Beginning in Genesis chapter
22 at verse 1, 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, which I shall tell you. 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. 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. 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.
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. And
Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his
son. The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said,
Abraham, Abraham. So he said, here I am. 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. 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.
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. And 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, 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 seat, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because
you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young
men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt
at Beersheba. Now it came to pass after these
things that it was told Abraham, saying, Indeed, Milcah has born
children to your brother Nahor. Haz, his firstborn, Buz, his
brother, Kemuel, the father of Aram, Kesed, Hadzo, Pildash,
Jidlaf, and Bethuel. And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These
eight, Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. His concubine,
whose name was Rumah, also bore Tebah, Gahum, Thahash, and Meachah. Amen. Well, as we come to this
particular chapter, it does seem to be the pinnacle of the trial
of Abraham's faith. And I want to look first at the
presentation of the test in verses 1 and 2. We are told at the outset
that it's a test of Abraham. Abraham, however, is not told
that. He does not know that he is presently being tested at
this particular time. And I think there's a good effect
on this for any subsequent reader. That we are alerted that it's
a test would indicate that we're not to engage in child sacrifice. We don't duplicate what happens
in this instance because it's a test given by God specifically
for Abraham. So we'll look at the presentation
of the test in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the obedience of Abraham
in verses 3 to 10. And then finally, the approval
of God in verses 11 and 19. Actually, finally is the family
of Nahor in verses 20 to 24. There is a reason why this is
appended here at the end of this particular story. But note first
the test in verse 1. It came to pass after these things
that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, Now, it came
to pass after these things. It's probably a bit of time has
transpired. In terms of Isaac's age at this
particular juncture, many put him at about 25. Calvin calls
him middle age. Whatever the case, according
to verse 6, he's able to carry the wood on his own. I would
suspect he's probably late teens, perhaps early 20s, but he is
nevertheless a young man, Abraham's son, the one that he loves. But
the reference that came to pass after these things does connect
us to what already transpired in chapter 21. Remember there
in chapter 21, Abraham had the very difficult task of sending
Ishmael away. He had to banish his son, Ishmael,
at the order of Sarah, God confirming what Sarah said was, in fact,
accurate. And so he's already had to rid
himself of this man Ishmael, and now he comes into this very
difficult situation. So as we look here, it says,
it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. If you
look for just a moment to the book of James, in James 1, we
have something concerning God and testing. In James 1 at verse
13, it says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by
God. For God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Well, in the Greek language,
the word tempt is the same word as test, and most often it's
the context which stipulates which one is to be viewed. Now
here in verse 13, James says that God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. The emphasis there is
that God doesn't solicit us to commit acts of evil. God doesn't
tempt us the way, say, a peer might tempt us to go in and steal
a candy bar. God does not solicit us to do
evil. But the tempting or the testing
that is in view are those things that God does to demonstrate
the faith of his people, and that is precisely what he's doing
here in Genesis 22 with reference to Abraham. Remember that scene
in Matthew chapter 4, the spirit leads Jesus out into the wilderness. Now, that is a temptation, of
course, from the devil, but it's the spirit who leads Jesus out
there. This is testing. That is seen or employed by God
for good ends. So the temptation here or the
testing here isn't the solicitation to engage in evil, but it's rather
to demonstrate the reality and the validity of Abraham's faith. And with reference to that statement
that it's a test, one man says, this information is imparted
to the reader, not divulged to Abraham, in order to remove any
possible misunderstanding that God requires human sacrifice
as such. Therefore, the purely probative
nature of the divine request is emphasized. Now the reader
knows that the son will not be slaughtered. So it is for us
so that we understand what's happening and we also know that
God's not calling on subsequent generations to actually engage
in child sacrifice. And then as well, notice the
location that God calls him to. In verse 2 it says, Then he said,
Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and
go to the land of Moriah. Now the land of Moriah is a very
interesting place. This is the place where David
would ultimately build an altar at the threshing floor of Ornah. And it would be the future site
of the temple that was built by Solomon. So already we see
this heritage. We already see this sort of significance
of the land of Moriah. And here foreshadowing, obviously,
those particular events, we see where they got their start in
terms of sacrifice and altars and burnt offerings. But as we
consider the object of the burnt offering here, it is most difficult
and most severe. Imagine if you were Abraham and
you had to banish your son Ishmael, whom you loved. Remember, Abraham
