The Decision of Abraham
Pastor Philip talked about Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac on Sunday. It has been an extremely stressful and long couple of days, so I'm going to share a sermon I wrote on that.
The passage we will discuss today is one of the more familiar passages of Scripture. It’s easy to read this event in isolation and marvel at Abraham’s faith. I want to set this in context.
We are introduced to Abram (later changed to Abraham) at the end of Genesis 11. The first time God speaks to Abraham is in Genesis 12. He is 75. God speaks again in chapter 13 and again in chapter 15. These next two interactions happen before Abraham is 86. That’s 3 times in 11 years.
God waits another 13 years before He speaks again, telling Abraham to name his son Isaac. Abraham is 99. In chapter 18, God speaks again. One year later, Isaac is born. Abraham is now 100, and Sarah is 90. This leads us to chapter 22. This is the last time Abraham hears from God. He is probably about 125 at this point. For the next 50 years after that, Abraham doesn’t hear from God again.
This might be a little difficult for us to understand. We have the entire Bible and centuries of sermons and Biblical teaching to rely on. At this point in Abraham’s life, there is no written account of God’s dealings with man. When we get to the events of today’s passage, Abraham has heard from God exactly FIVE times. That’s all. His entire understanding of Yahweh is based on the oral traditions passed on from Noah to his father Terah, and five interactions.
Look at the Book
Genesis 22:1-19
22 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about.4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, 7 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”
12 “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 16 “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that 17 I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. 18 And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then they returned to the servants and traveled back to Beersheba, where Abraham continued to live.
So again, it’s been about 25 years or so since Abraham has heard from Yahweh. Out of the blue, God tells him to take his only son with Sarah, the child of promise, and sacrifice him. There are a few very important points that you need to understand as you read this passage…
Test (1) – We see that this is a test. We all know that child sacrifice is not something Yahweh does, but Abraham doesn’t know that. Remember that there is no Bible, and this is only the fifth time God has EVER spoken to Abraham. What Abraham would have known up to this point is very limited.
Take (2) – When we read this in English, it sounds like Yahweh is commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. However, in Hebrew it is written in such a way that it is a request. God is ASKING Abraham to do this. Abraham could have refused, but he volunteers to obey. That really adds weight to what he does here.
Love (2) – This is the first appearance of the Hebrew word for “love” in the Bible. First use in the Bible is very important, and here we see that love is set in the context of sacrifice…a sacrifice by Abraham AND by Isaac.
Which all leads to this point as we set off looking at this passage. Abraham was faithful to God, but not to Isaac. We read this passage in the context of thousands of years of interpretation and understanding, but think of Abraham on THAT day. When God wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham argued with God and haggled Him down from 50 to 10 righteous people. He didn’t object at all to sacrificing Isaac. He didn’t ask, “Wait…I thought this was the promised heir.” Abraham doesn’t obey here. There is no command. He agrees. Maybe with heartbreak, maybe with tears, but without argument.
Now think about Isaac. His father argues for strangers in wicked cities, but not for him. How would you feel? Abraham’s faithfulness to God is faithlessness to Isaac, and it colors the rest of his life and his interactions with Esau and Jacob. Let’s look deeper in the passage.
Take (2) – As mentioned previously, this is written in Hebrew as a request. It is as if God says, “Please do this for Me.” There are only 5 times this is used in the Bible. The passages are:
Genesis 13:14-15
Genesis 15:5
Genesis 22:2 (today’s passage)
Exodus 11:2
Isaiah 7:3
In each case, God is asking someone to do something that defies reason. God could have just ordered them, but instead He asks. It’s an amazing thing to think that the Creator would ask rather than just tell.
We will return (5) – This is a key phrase in this passage. In verse 8, Abraham tells Isaac that God will provide a lamb for sacrifice. It is clear that Abraham thinks that something is going to happen. In Hebrews 11, we are told that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Regardless, Abraham walked up the mountain with the belief that he would walk back down with his son.
Tied (9) – The image we often see of Isaac in Bible story books is this young boy, but according to Jewish tradition, Isaac was in his 30’s. He was more than able to overpower his father. He allows himself to be bound and killed. He is as much a willing participant of this test as Abraham. The word used here is not just for the binding, but also for the marks that bondage would leave. Bondage usually leaves scars that signify that you were bound. It is much like Jesus carrying the marks of crucifixion after His resurrection. They are the marks of a fulfilled mission, of ultimate sacrifice. We’ll discuss this more at the end.
Behind (13) – This translation doesn’t include this word, but in the Hebrew what this passage literally says is that Abraham looked up “and behold a ram behind.” Some translations say, “…behind him…”, but that’s not what the text says. It’s a little piece of Hebrew that adds a lot to what we read. I’ve spoken of this before, but in Hebrew thought, we face the past and the future is behind us. We know the past, but the future is unknowable. It’s like someone in a rowboat. They fix their eyes on a point in the direction they’ve left and row to a point they cannot see. Here’ we are being let in on a little clue. Abraham saw the afterward-ram. God stops the sacrifice and allows Abraham to see a glimpse of the future. He sees an image of a coming sacrifice, not just for one beloved child, but for all humanity. Wow!
Yahweh-Yireh (14) – Abraham does NOT name this place “The Lord will provide.” He names it “Yahweh Yireh” which literally means, “Yahweh sees.” I did not know that until this very day. I grew up singing an old chorus, “Jehovah Jireh, my provider, His grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me.” It’s what has been taught, and it is an interpretation of the Hebrew that changes what the text says. Again, this is why it’s important to study in the original languages.
It is not named for God’s provision, but for God’s vision. God sees our need and provides a sacrifice. Just like Hagar proclaims, He is the God who sees! What’s more, a form of the verb “to see” is a technical term of the appearances of God. Abraham is making a bit of Hebrew wordplay here. Just as God sees Abraham, He continues to see Israel. He appears to them over and over. In fact, in the future, this is the very place where the Temple will be built and Christ will be crucified. In this place, Yahweh is continually seen.
TOOK
The passage ends with Yahweh reiterating the promised covenant. Abraham’s “seed” will be numerous, and all nations will be blessed through his descendants. As an aside, God doesn’t say “…because you obeyed me…” in verse 16. He literally says, “…because you have done this thing…”. Remember that it wasn’t a command, so it wasn’t obedience. It was agreement.
So what are you agreeing to? There are many things that God commands us to do, but many other things that God asks us to do. It’s within our power to say “no.” For instance, we are not commanded to fast, but we are invited to fast. We are not commanded to pray, but we are invited to pray. We are commanded to make disciples, but we are not given specific instructions on how. We are invited to be creative. There is much in following out Rabbi Jesus the Messiah that is in our own hands. The thing is that the blessing is tied to the journey. Would Abraham have received as large a blessing had he not chosen to sacrifice Isaac? I doubt it. The size of the blessing is related to the size of your decisions!
Do you want to know how well you have followed? Look at the signs of your bondage. Jesus tells us in Matthew that we cannot be bound to two masters. We have to choose one or the other. You can be bound to Christ, or bound to the things of this world. Not both. The marks of service to Christ should be obvious. We all know those people who carry the scars of service. We see the effects of the blessing of Yahweh in their lives.
The true mark of the fear of God is sacrifice. The true mark of love is sacrifice. Look at what was sacrificed for us! So what have you sacrificed following your master?
I want to add one final point here. Galatians 3 (quoting Genesis) says that Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness. How do we know he believed? Was it because he said he did? Was it because he wrote a nice paper about what it means to believe? No, it was through his ACTIONS! While it is true that Paul says, "It is by grace through faith you have been saved," it is also true that James says, "Faith without works is dead."
SONGS FOR SUNDAY
Battle Belongs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=johgSkNj3-A
At Your Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYj5cBXtRM
Tremble