The Bible: The Binding of Isaac
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 3/3/2013
Nearly a hundred years ago, a little boy in England received a stuffed bear as a gift on his first birthday. Soon after, his father, a playwright and novelist, began writing stories that featured the little boy, his bear, and other toys in the boy’s playroom, as characters. You know the bear as Winnie-the-Pooh. You know the boy as Christopher Robin. Since then, of course, Winnie-the-Pooh stories have been loved by generations of children, translated into more than fifty languages, and featured in songs, movies, and television specials. But it all began with a little boy and a stuffed bear as characters in a simple story.
Everyone here has a story, whether you have a stuffed bear or not. I have a story. You have a story. Some read like tragedies, some like comedies. Some are mysteries, and others are romances. Some are much longer than others, and some are just getting started. But everyone has a story.
All of our stories, different as they are, are part of a bigger story: A story that is older than any of us, a story that defines all of us, and can—if we let it—guide us. It’s the story told in the pages of your Bible, from the first words of Genesis to the last lines of Revelation. The story of the Bible is being retold dramatically in an epic made-for-television miniseries appropriately titled, The Bible. It begins airing tonight and the next five Sunday nights on The History Channel. I encourage all of you to watch it, if you can. If you don’t have the History Channel, there is a list of households in the back that will be hosting viewing parties.
For the next five weeks, we are going to discover some of the most gripping stories from the Bible––stories that are more than just stories; stories that tell us something about ourselves, our lives, and God’s hopes and plans for us.
And the story we will start with today is an amazing incident found in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. It is sometimes called “The Binding of Isaac,” and we’ll look at it first on video, and then turn to Scripture to study it in greater detail.
NEXT SLIDE: VIDEO CLIP WILL PLAY AUTOMATICALLY
Now, some of us have read that story and heard it many times. It is a story of great faith, the story of a father who was so obedient to God that he was willing to make the greatest sacrifice imaginable. It is a story usually told from Abraham’s perspective, as a display of his great faith. But, today, I’d like to look at this story from Isaac’s perspective. And, in many ways, Isaac’s story is our story too.
• A STORY OF DESTINY
First, Isaac’s story is like ours because it’s a story of destiny! I think one of the first things that become clear in this story is that God had a plan for Isaac.
The Bible tells it this way:
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” (Genesis 22:1-2 NLT).
The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then they chopped some wood to use for the burnt offering and set out on a three-day journey to the place God told Abraham about.
Put yourselves in Isaac’s shoes, or sandals, as the case may be. Isaac’s birth had been prophesied long before he was born. God clearly had a plan for his life. He had a destiny to fulfill. But the Bible doesn’t tell us how much Isaac knew, if anything, about what was happening. It seems to me that there was much Isaac didn’t understand. Can you imagine what was going through his mind? What’s going on? Why is this happening? Why would God let this to happen to me?
And, let’s face it—we’ve all had similar thoughts, haven’t we? Bad things happen and they happen with unpredictable frequency and varying levels of intensity. Some are mere inconveniences; others are life-shattering disasters. When terrorists, tumors, calamity or catastrophe strikes many of us are quick to question God, blame God or simply dismiss God.
But, just like Isaac, God has a plan for each one of us. Even though we don’t understand all the details, we all have a destiny to fulfill. God has said clearly in his Word, “I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). Those words are highlighted in my Bible. Another verse I have highlighted is this: “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God; those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28 HCSB).
When we put those two verses together, we have the solution to all of life’s problems—an iron-clad, unfailing, all-encompassing, God-given guarantee that every single circumstance of life will sooner or later turn out well for those who love God.
The unborn child who mysteriously dies in the womb days before delivery.
The sixteen-year-old girl lying in intensive care after being hit by a drunk driver.
The marriage that’s struggling just to hang on.
Every heartache, headache, tragedy and triumph.
God has a purpose in all of it and God can bring good from all of it!
This may well have been the most terrifying and tragic experience of Isaac’s life. But even though he couldn’t possibly have understood it at the time, God had a plan. Isaac had a destiny. And so do you.
First, Isaac’s story is like ours because it’s a story of destiny (of discovery).
• A STORY OF DEATH
Furthermore, Isaac’s story is like ours because it’s a story of death. It appeared that Isaac’s death was imminent. The Bible says, “When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Genesis 22:9-10 NIV).
