LESSON X.--MARCH 6.

ABRAHAM OFFERING ISAAC.--GEN. 22:1-14.

      GOLDEN TEXT.--God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.--GEN. 22:8.
      TIME.--About B. C. 1872.
      PLACE.--Beersheba, in South Palestine, and Mt. Moriah, the land of Moriah, probably at Jerusalem.
      HELPFUL READINGS.--Gen. 18:9-15; Gen. 21:1-8; Heb. 11:17-19; James 2:17-23.
      LESSON ANALYSIS.--I. The Trial of Faith; 2. Abraham Not Found Wanting; 3. Jehovah Jireh.

INTRODUCTION.

      High above all others, in point of the fierceness of the trial and the wonderful spirit of calm and steadfast faith and endurance, stands the case of God's command, and Abraham consent, to sacrifice his son Isaac. . . We can readily make up what may seem to us very strong arguments against obedience to such a command; but it does not appear that he whispered in his heart the first one of them. The only hint we have of his deep thoughts in the case comes through the writer to the Hebrew Christians--"Accounting that God was able to raise him even from the dead." Plainly the Lord intended to make known that his command, when clearly uttered, is to be obeyed without debate, with no misgivings, no doubting, no fear. .  . . This was the obedience of faith. The wonderful illustration stands out before all the ages with God's seal of approbation stamped upon it.--Cowles.

      I. THE TRIAL OF FAITH.--1. It came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. It would be more correct to say "God tried Abraham." James tells us that "God tempteth no man," but often subjects his servants to trials. This was not Abraham's only trial. In truth all his life had been a trial. There was outward prosperity, but much inward suffering. For many years while life was waning away he had no heir. Then came the parting with Lot; then the banishment of Hagar and Ishmael. Again, he had run the risk of losing Sarah and his own life twice. The dangers and misfortunes of Lot, public calamities, famine--all added their sum to the account. But now comes a trial that throws all before into the shade. [73]

      2. Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. It would seem as if the divine word sought to probe the utmost depths of the heart. It is, 1. "Thy son"--the heart of the Father is appealed to; 2. "Thine only son"--the heir of his name, estate, and of the promise--the long hoped for son, whose death would leave him childless, since Ishmael had taken to the desert; 3. "Whom thou lovest"--the deep, doting affection of old age lavishing its affection on a single object is next noted. Get thee into the land of Moriah. The land of Moriah is a general phrase for the mountainous district of Jerusalem. This Moriah is supposed by most commentators to be the same as the site upon which Solomon built the temple, and was so called. See 2 Chron. 3:1, and compare with 2 Sam. 24:16. It is improbable that there were two Moriahs, and the site of Jerusalem was distant from Beersheba just about the distance that Abraham would travel in the time indicated in verse 4. Offer him there for a burnt offering. It has been objected by some that this command was immoral, but we must read the whole story. God did not permit nor intend for him to offer his son, but his purpose was to try him. Had he suffered the sacrifice to be made, then there might be some ground for such a view; but it is clear that this was Dot the divine purpose. "Abraham stands before us as the special type of a trustful, obedient, loving faith. He believed that all which God commanded must be right, and all he promised must be true. Hence he knew that when the command was clear, obedience must be undoubting. The wisdom, the justice, and the goodness of God were such that, though he did not understand the reason of the dispensation, he must reverently and patiently submit to it. The command, therefore, strange as it was, and his obedience to that command, testified that the faith was intelligent, as well as unconditional and unwavering."--Browne.

      3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning. The promptness and steadiness of Abraham's obedience are strongly marked in all the details of this verse. There are-several things to be noted: 1. While it was an awful shock to be called upon to sacrifice his son, it did not occur to him that such a [74] sacrifices would be offensive to God. He was surrounded by races who offered human sacrifices. The Canaanites offered their own children to the god Moloch; the Phoenicians, Carthagenians and Moabites offered human sacrifices. In a later age the king of Moab, when besieged by the Israelites, offered his own son as a sacrifice on the walls. Hence, with such surroundings from infancy, it did not occur to him as an impossible thing that God would demand his son. 2. His theology had for its very essence the principle that he should trust and obey God. What God commanded must be done. That was right, however imperfect his own understanding might be. 3. Note also that he suffers alone. He does not speak to Sarah of his stern trial. He probably felt that he could not bear her tears and wails, in addition to the burden already laid upon him.

      II. ABRAHAM NOT FOUND WANTING.--4. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes. Reckoning the distance from Beersheba to Moriah as 45 miles, if they traveled 15 miles the first day, and 20 miles the second day, there is yet ten miles of travel for the third day, on which they came in sight of the place, yet at a distance. If it be asked how Abraham knew the place, it may be answered that God had promised to show him the mountain, and we may be assured that he did, giving some sign that would be understood.

      5. Abraham said to the young men, Abide ye here. He took only his son. He wished to suffer alone. There were to be no witnesses. He had spoken to no one during the long journey of what was in his heart. Isaac himself did not know what fate seemed to be in store for him. Come again unto you. I and the lad. The words were prophetic, and it is probable that Abraham expected to return with his son, raised from the dead. Why should he not believe it? The very birth of Isaac was a miracle, his parents being dead for purposes of procreation before his birth, and Heb. 11:17 indicates fully his hopes in offering his son.

      6. Abraham took the wood for a burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac. Leaving the young men behind, he went forward with his son. The wood prepared at home for the burnt offering, laid upon Isaac, the promised seed, the son [75] slain "in a figure," is a fitting type of the Son of God carrying his own cross. It will be noted that Isaac could not have been a small boy, or he could not have carried the wood. The only indication of the time of his life is in this statement. Josephus says that he was 25 years old; some of the Rabbins make him older. Others insist that he was the age of the antetype, the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not think that the term "lad," used in verse 5, will admit of his being an adult. He was probably somewhere from sixteen to twenty.

      7. Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb? Isaac broke the dreadful silence with this touching inquiry, which Bishop Hall has observed "must have gone to Abraham's heart as deeply as the knife could possibly have gone to Isaac's." If any word or deed could have broken down the father, it would have been this touching and pleading question. Isaac probably had no misgivings to this point, but it seemed so strange that his father had provided no offering. Could he have forgotten? What did it all mean?

      8. God will provide himself a lamb. The thought in Abraham's mind was that God had provided the lamb in his son carrying the sacrificial wood, but his words received a fulfillment that he did not anticipate. Many regard these words as having a still deeper meaning, and pointing forward to the "Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world." It is not probable that Abraham was conscious that he was speaking and acting prophecy; for he did not know what the Spirit did signify through him; but at the same time it is easy for us to see that these events typified the great tragedy that was to be enacted at that very place about two thousand years later. 1. Isaac was the promised seed, through whom the families of the earth were in time to be blessed by receiving the Messiah. Christ was the promised seed that blessed the world. 2. Isaac was the only son; Christ "the only begotten Son of God." 3. From the time of the command Isaac was dead in prospect to his father until the third day; Christ died, was buried, and arose again on the third day. 4. Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice; Christ carried his own cross. 5. Abraham declared, "God will provide a lamb;" one was provided instead of Isaac, the only one so provided in Jewish history; two thousand years later God provided The Lamb of God. 6. The place where Isaac was bound on the altar was the very place where Christ was condemned to suffer, and died for the sins of the world. [76]

      9. Abraham built an altar. The dreadful hour was at hand. The very place that the Lord had by some means pointed out was reached; the very spot either of the Savior's condemnation or crucifixion. The patriarch proceeds to gather unhewn stones and to build his simple altar; the wood that had been carried from Beersheba was laid upon it in order. All indicates deliberation and fixedness of purpose. Nothing is neglected. Then he bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar. Up to this moment it is not probable that the son knew his father's purpose. There is no indication that he offered the slightest resistance when it was made known. His father was an old man, at least 116 years old, and a strong boy of sixteen could have foiled the purpose, had he resisted, but he evidently submitted as to the will of God, and was "led as a lamb to the slaughter," like his great antitype. The law of Israel afterwards required the dedication of the first born. Isaac was dedicated to the Lord.

      10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand. His hand was now laid upon the sacrificial knife, and raised to strike the fatal blow. So far as his heart and his intent are concerned, he has shown the deed to be virtually done. Paul shows that it was so regarded by God--"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac." "In the divine judgment the deed was done as truly as if the knife had been plunged into the heart of Isaac. There is, therefore, no such contradiction here as some critics pretend to find. God required the sacrifice, the giving up, of Isaac, and the sacrifice was not withheld. Instead of raising him from the dead, he arrested the hand in the act of slaying him."--Jacobus.

      III. JEHOVAH JIREH.--11. The angel of the Lord called unto him. There is a significance in the change of terms to represent the Deity. Thus far in the account of the trial of Abraham the word is God (Elohim), but now it is Lord (Jehovah), the covenant name of the God of Israel. The Angel of the Lord is the "Angel of the Covenant," so often named, by many supposed to be the Son of God. It is the Covenant Angel who stays the hand. The words, "Abraham! Abraham!" repeated, imply rapid, imperious utterance, to stay in an instant the hand that was about to descend. "God, as [77] the true God, had a sovereign right to demand all that Abraham had, yet Jehovah, as the Covenant God, would not suffer his covenant to fail. These are the different aspects in which God revealed himself to the patriarch in the history of redemption. God does not contradict himself, but exhibits different aspects of the divine plan.

      12. Lay not thine hand upon the lad. "Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offering and sacrifice for sin thou wouldest not, neither had pleasure in them: Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." The Father of the Faithful, the great type of all the heroes of the Faith, had demonstrated his supreme submission to the will of God. The divine purpose was accomplished. It was no part of that purpose that a human sacrifice should be offered, but was intended to show forth that there must be an unconditional, unreserved submission to the divine will. I know that thou fearest God. Theodoret very correctly says: "God tried Abraham, not that he might learn what he knew already, but that he might show to others with how great justice he loved the patriarch." He wished also to show to all mankind just what kind of a character he loved; one who has taken his own will and laid it as a sacrifice on the altar of God. Origen notes that God commends Abraham that "he did not withhold his son, his only son" from him, and that God did not withhold his Son, his only Son, from us, "but freely gave him up for us all."

      13. Abraham . . . looked, and behold, behind him a ram. Here occurs the wonderful substitution, in which God set forth as in a figure the plan of the Mosaic economy, for the offering of animal victims instead of human sacrifices--animal offerings for the sins of men, pointing forward to the only acceptable substitute whom they foreshadowed, who is God's Lamb--not man's--the Lamb of God's providing, his only begotten Son. In the stead of his Son. As the Lord provided a sacrifice instead of Isaac, so he has provided a "Lamb," instead of ourselves.

      14. Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. Which means? "The [78] Lord will provide," or as some render it, "The Lord will see." In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Jerome says: " This became a proverb among the Hebrews, that if any should be in trouble and should desire help of the Lord, they should say, In the mount the Lord will see, that is, as he had mercy on Abraham, and provided in the mount, so he will have mercy on us."

PRACTICAL AND SUGGESTIVE.

      ABRAHAM'S TRIAL.--The issue shows that God did not desire the sacrifice of Isaac, by slaying and burning him upon the altar (nor would he permit it), but his complete surrender and a willingness to offer him to God even in death. Nevertheless, the divine command was given in such a form that Abraham could not understand it in any other way than as requiring an outward burnt offering, because there was no other way in which Abraham could accomplish the complete surrender of Isaac than by an actual preparation for really offering the desired sacrifice.--Delitsch.

      ABRAHAM'S EXAMPLE.--God did not put Abraham to this test that he might know Abraham's heart, but that Abraham might know himself, and that he might stand forth as an example to all ages. The great type of the Faith sets the example of a complete surrender to the divine will, without hesitation or questioning, even when the divine purpose seemed darkest, and the sacrifice the greatest. Who can claim to walk in Abraham's steps, as a child of Abraham by faith, who hesitates at the commands of God? Who that declines, or delays, or seeks to change God's ordinances, or asks if some other way will not do? Then, also, he is an example to parents who hesitate to dedicate their children to God, to have them go as missionaries, or devote themselves to God's service without hope of earthly reward.

      OUR SACRIFICE.--The Christian sacrifice is the surrender of the will, the surrender of ourselves. When all the will has been submitted, then God says, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." So the great sacrifice of Christ was pleasing, not because of the shedding of blood, but by reason of the surrender of the will. It was not Isaac's blood that God wanted, but Abraham's will. It was not Christ's blood that pleased God, but the complete merging of his will into the divine will. "Not my will, but thine be done."--Robertson. So, too, in our obedience to the divine ordinances, as baptism for example, it is not so much the act that the Lord wants, but the giving up of our wills to the divine keeping. [79]

POINTS FOR TEACHERS.

      1. Note the past life, the trials, the demonstrations of his faith. 2. Note also the reasons for special attachment to Isaac, the child of promise, of old age, the hope of the future nation and of the coming Messiah. 3. Picture the terrible blow to the father's heart and hopes when the command comes. 4. Show how it was obeyed--no hesitation, no appeals to Sarah or his family for sympathy, but calmly, pathetically trusting, he goes right on. 5. Show why he was able to endure his trial. It was his faith. He believed all God had said, and that therefore he would raise Isaac from the dead. 6. Portray the touching scene that Abraham ends with the words, "The Lord will provide." 7. Show how Isaac was a type of the Lamb of God. 8. Show how the Lord did provide, and the meaning of the substitute. 9. Bring out the great lesson of Abraham's example to us.

Source: Barton Warren Johnson. The Christian International Lesson Commentary for 1887. Des Moines, IA: