Sacrifice of Isaac is a story of obedience.
In obedience Abraham stands foremost to any other
character in the Bible except Jesus.
This story presents the sacrifice of his beloved
son to prove his faith and obedience.
This is not the first time Abraham obeying God’s
commands.
While he was living with his father and other
family members in his home town, Ur, he was called by God to move out to
another promised land.
He immediately obeyed.
Abraham was a
worshipper of Yahweh.
This is very important in the ancient society.
Perhaps Abraham was the only worshipper of Yahweh
during that time.
Worshipping Yahweh existed from the time of Adam
itself, since Yahweh the Lord is the creator of the world and everything that
exists in it.
Adam also was created by God.
That means Adam was not a self originated or self
evolved living being, but a created human being.
Adam had the rare opportunity to see God face to
face, speak with Him and commune with Him every day.
But later that sweet relationship broke because
of Adam’s disobedience to the commands of God.
From Adam the knowledge about this creator and
the necessity to worship Him through sacrifices might have passed on to his
children and their descendants.
But unfortunately man left Yahweh for many other
gentile deities.
During the time of Noah, God intervened in human
history to punish the ungodly people.
There God found only Noah and his family
worshipping Him.
God chose Noah to proclaim the gospel of
salvation based on faith to the world.
And it is believed that Noah preached for 120
years, but none accepted Yahweh as their God.
So finally God saved Noah and his family from the
worldwide flood and all human beings on earth at that time were drowned.
That means during the time of Noah, the worship
of Yahweh narrowed to a single person or at the most to a small family of 8
people.
But there was not a time when Yahweh was not
worshipped by any one on earth.
That means the worship of Yahweh was never wiped
out from the earth since the creation.
There was always a remnant who worshiped Yahweh
the Lord.
Thus we may assume that during the time of
Abraham there was only one person who worshipped Yahweh the Lord.
That was Abraham.
So God chose Abraham to create a nation for Him.
In Genesis chapter
12 God calls Abraham to go out of his country to the Promised Land.
Here God enters into a covenant relationship with
Abraham.
Abraham is promised of more than one blessing,
among them was a great nation.
Genesis 12:1 - 3
1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get
out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land
that I will show you.
2 I
will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And
you shall be a blessing.
3 I
will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (NKJV)
Abraham believed in this covenant and started his
journey to the Promised Land.
This is the first quoted incident of Abraham
obeying God in faith.
But Abraham was without a son.
God’s promise was to make him a nation.
The covenant was repeated with more details in Genesis chapter 15 and chapter 17.
And as a partial fulfillment of the covenantal
blessing Abraham begot a son at the age of 100.
Abraham believed that this is the descendant in
whom the covenantal promise of nation would be fulfilled.
The Sacrifice
Then the great happening occurred.
One day God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only
son Isaac at the mountain top.
Bible says that Yahweh the Lord was testing
Abraham.
Genesis 22 : 1, 2
1 Now it came to pass after these things that
God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said,
"Here I am."
2 Then
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."
(NKJV)
Now here we are with the question: what did God test?
What was really put to test?
Or what do you mean by God tested Abraham?
To the question we have more than one answer.
But what is the precise answer?
Let us go to a precise answer.
Here are some options for us to choose.
We may say that:
· God
was testing Abraham’s faith in Yahweh
the Lord
· God
was testing the obedience of Abraham
even the sacrifice of Isaac.
· God
was testing the Abraham’s faith in the covenant
between God and him.
· God
was testing Abraham’s faith in particular
covenantal blessing.
All these are correct answers; but the last is
the precise answer.
God was testing
Abraham's faith in a particular covenantal blessing.
What was that particular covenantal blessing?
God offered four covenantal blessings to Abraham
in Genesis 12.
1.
A good land (v. 1)
2.
A great nation, a great name, and
great blessing that will extend first to him (v. 2)
3.
Divine protection (v.3)
4.
Great blessings to all the families on
the earth (v. 3)
And God decided to test his faith in the
covenantal blessing that Abraham will become a
great nation.
Now a nation is not single person; it is not a
single family of father, mother and a son.
It contained the promise of a community of people
under one King.
Faith in this covenantal blessing was necessary
for creating a community out of Abraham through which God can fulfill His plan
of redemption of mankind.
That is the important thing for God.
God called Abraham because he worshipped Yahweh
the Lord, with the purpose of redeeming human beings from the slavery of the
kingdom of darkness.
God’s final motive was not just to give some
material blessings for a worshipper, but to fulfill his eternal plan of
redemption.
Abraham knew it. That is why Abraham lived in
tents looking forward to the heavenly city that God Himself would create.
Hebrews 11:9, 10
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as
in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with
him of the same promise;
10
for he waited for the city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
(NKJV)
This is the answer to the question why God asked
Abraham to sacrifice his only son.
God wanted proven
faith in the covenantal blessing about the nation that will come from
Abraham.
And this nation will consist of redeemed human
beings.
Redemption
and Sacrifice
God’s redemption plan started operation from the Garden of Eden where He killed an animal, shed
the blood of the animal and covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve with the
blood soaked skin of the animal.
What really happened was that God covered the sin
of Adam and Eve with the blood of a sacrificial animal.
So, in redemption, there is covering the sin with
the blood of a sacrificial animal
Redemption is reconciliation of man with God by
covering the sin forever with the blood of a sacrifice.
Redeemed community of God is a community of
people whose sins are not exposed to God because of the blood of a sacrificed
animal.
The covenantal promise of nation is the Kingdom
of God inherited by the redeemed multitude of people.
This is the mystery behind the sacrifice of
Isaac.
Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only son.
And Abraham believed in the covenantal promise
that he will become a great nation.
So Abraham set forth to obey Yahweh the Lord who
is the originator and obligator of the covenant.
It is God’s obligation to fulfill the covenant
promise; Abraham's part is to trust God.
Thus the whole story narrows to Abraham's faith
in the covenant promise of a nation of redeemed people.
This faith is put to test.
This test proclaims that the entry pass to the nation
of redeemed people is faith
Without faith none is permitted to inherit this
nation.
This is what exactly the Kingdom of God present.
It is the Kingdom where God is the King and the
redeemed mankind is the citizen.
Faith in the sacrifice
for the redemption is the only entry pass to the Kingdom.
Abraham knew this plan of God, though we are not
sure how far he could see into the seed of time.
Abraham knew that whatever he attained in this
world was not the ultimate purpose of his life and call.
He has to inherit a Kingdom created by God Himself.
That is what we read in Hebrews 11.
The
Foreknowledge of Abraham
Along with this let us read that Abraham knew
that the sacrifice of Isaac is not the required sacrifice of blood that could
redeem human beings from sin.
Sin is a greater subject for a human being to
solve.
On the third day of his journey with his son and
servants to the place of sacrifice, it is said that Abraham saw the place at
far.
Genesis 22:4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
(NKJV)
We feel that Abraham saw not only the Mount
Moriah far off but saw the crucifixion of Christ at far off.
Could Abraham foresee the crucifixion of Christ?
The answer is “Yes”.
Abraham during his life saw even beyond the
crucifixion of Christ.
He saw far into the eternity the Kingdom of God
itself.
Let us read the following passage:
Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (NKJV)
The word embraced in
Greek is <aspazoma> “to enfold in the arms.”
Only by implication it means: to salute and figuratively
it means to welcome, embrace, greet, salute, take leave.
So we understand that Abraham saw the celestial city
built by God Himself afar off and lived on this earth enfolding in arms that
heavenly city.
That means the eschatological heavenly city was
not an idea but a truth that he saw and experienced in his everyday life.
Abraham could see far into the redemptive plan
and saw Jesus.
John 8 : 56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My
day, and he saw it and was glad." (NKJV)
What does this sentence spoken by our Lord Jesus
mean?
Let study this verse along with the verse above.
Abraham understood the covenantal promise of a
great nation and blessing to all nations.
Abraham looked beyond the Isaac and saw Jesus in
his family line, as his descendant.
And Abraham desired to see the promise fulfilled
in Jesus.
Though Abraham was not permitted to live to see
the times of the Messiah, yet he was permitted to have a prophetic view of the
seed through whom the promise will be fulfilled.
Abraham was permitted to have a view of the death
of the Messiah as a sacrifice for sin.
The sacrifice of Isaac was only a representation
of the coming great event.
He knew that God would arrange another sacrifice
of innocent blood to make the redemption possible.
So he told his son to his query about the
sacrificial lamb that:
Genesis 22:8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a
burnt offering." So the two of them went together. (NKJV)
What do you get?
Please read the passage once again:
Genesis 22:8 ….. God will
provide for Himself the lamb …..
(NKJV)
Abraham assures his son by faith that God will
provide Himself the lamb.
Surely Abraham is not talking about an animal he
may find on the top of the hill to sacrifice instead of Isaac, but he spoke of
something beyond that.
Again we read in Genesis
22:14
Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of the place,
The-LORD-Will-Provide (Jehovahjireh); as it is said to this day,
"In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided." (NKJV)
The verse means, God would provide a victim, and
in due time an offering would be made for the world.
Abraham looked beyond the horizon and saw the
cross on the mount.
And historians say that Jesus the Lamb of God who
took away the sin of the world was sacrificed in this region of the mountain.
Again we read Abraham telling his servants as
they reached the bottom of the mount Moriah to wait there and that they – the
father and son – would go up, do the sacrifice and they – the father and the
son – would return:
Genesis 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay
here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." (NKJV)
What does that mean?
Abraham saw far off that it is not Isaac who is
sacrificed for the redemption of humankind.
Abraham saw Jesus, the cross and the Kingdom of
God.
Abraham had faith in what he could see beyond.
And God tested this faith of Abraham in the
covenantal promise about a great nation and descendents as stars.
Conclusion
Let us read a passage recorded in Hebrews 11
Hebrews 11:17 - 19
17 By faith
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your
seed shall be called,"
19 concluding that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (NKJV)
Hebrews chapter 11 is a hall of fame of those who
performed extra ordinary faith in Yahweh the Lord.
The passage here speaks of what Abraham did by faith.
By faith Abraham sacrificed his only son Isaac.
That is true. That is what God intended Abraham
to do.
Not a real sacrifice of Isaac, but a sacrifice of
Isaac by faith.
Because the real sacrifice comes many years
afterwards on the cross.
God expected an action of faith from Abraham.
Here the writer of Hebrews, inspired by the Holy
Spirit is cleverly integrating faith and the real sacrifice of Jesus.
Abraham sacrificed Isaac by faith hoping the real
sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
How we can join the sacrifice of Jesus as atonement
for human sins?
By faith; no other way.
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus
coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (NKJV)
Jesus is the real sacrificial Lamb of God.
He was sacrificed on the cross on the mountain.
Faith in His sacrifice is the only way for
redemption and inheritance of the Kingdom of God.
_______________
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