Offer of Isaac
Genesis 22 · Vern Peterman · Aug 17, 2008
Genesis, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492619483694

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we look at this passage here, I just want to kind of give us some context. We've been proceeding through the book of Genesis and we're kind of approaching, I was going to say halftime, that's not right, the halfway mark, okay? Alright. We covered, you know, this is kind of an amazing chapter change because we covered last week, Genesis chapter 21, the birth of Isaac. Now we're jumping ahead some years in time. Now where Abraham is told to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. So not only a jump in years, but also a jump in terms of almost surprising shift in theme here.

As we look at this passage that Wayne just read for us here, at least an introduction for, what we see as Wayne read for us here is that God had determined to test Abraham in the circumstance. He had already tested Abraham a few times. And one of those was having him move away from his own family's home, his inheritance. One of the things we pointed out some chapters back is that when Abraham moved away, he was actually not just moving away from his family, he was kissing off his inheritance.

It was a bold move that the Lord was asking him to take. So what we read here this morning, is it a bold move? Oh yeah. But it's also, in one sense, more of the same. The Lord had previously asked him to make sacrifices, big ones. And here is a continuation of that, even though it's of a different character.

God would test Abraham by telling him to give up his beloved son. The only heir and the one exactly that the Lord had said, this is the one who I intend to be your heir. Now, I want you to sacrifice that one. God had been promising him, as we pointed out last week, promising him this heir for decades. Now he says, okay, sacrifice that one. God appoints us to testing too.

First Thessalonians 3.3 is a verse that particularly points that out. It's also stated in other passages. Here's James in the book of James. First verse after the first verse, he says, Hi, my name's James. Hello. And then the next verse, he just starts right off.

You must, and essentially the Greek is saying this, you must esteem it ultimate joy when, not if, when you encounter various trials. God appoints us to testing as well. He doesn't do it because he just is wondering what we'll do. God knows what the outcome will be. He doesn't do it just to see what will happen. It's not an experiment. It is so that God would ultimately be glorified.

So, how old does this Isaac follow? We get the idea that some years have gone by. So, how old is this guy? Is he just a little bit older? A lot older? How much? Let's take a look at that question. The Bible, first off, doesn't tell us directly. It doesn't spell it out in so many years as it does in some places. But we do have some very good clues, okay? And we don't have to read the world's smallest Bible in print to do that.

Abraham and Isaac, for example, walked together. So we know that this is a walk that Isaac could do. And not only that, you know, you don't get the impression that Abraham had to pick him up and carry him any distance. Also, you'll notice as we'll go along here that Isaac asked logical questions. You know, hey, you start putting the thing together and wait a minute, we've got the wood. Where's the sacrifice? You know, ding. That's not something an infant would do, so he's older here.

Isaac's mother, Sarah, died when Isaac was 37 years old, and he's not 37 years old yet. That hasn't happened. This Genesis 23 that we point out, that's the next chapter, so next Sunday. So he's not 37 yet. We don't get the impression that it's right before his mother's death either, although I suppose that's a possibility. Josephus, a historian writing during New Testament times, said that at the time of this event Isaac was 25 years old. Now that's not inspired, but that's probably in the right ballpark considering the things that Isaac says and how he behaves. You have this on page one of your handout, a slide that spells it out this way. And Isaac is born, basically that whole period of time is all within about one year from chapter 18 to about chapter 21. That's all within about one year's time.

Abraham is about 100 years old and Isaac is born. And we mentioned that Sarah dies when Isaac is 37. Abraham is 137. And so probably somewhere in here, again around 25 is not a bad starting point for estimating how old he is. So think of here's this guy in his probably his mid-20s walking along with his father Abraham. And well, we'll see what happens next here. Abraham says, here I am, or in some translations, here am I. And it's real interesting.

He says it three times in this chapter. We've never seen it before in Genesis, that particular phrase. Now it shows up three times. It's not the last time it shows up in Scripture. These same words are often spoken by believers, not in every case, but in many cases, spoken by believers as the Lord calls upon them to carry out some challenging task or to embark on something that is particularly difficult. So, real interesting that this is the response of believers to the Lord when they have a heart and a mindset to follow through on what the Lord says to do. Then, we notice this, here I am, here in Genesis, in this chapter, three times. It's going to show up again in Genesis chapter 31 and 46 when we encounter Jacob. So Jacob at two different instances is going to be saying the same, here I am or here am I. We're going to see it with Moses in the burning account of the burning bush. Here is Moses being called upon by the Lord. And Moses says these same words.

