Genesis 22.1-2-God's Instructions for the Testing of Abraham
Thursday March 9, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 22:1-2-God Instructions for the Testing of Abraham
Lesson # 113
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 22:1.
This evening we will begin a study of Genesis 22:1-19, which records God testing Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his beloved Son Isaac.
In this passage, we have the ultimate test of Abraham’s faith in that God commands him to sacrifice his son that he and Sarah waited twenty-five years to be born, namely, the son of promise, Isaac.
Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac typifies God the Father’s sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ at the Cross.
Abraham loved the Lord so much that like God the Father, he was willing to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac and Isaac loved his father so much that like the Lord Jesus, he willingly laid himself down upon the altar as a sacrifice.
Genesis 22:1-19 records the seventh and final great crisis in the life of Abraham, which tested his love for the Lord, his faith in the Lord and his obedience to the Lord.
(1) God commanded Abraham to leave behind his parents as recorded in Genesis 12:1 and Hebrews 11:8.
(2) God commanded Abraham to live among the Canaanites as an alien (see Genesis 12:1-8; Hebrews 11:9-10).
(3) Abraham’s faith was tested in that he had to choose between living in the land of Canaan, trusting that the Lord would take care of him even though there was a famine in the land or leave the land of Canaan and go to Egypt.
(4) Abraham had to separate from his nephew Lot as recorded in Genesis 13:5-18.
(5) God commanded Abraham to send away Ishmael whom he loved dearly as recorded in Genesis 17:18-21 and 21:12-14.
(6) Abraham’s faith was tested in that he had to wait twenty-five years for the birth of Isaac and had to trust that God could deliver on this promise even though he and Sarah were biologically unable to have children together because of their advanced age (see Romans 4:18-22).
(7) God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac after he waited so long for him to be born (Genesis 22:1-19; Hebrews 11:17-19).
The seventh and final test in Abraham’s life demonstrates the spiritual maturity of Abraham since the number seven in the Bible is the number of spiritual perfection.
Also, when we view this passage, we must remember that Isaac was important to God too, even more so than Abraham since it would be through Isaac and his descendants that the human nature of Jesus Christ, the Son of God would originate.
Genesis 22:1-19 can be entitled “the testing of Abraham” and can be divided into three sections: (1) Genesis 22:1-2: God’s instructions for the testing of Abraham. (2) Genesis 22:3-10: Abraham’s obedience to God’s instructions. (3) Genesis 22:11-19: God’s approval of and reward for Abraham’s obedience.
Genesis 22:1, “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”
“After these things” indicates that the events recorded in Genesis 22 took place after the events of Genesis 21.
The events of Genesis 21: (1) Birth and circumcision of Isaac in Genesis 21:1-8 (2) The departure of Hagar and Ishmael from the home of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 21:9-21 (3) Abraham and Abimelech’s agreement’s with each other in Genesis 21:22-34.
“God” is the noun Elohim, which emphasizes that God created Isaac and sovereignly gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, and thus Isaac in reality belongs to God and not Abraham and Sarah.
The statement “God tested Abraham” reveals to the reader that which Abraham was unaware of, namely, that God had no intention of letting Abraham kill Isaac.
But rather God tested Abraham in order to demonstrate to the angels and men that Abraham valued his relationship with God over his relationship with his beloved son, Isaac.
“Tested” is the piel form of the verb nasah (hsn), which means, “to test through adversity in order to demonstrate a person’s character” and the testing of Abraham was designed to demonstrate that which was already in the soul of Abraham, namely, that he loved God more than Isaac.
Jeremiah 20:12, “Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart.”
The verb nasah does “not” mean “to entice to sin.”
James 1:13, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.”
This test was “not” to find fault in Abraham.
But rather to demonstrate the character that God had developed in Abraham through the years of fellowship together.
James 1:2-3, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
1 Peter 1:6, “In this (eternal inheritance and eternal security, see 1 Peter 1:3-5) you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.”
1 Peter 1:7, “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This testing of Abraham would glorify God in the sense that God’s love for Abraham would be manifested in Abraham’s love for God since Abraham responded in obedience to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac because of God’s love for him.
1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
This testing of Abraham glorified God in the sense that it reflected God the Father and God the Son’s love for each other.
This test that God put Abraham through was difficult for a couple of reasons.
The obvious difficulty is that Abraham loved Isaac and the other was that Abraham had to deal with an apparent contradiction in the sense that God had promised Abraham that He would establish His covenant with Isaac for an eternal covenant for his (Isaac’s) descendants after him as recorded in Genesis 17:19!
Hebrews 11:17-19 records that Abraham resolved this apparent contradiction believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead!
Hebrews 11:17, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son.”
Hebrews 11:18, “it was he to whom it was said, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.’”
Hebrews 11:19, “He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.”
Genesis 22:1, “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”
“Here I am” is the interjection hinneh (hN@h!), which expresses the intimacy between Abraham and God and respect Abraham, had for God and demonstrates that Abraham recognizes and is responsive to the Word of God.
Genesis 22:2, “He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’”
The imperative form of the verb laqach (jq^l), “take” is employed with the particle of logic na (an) and the interjection hinneh (hN@h), “here I am” in Genesis 22:1 in order to denote that God’s command to Abraham is a logical consequence to the attentive and responsive nature by Abraham to God addressing him.
