Abraham and Sarah have been given their promised heir, and all is quiet in the biblical account. I presume they were happily and busily raising this boy for whom they had waited so long. Then Moses writes the portentous words: “Some time later God tested Abraham.” (Gen. 22:1) None of us likes to experience God’s testing, but this was a test to the maximum. God told Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Gen. 22:2)
If I had been in Abraham’s shoes, I might have wondered if this were some sort of cruel hoax. Children I know have been troubled by this story. What if God told their parents to sacrifice them? Would they do it? And I suppose most devout parents have wondered the same. Do we really love God more than anything else?
Abraham had learned a great deal about God’s character and actions over the years of his pilgrimage. At last he trusted God enough to respond in immediate obedience to this most difficult test of all. The next morning he and Isaac and two of his servants were on their way to Mount Moriah. And finally, on the third day of the journey, he and Isaac headed off to worship by themselves.
Isaac was old enough (possibly a teenager by now) to realize that a most important ingredient was missing from this pilgrimage: the lamb. When he questioned Abraham about this omission, Abraham responded that “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Gen. 22:8)
With what emotion must Abraham have made this trip with Isaac. I sense almost an expectancy, though, in spite of the poignancy and pain of this ordeal. I believe that Abraham expected God to do something mighty and miraculous—perhaps even raise his son from the dead.
What kind of thoughts went through Isaac’s head as he was tied to the altar? Did he struggle, or had his faith grown in tandem with his father’s faith? The biblical record gives us no inkling as to the emotions going on here. Abraham knew that Isaac was God’s promised heir. Therefore, Abraham knew that something miraculous would occur in order to fulfill the remainder of the promise—that of many descendants, a land and a nation. But what a staggering step of faith to put your son on an altar and prepare this promised heir for death!
The account is descriptive (Gen. 22:9-10). The knife is raised, Abraham is ready to put his son to death, and the voice of the angel of the Lord intervenes, “Abraham, Abraham!” I breathe a sigh of relief. “Do not lay a hand on the boy. 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.” (Gen. 22:12) The all-knowing God surely knew the true state of Abraham’s heart before this occasion. But Abraham had passed the ultimate test, and there in the bushes, is the ram that he had said God would provide—a lamb that would substitute his life for Isaac’s. And in this sacred spot, Abraham called God by a different name: “ Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide”.
The angel of the Lord again called to Abraham, and reaffirmed the covenant, adding that “because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore…. (Gen. 22:16, 17) This time, though, the covenant takes on a stronger emphasis, as God swears by himself that this promise will be fulfilled.
A no doubt exhausted Abraham and Isaac returned to Beersheba where they stayed. The covenant which Abraham had recited to Isaac many times was now indelibly printed in Isaac’s mind for the future day when he would have sons.
This story is almost unbelievable, but it sets the stage for redemption and gives us the first occasion of a substitionary sacrifice recorded in Scripture. A few hundred years from this point, the death of another substitionary lamb at Passover would save the descendants of Abraham and Isaac. But the story portrays an even more significant substitution, a substitution in which we can take part. The story of Isaac is an image of the sacrifice of another beloved only Son. On what many scholars believe to be the same spot as Isaac’s near-sacrifice, God’s only Son, Jesus Christ was sacrificed on a cross. This sinless Son of God is the God-provided Lamb Who rescues us from the death that should have been ours. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things.” (Rom. 8:32) “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3: 16, 17)
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