(Genesis 22:1–19) After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Yes?” He said, “Take 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 that I will tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering, and set out for the place that God had told him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there. After we have worshiped, we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Yes, my son?” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the sheep for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “My son, God himself is going to see to the sheep for a burnt offering.” So the two of them walked on together. When they came to the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order. Then he bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. When Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son, the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Yes?” The angel said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to harm him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son—your only son—from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The LORD will see to it”; as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be seen to.” The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall capture the city-gates of their enemies, and by your offspring, all the nations of the earth will gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham continued to live at Beersheba.
A.1. The Aqedah, 22:1-19
22:1.
It may seem strange to us that the text doesn't read "God tested Abraham again," since he had been testing him all along. And not only Abraham. God tested Adam and Eve with a command not to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He tested Noah with a prediction of a universal flood and a command to build an ark to save his family. In Ur he tested Abraham, giving him a command to leave his homeland and a promise of universal blessing through him. He tested Abraham again by confiding His intention to destroy Sodom because of its wickedness, to see if Abraham would urge him to be true to his just character. Yet this is the first time in the entire Bible that the Hebrew verb for 'test' is used. Here only—for the first time—what God commands Abraham to do is called a 'test'! Why? Is it because it is the ultimate test, the test that validates Abraham's confidence in God to do what is right, despite appearances to the contrary? Perhaps so.
22:2.
What is the hardest thing you can imagine doing because God asked you to do it? Well, think about this man Abraham and all that he has been through—all in order to see the fulfillment of God's promise to give him the chosen son, from whose descendants would come the answer to the world's desperate need of God's forgiveness and blessing. Think of all the delays and false starts we have seen. Think of his age, 100 years old. Now after the circumcision of this long-awaited son of promise, just imagine how he must had thoughts like the words of Simeon, when Simeon saw the circumcision the child Jesus on the eighth day of his life:
"Lord, now let your servant die in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all nations" (Luke 2:29-31).
But now—the unthinkable! Will God tantalize me with the gift of Isaac, only to take him away, so cruelly—even making me the agent of his death! Is this my God?
No explanation accompanies this command. No ameliorating promise, that somehow God will make it all right. Not even a hint. Not even the words: "I know this seems insane and even immoral, Abraham. But just trust me!" Only one other example of such truly blind faith occurs in the Old Testament and that is Job. He too was given no explanation for his sufferings and the loss of his children from God himself, for that would have lessened the test. Instead, he was given all sorts of 'good advice' from his so-called 'friends' and from his loving wife, who advised him to 'curse God and die'! (Job 2:6-10)
Since all that God says to Abraham is the brief wording of verse 2, it deserves careful scrutiny. The words seem to mock Abraham by reminding him of the very words that God used in his original call in chapter 12. "Go (Hebrew לֶךְ־לְךָ֔ lēḵ lĕḵâ) to the land of Moriah [weblnk], … to one of the mountains that I will tell you". [In 12:1 God had used אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ 'Go to the land that I will show you'] Would everything—all the way back to that first encounter with God, now be negated?
Look at how God identified the sacrificial victim that Abraham was to offer. Not an animal: a human being! That was bad enough. Israelites were never supposed to offer human sacrifice! ([Wikipedia ISBE). Even the pagans in surrounding nations only resorted to a human sacrifice on the very brink of doom, when an enemy army had surrounded them and was on the point of annihilating them all (RLA 8:60f). Human sacrifice was repulsive enough! But God wanted as the sacrifice not just any human—a slave, a criminal—but Isaac. The words hit Abraham like the blows of a hammer. Of the modern English translations, only the NIV reproduces the exact sequence and number of the words identifying the victim:
… (1) your son, (2) your only son, (3) whom you love—(4) Isaac!
At this point Abraham had two boys who were his natural sons—that is, not adopted: Ishmael whom at God's command he had sent off, and Isaac, the promised son of his old age, born of Sarah his beloved wife. The first word 'your son' might identify either, but realistically only Isaac. The words 'your only son' means the one-of-a-kind son, not born in a natural way through Hagar who was fertile and young, but born by a miracle through 95-year-old barren Sarah. This Hebrew word yāḥîd probably lies behind the Greek word μονογενής that describing Jesus in the New Testament, and is often translated 'only-begotten'. It too actually means not 'only-begotten', but 'one-of-a-kind'—the One who is God's son in a unique and special way that none of us who are 'sons of God' by adoption and faith can share.
The words 'whom you love' not only describe the feelings of affection that Abraham had for Isaac, but mean 'the one whom you have preferred' (to Ishmael) as the chief heir, the one who is chosen. This is what is meant in the New Testament by calling Jesus God's 'beloved Son'—he too is the chosen One, the Heir of all things.
