We can turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 22, for our meditation tonight before the Lord's Supper, Genesis chapter 22. In the history of interpretation, this has been referred to as the binding of Isaac. I'll read verses 1 to 19, we'll pray, and then we'll look at this particular instance in Holy Scripture. So Genesis 22 beginning in verse 1.
Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and he 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. 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 mountain of the Lord it shall be provided. 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. 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.' So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for what we find in this passage of scripture.
Abraham told to take his son, his only son, and offer him up as a sacrifice. Certainly we see the connection between God the Father and God the Son, the only begotten Son of the Father, the one beloved by the Father, was ultimately delivered up for us men and for our salvation. We thank you, we pray that you would guide us now in our thoughts concerning this passage of scripture, and may it draw from us worship and praise and adoration to such a great and glorious God that has provided the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Again, forgive us for all of our sin and unrighteousness and guide us by the presence and power of your Holy Spirit.
And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, obviously a sober passage of scripture, a very serious situation going on with reference to Abraham. So I want to look first at the presentation of the test. The author tells us this is a test for two reasons. One, to indicate that God does not demand child sacrifice, but as well, two, to show us something of the faithfulness and fidelity of 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 by God in verses 11 to 19.
Presentation of the Test
So let's look first at verse 1. Notice it says, now it came to pass after these things. We ought not to miss the connection here between this chapter and chapter 21. Abraham has already undergone grief in terms of his family.
Remember that he cried out for a seed, one that would be the inheritor of his family. his promises and he wanted it to be Ishmael and God said no it's not going to be Ishmael rather it's going to be Isaac but nevertheless he loved Ishmael he had that son by the bondwoman Hagar well in chapter 21 he is sent away he is banished he is gone he is removed from the presence of Abraham and again a very difficult situation for a man when you look at chapters 21 and chapter chapters 21 and 22 I don't want to get too psychological with it, but Abraham was a real man with real flesh and real blood and real affections and a real love for the seed that came from him. So he loved these sons. Already in chapter 21 he has to part with Ishmael and here in chapter 22 he is told that he is going to part with Isaac. So that's the connection.
Notice as well, it says in verse 1, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. James tells us that God doesn't test people. Well, the Bible uses that word test or temptation in two particular ways. One is a solicitation to do evil, and that's what James is referring to.
In the other instance, it's a test somewhat like we see in a passage like this. Now, you would say it's evil to kill your son, but again, we are being forewarned that that is not the intention in this particular chapter. The author alerts the reader to the fact that this is, in fact, a test. But Abraham doesn't know this.
As far as Abraham is concerned, he is trusting God, he is walking by faith, and he is doing what he is called to do. One commentator, a Jewish commentator, actually 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.
Again, we're told in verse 1, we're alerted that this is in fact a test, but Abraham does not know this information. Notice as well the location. It says in verse two, then he said, take now your son, your only son. When God speaks concerning Isaac to Abraham, that's how he refers to him.
Your son, your only son, the one whom you love. Again, reminiscent in light of the new covenant of the only begotten son of the father, the beloved by God, even Jesus Christ our Lord. So notice, go to the land of Moriah. Now, Moriah would be the place where David would build an altar, the threshing floor of Arana, in order to atone so that God's wrath would not be spent on Israel.
That's 2 Samuel 2, 15 to 25. I actually don't think it's 2, I think it's probably 24. I just have a misprint in my notes. But as well, it's the future site of the temple in Jerusalem.
So Moriah is a very significant place in terms of biblical geography. Moriah is the place of sacrifice. Moriah is the place where God's wrath is atoned for. And that's the place where he is told to take this young man, Isaiah.
So notice then, with reference to the test,
Severity of the Demand
the specific object involved, the willingness of Abraham. Go back for just a moment at the end of verse one. So God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. Then he said, take now your son, your only son, 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.
So the willingness of Abraham is seen there, here I am, but the severity of the demand, Take now your son and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." For those of us who've been going through the Wednesday night Bible study, we're on a bit of a hiatus right now, but we'll notice that, or we remember that in Leviticus chapter 1, we find what the burnt offering is. That is a whole offering. That is when the offered, the victim, is wholly and absolutely consumed. And so Abraham, knowing this, understood the ramifications and the implications of this particular request by God Most High.
Notice what he does not do. He doesn't resist God, he doesn't reject God, he doesn't say no to God, but he makes preparations to obey God and to walk in faithfulness before Him. So the burnt offering is a very serious situation. In fact, listen to John Gill.
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. I want to make these observations along the way, again, not to psychoanalyze Abraham, not to put him on our couch and to see what makes him tick, but rather as an exemplar of faith. Faith is faith even in the midst of hardship. Faith is faith even in the midst of adversity.
Faith is faith even in the midst of affliction. We can't say, well, I'm going through this, I'm going through that, I'm going through this, so I'm just not going to go to church. I'm just not going to read my Bible. I'm just not going to pray.
I'm not going to go to the Lord's Supper, because after all, I'm suffering. I'm afflicted. I'm having hardship. Brethren, we need to remember that many people before us and many people at our present time go through distress and difficulty and affliction the likes that we don't even know.
And yet they maintain fidelity. Look at the history of the Christian Church. Look at the subject of martyrdom. Look at what the people of God have undertook on behalf of their commitment to the Lord Most High.
They didn't whine, they didn't grumble, they didn't complain. Rather, they steadfastly set their face like a flint to follow after Jesus wherever he bid them go. And I think this is a very helpful lesson for us as we observe Abraham. In the midst of the furnace of affliction, he nevertheless walks in faith before his God.
So again, back to Gil. 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.
But it's in a different light when you contemplate it from that particular vantage point. This isn't an empty sort of formalistic religious exercise. This is a whole soul commitment to the true and living God. It makes us attending worship, attending church, look like a walk in the park.
And yet so many times we can't be bothered. We've got other things to do. We've got other commitments. We've got other issues.
We've got other problems. Learn from the father of the faithful to obey God no matter the circumstances, to obey God no matter the difficulties, to obey God no matter what may come our particular way. Abraham is a faithful man. Abraham walks by faith and not by sight and that's evidence here in the binding of Isaac.
So
Obedience of Abraham
notice secondly the obedience of Abraham in verses 3 to 10.
Abraham's Preparation
We'll note first the preparation. This must have been a difficult task for this patriarch in terms of preparing for this activity. You know how that is. You've got a difficult thing you've got to do.
You get the butterflies in your stomach. You get that response physically to the very difficult thing that you are facing. You're filled with anxiety and hardship and woe, and you possibly worry about everything that's going to come your way. I don't know the psychology of Abraham, but if he's like any other man, any other father, any other parent, he certainly has that distress all around him at this crunch time.
So notice with reference to his preparation, verse 3, so Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey. Same pattern that we saw in 21, 14. Notice when he banishes Ishmael. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took a bread and 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.
Then she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. He does the same thing here in verse 3 of chapter 22. So Abraham rose early in the morning, 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. It's intriguing.
He does the most difficult task last. Usually we get everything prepared and then load the car and then off we go. He loaded the car and then did the last and most difficult task. Notice he rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and then he split the wood for the burnt offering.
That's the most difficult part of this transaction. That wood for the burnt offering is going to be that wood that consumes his son, his only son, the son whom he loves. So he puts that off as it were, and I think that indicates something about times of distress. We oftentimes don't think in our right minds.
I'm not suggesting he's out of his mind, but if you think about the book of Lamentations, I just want to kind of illustrate this. I think this is something about the human condition. The Book of Lamentations is a genius literary piece. The five chapters are all alliteration.
So basically, each verse starts with a Hebrew letter. And it goes from A to the end of the Hebrew alphabet. So there's four chapters that are 22 verses for the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The fifth chapter, I may be a chapter off.
I didn't look at this beforehand. But the fifth chapter is 66 verses. So you've got A, A, A, B, B, B, B, B, C, C, C, that sort of a thing. Actually, G, G, G, if we're going to the Hebrew alphabet.
And then the last chapter, there's none of that. Not at all. Why? Because distress does that to us.
We like to have everything in order. We like to have everything in its place. But when the crunch time comes, we kind of lose our minds a little bit. Again, I'm not suggesting this with reference to Abraham, but the pattern is interesting.
He gets everything ready except for that wood. He waits till the very end because I think that wood represents the gravity of the situation.
The Three-Day Journey
Now notice the particular journey that they take. The end of verse three. It says, Anna rose 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 up.