was not thrilled about that particular instruction of Sarah. In chapter
21 at verse 11, the matter was very displeasing in Abraham's
sight because of his son. He loved Ishmael. He didn't want
to send him out into the wilderness. Well, here now, God is asking
him to take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. Very descriptive and very similar
to the way that the New Testament describes the relationship between
our Lord Jesus Christ and His Father. Jesus is the only son
of the Father. He is the one whom the Father
loves. And so here God tells Abraham
to take this Isaac whom he's waited for so long to actually
receive. Remember it was about a 25 year
span between the first giving of the promise when Abraham comes
out of Haran into the promised land until the time of the birth
of Isaac. So it is a very severe predicament that he finds himself
in. He was promised, according to
Genesis 17, and then we see his birth in Genesis 21. And then
notice what he is supposed to do with them and offer him there
as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall
tell you. Now, I suspect that we read these
sorts of things so many times that we never stop to sort of
ponder what's involved in a burnt offering. If you wonder about
a burnt offering, you can turn to the book of Leviticus in chapter
1, verses 1 to 17, where it describes in detail what a burnt offering
looks like. Or I'll just read John Gill as
he comments on what Abraham is called to do with reference to
his son, his only son Isaac, the son whom he loved. He says
this was dreadful work He was called to. and must be exceeding
trying to him as a man and much more as a parent and a professor
of the true religion to commit such an action. For by this order
he was to cut the throat of his son, then to rip him up and cut
up his quarters, and then to lay every piece in order upon
the wood, and then burn all to ashes. And this he was to do
as a religious action with deliberation, seriousness, and devotion. I
think it's important that we get that. When we read there,
take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, up to
the land of Moriah, offer him there as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains of which I shall tell you, that is precisely
how Abraham would have understood it. He wouldn't have thought,
well, this is just a game, or this is just a bit of tag, or
we're going to have a nice family outing. No, this is an extremely
severe test placed upon the patriarch at this particular time. Now
notice the obedience of Abraham in verses 3 to 10. Notice preparation
in verse 3a. So Abraham rose early in the
morning. We saw that. in chapter 21 at
verse 14, when it came to the banishment of Ishmael. So Abraham
rose early in the morning. When God gives commands to Abraham,
Abraham rises early in the morning to fulfill those commands. If
I was going to moralize the chapter, that's certainly a good moral
principle. When God commands us, we need to obey him immediately. But in terms of his distress,
go back again to the situation facing Abraham and Ishmael. Notice in verse 14 of chapter
21, Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin
of water, and putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the
boy to Hagar and sent her away. The last thing he parts with
is Ishmael. There's this willingness and
this longing to hold on to Ishmael for as long as he can. And I
think you see something of the distress of Abraham here in verse
3a. Now, throughout this particular
chapter, it is the height of biblical literary art. It is
genius in terms of the composition. Many see this as the pinnacle
of biblical storytelling, and this is certainly a very appropriate
observation. To see these signs of distress
in the heart of Abraham, as you would naturally expect, These
biblical men were still men, and the thought of having to
part with an Ishmael or an Isaac is certainly a difficulty. Notice
in verse 3a, So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled
his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the
burnt offering, and rose and went to the place of which God
had told him. We typically get everything ready, and then we
start the car. He started the car and then got
everything ready. He saddled the donkey and then
he goes about and does these other things. Again, it may indicate
this distress, this foreboding, this reality that I have to march
up to Moriah and bury a knife in my son's throat and ultimately
offer him up unto God Most High. So when we look at a chapter
like this, we should try to enter in to the various or to the extreme
degree of what these persons are facing in this particular
instance. Now notice the journey in 3b
to 5. Verse 3b, he rose and went to
the place of which God had told him. Again, he's obedient. Then
on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar
off. The third day. Think about that. Three days
you get to think about what you get to do on Mount Moriah. John
Calvin comments here, for God does not require him to put his
son immediately to death, but compels him to revolve this execution
in his mind during three whole days. But in preparing himself
to sacrifice his son, he may still more severely torture all
his own senses. Could you imagine that? A three-day
march in the wilderness, realizing that when I get to my location,
I am going to offer up my son as a burnt offering. That's what
Calvin means. It tortures his senses as he contemplates the
gravity and the severity of the activity that he has been called
upon by God to engage in. And then notice the instruction
that he gives to the servants in verse 5. Notice what Abraham
does there. He calls him the lad. Again, I think that might be
a distancing of himself from the particular scenario, the
distress of it and the hardship of it. It's easier to see him
in a clinical sense, the lad. He's not my son. Not that that
doesn't obtain in the following passage in terms of Isaac's relationship
to Abraham and Abraham to his side. But here he says, the lad
and I will go yonder and worship. And then notice that his faith
is underscored when he says, and we will come back to you.
