The offering of Isaac

Introduction:

It’s hard to believe, but we are now in our tenth week of studying the book of Genesis.

Throughout this time, we have seen God’s power in creation,

His perfect relationship with Adam and Eve in the Garden,

and the devastating fracture caused by sin.

Yet, from the very beginning, God made a promise that one day, a descendant of the woman would come to defeat Satan and restore what was broken.

As the story unfolds, Genesis shifts from a broad focus on humanity as a whole to a specific family, the family of Abraham.

Abraham is often seen as a great hero of faith, but we have also witnessed his failures.

Time and again, he has struggled to trust God fully.

From the moment God called him in chapter 12 to the events of our passage today in chapter 22, Abraham has been on a journey of growth, shaped by both successes and failures.

We have seen his moments of weak faith—twice lying about his wife to protect himself and taking matters into his own hands by having a child with Hagar instead of waiting on God’s promise.

But we have also seen moments of strong faith, like choosing peace over personal gain by letting Lot pick the best land,

and interceding for Sodom, trusting in God’s justice and mercy.

Through all these experiences, God has been refining Abraham’s faith.

Some of these situations were tests,

others were temptations,

but in all of them, God was working for good.

As Adjan and Annie reminded us a couple of weeks ago, temptations come from Satan to weaken our faith, but tests come from God to strengthen it.

And through both, God was preparing Abraham for a greater test—one that would reveal just how far his trust in God had come.

By chapter 21, Abraham had finally seen the fulfillment of God’s long-awaited promise.

After 25 years of waiting, he held his son Isaac in his arms.

Imagine the joy and the worship that must have filled his home!

But now, in chapter 22, Abraham faces his greatest test yet.

This is why it’s so important to see the whole journey that led him here.

It has been up to sixty years since he was called. Early on in that journey , Abraham likely would not have hadthe faith to obey this command.

But God had been shaping him all along, teaching him to trust even when things didn’t make sense.

the same is true for us today

The trials we face today are not without purpose.

God is preparing us,

just as He prepared Abraham,

to trust Him fully,

no matter what lies ahead.

With that framework set, let’s look at today’s main idea:

God tested Abraham’s faith by asking for a great sacrifice.

Though it didn’t make sense, Abraham trusted God, and his faith was strengthened.

In this, God was not only shaping Abraham but also painting a picture of the greater sacrifice to come, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Therefore, we must trust God in our own trials, seeing them as opportunities to grow in faith, just as Abraham did.

We will examine the text in two parts this morning.

The testing of Abraham to show his faith.

The testing of Abraham to show Christ.

We will then conclude by looking at how these two truths can help our church community today.

With this background in mind, let us now turn to the testing of Abraham to show his faith.

The testing of Abraham to show his faith.

We are going to explore the testing of Abraham here by simply going through the chapter.

So let’s start in verse 1-2

Genesis 22:1–2 ESV

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take 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.”

A. Faith brings an immediate response to the commands of God.

We see right away that Abraham’s faith brought forth an Immediate response.

God spoke to him and what was his response?

Did he say, “hold on, I’m busy right now, I will talk to you later”?

No, he responded “Here I am”.

Abraham was ready to speak to the Lord.

You see, those with strong Faith are always ready to hear and respond to God.

But What about you?

When God interrupts your day,

when He shows up without a calendar invite on your outlook,

are you willing to drop it all and say, like Abraham,

Here I am?

I will warn you though, it will not always be easy.

What the Lord had to say to Abraham was definitely easy.

God tells Abraham to do the impossible, to sacrifice his son!

Can you imagine the confusion that Abraham must have had in this moment.

This would make absolutely no sense to him.

God does not rejoice in the killing of those made in His image, so why would He ask Abraham to do just that?

But even more confusing,

God had promised Abraham this child repeatedly.

A huge part of his growing in faith was learning to wait on God for this promise to be complete.

Now that God had given him this child, allowed him to grow for some time,

but not long enough to have children of his own.

And he now is supposed to put him to death?

How, then, can God’s promises be fulfilled if the promised child is killed?

From this child is to come a great Nation!

From this child, His family is supposed to number the stars.

From this child, the whole world is to be blessed!

Abraham must have been thinking,

So now God, you want me to kill this child before any of those promises can take place?

I know you are not like the false gods my neighbors worship,

you don’t delight in human sacrifice, but that is what you are commanding me to do?

This makes no sense!

These apparent contradictions could have led Abraham to say,

“ I know God is telling me to do this, but I want to ensure that His promises come true,

so I am going to choose to not listen so Isaac may live to have a great nation come from him.”

