Good Morning! I am really excited that we can be here today, to be completely honest, for a while I did not have my hopes up that we would be able too! But here we are, and I am really excited to be continuing this series of messages of prophecies of Jesus throughout the Old Testament, as we approach the Easter season. The first week we were in Genesis 3, and we saw that from the moment that the curses were given as a result of our sin, God had a plan to send Jesus to defeat Satan’s power once and for all, and to redeem us to himself. “He shall crush your head, and you shall strike his heel.” Last week we looked at the fulfillment of a rule regarding the passover lamb, that not a bone of the Passover Lamb could be broken. We saw that John and the apostles all identified Jesus as the passover lamb, the Lamb of God, and a lamb without blemish or defect. And we learned about the importance of this prophetic role, that like the original Passover sacrifice, his death atones for the sin of the people, his blood purifies and cleanses, and his body sanctifies those who partake in his kingdom. Because this sacrifice was made by God himself, in the form of his sinless son, it is the ultimate sacrifice.
Today we are going to look at a story that is not directly identified as prophetic, but that still contains a significant amount of foreshadowing and that is prophetic in nature, that looks forward to Jesus, and to God’s plans for humanity. I spoke for a moment last week of how God sometimes would have people act out the prophetic message he wished to share with his audience. The prophet Hosea was asked to marry a prostitute, and his marriage was to symbolize God’s relationship with Israel. (and Just a hint: Hosea didn’t represent Israel in that relationship). Today we are going to see another example of this, in Genesis 22. Genesis 22 is the story of when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And while the main purpose of this event was not to foretell the coming of Jesus and his sacrifice, the foreshadowing and allusion in this story does just that. Today we will see and feel the immensity of the sacrifice of God’s one and only Son, through the sacrifice asked of Abraham.
As always, The first thing we are going to do is examine the context and background of this passage, to help us further develop our understanding of what takes place. This week I want to do a bit of that before we even read the passage, just to give us an idea of where this story falls in the greater context around it. So let’s start with the book of Genesis itself. We believe that Moses wrote the first five books of the bible, which are called the Pentateuch, and this is based on church tradition and statements by Jesus. John 5:46, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” Just a Fun fact: Jewish boys had to memorize the Pentateuch during their childhood, that’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They had to memorize all of it, just a fun fact. So we believe that Moses wrote Genesis, and his intended audience was of course the Israelites. There is no listed purpose of writing in Genesis, but it seems to operate as a foundation for the rest of scripture. It is meant to give us a foundational understanding of why the world is the way that it is, and is meant to operate as a lens through which to see the world around us.
When you are studying anything in the Bible, but especially the Old Testament, it is really important to identify the literary type of the passage. And Genesis 22 is identified as the literary type called Legend. Now when we are talking about scripture, Legend does not mean an old story that is probably not true, as is usually meant when someone uses the word legend today. In regards to studying scripture, a Legend is a traditional story, with a historical element, that has an important role in a people’s understanding of their past. In scripture they ARE considered to be true, but by identifying it as a legend, it is identified as one of those cultural traditional stories that everyone knows, and that everyone was taught as a child. To understand this story is to understand an important piece of Israel’s past.
Ok, so here is some of the context and background of Genesis 22, and Abraham himself. Abraham was called out of a land called Ur by God, with the promise that he would be made into a great nation. Ur was most likely somewhere in modern day Iraq. At a very old age, he was promised a son. And God promised him that through this son, he would bless him and make him a nation, and give him land and blessing for all generations to come. Now the only problem was that Abraham and his wife Sarah were extremely old. Sarah actually laughed when she first heard this promise, that they would have a child. They did not believe God, and Sarah made Abraham sleep with her servant Hagar, so that she could have a son through her instead. Hagar had a son named Ishmael, but God said no, you are still going to have a son through Sarah. And then they finally believed him, Sarah became pregnant, and had Isaac. And scripture says that Abraham was 100 years old when this happened! This son is born, through whom God will create a great nation, and give land and blessing too. And then after this, Abraham sends Hagar and his son Ishmael away, and I don’t want to talk too much about that for the sake of time, but essentially Sarah became jealous and was treating them badly, so she asks Abraham to send them away. He was very upset and did not want to do it, but God told him that it would be ok, and that he would bless Ishmael's descendants as well, so he conceded and sent them away, leaving Isaac as his only son. After this incident they settled in the Beersheba region for a period, and we know that they were there for quite some time. We know by dating the events before and after this story, that by the time this story takes place, Isaac had grown into adolescence or possible manhood, contrary to popular belief. And you will notice in english translation and as we read that Isaac is referred too as the “boy” often, but that is actually a mistranslation. The hebrew word here is a flexible term that is used in scripture to describe anything from infancy to young adulthood, and sometimes even to servants. In our passage, Abraham uses the same word to describe the servants who came with them, but we translate it as “young men”. So we don’t know exactly how old Isaac is at this point, but based on the chronology of events in Genesis, he was likely between 15-25 years old.
