We have often heard it said that there should be nothing in our lives more important than God. It is even in the Ten Commandments. Think about this for a minute. Can you honestly say that you put God before everything in your life? Your health? Your job? Your family? In today’s story, God puts Abraham to the test to see if He comes first with Abraham.
Verse 1 tells us specifically that God tested Abraham. Now the NIV translates this word as ‘tested’ but the KJV translates it using the word ‘tempts’. Which is the intended meaning? We know the intention here is ‘tested’. In James 1:13 we are told that God does not tempt any man. It is never God’s desire to get man to sin. And we know from I Cor 7:5 that it is Satan who tempts us to sin. He definitely the one who desires for us to disobey God. Additionally, Deut 8:2 tells us that God tests us to determine what is truly in our hearts. So, I think we can safely say that the best translation here in verse 1 would be the word ‘tested. God tested Abraham and Abraham immediately made himself available.
Read verse 2 and think about what God has asked Abraham to do. God has referred to Isaac as Abraham’s only son. Remember, Abraham had a son, Ishmael, by his wife’s handmaid, but he sent him away to never be seen again. Isaac is his only remaining (and legitimate) child. Isaac is the son of God’s promise to Abraham. The son through which God has promised to make Abraham into a great nation (Gen 17:16). Telling Abraham to sacrifice this only son goes against the promise He has made to him. And God even acknowledges in this request that Abraham loves Isaac very much. He is asking Abraham to do a very hard thing by asking him to present his son Isaac as a burnt offering to God. Think about everything He is asking Abraham to give up.
What will be important as we study this story is that we pay close attention to the fact that this event is a foreshadowing of the death of Jesus on the cross which will occur in the future. God is asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son, whom he loved, just as God sacrificed His only Son, Whom He loved (John 3:16). Notice, again in verse 2, that He sends Abraham up to Moriah, the place where Jesus would one day be crucified.
We see in verse 3 that Abraham gets up early the next morning and obeys. He does not put it off. He cuts enough wood to burn the offering and sets out for the place God told him. Who does he take with him? Verse 4 tells us how long it took Abraham to get where he was going. For three days, his son Isaac was dead to him in his mind just as Jesus was three days in the grave.
In verse 5, Abraham leaves the servants, telling them that he and the boy are going to go and worship, though he does not specify to them how they will worship and seems to indicate that they will come back to the servants. But then, look in verse 6. Isaac is tasked to carry the wood for the sacrifice, just as Jesus carried his own cross (John 19:17). And, in verse 7, Isaac asks his father, where is the lamb for the sacrifice?
Read verse 8. How does Abraham answer Isaac’s question? What did Abraham believe was going to happen (Heb 11:17-19)? Abraham believed that God could resurrect Isaac from the dead. It took an awful lot of faith for Abraham to trust God enough to sacrifice his own son believing that God would then raise him from the dead and return him to his family. But God had promised to make a great nation through Isaac and Abraham trusted God. What faith!
Read verses 9-10. Abraham truly went through with the sacrifice. He built the altar. He put his son on it and tied him up. He raised his hand with the knife in it. Read verses 11-12. God intervened. He had been testing Abraham. For what purpose? Had Abraham passed the test? Just as God has not withheld His only Son from us, Abraham did not withhold his only son from God.
In verse 13, we see that God provided a substitute sacrifice. What was it? What does this animal represent (Lev 1:10; John 1:29, 26; I Pet 1:19)? The lamb died in Isaac’s place just as Jesus died in our place for our sins. What a beautiful picture of a substitute sacrifice that God has provided. In verse 8, Abraham had told his son that God Himself would provide the sacrifice. Do you think he knew what would happen? And in verse 14, we see the place being named after the event that occurred there as so often happened in Biblical times.
Read verses 15-18. God repeats His promises to Abraham in light of Abraham passing the test (James 2:21-23). God not only promises, but He swears by Himself. This seems odd, but there is no one higher than God that He, God, can swear by, so He swears by Himself (Heb 6:13-14). He promises once again to give the land to Abraham’s descendants, to make them as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and to bless all nations on earth because of them. He is promising they will deliver the Messiah to save mankind from its sin. What a beautiful picture we see in this story. And, in verse 19, Abraham, Isaac, and his servants return to Beersheba and stay there.
Read verses 20-24. These verses tell us of the birth of the descendants of Abraham’s brother, Nahor. In verse 23, we see Nahor’s son had a daughter named Rebekah. When we get to Genesis 24, we will see that Rebekah becomes Isaac’s wife.
Responding to God: Praise God for Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God. Thank Him for His sacrifice on the cross. Ask Him to show you any things in your life that you hold more important than Him. Commit to being obedient to Him. Ask Him to help you to trust Him in all things.
Further Research: Research on a map the location of Moriah and the location of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified.
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