The Promise Sacrificed (Genesis 22:1-19<\/a>)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nNo other narrative in Genesis quite matches this account. It is brilliantly written. Beyond its literary merits, this true story contains deep theological truth. The only event to surpass it is the one to which it points, the story of the Christ who died for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Abraham’s Faith Proved<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAbraham\u2019s testing experience falls into three main scenes. Each scene begins with a call to Abraham and his reply, \u201cHere I am\u201d (22:1<\/a>,7<\/a>,11<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe are told that \u201cGod tested Abraham\u201d (22:1<\/a>) but Abraham was not informed of this. The situation is not dissimilar to Job\u2019s great trial. Neither Job nor his comforters knew that his sufferings were a special test of his faith in God. We do not always see the evils that befall us as tests. Tragedies are not packaged like examination papers with the word \u2018test\u2019 written on the envelope. We may never know the reason why we should suffer in a particularly distressing way. The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote, \u201cGod is to be trusted when his providences seem to run contrary to his promises.\u201d Job said, \u201cThough he slay me, yet will I trust him\u201d (Job 13:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis call to sacrifice Isaac was not some sudden impulse which Abraham thought had come from God. There are people who imagine that God has spoken to them and they convince themselves and others that it is right for them to do something outrageous. Anything we might feel God is personally saying to us must be tested by his written Word. This call to Abraham came from outside himself. It was a divine test. The word \u2018tempt\u2019 used to include the idea of testing (see the AV, \u2018God did tempt Abraham\u2019). In modern English it conveys only a bad sense. God never incites people to do wrong, as James reminds us (James 1:12-15<\/a>). It is Satan who tempts us to sin. God tests us for our good and for his glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn Unthinkable Command<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nWhat a dreadful command Abraham received from God! He was being asked to give up his pride and joy. Not only that, God was directing him to act contrary to all that God had previously said. Isaac was the son of promise.<\/em> Abraham had dismissed his other son on God\u2019s instructions and now he was being asked to sacrifice this unique son in whom all God\u2019s promises rested.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt is quite remarkable how Abraham obeyed so readily. When he left the servants with the donkey at the foot of the mountain, Abraham told them to wait there: \u201cThe lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you\u201d (22:5<\/a>). What faith! He was going to worship by offering Isaac on the altar. Though he believed God concerning his son, he was prepared to commit him to God. At the same time, he expected that they would both come down the mountain and meet up again with the servants. Abraham reasoned that \u201cGod was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense\u201d (Hebrews 11:17-19<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhere is the Offering?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nThe last stage of the journey would have been the hardest. Imagine the old man with the fire in his hand and his young teenage son carrying the wood making their way silently up the mountain. Eventually Isaac breaks the silence with a question that must have pierced his father\u2019s heart: \u201cLook, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?\u201d (22:7<\/a>). How was Abraham to answer? Some have assumed he merely evaded the issue with a pious reply\u2014”Don\u2019t worry, it is all in God\u2019s hands\u201d\u2014in the hope that Isaac would not ask any more awkward questions. But that is not how the text reads. It is a statement of faith<\/em> at an important turning-point in the story: \u201cMy son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering\u201d (22:8<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt that crucial moment when Abraham\u2019s hand was raised to cut Isaac\u2019s throat, God intervened, saying, \u201cDo not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him\u201d (22:11-12<\/a>). Abraham had passed the test. Like Job he was a man who feared God. The testing experience proved that his faith was genuine (22:12<\/a>). James uses this example to show that his faith was living and active. Abraham\u2019s obedience indicated that he was in a right position before God (James 2:20-23<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. God\u2019s Pledge to Abraham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThis unique experience not only tested his faith; it also informed his faith. For the last time and in a most emphatic way the promises<\/em> first made when Abraham left Haran (12:1-3<\/a>) are confirmed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nGod\u2019s promises are always the expression of his grace but they are presented here in the context of Abraham\u2019s trustful obedience. It is, God says, \u201cbecause you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son…because you have obeyed my voice\u201d (22:16,18<\/a>), that the promises are renewed. Abraham\u2019s obedient response was used in God\u2019s overall purposes. Divine grace and human responsibility come together. The same was true when the Son of God came into the world. Mary and Joseph were obedient servants of God through whom the great promise was finally and completely fulfilled. There is every encouragement to live the life of faith and to do what is pleasing to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGod condescended to reach down to Abraham\u2019s level by going on oath to fulfill his