Although I have only put out one new post this month, I have still been quite busy with this blog, regularly updating earlier posts and working on a big new study of the characteristics which cults share in common. (Hopefully I'll manage to publish that before the end of this month - I'm only about halfway through it though.) But anyway, here is a new post about Genesis 22, which gives an account of a remarkable test of faith for Abraham. I have just been studying this chapter, so decided to give some thoughts on it while it is fresh in my mind.
A number of people in the Bible were asked to do some quite remarkable things by God from time to time. However, this command to Abraham is right up there with the most jaw-dropping:
"And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." (Genesis 22:2)
The Bible does not record Abraham's reaction or his immediate response, but it is easy to imagine his jaw dropping to the ground, so to speak, not least because in Genesis 21:12, God had promised him a great line of descendants through Isaac. Also, God required animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, but not human ones. (In the New Testament, He accepted one human sacrifice, which was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices - the death of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, on the cross, followed by His burial and resurrection after three days.) What it DOES record in the next two or three verses is Abraham making preparations and setting off to Moriah with Isaac (and a couple of other young men) as instructed. Whatever he may have been feeling, he was prepared to obey God's command, just as he had been when God told him to leave his old life behind in Genesis 12:1. Obedience to God is often not an easy matter. But Abraham obeyed because of his faith: "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19) This passage in the book of Hebrews provides a crucial insight into Abraham's thinking. It also explains what this incident was really pointing towards, and I'll come back to that a bit later. I might add that faith was also the reason for Abraham's obedience when God commanded him to leave his homeland. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not
knowing whither he went." (Hebrews 11:8)
So Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Hence he is not lying to the other young men when he tells them he'll be back with Isaac. "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." (Genesis 22:5)
It does appear however that Isaac is not aware that he is destined to be sacrificed. "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?" (Genesis 22:7) Isaac knew how burnt offerings normally worked. He was expecting a lamb and was clearly puzzled as to why there wasn't one. Abraham's answer is, as we shall see in a little while, not a lie. And it also significant for another reason. "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." (Genesis 22:8) The underlined part of this verse not only anticipates the sacrifice that God would provide in the near future, but it also anticipates the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. There are many things in the Old Testament that point to Christ, either in direct prophecy or as figures. This is one such example.
Now the tension ramps up as Abraham builds an altar, places the wood that he has brought along, then ties up Isaac and places him on the altar. The Bible does not record the conversation that passed between them while this was happening. It is notable however that Isaac does not fight or struggle, but accepts his apparent fate. We hold our breath as the fateful moment comes: "And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son." (Genesis 22:10)
But before Abraham plunges the knife in, God intervenes (you can breathe out now). "And the angel of the LORD 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." (Genesis 22:11-12) Abraham's faith was such that he was prepared to do absolutely anything God asked of him, whatever the cost, because he knew God would keep His promises. He put God ahead of everyone and everything in his life, including his own son.
And this is one of the key lessons from this passage. Through the example of Abraham, it poses a challenging question: do we have enough faith in God that we are prepared to obey Him no matter what the cost? Do we have enough love for Him that we are not prepared to let anyone stand between us and Him, even our nearest and dearest?
Now, God will never ask you to sacrifice a member of your family on an altar! As I said at the start, sometimes God has given very unusual commands to His people in the Bible, but they were meant specifically for those people, not for us generally. For example, He once asked the prophet Isaiah to go naked for three whole years! (See Isaiah 20:2-4) But He certainly doesn't want us to just start walking around naked! Even at that time, the command was only for Isaiah and no one else. It was also for a specific purpose: to provide a visual illustration of a future event. And once the three-year period was over, Isaiah went back to wearing clothes. Likewise, God's command to Abraham was for a specific moment in time, and it was only meant for Abraham to follow.
