(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
The incident in Genesis 22:1 through 19, the offering of Abraham’s son Isaac as a burnt offering is one of the most heart-rending stories in the Old Testament! But before we get to our featured Scripture, this critical event needs some back-story:
- Genesis 12:1 through 3 – The LORD called Abram out of Ur of the Caldeans (see Genesis 11:31) giving him the Abrahamic Covenant:
Get out of your country, from your family and from
your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and
make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse
him who curses you; and in you all the families of
the earth shall be blessed.
- Genesis 15:1 through 6 – Before he was known as Abraham, he was Abram.
...the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision,
saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield,
your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said,
“LORD God, what will You give me, seeing I go child-
less, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damas-
cus?” And...the word of the LORD came to him...,
“This one shall not be your heir, but one...from
your own body....” Then He brought him outside and
said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars
if you are able to number them....So shall your des-
cendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He
accounted it to him for righteousness.
This belief in God’s promise was Abram’s salvation moment – just like His promise that our belief in the risen Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross will result in our salvation!
- Genesis 16:1 through 4 – When it seemed God was too slow to fulfill His promise of an heir, Sarai, Abram’s wife, convinced her husband to have a son by Hagar, her maid. And so Ishmael was born! And he and his descendants were a thorn in the life of Abram and his progeny, the Jews, ever since!
- Genesis 17:1 through 21 – God again confirmed His covenant, changing Abram’s name to Abraham, and Sarai’s to Sarah. His promise in verse 19 was very specific:
Then God said: “...Sarah your wife shall bear you
a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will
establish My covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant, and with his descendants after him.”
- Finally, when Abraham was 99 and Sarah 89, she conceived a son! Isaac was born the next year! (see Genesis 21:1-5).
- Isaac grew to be a strapping young man, the pride and delight of his father!
Then came the offering of Isaac, recorded in The Hall of Heroes – Hebrews 11:17 through 19:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up
Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered
up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In
Isaac your seed will be called,” accounting that God
was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from
which he also received him in a figurative sense.
This series is called, Heroes With Feet of Clay! But there is something very interesting about this happening in the life of Abraham: there is no evidence of any ‘feet of clay’……unless you use your imagination!
Here is what we are told in verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 22:
...God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!
...Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you
love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains
of which I shall tell you.”
That’s it? Is there no further explanation? The only options open to the father was to kill his beloved son…or disobey God! What we are not told is the mighty struggle Abraham must have experienced that terrible night before he left with his son to go to the land of Moriah!
- Isaac was the son of promise!
✡ He was promised to aged Abraham and Sarah when bio-
logically it was impossible for them to have a child!
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well-advanced
in age; and Sarah had passed the age of child-
bearing....And the LORD said to Abraham,...
“Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the
appointed time I will return to you, according
to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a
son.” (Genesis 18:11,14).
✡ Isaac was also the key to the promise of the Abrahamic
Covenant (see Genesis 12:1-3). For God plainly said in
Genesis 21:12, “...for in Isaac your seed shall be called.”
How numerous was the seed to be through Isaac? Here is
what God said in Genesis 15:4 and 5 (partially quoted
above):
And behold, the word of the LORD came to [Abraham]
..., saying, “...one who will come from your own
body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him out-
side and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count
the stars if you are able to number them....So shall
your descendants be.”
If Isaac was sacrificed, how could God fulfill His promise? For the LORD had identified Isaac alone as Abraham‘s son: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac…” (Genesis 22:2). Perhaps Abraham thought, “I have another son, Ishmael, why could not God take him? ”
- There was human sacrifice all around him in the land of Canaan, especially children offered to the pagan gods such as Baal (see Jeremiah 19:5), Chemosh (see II Kings 3:27), and Molech (see Leviticus 18:21). But Jehovah God strictly forbade it – as He said centuries later in Jeremiah 32:35:
And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Val-
ley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and daughters
to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command
them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this
abomination....So how could the LORD tell Abraham to do such a thing as to sacrifice his own son?
- God knew that Abraham loved the son of his old age, for in His command to offer Isaac He had said, “Take now your son…whom you love…” (Genesis 22:2).
Wait! Maybe this pinpoints the problem! Are we not called to love God?
✡ Deuteronomy 6:5 – “You shall love the LORD your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your might.”
✡ Mark 12:29, 30 – “The first of all the commandments
is:‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’”
✡ Matthew 10:37, 38 – Jesus said, “He who loves father
or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he
who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy
of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow
Me is not worthy of Me.”
Isaac was taking the place of the LORD in Abraham’s heart and life! The old man had to put the object of his love on the altar of sacrifice! He had to put not only his son, but also himself on the altar of sacrifice if he was going to be blessed and used of God!
So here is where Abraham’s ‘feet of clay’ come into the picture: the man who is referred to in James 2:23 as “the friend of God ” (see also Isaiah 41:8) was in danger of becoming an idol worshiper – the ‘idol’ being Isaac!
Where are we in all this? What do we love most in our lives?
- The greatest commandment still stands! Here it is from Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind….”
In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Or, in the Worldwide English New Testament, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” Now put this together with the greatest commandment: “You shall obey the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind…” all the time!
- In Mark 8:34 through 38, Jesus challenges His followers thus:
Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever de-
sires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole
world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give
in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me
and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He
comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.
The cross we are to take up is an instrument of death! We are to die to self so we can live for God! Our sinful nature, called “the old man” (see Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9, 10) is to be crucified with Christ (see Romans 6:6-14; Galatians 2:20). And as Paul said in I Corinthians 15:31, “…I die daily…” (see also Luke 9:23), so are we moment by moment to “…reckon…ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:11).
- And the best way for us to be constantly ‘self-crucified’ is to pray this prayer of Jesus in Luke 22:42 …constantly! “…nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Paul Harvey made famous this statement, “And now, the rest of the story!” Abraham did not slay Isaac his son and offer him as a burnt offering to God! But he was ready to do it, and almost did………except the angel of the LORD stopped him at the last moment!
Abraham, Abraham!...Do not lay your hand on the lad,
or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear
God, since you have not withheld your son, your only
son, from Me....By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord,
because you have done this thing, and have not with-
held your son, your only son — blessing I will bless
you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants
as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is
on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess
the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the na-
tions of the earth shall be blessed, because you have
obeyed My voice. (Genesis 22:11, 12, 16-18).
By his willingness to offer up Isaac, Abraham was released from the idolatry of loving his son first! Now God had His proper place in the patriarch’s heart and life!
One more thing concerning this great man: Abraham could only reconcile his son’s death, and God’s promise to bless the world through the young man, by believing the LORD would raise Isaac from the dead! That’s what it says in the Hall of Heroes, Hebrews 11:17 through 19 (and it is worth quoting one more time!):
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac,
and he who had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed
will be called,” accounting that God was able to raise
him up, even from the dead, from which he also received
him in a figurative sense.
May we all have such faith as did Abraham!