This wasn't an hour-long journey. They didn't jump in the jetta, turn on the air conditioning, drive up to, you know, the backside of Shem, and then, you know, hike their way up there for an hour later. This was a three-day journey. This is three days to contemplate the burnt offering, to contemplate your only son, the son whom you love, and the fact that you need to present him now as a burnt offering unto God.
Listen to Calvin. 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, that in preparing himself to sacrifice his son, he may still more severely torture all his own senses. In other words, this three-day journey is no walk in the park. This isn't just a vacation.
This isn't a holiday. This wasn't recreation time. This was hardship in the mind of this patriarch who, nevertheless, walks by faith. Again, brethren, the thought that, wow, this is a difficult task.
I just don't think I can do it. Well, God gives grace and enables us to do it. We need to be faithful. We need to be obedient.
We need to be compliant. And we need to understand that, ultimately, all things are under His sovereign control. And we will see that Abraham acknowledges that. Abraham understands that.
Abraham knows that. He walks and he talks and he moves as a man who has tried and proven that his God is in fact faithful. Notice the instruction given to his servants. Verse 4, 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 the isolation of Abraham, he can't take the servants on this one. This is between him and Isaac and God.
He must go it alone. As well, notice the psychological distancing. I've said I'm not going to psychoanalyze him, and I'm psychoanalyzing him. But notice how he refers here in verse 5 to the lad.
Not my son, the son that I love, my only son, but it's the lad here. It's a bit of that distancing in terms of the situation at hand. But then notice his expression of faith at the end of verse 5. He says, and we will come back to you.
He doesn't say, I will come back to you. He says, we will come back to you. What does he mean there? He means exactly what he says.
Whatever's going to happen on Mount Moriah, understanding the specific demand placed upon him by Yahweh in terms of a whole burnt offering, he understands and recognizes by faith that he and the lad will return. Well, the Apostle, and I take it as Paul, in the book of Hebrews, comments in the Hall of Faith, in chapter 11, verses 17 and 19, he says, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. See, Paul uses that language there of only begotten son to link Isaac and Jesus, to see the typology, to see the prefigurement, to see the foreshadowing.
That's going to be the bulk of the application tonight, is the typology involved in chapter 22 of the book of Genesis. So he 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. Now notice what he goes on to say, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. So as Abraham journeys to Moriah with his son, his only son, his son that he loves, and he understands the demands of the command and the demand of God in terms of a whole burnt offering, he understands that if he does drive that knife into his son's heart, God's able to raise him up.
You talk about faith, and you talk about walking by faith. He understood that. If at Moriah, I carry out this task, and there's probably no if at all involved in it, because Abraham does precisely what God commands. He knows that if he kills him, he knows that God will raise him up.
Why? Because God has promised that in Isaac, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That promise to Abraham, that promise to Isaac, that promise to Jacob, that is ultimately terminated on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the son of promise.
He is the seed of Abraham. And so Abraham understands the blessing of the world, the blessing of the nations, the blessing of all families of the earth rests upon that seed. And so if he is called upon to terminate that seed, then God will raise that seed from the dead. And so he says to the servants, we will return.
Now notice, in terms of the obedience of Abraham in verses 6 to 10, we have the actual act of sacrifice. Note again the preparation. Verse 6, 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.
Now, commentators speculate on how old Isaac was at this particular time. I think Matthew Poole and James Usher suggest that he was 25. Late teens to early 20s, he was certainly understanding of the fact that there was no sacrifice or no animal victim for the sacrifice, as he asks in just a moment. But he had to be somewhat strong.
You don't load up a two-year-old with wood to carry it up Mount Moriah so that you can lay him down on that wood. So he's obviously conscious. He's a young adult. He understands what's happening. in terms of this particular act.
One commentator with reference to the wood laid upon Isaac, Gordon Wenham says, 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 the sacrifice itself. And of course, he has the fire and the knife. And he understands the implications of fire, knife, and wood.
He understands what it is he has to do. Again, just as we think about the various difficulties that we undergo, pretty positive none of us have ever had to gone through this. Pretty positive none of us will ever have to go through something like this. Whatever God has in store for us, it is probably not going to be this severe of a test, this severe of a distressing situation, this severe of a hardship.
And when it comes to this severe of a test and a hardship, the man that God calls is the man that God furnishes with the grace to persevere in the midst of it. I always marvel about that in times of, you know, martyrdom. You see these saints that suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ. You see these saints that go willingly to the cross. or to the steak, or to the fire, whatever it is that the godless have for them.
And you wonder, would I have the ability to do that? I mean, I don't know. I'm going to go home tonight, eat a peanut butter jelly sandwich, and go to bed. I don't know if on the way home somebody captured me and took me somewhere and threatened me with certain death.
I don't know if I'd wander into those flames with the kind of gusto and relish that the brothers of old have. We need to trust God for the grace necessary in a particular day. When we have a demand or a need, rather, for that kind of grace, we can trust our good God to give that kind of grace. He is wise.
He is infinitely knowledgeable. He has us under His control. And if He calls upon us to suffer in a great distress, we can trust Him to provide what we need to go through that distress in a manner that is glorifying to Him and that brings us to the end. of ourselves. So we see this in Abraham.
Isaac's Question and Abraham's Answer
Now here comes the question of Isaac, verse 7. So 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?
So the end of the silence is with my father. Again, probably a difficult thing when you know what's in store, when you know what's at stake, and you know what is going to happen. Listen to Calvin again. 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.
Yet 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. This is faith, brethren. This is faith. What is faith?
Well, obviously, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be repentance. There will be that evidence that we, by God's grace, have died to sin, died to ourselves. We're alive now in Christ Jesus.
But there's that daily maturation of faith. How do we get that kind of faith? Well, I'm not exactly sure with reference to that kind of faith, because I don't think I have that kind of faith. But I think the way to pursue it is through the use of the means that God has ordained.
We don't get that kind of faith by neglecting our Bibles. We don't get that kind of faith by neglecting prayer. We don't get that kind of faith by neglecting the corporate means of grace. We get that kind of faith by maintaining communion with God.
We get that kind of faith by asking the Lord to increase our faith. Remember that instance in Luke's gospel when Peter comes to Jesus and he says, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother in a given day? Seven times? Peter probably thought he was magnanimous in that.
Seven times? I mean, how many of us, you know, seven times in a day? Well, I mean, we're mostly all parents, so we know what that's like, but seven times in a day? What does Jesus say to him?
No, Peter. Not seven times, seven times 70. And the point there is not count it. The point is not there, well, you know, once you get to seven times 70, that seven times 71, probably not good math, you cut them off and you stop that.
No, that's not the point. The point is be large hearted, be like God, be gracious and generous and be forgiving. Do you know what the apostles say after Jesus says that? They say, Lord, increase our faith.
Isn't that an amazing thing? In order to function appropriately toward one another, we need an increase in faith. In order to function appropriately before our God when it comes to tests or hardships or afflictions or difficulties, so that we don't lose our ever-loving mind, we need an increase in faith. Abraham doesn't just come to this place.
Abraham has grown in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Abraham has proved and tried and proven as God that he is, in fact, faithful. And so he asks the question and then Abraham gives him a theology lesson. Notice specifically in verse eight, Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.
So the two of them went together. God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. You know what Abraham's doing here? He's preaching Christ to Isaac.
Not some nebulous, vague, ambiguous thought of Christ, but from our study in the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and he was glad. You know, one of the pieces of evidence or one of the promises that furthered Abraham's faith was this very instance. He already had a robust faith in the coming of the Savior.
Here, this only increases it by the way of typology. The fact that Isaac himself functions as what Jesus will function as, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Wenham, again, says to Isaac, it must have sounded like evasion when he says, God will provide for himself the Lamb for a burnt offering. He says, but he said nothing and went up on the mountain.
Which I think speaks very favorably of Isaac. Whatever Abraham was doing in terms of his home life, he was doing it well. And I think that is, you know, what we see in Genesis chapter 18 with reference to Abraham. If you look back at Genesis chapter 18, specifically at verse 16, Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom.
This is the announcement of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. So we see the fruition of that in the life of Isaac, a young adult man, understanding the implications at this point of what's going to happen, or having a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. I mean, it was somewhat vague in the sense of a direct answer. The Lord will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.
Isaac was certainly smart enough to realize that didn't really answer the question But I'm gonna march onward with my father anyway because my father has taught me to trust in Yahweh My father has trust taught me to trust in the living God and I'm gonna follow my father up to Moriah and I'm gonna undergo whatever he says
The Act of Sacrifice
Now that brings us then to the actual act in verses 9 and 10 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. Again, you get no sort of indication that Isaac fought him, that Isaac resisted him, that Isaac said, wait a minute, dad, that's not what we talked about here. He goes along with it.
He complies with it. He's a willing victim as it were. So this occurs and then Abraham stretches out his hand and takes the knife to slay his son. So they prepare the altar.
Isaac is bound and placed upon the altar, and then he stretches out his hand with the knife.
Approval by God
And that brings us ultimately to the approval by God in verses 11 to 19.
God's Command to Stop
Notice the command by God. Don't do it. Don't do it. This has been a test.
Verse 11. But 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. So there's an urgency involved. The angel of the Lord doesn't want Abraham to lay the knife into Isaac. That was not the intention.
The intention was to test him. Do not lay your hand on the ladder, do anything to him. And then that reason, for now I know that you fear God. You need to understand that is written in the language, in the manner of men.
God doesn't acquire knowledge the way we do. God does not learn discursively. God doesn't sit down at the table and look at 2 plus 2 and then, oh, that inevitably leads to 4. This is written in the manner of men.
It's capitulation to us in our low degree. It is, as it were, an accommodation by God to encourage Abraham with the reality that he has successfully passed the test. The Lord doesn't come to know. This is written in the manner of men.
The actual technical language is that it's a an improper predication concerning God. Calvin says this, truly by condescending to the manner of men, God here says that what he has proved by experiment is now made known to himself. And he speaks thus with us, not according to his own infinite wisdom, but according to our infirmity. The language is written to accommodate God to us so that we get it, so that we understand it, so that we appropriate it, and so does Abraham.
So when it says, now I know, God doesn't move from a state of not knowing to a state of knowing. That is impossible with reference to God. God knows all things. God is over all things.
God is omniscient. So this is for us.
The Provision of the Ram
Now notice in terms of the provision by God. So Abraham's theology lesson with reference to Isaac gets now a token, gets now a type, gets now some prefigurement pointing forward to the Messiah who is to come. And that's precisely what you see there in verses 13 and 14. So 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. Note this next phrase, instead of his son. It is a substitute. It stands in the place of.
It takes the place of. It is substitutionary atonement. It is substitutionary curse bearing. So this ram takes the place of Isaac.
And then notice, Abraham calls that place, the Lord will provide, Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. So the Lord God gives him this token for the benefit of himself, for the benefit of Isaac, and for the benefit of all Israel that would read concerning Lassiah. When we ask the question in John chapter 8, how did Abraham see Jesus' day?
He saw it in that ram caught in the thicket. He saw it as fulfilling his theology lesson in verse 8 that the Lord would in fact provide. He saw it with the eyes of faith and he understood that and that carried him further and further. Again, brethren, I don't want to keep beating us over the head, but Abraham didn't have Genesis to Revelation.
He had Genesis, you know, 1 to 21 up to this point. He didn't have the great body of data that we now have. And yet his faith in many ways outshines us tremendously, outshines the church tremendously. Why is that?
Again, I believe it's because he communed with God. He believed the promises of God. He understood they were yea and amen in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Confirmation of the Covenant Promise
And then finally, we see the confirmation of his promise to Abraham that he had made previous to this. Notice 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, 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 or his enemies, God's 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 that's interesting language there, again in verse 15, by myself I have sworn. Paul picks that up in Hebrews chapter six. He speaks of God swearing an oath.
We need to understand that the oath that God swears is not for God, it's for us. See, when we stand in a courtroom and we raise our right hand and we say, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, it is an attestation of our fidelity. to the courtroom. It is to provide for us the seriousness of the testimony we're supposed to give. When God takes an oath or swears by himself, he is truth itself.
This is how David addresses him. He is the Lord God of truth. Jesus describes himself or uses that I am in John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Titus 1.1 tells us that God cannot lie. We ask the question, can God do all things? Yeah, he can do all his holy will, but there are what John Murray calls divine cannots. He cannot deny himself.
He cannot lie. He cannot engage in wickedness. So when he swears this oath, it's for the benefit of Abraham. It's kind of like Genesis chapter 15, and these two passages are utilized by James in James chapter 2.
Not to teach justification by words. Abraham is justified in Genesis 15-6 when he believes God and it's accounted unto him for righteousness. That faith in God, that faith in the Lord Jesus, is demonstrated here in Genesis 22 by his works of obedience. That's how James handles it in James chapter 2.
And in Genesis 15, after Abraham believes God and it's accounted to him for righteousness, Abraham asks God about the nature of the covenant promise. He says, how am I supposed to know that you're going to bring this about and that I will have a great multitude of descendants? So God confirms it by way of covenant. He tells Abraham to take animals, cut them in half, put them on either side, and then the parties of the covenant walk between them.
The idea is, the significance of this is to demonstrate that if one or both parties are unfaithful in terms of the covenant, may whatever happened to these animals happen to them. So what is that? God condescends to answer Abraham's question via covenant in Genesis 15. God condescends here to reiterate the promise by this oath of confirmation.
Philip Hughes comments on the Hebrews passage. He says that God should bind himself by an oath is a reflection, not on the divine credibility, but on the perversion of the human situation. God's oath indeed, though in itself redundant since his word is absolute truth, is a condescension to human frailty. So again, that oath is for the benefit of Abraham.
God doesn't need a reminder of the solemnity and the seriousness of the covenant promises that he has entered into. No, God gives that for him. And then the confirmation of those promises, the multiplication of his descendants, the victory over his enemies, and the blessing of all the nations of the earth in Abraham's seed.
Application
So in conclusion, the Lord calls upon Abraham to engage in a very difficult task. In a very difficult task, Abraham bears up by the grace of God in terms of walking by faith, and God blesses by way of confirming to him the promises that he had given. So I want to suggest that we ought to observe the faith of Abraham, faithful perseverance in the midst of hardship. Faithful perseverance in the midst of trial.
It's easy to be a fair-weather fan, right? I'm not a hockey fan, but I suppose it's easy to root for the Canucks when they're doing well. It's not easy to root for the Canucks when they're not doing well. You call that a fair-weather fan, the person that no longer wants the Canucks, but they go after the, you know, the one that's really winning.
Well, brethren, it's easy to be a fair weather Christian. I mean, you know, as I said, we go home tonight, we probably aren't going to get abducted. You know, Boko Haram isn't going to run out of the, you know, from the slough, the hope slough and capture us and take us to some dungeon and poke out our eyes or pull out our fingernails. I mean, all in all, we got it pretty good, right?
I mean, there's some increasing, some things that look like there's some things perhaps on the horizon. There's some things to be, a bit concerned about in terms of government oppression and that sort of thing, but for the most part right now, none of us have been, you know, having to, you know, evade, you know, machine gun mounts on the way to church tonight. So it's very easy on the one hand to serve God when everything's going well. We need to serve God when everything's not going well.
We need to serve God in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. We need to resolve with David the psalmist, I will not fear for thou art with me. Even in the valley, the shadow of death, God is with us. And his rod and his staff, they comfort us.
We ought to learn from Father Abraham perseverance in the midst of difficult trials. the presence of trials, afflictions, and suffering, even in the life of faith. I mean, Abraham is the father of the faithful. Abraham is a man that was favored truly by God most high. And he had problems.
Do you think we're going to get off the hook? Do you think that, you know, with Jesus being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, you've read 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and Paul's rehearsal of all he went through in terms of suffering for Jesus Christ. You think that the history of Christian martyrdom suggests that nothing will ever happen to us? Things may possibly happen to us, and the idea is that we don't abandon our faith.
The idea is that we don't say, well, I can't believe horrible things are happening to a child of the king, and turn our backs on the king. We need to press on. We need to put our shoulders to the plow, and we need to go forward in faith in our blessed God.
Typology of Genesis 22
and then the consequent good works when there is genuine faith again you might meditate on this later James chapter 2 this is James's point when he talks about faith without works is dead he is suggesting or rather telling us that true saving faith while it is alone it is the alone instrument of saving grace it nevertheless is not alone but it's accompanied by all other saving graces and that's what James takes up now in terms of the typology Typology is a person, place, or event that foreshadows or prefigures something in the New Covenant. Could be a man. Adam was a type of Jesus. Paul says that in Romans 5.14.
The temple, that's a place. It what? Stood what? So that we can go back to it?
No, it stood to point us to Jesus. And now that Jesus has come, we know that blessed dwelling of God with sinners through Jesus Christ our Lord. So you've got places, you've got events. The Passover certainly foreshadowed, signified, typified what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5-7, that Jesus Christ is our Passover.
But in this particular passage, it's riddled with types. First of all, the event itself, it points forward to the Exodus. Israel would go on a three-day journey to worship God on a mountain, just like Abraham is supposed to do. You start seeing connections in the Old Testament, with the Old Testament.
It's really glorious, because you'll then realize something I've tried to remind us often when we study the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're not just writing biography. They're doing theology. The historical narratives in the Old Testament are theology.
We are supposed to understand them that way. We're supposed to see them that way. So as well, the event pointed to the Levitical sacrificial system. I mean, just a few, you know, pages that way in our Bibles, we get a whole bunch of lambs, we get a whole bunch of rams, we get a whole bunch of animals, and they're all for sacrifice to the living God so that Israel can learn that the way of approach to a holy God is through a bloody knife and a smoking altar.
As well, the event pointed to Calvary. Now in terms of the patriarch Abraham, Abraham and God the Father parted with their only sons, the sons they love. Their only begotten sons, they parted with them. So Abraham is typologically functioning here like God the Father.
Abraham and God the Father parted with their only sons to benefit the nations of the earth. This wasn't a selfish act on the part of Abraham. This wasn't a selfish act on the part of God the Father. It was for the benefit of the nations, the benefit of the world.
There was a difference, however. Abraham was kept from parting with Isaac. The Father carried it out. And Paul speaks of it in Romans 8.32 this way.
He 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? Paul's argument there is simple. If he's done the greatest, he's going to do the lesser. If he's delivered up his son for you, he's going to give you grace on Thursday morning to deal with whatever situation you have.
If he's done the greater, he's going to undertake on the lesser, and we have that blessed promise. As well, the only begotten son, Isaac. Isaac, like Christ, was the only son, the only begotten son, the son the fathers loved. You have to see Isaac as a Christ type in this passage.
Isaac, like Christ, bore the wood for the sacrifice. Abraham didn't carry it. Abraham laid it upon his son, his only begotten son, so he could carry it up to Moriah. Isn't that what happens with Jesus?
He carries his cross. They fetch Simon the Cyrene. They have him help a bit, but it's Jesus who bears the cross onto that mount. And Isaac, unlike Christ, benefited from substitutionary atonement.
Christ provided substitutionary atonement by actually going through with the act. And then the last type is the ram. The ram. non-image-bearing animal that was there for a time and gone was a type of the Savior. The faith of Abraham that God would provide for himself the lamb, verse 8, the provision by God of the ram caught in the thicket, verse 13.
Now, I know we're inclined to think, well, that was pretty lucky. I mean, there it is right there. Who would have thought? I mean, maybe it was a pretty common occurrence that rams got caught in thickets on Mount Moriah.
I don't know. I've never been there. But I don't think it was luck. I don't think we're to stand back and say, wow, what a stroke of benefit for Abraham in this difficult instance.
And then the substitutionary nature of the ram. That language is amazing. And offered up, offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. Isn't that the nature of the gospel?
He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Or the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. It was instead of. Christ went as a substitute to that cross to bear the wrath of God for us.
The work of Jesus Christ as the only begotten and beloved Son of God the Father became flesh in order to carry out his mission to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So that ram caught in the thicket was in fact a type of our blessed Savior. And John the Baptist appeals to that in John 1 29 when he points to Jesus and underscores that blessed mission. He's not here simply to start a new religion.
He's not here simply to function as an example, but rather he is here to function as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And in that, the people of God greatly rejoice.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this passage of scripture that certainly furthered Abraham's faith, certainly furthered Israel's faith, and explains much for us on this side, in the New Covenant, when Jesus says things like, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.
If Abraham saw it through these types, and we see it in the full shining of the New Covenant and the blessedness of the cross and the resurrection, May we be be glad as well. And may we express gratitude and praise and thanksgiving for what you have done in terms of saving us from our sins. We know that it necessitated the life, death and resurrection of your only begotten son, your beloved son. And we rejoice that you've included us in this plan.
We ask that you would continue to encourage and strengthen our hearts as we participate in the supper tonight. May we do this in remembrance of him who gave himself for us. and we pray through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter