Today we turn to the preaching of God's Word.
We're going to be continuing our look in the book of Genesis chapter 22.
If you were with us last week, you may remember that James,
we've been walking through this series called Seeing Christ in the Old Testament.
And James preached from Genesis 12 last week,
which is where God comes to a man named Abram.
And He promises to bless him, to make him great,
to make him into a great nation,
and that all nations through him may be blessed.
And so today we're going to be jumping to Genesis 22,
a very famous passage, maybe even you could call it an infamous passage,
that kind of bookends this life and ministry of Abraham.
And what we see oftentimes throughout the Bible,
when you have two passages that serve as bookends,
there's often similarities you see between the two.
And so I think we see that as well in our passage today,
because in Genesis 12, God gives Abraham a command to go.
To go and to leave his past behind.
To leave his land, to leave his family,
to leave his father's house, and to move to a new land.
And so what we're going to see in our passage today in Genesis 22
is something, a similar command.
To go, but not to leave your past,
but to leave your future.
To abandon your son,
your promised child,
and to sacrifice him in a land that I will tell you.
And so while we see these similarities in structure,
you may think, well, that seems like a contradiction.
It seems like one is a blessing,
and one is a curse.
But I think what we're going to see as we dig into this text
is that this blessing continues in Abraham's life
from Genesis 12 to Genesis 22 onward
that shows to us that we have a loving and gracious,
covenant-keeping God
who can be trusted for the redemption of his people.
And so let's turn to our passage.
Genesis 22, we'll be reading verses 1 through 19.
Sometime later, God tested Abraham and said to him,
Abraham, here I am, he replied.
Then God said, take your son,
your only son whom you love, Isaac,
and go to the region of Moriah.
Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering
on a mountain I will show you.
Early the next morning, Abraham got up
and loaded his donkey.
He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.
When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering,
he set out for the place God had told him about.
On the third day, Abraham looked up
and saw the place in the distance.
And he said to his servants,
stay here with the donkey
while I and the boy go over there.
We will worship, and then we will come back.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering
and placed it on his son Isaac.
And he himself carried the fire and the knife.
And as the two of them went on together,
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham,
Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied.
The fire and wood are here, Isaac said.
But where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
Abraham answered,
God himself will provide the lamb
for the burnt offering, my son.
And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told them about,
Abraham built an altar there
and arranged the wood on it.
He bound his son Isaac
and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
Then he reached out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord
called out to him from heaven,
Abraham, Abraham.
Here I am, he replied.
Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said.
Do not do anything to him,
for I know that you fear God
because you have not withheld from me
your son, your only son.
Abraham looked up and there in the thicket
he saw a ram caught by its horns.
He went over and took the ram
and sacrificed it as a burnt offering
instead of his son.
So Abraham called the place,
the Lord will provide.
And to this day it is said,
on the mountain of the Lord
it will be provided.
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham
from heaven a second time
and said, I swear by myself,
declares the Lord,
that because you have done this
and have not withheld your son,
your only son,
I will surely bless you
and make your descendants
as numerous as the stars in the sky
as the sand on the seashore.
Your descendants will take possession
of the cities of their enemies
and through your offspring
all nations on earth will be blessed
because you have obeyed me.
Then Abraham returned to his servants
and they set off together for Beersheba
and Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
This is the word of God.
Let's pray again together.
Oh God, as we consider
this difficult passage,
I ask that you be our help,
that you open our minds
as we read the scriptures,
as your word is proclaimed,
that we may be led by your spirit in truth,
that we may be taught your will,
that we may be able to see
the glorious character of a God
who provides for his people.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
What we see in this passage
from the very beginning,
we get some insight from the narrator
that Abraham himself isn't given.
We see in verse 1 that it says
that God tested Abraham.
Abraham.
And so I wonder,
if anyone here is a big fan of test taking,
a lot of students among us,
maybe something,
a test is something
that you actually look forward to perhaps,
you enjoy the preparation,
you enjoy being able to prove yourself,
that you know some knowledge,
that you have some skill.
Perhaps you enjoy the fact
that you can prepare yourself
for whether it's a presentation
or an exam of some sort.
