Abraham Tested

Hebrews 11:17-19

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 11

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, the one to whom it had been said,

Introduction

Transition from previous examples into this climactic test of Abraham's faith Hebrews 11 

Set the stage:— God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the son of promise Genesis 22 

This is not just a story about Abraham's obedience — it's a parable (parabolē) pointing to Christ G3850 (mention that there are a LOT of similarities/comparisons of Isaac and Jesus in this story)

What do you do when God asks you to surrender the very thing He gave you? 

Big Idea: God us gives more than he asks from us.

I. The Test of Surrender — Abraham Offers His One and Only Son (vv. 17)

Hebrews 11:17 CSB

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son...

The author continues to speak of the faith of Abraham. This time, Abraham's faith in a time of testing is in view. We see the account of this testing by God in Genesis 22.

Genesis 22:1–3 CSB

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.

In this story, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to him on a specific mountain. Now, if we remember just a couple weeks ago, when we looked at Hebrews 11:8-12, we saw how Abraham and Sarah had faith that God would provide them a son from their own bodies. The reason I state that specifically is because of the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah thought she was too old to have a child. So, gave her slave girl Hagar to Abraham as a wife so that any children of Hagar from Abraham could be raised by Sarah as her own.

But Ishmael was not the child of promise. Isaac was.

We can go back to Genesis 17, where God again confirms his Covenant with Abraham, telling him that Kings and Nations will come from Sarah. Abraham shows his continual struggle to believe God's promise when he laughs and asks God if a hundred-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman can give birth. Abraham then laments to God, saying, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to you.” But let’s look at how God responds to Abraham.

Genesis 17:19–21 CSB

But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm my covenant with him as a permanent covenant for his future offspring. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him; I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father twelve tribal leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will confirm my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

Isaac was the one who was promised by God given to Abraham through Sarah. Isaac, the one whose name means to laugh or to joke because both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God when he told them they would have a son at such an old age, was the son of the promise. And now, God was asking Abraham to offer Isaac back to God.

This is the ultimate test from God. God tells Abraham he will have a son. God gives Abraham that son just as he promised. And then, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. God is telling Abraham to give up what he desired most, the results of a promise that had been made to him by God 25 years before Isaac was born.

We do need to make a distinction here: God tested Abraham's faith and was not tempting him to sin. God does not tempt us to sin.

James 1:13 CSB

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

Some may argue that because human sacrifice is seen as detestable in Scripture, God was leading Abraham to that. However, God is all-knowing, and knew whether or not Abraham would obey and what the results would be. God was showing Abraham how to trust Him, even with the one thing that Abraham valued most.

The author of Hebrews describes Isaac as Abraham's “one and only” son. But Abraham also had Ishmael through Hagar. When God asks Abraham to offer Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael had already been sent away by Abraham.

The term “one and only” (monogenēs) that the author of Hebrews uses to describe Isaac is a term of uniqueness, not simply that of an only child. Jesus is referred to as the “one and only” (monogenes) begotten Son of God. The apostle John uses this term repeatedly in the first chapter of his gospel to describe the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son.

John 1:14 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:18 CSB

No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

The purpose of this term is not to define Isaac as Abraham’s only son numerically, but as the unique son of Abraham that Ishmael was not. This is the same way the term is used to define Jesus, who was not created by God, but has always existed with God as the second member of the trinity from eternity past. The relationships between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are completely unique and can never be repeated or copied.

Yes, Abraham had another son in Ishmael, but Isaac was the son who was promised by God. That in itself is especially unique.

At the same time, this did not keep Abraham from obeying.

Genesis 22:3 CSB

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.

Abraham did not argue, negotiate, or delay. He got up early in the morning and did what was necessary.

God does not tells us to obey when we feel like it.

We are to live lives of active obedience, even when we do not understand why God is telling us to go along the path he has set before us.

What is your Isaac? What are you holding so tightly that surrender feels impossible?

Is it your finances? Your health? Your anger? Is it control over all of the things around you? Real faith doesn't just believe God exists — it surrenders to God's will even when it costs us what we love most.

To believers: Where is God asking you to trust Him with something you've been gripping? 

To non-believers: You were created to live with open hands before God — but you can't do that until you surrender to Christ first. If you want true peace in this life, it starts with letting go of your own life, and putting it in God’s hands.

As I stated earlier, the singular, one-of-a-kind, distinct relationship that Jesus has with the Father has no match. Though Ishmael came from Abraham's body, Isaac was the child of Promise, as we see in our next verse.

II. The Promise That Cannot Fail — Offspring Through Isaac (v. 18b)

Hebrews 11:18 CSB

...the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

The word “offspring” in both Greek and Hebrew can also be translated into English as “seed,” as in “to sow or plant.” In the Old Testament, the word for “seed” (zera) functions much like our English word “sheep” or “moose.” Just as we can say that we have one sheep or many sheep, the Hebrew word for seed can also mean the plural “descendants or offspring.” The way we determine the difference is with the words around it because they help to give the context.