But while you will never be asked by God to perform a literal sacrifice (even an animal one, because Christ has done away with the need for sacrifices altogether), there may come a time when you will have to sacrifice relationships with family members for the sake of following Christ. For example, you may have family members who are so hostile to Christianity that they will disown you if they learn you are now a Christian. Or perhaps your refusal to partake in something with the rest of the family because you know God does not want you to do it (e.g. celebrate Halloween) will cause serious tensions. In a worst-case scenario, some family members may even want to kill you for your faith! You may face the prospect of being kicked out, or of having to run away to escape injury or death. In these situations, will you stick by your faith in Christ, or compromise to keep the peace?
This kind of love for God, of putting Him ahead of even your own family, was exemplified by Abraham and is also what the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about in these passages:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:34-39)
"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26-27)
We should love our parents, children and siblings, obviously, but we should not love them more than God. In fact, our love for God should be such that the love we have for our family should seem like hatred by comparison (which is what Jesus is getting at in the Luke passage - both the Matthew and Luke passages need to be taken together, because Jesus is certainly not telling anyone to actually hate their family - that would go against numerous other Biblical commandments, such as the ones about loving your neighbour and honouring your father and mother!). And where there is a direct clash between the will of God and the will of your family, the will of God must come first. Furthermore, those who are forced to choose between God and family, and put God first, are given this amazing promise: "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew 19:19) "And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." (Mark 10:29-30)
Now, nobody should just pack up and leave their family for no good reason. And I am well aware that there are cults (such as Gloriavale in New Zealand) who abuse verses like this by forcibly separating family members. That is wicked and not at all something God wants. However, as I said above, sometimes your unbelieving family members may force you to make some difficult decisions. You may find yourself in situations where choosing to obey God will cost you dearly in the form of losing some or all of your family (either because they leave, or because they throw you out). And it is in these kinds of situations where God may test your faith as sternly as he tested Abraham's. If that time ever comes, would you be willing, as Abraham was, to put God first?
So that is one key lesson from Genesis 22. But it is also worth examining how the account of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac prefigures another much more important sacrifice: that of Christ. Let's see what eventually was sacrificed on Abraham's altar: "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." (Genesis 22:13)
The ram being sacrificed in the place of Isaac foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ in our place. The sacrifices of the Mosaic Law similarly anticipate Christ's once and final sacrifice. However, there is another way in which this account foreshadows the momentous event on Calvary. It is mentioned in the Hebrews passage I quoted earlier. Isaac was Abraham's only begotten son, in that he was the only child that Abraham had with Sarah, his wife. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God the Father: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Isaac was a child who had been promised by God: "But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise." (Galatians 4:23) (The bondwoman was Hagar the Egyptian, who gave birth to Ishmael after Sarah gave her to Abraham, and the freewoman was Sarah herself.) Jesus Christ was also promised through numerous Old Testament prophecies. Isaac's birth was a miracle, given that Sarah was not only very old (90 years old, no less!), but had hitherto been barren: "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform." (Romans 4:19-21) The Lord Jesus Christ's birth was likewise miraculous since He was born of a virgin. "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matthew 1:22-23) Finally, Isaac came back from the dead (in a manner of speaking) after Abraham had placed him on the altar. Jesus Christ really DID come back from the dead after being buried for three days. So in these various ways, the near-sacrifice of Isaac is a figure of what Jesus Christ would do several thousand years later. In this figure, Abraham represents God the Father and Isaac represents God the Son.
In conclusion, notwithstanding the command God gives to Abraham at the start of this chapter, Genesis 22 is not about human sacrifice. The two main takeaways from this chapter are that we should put God first in our lives, even when obeying Him may result in us losing those we love the most. Abraham's great faith results in his obedience, which in turn leads to great blessing for him in the end (including Isaac being spared). And also, like many things in the Old Testament, we see something that anticipates, using a real event as an illustration, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and His subsequent resurrection. Well, those are the key lessons for me on my latest study of this chapter. But if you have gleaned some other valuable lessons from this remarkable account of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac, please feel free to share them in the comments!
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