promises: \u201cBy myself I have sworn\u201d (22:16<\/a>). This is the first divine oath in the Bible and the only one in Genesis, one that Moses frequently refers to later (see 24:7<\/a>; 26:3<\/a>; 50:24<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nExpanding Promises<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nThe promises expand. \u201cIn blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply…\u201d is a Hebrew way of emphasizing the verbs: \u201cI will certainly bless and multiply you\u201d (cf. 22:17<\/a>). Abraham\u2019s descendants will become extremely numerous, \u201cas the stars of the heaven\u201d (see 15:5<\/a>; 17:2<\/a>) \u201cand as the sand which is on the sea-shore\u201d (22:17<\/a>). The promise that \u201cYour descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies\u201d (22:17<\/a>) reminds us of the time when Israel under Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. But beyond that it looks to victory over the serpent and his \u2018seed\u2019 when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. The ultimate blessing is that through the promised \u201cseed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed\u201d (22:18<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. The Gospel Proclaimed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe whole testing experience foreshadowed<\/em> future developments in the life of the people of God and the coming \u2018seed\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLike Abraham, Israel was called to go on a three-day journey to sacrifice at a mountain (Exodus 3:18<\/a>). There the Lord appeared and promised blessing to those who obeyed him. At the time of the Exodus we are told that every father in Israel was expected to dedicate his first-born son to the Lord and to redeem him by offering a sacrifice (Exodus 13:1-16<\/a>). Redeeming the first-born sons of Israel recalled the night on which they left Egypt when all the first-born in Egypt died and all Israel were spared judgement on account of the blood of the Passover lamb. Isaac\u2019s rescue from death was like the sparing of the first-born sons of Israel. The ram that Abraham eventually offered in place of his son was like the Passover lamb that was killed in place of the first-born.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Sacrifice that Anticipates More Sacrifices<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nThis is the first detailed account we have of Abraham offering sacrifice. We read that he offered a ram as a burnt offering, foreshadowing the practice laid down in the law of Moses. It anticipated the daily burnt offerings of lambs every morning and evening in the tabernacle. Is it a coincidence that the place where Abraham offered the ram\u2014a mountain in \u201cthe land of Moriah\u201d (22:2<\/a>)\u2014has the same name as the spot where Solomon built his temple? (2 Chronicles 3:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIsaac becomes a type of what is prophesied concerning Jesus, the Servant of the Lord. As Isaac did not resist his father, so the Servant was led like a lamb to the slaughter and actually became the offering for sin and rose bodily from the dead (Isaiah 53:7-12<\/a>; Acts 8:32-35<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThrough this great testing experience Abraham saw, in a symbolic way, the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the unique Son of the Father. \u201cYou have not withheld your son, your only son\u201d, the Angel of the LORD said to Abraham (22:12,16<\/a>). Likewise, \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten [unique] Son\u201d (John 3:16<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Divine Providence \u2013 The Great Provision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Hebrew for \u201cThe LORD Will Provide\u201d is well known\u2014Jehovah-Jireh. This name meant much to Hudson Taylor. It became the motto of the China Inland Mission. As Jireh is from the verb \u2018to see\u2019 we could translate the name as \u2018The LORD will see to it\u2019. God \u2018sees\u2019 to the needs of his people. Abraham had said to Isaac, \u201cGod will provide for himself [Hebrew, \u2018see for himself\u2019<\/em>] the lamb for a burnt offering\u201d (22:8<\/a>). God did see to it and did not allow Abraham to offer his son. The \u201cram caught in a thicket by its horns\u201d was the Lord\u2019s provision (22:13<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cAs it is said to this day\u201d (22:14<\/a>) gives the whole story \u2018a certain timelessness\u2019. \u201cIn the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided\u201d (or \u2018seen\u2019) looks back to the words of Abraham (22:8<\/a>) and forwards to the time when the temple would stand on Mount Moriah. Jesus said to the Jews, \u201cYour father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad\u201d (John 8:56<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Scottish preacher Robert Candlish wrote, \u201cThus the very transaction which so severely tried the faith of Abraham showed him all that his faith longed so much to see. He saw the day of Christ\u2014the day of his humiliation and triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we look to that mount called Calvary where the heavenly Lamb offered himself for sinners, we can praise God for his wonderful provision. This is the Lamb who stands on Mount Zion with his redeemed people (Revelation 14:1-5<\/a>). If God has gone to these lengths to save us we can be sure he will provide for us through our earthly pilgrimage. If God did not spare his only Son, \u201cHow shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\u201d (Romans 8:32<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\nCheck Out More of the Welwyn Commentary Series<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.olivetree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/WelwynCommentaryBookSetSocial-1024x576.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWe trust this excerpt from the Welwyn Commentary Series<\/a> has encouraged you. This series features faithful expositions of the biblical text by Derek Thomas, John D. Currid, O. Palmer Robertson and many more respected authors, pastors, and theologians! Visit our store<\/a> to pick up a copy for your Olive Tree Library today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abraham\u2019s testing experience falls into three main scenes. Each scene begins with a call to Abraham and his reply, \u201cHere I am\u201d (22:1<\/a>,7<\/a>,11<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are told that \u201cGod tested Abraham\u201d (22:1<\/a>) but Abraham was not informed of this. The situation is not dissimilar to Job\u2019s great trial. Neither Job nor his comforters knew that his sufferings were a special test of his faith in God. We do not always see the evils that befall us as tests. Tragedies are not packaged like examination papers with the word \u2018test\u2019 written on the envelope. We may never know the reason why we should suffer in a particularly distressing way. The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote, \u201cGod is to be trusted when his providences seem to run contrary to his promises.\u201d Job said, \u201cThough he slay me, yet will I trust him\u201d (Job 13:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This call to sacrifice Isaac was not some sudden impulse which Abraham thought had come from God. There are people who imagine that God has spoken to them and they convince themselves and others that it is right for them to do something outrageous. Anything we might feel God is personally saying to us must be tested by his written Word. This call to Abraham came from outside himself. It was a divine test. The word \u2018tempt\u2019 used to include the idea of testing (see the AV, \u2018God did tempt Abraham\u2019). In modern English it conveys only a bad sense. God never incites people to do wrong, as James reminds us (James 1:12-15<\/a>). It is Satan who tempts us to sin. God tests us for our good and for his glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a dreadful command Abraham received from God! He was being asked to give up his pride and joy. Not only that, God was directing him to act contrary to all that God had previously said. Isaac was the son of promise.<\/em> Abraham had dismissed his other son on God\u2019s instructions and now he was being asked to sacrifice this unique son in whom all God\u2019s promises rested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is quite remarkable how Abraham obeyed so readily. When he left the servants with the donkey at the foot of the mountain, Abraham told them to wait there: \u201cThe lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you\u201d (22:5<\/a>). What faith! He was going to worship by offering Isaac on the altar. Though he believed God concerning his son, he was prepared to commit him to God. At the same time, he expected that they would both come down the mountain and meet up again with the servants. Abraham reasoned that \u201cGod was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense\u201d (Hebrews 11:17-19<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last stage of the journey would have been the hardest. Imagine the old man with the fire in his hand and his young teenage son carrying the wood making their way silently up the mountain. Eventually Isaac breaks the silence with a question that must have pierced his father\u2019s heart: \u201cLook, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?\u201d (22:7<\/a>). How was Abraham to answer? Some have assumed he merely evaded the issue with a pious reply\u2014”Don\u2019t worry, it is all in God\u2019s hands\u201d\u2014in the hope that Isaac would not ask any more awkward questions. But that is not how the text reads. It is a statement of faith<\/em> at an important turning-point in the story: \u201cMy son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering\u201d (22:8<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that crucial moment when Abraham\u2019s hand was raised to cut Isaac\u2019s throat, God intervened, saying, \u201cDo not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him\u201d (22:11-12<\/a>). Abraham had passed the test. Like Job he was a man who feared God. The testing experience proved that his faith was genuine (22:12<\/a>). James uses this example to show that his faith was living and active. Abraham\u2019s obedience indicated that he was in a right position before God (James 2:20-23<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This unique experience not only tested his faith; it also informed his faith. For the last time and in a most emphatic way the promises<\/em> first made when Abraham left Haran (12:1-3<\/a>) are confirmed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s promises are always the expression of his grace but they are presented here in the context of Abraham\u2019s trustful obedience. It is, God says, \u201cbecause you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son…because you have obeyed my voice\u201d (22:16,18<\/a>), that the promises are renewed. Abraham\u2019s obedient response was used in God\u2019s overall purposes. Divine grace and human responsibility come together. The same was true when the Son of God came into the world. Mary and Joseph were obedient servants of God through whom the great promise was finally and completely fulfilled. There is every encouragement to live the life of faith and to do what is pleasing to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God condescended to reach down to Abraham\u2019s level by going on oath to fulfill his promises: \u201cBy myself I have sworn\u201d (22:16<\/a>). This is the first divine oath in the Bible and the only one in Genesis, one that Moses frequently refers to later (see 24:7<\/a>; 26:3<\/a>; 50:24<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The promises expand. \u201cIn blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply…\u201d is a Hebrew way of emphasizing