We can see different places in Scripture where this Hebrew word can be used as a singular and others as a plural. Two verses that we will look at are Genesis 3:15 & Genesis 22:18.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

This verse is from when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, having been tempted by Satan to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. This verse is part of the curse that the Lord puts on the serpent for his treachery. If we follow the genealogical lines listed in Genesis, we can see that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are descendants of Adam and Eve. The seed of the woman is also the Seed of Abraham. And we see in this verse that the singular offspring of the woman, and eventually through the line of Abraham, will strike the head of the serpent, and the serpent will strike the seed’s heel.

The other verse is Genesis 22:18

Genesis 22:18 CSB

“And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”

This is what the angel of the Lord says to Abraham after he stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. And as we look at how God has worked through history since then, the nations of the world have been blessed by Abraham and his son Isaac through Abraham's obedience. Isaac’s life resulted in the birth of Jacob, leading to the twelve tribes of Israel, leading eventually to the coming of Christ. God had set it in place that Isaac the world would be blessed through Isaac.

But this is not where this promise of God ends. Paul tells his readers in Galatians 3:16

Galatians 3:16 CSB

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ.

Now, Paul is not reducing the meaning of zera to only mean the singular form. Paul is pointing to the fact that though this promise was fulfilled through the multiple descendants of Abraham, Christ is the ultimate fulfillment.

Scripture has a greater picture in mind of the Nations being blessed through Abraham than the patriarchs probably ever realized. As we have seen throughout Hebrews, Christ is the Supreme example over everything and everyone else. He is the archetype. He is the better Adam, the better Moses, the better Aaron, the better tabernacle, and in this story we are looking at, he is the better seed or offspring.

Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the entire world has been blessed. Salvation is no longer considered something mainly for Jews. Though we see scripture talk about salvation first coming to the Jews, it was then made available to the Gentiles. Now, a gentile is simply a person who is not Jewish. In other words, salvation was first proclaimed to the Jews, and then to everyone else.

We can even look at the ideas around Western Society of equal treatment, justice, mercy, and hard work: these are all based on Judeo-Christian values that were established into society in many ways through the spread of Christianity.

Abraham had received the promises, and Isaac was the human channel through whom those promises would be traced — but the ultimate "seed" was always Christ.

God's promises don't depend on our ability to protect them — they depend on God's faithfulness. When God makes a promise to do something, the fulfillment of that promise is not dependent on us protecting and guarding the means by which we think that promise will be fulfilled. He will do what he has promised. He already knows how we are going to respond, what we will do, and how we will fail in the midst of carrying out his mission in this world. That should be freeing for us today. The fulfillment of God’s promises does not depend on you and me. God already knows how he is going to keep all of his promises, even through the sins and mistakes of humanity. The ultimate example of this is the lineage of Jesus.

Just by looking at the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, we see that Jacob’s son Judah (remember that Jesus is called the Lion of Judah) fathered Perez by his daughter-in-law. The mother of Boaz (the honorable man who married Ruth) was Rahab the prostitute who helped the Israelite spies escape from Jericho. And then we have David. The two gospel records of Jesus’ lineage split at David, one going through Solomon and the other through Nathan. Both of these men were children through David’s marriage to Bathsheba, which came through adultery and murder.

Abraham couldn't lose God's plan by obeying God's command, even when the command seemed to contradict the promise

To believers: Are you trying to protect God's promises by controlling outcomes? Faith means obeying even when you can't see how God will work it out.

To non-believers: The God who made promises to Abraham is still making promises today — and every one of them finds its fulfillment in Jesus

III. The God Who Raises the Dead — Abraham Received Isaac Back (v. 19)

Hebrews 11:19 CSB

He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead; therefore, he received him back, figuratively speaking.

Abraham believed God had asked him to sacrifice Isaac. We should believe that too. We read in Genesis 22:2 that God said,

Genesis 22:2 CSB

“Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Abraham knew what God was asking of him. But he also believed God had the power to bring him back. Abraham believed that God could raise someone from the dead, even though that was not something that had been see before. We have no record of someone being raised from the dead in Scripture before this. However, as Abraham, Isaac, and some of the young men who were with them (likely servants) were on their journey to the place God told them to go, Abraham stops and gives these young men instructions.

Genesis 22:5 CSB

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

Some may say that Abraham was just covering for himself, knowing he was about to kill his own son, didn’t know what else to say, and would try and figure it out on his way back. But that is not what Scripture tells us. Hebrews 11:19 says that he believed that God had the ability to raise Isaac from the dead, even if Abraham were to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to the Lord.

Why did Abraham believe this? Why would Abraham believe that God would raise Isaac from the dead? Because God had already promised that Isaac would be the son through whom the covenant would be confirmed. Again, Abraham lamented that God would not fulfill his promises through Ishmael. God told Abraham that he would bless Ishmael, but the promises God made were going to be fulfilled through Isaac. But here is a truth that we all need to understand:

God cannot lie.

