down in the flush and hope of opening manhood. What can Abraham have thought? Possibly the thought would occur that God was now recalling the great gift He had made. There is always enough conscience of sin in the purest human heart to engender self-reproach and fear on the faintest occasion; and when so signal a token of Gods displeasure as this was sent, Abraham may well have believed himself to have been unwittingly guilty of some great crime against God, or have now thought with bitterness of the languid devotion he had been offering Him. I have in sacrificing a lamb been as if I had been cutting off a dogs neck, profane and thoughtless in my worship, and now God is solemnising me indeed. I have in thought or desire kept back the prime of my flock, and God is now teaching me that a man may not rob God. Who could have been surprised if in this horror of great darkness the mind of Abraham had become unhinged? Who could wonder if he had slain himself to make the loss of Isaac impossible? Who could wonder if he had sullenly ignored the command, waited for further light, or rejected an alliance with God which involved such lamentable conditions? Nothing that could befall him in consequence of disobedience, he might have supposed, could exceed in pain the agony of obedience. And it is always easier to endure the pain inflicted upon us by circumstances than to do with our own hand and free will what we know will involve us in suffering. It is not mere resignation but active obedience that was required of Abraham. His was not the passive resignation of the man out of whose reach death or disaster has swept his dearest treasures, and who is helped to resignation by the consciousness that no murmuring can bring them back-his was the far more difficult act of resignation, which has still in possession all that it prizes, and may withhold these treasures if it pleases, but is called by a higher voice than that of self-pleasing to sacrifice them all.
But though Abraham was the chief, he was not the sole actor in this trying scene. To Isaac this was the memorable day of his life, and quiescent and passive as his character seems to have been, it cannot but have been stirred and. strained now in every fibre of it. Abraham, could not find it in his heart to disclose to his son the object of the journey; even to the last he kept him unconscious of the part he was himself to play. Two long days journey, days of intense inward commotion to Abraham, they went northward. On the third day the servants were left, and father and son went on alone, unaccompanied and unwitnessed. “So they went,” as the narrative twice over says, “both of them together,” but with minds how differently filled; the fathers heart torn with anguish and distracted by a thousand thoughts, the sons mind disengaged, occupied only with the new scenes and with passing fancies. Nowhere in the narrative does the completeness of the mastery Abraham had gained over his natural feelings appear more strikingly than in the calmness with which he answers Isaacs question. As they approach the place of sacrifice Isaac observes the silent and awestruck demeanour of his father and fears that it may have been through absence of mind he has neglected to bring the lamb. With a gentle reverence he ventures to attract Abrahams attention: “My father”; and he said, “Here am I, my son.” And he said, “Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” It is one of those moments when only the strongest heart can bear up calmly and when only the humblest faith has the right word to say. “My son, the Lord will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
Not much longer could the terrible truth be hidden from Isaac. With what feelings must he have seen the agonised face of his father as he turned to bind him and as he learned that he must prepare not to sacrifice but to be sacrificed. Here then was the end of those great hopes on which his youth had been fed. What could such contradiction mean? Was he to submit even to his father in such a matter? Why should he not expostulate, resist, flee? Such ideas seem to have found short entertainment in the mind of Isaac. Trained by long experience to trust his father, he obeys without complaint or murmur. Still it cannot cease to be matter of admiration and astonishment that a young man should have been able on so brief a notice, through so shocking a way, and with so startling a reversal of his expectations, to forego all right to choose for himself, and yield himself implicitly to what he believed to be Gods will. By a faith so absolute Isaac became indeed the heir of Abraham. When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself over to God, he put himself at Gods disposal; if his death was to be helpful in fulfilling Gods purpose he was willing to die. It was Gods will that must be done, not his. He knew that God could not err, could not harm His people; he was ignorant of the design which his death could fulfil, but he felt sure that his sacrifice was not asked in vain.
He had familiarised himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that he was on earth for Gods purposes, not for his own; so that now, when he was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on Gods altar, he did not hesitate to do so. He had learned that there are possessions more worth preserving than life itself, that
“Manhood is the one immortal thing Beneath Times changeful sky”-
he had learned that “length of days is knowing when to die.”