Alright! Now we are finally ready to jump in, so let's read this story in its entirety. Genesis 22, v 1-19: Some time later, God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 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. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “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.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have 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. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.”
Ok, so there is a ton here, so let’s take it section by section. FIrst of all, God calls Abraham’s name, and Abraham immediately responds, Here I am! And then God of him asks the unthinkable. “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” What stands out to me the most in this sentence is not what God asks of Abraham, but the way in which he asks it. He could have just said, Take Isaac and go to the region of Moriah, and sacrifice him. But he doesn’t do that. He could have said, Take Isaac, whom you love, and sacrifice him. No, he doesn’t say that either. He says PAUSE, “Take your son. PAUSE Your ONLY son. Pause. Whom you love. Pause. Isaac. Pause And sacrifice him. Pause. Every word of this request is calculated to stab deeper and deeper into Abrahams heart like a dagger. He had already been forced to send away Ishmael, whom he also loved deeply. Isaac is all he has left, his one and only son through his wife Sarah! His whole life he has prayed for this child, for decades God has promised him this child! And he loves him without reservation. Remember, Isaac is not just a child! Isaac is a promise! God promised Abraham that he would give him a son through Sarah, and that he would turn THIS SON into a NATION, with land and blessing for all generations! He is not just their son whom they deeply love, he also is the symbol AND the means of God’s promise to Abraham! And now, God says, Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac Pause. And sacrifice him. You know, sometimes when we read these stories, we forget that these were real people, like us, with real lives and real emotions. So I can’t help but ask, what would you do in this situation?
The most amazing part of this story, to me, is what happens the next morning. It says “Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.” I can’t even imagine.
I’ve studied this passage a few times, and the conclusion I’ve come too is this: Abraham was a man of deep, deep faith. He believes that God will do what he says he will. God made a COVENANT with him, that through his son ISAAC, he would make him into a great nation, for all generations. He KNOWS that when God makes a covenant, he keeps his word. God made a promise to him. And he believes that God will keep it. But God wants him to sacrifice and kill Isaac. This son through whom the promise will be kept. He can’t put the two together, but he knows and trusts God, and he BELIEVES that God will not break his word. I do not know what Abraham expected to happen. I don’t know if he expected that God would raise Isaac from the dead afterwards, or if he hoped that God would stop him at the last minute, or what he thought would happen. But I truly believe that Abraham still trusted that somehow, God would not break that covenant with him, even if he sacrificed and killed the one through whom the promise was to be kept. He must have believed that!
So they arrive at the mountain. “He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So we see here a few things. We see that Isaac is starting to put the pieces together. Like I said earlier, he was likely a teenager or young adult by this point, he wasn’t dumb. We also see that Abraham takes the wood off donkey and puts it on Isaac. Remember, Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, so if we stick to the 15-25 year range for Isaac, Abraham is 115-125 years old, so it makes sense for him to make Isaac carry the wood up the mountain. But I do want you to take note of the fact that Isaac is carrying the wood, as it is an important piece that we will be coming back too.
Then we finally come to the sacrifice. 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. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “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.” PAUSE So whatever Abraham expected God to do, we see that he was indeed, ready to sacrifice Isaac. And If the angel did not appear, I believe he would have done so. But the angel comes and stops him and says, Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. And then Abraham sees a ram caught in a bush, and they offer it as a sacrifice instead. Abraham named the place, the Lord will provide.
And then The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have 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. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Ok, so let’s move to application. What should you take away from this story, and how in the world is it an Easter prophecy? What does this story do for us, as we move towards the Easter season?
So The first thing that this story does for us, is force us to consider the immensity of the sacrifice of a loved child. Take your son. PAUSE Your ONLY son. Pause. Whom you love. Pause. Isaac. Pause And sacrifice him. Pause. Like I said, every word of this request was calculated to stab deeper and deeper into Abrahams heart like a dagger, to force him to consider the FULL IMPLICATIONS of what God was asking of him. All through this story, God says “your son, your ONLY son”. Take your son, your only son, and Because you did not withhold “your son, your only son”, I will bless you. And through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son. And he was ready to do just that, without hesitation. That is how deep his love was for God, and his faith in God to keep his promises. But one thing is clear in this story: This was the biggest sacrifice God could have ever possibly asked of Abraham.