There's some discussion as to why Abraham says, we will come
back to you. Some speculate that it was a
bit of a white lie. He knew good and well that he
was going to kill his son, but he didn't want to tell the servants
that. Not sort of a way to encourage servants in your household. You
know, if you're willing to kill your only son, you know, the
son whom you love, you may not treat those servants very well.
So some speculate he may have just lied a little bit. He may
have believed that the Lord would stay his hand, that he wouldn't
actually have to go through with it. But I actually believe that
Hebrews 11, 19 or 17 and 19 gives us more of an emphasis on Abraham's
faith and tells us why Abraham is able to say, we will come
back to you. In Hebrews 11, 17 we 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. He understood
the power of God. This is an expression of his
faith. He says to them, we will come back to you. Not a white
lie, not the thought that God's going to stay in his hand, but
the confidence that the God who promised that in Isaac all the
nations of the earth would be blessed, that God, if Abraham
goes through with the execution, that God can raise him from the
dead so that he will be the son of promise. that was ordained
by Yahweh Himself. It is an expression of faith
with reference to the patriarch. Now, note the sacrifice. I would
imagine this is where it got most difficult for Abraham. While
the three servants are there, there's a buffer, right? Now
it's just Abraham and Isaac. It's just those two marching
that last however long to get to the place of execution. So
verse 6 says, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and
laid it on Isaac, his son. If you're starting to thank Jesus
just now, you should have been a little while ago, but that's
good to be thanking Jesus. Isaac is a type of Jesus. Isaac
is carrying his own wood, just like Jesus does in John's Gospel. Certainly, Simon the Cyrenian
helped bear the cross. John's emphasis is that Jesus
bore his cross. In fact, Wenham makes the observation
here. The wood on Isaac's back looks
forward to the moment when Isaac will be lying on his back on
the wood, with his father, knife in hand, ready to slay him. Thus
the wording here anticipates the moment of sacrifice itself. So he 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."
Again, I can only imagine what that would have been like to
go together with the son, knowing what is in the future with reference
to that son. Now, note Isaac's question of
verse 7. Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father,
and said, My father! How do you think that felt? My
father! No father in their normal day-in
day-out marches up to Moriah to execute the Son. John Calvin
again says God produces here a new instrument of torture.
Now, I want you to realize Calvin's not saying that God is some sadistic
meanie up there doing vicious things to Abraham so that God
can have, you know, kicks and giggles. That's not what he means.
He's talking about the severity of distress and the hardship
involved. Again, we know it's a test, and
as readers, hopefully, that have gone through this, we know how
it all turns out. But in terms of the actual Isaac saying to
Abraham, my father, Calvin says God produces here a new instrument
of torture by which he may more and more torment the breast of
Abraham, already pierced through with so many wounds. He says,
yet the holy man sustains even this attack with invincible courage. So we ought to pull away from
this. Faith keeps him going. You know, I've noticed this with
reference to church life, with reference to ministry, with reference
to just being a Christian. Perseverance over the long haul
is the key, isn't it? Perseverance over the long haul
is absolutely requisite. You see that not everybody does
that. Sometimes preachers send their way out of the ministry.
Sometimes believers show themselves as never having believed the
gospel. Sometimes churches want to mix it up a bit and bring
in donkeys and ponies and whatever to try to produce some more spunk
and spirit in the life and the ministry of the church. faithful
perseverance to the very end, notwithstanding the assaults
of the devil. And certainly when your son says,
my father, that would be a difficult task to try and get around. But as Calvin says, the holy
man sustains even this attack with invincible courage and is
so far from being disturbed in his proposed course that he shows
himself to be entirely devoted to God, hearkening to nothing
which should either shake his confidence or hinder his obedience. See, that's the resoluteness
that you and I need in our Christian lives. If we miss that or we
don't have that, we should go to Genesis 21 and 22 and saturate
our brains with the reality that Abraham was asked to do things
that you and I have never been nor will ever be asked to do. Things that are absolutely severe
and grave and absolutely epic in nature. And yet Abraham set
his face like a flint and persevered to Mount Moriah. Certainly we
can get up tomorrow and read our Bibles. Certainly we can
show up at church on Sunday. I mean, when you think about
what these brethren went through for the cause of God and truth,
And then you look around at the church today, and the sorts of
things we whine about, it's almost like we're not even in the same
ballpark. We're not even on the same team.
We're not even playing the same sport. We haven't even begun
when you consider an Abraham, and then you consider some of
the reasons why people don't read their Bibles, people don't
pray, and people don't attend church. I mean, come on. We need
to get real in terms of perseverance and faithfulness to the very
end. Now note Isaac's question. Again, Isaac's not five. Isaac
knows what's going on. Isaac is carrying wood. He's
either late teens, early 20s, mid 20s. Again, pool, following
probably Josephus and Archbishop Usher. They put him at 25 at
this particular time. So he's a bright bulb. He knows
what's happening. We've got the word. We've got
the fire. We've got the knife. All language
sacrificial in nature. Isaac sees these things. He's
been taught, obviously, about sacrifice. And so he asks this
very appropriate question. So he says, my father, and he
said, here I am, my son. He doesn't call him lad, he calls
him son. Then he said, look, the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? Now it's beautiful because in
the midst of this severe distress, Abraham never forgets theology.
Abraham doesn't lose an opportunity to preach Christ to Isaac. And
that's precisely what he does in verse 8. Notice in verse 8,
Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb
for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together.
Continues to show us that the two of them are going together.
Isaac asks this question. Abraham answers the question.
And he says, God will provide, notice, for himself, the lamb
for a burnt offering. Now, again, Wenham makes this
observation. And I think we need to get it.
We need to understand what's in view here. Is Isaac conscious
of what's happening? Does Isaac at this point realize
he's the lamb? Does Isaac at this point realize
there's no, you know, beast on all fours because Isaac is going
to be the one that is laying on that wood? Wenham says to
Isaac it must have sounded like evasion. Go back to verse 8.
My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for burnt offering.
That's true, right? And we know it in the larger
biblical context, that's Jesus Christ. But for Isaac, it's kind
of an evasive answer. Where is it? I mean, is he going
to pop out, you know, is he going to just appear on the top of
Mount Moriah? So it could have sounded ambiguous
or evasive to Isaac. So he says, to Isaac, it must
have sounded like an evasion. But he said nothing and went
on up the mountain. Isaac did. See, I think that
Abraham does tip his head. I think that Isaac does know
and that Isaac is expressing faith in his father the way that
his father expresses faith in God. He says, the two of them
went together. We are forced to conclude that
he was naive and totally trusted his father or that he now realized
what was planned. Yet he continued on up the mountain
with his father. Either way, this is imperative,
he was a perfect, blameless, sacrificial victim. He was appropriate
for the burnt offering. He fit the bill of goods, if
you will. Now, the fact that when Abraham
goes to bind Isaac, Isaac doesn't fight back would indicate that
Isaac was compliant, that Isaac did know what was happening,
and that Isaac willingly submits himself to the rule and leadership
of his father. Because if he's 20, he's 18,
he's 25, wherever he is in that range, He's able to take a hundred-year-old,
okay? He's able to stand and rebuff
an old man who's trying to tie him down and put him on an altar
so that he can cut his throat. He is a willing victim at this
particular point, conscious of the fact that his father is not
going to steer him wrong. that his father is obeying God
and there is no steering wrong when one obeys God. Notice the actual act in verses
9 and 10. They arrive at the place and
he builds the altar. 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." Again, I think this
indicates that Isaac knows at this point what's happening.
He is a willing victim. Again, typologically, it points
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, Abraham stretched out
his hand and took the knife to slay his son. This wasn't game
time, this wasn't practice, this wasn't acting, this wasn't role-playing. Abraham was going to kill his
son because God commanded him to kill his son. That is hardcore
faith, brethren. Again, it is not a command in
terms of other people subsequent to Abraham are supposed to kill
their children. That is not the case. We know
it's a test that's specified from verse 1 so that we'll never
get it into our heads that this is actually a requirement from
God. You know, people justify some of the most heinous things
in the world by saying, well, God told me. I guarantee you
God will never tell you to kill your child. God will never tell
you to abort them. God will never tell you to terminate
their lives at 12 or 13 or 15. That's just not going to happen.
This was a test designed for Abraham. But Abraham passes. Abraham perseveres. Abraham goes
to the very end by raising his hand with the knife and he's
going to bury it in the sun of his love. Now notice the approval
of God in verses 11 to 19. There is a command that's very
urgent in verse 11. The angel of the Lord called
to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. Again, that's
urgent because he was about to kill his son. Remember, God never
wanted, if I can use that language, for Abraham to kill his son. That was not the purpose of this
particular test. So the angel urgently tells him,
Abraham, Abraham, and Abraham says, here I am. And then notice
the specific command, do not lay your hand on the lab or do
anything to him. In other words, untie him, get
him up off that wood, and do not carry out this execution
or this burnt offering. God then gives the reason for
this. Do not lay your hand on the ladder,
do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you
have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Notice how
every time it refers to Isaac, it does so in that language that's
picked up by New Testament authors to describe the relationship
that obtains between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father. Now this is interesting when
he says, Now I know. That doesn't mean God has received
information that he didn't previously have. There is none of that with
God. The doctrine of God's omniscience
means he knows all things all the time. He doesn't engage in
discursive understanding. He doesn't learn. He doesn't
gain wisdom and knowledge. This is spoken in the manner
of men. This is what's called an improper
predication. It's speaking to us in language
that we can get our minds wrapped around to show us the progress
in the narrative. John Calvin explains it this
way. Truly, by condescending to the manner of men, God here
says what he has proved by experiment is now made known to himself.
And he speaks thus with us, I would say generally, not according
to his own infinite wisdom, but according to our infirmity. The
reason why he says, now I know. It's not that God didn't know
prior, God didn't ordain how all of this was going to turn
out. He is expressing to Abraham that Abraham has successfully
and faithfully passed the test that was given unto him. Now
this is beautiful in terms of the provision in verses 13 and
14. Remember Abraham had said to
Isaac, the Lord will provide. He does. Now, ultimately he's
pointing to Jesus, but typologically and even types and shadow wise,
we see this in verse 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. Look at the language
here. Instead of his son. We're always talking about substitutionary
atonement in our church. This is substitutionary atonement. He offers up this ram instead
of his son. The ram takes the place of the
son, just the way the Lord Jesus takes the place of all those
whom the Father had given him. And Abraham is marveling about
this, and he names the place Yahweh Yireh. The Lord will provide. as it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be provided." So Abraham successfully
perseveres, he expresses that faith, and the Lord God stops
him from executing his son and giving him up as a burnt offering.
The Lord then provides this ram whose horns were caught in the
thicket, and he offers this up instead of his son. Now notice
what God does. He confirms the promise that
he had already made. It says in verse 15, then the
angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and
said, by myself I have sworn. What does Paul tell us in Hebrews
6? God swears by himself because there ain't anything greater.
We swear by God or by Bible or by whatever. We shouldn't swear
by anything else. But God swears by his own name. And that's what he says here,
by myself I have sworn. says the Lord, because you have
done this thing and not and have not withheld your son, your only
son, 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 shall
possess the gate of their literally. It's of his enemies in your seat. All the nations of the earth
shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So God
confirms the promises, the multiplication of Abraham's descendants. As
well, he steps it up and shows it in a bit of a concrete application. There will be triumph and victory
over the enemies of God. Notice in verse 17, and your
descendants shall possess the gate of his enemies. Remember
when Samson takes those gates from Gaza, and he puts them on
his shoulders, and he takes them away? That's fulfillment of this. The elect of God, the chosen
champion of God, going in and possessing the gate of his enemies.
Well, it starts here in this promise to Abraham. And then
the blessing of all the nations of the earth in and through Abraham's
seed. Verse 18, in your seed all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed
my voice. Now we'll get to that in just
a moment, because papists like to suggest that God sort of changed
up. Initially, Abraham's faith was
accounted unto him as righteousness. Now it's his obedience, which
fits a Roman Catholic scheme, right? We start by faith, we
stay in by obedience. Is that what Moses is suggesting
with reference to God's promise or confirmation of the promise
here when he says, because you've obeyed, I'm going to do these
things. Because you've obeyed, I'm going to issue forth these
blessings. That's a question that needs to be dealt with,
and our dear brother James helps us to understand that. But let's
finish the chapter. Notice this family of Nahor in
verses 20 to 24. We might be inclined to think,
why did they put that here? Why did Moses stick that in here?
