The Life of Abraham: God Will Provide Himself a Lamb

Genesis 22:1-19 God Will Provide Himself a Lamb Introduction: We looked at this story last week and our focus was on Abraham the man of faith and his obedience to God. However though we mentioned it we didn’t press too hard on how this is one of the most bizarre narratives that we find in scripture. God asks Abraham, his friend, to offer up his only son as a sacrifice to prove Abraham’s love and devotion to God. Many people misunderstand this story and they look at what is happening and wonder how God could ever ask Abraham to sacrifice his son. These individuals go on to malign God, falsely accusing God, and speaking of his cruelty in his dealings with Abraham; therefore it is important for us to know and realize just exactly what God is doing and why God chose to show Abraham’s faith in such a dramatic, morally bothersome way. First: God never intended Abraham to offer up Isaac. As we saw last week Human sacrifice is considered an abomination by God and is condemned throughout the scriptures. What Abraham did was something completely unique in God’s redemptive history, given for a specific purpose, once for all fulfilled. God has never since nor never again directs somebody to do something like this. There is something very specific that God is doing here. God is drawing Abraham into the deepest fellowship possible - the fellowship of his suffering. Secondly: Abraham was a prophet. In Chapter 20:7 God refers to Abraham as a prophet when speaking to Abimelech. God says that Abraham is a prophet, but how was abraham a prophet? We don’t necessarily have any verbal prophecies recorded that were spoken through Abraham. But Abraham was a prophet through his life.We must remember that throughout the scriptures we have many prophets who speak the word of the Lord but also prophets who through certain scenario’s that they would live through would demonstrate God’s message to the people. Examples: Hosea: “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” Hosea demonstrates the word of the Lord he acts it out. Ezekiel: Remember Ezekiel was called to do all sorts of things like make bread with cow dung and eat it as a sign he was called to lay on his side as a sign. Isaiah: “at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush” All this to say that prophecy does not come only in spoken word but God also often spoke through the actions of his prophets. Abraham is a prophet in this way. In this particular instance Abraham and Isaac were unknowingly playing the roles of another Father and Son who would offer a sacrifice for sin. They’re are a number of things in this chapter that connect us to an event that would happen almost two thousand years later. Lets look together at these. 1. The Only Son. a. God says to Abraham in vs. 2. “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.” i. We all know that Abraham doesn’t have only one son but two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. ii. But here God refers to Isaac as being Abraham’s one and only son, whom he loves. 1. This is obviously a shadow or a type of Jesus. Jesus is “the only Son from the Father“. - John 1:14 a. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.” - John 3:16 2. It’s at Jesus’ baptism that the Father says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” - Luke 3:22 a. Jesus is the one and only son who is loved by the Father! b. I mentioned last week that this is the first time that love is mentioned in all of the Bible. We’ve been through 22 chapters and roughly 2,000 years of human history without the mention of love at least from the biblical text. c. So why is this the first mention of love? i. This is the first mention of love because it points us to the greatest love, not human love and affection, but the Love of God the Father for his Son, Jesus Christ. 1. Abraham’s love for Isaac is only a type, and a picture of the Father’s love for the Son. 2. The Mountains of Moriah. a. Vs. 2 continues “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.” b. The Mountains of Moriah are only mentioned one other time in scripture. i. 2 Chronicles 3:1 “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” 1. So the place that God appoints Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is the same place that King Solomon would build God’s temple which would be a place where lambs would continually be used as a substitute for sacrifice. 3. The Three Day Journey. a. Vs.3-4 “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. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.” b. During the three day journey Abraham’s son is as good as dead. Abraham is determined to obey the voice of the Lord, and God had said to offer up Isaac. Abraham seeks no way around it. Isaac is dead for three days. c. The three days spoken of here is significant when we think of scriptures most prevalent use of it being in reference to Christ being in the grave three days and three nights. i. Matthew 12:40 Jesus said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” ii. Mark 10:33-34 Jesus said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” 4. The Wood is Laid on Isaac. a. Vs. 6 “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.” b. The loading of the wood on to Isaac brings inevitably to mind the detail of John 19:17: "he went out, bearing his own cross". c. But notice, the fire and the knife are in the Fathers hands. i. Victim and offerer walking both of them together foreshadow, however, the greater partnership expressed in Isaiah 53:7,10 1. Isaiah 53: 7&10 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” and “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt” a. Paul later echoes this in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” 5. Isaac the submissive son. a. vs.9-10 “When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.” i. Often times when we think of this story we picture Isaac being a naive little child. That is an incorrect picture. Isaac is somewhere around the age of 25 years old. He is in his prime. Abraham on the other hand is somewhere between 125-130. When we realize this the submission of Isaac to the will of Abraham is astounding! 1. He could have easily wrestled the knife and the fire out of Abraham’s hand and kept Abraham from binding him. But he submits to the will of his father, he is ready to be the sacrifice. a. Again foreshadowing another Son who would fully do the will of the Father, Saying, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” b. Again saying “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” c. It is left to this quiet victim (Isaac), in a single episode, to demonstrate God's pattern for the chosen seed to be a servant sacrificed. 6. The Lord will Provide. a. Vs.11-14 “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 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.” i. I believe it is at this moment (He sees the ram caught in the thicket; a substitute is ready and waiting) that Abraham understands what God has been doing along. That Abraham has been playing out this great drama of what would happen with his future seed - the Messiah. ii. Notice Abraham calls the place Jehovah-Jireh, Which means “The Lord will Provide”. It’s future tense, not present; he isn’t referring to what happened with Isaac but he’s looking forward to another Son who would be sacrificed. 1. John 8:56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” iii. The Picture we have is of the Father and the One and Only Beloved Son walking to the tip of Mt. Moriah to make sacrifice for sin. God the Father and His Son would also walk Mt. Moriah together to the very tip, which is Golgotha -The place of the Skull and there together they would offer a sacrifice for the sin of the world! Conclusion: 1. All that we see here in this chapter points to the great love of God for us! a. God soooo loved the world that he gave his one and only Son!!! b. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us! c. God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died. i. God himself made the supreme sacrifice which he prevented Abraham from making; he gave his only begotten Son in order to save his world and his people. ii. It’s interesting to think that on the surface this story seems to show how committed Abraham is to God, he is willing to give his one and only son whom he loves. But as we look a little deeper we see that the greater message is how deeply committed God is to Abraham and to His people - God GAVE his one and only beloved son so that we might live!