While artistic depictions, including the clip we watched depict Isaac as a young boy, he was probably a young man in reality. But, whether he was eight years old or eighteen, this had to have been a frightful moment. Did his father surprise him? Did Abraham explain what had to happen? Did Isaac resist? We don’t know for sure. The Bible is sketchy with the details. But at some point, Isaac had to realize that his death was certain. And, while the biblical account doesn’t give us much detail about how things got to this point, it supplies excruciating detail at this point: “Abraham raised the knife to slay his son!” Talk about your life flashing before your eyes!
Some of us have had such a moment. Maybe it was a cancer scare. Maybe it was a car accident or an operation. But Isaac’s story is your story, and mine, regardless—because, at some point, we’re all going to die.
According to a middle-eastern legend, a merchant from Baghdad once asked his servant to run an errand. While at the markets, the servant went around a corner and saw Death. It scared him so much that he returned to his master in a hurry. “I am terrified,” said the servant. “I want to take the fastest horse and ride towards Samarra.” Seeing how frightened his servant was, the master granted the request.
Later that afternoon, the merchant visited the markets himself and he too met Death. He asked, “Why do you startle my servant?” Death answered, “Frankly, I was the one who was startled. I couldn’t understand why your servant was in Baghdad, when I have an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
Someday, we’ll all meet death. It might not be in a middle-eastern market. You may not be tied hand and foot and placed on an altar. But death is coming for us all, one way or another, sooner or later.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, death has been the archenemy of humanity—and death always wins. The likelihood that you will eventually die in a plane crash is only 1:66,000. The chances of you dying due to an asteroid impact are just 1:74,000,000. But, the odds of you dying are 1:1. Death is inescapable; it comes to every living thing. We may hope it’s not today. We may feel like we’ve got all the time in the world. But none of us knows. As the Bible says, “No man knows when his hour will come” (Ecclesiastes 9:12 NIV). Depressing, isn’t it?
But, happily, that is not the end of the story. Or, at least, it doesn’t have to be. There is one more way that Isaac’s story is like our story.
• A STORY OF DELIVERANCE
Finally, Isaac’s story is like yours because it’s a story of deliverance! Remember, Abraham has bound his son and laid him on the altar. He has lifted the knife to kill his son. And then the Bible says this:
But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.” Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.” (Genesis 22:11-14 HCSB).
Close call, right? Can you imagine the relief? For Abraham, certainly—but once again, put yourself in Isaac’s shoes. The die was cast. The knife was raised. He probably closed his eyes and braced himself. And then … and then … the angel of the Lord spoke up, told Abraham to stop, and the next thing you know, a ram appeared, tangled in a bush nearby. A lamb. A sacrificial animal. A substitute. And Isaac was saved.
That’s your story, too.
You may not be physically bound, hand and foot, but like all of us, you know what it’s like to be tied up in knots. You know the shackles of sin. You might even know that the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23, NIV).
But your story doesn’t end there, any more than Isaac’s story ended on Mt. Moriah. The rest of that verse says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NIV). Just as he did for Isaac, God provided deliverance for you. A substitute. A Lamb. Jesus died so that you could live.
In fact, God provided that Lamb on the very same spot where the ram was caught in a thicket. This very hilltop would become the same site were Jesus would be crucified twenty-five centuries later in prophetic fulfillment of the promise, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided” (Genesis 22:14 NIV).
The truth is—apart from Jesus this story doesn’t make much sense. It’s seems like a horrible trick played by a capricious deity. But looking through the lens of the cross, the picture comes into focus. With the help of Abraham and Isaac, God wrote a story that would be forever chiseled into the tablets of Jewish and Christian hearts—a story about a loving father willing to sacrifice his one and only son. This story was God’s way of foreshadowing the greatest story ever told: “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” (John 3:16 NIV). What God did for Isaac, God has done for you and me.
Conclusion:
I don’t know about you, but I imagine Isaac leapt off of that altar with tears of joy and relief on his face. Like him, we all have a destiny. And even though we may not understand all the things that happen along the way, we can trust that God has a plan for us—plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and future.
Like Isaac, all have to face death. But, fortunately, that’s not the end of our story. When we put our faith in Jesus and accept him as our substitute, we—like Isaac—can experience deliverance and eternal life.
Invitation:
If you’re ready to share Isaac’s experience now, or maybe you’d just like to talk with someone about what’s going on in your life and your relationship with God—then, please, come talk with me while we stand and sing.
