The Offering of Isaac (John 3:16-21; Romans 5:6-11; Hebrews 11:17-19)
Genesis 22:1-19 “Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told his servants. “The boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will return to you.”
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!”
“Here I am, my son,” he replied.
“The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “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 walked on together.
When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
The Sacrifice Averted
Just then, 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 or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
Then Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. So he went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time, saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Abraham went back to his servants, and they got up and set out together for Beersheba. And Abraham settled in Beersheba.”
This morning God has ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah, and Abraham is stricken with grief! Isaac is the miracle son of Abraham’s old age, the one through whom Abraham will have descendants as numerous as the sand on the sea shore. How can God possibly demand Abraham sacrifice Isaac now that Abraham has sent Hagar and Ishmael off into the wilderness? And Isaac is an appealing little boy with black curly hair, bright dark eyes, and a perpetual smile. Isaac is a happy child, always singing or whistling, and brightens anyplace he happens to be. God has asked Abraham to move from Ur to Canaan, and then to further move all over Canaan, always living in tents. Until now, Abraham has always obeyed, but how can he possibly sacrifice Isaac? The idea is almost unthinkable. All Abraham can do is to obey and hope God will relent!
As Abraham and Isaac start out with two servants, Abraham is almost dragging his feet while Isaac can’t wait for this new adventure and is skipping along and singing. The only thing puzzling Isaac is the absence of an animal for the sacrifice, but he’s sure his abba already has something in mind. Then the group reaches Mount Moriah and Abraham and Isaac go on by themselves. By now, Abraham is almost in tears; only the self-discipline of a lifetime is keeping him from throwing himself on the ground in grief.
“Papa, where is the lamb?” Isaac asks. “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answers. Finally, the altar is built and Abraham begins binding Isaac’s hands, sobbing loudly as he does so. Trusting and unafraid, Isaac allows his father to bind his hands and his feet and to lay him on top of the wood on the altar. Just as Isaac is realizing that his father has raised the hand holding the knife, they both hear the angel of God calling, “Abraham, Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” Suddenly, Abraham hears the noise of something thrashing in the bushes. A huge ram, the most handsome ram Abraham has ever seen, has caught its horns in the bushes and can’t escape. Abraham wastes no time in dispatching the ram and releasing Isaac from his bonds. Then the angel of God speaks a second time.
“By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies. And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Abraham and Isaac bow themselves to the ground in worship and awe. When the sacrifice is completely consumed by the fire, Abraham scatters the coals so that the bush will not catch on fire, and then Isaac and he return to the servants with holy joy on their faces. The servants have no idea of what has happened; however, they know something wonderful must have occurred from the way Abraham and Isaac are behaving. Even Abraham, old as he is, is practically skipping down that mountain! Then they all pack up and return to Beersheba.
We always think about Abraham’s risking the life of his miracle son, but what about Isaac’s faith? If Isaac didn’t trust his father, he would never have accompanied him, nor would he have allowed Abraham to bind his hands and feet and to lay him on the altar. Abraham wasn’t the only person to hear that Voice from heaven; Isaac did as well. And that Voice promised to bless Isaac’s descendants, to multiply them beyond all counting, and to bless all nations of the earth through those descendants. For the rest of Isaac’s life, those words would remain in his heart, assuring him that he was specially blessed.
What would have happened had Abraham refused to journey to Mount Moriah and stayed home? Blessedly, Abraham had sufficient faith to meet God’s challenge, to take that risk, and untold blessings resulted.
When we visited Saboba in February 1992, we had no plans to come here. Saboba was a small village with a health center employing only 11 workers while I was a highly trained general and pediatric surgeon. I belonged in a hospital. But when we stepped out of the vehicle and set foot on the mission house yard for the first time, the Holy Spirit descended, wrapping us like a big warm blanket, and suddenly we KNEW we were supposed to come to Saboba. We had to return to America and find a sending agency, another big problem. And then we came to Saboba having raised less than half the funding we needed because the situation was so urgent. Our first year here, I was plagued by health workers carrying wild stories about me to the Regional Director of Health Services. But when a small tribal war broke out, suddenly that little health center became the only source of help for 100,000 people from one tribe. We started the lab and the theater (OR) and began functioning as a hospital, even though we still had only a U-shaped health center building with grass in the center of the U.
Why did we do all this? The Love of God constrained us. God called, and we had to come. Today that small health center is a flourishing district hospital. Perhaps you too are struggling with a thorny decision. You know God is calling you to take a risk and you wish He would give a few guarantees. But God doesn’t work that way. There’s a scene from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Jones needs to cross a seemingly bottomless gorge; when he throws a handful of sand out ahead of him, a narrow path suddenly appears. Now Jones has a choice: step out onto that path and trust that it will hold him and that he will not fall to his death, or abandon his quest. Jones steps out, crossing to the final resting place of the Holy Grail.
When God is about to do something great in your life, He may ask you to take a great risk. You have free will and you can choose to risk or not. But if you draw back, that failure to risk will haunt you for the rest of your life and you will miss untold blessings and have only uneasy peace. Have the decades since that decision been easy for us? Scarcely! But God continues to guide and to bless us, and we rejoice in knowing the peace of God in our lives.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, many of us are on the brink of important life-changing decisions. We are afraid to stay and afraid to go. Help all those in such situations to hear Your still small voice so that they will make the decisions that will bring them Your everlasting peace. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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