The second thing that this story does for us, is it plays out the eventual sacrifice of Jesus. First, the sacrifice of a loved son. Compare Genesis 22:2, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and sacrifice him”, with John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and ONLY son, so that whoever believes in him shall NOT perish, but have the gift of everlasting life.” But also, consider the location. God asked Abraham to go to the region of Moriah. If you look at 2 Chronicles 3:1, it identifies Moriah as the mountain on which the temple was built, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.” And there is a bit of debate on this, but most commentaries are in agreement that the mountain Abraham went to with Isaac, was the same mountain that Jerusalem is built around and that the temple was built on, and therefore the same area where Jesus was crucified. Which makes this really interesting. On the mountain he had chosen, God provided a substitute for sacrificing Isaac. On that SAME mountain, the Israelites offered sacrifices to God as a substitutionary way to receive forgiveness of sins, and on the same mountain, Jesus took our sins upon himself and died as our sacrificial lamb. If you have ever heard of the Dome of the Rock on the temple mount, there is an actual rock in there that Jews believe was the site on which Abraham intended to sacrifice Isaac. If these scholars are correct, then God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son in the same place that his own Son would die in.
Another way in which this story plays out the eventual sacrifice of Jesus, is through the willingness of Isaac. Many people have tried to argue that Isaac was not willing to be sacrificed, and that when he realized what was happening, Abraham had to bind him. But I do not think that is true. For one, he makes Isaac carry the wood for the burnt offering. Like I have said before, sometimes we skip over the human aspect of scripture. Why might have Abraham made Isaac carried the wood up the mountain? Pause. Maybe because Abraham was 120ish years old! The fact that he was able to walk up a mountain was amazing. And I think that this fact is why I believe that Isaac was willing to be sacrificed, or at least submissive to his father. Picture this. If Isaac was NOT willing to be sacrificed, and that is why Abraham tied him up, it would have taken some strength and force. Isaac was likely 15-25 years old at this point, and Abraham was likely 115-125 years old. If Abraham couldn’t carry the wood up the mountain, he most likely could not have fought and tied up a 15-25 year old man. That is my conclusion anyways! I think that Isaac knew what was happening from the moment he asked the question regarding the lamb, maybe earlier. Isaac could have run at any moment. He could have fought his father. He could have refused to carry the wood. But he did none of those things, because I think he had the faith of his father. I think he submitted to being tied up, and submitted to being sacrificed. Just like Jesus.
And then one more way in which this story plays out the sacrifice of Jesus, circling back to the firewood, just as Jesus was forced to carry the wooden cross that would ultimately be his death, Isaac was made to carry the wood that was intended for the burnt offering, of which he was the intended subject.
The third and final thing that this story does for us is prophetically connect Abraham's faith in this moment to God’s plan for mankind. The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have 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. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Because Abraham obeyed God, All the nations on earth will be blessed. Because Abraham did not withhold his one and only son, God will not withhold his. John 8:56, Jesus says to the Pharisee’s, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and he was glad.” Every single commentary and bible I could find listed Genesis 22 as the cross reference for John 8:56. It was in that moment, on that day, on that mountain, that Abraham saw the coming of Jesus. He rejoiced, and named the mountain, “The Lord will provide”.
In conclusion, it is really cool to see how God works through history, and how he uses the lives of others to display his love for the world. While God did test Abraham through his command to sacrifice Isaac, he asked of him no more than he himself was willing to offer. And yet at the same time, we really can see and feel the immensity of the sacrifice in which God gave, and that Abraham was willing and ready to give. Take your son, your ONLY son, whom you love, and sacrifice him.
As we approach the Easter season, we have seen that God has had a plan from the very beginning to defeat the power of Satan. We have seen that this plan was to send a Lamb, perfect and without blemish, to be sacrificed for the sins of all. And this week, we have seen that this was not just any Lamb, but His Son, his Only Son, who he loves, Jesus. Through this story of Abraham, we have been able to connect to the true depth of what that sacrifice meant for a father to make, and yet we haven’t even come close to what God sacrificed for us! Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac because of his faith in God to keep his promises, but God CHOSE to sacrifice HIS Son FREELY, simply because he loves us. I can’t imagine how Abraham must have slept the night before he packed up his things, after God had asked this of him, but I can’t imagine it was a peaceful and restful night, with that on his chest. But God knew from the very beginning what Jesus would go through, that we would reject him and hate him, spit on him and mock him, and he still chose to give his Son, his one and only Son, as a sacrifice to pay for Our sins. As we leave today, and as we go about our week, let's remember that, and meditate on the immensity of that sacrifice, because we definitely did not earn and did not deserve to be the recipients of that kind of love.