I mean, we today would have been all for that right?

Our greatest hope is in the one who would eventually be born from his descendents,

the one who would crush the head of Satan and deliver us from our sins.

That was the ultimate promise within the promise that all the nations would be blessed,

so by all means Abraham,

disobey God so He will later be Glorified through Christ!

This would have been a wicked thing to do however,

because it would have been using our own logic to justify disobeying the one true God.

I think Charles Spurgeon said it well….

"To do evil that good may come is false morality and wicked policy; for us, it is duty, but for God, it is never so. God’s way is not like man's way. He cannot do evil that good may come, and neither can we. It is a wicked and corrupt thought that justifies wrongdoing for the sake of a good result. God’s will is pure, and His path is always righteous, even if it contradicts our own ideas of what might bring about good." -Charles Spurgeon

Was that the rout that Abraham took though?

It was when he took Hagar years earlier, but not this time!

Abraham’s faith has grown since then.

Let’s see how in verse 3.

Genesis 22:3 ESV

3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

He could have said, “ok God, but I need to finish up these chores I have happening this week.”

But no,

He not only trusted God to accomplish His promises even when the path made no sense,

he did so without hesitation.

And When they got there 3 days later, we see a great clue to what Abraham was thinking.

Let’s look in verse 5.

Genesis 22:5 ESV

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

B. Faith is a trust in the power of God.

Do you see the amazing faith in this statement?

How could he say that they would both return, if he truly had plans to sacrifice Issac?

He trusted God so much to fulfil his promises, even when the path God had him on seemed to utterly destroy them.

Abraham knew sacrificing his son would undo the promise that Issac would become a great nation,

and therefore,

He had faith that God would make a way to preserve His son,

even if he needed to sacrifice him.

If you don’t believe me here, let’s look at Heb 11:17-19

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham knew God’s Words.

He knew God was a God who kept His promises.

He knew God had the power to do the impossible.

Here Again, the words of Charles Spurgeon ring so true.

"Brethren, it would seem that we are often called to a course of action that appears to jeopardize our desired hopes. We are called to do that which seems to be the very reverse of what we wish to accomplish. But, my brethren, we must not judge by appearances. God is wiser than we are, and He knows what is best for us."

Just as Abraham faced a seemingly impossible command,

we too encounter moments of uncertainty.

Have you ever been in a situation where obedience to God was leading you in a path where you did not know how the promises of God could possibly take place?

Maybe God has called you to change jobs,

or maybe even travel across the world to or from China.

Do you have faith that God will provide for you,

even if you have no idea where that provision could possibly come from?

Maybe you know that you should be worshiping God in your giving,

but life is expensive,

and money is tight.

Do you have faith in the provisions of God to accomplish His will in your life?

I don’t know what this could look like in your life,

but whatever it is,

these can be difficult and confusing times.

But we must have faith like Abraham.

We need the Faith that had him carry his own son up the mountain.

We see that Abraham had faith that His son would live,

but that did not stop him from going through with what God had told him to do.

He was ready to,

in full faithful obedience to God,

sacrifice his son on the altar.

But God, who does not rejoice in child sacrifice, called out to him to stop him.

The test was complete.

Abraham’s faith was on full display, as God commends Abraham in verse 12.

Genesis 22:12 ESV

12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

C. Faith produces more faith.

This appears to have been a test to both reveal the faith of Abraham,

but also to help strengthen it as well.

Now that He has had this great victory of faith,

he will be reminded of the provisions of God in times of obedience for the remainder of his days on earth, as are we reminded as we read this story.

We see this in the name that Abraham gave the place.

Genesis 22:14 ESV

14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

This was to a reminder to him,

and generations to come,

that the Lord provides for what we need, we only need to trust in his provisions.

Abraham, over the course of his life,

had gotten to this place of trust and faith.

we too,

like Abraham,

are called to have faith,

But what type of faith are we to have?

Faith in what?

This month is Ramadan...millions of Muslims have faith in Allah, with Muhammad as his prophet.

Next month millions of Chinese will burn paper money to their ancestors...they have faith that their ancestors will help provide for them in eternity.

BUT what does the Bible teach?

Who is the OBJECT of our faith?

It's Jesus!

It's always been Jesus.

Even here in the Old Testament,

this whole story is teaching us something of the Eternal Son who would come to save us from our sins.

So, let’s look at just a few ways that God used this story as a foreshadowing of Jesus to come.

2. The testing of Abraham to show Christ.

A) A Father Willingly Offering His Son

Let’s look again at Genesis 22:2: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love..."

This phrase is repeated twice more in the chapter and is a direct reference to Jesus,

whom the New Testament repeatedly calls the Father’s only Son.

Perhaps the clearest statement of this is in John 3:16: John 3 16

John 3:16 KJV 1900

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.

Just as Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son,

God so loved us that He gave His only Son—but while Isaac was spared, Jesus was not.

We see here a great foreshadowing of what God the Father would one day do with His son.

Centuries later, He would send Jesus, His beloved Son, to be sacrificed.

Romans 8:32 ESV

32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

God did not hold back His Son but gave Him up for us all!

He gave His son as the sacrificial lamb, to be a substitute for us.

This leads us to our second imagery of foreshadowing.

B) The Sacrificial Son and the True Lamb

As the knife was about to fall, God provided a substitute.

A ram was caught in the thicket, and it was sacrificed in Isaac’s place.

This is a direct foreshadowing of Jesus, our substitute.

We were the ones deserving death for our sin, but Jesus took our place.

Just as the ram bore the sacrifice that was meant for Isaac,

Christ took the punishment that was meant for us.

But not only is the ram a symbol of Christ’s coming sacrifice—Isaac himself also foreshadows Jesus.

And this brings us back to Abraham’s prophetic words in Genesis 22:8: "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."

That day,

God provided a ram, but not a lamb.

The true Lamb would come later—Jesus Christ,

the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

On the cross, God provided what Abraham’s sacrifice could only point toward: the perfect, sinless Lamb, given for our salvation.

C) The Location—Mount Moriah and Calvary

Genesis 22:2 (ESV)

2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah…..

The location was picked for a reason.

Mount Moriah is where Jerusalem would later be built. More specifically, it was likely the spot where the temple would later be built.

We see this clearly in

2 Chronicles 3:1 A (ESV) 1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah……

Abraham had no idea that His act of faith was a foreshadowing of what was to come about 2,000 years later, when Jesus would be sacrificed on a hill just outside the city where the temple was.

How amazing is the providence of God,

who’s hand is seen shaping redemptive history on our behalf.

Down to the small details of having this foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice occuring at the place that it would occur thousands of years later.

I hope this brings you to a place of worship.

Conclusion:

I hope seeing the truths in today’s passage brings you to a place of greater Faith in our creater.

And We have focused on two great truths in today’s passage.

First, Abraham’s test revealed his deep trust in God,

a faith that had been shaped through years of trials.

Second, his obedience pointed forward to Jesus, the greater sacrifice,

the Lamb of God who was given for us.

These truths are not just for Abraham’s story; they shape our lives today.

If you have never placed your faith in Christ,

this story also serves an invitation.

Just as God provided a ram in place of Isaac, He has provided Jesus in our place.

We all deserve judgment for our sin, but Jesus took our punishment so that we could have life.

Have you accepted this gift of salvation?

Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

If not, there are so many people in this room who would love nothing more than to have this conversation with you.

Find me, Rick, Ennia, or someone and ask to explain more about what salvation is and how we can be saved.

For those of us who have already placed our faith in Christ, this story challenges us to boldly live out our faith.

Abraham did not hold back his trust in God, and we are called to do the same.

If we truly believe that God has provided everything we need in Christ, then we must live in full surrender to Him.

Are we trusting God even when obedience is difficult?

Are we living with bold faith, knowing that God’s promises are sure?

Are we sharing this message of salvation with those who need to hear it?

God has provided the ultimate sacrifice,

our response is to trust Him completely.

Whether that means taking the first step of faith in salvation or walking in greater obedience as a believer, may we, like Abraham, trust that “The Lord Will Provide.”

We can not do that alone however. That is why God has given us the Church.

May our church be a place where faith grows,

where we walk together through trials,

and where the love of Christ is lived out in how we care for one another.

One way we can be a Church that trust that the Lord will Provide is to come together in prayer.

In just a moment, we’re going to break into small groups to pray for one another and our community. If you prefer some time to pray quietly on your own, feel free to stay seated, bow your head, and continue praying.

For those who want to pray in groups, please gather in groups of 3-5 around the room.

Almighty God, We come before You in faith, just as Abraham did. You are the God who provides, the God who is faithful, the God who leads us even when we do not understand. Today, we surrender ourselves to You—our fears, our doubts, and our plans. Strengthen our faith, that we may trust You fully. Help us to obey even when the path is uncertain. As Abraham offered Isaac in faith, help us to offer our lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to You. May we, as a church, walk together in trust and boldness, knowing that You are always faithful. Through Jesus Christ, our perfect sacrifice and Savior. Amen.