In the first sentence Abraham has been told whom to 'take', but not yet what to do with the one he takes. Then comes the final blow: 'go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering'. Moriah [weblnk] is another name for Mount Zion, the mount on which eventually Solomon's temple would be built. It is also the site of Calvary, on which Jesus was offered as the sacrifice for the sins of the world.
If Isaac is to be made a burnt offering, this means he will not only die by a knife thrust from Abraham's own hand, but his body will be totally consumed by fire, so that only the bones will remain for the old man to bury. And this will take considerable time, during which this 100-year-old man will stand there watching his hopes burn up with Isaac's body.
This he cannot tell Sarah, for she would never allow him to do this thing that God has commanded him. And how he will ever be able to tell her, after the deed is done, is beyond comprehension. She will certainly curse him and leave him.
22:3
Yet—in spite of all this—the remarkable thing is that the Bible doesn't take note of any of these thoughts or reservations. No mention of what Abraham was thinking, of his agony. Only the New Testament offers us a glimpse into his mind, when it says in Hebrews 11:19 that he 'considered that God could even raise (Isaac) from the dead'. But Genesis only records in verse 3 his instant obedience.
He chose two of his servants to accompany them, and then 'took' his son Isaac, as instructed. He made preparations for sacrifice by cutting wood to burn on the altar, and—to judge from Isaac's subsequent question—some burning coals in a metal or clay container to use to set fire to the wood. His preparations show his intention to obey God to the very last. We aren't told that he took the knife to use to kill the victim, but men in those days who traveled were always armed with knives or swords.
22:4
We aren't told where Abraham left from. In chapter 21 he was in the vicinity of Beersheba. And since in verse 19 the men eventually return to Beersheba, that was probably their starting point as well. Three days is enough time for a journey on foot with a pack animal from Beersheba northward to the vicinity of Jerusalem.
22:5
When he was in view of Mt. Moriah, Abraham ordered his two servants to wait there with the donkey, while he and Isaac walked the rest of the way, worshiped and returned—וְנָשׁ֥וּבָה אֲלֵיכֶֽם 'we will return to you'. His promise that they would 'return' either means he was lying in order to conceal what he intended to do, or he firmly believed that God would miraculously spare Isaac. The statement in Hebrews 11 apparently saw it as evidence of his belief in God's power to raise Isaac from the dead, even after his body had been burned to ashes as a whole burnt offering.
22:6-8
Young Isaac carried the heavier items—the wood for the offering fire—while his father carried his knife and a metal or clay pot containing burning coals. There was one thing conspicuously absent, that prompted Isaac's next question: "Where is the sheep (הַשֶּׂ֖ה) for the burnt offering?" How would Abraham answer? He answered as faith and hope compelled him to answer, but also truthfully: "My son, God himself will see to the sheep for the burnt offering." He doesn't tell his son that God had already indicated who the victim would be, for he believes in the God he once called the 'Judge of All the Earth' (šōfēṭ kol-hāʾāreṣ), who always does what is right (Gen 18:25), and he knows that somehow this God will honor his promise and find a way to save both Isaac and the entire world whose salvation depends on the descendants of this boy. God will 'see to it'; God will find a way. It is only my job to be obedient and to trust him.
22:9-10
There was no altar already standing on Mt. Moriah. But Abraham knew he wouldn't have to bring building materials, for the abundant rocks in that hill country made ideal building materials for a simple altar. In fact, in the instructions God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai in Deut 27:5-6, it was specified that the stone altars that He would approve of should not be of quarried or hewn stones, but whole stones (אֲבָנִ֤ים שְׁלֵמוֹת֙) in their natural state.
Abraham was accustomed to building altars to God in the places he settled in Canaan (see 35:1-4), but this was the first time that he would have to make such an expensive offering, the life of his only son!
After the altar was built, and the wood arranged on it, it was time for God to see to the sacrificial victim. Since nothing had happened to change his instructions, Abraham tied Isaac up and positioned him on the altar. How he managed this, we are not told. Would Isaac really allow this? Perhaps Abraham told him of God's message, reassured him of his own love and faith in God's mercy and salvation, and urged him to believe with him. It seems impossible that 100-year-old Abraham could overpower Isaac. We really don't know. In view of our Lord Jesus' willingness to be the sacrifice for our sins, it has always seemed fitting to think that Isaac too was obedient to his Father's awful plan, at this Isaac's Gethsemane: "If it be possible, Father, let this cup pass from me; but if not, then may your will be done!" If that is so, then Isaac would not have been screaming and weeping, when Abraham raised the knife, poised to strike the mortal blow.
22:11-14
We were told at the outset of this chapter that this was all a test. What would constitute passing this test? Would Abraham have to actually kill Isaac? Or was it enough that he showed his willingness to believe and obey to the very point of delivering the fatal blow? It appears that the latter was the case. God spoke again to his faithful servant, this time through an angel. This time he spoke his name—twice—the name 'Abraham' that God had used to replace his birth name 'Abram', the new name that symbolized the fulfillment of the promise: "You shall become the father of many nations." And that fatherhood would take two forms: (1) physically, he would become the ancestor of the Arab peoples through Ishmael, and through Esau of the Edomites, and through Jacob of Israel and Israel's messiah, Jesus. But (2) spiritually he would also become, as St. Paul, put it, "the father of all who believe and are justified by faith" (Romans, Galatians). If Isaac had died under the knife, the plan would have been aborted. So calling him by the special name Abraham hints that God will now 'see to' the sheep for the burnt offering, as Abraham had told Isaac he would.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote in his letter, that "faith without works—being alone—is dead." Ironically, the works that Abraham used to show God his faith seemed to be headed toward death for Isaac. But instead they showed God that he had passed the test: "Now I know," God said, "that you fear God [יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה], since you have not withheld your son, your one-of-a-kind son, from me." Paul says in Rom 8:32 that "God did not withhold his son, his one-of-a-kind Son, but gave him up for us all".
It is interesting that—although we would rightly conclude that what Abraham showed was faith in the goodness and justice and wisdom of God, which allowed him to do the unthinkable in order to show it—what God says he showed was that he 'feared God' (v. 12 [BKMK]) and refused to hold back even his one-of-a-kind son from God. This isn't the way we would be likely to put it. But the notion must have stuck in Abraham's and Isaac's families, since years later Isaac's son Jacob refers to God as 'the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac' (Gen 31:42).
Abraham had told Isaac that 'God himself will see to the sheep for the burnt offering,' and now that statement and that faith was vindicated. Abraham looked up from his focus on Isaac, and saw a ram (i.e., a male adult sheep) caught by its horns in a nearby thicket. The thorns are God's trap: God caught the sheep for the sacrifice, and let Abraham see it and retrieve it. Knowing that this was God's work, Abraham accepted it as God's permitted substitute for Isaac, and—remembering his own words to Isaac (vv. 7-8)—he named the place Yahweh yirʾeh, which means 'Yahweh will see to it'. The alternation of terms for God in this passage is significant. When he first appeared to Abraham and demanded the unthinkable, he wore the less endearing name of 'God' (ʾelōhîm), and Abraham continues to use that term when reassuring Isaac that 'God' (ʾelōhîm) would see to the sheep, but after God intervenes to save Isaac and provide a substitute, Abraham confesses that 'Yahweh has seen to the sheep', now using the name of the trustworthy covenant-keeping God. Generations afterward, whenever believing Israelites brought their sacrifices to the temple on the mountain of Yahweh (i.e., Zion or Moriah), it was said, בְּהַ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה יֵרָאֶֽה "On Yahweh's mountain it will be seen to" (v. 14), God will see to the forgiveness of his people.
22:15-19
After Abraham availed himself of God's provided substitute and offered up the ram, he received a final commendation from heaven and a powerful new promised blessing:
By myself I have sworn, says Yahweh: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.
It is rare that God takes an oath. Jesus taught his disciples never to take one, but to assure people with a simple 'yes'. So when God does take an oath, you can be sure that he really wants us to know how very sure the promise is. The things promised are not new: they embody all that has been promised previously to Abraham. But now the nations of the earth will gain blessing through Abraham's offspring, not just through Abraham himself. St. Peter in his sermon at Pentecost interpreted the blessing promised to Abraham as the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 3:25-26).
It is sobering to think that all that comes to us through Jesus was in some inscrutable way dependent upon the obedience of this hundred-year-old man. But God's plans are often the results of a vast network of people's actions. Each of us in the network needs to do God's will, and the result will occur. It isn't up to us to see all the synapses in the network—that is God's job—ours is just to follow his instructions and trust him.
A.2. The Descendants of Abraham's brother Nahor, 22:20-24
Now after these things it was told Abraham, “Milcah also has borne children, to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Moreover, his concubine [see Sarah’s Proposal, 16:1-2], whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
This short paragraph is a literary bridge, for by returning the focus to the relatives of Sarah and Abraham back in Mesopotamia, it prepares for the events to be narrated in the next two chapters: (1) the death of Sarah, and (2) sending back to the Mesopotamian relatives for a bride for Isaac.
In 25:1-6 we will eventually be told that after Sarah's death Abraham took a third wife named Keturah, and by her had six sons, each of them the ancestor of a people, adding still more 'nations' to his descendants. As astounding as it may seem to us, this man of faith lived 75 more years, dying at the age of 175, and having an enormous posterity, just as God had told him a century before his death that he would!
Our God is a God who not only keeps his promises: he does far and above what we could ask or think. So let us claim the promises of answered prayer—for Carl's surgery and healing, and for so many other needs in our family of believers—and let us expect not just the minimum, but far more than that. The goal will not just be the specific answer, but that God will be glorified by it, and that multitudes will be added to the 'nations' that receive God's blessing in the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of eternal life.
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