The One and Only Son

Genesis 22

Immanuel – 4/23/23

Since November we have followed Abraham’s journey of faith. When God called him to leave the land of his family, God made very great promises: that Abraham would be both blessed and a blessing, a great nation would come from him, that the whole earth would be blessed through him. So trusting God, Abraham left, and followed God into an unknown place.

Since then we have seen the waxings and wanings of Abraham’s faith. But regardless of the state of Abraham’s faith, especially in his failings, God continually proves Himself to be faithful, unwaveringly trustworthy, and undeservedly generous. It is a journey where Abraham is learning who this God is, that calls something out of nothing, that gives life where there was death.

And all along the way, like seeds planted in the Promised Land, Abraham has been building altars to worship Yahweh: his shield, his Lord, his Creator.

These many themes all come climatically colliding in today’s passage where Abraham’s faith finds its ultimate test, where God’s grace is profoundly demonstrated, where Abraham builds his final altar.

Purpose

1. Why does God tell Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac? What does it prove?

2. Look at the layers that eventually culminate in Christ.

3. Take brief moments to point out applications.

Read Genesis 22

Our passage begins with after these things. The last timestamp we’ve had was in chapter 21:8, when Isaac was weaned at about 3 years old. Since then Abraham has been living in Abimelech’s territory, the land of the Philistines for many years – perhaps a decade.

For as we have just read, Isaac has carried a load of wood up a mountain: not something a little kid can do. And yet, as we heard in verses 5 and 12, Isaac is a boy. This indicates that Isaac is likely anywhere from 12-16 years old. I like to think that Isaac is 13, the age of bar mitzvah; the age when a boy is eligible for ceremonial worship of God – but that is just my speculation.

Even though I just spent a moment on speculation, we always want to keep our focus on what Scripture is telling us; what God intends for us to hear. Notice, Sarah is not mentioned once in this chapter. What she must have been experiencing, as Abraham leaves with Isaac, is the realm of imagination and motion pictures. Her climactic moment was in the last chapter, giving birth to the promised son. Chapter 22 is the climactic moment for Abraham.

Read vs 1

A Test

The words, God tested Abraham, are so critical. It’s an immediate signal that God is doing something bigger than what eyes can see, something more significant than the circumstances. God does not want Abraham to murder Isaac; such an act is against His will and His commands. No, God puts Abraham to trial. This is a test.

When God brings trials, it is not to destroy, but to refine and reveal. As Peter writes:

If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

-1 Peter 1:6-7

Through the test of trial, something precious and glorious is being revealed. Or, as James writes:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

-James 1:2-4

I am convinced that both Peter and James wrote these words with Abraham in their minds – at least in part. God is testing Abraham to bring into being something that had yet to be revealed, something that perfects and completes. God’s testing is creating. Faith, resurrection, and grace are entering the world in a brand-new way.

So God calls out, “Abraham!.” And Abraham responds with, “Here I am.” These are the only words that Abraham speaks to God in the whole chapter, here and in verse 11: “Here I am.” Abraham doesn’t negotiate with God like he did with Sodom. He doesn’t question or ask for guarantees, as he has done so many other times. Abraham simply responds with a trusting, ready, obedient, “Here I am.”

Then God delivers an impossible command to Abraham, a test unique to all of humankind.

Read vs 2

The astute will note that Isaac is not the only son of Abraham. There is also Ishmael; and Abraham’s love for Ishmael has not been withdrawn. But in the decade since Ishmael has been gone, it likely only resulted in Isaac growing more precious, more treasured, in the eyes of his father. But more importantly, in the eyes of God the Father, Isaac is the only son with whom He holds covenantal relationship. He is the only son through whom the blessings flow.

And yes, Isaac is very precious to Abraham. Is there anything more precious than your children? If there is only one child, how much more precious is that one? And if all your hopes and joys are folded into that single child, again, is there anything more precious? This is the very question God is asking of Abraham. This is the test. What is most precious?

God calls Abraham to slay his only son, whom he intensely loves, and then burn Isaac’s body as a sacrifice unto God. How heavy these words! What father could bear them?

Abraham said, Here I am, but God does not want him to stay where he is. He is to take Isaac – literally grasp Isaac, hold him near, bring him close – and then go. He is to go to the land of Moriah, to a yet unrevealed mountain, and there perform this impossible task. It’s not an arbitrary region. It is a place that will forever hold significance for the people of God. More on that later.

Read vs 3

In verse 1 we passed through a decade with three words. Now, after having received such a heavy command, things seem to move in slow motion. When God called Abraham to leave Ur, all it says is that Abraham went. But here we are given a detailed account of Abraham’s activities before setting off. The last thing he does is cut the wood. Perhaps this is a suggestion of Abraham’s psychological dilemma, saving the emotionally laden act of cutting wood for last.

But even though Abraham journeys towards unbelievable grief, he does it with complete obedience. Again, no debate, no questioning, no guarantees, just pure faithful obedience.

Read vs 4-5

Abraham journeyed three days. From Beersheba to the region of Moriah is about 40 miles as the crow flies. As we will soon discover, Isaac is entirely unaware of what waits at the end of the journey. Abraham bears alone the knowledge of what he must do. He has 40+ miles to walk and think; 40 miles to turn aside. But he does not waver. For on the third day, looking into the distant hills, Abraham sees the particular height and somehow knows that it is the place God had appointed.

He orders his two servants to stay and wait for his return. I find it interesting that they were brought all this way only to be left behind. Look again at what Abraham says to them: “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Here we get our first look into the mind of Abraham. He tells his servants that he and Isaac will return to them; and yet there is no reason to think that he does not fully intend to obey God. Abraham doesn’t yet know, but he believes that he and Isaac will return.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

-Hebrews 11:17-19

Never had there been a resurrection before, but Abraham knew God had the power to do it. So, like the writer of Hebrews said, he believed that after he sacrificed and burned his only son, God would raise Isaac from the dead.

Speaking of Abraham, Paul wrote, No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. -Romans 4:20-21

God promised Abraham that nations would come through this son of promise, that the earth would be blessed through Isaac. He believed in God’s word so entirely, so completely, that he took Isaac up the mountain and truly believed that he would return with his son.

Read vs 6

Abraham lay the wood atop Isaac, for his son to carry the burden. Ironic, for soon he intended to lay Isaac atop the wood. With solemn resolve he took the implements of death in his own hand: the fire and knife. As they climb together, Abraham’s burden is of a far greater weight than his son’s.

Read vs 7-8

You can hear in Isaac’s words his innocence, and the complete trust he has in his father. “My father!” Again, Abraham answers with the words, “Here I am.” In this call and response there is profound love and trust between this father and his son.

Isaac sees all the elements of sacrifice, all but the animal. He still doesn’t know. When he asks, “Where is the lamb?” you can imagine that in Abraham’s response there is a catch in his voice when he effectively says, “God will provide, my son.” I imagine every step up that mountain Abraham repeats in his heart, “God will provide. God will provide. God will provide.”

As they come to the place, that awful place, “God will provide.”

Read vs 9-10

For the last time in the record of Abraham, he builds an altar. This one for his son. Once it is made, once the wood is in place, he turns to bind his son. Clearly Isaac knows now what is to be sacrificed. Though he is much swifter than his father, and likely quite strong enough to resist, there is not a hint of struggle. The father binds his one and only beloved son.

Why does he bind him? In case his son’s resolve suddenly falters? To make sure that Isaac is still, that his strike may be mercifully accurate? Or simply to delay as much as possible, maybe God will change his mind? Regardless, Isaac is bound; secured to his fate.

Orthodox Jews refer to this whole scene on the Mountain of Moriah as “akedah”: the binding.

Sacrifice and Substitution

Now bound atop the altar, we read, “Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.” In other words, he had raised the knife ready to plunge it into his son.

And he hears, “Abraham! Abraham!” Imagine the frantic hopefulness in his third time response, “Here I am.”

Notice who speaks to Abraham in verse 11. Here, on the summit of Moriah, Abraham hears from the angel of the Lord. As we have seen elsewhere in Abraham’s journey, as we see throughout the Old Testament, the angel of the Lord is the preincarnate Son of God. It is Jesus who stays the hand of Abraham.

Read vs 12

With the journey completed, the altar built, his son bound and knife raised, Abraham has thoroughly demonstrated the depth of his faith. There were countless opportunities to waver or fail; plenty of time for doubt and anxiety to overwhelm. But despite the unimaginable difficulty, Abraham’s faith remained steadfast. He looked not to the things that were seen, but to the unseen things grounded in the unshakable promises of God.

In Abraham’s obedience, the angel of the Lord says that He sees Abraham fears the Lord. Yahweh is being anthropomorphized here. He is being given the human characteristic of discovery, of learning. Of course, God knew that Abraham would obey. He knew the many twists and turns in Abraham’s journey had brought him to this place of incredible faithfulness.

But without the test, without the father’s knife raised above his son, that faith would only ever be theoretical. It would exist only in the mind, only in word. It was the obedient action that brought faith out of the heart and thrust it into the world. And all this through the trial.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

-James 2:21-23

Scripture clearly teaches that a person is justified by faith alone. But like James argues elsewhere, faith without works is dead – it is meaningless. James is saying that the obedience of Abraham was a proof of his faith. There was nothing theoretical about Abraham’s faith. The trial was a test, and through its fires was revealed the golden actions of faith.

Here is a man who trusted in God so completely that he believed in resurrection before a resurrection existed. Here is a man that feared God. Here is a man that was a friend of God. For he did not withhold his son, his only son, from God.

Here we are all confronted with a question. It’s meant to probe the depths of every heart. What do you value more, God or God’s gifts? Isaac was God’s gift to Abraham, yet Abraham was willing to offer his one and only son – a sacrifice beyond value – an offering of obedience and worship unto God.

What if God asks you to sacrifice your reputation or bank account or health for His glory rather than your own? What if He takes your child, perhaps to some foreign mission field or in mortal tragedy? What if God takes everything? Do you believe that He will restore, reward, resurrect? Is your hope in Jehovah Jireh? Will you respond in faith like Abraham: “Here I am!”

Read vs 13

Out of nowhere appears this ram twisted in the thicket. Some translators say this should be rendered, behind him was a ram just caught in a thicket by his horns. Either way, the text clearly indicates that this ram is a provision from the Lord. Just as Abraham had believed, God had provided. Imagine the overwhelming relief and joy, and tears, as Abraham cut the cords binding his son. Like we read from Hebrews 11, Abraham was receiving his son back from the dead.

Read vs 14

The Hebrew for “the Lord will provide” comes to us today in the name of God, Jehovah Jireh. Up the mountain Abraham believed God would provide. On the mountain he encountered the glory and grace of Jehovah Jireh. Moriah is the noun form of Jireh. On Mount Moriah, Jehovah Jireh provided a sacrificial substitution.

Read vs 15-18

Jehovah Jireh, in the person of God the Son, speaks to Abraham a second time. But this is the first time in all of Abraham’s journey, that God confirms His promises with an oath, saying, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord.”

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. -Hebrews 6:13-15

God’s oath is the culmination of all His promises. The promises spoken while in Ur, beneath starry skies, from between eviscerated animals, all these promises are now finally, formally, forever ratified.

God had pledged an oath upon His character. Now, if God’s promises fail, His character unravels, and so all creation, all reality, unravels with Him. But as surely as God is holy, so will His promises be fully, entirely, completely fulfilled. Abraham’s offspring will fill the earth, capture the strongholds of the enemy, and every nation on earth will be blessed through them.

All this because Abraham trusted God, in word and in deed.

Read vs 19

Just as he said, Abraham and Isaac returned to the two young men. The work was completed. What a joyful journey back home it must have been. Spiritually, Abraham’s journey has reached its end. His faith is proven and God has etched His plans of salvation upon this one man and his innumerable offspring. So it has been written. So shall it be done.

I want to skip over the last few verses, break through the shadows of Genesis, to when the angel of the Lord again came to Mount Moriah.

Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where [the angel of the Lord] had appeared to David his father.

-1 Chronicles 3:1

Solomon built the temple of God upon Mount Moriah. I believe it was in the very location where Abraham lifted the knife above his son, the very place where God the Father sent His one and only Son – the incarnate angel of the Lord – to be bound and mocked and condemned.

Just beneath this hill, Jesus spoke to His Father, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). Though He was ordered by Roman soldiers, it was the Father who placed the sacrificial wood upon Christ’s shoulders and led Him to Golgotha’s height.

And yet Jesus is the substitution. He is both the beloved Son and the Lamb caught in the thicket.

For we were the ones bound by sin, burdened under the deserved weight of death. Our selfishness and pride earned for us God’s altar of wrath and condemnation’s furious fire. How we raged against it! How we trembled beneath the hand of God! And all our efforts to ignore or deny can never extinguish the consuming flames.

But in His mercy, God provides. Jehovah Jireh speaks, “Look! Behold, the Lamb, with thorns twisted upon His brow! See my Son, my one and only Son, in whom I am well pleased! He takes your place. I bind Him to your altar. Believe, and be saved!”

By faith we are freed from condemnation’s cords! And by faith we are loved!

He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? -Romans 8:32-35

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-Romans 8:37-39

All glory and honor and praise to Jehovah Jireh; He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all!

Oh the applications for Genesis 22 are boundless. I have touched upon only a few: trials that refine and realize faith, reckoning if you value God more than His gifts, trusting in God’s promises; and there are more.

But because the scene on Mount Moriah ends with sweeping promises, bound to the character of God, let us end with those same promises. For by faith God has counted us among the countless stars of Abraham’s offspring.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek…you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. -Galatians 3:27-29

Being that Abraham’s offspring are offspring by faith and not by blood; then just as God has sworn, it is the church that will fill the world, capture the strongholds of the enemy, and bless every nation on earth.

As surely as God is God, so will it be. Jehovah Jireh: God has provided and God will provide! Trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding!

Abraham’s journey of faith has come to its climatic end. But ours has not.

Lord, here I am!