Genesis 22:1-2
"And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt (to prove, a trial or test) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. (now look at verse 2. Watch this carefully.) And he said, Take now thy son, thine (what’s the next word?) only son Isaac whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; (present day Jerusalem) and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."
Goodness sakes, Ishmael is fourteen to seventeen years older. But see, God never recognized Ishmael as a son. He was not the promised son, but rather the promised son was Isaac. Man has been guilty of playing the part of god ever since Adam bite the fruit and by so doing has unwittingly created his own religion or religious practices. These are but Idolatry because man is in effect replacing God with moralization ie...a code of accepted behavior, and regulation ie...man made rules or laws of his actions by them. And this is what Paul is saying when he shows that Ishmael and Agar or Hagar symbolize Mt. Sinai which answers to Jerusalem in bondage because of sin, Idolatry Because of Judaism.
Genesis 22:3-4
"And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him (Eliezer and Ishmael), and Isaac his son, and clave (or held) the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off."
So often in Scripture we have "Three days." It’s just amazing if you make a study of it, and here’s another one. They left Beersheba down in the South and three days later they see Mount Moriah, which is present day Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount.
Genesis 22:5
"And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, (now underline the next part of that verse.) and come again to you."
By himself? No. Both of them. Would he be carrying Isaac over his shoulder? A corpse? No. They would both be coming back alive. But hadn’t God told him you’re going to have to give Isaac as a sacrifice? Yes. All right again, by trusting, and oh, I can’t emphasize this enough, what did Abraham know? That if he would have to kill Isaac, God would raise him up so he could go back home with him. He knew that! Now that’s faith! Now Abraham asked Isaac and the two that were with him if they could see the smoke that was coming from the mount ahead, Isaac answered, yes. But the other two said (Ishmael and Eliezer), no, they did not see it. So they had two remain behind with the animals? Their eyes were not open to the things of God. All right, let’s read on. Now verse 6.
Genesis 22:6-7
"And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. (no servants, just the two of them.) And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, 'My father': and he said, 'here am I, my son'. And he said, 'Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'"
This is an inquisitive youth asking a logical question, 'where's the sacrifice dad?'
I think here in verse 8, Abraham said a mouthful that he didn’t realize was going to be fulfilled to the last jot and tittle.
Genesis 22:8
"And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together."
But what had God told Abraham? "To sacrifice Isaac." It would be Isaac, but somehow or other, Abraham knew one of two things. If he would have to offer Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. And if he didn’t offer Isaac, God would provide the lamb. And of course, we know that’s what happened. It should be said, that the word does not fill in all areas for our full understanding and we have to be willing to accept them unanswered. Though the Holy Spirit will provide the missing pieces at His will and by His means.
Genesis 22:9
"And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood."
Now, did you hear that? “to the place which God had told him of” the place where he saw the smoke rising from, that almost seems beyond human comprehension, it seems beyond the God that we know of Scripture. But its keeping with His character. How could God expect a man to lay his own son, when we know that one of the horrors of Israel’s history was child sacrifice and yet here God commanded Abraham to lay Isaac on that altar bound, hand and foot, although there is no indication that Isaac resisted. He was totally obedient to the father as he’s laid on the altar because he too knew what laid ahead.
I’m not going to make you go back to Romans, but another verse that I use is in Romans 15 and verse 4 and that verse says: "Now all these things were written aforetime (like we’re reading right here) for our learning that we through the Scriptures might have comfort and hope." All right so what are we to glean from this? We’re to learn. This isn’t just some legend. This isn’t just some story to fill the page. The book of Jasher (this is not a proper name, was written by many writers over a period of time and means a cord that is made up of two or more cords twisted together for strength, it also means straight (to make straight, take the straight way, be upright), most upright (-ly, -ness), meet (-est), + pleased well right (-eous).) has a lot more to tell us about this event and it fills in to missing information about the rest of the story. But this is even for you and I in this Age of Grace, to look back at and see how the God Whom we serve is telling us something. And what’s He telling us? That God did bring about a Human sacrifice, the greatest one of all. The Lamb that took away the sin of the world was nailed to that Roman Cross. Just as surely as Isaac was laid on that altar on Mount Moriah. There are so many parallels. Number one, as I’ve already pointed out, Isaac was the only begotten son. Isaac fulfilled everything pertaining to Christ’s sacrifice by being totally obedient to be that sacrifice. And all through the eyes of faith. God said it and they could rest on it.
Genesis 22:10
"And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son."
And I don’t think Abraham was being a Hollywood actor. He was ready to carry it out, heartbroken as he must have been. But on the other hand knowing that God would bring him back to life. Through this action he demonstrated his total trust of God. All right verse 11.
Genesis 22:11a
"And the angel of the LORD…"
I’ve stressed, Who’s that? Well, that’s God the Son ie...Yehovah of the Old Testament/Covenant times.
Genesis 22:11b-12
…called unto him out of heaven, and said, 'Abraham, Abraham': and he said, 'Here am I'. And he said, 'Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.'"
Now there’s the emphasis - that as Isaac was the only son of Abraham in God’s eyes, so Christ was referred to as the only begotten Son of God. Here’s the beautiful part, that, whether it was by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the mind of Abraham, or not, here it’s immediately fulfilled when he said, "God would provide the lamb," in the earlier verses.
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