Genesis 22: 1 - 24
It’s up to you
22 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.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 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.” 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.
Have you ever given your love to someone and received nothing back in return? Today we are going to study an amazing chapter. At first it is quite confusing. Why would our Holy Merciful and Good God ever try Abraham or for the matter other believers?
This chapter has caused many good bible teachers to focus on all the emotional strains a person goes through. I, however, want to focus on the heart of our Precious Holy Lord God. I told you I am different than the regular preachers.
I think my mind has been influenced to think this way as we have gone over the word of God verse by verse and chapter by chapter. If you have joined us in this wonderful pursuit of knowledge of our Gracious and Loving God than you have also witnessed His Love, protection, and blessing to Abraham, his wife, and all those who associated with him.
Our Holy Lord God appeared to Abram in the land which is today Iraq and told him that there was a land He wanted him to go to. Ultimately Abram made his way to this land. For doing this our Lord blessed him with favor with all the citizens of the new place of settlement. He poured forth material blessings in silver and gold; major increase in live stock,; and plenty of men and women servants born into his household and more that were just given to him. .
Now my thinking is this – what did he give to the Lord? Well sure I guess if you say he ultimately made it to the Promised Land that he obeyed God. I can go along with that. Also, we do learn that he called upon the Name of the Lord sometimes which we might infer was worship.
But would you believe that will all the Love and Care our Gracious Lord gave to Abram then was love and appreciation of Who He Is returned adequately?
Many scholars state that Abraham lived during the time of Job. If you haven’t read the book of Job then I encourage you to do so. Job was men whom the Lord was also please with as He was with Abraham.
In chapter 1 and 2 in the book of Job our Precious Holy Spirit turns back the curtains for us to see what is going on in the spiritual world. Here in front of all the angels, Satan is challenged by our Holy Lord and Ruler as to his opinion of Job. Satan’s response was that the only reason Job was an obedient man was because God had placed a hedge around him so that he was never really tried as to his feelings toward the God Who loves him. So Satan brazenly throws back at the Lord his opportunity to be able to try Job. He predicts in front of all the faithful angels that Job like all other humans will curse God to His face. Wow!
Interestingly our Wonderful Holy Supreme Father God now allows here also a test for Abraham as to reveal Abrahams dedication and love for God. The first time the word ‘love’ appears in our bibles is right here in this chapter. What are the words spoken to Abraham – ‘Take now you son, your whom you love and offer him up as a sacrifice.’
So, please forgive me Lord but I sense here your beautiful and pure heart. Are you asking Abraham if he truly loves You? So, as we begin, I would like to put these thoughts into a poem in which I title – ‘It’s up to you!’
IT’S UP TO YOU
It’s all been up to Me
And in truth a joy to do
To pour out My concern, care, and love
To all who are with you.
I said and showed you how I feel
Now it is time to make your walk with Me true
Yes, so far it’s all been up to Me
Now it’s up to you.
So now I cannot do anything more
Until you can show Me
Do you also love Me too?
Is our relationship meant to be?
I want to do so much more
Than just Be an emergency friend
I want to Be the One and Only God for you
Whose fellowship together will never end
I’ve told you everything I do
And all of it is true
You should know how much you mean to Me
Do you feel the same way too?
Abraham had been called by YHWH to leave his home, his kinsfolk and his country to go to a new land which God had purposed for him. His spiritual life was not smooth. He was not without testing. The very call itself was a test. The long wait for Isaac was a test. The incident of Sodom and Gomorrah was a test. But he had come through it all with his faith enhanced. Now he would face the greatest test of all.
22 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
As I mentioned I believe that perhaps Abraham has become concerned that he loves his son too much so that it has hindered his love for YHWH. Our God is a Jealous God as it says in the book of Exodus chapter 34, “14 for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
Many times we somehow think that we are to love our Holy Creator by putting Him first on our priority lists. This is not correct to do. We need to put our Holy Lord God first in our lives alone. There is no second, third, etc. Our Holy Loving must stand alone in all our thoughts and desires. As we are taught in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
The importance of the narrative therefore is that it demonstrates that, at whatever the cost, Abraham was willing to obey YHWH, and would not even withhold from Him what he treasured most.
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.”
The land of ‘Moriah’ is also referred to as Mount ‘Moriah’ which is found in the vicinity of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3.1-2). If you were to go to a place to offer up to God a burnt sacrifice then you would go to the highest point. In Jerusalem the highest point is a place we know of as Calvary.
The emphasis by God that He is asking for the ultimate sacrifice - ‘your son, your only son, whom you love’ - demonstrates already that it is a test, but so far as Abraham is concerned it is a very real one. The stress is interesting. It is not on the fact that he is the covenant son, but that he is the ‘only beloved’ son. It cannot help but remind us of another ‘Only Beloved Son’ of later times Who was sacrificed on our behalf. So the sacrifice requested was deeply personal, it was requiring his most treasured possession.
Isaac is of course not literally his ‘only son’, and the phrase must rather mean ‘the heir’, the one on whom everything is centered, the only son of the primary marriage. Thus the phrase links directly with the covenant. He is not only called on to offer the one dearest to his heart, but the one through whom all the covenant promises are to be fulfilled. He is called on to sacrifice everything he has ever lived for.
We are not told what passed through his mind. He had three days in which it pressed against all his thoughts and emotions. Was he to sacrifice the one through whom the covenant would be fulfilled? He did not even stop to question. He obeyed unquestioningly. YHWH would see to the rest. He had trusted Him so far, he would trust Him to the end.
He does not even question the morality of it. As a prophet of God he knows when God has spoken, and if it is His command it can only be right. (Only one who has had unique experiences of God, and actually hears the voice of God, can have such certainty. For such it would not be an issue that required consideration for ‘God had spoken’). The final consequence, of course, is that God finally demonstrates to His people once and for all that He does not want such sacrifices.
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.
Please take note the statement ‘Rose early in the morning’. Abraham rose early in the morning to lose one son [Ishmael], now he does the same with the other. In both cases he obeys without question. The two men would accompany them for safety reasons.
Abraham ‘Went to the place of which God had told him. He obeys but his heart is frozen. What must have been his thoughts when at last he sees the place ‘afar off’, i.e. in the distance?
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.”
With heavy heart Abraham turns to the servants and tells them to remain where they are while he and his son go into the mountain to worship. The experience must almost have been beyond bearing. Yet, please notice the faith in our Holy God that is developing in Abraham. He tells the young men ‘We will come again to you’. It suggests that Abraham believes that somehow God will give him his son back again. After all He had enabled Sarah to give birth, and has made His unbreakable promise in the covenant that Isaac’s descendents shall be as many as the stars in heaven, why then should he doubt Him now? Perhaps he is thinking that the Holy Creator will resurrect Isaac.
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.
Isaac carries the wood. Abraham has to carry the fire and knife. This does demonstrate that Isaac has grown and is now a lad of some strength. Then they both went on together up into the mountain. This is important fact to know for you have to also understand that Isaac went with his dad in full compliance.
7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Isaac is puzzled as to why Abraham has not brought a sacrificial lamb. The men must previously have wondered the same. It stood out a mile. But Isaac has clearly been pondering over it and now cannot resist the question which must have gone like a dagger into his father’s heart. And he is obviously of an age to be aware of the details of such an offering and to be aware that lambs do not just come from nowhere.
8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
Abraham’s reply was that God would provide the lamb for sacrifice. What a wealth of meaning is found in these words. ‘God will provide’. For Isaac they meant that his father believed that God would let him have a lamb from somewhere. For Abraham it was a statement of belief that God would somehow make all things right. But for us it is far more significant. For we know that God did provide Himself as a Lamb for the offering, the Lamb of God Who would take away the sin of the world (John 1.29). And it makes us look at what this was costing Abraham, and realize how much it must have cost God. God did not ask Abraham to do something that He would not do Himself.
In many historic scrolls this passage reads ‘8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself, the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.’ As I know you are aware that the writings on the scrolls did not have any vowels. All the words ran together. There was not the word ‘for’ so the statement reads the God will provide Himself as the Lamb for the sacrifice. God will Himself be the sacrifice. The Precious Lamb of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the future will walk up that same hill carry the wood of the cross and give His life for us. Thank you Lord Jesus!
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
Every moment of agony is dragged out by the writer listing the slow careful procedure; the puzzled but possibly apprehensive, Isaac; the so well known preparations. The altar is built; the wood is laid on the altar and then the moment of truth. Abraham takes his son and binds him with ropes. Does either say anything? What can they say? We do not know. But we do know what they must have felt; Isaac, puzzled, hurt, yet submissive and Abraham, torn in two yet obedient.
10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
Obedient to the end, he knew he must obey God’s absolute command. With nerves of steel he takes the final step in making the ultimate sacrifice. He lifts the knife ready to plunge it into the body of his son. The writer emphasizes the significance. Not ‘Isaac’, not ‘the lad’, but ‘his son’.
11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Centuries later another Father would send His Son to be a sacrifice, but in His case there would be no intervention, no voice from Heaven. For He was the One to whom the coming substitution pointed. He had to carry it through to the bitter end for the salvation of the world, for He WAS the substitute.
‘Now I know that you fear God.’ ‘I know’ It was not that God needed to be convinced of Abraham’s faithfulness. He is the One Who knows the heart. It was rather that Abraham might know that Abraham would hold nothing back from God whatever the cost. This act has brought out Abraham’s total obedience and submission. He had passed the ultimate test.
To ‘fear God’ means to have such a reverence and awe for Him that we obey Him whatever He asks. It is strongly linked to the idea of obedience. Thus our Holy God wants Abraham to know that He fully appreciates what he has been willing to do.
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
Here is a verse that many teachers pass by without knowing its significance. How come the animal was a ‘ram’ and not a ‘lamb’? This was done I believe so that there would not be any confusion in the future. There would be only One Lamb of God. He would take away the sins of the world once and forever.
14And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
The naming of a place was an important matter especially when it commemorated a theophany for from that time on that place became accepted as a sacred place, and many would go there for religious purposes. Yahweh means ‘God Sees’. Now Abraham could be even more confident that God was watching over him.
Then the Angel of the LORD which is our Lord Jesus Christ called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
This is the covenant around which the whole narrative is centered. The text has stressed the cost to Abraham in being willing to give his son, his only son, whom he loves, and this is confirmed here. Isaac is his only full son as born of his true wife.
The book of Hebrews chapter 6.13 comments on this verse, ‘By myself have I sworn’. It is because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself ’. We must say it reverently. YHWH swears on His own eternal existence. Nothing could confirm the covenant more emphatically than that. Only the greatness of what Abraham had done could even begin to merit such a privilege. It expresses a unique relationship.
‘Because you have done this thing --’. But the covenant had already been given and ratified. Thus we see that what Abraham has done here has been the result of his life of constant faithfulness. He has done this thing because he has been fashioned by a life of faithful obedience. He Who knows the end from the beginning, had seen what Abraham would be and rewarded him accordingly.
The covenant is repeated and reconfirmed. -Continual blessing, a multitude of descendants, his seed ‘possessing the gates of their enemies’. The gates were the common meeting place, the place where the rulers and elders would gather to rule the city. To possess the gates was to have rule over them. But above all, and this is forcefully repeated, in him would all the nations of the world be blessed.
It may be that in these past hours Abraham had seen ahead the possible destruction of the covenant in the destruction of his son. But he had gone ahead, confident that if necessary God could bring Isaac back to life, and now he receives his son back again and recognizes that the covenant is confirmed more firmly than ever.
19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
Please note that the verse does not say that Isaac was with his dad. We just assume that he was with him. The next time we hear of Isaac is not until his wife is brought to him. For me this is kind of neat. As we have stated our Lord Jesus Is the Lamb of God. He had told his disciples as we learn in the Gospel of John chapter 14, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
We are called the bride of Jesus. He like Isaac is out of the picture until He receives His bride. Is this neat or what?
The incident at Mount Moriah was the climax of Abraham’s life. All that remains is the closing down of his life. Now our Precious Holy Spirit Is going to start on the new beginnings in Isaac, the chosen heir.
20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,
It was quite natural that news would come through to Abraham about his brother’s family. It may have been because he himself sent a messenger to enquire whether there was a suitable wife for his son there, or because Nahor kept in contact with his elder brother who was thus aware of family affairs. The former is very likely and would explain why full details of the family genealogy were sent to Abraham. The family were very careful with whom they allied themselves in marriage.
As we have previously been told, Milcah was the daughter of Haran, who had died young, and was married to Nahor (11.29). She was clearly fruitful and bore him eight sons listed in this passage.
22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah
The four sons of Reumah are mentioned to bring the number of sons to twelve. Thus the family pedigree is carefully laid out in preparation for the account of the obtaining of a bride for Isaac. The family associations of Rebekah are made clear. Rebekah is the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor who rules over an established tribal association.