I myself enjoyed test taking so much
that I took my UK driver's test three times.
Maybe there's some of you here
that hate test taking.
The thought of test taking
is something that gives you nightmares
to think about tests you've had in the past
or tests that you have in the future.
My wife and I, some of you know,
lived and worked in China for a time
a long time ago,
and we taught at a university,
and we taught in the English department.
And so part of our responsibility as teaching,
we had to give a final exam
at the end of the term.
And the first semester,
I was teaching first-year students
that the protocol was for me
to turn in a PDF of my exam
for the department to print
and have on the morning of the exam
that I could give to my students.
And so I turned in my PDF long in advance.
I go to this big lecture high,
300 first-year students
that were going to be taking this exam.
And I look at my paper
and realize this is not the test
that I had sent to the department.
And so I quickly go to the department.
I say, hey, look, this isn't my test.
Do you have the right test?
And they said, actually,
we must have been a mistake.
We didn't print your test at all,
and there's not time to print it
before your exam.
And so rather than delay the exam
or postpone it altogether,
they said, well, just go back into the room,
give the students this exam,
and don't tell them
that it's not the right one.
And they did this because the department,
they didn't want to lose face
in front of the administration,
that if an administrator was walking by the hall,
they knew a test was supposed
to be going on this room,
and there were no students there,
someone could be really offended
or embarrassed by their own mistake.
And so I have to go back into this room
with 300 students,
pass out these papers,
and you can imagine the look on their faces
when they start taking this exam
and realize they don't know
any of the answers.
The horror that they wonder
if they study the wrong thing,
the hatred directed at me
thinking that I've tricked them
about what is going to be on the exam.
Well, we see in this story
a very similar thing with a test.
This passage opens with a test
of much greater proportions,
of much greater consequences,
and you may think
may get a response from Abraham
in a very similar manner.
But as I want to do
as we walk through this text
is to really examine three things.
Because in this narrative,
we see really this unfolding
of three different scenes.
And so we begin with this test.
This is what I want us to focus on
to begin with.
But then we have this response
from Abraham
and then also provision
that's provided.
So that's what we're going to be looking at.
The test, the response,
and the provision.
So let's look again
and think more about this test
that we see in verse 1.
God calls to Abraham and says,
Abraham, he says,
here I am.
In verse 2, God says,
take your son, your only son,
whom you love, Isaac,
and go to the region of Bariah.
And sacrifice him there
as a burnt offering
on the mountain,
I will show you.
We see from the very beginning
that God is testing
the faith of Abraham.
Will Abraham have faith in God?
We said this mirrors chapter 12, right?
In chapter 12,
God comes to Abraham
and it seems as though
it's the voice of blessing.
God says to go from this land,
I'm going to give you a family,
I'm going to give you wealth,
I'm going to give you an inheritance.
But yet in chapter 22,
it seems as though
it's a voice of cursing.
Rather than a promise,
it seems as though
it's a threat to that promise
that he's been giving.
This inexplicable contradiction.
We see in between 12 and 22
that Abraham had been promised this son.
Abraham being 100 years old,
his wife being 90 years old,
how were they to have a child?
And yet God blesses them
with this one promised son.
And now it seems that this son
is to be taken from them.
And we see just how special this boy is,
how he's described by the narrator.
Very deliberately,
he's called your son,
your only son,
the son whom you love, Isaac.
And so we're highlighted,
the reader's highlighted,
it's highlighted just how special
this boy was,
this promised miraculous son,
very flesh and blood of Abraham.
And he's told not only just to kill him,
we're told very specifically
what kind of sacrifice
this is supposed to be,
a burnt offering.
That means to kill him,
to cut him up,
and to let the fire
completely consume him
until there is nothing left.
A horrible scene
to think of a father
having to do to his son.
But the significance of this
is not only that Abraham
would be losing his son,
but he'd be losing the promise
that's attached to his son.
Because God was very explicit
to Abraham about how this blessing
would flow through him
to his family.
That it was supposed to flow
through Isaac.
Not Eleazar,
Abraham's servant,
before he had a son,
he thought,
well maybe this servant of mine
will be my heir.