So in other words, God is saying to Abraham, “Since you are ready to obey Me, take you son.”
“Take now your son, your only son whom you love” emphasizes the magnitude of this test for Abraham since God is commanding Abraham to sacrifice someone he loves dearly.
The word “only” is incorrectly translated since Abraham had many sons (Ishmael through Hagar, see Genesis 16; Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah through Keturah, see Genesis 25:1-2).
Therefore, Isaac was not an “only” child.
“Only” is the adjective yachidh (ryt!y*) and means, “uniquely born one” and this interpretation is supported in that Isaac was a “miracle” baby since his mother was ninety years old and his father was one-hundred years old when he was born.
Furthermore, John 3:16 employs the adjective monogenes (monogenhv$) translated “begotten” in the NASB and is used to describe God the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ as being uniquely born of a virgin.
Hebrews 11:17 employs monogenes translated “begotten” in the NASB but like the word in John 3:16, it means, “uniquely born one” since it is used to describe Isaac who was born to parents who were well past the age of having the capacity to procreate.
Jesus Christ was born of a virgin and Isaac was born of parents who were in their old age.
Therefore, like Jesus Christ, Isaac was unique.
This is the first time the word “love” (Hebrew: `ahev) appears in the Bible, which is used here to denote the personal love and affection that Abraham had for his son Isaac and which love typifies God the Father’s love for His Son Jesus Christ.
The imperative form of the verb halakh (el^h*), “go” is employed with the lamed of interest le (l) and the 2nd person masculine singular pronominal suffix meaning “go by yourself” indicating that doing God’s will by means of faith is a lonely pilgrimage.
According to Genesis 22:14, the name “Moriah” means, “the Lord will provide” memorializing God preventing Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac.
According to 2 Chronicles 3:1, “the land of Moriah” was the region around Jerusalem and was the place that God later appeared to David who built an altar to the Lord (2 Sam. 24:16-25), and Solomon built his temple (2 Chron. 3:1) and Jesus Christ died.
“Offer him” is the hiphil imperative form of the verb `alah (hlu) and 3rd person masculine singular pronominal suffix meaning “cause him (Isaac) to go up.”
The hiphil stem is a “causative” stem indicating that Abraham is being commanded by God to “cause” his son Isaac to ascend up one of the mountains in the Moriah mountain range typing God the Father sending His Son to the Cross.
The “burnt offering” portrayed Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross, which propitiated the Father’s holiness, which demanded that the sins of the world be judged.
1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
This last command in Genesis 22:2 that Abraham receives from God “Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you” echoes the first he received “to the land, which I will show you” that is recorded in Genesis 12:1.
The question that begs to be asked is, “How can a God of wisdom, justice, and love command Abraham to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice?”
Infant sacrifice was practiced by the Canaanites, but it was condemned by God (cf. Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 12:31).
Furthermore, such a sacrifice would have had no real value:
Micah 6:7, “Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
To point out that God stopped Abraham short of carrying out the command does not solve the problem.
How could God have given the order in the first place if it were against His own laws?
To hold that God could ever command His children to do wrong, even as a test, is to open the door to all kinds of difficulties.
Several factors must be considered to understand this test in a proper light.
First of all, we must admit a strong bias in the matter.
Those who are parents are repulsed by the thought of sacrificing their children upon an altar, thus parents project their abhorrence upon God and suppose that He could never con¬sider such a thing either.
Secondly, we view this command from the vantage point of the culture of the day, which did practice child sacrifice.
If the pagans did it and God condemned their practice, it must be wrong in any context.
We are forced to the conclusion that the sacrifice of Isaac could not have been wrong, whether only attempted or accomplished, because God is incapa¬ble of evil (James 1:13ff; I John 1:5).
Much more than this, it could not be wrong to sacrifice a son because God actually did sacrifice His Son Jesus Christ.
In this sense, God did not require Abraham to do anything that He Himself would not do.
Indeed, the command to Abraham was intended to foreshadow what He would do centuries later on the cross of Calvary.
Only by understanding the typological significance of the “sacrifice of Isaac” can we grasp the fact that God’s command was holy and just and pure.
Abraham’s willingness to give up his only son humanly illustrated the love of God for man, which caused Him to give His only uniquely born Son.
The agony of heart experienced by Abraham reflected the heart of the Father at the suffering of His Son.
The obedience of Isaac typified the submission of the Son to the will of the Father (cf. Matthew 26:39, 42).
A second difficulty pertains to the silence of Abraham meaning, “How come Abraham interceded with God for Sodom, but not for his son Isaac?”
We must remember that the Scriptures are selective in what they report, choosing to omit what is not essential to the development of the argument of the passage (cf. John 20:30 31; 21:25).
In this chapter of Genesis, for example, we know that God was to indicate the particular place to “sacri¬fice” Isaac (verse 2) and that Abraham went to this spot (verse 9), but we are not told when God revealed this to him.
Moses, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, omitted Abraham’s initial reaction to God’s command in order to high¬light his ultimate response, which was obedience.
Personally (although there is no Scrip¬ture to support my conjecture), I believe that Abraham interceded for the life of his son, but God chose not to record this point in Abraham’s life because it would have had little to inspire us.
I know that many of us would not want God to report our first reactions to unpleasant situations either and in the end it is our final response that matters (cf. Matthew 21:28 31).