Well, think about the logic of the text. Abraham, I'm going
to multiply your descendants. And it's going to be through
who? Isaac, right? The one that you were about to
offer up as a burnt offering. Abraham, stay your hand. Do not
execute him. Because you've obeyed, I'm going
to multiply your descendants. Well, if Isaac is going to be
instrumental in this multiplication of descendants, Isaac's going
to need him a wife. He finds that wife in chapter
24, but that wife is introduced here in the family of Nahor in
verse 23. And Bethuel begot Rebekah. This is an absolutely crucial
genealogy in the flow of the narrative so that when we get
to chapter 24 and Isaac needs a bride, Rebekah is there for
her so that he can, in fact, be that seed in whom the blessing
of God will come through the Lord's hand. So that's sort of
an overflow or an overview of the chapter. A couple of thoughts
before we close. First, the faith of Abraham.
Now, the faithful perseverance of Abraham is evident. Again,
you know, if you ever just feel like you're really challenged
in your Christian life, man, it'd be good to read Genesis
22. We need to be humble, don't we? We need to be knocked down
a rung or two. We oftentimes think that, you
know, we're the only ones that have these issues. We're the
only ones that face these troubles. We're the only ones that... Well,
we see just the opposite. What happened with Lot? His soul
was vexed day by day when he saw the lawless deeds of those
men in Sodom. Every single day he struggled
with that. You look at the book of Hebrews
and you see that great hall of faith in chapter 11. If you look
at each of those individuals specified, they didn't live in
utopia. They didn't live on the moon
where there was only good and happy things. They didn't live
out in meadows where there were unicorns and candy canes. That
just wasn't the way it was. They had really hard lives. We
think, oh, I've got this problem in my family. Hey, let me introduce
you to Abel. He had a real problem in his
family. We live in such a godless world. Let's talk about Noah.
God actually destroyed the entirety of the earth at the time of Noah.
You see, every issue that we face, somebody's already faced
it, and probably a lot more severe than you or I have. So when we
come to the end of our rope or the end of our tether and we
think, well, I just don't think I can go on anymore, go to Genesis
chapter 22 and leave the lads behind and just saddle up with
your son, your only son, the one you really love, and take
him up to Mount Moriah to execute him for Jehovah. That's really
some persevering faith, I would suggest. As well, when it comes
to the life of faith, we ought to expect not, you know, be shocked
by, not, wow, I can't believe it, but we ought to expect trials,
afflictions, and suffering in the life of faith. Now, I don't
think it's all that, and I've said that on many occasions.
God's good. I mean, right now, it's a beautiful
night. You know, we might be thinking, oh, it's too hot. We're
never happy. I mean, if it's raining, we're
gonna complain about that. If it's too hot, we're gonna
complain about that. There's always something, but we have
it pretty good for the most part. But there's always going to be
trials, afflictions, and hardships in the Christian life. Why would
we think otherwise? Why would we delude ourselves
into a Benny Hinn-ish gospel, thinking that it's going to be
fairies and unicorns and candy canes? That's not reality from
the lips of the Savior. He said, in this world, you will
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
It's not reality when we come to our brothers and sisters in
the faith, and we see what they had to endure and go through.
And then in terms of this whole idea of obedience, what does
obedience manifest according to James? Obedience manifests
the presence of genuine faith in James 2.20. He says, Do you
want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac
his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working
together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So he
believes God in Genesis 15. When he takes Isaac up to Mount
Moriah, this is evidence. These works are consequential.