Here I am. Samuel. This is the instance that many of you may recall. Eli, you know, it's nighttime. Samuel is supposed to be sleeping. And Eli is awakened by Samuel. And Samuel comes up and says, Here I am. And Eli says, I didn't call for you. Go back to bed.

And again this happens. So we see this here I am coming up again and again in chapter 3. The last time it shows up in scripture, real interestingly, the response of Ananias. And again a challenging task. Oh Ananias, you're supposed to go and meet this guy Paul and be nice to him. What? What is Ananias' response to this challenging task?

Here I am. Here I am. In modern vernacular, in an interpersonal relationship, we might use words something like, I'm here for you. Something like that. But this is basically an availability to the Lord. An availability to be used of the Lord. It basically says, Lord, whatever you say, I'm yours. I'm here for you. Use me as you wish.

There were some key points to be made just to understand the kind of sacrifice that is being made here. By leaving his father's household, Abram, we said back in Genesis chapter 12, was giving up his inheritance, his right to the family property. We mentioned that, made that point. He gave up the place in his father's household and forfeited financial security.

He said, I'm kissing that off to follow what the Lord has in mind. He's putting his security and survival, his identity, all of who he was in the hands of the Lord. Lord, I commit myself to you. Everything that I am and have, it's yours. Abraham would live by faith as we are called to as well. Now, in chapter 22, verses 3 through 5, this is where Abraham rose early and saddled his donkey, took two young men along with his son Isaac, and loaded the donkey with wood.

It's interesting. You wonder why didn't he just figure, I'm going to get the wood there. Instead, he loads it up on the donkey and carries the wood for three days. You know, it's interesting too, I don't know that the Lord particularly told him, load up your donkey full of wood and then walk for three days. I'm speculating here, so understand that, but I often wonder as I look at this, if Abraham didn't do this in order to give his son Isaac a clue. We're going to go sacrifice. How come you got the wood? But that's all. We don't sacrifice donkeys. Where's the ram? Where's the sacrifice you're going to put on here?

I wonder if Abraham didn't do it to have a very substantial implication right there as they're walking, right with them. This donkey loaded up with the wood. Here they are. They're starting from, as it's sometimes pronounced, Beersheba, but Beersheba, and going to Jerusalem, Mount Moriah, the region of Mount Moriah, as it was called, about three days' journey. And so, just to give you a sense of where they're traveling and where they're going to. And the Lord, it's interesting, the Lord didn't just say, do it right here. Go to that place. to do it. Specifically go to that place. And he said go to the region and then to a particular mountain that I'll show you. Particular place.

Then in verses 6 through 8 there, here they are. He took the wood of the burnt offering once they arrived closer to the place, laid it on Isaac his son. So now here's Isaac carrying the wood. The implication has to be getting really strong. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together and Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, My father, by the way, remember Abraham's name means father of a multitude.

Starts off with father. So, my father. And what does he say? Here I am, my son. Interpersonal. I'm here for you. And he said, Behold, and behold is something you read in the Bible. This isn't just sort of spiritual speak. It means, to use our modern vernacular, stop and take a mental picture. He says, Dad, I'm starting to get this. Dad, I'm starting to get this.

The fire and the wood, this wood that I'm carrying, where's the lamb for the burnt offering? Where is this? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them walked on together. Imagine what's going through Isaac's mind here. One of the things that comes out of this is just thinking about it's not only what took place, thinking about what's Abraham thinking here?

What is he thinking? I mean, don't you think he would say, now wait a minute, Lord. Before we go and travel all these three days and carry a bunch of wood there and we make all this effort, let's sit down and talk this thing through. This whole idea of taking my son's life here, I'm not okay with that. I mean, wouldn't you think that that's what he would do? That's not what you and I might do.

Abraham had placed great hope here in his son. He was the long-promised heir. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's not that he was putting his hope and trust in Isaac, but there was God's promised heir. There he was, walking right along with him, talking to him. This is the one that God had been promising for decades. That had to have gripped him. But one of the things that Abraham realized, Isaac was not Abraham's personal possession. God had entrusted Isaac to Abraham, but Isaac was still not Abraham's, he was God's.

