Sacrifice Your Only Son

Do you remember being tested in school? Why did the teachers make us take those tests? Was it because they didn’t know the answers and wanted to learn from us? I don’t think so. It was to help us see what we knew and what we still needed to learn.

Genesis 22:1–8 NIV84

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 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 took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 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?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

In the call of Abraham God was beginning His plan to start a new nation. Part of the call was the promise to provide a multitude of descendants for Abraham, but Abraham had to wait about 25 years before the son, Isaac, was born who would be the one this multitude would come from. You can imagine how important Isaac was, how loved.

Now God tells Abraham to sacrifice that son. We aren’t told Abraham’s thoughts, but they may have been not different from what our would have been. Questioning God, wanting to know the reason, anger that God would make such a demand. It went against common sense, human affection, and lifelong ambition; in fact against everything earthly. Whatever he was feeling, we are told that he obeyed, and that at the end God stopped him from sacrificing Isaac and provided a substitute instead.

While God’s request challenges our faith as it did Abraham’s, I believe we can see several reason for it.

Instruction for Abraham

Nothing and no one is to be more important to us than God

Abraham’s faith

“We will return …”

“God will provide”

He trusted that God would fulfill His promises

Hebrews 11:17–19 NIV84

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Isaac’s faith

He was probably stronger and faster – yet he allowed his father to bind him and lay him on the altar.

Abraham had to be willing to lose Isaac in order to receive all God’s blessings

Isaac had to be willing to be sacrificed – trusted his father

Teaching him the blessing that comes from having faith

Inspiration for us

We will be tested

1 Peter 1:7 NIV84

These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

These tests can strengthen our faith and teach us more about God’s faithfulness if we are obedient to God’s commands. Growth in faith often requires us to be tested.

They also call us to be willing to let go of things that will keep us from receiving better from God.

Trusting that God will provide

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV84

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Whatever test we face we will be given the strength we need to stand up under it

Obeying God’s command - Abraham’s obedience

Early the next morning

His response gives us an example to follow, no matter we may be feeling, not to delay or try to put God off.

Be willing to let go of whatever holds us back, keeps us from reaching our goal

On August 11, 1978, Double Eagle II, a large helium balloon, and her crew of three eased into an almost windless sky above the potato fields of Maine. Their destination was Paris, France. The aerodynamics of ballooning are somewhat complex, but one thing is certain. In order for the balloon to stay aloft as the journey progressed, ballast (that which is used to add weight) had to be expelled. As they approached continental Europe six days later, one of the crew wrote, “We have been expending ballast wisely, but as we neared land, not cheaply … over went such gear as tape recorders, radios, film magazines, sleeping bag, lawn chairs, most of our water, food, and the cooler it was in.”

Following Christ is the wisest choice a man can make, but it does not come cheap. Just as for these balloonists many important things had to be abandoned because they weighed them down, so for the believer.

Image of Jesus’ sacrifice

The lamb God provided

Your only son – In Jesus God made the sacrifice that Abraham didn’t have to

Isaac carried the wood, as Jesus carried the cross

Mt. Moriah, where God told Abraham to take Isaac, is the area where the Temple was later built, and near where Jesus was crucified.

We remember this sacrifice as we come to the Lord’s table this morning. We remember Jesus’ prayer, “Not my will but Yours be done”. May we also remember that we are not called to give something to God, we are called to give everything.