Today, we’re going to look at Genesis 22:1-19.
The scene opens with Abraham and God, and God gives Abraham an unusual - and slightly concerning - task.
Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Genesis 22:2 (NIV)
Okay, pump the brakes. If you’re not familiar with Abraham and God’s relationship, you need to know that God made a covenant (a legally binding agreement) with Abraham to 1. Make him a great nation with inumerable descendants, and 2. Bless all the people on the earth through him.
Abraham and his wife were infertile and way past childbearing years when God blessed them with Isaac, and he was their only legitimate heir. In order for the covenant to be fulfilled, Isaac had to live and have children of his own. So why in the world would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son?
Plus, in the post about Jephthah and Hannah we found out that human sacrifice was forbidden by Mosaic Law.
The Mosaic Law hadn’t been given yet, but we know God’s character and standards never change, so it’s safe to assume he wasn’t cool with human sacrifice during Abraham’s time.
Perhaps Abraham knew that God would never legitimately desire a human sacrifice, or he had finally learned to trust God completely (probably a bit of both). Either way, Abraham obediently started trekking to the mountain.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
Genesis 22:6-8
Abraham doesn’t tell Isaac that he will be the sacrifice, he confidently states that God will provide the lamb.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Genesis 22:9-10
Here, Isaac himself displays incredible trust in God. He was not forced into compliance - he was a strapping 25 year old man and his father was 125. Isaac willingly laid down on the altar.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide [Jehovah-Jireh]. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Genesis 22:11-14
This story is rich with meaning and depth. Abraham could only see the next step: he knew that God had promised him descendents, and he also knew that God had called him to sacrifice the one thing that would make that possible. Yet he trusted in God so deeply that he knew Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. Abraham and Isaac both responded to God in faith, and God provided an appropriate sacrifice at the right time.
But those of us looking back on this story can see the big picture. There is symbolism and foreshadowing in this story that points to Jesus.
Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice up the hill, just as Simon the Cyrene carries the wooden cross up Golgotha (Luke 23:26).
Isaac, Abraham’s only and beloved son, willingly laid himself upon the altar (John 3:16, John 10:17-18).
A sheep was offered instead of Isaac, Jesus is called the Lamb of God (John 1:29, Isaiah 53:7).
At the perfect moment, God intervened and provided a ram for the burnt offering. Romans 5:6 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”
Abraham didn’t know that the Savior of the world, the sacrificial Lamb, would come through his lineage. He didn’t know that the blessing for all nations would be Jesus. He only knew the next step he needed to take: trust that the Lord Will Provide.
Like Abraham, we can’t see the big picture - we only know the next step God is asking us to take. Will you obediently trust in the Lord to provide? Will you accept the provision He has already made for you through the sacrifice of Jesus?
Jehovah-Jireh, The LORD Will Provide.