Genesis 22:1-18

Simply put, Isaac is a type of Christ “obedient unto death” showing the world the picture of what would come some 1900 years later. Abraham illustrates the Father who “spared not His own Son.” The resurrection is illustrated in the deliverance of Isaac.

Not only do we see the picture of the coming sacrifice of God’s only son in this chapter but we also see the ultimate justification by faith. Was it by works or by faith that Abraham was justified?

James writes in James 2 verse 21, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

Now seeming to contradict James, Paul writes in Romans 4 verses 1 to 3, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

So which is correct works or faith?

Well of course they’re both right because they’re talking about the same thing. James is talking about the works of faith not the works of the law. Paul is talking about the justification by faith from Genesis chapter 15 verse 6. “And he (Abraham) believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness”.

True faith is always backed up by how we outwork that faith. Do we do what we believe? Abraham most certainly did as we’ll see.

So we begin this incredible chapter, Genesis  22:1-2, Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 

We see that God tested Abraham. This wasn’t so much a test to produce faith, as it was a test to reveal faith. God built Abraham slowly, piece by piece, year by year, into a man of faith. This test would reveal some of that faith God had built into Abraham.

Can any of us imagine a greater test than this one?

The great Charles Spurgeon once wrote and I quote, “I cannot imagine a greater test than that which the Lord applied to Abraham. The Jews usually say that Abraham was tried ten times. Surely on this occasion, he was tried ten times in one.”

Abraham’s quick answer to the call of God is a wonderful example of how a man or woman of faith should respond to God. When Abraham said, “Here I am,” it meant that he was ready to be taught, ready to obey, ready to surrender, and he was ready to be examined by God.

God says “Take now your son, your only son Isaac.” God called Isaac “your only son Isaac”, when in fact Abraham had another son, Ishmael. Since Ishmael was put away from Abraham’s family as we saw in the last chapter, as far as God’s covenant was concerned, Abraham had only one son.

“Your only son Isaac, whom you love.” This is the first time that the word ‘love’ appears in the Bible and it describes the relationship between a father and his son, which also speaks of the relationship between the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus).

Every phrase of God’s command to Abraham must have been like a knife piercing every emotion inside him.

• Take now your son.
• Your only son Isaac.
• Whom you love.
• Offer him there.
• As a burnt offering.

God told Abraham to offer him as a burnt offering. This was not an offering that was burned alive, but one with the life first taken by sacrifice and then the body completely burnt before the LORD.

Abraham lived as a sojourner, a pilgrim, in the land of Canaan. The priests of many of the Canaanite gods said their gods demanded human sacrifice so the people of Canaan found nothing especially strange about human sacrifice, but Abraham had believed his God, El Shaddai, was different.

With this command, Abraham might have wondered if the God of the covenant and creator of heaven and earth, was like the pagan gods the Canaanites and others worshipped. By the end of this story, Abraham knew that God was not like the pagan gods that demanded human sacrifice. In truth, He was just the opposite.

Offering Issac as a burnt offering was difficult in yet another aspect because it seemed to contradict the previous promise of God. God had already promised in Isaac your seed shall be called that’s in the last chapter. It seemed at odds to kill the son who was promised to carry on the covenant when it had not yet been fulfilled in him. It seemed as if God commanded Abraham to kill the very promise God made to him.

Abraham had to learn the difference between trusting the promise and trusting the Promiser. It’s possible for us to put God’s promise before God Himself and feel it is our responsibility to bring the promise to pass, even if we have to disobey God to do it. This is precisely what Abraham and Sarah did with Hagar and Ishmael. It’s also what we do ourselves so often. It’s not our business to fulfil God’s promise, and certainly not to do anything that’s even minutely wrong in order to try and make God’s promises a reality. God fulfils His own promise in His own way and in His own time.

We must trust the Promiser no matter what, and the promise’ll be taken care of.

“Go to the land of Moriah… on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”. There was a specific place that God commanded Abraham to go to. God carefully directed each detail of this drama. Many believe that the specific spot was later known as Golgotha where another Son would be sacrificed for the sin of the world completing the prophetic picture we’re being shown here.

Now we read verse 3,  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

There’s no sign of hesitation on Abraham’s part. He rose early in the morning to do this. Was it a sleepless night for Abraham or did he sleep in peace fully trusting God? If we try and see from the text what Abraham felt we’re disappointed because we’re never told that he balked or was anxious in any way. He simply believed God.

Abraham’s obedience showed

1. that he trusted God, even when he didn’t understand. Sometimes we say, “I’m not going to obey or believe until I understand it all,” but that’s to put ourselves on an equal standing with God. We simply cannot know everything about everything as God does.
2. that he didn’t debate what he should do or seek counsel or advice from others. He knew what to do and refused to delay what God had said.
3. that he trusted God, even when he did not feel like it. There is not a line in this text about how Abraham felt, not because he didn’t feel, but because he walked by faith, not feelings.

There wasn’t a word of argument or one solitary question that can be called hesitation. It’s as if Abraham’s saying God is God and it is not for me to ask Him why. He has said it so I’ll do it.

God trained Abraham for over 25 years or so, to bring him to this place of great trust. In just the last chapter, God asked Abraham to give up Ishmael in a less severe way. God used that, and everything else, to train Abraham and build great faith in him.

Verses 4 to 6,  Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” 

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.

Abraham came to the appointed place on the third day. The region of Moriah is associated with Mount Moriah, which is modern-day Jerusalem as we see from 2 Chronicles 3:1.

It took Abraham three days to get there, but remember that it was on the third day that Abraham received Isaac alive, back from the dead, as it were. That’s the way Abraham looked at it. Isaac was dead to Abraham from the day the Lord told him to sacrifice him and he was raised up on the third day. What an amazing picture we have here.

Abraham had three long days to think over what God had commanded him to do. This made the test even more severe.

“I will go yonder and worship,” says Abraham to the young men who accompanied him. This is the first use of the word worship in reference to God in the Bible. The Hebrew word shachah simply means, to bow down. While Abraham and Isaac didn’t go to the Mount to have a time of joyful praise, they did go to bow down to the LORD.

In the same sentence Abraham says, “And we will come back to you.”

Abraham fully believed that both he and Issac would return from the mount. He stated that both of them would come back.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Abraham somehow knew this was only a test and God would not really require this of him. Instead, Abraham’s faith was in his understanding that if he killed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead, because God had promised Isaac would carry on the line of blessing and the covenant. He knew this from when God told him “..for in Isaac your seed shall be called” in Genesis 21:12, and Isaac had yet to have any children.

God had to let him live at least long enough to have children. If Isaac were to die, there’s no other descendant left, and no possibility of any others to succeed him.

Hebrews 11:17-19 clearly explains this principle and I’ll read, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

Abraham knew anything was possible with God. This son that he is about to offer testifies to that greater than anything else in Abraham’s life. Issac is a living testimony to God’s power. But Abraham also knew God well enough to know that it was impossible for God to lie therefore it was impossible for God to break His promise.

To this point in Biblical history, we have no record of anyone being raised from the dead, so Abraham had no precedent for this faith, apart from God’s promise. Yet Abraham knew God was able. God could do it.

Abraham took the wood … and laid it upon Isaac his son.” Remember that Christ carried His own cross. The fire here speaks of judgment, and the knife speaks of the execution of judgment and of sacrifice.

The two of them went together. This literally means the two of them went in agreement. Isaac did this knowingly and willingly. The phrase is repeated twice for emphasis. He was obedient to his father.

Now to verses 7 and 8 and we are of course in Genesis chapter 22,  But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 

Abraham didn’t know how God would provide. He still trusted in the ability of God to raise Isaac from the dead, and he wouldn’t stop trusting just because he didn’t know how God would fulfil His promise.

We have a remarkable picture here of the work of Jesus at the cross, centuries before it happened. The son of promise willingly went to be sacrificed in obedience to his father, carrying the wood of his sacrifice up the hill, all with full confidence in the promise of resurrection.

Verse 13 tells us that shortly after this there was a ram that was caught in the thicket by his horns, and Abraham got that ram and offered it. Abraham says here that God will provide Himself a lamb.

But there was no lamb there at this time. There was a ram, but there’s a big difference.

The Lamb was not provided until centuries later when John the Baptist marked Him out and identified Him, saying, “… “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ” that’s in John 1:29. “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. It’s very important to see that Abraham was speaking out prophecy.

Abraham is now ready to offer this boy on the altar although he does not quite understand.

To verse 9 now,  Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 

Now, Isaac’s not just a little boy whom Abraham had to tie up. He is a grown man,

After this chapter, we are told in chapter 23 that Sarah was 127 years old when she died. When you put that together with this chapter, you find that Isaac was not just a little lad. Sarah was 90 years old when Isaac was born and 127 when she died. That means that 37 years elapsed here. Issac’s called a “lad” in this chapter, but he’s actually in his thirties, probably around 30 or 33 years of age. It’s another picture of Jesus who was 33 years old at His crucifixion.

Isaac could have overcome Abraham if it had come to a physical encounter, but Isaac’s doing this in obedience. The Lord Jesus went to the cross having said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” He went to the cross to fulfil the will of God. What an amazing picture we have here!

Verse 10,  And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

What would you or I have said at this point?

This is a real crisis in Abraham’s life. God has brought this man through four very definite crises, each of which was a real exercise of his soul, a real strain upon his heart.

First of all, he was called to leave all of his relatives in Ur of the Chaldees. He was just to leave the whole group. That was a real test for Abraham. He didn’t do it very well at the beginning, but, nevertheless, the break finally came. Then there was the test that came with Lot, his nephew.

Abraham loved Lot—he wouldn’t have been carrying Lot around with him if he hadn’t. But the time came when they had to separate, and Lot went down to Sodom.

Then there was the test with his son from Hagar, Ishmael. Abraham just cried out to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before Thee!”

He loved that boy; he hated to be separated from him. Now Abraham comes to this supreme test, the fourth great crisis in his life where he’s asked to give up Isaac. Abraham doesn’t quite understand all the details for the very simple reason that God has told him, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.

Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead as we’ve seen in Hebrews 11:19, but as far as Abraham is concerned, he’s willing to go through with the sacrifice.

James wrote that Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his son.

But hold on! Did Abraham offer his son? Does the Bible say that Abraham plunged the knife into his son? No!

Genesis 22:11,  But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 

verse 12,  And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”

Now God knows that Abraham fears Him. How does He know? By his actions, by his works; previously it was by his faith. God sees our heart. He knows whether we’re genuine or not, but our neighbours and our friends don’t know. They can only know by our works. That’s the reason James says in James 2 verse 20 that “faith without works is dead.” Faith has to produce something.

God tested Abraham. Any person whom God calls, any person whom God saves, and any person whom God uses is going to be tested. God tested Abraham, and God tests those who are His own today.

He tests you and me, and the tests are given to us to strengthen our faith, to establish us, and to make us serviceable for Him. This man Abraham is now given the supreme test, and God will not have to ask anything of him after this.

Genesis 22:13,  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 

All the way from the Garden of Eden down to the cross of Christ, the substitution was this little animal that pointed to His coming and God would not permit human sacrifice.

But when His Son came into the world, His Son went to the cross and died: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ” Romans 8:32.

That cross became an altar on which the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world was offered. It is very important to see that.

Verse 14,  And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 

Abraham names this place which as we’ve said a great many people believe is where Solomon’s temple was built. Golgotha, the place of a skull, is right there on that same ridge where the temple stood. There Abraham offered his son, and it was there that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified.

This is a glorious, wonderful thing to see. Abraham calls the name of this place Jehovah–jireh, meaning Jehovah will provide. Here’s where God intervened in his behalf.

Verses 15 and 16,  Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son. 

Here’s a question.

Did Abraham do it? No, he did not offer his son, but God says to him, “Because you have done this thing….” You see, Abraham believed God, and he went far enough to let you and me know what God already knew, and to let the created universe know that he was willing to give his son based on what God said.

And so God counted it to him as if he had done it.

Abraham is justified by faith, but he is also justified before men by his works. Works of faith. He demonstrated that he had that faith.

“since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Notice how God plays upon that, because He gave His only Son.

Through this incident, God’s making it clear that there’ll have to be a Man to stand in the gap, there will have to be a Man capable of becoming the Savior of the race if anyone is to be saved.

That’s the great lesson given to us in this chapter. Abraham said that God would provide Himself a Lamb, and they found a ram and offered it. But God did provide a Lamb nineteen hundred years later in Christ. God stayed Abraham’s hand and did not let him go through with the sacrifice of Isaac because it would have been wrong. God spared Abraham’s son, but God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up freely for us all.

Genesis 22:17-8 now, …blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 

In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” 

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” What “seed” is God talking about here?

If you go to Galatians 3:16, you’ll find that Paul interprets what the “seed” means: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.”

Here we have the Bible’s own interpretation of the “seed.”

Going back to the eighth verse of Galatians 3, we find that Paul says this: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.

When did God preach the gospel to Abraham? God preached the gospel to him when He called upon him to offer his son Isaac upon the altar.

God says here, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” and that seed is Christ. This is the gospel as it was given to Abraham.

Now, we have a habit today of assuming that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the Old Testament worthies were great men but that they were not as smart as we are, that they didn’t know as much as we know.

However, Abraham knew a great deal more about the coming of Christ and the gospel than you and I give him credit for. In fact, the Lord Jesus said in John 8 verse 56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

So he must have known a great deal more than we realize. God had revealed much to Abraham, but the Savior was not yet come. We know today that He would not come for nineteen hundred years, but there on the top of Mount Moriah where Abraham offered Isaac was a picture of the offering and even of the resurrection of Christ!

After God called Abraham to offer Isaac, it was three days before he even got to Mount Moriah.

God gave Isaac back to Abraham alive on the third day; so that this is a picture of both the death and resurrection of Christ.

Paul says that God preached the gospel to Abraham, and certainly it was done here.

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Today the gospel of Christ has gone out pretty much to all the world. There are many who have not heard, that’s true even in our own midst, but nevertheless, the blessing has come to all nations. And the only blessing the nations have is through Christ.

“Because you have obeyed My voice.” That obedience rested upon Abraham’s faith, and faith always will lead to action. “Faith without works is dead.”

So we’ll leave of there today friends and next time we’ll continue with Abraham’s story. Until then may God bless you and comfort you with His unchanging Word.

So we’ll leave of there today friends and next time we’ll continue with Abrahams story. Until then may God bless you and comfort you with His unchanging Word.