No one who has measured the strain that such sacrifice puts upon human nature can withhold his tribute of cordial admiration for so rare a devotedness, and no one can fail to see that by this sacrifice Isaac became truly the heir of Abraham. And not only Isaac, but every man attains his majority by sacrifice. Only by losing our life do we begin to live. Only by yielding ourselves truly and unreservedly to Gods purpose do we enter the true life of men. The giving up of self, the abandonment of an isolated life, the bringing of ourselves into connection with God, with the Supreme and with the whole, this is the second birth. To reach that full stream of life which is moved by Gods will and which is the true life of men, we must so give ourselves up to God that each of His commandments, each of His providences, all by which He comes into connection with us, has its due effect upon us. If we only seek from God help to carry out our own conception of life, if we only desire His power to aid us in making of this life what we have resolved it shall be, we are far indeed from Isaacs conception of God and of life. But if we desire that God fulfil in us, and through us, His own conception of what our life should be, the only means of attaining this desire is to put ourselves fairly into Gods hand, unflinchingly to do what we believe to be His will irrespective of present darkness and pain and privation. He who thus bids an honest farewell to earth and lets himself be bound anal laid upon Gods altar, is conscious that in renouncing himself he has won God and become His heir.
Have you thus given yourselves to God? I do not ask if your sacrifice has been perfect, nor whether you do not ever seek great things still for yourselves: but do you know what it is thus to yield yourself to God, to put God first, yourself second or nowhere? Are you even occasionally quite willing to sink your own interests, your own prospects, your own native tastes, to have your own worldly hopes delayed or blighted, your future darkened? Have you even brought your intellect to bear upon this first law of human life, and determined for yourself whether it is the case or not that mans life, in order to be profitable, joyful, and abiding, must be lived in God? Do you recognise that human life is not for the individuals good, but for the common good, and that only in God can each man find his place and his work? All that we give up to Him we have in an ampler form. The very affections which we are called to sacrifice are purified and deepened rather than lost. When Abraham resigned his son to God and received him back their love took on a new delicacy and tenderness. They were more than ever to one another after this interference of God. And He meant it to be so. Where our affections are thwarted or where our hopes are blasted, it is not our injury, but our good, that is meant; a fineness and purity, an eternal significance and depth, are imparted to affections that are annealed by passing through the fire of trial.
Not till the last moment did God interpose with the gladdening words, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.” The significance of this was so obvious that it passed into a proverb: “In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” It was there, and not at any earlier point, Abraham saw the provision that had been made for an offering. Up to the moment when he lifted the knife over all he lived for, it was not seen that other provision was made. Up to the moment when it was indubitable that both he and Isaac were obedient unto death, and when in will and feeling they had sacrificed themselves, no substitute was visible, but no sooner was the sacrifice complete in spirit than Gods provision was disclosed. It was the spirit of sacrifice, not the blood of Isaac, that God desired. It was the noble generosity of Abraham that God delighted in, not the fatherly grief that would have followed the actual death of Isaac. It was the heroic submission of father and son that God saw with delight, rejoicing that men were found capable of the utmost of heroism, of patient and unflinching adherence to duty. At any point short of the consummation, interposition would have come too soon, and would have prevented this educative and elevating display of the capacity of men for the utmost that life can require of them. Had the provision of God been made known one minute before the hand of Abraham was raised to strike, it would have remained doubtful whether in the critical moment one or other of the parties might not have failed. But when the sacrifice was complete, when already the bitterness of death was past, when all the agonizing conflict was over, the anguish of the father mastered, and the dismay of the son subdued to perfect conformity with the supreme will, then the full reward of victorious conflict was given, and Gods meaning flashed through the darkness, and His provision was seen.
