My child.
‘Yes, Lord’.
I want you to take your child, whom you love, and go to the mountains and sacrifice him for me.
So, the next morning you and your child pack up and drive to the mountains. The trip takes three days. You are cherishing these last moments, but your child has no idea what is coming.
Finally you arrive. You invite your child to go have a hike on the mountain with you. While you are up there, you tie your child up with ropes. You take the knife. Your child lies helpless as you prepare to plunge it in.
At God’s command.
*****
Have you ever gotten angry at God? Really angry? The kind of anger that says, ‘How dare you! I’ve followed you! I’ve done my best to be faithful! And there you go and pull the rug right out from under my feet! I trusted you! What are you doing?’
What do you do when it looks like God is anything but faithful?
This is one of the hardest stories, the rawest stories, in the whole Old Testament. Forget that we know the end of the story. Abraham did not. But he trusted that God was, in fact, faithful, and he went up the mountain with Isaac. (There is only one other story in the Bible that has got the drama of this story.)
We first hear of Abraham in Genesis 12 when God calls him to leave his father’s household and go to a land God will show him. He will make Abraham a great nation with many descendants. So, in an act of great faith, Abraham packs up his belongings and people and he goes.
Abraham is 75, his wife Sarah is 65, and they have no children.
They travel to Canaan and God tells Abraham that this is the land God will give to Abraham’s offspring. But a famine hits, so Abraham goes to Egypt where there is food. Apparently, he goes without consulting God for in Egypt he nearly loses his wife to Pharaoh himself. God’s promise is nearly forfeit because of Abraham’s mistake, but God intervenes. Abraham and Sarah are reunited and sent out of Egypt.
Chapter 13: Abraham had first come to Canaan rich with possessions and people, and Pharaoh has given him more herds of sheep, oxen, donkeys, and more servants. His nephew, Lot, who traveled with him, was rich in his own right.
Before long their tribesmen begin to fight with each other. It becomes clear that the land cannot support them both and so they part ways. God reiterates his promise to give the land to Abraham’s offspring, who will be as numerous as the sand on a beach.
Abraham still has no children.
In chapter 14, Lot is kidnapped as a spoil of war. Abraham and his allies go to war and rescue him. On their return they meet Melchizedek, the priest-king, who says that Abraham is indeed blessed by God.
In chapter 15, God appears to Abraham yet again. Abraham says, ‘God, I don’t get it. You keep talking about blessing and offspring, but you haven’t even given me one child.’ God brings him outside and has him look at the stars. Your descendants, he says, will be as numerous as these stars.
Abraham believed God (another act of faith), and God counted that belief as righteousness on Abraham’s part. God, in a fairly elaborate ceremony, makes an oath to Abraham, that he will do everything he said he will do.
We do not know how long these various events took, these snapshots into Abraham’s life, but the next time we see Abraham, in chapter 16, he is 85, Sarah is 75, and still they have no children. But that is okay. Abraham believes God for his promise.
Then Sarah has the idea that if Abraham gets her servant pregnant, the baby would really be her own, and maybe that’s how God will fulfill his promise. Apparently, they acted again without consulting God. (If they had, they would have realized how silly it was, to imagine that God was exclaiming, ‘At last! They’ve finally figured out what I was thinking’!)
Abraham sleeps with the servant (or, more to the point, he was awake with her!). Ishmael is born, and with him is born the seed of trouble in Abraham’s home. He eventually sends Ishmael and his mother away.
Then in chapter 17, the Scriptures jump ahead another 15 years. Abraham is 99, Sarah is 89, and a quarter of a century has passed since God made the promise of offspring. Now God again comes with the promise, and adds the fact that Sarah will, indeed, bear a son. The Bible says that Abraham actually fell on his face and laughed. ‘God, I am a hundred years old! And more importantly, Sarah’s ninety!’
God says, You watch. And Abraham says, ‘I will!’
Then in chapter 18, God comes, and for the first time with a timeline: one year. God says, Sarah shall bear to you a son at this time next year. (Now, it’s Sarah’s turn to laugh.)
And then – then! – Isaac is born! You can’t imagine the joy this caused Abraham! For 25 years God has been promising a child. For 25 years Abraham has faithfully believed God. Finally – finally! – he comes. Isaac is the pride of Abraham’s life, the apple of his eye. Abraham looks at this little boy and sees in him a multitude of descendants, great nations. And in his heart, he blesses God and says ‘I knew you would! I knew you would do it!’
Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac live happily, for several years.
That is, all the way to the cliff. Then the unthinkable happens.
God calls him: Abraham!
Abraham says, ‘Yes, God, I’m listening.’ See, every time God spoke to Abraham it was good news. Even when it seemed unbelievable, it was good news all the same.
God calls Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Notice how God speaks 3x of Isaac’s relationship with Abraham:
Take your son…
your only son Isaac…
whom you love.
Abraham is stunned! God’s word left Abraham reeling. No! NO! Even apart from his love for Isaac, there was the promise of God. Surely God would not dangle the promise of a son for 25 years, grant that son, give Abraham and Sarah time to watch him grow from an infant into a toddler and into boyhood (and maybe a teenager), and then jerk him away!
God does not say, Abraham, I will take Isaac to myself. Isaac will get sick and die. That would be heartbreak enough. But think of it! God is asking Abraham to kill his son!
God says, ‘Abraham, this is a sacrifice. I want you to lay it all down for my sake’. This is not a request. It is a command.
In an act of faith that I cannot imagine, Abraham goes. In an act of what seems like unbelievable cruelty from God, Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac.
The letter to the Hebrews says that 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 son, of whom it was said ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named’. He considered that God was able to raise him from the dead” (Heb 11:17-19). After walking with God for 30+ years Abraham trusted God, even with the life of his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves. ‘I don’t know what God will do. But I believe his promises. And while it breaks my heart, I will give him Isaac.’ Imagine that level of trust!
But that is what God requires. He does not demand it of us as proof of our faith. He asks for absolute faith so that he can demonstrate his absolute faithfulness. He is not testing our faith. He is inviting us to test his faithfulness.
Are you facing some health situation? You are in pain and it seems that God is ignoring your prayers and the prayers of those around you? God is absolutely faithful. He is with you and he will do right by you.
Are you uncertain about your future? It looks bleak and you have a lot of anxiety about where you will be in a year or five or ten years from now? God is absolutely faithful. He knows what will happen in your future. You think you are holding God’s hand, but in truth he is holding your hand. He knows what is good and true, even if we do not. He is faithful. He will do right by you.
Are you facing death? Is someone you love facing death because of aging, or cancer. Do you trust God with the life of someone you love? Do you trust God with your own life? or with your own death? He is absolutely faithful.
Abraham trusted God for that, so he and Isaac went. But it was far from easy…
Abraham cuts the wood for the sacrifice and off they go. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. On the third day! You would think that God would choose a place near to Abraham’s home. But no. He gives Abraham three days of precious time with his son. He gives Abraham time to change his mind. He gives Abraham three days of torture.
Abraham tells his two servants to wait. Maybe he wants time alone with Isaac. Maybe he knows that they will interfere when they realize what he is about to do.
He and Isaac start out. He puts the wood on Isaac, the very wood upon which he will soon give his life. And Abraham took the knife and the fire.
Isaac says, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but aren’t we forgetting something?’ – and another spear stabs Abraham’s heart – ‘Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’
Abraham replies, ‘God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’
I wonder if Isaac knew that all was not well with his father. That something was going on in his mind? Abraham was hanging on every word Isaac said, but seems distracted by something at the same time.
Then they get to the spot. God says to Abraham, ‘Right here.’ Isaac lets down the wood, and Abraham – and I presume, with Isaac – builds an altar. This would have taken some time, putting enough stones together. Then they put the wood on.
What was Isaac feeling? There was his father building an altar with nothing to sacrifice on it. Did he suspect, or even know what his father planned to do?
Abraham’s heart, with every stone, got heavier. Did he cry as he built the altar? Did he silently pray, crying out in his heart, ‘God, why do you ask me to do this thing? God, you are running out of time!’
Genesis 22 records facts, not feelings. What did Abraham feel? How would you feel? ‘God, take my job, take my car, take my house, take my health, take me. But please, please do not take my child!’
Abraham’s heart weeps as he quickly binds his son, every knot increasing his terror and torture. He embraces Isaac, and lifts him onto the altar, on top of the wood that Isaac himself has carried to this spot.
Now it is zero hour, the moment of truth. In 5 seconds, it will be over. And where is God?
When he first called Abraham to sacrifice his son and Abraham wrenched out a ‘Yes, Lord’, couldn’t God have decided then that Abraham’s faith passed the test? Or when Abraham left the next morning? or any time on the three day journey? Or even when he was building the altar?
But here stands Abraham, knife raised. He’s going to slaughter Isaac. The NIV translates the Hebrew word here: ‘slay’, but it is the only time it does that. In other cases, it translates it ‘slaughter’ and even on a couple occasions ‘butcher’! So, the English Standard Version is accurate: Abraham was about to ‘slaughter’ his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and who lay tied and helpless on the altar before him.
It is only when the knife has been raised that a voice from heaven cries out, Abraham! Abraham! Abraham says, in a broken voice, ‘Here am I’. And God says the words that Abraham had desperately wanted to hear and has despaired of hearing: Don’t lay your hand on the child…
Abraham has proven his absolute devotion to God because he did not even hold back his son from him.
All the emotion that had built up in Abraham for these three days to fever pitch let go like water from a dam and he weeps, and weeps, and weeps over Isaac. And then he eventually looks up.
Isaac is saved! God has indeed provided a sacrifice for himself. Abraham has never offered a sacrifice with more joy. Then the Lord calls again and reiterates the promise he had made at least 30 years ago, that Abraham’s offspring would indeed inherit the land and be a blessing to all the earth. And then Abraham and his son go to his home in Beersheba.
It is an incredible story! This is probably the hardest story in the whole Old Testament! No one else was asked to do anything close to this. Not Noah. Not Moses. Not David or Elijah or Isaiah. Only Abraham.
There is such a story in the New Testament, though. Actually, it is recorded in all four gospels and the rest of the New Testament explains this story and its implications.
Does the story of Abraham remind you of anything?
Does it remind you of another Father, one who showed his absolute devotion by giving his only begotten son, whom he loved?
Does the experience of Isaac remind you of anyone? Does it remind you of another Son, who carried the wood on which he would soon give up his life upon another hill? Only this time there would be no voice from heaven saying, ‘Do not do anything to my son.’
Does the ram caught in the thicket remind you of the great substitute, the Lamb of God that takes away the ‘sins’ of the world?
What is sin? It is when, whether in word, thought and deed, we say ‘God, I’m going to be my own Lord, not you.’
And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).
And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
We [were] by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 3:3).
But God despite our rebellion, our wickedness, is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
And God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
For our sake he made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior (1 Timothy 2:3).
How great is the love the Father has given us, that we should be called his children? And that is what we are (1 John 3:1).
We say with Paul, ‘I’m convinced that neither death nor life, angels or demons, things present nor things to come, nor powers, not height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ’.(Romans 8:38).
Christ Jesus, God’s beloved Son, was the great substitutionary sacrifice, his life for ours, so we could walk off the mountain and go live eternally with our Father.
Amen.