Not through Ishmael,
who's the son of Sarah's servant,
Hagar,
who Abraham fathered,
but through Isaac.
This is what is promised
to Abraham in Genesis 17.
I will establish my covenant
with him,
meaning Isaac,
as an everlasting covenant
for his descendants
after him.
And so all these descendants,
all this blessing
that the nations were to experience,
it was to come from Isaac.
How is that supposed to happen now?
Well we turn to scene two then.
What is Abraham's response
to this test?
And I want us to think,
before we think about
how Abraham responded,
think about how someone
who maybe reads this passage
for the first time,
who's not a believer,
who's not familiar with Christianity,
how they may respond
to this test from God.
It's usually one of two ways.
It's either confusion
or it's disgust.
How in the world
could a loving God
demand this
of a follower like Abraham?
How in the world
would this God
ask for something so wicked
to be done
to man child sacrifice?
Even if this was
a common pagan custom
in the day,
if your God
is better than
these other gods,
why in the world
would he demand
the same thing?
And just to provide
a little bit of insight
before we move on,
if this is your mindset,
what we're going to see
is that here
and other places
in the Bible,
God often uses
common custom
in order to get
someone's attention,
in order to change
their mindset
and redirect it.
God's attention
because if we go back
to Genesis 15
where there's this
covenant ceremony
between Abraham and God,
God had instructed Abraham
to cut these animals
in half,
to line them up
and for Abraham and God
we're going to meet
in the middle.
This isn't something
that God just made up
on a whim.
This would have been
a ceremony that Abraham
would have been familiar with
to symbolize a bond
between two people.
But God changes up
that ceremony,
doesn't he?
He doesn't meet Abraham
in the middle.
He is the one
who walks through
the animals
to Abraham
indicating that
he is the one
who is going to be
responsible
for keeping
this covenant promise.
And so likewise here
God is using
this pagan ritual
not to say
I endorse
child sacrifice
but rather
to subvert it.
To say
I don't want
the sacrifice
of your children.
I demand a sacrifice
but I will be the one
who provides
that sacrifice
for you.
And so that's
getting a little
ahead of ourselves
but I think it's
mindful to be
thinking of that
as we think about
Abraham's response.
You would think
it would be very right
for Abraham
to ask questions
of God immediately.
Why God?
Why would you demand
this of me?
This son that you
promised me?
I have four kids
of my own at home.
This is a question
I hear all the time.
Why?
Please practice the piano.
Why?
Clean your room.
Why?
Put on your shoes.
Why?
And as parents
we can get discouraged
or just worn down
to the point
we always answer
because I said so.
But we see here
that Abraham
didn't ask this
question of God.
He doesn't ask
any question.
He doesn't try
to reason with God.
He doesn't try
to plead
for a reconsideration.
He doesn't try
to remind God
of his promise.
At the very least
you may think
that well he's going
to at least beg
for mercy from God.
At the very worst
he could try
to curse God
and say
there's absolutely
no way I'm going
to do this
to my promised son.
But he does none
of those.
In verse 3
again look
he says
early the next morning
Abraham got up
and loaded his donkey.
He took with him
two of his servants
and his son Isaac
and he cut enough wood
for the burnt offering
he set out for the place
God had told him about.
Complete
and unwavering
obedience.
He takes his son
his servants
and his supplies
and he goes
on his journey.
And for three days
he travels on
continuing in obedience.
Can you imagine
how heavy hearted
he would have been
knowing where
he is going.
The only one
in his group
knowing what
is going to happen.
At any point
he could have
changed his mind
and turned around
but he doesn't do that.
He continues on
in obedience
to the hill
that God
had directed him.
And notice what
he says in verse 5.
Stay here with the donkey
while I and the boy
go over there
and we will worship
and then we will
come back to you.
He speaks here
in the plural
when he's talking
to his servants.
Isaac and I
we will go
we will worship
and we will return.
Now you may think
this is just a way
of covering up
so the servants
don't think he's
get suspicious
about what's going
to happen
because he doesn't
have this lamb
with him.
But we get a little
more insight
into what
Abraham was thinking
if we turn to
the book of Hebrews
in the New Testament.
In chapter 11
of Hebrews
it recounts
this wonderful chapter
that recounts
the faith
that Old Testament
figures have
and it speaks
specifically of Abraham
and this is what
it says in chapter 11
verse 17.
By faith Abraham
when God tested him
offered Isaac
as a sacrifice.
He who had embraced
the promise
was about to sacrifice
his one and only son.
Even though God
had said to him
it is through Isaac
that your offspring
will be reckoned.
Abraham reasoned
that God
could even raise
the dead
and so in a manner
of speaking
he did receive
Isaac back
from the dead.
Abraham had such
faith in God's
promise that he
thought even if I
have to sacrifice
my son
God is powerful
enough to raise
him from the dead.
And so he places
the wood on his
son Isaac's back
he takes the knife
and he takes the fire
and they begin
ascending this hill.
And then we hear
this question
from Isaac
a very reasonable
question
where is the lamb
for the burnt
offering?
And so in our
NIV translation
what I read
earlier it says
Abraham responded
God himself
will provide
a lamb
for the burnt
offering.
And it's interesting
if we look in the
original language
in the Hebrew here
how this word
provide
is actually
what Hebrew
word this is.
It's actually
the verb
to see.
And so as you
translate this
sentence there's
really two
different ways
you can translate
it and both
it kind of gives
it a double
meaning which I
think is intended
here because
Abraham says
God will provide
for himself
the lamb
or God
will see to
it the lamb
for the sacrifice.
And so as
readers of this
passage now we
see the richness
of this exchange
because this is
really the only
time the only
recorded dialogue
we see between
Abraham and Isaac
in all of
Genesis.
And what
Abraham is
saying it's
foreshadowing not
only what's going
to happen in the
minutes ahead but
also in generations
to come.
God will provide
yes he will a
lamb for the
altar.
But God is also
a God who sees
and he sees
into the future
and he sees
his own son who
he will provide
as a
substitutionary
sacrifice for
his people.
And so that
question that Isaac
asked where is
the lamb
we look to
the New
Testament and
we see it
answered.
In the gospel
of John John
the Baptist is
by the Jordan
River and he
sees Jesus
coming to him
and what does
he say?
He says behold
the lamb of
God who takes
away the sins
of the world.
Certainly
Abraham didn't
even understand
then the
significance of
this statement
that he's
making but he
continues on
in obedience.
And so this
narration now
that's just sped
through these
three days of
travel it
slows to a
crawl when we
reach the
climax of this
passage.
Listen to every
detail that it
gives.
In verse 9
when they
reached the
place God
had told him
about Abraham
built an altar
he arranged the
wood on it
he bound his
son Isaac
he laid him
on the altar
on top of the
wood
then he
reached out
his hand
and took
the knife
to slay
his son.
And it's
here that
scene 3
bursts into
that we see
this provision
that's provided.
The angel of the
Lord called out
to him from
heaven Abraham
Abraham do
not lay a
hand on the
boy do
not do
anything to
him now I
know that you
fear God
because you
have not
withheld from
me your
son your
only son.
And Abraham
looked up and
there in the
thicket he saw
a ram caught
in the horns
by its horns
and he went
over and took
the ram and
sacrificed it as
a burnt offering
instead of his
son.
I'm sure all of
us have had
experience in a
literacy class of
some form or
fashion in
school or in
university and
it may be that
you read short
stories and you
have to analyze
them and your
teacher or
professor wants
you to answer
questions.
Who's the
main character?
What is a
conflict that
the character
faces?
What do they
learn or how
do they grow
through this
conflict?
And what can
we learn from
this main
character?
Maybe we may
think about this
passage in a
similar way that
is this is kind
of just a
self-contained
fable that we're
supposed to kind
of draw some
conclusions from.
And if we kind
of have that
mindset and we
think well okay
Abraham's the main
character here and
the conflict was
this test that God
had given him and
we see that he
learns that he
needs to have
more faith and
if he has enough
faith then everything
will turn out all
right.
So we then have to
have the faith like
Abraham right?
Maybe you've even
heard this passage
preached in a
similar fashion
before and not
that we want to
discredit the faith
that Abraham shows
in this passage but
I think if that is
our focus if that is
our own takeaway
then we have
cheapened what this
passage is showing
to us because we
need to see it in
the context of all
the Bible the
context of redemptive
history.
See here Abraham
really isn't the
main character in
this passage.
It's not the one
that the people of
Israel would have
identified with when
they heard this
story over and over
again.
You see in Hebrew
this story was
historically called
the binding of
Isaac.
It's Isaac's life
and death that's
the heart that's at
the heart of this
plot.
And so the
people of Israel
they would have
identified with
Isaac because it
was with Isaac that
their very existence
hung in the balance.
Because with no
Isaac there is no
nation of Israel.
With no Isaac there
is no covenant
promise.
And so with Isaac we
see this symbolic
figure and then it
is God who is the
main character.
It is God who is the
protagonist because
he's the one who
tests.
He's the one who
sees.
He's the one who
provides.
And he's the one who
fulfills his promise.
And so I want us to
think then about who
this he really is
because this is easily
overlooked.
At the beginning of
our passage in verse
1 it talks about God
coming to Abraham.
In the Hebrew it's
Elohim.
Elohim comes to
Abraham.
But yet in verse 10
as Abraham raises up
his knife it says an
angel of the Lord
called out from heaven.
Literally in the Hebrew
it's this messenger
of Yahweh.
And so notice how
this messenger speaks.
He doesn't say I
know you fear God
because you haven't
withheld your son from
God.
He says I know you
fear God because you
haven't withheld your
son from me.
So how is it that this
messenger of God can
speak in the first
person?
Well there's elsewhere
in the Old Testament
that we see this
messenger of God come
to God's people.
Actually we only have
to go back a few
chapters to Genesis
16 where we see
this encounter between
the messenger of God
and this woman Hagar.
Hagar became pregnant
by Abraham.
She was abused by
Abraham's wife Sarah
and now she has fled
to the desert.
And it says that an
angel of the Lord
found her by a spring
of water and says
to her I will increase
your descendants so
much they can't be
counted.
He goes on to say
Yahweh has heard
of your affliction.
So how is it that
this messenger can
speak on behalf
of Yahweh but also
personally extend
a blessing that
sounds very much
similar to what God
had said to Abraham.
Right after this we
see Hagar's response
too.
She says to the
messenger, she calls
the messenger, you
are God.
You are the God who
sees me.
Again this word,
this Greek verb for
see or provide is the
same root that she
uses here, the same
one that Abraham says
to Isaac.
And so we see the
significance of this
story because this
messenger, how does it
work out that he can
identify himself with
God, can give a
blessing similar to
God, yet is distinct
from God?
From this story and
others we can see
that this messenger of
God is the pre-incarnate
son of God.
Jesus.
This is Jesus who is
interacting as a second
person of the Trinity
working in tandem with
the Father, communicating
to God's people.
And so this makes the
story all the more
significance because we
see this is the voice
of Jesus speaking to
Abraham, renewing his
promise that God had
given to him.
And so look at verse
16, he says, I swear by
myself declares the Lord
that because you have
done this and not
withheld your son from
me, your only son, I
will surely bless you
and make your
descendants as numerous
as the stars in the
sky and as the sand
on the seashore.
Your descendants will
take possession of the
cities of their enemies
and through your
offspring all nations on
earth will be blessed
because you have
obeyed me.
This is the voice of
Jesus talking about
what he is going to do
in the future.
He is the offspring.
This singular noun used
in the Hebrew, he is the
one person who will come
to see the blessing being
proclaimed to the nations.
And so it's no surprise
then as we look at how
Isaac is described over
and over again in this
passage, ten times it
calls Isaac the son, the
only son, the beloved
son.
Does that not sound
familiar to how Jesus
is described in the
New Testament?
If we think back again
to this encounter that
Jesus has with John the
Baptist at the Jordan
River, in the Gospels it
recounts how John
baptizes Jesus and when
Jesus comes out of that
water a voice from
heaven says, this is my
beloved son with whom I
am well pleased.
Possibly the most famous
verse in the Bible, John
3, 16, for God so loved
the world that he gave his
only begotten son, that
whoever believes in him
will not perish but have
everlasting life.
This is the exact same
language that is used to
describe Isaac, is used
to describe the coming
Savior, Jesus.
And so we see here
though that even though
Isaac is a type of Christ
in the Old Testament,
there's clear difference
between the two.
Because we know that
Jesus died on the cross
here, Isaac does not die
on that altar.
Instead a lamb is
provided for him in the
thicket.
And it's because of this
provision, because of this
lamb that's provided that
Mount Moriah becomes known
as the place where the
Lord will provide.
And it's interesting then,
as we move through the
Old Testament, we see this
mountain hold great
significance.
We can continue on further
to 2 Chronicles 3.
And we hear the story of
King David who is trying
to take the census of his
people, maybe for his own
pride, to see what a
powerful army and kingdom
he has.
And as a result, an angel of
Lord comes and strikes down
many in Jerusalem.
And it says that David lifts
up his eyes and he sees this
angel standing on this very
mountain with an outstretched
sword over Jerusalem.
And it's there that says that
David built an altar and
offered a burnt offering
sacrifice.
And it was here on this very
mountain that a generation
later Solomon would build the
temple.
The temple that would be the
place of sacrifice.
The killing of animals for the
forgiveness of sins for God's
people.
And it was on this same
mountain that became known as
Mount Zion.
It's where we have the
Savior Jesus who is convicted
and condemned.
Who is our sinless substitute.
Who is crucified.
And so it is on this mountain
where Abraham raised this knife
over his son Isaac.
It's on this mountain where the
angel of God holds a sword over
Jerusalem.
It's the same mountain where the
knife of the priest would have
killed countless animals for the
forgiveness of sins.
It is at the same place where the
knife of God's divine judgment
find its mark on his only son,
Jesus.
It was right near this mount where
the sinless substitute, Jesus, our
Savior, carried his own wood for
his altar.
That rugged cross to a place where
he would willingly suffer and die and
take the penalty for your sin and
for mine.
A perfect sacrifice as a substitute for
needy sinners like you and me.
You see, what Abraham was not required
to do to his one and only beloved son,
God willingly does to his one and only
beloved son.
And so this is not a story about some sick
and twisted God who demands human sacrifice.
This is a story of a loving and gracious
God who offers his son as a sacrifice in our
place.
You may ask, well, why do we need a sacrifice
at all?
And it's because of the character of God.
We have a God who is both holy and just.
And we have a people who is sinful.
In our sinfulness, we are separated from
God's holiness.
Because of his justice, he cannot overlook
our sin.
The penalty for sin is death.
A sacrifice is necessary.
But a substitute is acceptable.
And this is what we see demonstrated to
Abraham in this passage.
This covenant promise that was given to
Abraham was not threatened by this test.
It was confirmed.
And it was continued through his son Isaac
and finds its fulfillment in Jesus.
And so this is what Paul talks about in
Galatians 3.
He says that in Jesus, the blessing of
Abraham came to all so that we might
receive the promised spirit through faith.
The blessing of Abraham is the blessing for
you and for me today.
It is a blessing received through faith in
Christ.
It says in Genesis 15 that Abraham believed
the Lord and it was credited to him as
righteousness.
The same is true for you and me today.
Do you receive this blessing?
Do you understand that it is you and I who
deserve to be on that altar?
But a perfect substitute has taken our place.
If you do believe this, if you are in Christ,
then remember what we read earlier from Romans 8.
Romans 8.31.
It is, if God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son.
That's the same language that's used in Genesis 22.
Paul is certainly thinking about this illustration as he
writes this letter.
He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us
all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us
all things?
We know that if God is willing to give us the ultimate gift of
his son, that he will continue to do complete his work of
redemption in our lives.
And so even in our darkness and even in our pain and even in our
suffering, we can be sure that we have a faithful and trustworthy God
who keeps his promises.
Do not doubt his love.
He is a God who sees and he is a God who provides.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for the truth.
We thank you for the truth.