Even our children, as the Lord gives children to us, are entrusted to us by God Himself. Now, the Lord may not ask you to go and sacrifice your son and daughter, but our children are really entrusted to us, aren't they? For whatever time the Lord has them, they're really His given into our care for a time. They are His put into our own hands and trusted to us that we might do not what we wish, but what He wishes. Because they're ultimately His and not ours. They're given to us as a trust. This idea of being entrusted with a child is one that is specifically spelled out by scripture for a number of people.

Some of them, of course, Abraham and Isaac here. Abraham and Sarah having Isaac. Additionally, Manoah and his wife Samson. The angel of the Lord, just as we've seen here in Genesis, appeared to Manoah and spoke to Manoah in advance about Samson, here you are going to be entrusted with a child. Halkana and Hannah with Samuel. We mentioned Samuel before as the one saying, here I am. And this is another entrusting. Zacharias and Elizabeth with John the Baptist. Very clearly an entrusting. And Joseph and Mary with Jesus. and entrusting. Wouldn't that be something?

Oh, by the way, you're going to give birth to the Son of God. This is the one long promised for centuries. That's the one you're going to be entrusted with. Do you feel up to it? How do you raise God? How am I going to deal with the siblings? And entrusting. And boy, there was all sorts of big, huge questions in their mind. But really all of us are entrusted with one or more things. Entrusting is the way the Lord does a great many things. The Lord has entrusted sometimes children, but it may be other people and other things into our care. Here's an entrusting kind of thing. We studied not too long ago here this 1 Corinthians 6 passage.

In the very last part of that chapter there, verses 19 and 20, you are not your own for you've been bought with a price. At the church where Nancy and I got married, that set of words was engraved across the front of the inside of the church so you saw it as you walked in.

You are not your own. You've been bought with a price. See, isn't that something? We think, oh, I'm my own. No. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. You are entrusted even with this body that you have. The very same book, the very next chapter, what does he say? He reinforces it again. You are bought with a price. You're not your own.

We are entrusted with even our own lives, even our own bodies. That's a stewardship. Even our own bodies are a stewardship from the Lord. They're not our own. In the bottom of your handout, if everything went as expected, there's a link at the bottom there that you may want to check out. There's a two-page write-up on the Holly Hills website on stewardships. And so you may want to investigate that and pursue that a little further. Let's look at verses 9 and 10 here.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built the altar there, and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." Let me ask you this. As you look at this here, is there any question but what Abraham is acting in faith? Abraham is most certainly acting in faith. And what faith here? to even get to the point of, okay, God said to do it, that's what I'm going to do. But here's the part that might escape us. Is Isaac acting in faith? Calculate this. Let's assume that the 25-year-old figure is about right. Here's a 25-year-old guy. And if he wanted to fight against it, he's opposing a 125-year-old guy. So do you think Isaac has really got to lay down here if he doesn't want to? No. There is for Isaac a faith of cooperation here, isn't there?

A faith of cooperation. And interesting as you look at that, what kind of faith is it? Who is he placing his faith in? There's really two kinds, isn't there? He's placing his faith in the Lord. And he's placing also his faith in his father. Because a 25-year-old young buck, he could have taken his father on, I'm sure. And with the idea of a knife coming at him, oh yeah. Adrenaline pumping, right? except that it appears very clearly here. He trusted the Lord and trusted his Father through this one. These events, rather than being something that happened 4,000 years ago and has barely any relevance, these events continue to have impact for centuries on into our very own day.

This place became, in this general area, the Temple Mount. In that general vicinity, Solomon's temple was built on this mountain of Moriah here. The temple that was built after the Babylonian exile and then upgraded during the time of Christ and the apostles, that was built on that mountain where Abraham brought Isaac. This area right in here was where Jesus told about the...

Remember, the Pharisee says, thank you, Lord, that I'm so righteous. And the other one who says, Lord, have mercy on me. And the widow who gave her might within that little area on the mountain. I could tell other things, but you get the idea. Even today, this is what you see is called the Western Wall or sometimes referred to as the Wailing Wall. It's on that mountain there. Many key points of relevance.

Certainly the place where Jesus and the apostles walked and taught, even what's pictured here, where Mary and Joseph present Jesus at the temple as an infant, and Simeon and Anna then remark and see Christ as an infant. Later on, the place where Jesus and the apostles walked and taught in the courtyards there. This is the place where on that same mountain is now the Islamic Dome of the Rock.

It stood there for centuries. It's also the place where Christ will someday return. The eastern gate was bricked up filled up when the Moslems heard about six centuries ago that the Messiah was going to walk through that gate. They said, oh no, I don't think the bricks are going to stop him. It was also the place where our Lord was crucified.

On that mountain. The father gave his son, his only son, on that mountain. That's why we have this as the starting slide here. Take now your son, your only son, whom you love. And is that not what the Father did? Go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there. Is that not exactly what Christ did in obedience to the Father? On one of the mountains. Yes, this one. Let's look at verses 11 through 12 there.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, ah, these words, here I am. And he said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have withheld your son, your only son, not withheld your only son from me.

Now, the angel of the Lord, we've mentioned in prior time, so I won't go through it in detail, but the angel of the Lord is one who speaks as God in numerous passages, including these here. And additionally, when we first looked at this in the account of Hagar, Many who see the angel of the Lord say that they have seen God. Hagar was one of those instances we ran into, but others you find as well in scripture. Since appearances of the angel of the Lord end with the birth of Christ, we take the angel of the Lord to be the Son of God.

The events keep occurring all the way up until the time of the birth of Christ and not again. Now, something else that was happening here. Abraham was a living picture of the Father giving His Son. What do I mean by that? The living picture of God the Father giving His Son, Jesus Christ. Willingly. And the Son willingly going. Willingly. Abraham certainly was being tested. He was asked to give his own son Isaac. But it was more than a testing. It was also this living picture. in the same way that the Father has given His own Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, on our behalf.

Here in Genesis 22, take now your Son, your only Son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer Him there. We look at John 17, happening just hours before the Lord is crucified. Our Lord says, and these are in particularly selected quotes, In John 17-23, even as you have loved me, our Lord prays to the Father. In verse 20, Father, you loved me before the foundation of the world. And in verse 25, O righteous Father, calls Him Father. And in verse 26, the love with which you loved me. The reference to the Father's love for the Son. Within hours, the Father who loved the Son gave Him to die.

It's told to us in John 3.16. And I particularly selected the NIV here because of the wording. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Something else that comes up. You recall that one of the things as they were proceeding up the hill that Isaac said, he said, Father, My Father.

And what does our Lord say there at the Garden of Gethsemane? They came to Gethsemane, here's in Mark 14, 32, ultimately through verse 36. And He has the disciples stay as He goes ahead into the Garden. And he goes beyond them a little bit and falls to the ground and prays that the hour might pass, if possible. And what does he pray there?

And he says, and he was saying, Abba. You recognize the AB at the beginning there? Abraham, the AB at the beginning. This is Father. So in Hebrew and Aramaic, Christ calls out the same thing that Isaac said, Abba. And then in the Greek, Father is given to us. So, even our Lord said similar words at a similar location. just before what was anticipated as a death, a sacrifice in each case. Let's look at verses 13 and 14 here.

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of the sun. And Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it will be provided. an expression of a Hebrew saying.

And, of course, this is what the ram looked like, right? No, probably not. More like this, okay? Something on this order would be what a ram would have looked like, caught in the thicket. And, by the way, it does happen. They get caught in the thicket. And I knew of a fellow that actually happened where he caught the animal where its horns were hung up in the thicket.

And so this is the Lord's provision, the Lord's substitute. Substitute. As we get into verses 15 through 19, we read, Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and he said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." So Abraham returned to his young men and they rose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham lived at Beersheba. What's happening here? What's this? Because you have done this, I'll bless you. One of the things that you notice is the emphasis on greatly multiply.

This is not suddenly making the blessings that he had before conditional. What he's doing is adding to them. Even more blessing. The covenant was unconditional. There were blessings promised that were unconditional. This is more on top of that. I will bless you even more." Additionally, he spells it out here in this passage.

In 2218, God said to Abraham, in your seed, and I'll put in with explanation, in the quotes there, the brackets, Christ, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Now we have it here from Scripture. There are four seeds of Abraham. I won't take the time to detail each of them. Given in Scripture. You have it on page two of your handout. Well, let's go beyond the coconuts here.

There's the natural seed, that is, those that are physically descended from him. All the physical descendants of Abraham. Now, does that save somebody? Uh-uh. This is what the Jews counted on. I'm a descendant of Abraham. I'm not ever going to lose that.

The spiritual natural seed, the spiritual remnant, this is those who are saved of the natural seed because of faith, by believing in God. So we have those passages. But then there's the spiritual seed, Gentile believers. We saw that one as we studied Galatians.

And finally, this last one here, the singular ultimate seed, Jesus Christ, as we have here in this passage and has continued on in Galatians 3.16 and in the book of Hebrews, as you have in your handout there. Now, we have the covenant kind of itemized here.

I'm not going to take the time to go through it. You have it in your handout so you can study that on your own. The key things are God promised Abraham land, seed, and blessing. And what he did in this event was say, I will amplify the blessing. I will add to the blessings that I gave you before. OK? All right. Now, we have a question in front of us here. Are you ready for a question? I hope so.

Why would Abraham consider that sacrificing Isaac was consistent with God's promises? God just promised me an heir. What's he doing telling me to sacrifice? Why would that be consistent at all? Why would he even think that that's a reasonable thing for God to ask? I mean, doesn't it just go completely contrary to everything God's been promising for decades. So what's the deal here? Why would Abraham think this is at all consistent? Isn't he just asking me to undo what he's been promising for years? Well, Hebrews 11, 17-19 spells this out where it begins with, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

Well, we saw that. But here's the insight. Verse 19, He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead. Here's the insight that Hebrews has. What was He expecting? He did it by faith, realizing that God can raise Him from the dead if He wishes. So I don't have a problem. That's why. I trust that God is able to raise Him from the dead. And if He asked me to take His life, He can deal with it in that way. It turns out that the Lord stopped him and provided a substitute. But he had faith that the Lord could do that. That was Abraham's perspective. That's why he could go ahead and follow through on something that from a worldly standpoint would hardly make any sense at all.

So, where's the faith? That is, where do we place our faith? It's possible for a believer to be in a place, a state of mind and a state of heart where they're asking God about things but saying, maybe Lord isn't the right one. God, you tell me what you want me to do and I'll decide whether I like it or not. Just let me know and I'll decide whether I like it and then I'll see what we do after that. It's possible for a believer to get in that frame of mind. Paul called that point fleshly. 1 Corinthians 3, first few verses, and he gives full support for that in the prior chapter. James called that viewpoint double-minded. Oh, I'll do exactly what God wants as long as I like it. I'll do exactly what God wants as long as I agree. As long as that fits in with my experience and how I feel about it, well, of course. If. If.

That's double-minded. We're called to walk by faith in His Word. What did He spell out? What did He say? Does it make worldly, earthly sense? Maybe not. But it makes plenty of spiritual sense. That's what we're called to walk by. What God has revealed, not what looks good to us. If Scripture spells out that you are in Christ, if Scripture spells out that Christ is in you, do I walk by that? Or walk by what other people say? Or walk by what Primetime TV says? Or, I don't know God's will, the Netflix DVD hasn't come yet. You see, the Lord has spelled out all kinds of things in His Word, and it really is amazing how much the Lord has spelled out. Do we walk by faith in what He said regarding parenting? Even the assumption, the viewpoint, that these children are given, entrusted into our care. They're not our ownership. They're not ours to possess and claim as our own.

Even a marriage is a matter of a stewardship. A spouse has been entrusted to you. What do you do with it? Even singleness is a gift from the Lord. Even a single person has their very own life as a stewardship from God. As Paul wrote, you're not your own.

You're bought with a price. We here in this church body, we who believe, actually have a stewardship with each other, a responsibility for one another that the Lord has placed into our hands. Isn't that something? Think about the people that are sitting around you. They are God's trust placed into your hands. You have a responsibility from God for that. Oh, not a legalistic one. It's a gracious one. But it's a trusting from the Lord.

Everything in life, the Lord has this principle in place. And just like Abraham, where he looked at it and he says, well, this is ultimately, this son is the Lord's. That same principle applies to a great many things in life, in our homes, in our families, about your job as a stewardship. We oftentimes think of stewardship, we think of the word and we maybe connect it with money. That's just a part of it.

But really, everything that has been placed into our hands, it's from the Lord. It's the Lord entrusting it to us. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage here, you have laid out some pretty heavy and weighty matters. And Lord, the people that we love and care about, we use terms like my spouse, my son, my daughter, my house, my church, But in truth, they're all yours. They're entrusted to us.

And we just thank you for the perspective that comes out here. And we thank you also for the clear walk of faith, trusting you with what's been entrusted to us. And Lord, we just come to you now this morning, ask that you would bring this truth home to our hearts, grow us in it, in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.