Lessons of loyalty — Gen 22:6-14

OLD TESTAMENT LESSONS OF LOYALTY:
Isaac to Abraham (son to father) — Gen 22:6-14¹
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2017

The relationship between a father and his son is special, characterized by moments of understanding...or not:

A five-year-old boy was eating an apple in the back seat of the car, when he asked, "Dad, why is my apple turning brown?" "Because," his father explained, "after you ate the skin off, the meat of the apple came into contact with the air which caused it to oxidize, thus changing the molecular structure and turning it a different color." There was a period of silence. Then the son asked... "Dad, are you talking to me?"

The relationship between a father and his son may be characterized by moments of understanding, but not always. In this sermon series entitled Old Testament Lessons of Loyalty, we come to the loyalty of a son to his father, the loyalty of Isaac to Abraham, and of how a boy, who is probably a little older than five when he accompanies his father to Mount Moriah, may not understand fully the reason for their trip.²

 

When Abraham tells his son and his servants they will be traveling together, he does not include many details, only that they are going to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. There is no indication the Patriarch made regular offerings, although he did construct altars in the various places he lived. These altars, however, may have functioned more as boundary markers or commemorative markers than as places for sacrifice. In any case, Abraham set up altars in the various places he lived in Canaan:

Abram traveled through the land as far as...Shechem.... He built an altar there to the LORD.... From there he went on toward the hills... There he built an altar to the LORD.... [Then] Abram moved...to...Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD. (Gen 12:6-8; 13:18)³

The next mention of an altar is when God sends Abraham to Moriah to present a burnt offering. God does not explain why the altar close to home at Hebron is an unsuitable site for this sacrifice. In any case, the Patriarch travels to the new location.

Gen 22:4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

Abraham leaves his servants at the base of the mountain while he and Isaac make the final ascent:

Gen 22:6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them went on together.

Apparently the dictum: "Children should be seen and not heard" is applicable even in the second millennium B.C., because the trip is very quiet until...

 

I. Isaac questions the expectation of his father (Gen 22: 6-9).

Gen 22:7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

A. Abraham assembles most items for the sacrifice.

The wood, fire, and knife provide some clue about the purpose of the trip, but the absence of an appropriate animal is a conspicuous desideratum. When Isaac raises the question—"Where is the lamb?"⁴—his father's response is more evasive than enlightening.

Gen 22:8 Abraham answered, "God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

Whatever uncertainty remains, though, disappears as...

B. Abraham prepares his son for the sacrifice.

Gen 22:9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.⁵

At this point, it must dawn on Isaac that he is the sacrifice, yet the boy still trusts his father and does not attempt to climb off the altar.

 

Application: God does not expect you to sacrifice of your children; rather, He expects you to sacrifice yourself. As Paul writes, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship" (Rom 12:1). Moreover, like Isaac, God does not expect you to change your mind once you have committed yourself and climb off the altar. Jesus makes the same assertion about steadfastness to one's commitment using an agricultural metaphor: "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).⁶

 

II. Isaac follows the direction by his father (Gen 22:10-12).

There is no indication that Isaac struggles or resists his father in any way, despite knowing that this would likely be the end of his life. He is compliant.

Gen 22:10 [The Patriarch] reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Does Isaac's brief life flash before his eyes? Does he have second thoughts? Does he doubt his father's love?

A. Abraham raises the knife for the sacrifice.

Here is the moment of truth: Will Abraham slay his son as the Lord commanded, or will he 'follow his heart' and spare the boy? Then the Patriarch receives a welcome reprieve:

Gen 22:11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven.⁷ "Abraham! Abraham!"⁸ "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,⁹ because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

At the last possible instance God intervenes (i.e.. through the angelic messenger, whose voice is indistinguishable from God's voice), and...

B. Abraham halts the plan for the sacrifice.

Abraham may have been hoping for different instruction, but God knew that he was ready to go through with the sacrifice. There was never a question in God's mind. That is what it means to know a person's heart. He knew what this father was willing to do.¹⁰ Now Abraham knew as well.

 

Application: According to Paul, "in all things God works for the good of those who love him" (Rom 8:28). Do you love Him? Then God's sovereignty ensures that everything—all of life—will turn to your advantage, whatever the appearance of things on the surface or at the moment. The sacrifice of Isaac did not appear to advance Abraham's interests. It seemed to contradict them and, indeed, the death of his son would not have been good for Abraham. But appearances do not hinder God. He is able to work around them or even to reverse them which, when He does, always works to His advantage and yours. Again, He is sovereign and He is good, two attributes that ultimately benefit you.

 

The Patriarch is ready and willing to sacrifice his son, to end his hope of realizing the promise God made years earlier that his descendants would be a great people. Abraham thought his first son could serve in that role, but the Lord said not:

Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!" Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. (Gen 17:18-19)

God restricted the recipient of the promise, and now He is ready to eliminate that possibility. Is all hope lost?

 

III. Isaac witnesses the solution with his father (Gen 22:13-14).

 

At the height of their dilemma an angel appears with a solution. It is the original deus ex machina. There is a reversal of fortune, a stay of execution for Isaac.

A. Abraham hears the change for the sacrifice.

His son does not need to die.¹¹ The promise is not lost; it may yet find fulfillment in Isaac as God provides a surrogate. ¹²

Gen 22:13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

B. Abraham sees the substitute for the sacrifice.

God has kept both the promise and Abraham's son alive. Such a momentous reversal deserves special commemoration.¹³

Gen 22:14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day¹⁴ it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

The Patriarch is a wealthy man, with many animals and many servants, but he does not have many offspring, only one son. His commitment to God, however, is strong,¹⁵ able to overcome a most stressful trial and is certainly worthy of celebration.¹⁶

 

Application: The Lord may not reverse the direction of your life when events go awry, preferring instead that you apply to your situation what wisdom He makes available. Rather than providing some deus ex machina, God may want you to take a more difficult path and work through a dilemma on your own or with the help of other believers. Remember, "there is safety in a multitude of counselors" (Prov 11: 14b; 24:6b).

 

God calls upon Abraham, as a father, to fulfill a very difficult task.¹⁷ That Abraham does not hesitate to obey is a testimony to his devotion. It also testifies to the rightness of God's earlier judgment, that "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6; cf. Rom 4:3; Gal 3:6; Jms 2:23). This incident also shows the loyalty of a son to his father, Isaac's willingness to trust his father, even as Abraham trusted the Lord, up to the moment when life and promise were about to end, and to discover that God will indeed provide.

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.