These are the effects and the fruits of the faith that he has
in God. So it's not the case that God
says, OK, your faith was good enough up until now. Now you're
an obedient servant. Now I'm going to convey these
things. No, the obedience of Abraham in going to Moriah with
Isaac manifests the validity and the trueness of his saving
faith. This is not a Roman Catholic
thing. This is a biblical thing reflected
well in our confession of faith. The faith that justifies is alone,
but it doesn't remain alone, but it's accompanied by all other
saving graces. Vis-a-vis, justification inevitably
leads to sanctification. Justification inevitably leads
to the producing of good works. And that's what you see in Genesis
chapter 22, and that's consistent with James's exposition. Do you
see? That's the whole point in James
2, 14 and following. It's about seeing, it's about
recognizing, it's about tangibility with reference to a profession
of faith. Paul deals with persons that need a great big dose of
justification by faith alone. Not that he's devoid of works,
because in 2 8 to 10, with reference to Ephesians, he speaks of good
works in the same way that James does. But James' primary emphasis
is with deadbeats. They profess faith in Jesus Christ,
but they give no manifesting evidence. They give no demonstration
or declaration. And that's the point. In 2.14,
what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith
but does not have works? Can faith save him? Literally,
it's, can that faith, can that kind of faith save him? No, because
anybody that has faith, it will issue forth in good works. So
Abraham is a case study in that whole subject for James. Do you
see that faith was working together with his works, and by works
faith was made perfect? Again, you've got to read James
properly. He is not a papist. He is a Protestant. And the scripture was fulfilled,
which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. So back to Genesis chapter 22. We ought to conclude by looking
at the typological significance of this passage. the typological
significance. What types do we see in this
particular section? We could probably be here for
a while, but we'll just try to confine ourselves. First, the
event itself. You know what the event points
to, initially, is the exodus. A three days journey into the
wilderness so that Israel can worship their God. That's really
pretty obvious in terms of a connection. But with reference to the act
of sacrifice, it typifies the Passover, and it ultimately typifies
for us what happens at Calvary. So the event itself is riddled
with symbolic significance for later redemptive history. Now
in terms of the patriarch himself, Abraham, Abraham and God the
Father parted with their sons, their only sons, the sons whom
they love. They both do that. Abraham and
God the Father parted with their only sons to do what? To benefit
the earth, right? Abraham is motivated by the promise
of God that in your seat all the nations of the earth will
be blessed. So as far as Abraham is concerned, whatever God tells
me, I need to obey it for the benefit of the blessing of the
people on earth. Of course, God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. So there is typological
significance between Abraham and the father, but there is
a fundamental disconnect. See, when Abraham's about to
drop the knife into his son, the angel of the Lord stops him.
No angel of the Lord stopped Yahweh when it came to bruising
the son of Islam. In Isaiah 53, we read, it pleased
Him to crush the son. It pleased Yahweh to crush that
servant of the Lord. Romans 8.32, Paul says, "...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?" Now
angels stopped the hand of God when it came time to execute
the Savior. And then the only begotten son,
Isaac. Isaac, like Christ, was the only
son. Now again, people are going to
say, well what about Ishmael? Yes, he was a son. but the son of
the bondwoman. We're talking about the son of
the woman of promise. We're talking about the covenant
of grace. We're talking about Sarah and
her seed. That's why God says, your only
son. He's not dissing Ishmael. He's
not saying Ishmael is a terrible human. None of that. The emphasis
falls on the reality that Isaac is the one in whom the blessing
of God will come. And then as well, Isaac, like
Christ, bore the wood for the sacrifice. And then Isaac, sort
of unlike Christ, was the recipient of substitutionary atonement,
wherein Christ was actually the victim with reference to substitutionary
atonement. So Abraham offers up this ram
whose horns were caught in the thicket instead of his son. So
Isaac benefits from substitutionary atonement. Christ, however, actually
becomes the substitutionary atonement wherein the rest of us can in
fact benefit. And then, incidentally, the ram
is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. That ram, whose horns
are caught in the thicket, points us forward to the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world. That ram was placed on
that altar instead of Isaac. The Lord Christ, the great Lamb
of God, was placed on that cross instead of you and I. So if you read Genesis 22 and
you don't see Christ, please don't let that happen again.
Christ is through and through, Genesis 22. It is a fantastic
chapter preaching Jesus in the Old Testament. Well, let's close
in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this
passage, this section of Holy Scripture. We thank you for the
types and the shadows and the things that point us forward
in redemptive history. And we thank you for the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world. We thank you that
you provide and that this one provides that substitutionary
atonement, that he went to that cross instead of the elect. how
we praise you for these great truths, how we praise you for
the great faith expressed by Father Abraham in this passage,
and certainly we know that it was because you sustained him,
because you granted him grace, because you upheld him by your
mercy and by your kindness. God help us when we reflect upon
such things to be encouraged and strengthened in our God,
and help us to persevere for the long haul, even in the difficulties,
the trials, and the afflictions that come our way. We ask that
you would go with us now. We pray that you'd bless us in
this week and help us to be faithful servants unto you. And we pray
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