the verbs: \u201cI will certainly bless and multiply you\u201d (cf. 22:17<\/a>). Abraham\u2019s descendants will become extremely numerous, \u201cas the stars of the heaven\u201d (see 15:5<\/a>; 17:2<\/a>) \u201cand as the sand which is on the sea-shore\u201d (22:17<\/a>). The promise that \u201cYour descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies\u201d (22:17<\/a>) reminds us of the time when Israel under Joshua conquered the land of Canaan. But beyond that it looks to victory over the serpent and his \u2018seed\u2019 when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. The ultimate blessing is that through the promised \u201cseed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed\u201d (22:18<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The whole testing experience foreshadowed<\/em> future developments in the life of the people of God and the coming \u2018seed\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Abraham, Israel was called to go on a three-day journey to sacrifice at a mountain (Exodus 3:18<\/a>). There the Lord appeared and promised blessing to those who obeyed him. At the time of the Exodus we are told that every father in Israel was expected to dedicate his first-born son to the Lord and to redeem him by offering a sacrifice (Exodus 13:1-16<\/a>). Redeeming the first-born sons of Israel recalled the night on which they left Egypt when all the first-born in Egypt died and all Israel were spared judgement on account of the blood of the Passover lamb. Isaac\u2019s rescue from death was like the sparing of the first-born sons of Israel. The ram that Abraham eventually offered in place of his son was like the Passover lamb that was killed in place of the first-born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the first detailed account we have of Abraham offering sacrifice. We read that he offered a ram as a burnt offering, foreshadowing the practice laid down in the law of Moses. It anticipated the daily burnt offerings of lambs every morning and evening in the tabernacle. Is it a coincidence that the place where Abraham offered the ram\u2014a mountain in \u201cthe land of Moriah\u201d (22:2<\/a>)\u2014has the same name as the spot where Solomon built his temple? (2 Chronicles 3:1<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Isaac becomes a type of what is prophesied concerning Jesus, the Servant of the Lord. As Isaac did not resist his father, so the Servant was led like a lamb to the slaughter and actually became the offering for sin and rose bodily from the dead (Isaiah 53:7-12<\/a>; Acts 8:32-35<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through this great testing experience Abraham saw, in a symbolic way, the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the unique Son of the Father. \u201cYou have not withheld your son, your only son\u201d, the Angel of the LORD said to Abraham (22:12,16<\/a>). Likewise, \u201cGod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten [unique] Son\u201d (John 3:16<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hebrew for \u201cThe LORD Will Provide\u201d is well known\u2014Jehovah-Jireh. This name meant much to Hudson Taylor. It became the motto of the China Inland Mission. As Jireh is from the verb \u2018to see\u2019 we could translate the name as \u2018The LORD will see to it\u2019. God \u2018sees\u2019 to the needs of his people. Abraham had said to Isaac, \u201cGod will provide for himself [Hebrew, \u2018see for himself\u2019<\/em>] the lamb for a burnt offering\u201d (22:8<\/a>). God did see to it and did not allow Abraham to offer his son. The \u201cram caught in a thicket by its horns\u201d was the Lord\u2019s provision (22:13<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs it is said to this day\u201d (22:14<\/a>) gives the whole story \u2018a certain timelessness\u2019. \u201cIn the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided\u201d (or \u2018seen\u2019) looks back to the words of Abraham (22:8<\/a>) and forwards to the time when the temple would stand on Mount Moriah. Jesus said to the Jews, \u201cYour father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad\u201d (John 8:56<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Scottish preacher Robert Candlish wrote, \u201cThus the very transaction which so severely tried the faith of Abraham showed him all that his faith longed so much to see. He saw the day of Christ\u2014the day of his humiliation and triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we look to that mount called Calvary where the heavenly Lamb offered himself for sinners, we can praise God for his wonderful provision. This is the Lamb who stands on Mount Zion with his redeemed people (Revelation 14:1-5<\/a>). If God has gone to these lengths to save us we can be sure he will provide for us through our earthly pilgrimage. If God did not spare his only Son, \u201cHow shall he not with him also freely give us all things?\u201d (Romans 8:32<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n We trust this excerpt from the Welwyn Commentary Series<\/a> has encouraged you. This series features faithful expositions of the biblical text by Derek Thomas, John D. Currid, O. Palmer Robertson and many more respected authors, pastors, and theologians! Visit our store<\/a> to pick up a copy for your Olive Tree Library today!<\/p>\n\n\n\nAn Unthinkable Command<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Where is the Offering?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
2. God\u2019s Pledge to Abraham<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Expanding Promises<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. The Gospel Proclaimed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Sacrifice that Anticipates More Sacrifices<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
4. Divine Providence \u2013 The Great Provision<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Check Out More of the Welwyn Commentary Series<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n