God cannot break His word. And there are people who will balk at someone saying that God “cannot” do something. They will argue that God chooses not to lie, but that he has the ability to lie, claiming we are trying to put human limits on God. God can do whatever he wants.

Here is the problem with this line of thinking. The millisecond that God considers lying to us, sin has entered God. Jesus tells his disciples that he and the Father are one - one in essence and purpose. Jesus then calls himself the way, the TRUTH, and the life. If Jesus is one with the Father, if he is TRUTH with a capital “T,” then lying (deception, which is from Satan - the father of lies) immediately makes God un-holy. The Holiness of God goes away if there is any deception or ill-will in God, because holiness is the absence of sin. If God lies, he is no longer righteous. He would no longer be just because justice is based on the truth of the matter at hand and lying is denying justice to the party being lied to. So yeah, I do not believe it is wrong to say that God cannot lie. Because as soon as God can do something against what Scripture says about who God is, he is no longer God with a capital “G.”

I believe that in some way, Abraham understood this. If God said Isaac would carry the promise, then Isaac would carry the promise — even if Abraham killed him and God had to bring Isaac back to life.

As we know, Abraham did not sacrifice Issac. As he raised the knife, an angel of the Lord told him to stop, provided a ram in the thicket for Abraham to sacrifice to the Lord, and Abraham and Isaac walked back down the mountain.

Our passage today says that Abraham received Isaac back from the dead "figuratively speaking." The Greek word that the translators gave us as “figuratively speaking” is the word παραβολή (parabolē). This is where we get our modern day word parable. A very simplistic definition of a parable is:

Parable: a story proclaiming a greater truth

So, when our passage says that Abraham “figuratively” received Isaac back from the dead, it is because Isaac did not physically die in this story, but Abraham already viewed him as dead before the angel stopped his hand. I am sure Abraham had horrifying visions playing in his head of looking down at his son’s body, weeping over the fact he had killed Isaac. I am sure that Abraham was already experiencing the grief of Isaac’s death before they got to the place on the mountain. And yet, God stopped him, provided a ram for a sacrifice, and gave Isaac back to Abraham.

But this story is also a living parable — a shadow of what God would do for us.

Abraham & Isaac - God the Father & Jesus

Father offers his one and only son - God offers His one and only Son (monogenēs)

Son carries the wood for his own sacrifice (Gen. 22:6) - Jesus carries the cross for His own sacrifice (John 19:17)

Isaac goes willingly, without protest - Jesus goes willingly — "No one takes my life from me" (John 10:18)

Isaac is laid on the altar - Jesus is laid on the cross

God provides a ram as a substitute (Gen. 22:13) - Jesus IS the substitute — the Lamb of God (John 1:29)

Isaac is received back — figuratively from the dead - Jesus is literally raised from the dead

"All nations blessed through your seed" (Gen. 22:18) “- All nations blessed through Christ" (Gal. 3:16)

Here is the key difference: In Gen 22, God stops Abraham. The knife doesn't fall. A substitute is provided. But at Calvary, no one stopped the Father. No angel intervened. The knife fell. Jesus died. Because there was no substitute for Him — He WAS the substitute.

Though Abraham received Isaac back "figuratively speaking," God received Jesus back literally, bodily, from the grave.

If God can raise the dead, what are you worried about? What situation in your life feels so dead, so hopeless, that you've written it off? God can still work in that situation. As a matter of fact, he is probably currently working a way through that situation, but you have not seen how yet.

We must also see that:

Abraham's faith was not irrational

Abraham’s faith was rooted in the character and promises of God. Abraham believed that God could work a miracle because he had already seen God work a miracle in the birth of Isaac. Abraham had evidence that God keeps his promises and so he believed that God was going to keep this promise of fathering nations through Isaac.

To believers: The same God who kept his promises to Abraham, who raised Jesus from the dead is the God you serve. Trust Him with the dead places in your life — your dead relationships, your dead dreams, your dead hopes.

To non-believers: The resurrection is not just a doctrine — it's the foundation of everything. If God raised Jesus, then everything Jesus said is true, and He is worthy of your life.  If you want resources about the resurrection of Jesus, I would suggest The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Cold Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace. (link in notes)

Abraham's story is not ultimately about Abraham — it's about the God who asks for everything, even the amazing gifts that he has given to us himself, he asks us for it all and gives back more than we could imagine.

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The author of Hebrews calls this a parable — a story meant to proclaim a greater truth. The greater truth is this: God did not spare His own Son. He gave Him freely. And He received Him back from the dead so that all nations could be blessed through Him.

Call to Response:

For those who have never surrendered to Christ: You are Isaac on the altar. You are the one who deserves the knife. But God provided a substitute — Himself. Jesus died in your place. Will you receive Him?

For those who are believers but holding something back: Open your hands. God is not trying to take something from you — He's trying to give you something greater. Trust Him with your Isaac.

For all of us: The God who raises the dead is faithful. Whatever you're facing today — He is with you, watching over you, and providing everything you need. Put your faith in him today!