Offering of Isaac
 Genesis 22:1-15
Sermon Review by Pam Miller
Pastor Jeff Tauring
The expositor begins by drawing attention to the phrase that is repeated several times in Genesis Chapter 22- "They went both of them together." He notes that there is a relationship that is being built between the father and the son. The idea that is being conveyed is that they are doing things together. The bond of togetherness between the father and the son is unexplainable unless you have children. There is just something about being together with your child.
Abraham has a situation that comes to pass when God appears on the scene and tempts or tests him. He commands Abraham, "I want you to take your son, your only son, whom you love and get into the land of Moriah and offer him there for an offering." The preacher reflects on what an astounding command this is. It seems to be such a severe and graphic command. God tells this man to take his one and only son, whom he obviously loves dearly, and bring him up the mountain and to offer him. In other words, He wants him to kill his son as a sacrifice. What a difficult route this has to be. You have to feel for Abraham.
The pastor brings to our attention some facts about Abraham. He notes, "It's not like Abraham is NOT a man of faith. He is. The speaker asks, "Hasn't he been tested enough?" God has already told him to leave his company, leave his farm, leave his family and go to where God tells him to go. He doesn't tell him exactly where to go. He only says, "I want you to go" and Abraham does! He just leaves his home and family and gets up and moves. So it is not like he is unfaithful.
But now he is told to kill his own son. The pastor acknowledges that if you don't know the story, it just seems abominable and cruel. Perhaps we can see the similarities with God the Father and Jesus the Son. Jesus, himself, left his land when he left glory and came to earth.
Continuing with Abraham, God tells him to offer his son for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which He will tell him of. With interest, the pastor notes that he doesn't tell Abraham exactly where he is going and compares this with the problem that many of us have. We ask God to tell us what He wants us to do. We want him to tell us exactly what to do. We want Him to lay it all out for us so we will know. We don't like not knowing but that is part of our faith. Sometimes God may share something with you and then He leaves out the end of the story and you don't know all of the details. He makes it so that we are living by faith. Again notice, He tells Abraham to go to the mountain and he will tell him then. He doesn't give him all of the information. It's an open ended pact.
In verse three, Abraham rose early in the morning to take care of it. Quoting the old puritan, Matthew Henry, the pastor shares that Abraham was guided by prudence and governed by faith. Abraham rises early and saddles his donkey and takes two of his servants, which he has many, and Isaac, his son, and he clave the wood for the burnt offering. He then went to the place which God had told him. The speaker informs us that this is unusual for a rich man. Abraham is very, very wealthy so for him to actually pick a tree and split, or clave, the logs and lay them in a square for an alter, we know there is something happening here. It is a personal thing. Abraham might have been thinking, "I'll cut the wood myself although normally I wouldn't be bothered with that. That's what servants are for. But this particular alter, I want to cut the wood myself." This is a very personal moment for him. There are just certain times we have that are very personal.
The pastor questions if we see the parallel picture of God the Father in this moment? We all know that Jesus was crucified on a cross but did you ever think that God the Father had it on his mind when the seed fell? Perhaps 100 years before Calvary, there was a tree in the Middle East and that tree had a seed hanging from one of the leaves and that seed dropped to the ground. God the Father decided, "I will put it in the ground and that seed will live." He decided in his providence, that it would rain on that seed just right and that seed would become a sapling. Then God would shine His sun down on it and cause the tree to grow. God would have it on His mind as the tree grew taller and taller until it was finally of full age. Then, He would have some Roman citizen, a servant, come up to that particular tree and cut it down. After the tree was hauled off to the saw mill, it would be cut into squares, into 6X6 beams. This particular tree is not like any other tree. This is the tree that his son, God's son, would hang on. God provided even the tree. So here, Abraham decides to cut the wood himself.
Verse four continues, "On the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off." It's been three full days that they have been traveling and three days since God told him that he would kill his son. It has been three days of sorrow and mourning for Abraham. Again the parallel, three days the Lord was in the tomb. Our Lord was laying in the cold tomb for the same three days.
Abraham said to his young men, "Abide here with the ass; And I and the lad will go yonder and worship." In Abraham's mind he might have thought, "We will spend our last few days alone, just me and the boy. I don't want anyone else around, just me and him worshiping together."
Verse six states, "Abraham takes the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son." They go traveling a little further. He made his son carry his own wood. The preacher asks, "Do you see Jesus there?" He's carrying His own cross. Even though they scourged Jesus, they still made him carry his own cross. He has to do it. Now Isaac is doing it.
Abraham, the father, is laying it upon the son and he took the fire in his hand and the knife and they went both of them together. Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said, "My father." And he said, "Here am I, my son." The preacher draws a mental picture of Abraham and his son walking with these things in their hands. They are going to sacrifice in the woods. Abraham swallows hard with his heart in his throat. He knows the question is going to come up. "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Isaac is acting like a normal child. He is asking, "Why? How? Where?" He asks, "Where is the offering?" He knows if there is going to be an offering, there should be some shedding of blood for the sin they are trying to deal with. It's interesting that the child knows enough that in his religion the shedding of blood is supposed to be there. Today, we are so far from Judaism that we don't recognize the penalty of our sins and the sorrow that should go with our sins. So Isaac asks, "Where is the offering?" Abraham answers in verse eight, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
In verse nine, they came to the place which God had told him of and Abraham built an alter there and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac, his son. The preacher inquires, "Can you picture that being your own son?" We don't know if he used chains or ropes but he actually bound his son. Didn't they do that to our Lord? Precious and tender in the garden, being yet an innocent man, they bound him hand and foot. Jesus replied, "I was with you in the temple. I was with you in the synagogue. I taught you all the time. I loved on you. I healed the blind and you are binding me hand and foot like a criminal?" This is the picture that the Old Testament is showing us. There was no reason to bind his son. There is nothing here showing that Isaac was restraining or struggling. There was no resistance towards his dad, yet he binds him.
Why? Abraham and Isaac would have heard about the promise that started all the way back with Cain and Abel. There would be a seed that would crush the devil's head and it would be born of a woman. This seed would be the promised Savior, the Messiah. If they knew this, being already into the sacrificial system, than perhaps Abraham is saying, "There is going to be a man who will be the Savior of the world. He is going to die this sacrificial death." There is a good chance that Abraham and Isaac thought that Isaac was the Savior. Isaac, to his credit, is laying down his life without restraint, just like Jesus did. Jesus said, "They don't take my life from me. lay it down. I have the power to lay it down and the power to raise it up again. No one takes it from me." The resemblance is there.
Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Imagine him slowly taking it out of the sheath. His lips moving, "God, please do something right now!" The knife is in the air, only about a foot left. Finally, out of heaven it comes. It is the angel of the Lord, which is a preincarnate appearance of Jesus himself. He calls out, "Abraham, Abraham." Abraham answers, "Here I am!" Talk about last minute!
Verse twelve is what he wants to hear. "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you haven't kept your son, your only son, from me. Now I know that you love me." The speaker reminds, "There is the test we talked about in verse one."
Abraham lifts up his bloodshot, tear-filled eyes and finds behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. He took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son and called the place Jehovah-Jireh or God provides.
For application purposes, the pastor asks, "What do we do with this knowledge? How will this change our lives? How do we leave different than we came? Why does God do this to His servant? Why put him through this?" When you are going through a valley or something rough in your road, are you thinking, "God, you can easily make my road smooth. You can easily do this for me." Yet, seemingly, he doesn't. Why does God do this?
The answer is found in the next few verses. "And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven the second time and said-By myself I have sworn (this is God speaking) because you have done this thing and have not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing, I will bless thee and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars in heaven." The speaker questions, "Does he mean that you will get a big family? Does that sound fair to you? Would you go through that? Would you kill your own child just so you could have more?" There has got to be more to it because God is not unfair.
We have already went through the parallels between Jesus and Abraham and Isaac. Let's go down one more. This is what you have to ask yourself, "If the reward is that Abraham will have a big family, will have as many kids as the sand is upon the seashore, as many kids as the stars in the sky, is it worth it?" If that was the reward to us, we'd probably say that it is not worth it.
Think about Jesus. What is his reward and what is He getting? He is getting YOU. He is getting ME. Do you think that is worth it? That was the deal. It was the great exchange. His life for our life. Out of this one death, he has tons and tons of children. For us, we think it's not worth it but that is because we are not divine. God thinks that we are worth it. He thinks that you are worth it. Now you have a choice-He says that as many as receive him, he gives them power to become the sons of God. It's your choice. What do you want? The greatest present the Father gave to the Son was you and me. He promises, "In blessing, I will bless thee."
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Created on 08/14/2006 11:54 PM by admin
Updated on 01/16/2010 07:46 AM by admin
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