THE SACRIFICE
There is a trial that is probably the hardest of all to go through in life. That trial is watching your child suffer and wonder if they will live or die. To suffer yourself is one thing, but to watch your own child hover between life and death is unbearable.
Some of you know this better than I do. Sharon and I had a small taste of this bitter experience when Katy was born. It was a Monday night when we went to the hospital for the second time in two days with the certainty that this time the baby was coming.
After a restless night in the hospital and very little progress, the nurses did a scalp test on our baby and found that the oxygen in her blood was dangerously low. Worse yet, she just wasn’t coming out. It was soon discovered that Katy had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice. Every time Sharon pushed it was like tightening a noose on our baby’s neck. Wisely the staff promptly ordered an emergency C-section.
I sat by Sharon’s head in the OR and talked with her as the medical staff did their job. After an agonizing time of waiting a nurse came around and put a baby in my arms and said we had a girl. Her eyes were wide open and staring at me and I couldn’t help crying and said, “She’s beautiful already.” Sharon in her delirium wondered if I had the car seat along. But then they took Katy away from me and the worrying began again as they continued to work with her. It seemed that her breathing wasn’t right and she was sent to neonatal care for several days. I wondered seriously if she would live. We were told later what the problem was but until then as parents we thought of nothing else but the life of our child. It was a time of testing. It was a time of helplessness. A time when faith was all you had.
It is true that God tests us to see if our faith is genuine. This is not the same thing as tempting us because the result would be sin. A test of faith is experiencing the trials of life and choosing whom you will rely on: yourself or God. It is this test that we observe in Genesis 22 in the life of Abraham. But hidden in this test was the fate of the entire world.
1. The Father gives the Son
a) The Test – Abraham has heard the voice of God before in his life so he knew it was God commanding him to “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” (v. 2).
What the writer of Genesis does not tell us is the emotion that Abraham felt when he heard this command. Did he feel horror? Incredulousness? Anger? What must have gone through his mind at this point was some question as to how God was going to bless him as the father of many nations if he has to kill his only son. You know how old Abraham and Sarah were when they had Isaac – it was a miracle to even have a son at their age. Now God wanted a burnt offering, their only son burnt to a crisp on an altar of worship.
There is nothing to suggest that this is only a test. To Abraham this is real and God is serious. To God it is a test of faith to see where Abraham stands in relationship to the Almighty.
But the test God place before him was one that asked for more than commitment in words as we often do. This required action. “If this was at the heart of the test Abraham faced, it is not, in principle, any different from one that every child of God is called to undertake. All believers are to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, souls and minds, and to put him above all other things, possessions, persons or ambitions, in daily and total consecration.” (Tidball)
b) Abraham’s obedience – The test was severe but Abraham responded in amazing obedience. Consider these facets of his obedience to God’s command:
His obedience was prompt (v. 3). “Early the next morning…” he put his obedience into action. He did not sit and think about the options and look for an escape clause. Abraham acted as early as possible. Someone said, “To linger is to court ruin. Delay is the craftiest net of Satan.”
His obedience was firm (3-4). The destination God gave Abraham was 45 miles away and 3 days journey. That’s a lot of time to think. Obedience like this requires perseverance. It is always easy to be diverted from the path of obedience when there is time to think.
His obedience was solitary (v. 5). Once at the mountain, he left the servants at the bottom and took only Isaac. Since he alone knew what God wanted the servants may have tried to stop the crazy old man from murdering his son. Abraham knew he had to go it alone and work it out on his own. Family was 3 days away and the servants left behind.
His obedience was trusting (5). Abraham told the servants, “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Did he lie to them? Or did he truly believe that they would both return? Abraham believed God and trusted in God’s justice and faithfulness. We read in Hebrews 11:19 that Abraham believed that God could raise the dead.
His obedience was humble (5). His statement “we will worship” speaks of a submissive heart. Abraham was going to worship God over the body of his dead son, so he thought. To worship in this way is all the more meaningful when done by one who was wounded by obedience.
His obedience was total (9-10). Ladies and gentlemen, he was going to do it. Abraham had the knife in his hand and he was going to plunge it into his son’s body. Not even his son could come between him and his obedience to God
Abraham has always been in Jewish and Christian religions a model of faithfulness. The father gives his son to God because God asked him to. Obedience is more pleasing to God than ritual and verbal confession and always will be.
2. The Son Surrenders Himself
This story continues to astonish as in the midst of this horror of a father sacrificing his son, the son willingly gives himself to death.
a) The “Only Son” - It is interesting to note too the way God speaks of this son. Ishmael, Abraham’s son through Hagar, is not considered here. God speaks of Isaac as Abraham’s only son. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (Jn. 3:16). The emphasis is clear that Abraham loved this son as the special offspring of his beloved Sarah and himself. We begin to see the similarities between Jesus and Isaac here as God also said of Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I love” (Jn 1:14).
b) The Burden – At the bottom of the mountain, “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac…” Could this be a parallel to Jesus carrying his own wooden cross to the hill where he would be sacrificed? Some would say that’s reading too much into the story. Would the Jewish mind have even gone there as they read this story centuries later? Actually, yes. The Jewish Midrash comments that Isaac with the wood on his back is like a condemned man carrying his own cross.
c) Isaac’s Submission – Isaac was likely in his late teens or even a twenty-year-old when this event took place. Abraham was well over a hundred. So you do the math. Isaac could easily have overpowered his father as the plan began to unfold. Once he saw that it was his own life that would be sacrificed Isaac might have bolted. What is remarkable is that he didn’t. Isaac submitted without resistance to this mad plan. He gave himself willingly to what his father intended to do.
In this sense, the father and the son working together in obedience offered a perfect sacrifice to God. Yes we see Jesus in this again; Jesus was perfectly obedient to his Father’s will and did what we were unable to do. He kept the law of God perfectly and was able to undo all of our disobedience.
3. The LORD Provides
a) God’s purpose is served – If the test had been fulfilled right to the bitter end, Abraham would have looked the utter villain in this story. What father could give his son to the flames to die a horrible death?
Thankfully the LORD speaks at the precise moment: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (v. 12). Abraham had passed the test gloriously and proved that his faith was genuine. This man puts God before all else. That’s all God really wanted to know and so the test is finished. There is no need to continue and Isaac is released.
b) A Substitute is discovered – When Isaac had previously asked where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham simply replied, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering” (v. 8). This wasn’t an evasive answer in the embarrassment of a missing lamb. Abraham believed that God would provide and he did. At the exact moment that God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, he looked up and saw a ram caught in the bushes. What a coincidence! No, this was no coincidence. God placed that ram there and showed his amazing grace and generosity to his faithful servant.
A substitute was provided for Isaac. Walter Brueggemann observed that, “In a world beset by humanism, scientism, and naturalism, the claim that God alone provides is as scandalous as the claim that he tests.” We can hardly believe that in the midst of our trials God is able to provide and does provide exactly what we need. Our difficulty is compounded by our impatience and need to see how it will all end. We grow frantic and anxious while our faith burns away in our self-centered evaluation of the crisis. But God provides.
This is never truer when we consider our greatest problem is sin. He provides the substitute, Abraham and Isaac can rejoice, worship and are free to go home.
4. In the Foreshadow of Mount Moriah
Which of these persons we have studied clearly represents Jesus Christ? The father who gave his son? The Son who willingly submitted? Or the LORD who provided the substitute?
If you answered “all of them” you would be right. One of the dangers of reading the Old Testament from our perspective is that we can read everything “Christian” into these stories. The original writers and audiences of these words did not see Christ in these events. There was a message for them for their day. However, this is one story that is clearly a foreshadow of what Christ was going to do, even if the original readers didn’t know it.
Jesus is visible in the person of Abraham. The obedience of Abraham to God’s command is perfectly reflected in Christ in the Garden. Jesus set his mind on doing his Father’s will and he remained true to his calling.
Jesus is visible in the person of Isaac. Of course, the Son who gives himself willingly to the Father’s will. But where Abraham received his son back without having to offer him on the altar, God gave His Son to death without recall. This had to be done so that the one sacrifice would do away with all the others. Sin had to be dealt with ultimately.
Jesus is visible in the LORD providing the ram. Here he is both the LORD who provides and the ram who was the substitute. The lamb God provides, the lamb who is his Son, is the only one who can remove the sin of the world by offering himself in sacrifice.
And he is still the LORD who provides as Derek Tidball said, “If God has done the greater thing of sacrificing his Son, he would surely do the lesser thing and give himself to supplying the daily and more trivial needs of discouraged disciples. God is the Father who willingly paid the ultimate cost in sacrificing his Son, and the Father who still willingly pays the daily cost of caring for his children.”
Everything that happened the day that Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac was a foreshadow of Christ on the cross. Even the place where this took place has a deeper significance.
Abraham named the place “the LORD will provide.” And the writer of Genesis said, “And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.’” (v. 14). In Hebrew the word “provide” is similar to the word “see.” Even in Latin the word “provide” means “to see beforehand.” God sees our need beforehand, in advance, and supplies us with exactly what we need. He cares enough to meet our need.
The world teaches us to hate ourselves. Our teeth aren’t white enough. Our bodies aren’t fit enough. Our hair isn’t bouncy enough. God teaches us in this passage how much he loves us and that he is able to provide all that we need.
Consider Mount Moriah one more time. Mount Moriah is the future site of Jerusalem. The place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son is traditionally considered the spot where the Temple of Solomon was built. And nearby, another hill was the scene of a sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary. This foreshadow of Christ’s death, the story of Abraham and Isaac, happened nearly 2000 years before Jesus died and rose again. Is that not astounding? Jerusalem is the place where God sees and is seen. It is the place where he provided once again the lamb that was needed for sins. God’s plan to save us was a plan in his heart right from the beginning.
This is the story of Abraham on Mount Moriah:
The Father gives his Son
The Son surrenders
The Lord provides
The Ram (substitute) dies
The People are blessed because of perfect obedience
Final Thoughts
In preparing this sermon I read a fair bit of material. I wanted to get it right where so many seemed to be trailing off on tangents that missed the mark.
One preacher spoke on worship based on this passage. He said that worship requires sacrifice. God does not want our worship unless there is sacrifice involved. If you need to surrender your finances, your children, your vocation…whatever comes between you and God, this is what Genesis 22 was saying to him.
Worship does require sacrifice, this is true. But after studying this passage I felt something wrong in my spirit. What does God want? It didn’t take long for the answer to come. There is only one sacrifice that suffices; there is only one that pleases God – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
But then another thought came to me. The Holy Spirit reminded me of what God wants in worship. He wants you!! He doesn’t want all your possessions and stuff that hinders you. He wants you!
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). This is the sacrifice God wants now. In view of Christ’s death on the cross, His Only Son, His beloved Son, he wants you.
AMEN
