Chapter. 15, Genesis 22. Isaac.
AFTER Hagar and Ishmael were gone away, God called to Abraham, and said: “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee, of.” Was it God’s wish to make Abraham unhappy, and to kill his son? No, God wished to try Abraham’s faith; to see if Abraham would be obedient, and if he loved God more than his dear child. Abraham obeyed directly; for he knew God’s command must be right, and he believed that God had power even to raise Isaac to life again after he was dead. All God does is good and right. When He sends us main or sickness, or sorrow, He does it wisely, for good, not for evil; we do not always know why, but God knows. Let us ask Him to make us as obedient to His will as Abraham was.
Nor, was Abraham’s obedience slow, for he rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his servants with: him and Isaac his son, and the wood for his burnt offering and went unto the place of which God had told him. As they walked along and Abraham thought what he was to do to his dear son, his obedient child, he must have felt very sad; but Abraham loved God more than Isaac, and God gave him strength willingly to obey His command. After three days, they saw afar off the mountain where Isaac was to be offered. Then Abraham said to his servants. “Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” So the servants stayed and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.” And they came to the place God had told him of and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And he stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham,” and he said, “Here am I”. And he said: “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked behind him and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And he went and took the ram, and offered him instead of his son. And Abraham called that place Jehovah-jireh, which means; “The Lord will provide.”
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven the second time and said: Because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: I will bless and multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore and in thy seed (or thy children) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.
So Abraham returned to the young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba where Abraham dwelt.
This is a beautiful picture of the sacrifice which God was to offer many years later, when He gave the Lord Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. If it was hard for Abraham to give up his dear son in obedience to a God he loved, how much harder was it for God to give up the One who was His delight through eternity! And if the sacrifice was so great how great must have been the love that prompted it! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” When Abraham’s faith and obedience were fully proved, God stayed his arm that he should not harm the child, but oh! if we poor sinners, were to be saved, God’s arm could not be stayed, and the sacrifice must be accomplished. Shall we not render to God who gave His son, and to the Lord Jesus, the willing victim, all our love and obedience?
Surely, He is worthy!
ML 04/18/1909