Gen. 22, Abraham and Isaac in the Land of Moriah (1)

Here are some of the important lines in the story.

·       v1: God tested Abraham.  Faith grows through testing, and generally that is the only way it grows (1 Pt. 1:6-7). 

·       v2: your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.  This helps us connect this story with God Himself.  Perhaps Abraham wondered if Isaac was the fulfillment of Gen. 3:15. That is not unreasonable.  Eve had that thought with Cain. Abraham knew he would be a blessing to the nations and that his son would be instrumental in this.  Like most people at the time, even idolators, they were expecting God’s promised Seed.  That’s why Abraham built altars and made blood sacrifices.

·       v5: we will come back to you.  Abraham knew Isaac was the promised son.  He trusted God, as Hebrews says, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19).  If God has commanded us, we can trust and obey, even if a resurrection is required for God to keep His word.

·       v7: where is the lamb for burnt offering.  Isaac understood sacrifices.   I doubt at this point he realized he was the sacrifice.  He just knew a lamb was necessary.

·       v8: My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.  Abraham, however, knew what was going on.  Remember: God tested Abraham, not Isaac.  It was common knowledge in the world at that time, that the sacrifice that God required was a lamb.  The language here is precise: God will provide for Himself a lamb.  I have heard that the Jews do not see this story as having to do with redemption.  For them, the test is, will you give me all you hold dear?  Abraham knew, living 1800 years before Jesus of Nazareth!

·       v12: now I know.  The LORD sees that Abraham was proven.  His faith was “perfect” in the Hebrews sense of that word.  He was mature, of full age.

·       v13: instead of his son.  This is a common OT term, but significantly used in Isa. 53:12, translated “because” in the middle of the verse.  Because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors.  Our passage could read, because of his son.  Isa. 53:4-6 was fulfilled for Isaac that day, but it was fulfilled for him, and Abraham, and me at Calvary.  Christ bore my sins in His body on that tree!

·       v14: as it is said to this day.  Moses said these words, the Moses who was putting the oral tradition into Spirit-inspired written form.  When we said above that the people of Abraham’s day were aware of God’s promise in Gen. 3:15 and were looking for the Man to come who would be that Savior, this is my proof.  500 or so years later they were still looking.  Still offering lambs.  And they knew that the event in the land of Moriah had given them a significant clue concerning the future event when the Seed of the woman would pay the price of redemption.