Genesis 22Abraham Obeys God

Genesis 22:1-21 Some time later [‘After these things’ – KJV] God tested Abraham.

He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

2 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.”

Genesis 22:2Q: Why did Elohim use the phrase, ‘thine only son Isaac’? Didn’t Abraham have another son, Ishmael? What did He mean?

• The only son of Sarah?

• The only son of the promise?

• The only heir of the promise?

• The only son that remained to him after Ishmael left home?

• That Ishmael was considered illegitimate?

Genesis 22:2Q: Is the love of a father for a child the highest form of love?

A: “No doubt this wording is used by God to excite the parental affection of the patriarch to the highest pitch, and to render compliance with the Divine demand a trial of the utmost severity” (Pulpit Commentary, vol. 1, p. 283)

Genesis 22:3-43 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. 

4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 

Genesis 22:3-4“Without taking counsel with flesh and blood, Abraham started early in the morning, with his son Isaac and two servants, to obey the divine command; and on the third day …he saw in the distance the place mentioned by God, the land of Moriah, i.e. the mountainous country around Jerusalem” (K & D, p. 249)

Genesis 22:3-4Q: What does the name ‘Moriah’ mean?

A: “the shown of Jehovah”, a name given to the mountain upon which the sacrifice was to be made, with direct reference to this event and the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham there. It became a very sacred place in Israel

22:14 – “Jehovah-jireh” “the LORD will provide”

2 Samuel 24:16-17 – David placed the Tabernacle here

2 Chronicles 3:1 – “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite”

Genesis 22:55 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.”

Genesis 22:5Q: How many servants does Abraham take with them to Mt. Moriah?

A: At least two [v. 3], along with provisions. They leave the servants a distance away, and go on alone. The journey is up hill, and the hardest to climb (Abraham is thought to be about 137-140 years old, and Isaac is 37-40, depending on the commentary)

They go on alone, because Abraham did not want the servants to see or interfere in the worship service.

Genesis 22:5Q: How far is it from Beersheba to Jerusalem?

A: Today, it is 1 hour and 20 minutes by car, taking the route on the West of the mountains [108 km, or 67 miles]; 1 hour and 30 minutes if on the East side of the mountains closer to the Dead Sea [91 km, or 56 miles].

It would be 30 miles as a crow flies (Morris, p. 377)

The journey by foot and donkey would take 2 ½ days, as is recorded. Leaving the servants it would take the rest of the day to reach the summit.

Genesis 22:6-86 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, 7 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?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

A Lesson on Testing

1. Abraham’s trial is of Divine origin. This appalling ordeal through which the Patriarch passes, is expressly created for him by God

2. Only He who made the human heart can adequately search it; and He alone who has a perfect understanding of the standard of moral excellence can pronounce upon the intrinsic worth of His creatures

3. This trial is unexpected: After all that had preceded, it might have been anticipated that not only were the patriarch’s trials over, but that the need for such discipline in his case no longer existed.

A Lesson on Testing

4. This shows that neither length of years (age) nor maturity in grace, nor conscious enjoyment of Divine favor, nor previous experience of suffering, can exempt anyone from trial, nor place them beyond the need of testing.

5. Most tests come at unexpected times, and in ways that are not anticipated.

6. Trials from God, if they are to be efficient, must be correlated to the strength of those they are designed to test. Only a temptation of great force could reveal a moral heroism and spiritual faith like Abraham’s

A Lesson on Testing

7. The intensity of the strain put upon his soul by the astounding order to make a sacrifice [holocaust] of Isaac simply baffles our description.

8. Doubt must have come to his mind:a. About the character of Jehovah, who is

making a seemingly barbarous and inhuman demand like the heathen nations

b. About his own standing with Jehovah – did he deserve to lose Isaac?

c. About the stability of the promises he had been given, because without Isaac, they could not be fulfilled

A Lesson on Testing

9. “The great covenant blessing was still conditioned on the exercise by the patriarch of full-hearted trust in the [plain] word of God. Not until that standpoint had been reached by Abraham in his spiritual development was he able to become the parent of Isaac [Gen 17]; and now that Isaac was born there was still the danger lest Isaac, and not the [plain] word of God, should be the ground of the patriarch’s confidence. Hence the necessity arose for testing whether Abraham could [give up] Isaac and yet cling to the promise [of God]” (Pulpit Commentary, vol. 1, p. 286)

A Lesson on Testing

10.Abraham was to be the head of the faithful and a type of the justified; therefore it was essential that he should be tested.

11.Entire obedience is the test of perfect faith.

12.In the two previous testings [#1 – go to a land I will show you; #2 – your descendants will be as the stars], he had a promise from God to rest upon.

13.Now he must go in obedience to God without any new promise to buoy him up in a perplexing sea of trial.

Genesis 22:5… 5 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.”

Q: Did Abraham really believe that he and Isaac would return from this adventure alive?

A: Yes, he apparently did. “Even though God had, as he thought, told him to slay Isaac, and even though he fully intended to obey, yet he knew they would both come back. He had learned beyond any further question that God’s word was true and His promises sure. God had told him Isaac would become a great nation, in whom all other nations would be blessed” (Morris, p. 378)

Genesis 22:5Q: How could Abraham say he was going to worship, but intending to sacrifice him on an altar?

A: The word ‘worship’ means simply to ‘bow down,’ and is often translated that way. Singing hymns and giving testimonies, hearing a preacher and enjoying Christian fellowship is not worshiping, although we speak of such activities as a ‘worship service.’

To worship God is simply to bow down to His will, recognizing and acknowledging that His will is best. What He does is right, by definition, whether we understand it now or not.

Genesis 22:5The will of God may involve waiting and suffering, even dying; but if it is His will, then we must bow down to it and accept it with thanksgiving. It is then, and only then, that we worship God.

Abraham and Isaac were going to worship God. They did not understand, but they believed they were doing His will, and they were willing to do it.

The submission to God’s will is ultimately demonstrated by the work of Christ.

Genesis 22:5Q: In the NT, we never read of Jesus Christ worshiping the Father, though He taught others to do so?

• The act of submission to God’s will is the ultimate act of worship. “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39)

• “Though He were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8)

Genesis 22:6-86 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 

7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 

8 Abraham said, “God will [a literally ‘see’]provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

Genesis 22:6-8Q: Is it significant that they walked in fellowship, and that it is mentioned twice in this passage?

Yes. Abraham was not compelling his son to go. Isaac willingly accompanied his father, and trusted him.

Isaac is mature, and in better health than his father.

Q: Did He have any idea of Abraham’s intentions?

The faith demonstrated is on the part of Abraham, not Isaac’s; Abraham was trusting God to resurrect his son, while Isaac was trusting his earthly father’s decision

Genesis 22:6-8In like manner, God the Father did not force His Son to die on the cross for our sins.

“Therefore does My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from My Father”

John 10:17-18

Genesis 22:6-8Here is an act of faith and obedience demonstrated by the Lord Jesus, which deserves to be a spectacle to God, angels, and men. Abraham’s darling, Sarah’s laughter, the church’s hope, the heir of promise, lies ready to bleed and die by his own father’s hand, who never shrinks at the doing of it. Now this obedience of Abraham in offering up Isaac is a lively representation of two things:

Genesis 22:6-8(1.) Of the love of God to us, in delivering up His only-begotten Son to suffer and die for us, as a sacrifice. It pleased the Lord Himself to bruise Him.

Isa. 53:10 – “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering”

Zec. 13:7 – “Awake O sword, against My Shepherd…”

Abraham was obliged, both in duty and gratitude, to part with Isaac, and parted with him to a friend; but God was under no obligations to us, for we were enemies. [MWC]

Genesis 22:6-8(2.) Of our duty to God, in return for that love. We must tread in the steps of this faith of Abraham. God, by his word, calls us to part with all for Christ,—all our sins, a right hand, or a right eye, or an Isaac—all those things that are competitors and rivals with Christ for the sovereignty of the heart (Lu. 14:26); and we must cheerfully let them all go.

God, by His providence, which is truly the voice of God, calls us to part with an Isaac sometimes, and we must do it with a cheerful resignation and submission to His holy will [1 Sa. 3:18 – Hannah letting little Samuel go] [MHC]