The Covenant with Abraham Part 3
Read: Genesis 22; Hebrews 11:17-19
The sacrifice of Isaac is one of those Bible stories that can make someone sit back after reading it and shake their head in astonishment. Some may view this story as too extreme and wonder how God could ask anyone to sacrifice their son. If we discount God because of this story, though, we are missing the point.
This story has so many layers to it, and I will only be able to scratch the surface in this post.
At this point in Abraham’s life, he has been a long-time follower of God—sometimes obedient, other times disobedient. He took a second wife whom he later effectively divorced and sent away so that his son Ishmael wouldn’t be in competition with the son of the promise, Isaac. Abraham has continued to interact with leaders in the region and had yet another encounter with the Philistines. This time, though, he was the recipient of a treaty that gave him access to wells in the land of Canaan. He might not have owned any of the Promised Land, but he was making his mark known.
Then in Genesis 22, we see that God had one final test for Abraham. Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” While this verse references the wandering years of Israel in the wilderness, the motive for testing remained the same for Abraham. God had made many promises to Abraham, and while Abraham had not seen them all come true, he had witnessed enough to know that God is both trustworthy and faithful. In this last great test of Abraham, we see the heart and faith of Abraham.
The test is revealed when God tells Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, and offer him as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah (Gen 22:2). Moriah was a three-day journey for Abraham, Isaac, and the servants with them. We are not told when Isaac fully knew of Abraham’s plans. We are not told if Abraham stayed up pacing every night and questioning God. We are not told how old Isaac was. What we are told, though, is that Abraham obeyed God—immediately—and prepared to sacrifice his son. Once they got to Moriah, Isaac took the wood for the sacrifice, and Abraham told him that “‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering’” (22:8). But then, Abraham bound Isaac and placed him on the altar. Whether Isaac questioned his father or ever fought back is not recorded; whatever the case may have been, Isaac ultimately submitted as the sacrifice.
And God intervened.
We are told that “the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven” (22:11) and told him “‘[d]o not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me’” (22:12). Abraham passed the test. But the story is not over—God called for a sacrifice, and this requirement was not removed, so Abraham took the God-given ram and offered it in Isaac’s place.
We have the gist, and now we can begin adding some layers to the story. First, a note about Mount Moriah. Moriah itself means “chosen by Jehovah” (BlueLetterBible), and it is the future location of Solomon’s temple—the home of the ark of the covenant and the Holy of Holies. It is the future home of the atoning sacrifices Israel would make under the Old (Mosaic) Covenant. It is the future home of the lesser second temple rebuilt after Israel’s return from exile. It is the future home of the temple where Jesus would walk and teach and proclaim God’s kingdom on Earth.
Next, I found it interesting that the journey to Moriah took Abraham three days to undertake. Whether we should read into this is up for debate, but I find it striking that Abraham’s obedience required three days before fulfillment, just as Jesus remained in the tomb for three days before His resurrection from His atoning sacrifice.
Then, there is the language that describes Isaac as Abraham’s beloved son, his only son. Take a jump to the gospels, and we see God describe Jesus in the exact same way. Luke 3:22 tells us that “a voice from heaven” proclaims “‘You are my beloved Son…” at Jesus’ baptism. Isn’t it interesting to note that it was also “a voice from heaven” that halted Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac? Jesus is not only God’s beloved Son, He is also God’s “one and only Son” (John 3:16). We are meant to see Isaac as a type, a foreshadowing of Jesus.
If we take the comparison further, Isaac was meant as a sacrifice, but Jesus is the ultimate atoning sacrifice. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because we are told that Abraham “considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead” (Heb. 11:19). After all, Abraham and Sarah considered themselves as good as dead when they were given the promise of a son, and God gave them Isaac from their own bodies (Rom 4:19). He trusted God as “the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist” (Rom 4:17). Abraham fully lived out his faith in God and believed God to the utmost because even though God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his son of the promise, Abraham still trusted God to fulfill the promises He had made.
Abraham’s faith was not misplaced. Rather than sacrificing Isaac, God provided a substitute—a ram—that not only foreshadowed the innumerable sacrifices that would be made under the Old Covenant, but also the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Isaac would not have been enough. The ram was not enough. The millions of sacrifices made in the tabernacle and temple were not enough. None of the human attempts at atonement would ever satisfy the debt that we owed since sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. The curse of the broken covenant was death, and only the perfect Lamb of God would satisfy the debt. Hebrews tells us, “For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified” (10:4). God did not spare His one and only beloved Son but offered Him for us all (Rom 8:32). And like Abraham, we, too, can trust God as “the one who gives life to the dead” (Rom 4:17).
Abraham named the place of the sacrifice “The LORD Will Provide” (Gen 22:14). The Lord does indeed provide for us. He knew we would need the gift of His grace because we would never be able to live the perfectly obedient lives required to receive His blessing of life. So, God provided. One day, in the spring, in Jerusalem, some millennia later, another Son was crucified on a hill called Golgotha. He prayed, “‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing’” (Luke 23:34). They did not know…
As the Son breathed His last and entrusted His Spirit into the hands of God, those same hands tore the curtain separating the holy place from the most holy place in the temple (Mt. 27:51, Ex. 26:31-33, Eph. 2:14). The Son’s sacrifice had been accepted. His was the atoning sacrifice (Rom. 3:25) that made us righteous before God (Rom. 5:9, 2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus made peace between us and God through His blood shed on the cross (Col. 1:20; Isa. 53:5). No longer would we be separated from God, for Jesus’ blood is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of our sins (Mt. 26:28).
It is up to us to decide where we stand. Will we be like the men at the crucifixion who did not know God? Will we be like Abraham, whose faith in God set the stage for blessing the entire world? Will we choose God, so that He might be our God and we might be His people (Ezek. 36:28; Rev. 21:3)?
Author’s Note:
Please realize that the resource list is a work in progress, and not all the sources listed are ones that I necessarily used or heavily considered in the development of this series. I also realize that a variety of schools of thought may be represented. I am not intentionally promoting one theological system over another. I also recognize that there are multiple approaches to the study of covenants, and I am not here to promote one over another. My goal is to present a basic understanding of the various covenants and how they progressively reveal God’s overarching plan of salvation for humanity.