This is the universal law. We find Gods provision only on the mount of sacrifice, not at any stage short of this, but only there. We must go the whole way in faith; what lies before us as duty, we must do; often in darkness and utter misery, seeing no possibility of escape or relief, we must climb the hill where we are to abandon all that has given joy and hope to our life; and not before the sacrifice has been actually made can we enter into the heaven of victory God provides. You may be called to sacrifice your youth, your hopes of a career, your affections, that you may uphold and soothe the lingering days of one to whom you are naturally bound. Or your whole life may have centred in an affection which circumstances demand you shall abandon: you may have to sacrifice your natural tastes and give up almost everything you once set your heart on; and while to others the years bring brightness and variety and scope, to you they may be bringing only monotonous fulfilment of insipid and uncongenial tasks. You may be in circumstances which tempt you to say, Does God see the inextricable difficulty I am in? Does He estimate the pain I must suffer if immediate relief do not come? Is obedience to Him only to involve me in misery from which other men are exempt? You may even say that although a substitute was found for Isaac, no substitute has been found for the sacrifice you have had to make, but you have been compelled actually to lose what was dear to you as life itself. But when the character has been fully tried, when the utmost good to character has been accomplished, and when delay of relief would only increase misery, then relief comes. Still the law holds good, that as soon as you in spirit yield to Gods will, and with a quiet submissiveness consent to the loss or pain inflicted upon you, in that hour your whole attitude to your circumstances is transformed, you find rest and assured hope. Two things are certain: that, however painful your condition is, Gods intention is not to injure, but to advance you, and that hopeful submission is wiser, nobler, and every way better than murmuring and resentment.
Finally, these words, “The Lord will provide,” which Abraham uttered in that exalted frame of mind which is near to the prophetic ecstasy, have been the burden sung by every sincere and thoughtful worshipper as he ascended the hill of God to seek forgiveness of his sin, the burden which the Lords worshipping congregation kept on its tongue through all the ages, till at length, as the angel of the Lord had opened the eyes of Abraham to see the ram provided, the voice of the Baptist “crying in the wilderness” to a fainting and well-nigh despairing few turned their eye to Gods great provision with the final announcement, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Let us accept this as a motto which we may apply, not only in all temporal straits, when we can see no escape from loss and misery, but also in all spiritual emergency, when sin seems a burden too great for us to bear, and when we seem to lib under the uplifted knife of Gods judgment. Let us remember that Gods desire is not that we suffer pain, but that we learn obedience, that we be brought to that true and thorough confidence in Him which may fit us to fulfil His loving purposes. Let us, above all, remember that we cannot know the grace of God, cannot experience the abundant provision He has made for weak and sinful men, until we have climbed the mount of sacrifice and are able to commit ourselves wholly to Him. Not by attacking our manifold enemies one by one, nor by attempting the great work of sanctification piecemeal, shall we ever make much growth or progress, but by giving ourselves up wholly to God and by becoming willing to live in Him and as His.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
3. The distinction between the divine revealed command and Abrahams misconception of it, is similar to the distinction between the infallible conscience13 and the fallible judgment in regard to conscience, which has not been sufficiently noticed in theology. Thus also Peter, on his way from Joppa to Csarea, with the divine commission to convert Cornelius, might have connected with it the misconception that he must first circumcise him, but the further revelation tears away the misconception. The stripping away of the erroneous and unessential ideas of the time, belongs also to a sound development of faith.
5. The mountain of Jerusalem receives, through the offering of Abraham, its preconsecration to its future destination as the later mount Moriah upon which the temple stood, the preconsecration of the historical faith in God, which transcends the unhistorical faith in God of Melchizedec.
6. The Angel of the Lord gives the more accurate and particular definition of that which Elohim has pointed out in the more general way.
7. The obedience of faith which Abraham renders in the sacrifice of Isaac, marks the historical perfection of his faith, in a decisive test. It marks the stage of the New Testament , or sealing (see the Biblework upon James).
16. The meaning of the ram in the sacrifice of Abraham is not to be lightly estimated. It designates figuratively the fact, that Christ also, in his sacrificial death, has not lost his own peculiar life, but, as the leading shepherd of his flock, has only sacrificed his old temporal form of a servant, in order that through his death he might redeem them from death, the fear of death, the bondage of sin and Satan, and introduce them into a higher, deathless life.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary