Genesis 22.10-12-Death and Resurrection of Abraham and Isaac
Wednesday March 15, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 22:10-12-Death and Resurrection of Abraham and Isaac
Lesson # 116
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 22:1.
Last Thursday, we studied Genesis 22:1-2, which records God testing Abraham by giving him instructions to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.
On Sunday morning we studied Genesis 22:3-10, which records Abraham’s obedience to these instructions.
Tuesday evening, we studied the significance of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.
This evening we will study Genesis 22:10-12, which records God putting to a stop Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac, which was in obedience to His command.
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.’”
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.’”
Genesis 22:3, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.”
Genesis 22:4, “On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.”
Genesis 22:5, “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’”
Genesis 22:6, “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 the two of them walked on together.”
Genesis 22:7, “Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’”
Genesis 22:8, “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together.”
Genesis 22:9, “Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.”
Genesis 22:10, “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.”
Genesis 22:11, “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’”
Genesis 22:12, “He said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’”
“The angel of the Lord” is the “preincarnate” Christ and therefore a “theophany,” or “Christophany,” which are technical theological terms used to refer to a visible or auditory manifestation of the Son of God before His incarnation in Bethlehem (Gen. 32:29-30; Ex. 3:2; 19:18-20; Josh. 5:13-15; Dan. 3:26).
Genesis 22:11 records an auditory appearance of the “preincarnate” Christ, which is confirmed by the context.
“Angel” is the noun mal’akh (Ea*l+m^) (mal-awk), which means, “messenger” is used in the Old Testament with reference to “elect” angels (Gen. 19:1; Ps. 91:11) and men (Deut. 2:26; Josh. 6:17) and of the “preincarnate” Christ (Gen. 22:11; Zech. 3:1).
The context indicates that mal’akh in Genesis 22:11 is a theophany, an auditory appearance of the preincarnate Christ since Genesis 22:1 reveals that God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and Genesis 22:12 reveals that God voices His approval of Abraham’s obedience.
“Lord” is the proper noun Yahweh (hw *hy+), which is the personal name of God emphasizing the “immanency” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
In Genesis 22:11, we see the Lord involving Himself in and concerning Himself with and intervening in the life of Abraham preventing him from sacrificing Isaac.
The proper noun Yahweh is also the “covenant” name of God indicating that God was faithful to His covenant promises to Abraham that He would establish His covenant with Isaac (see Genesis 17:19).
The Lord’s statement “Abraham, Abraham” is a figure of speech called epizeuxis or duplication, which means the repetition of the same word in the same sense.
Epizeuxis or duplication is a common and powerful way of emphasizing a particular word, by thus marking it and calling attention to it.
In writing, one might accomplish this by putting the word in larger letters, or by underlining it two or three times.
In speaking, it is easy to mark it by expressing it with increased emphasis or vehemence.
When the figure of duplication is employed it is calling special attention to the occasion or to the person and to some solemn moment of importance in the action or of significance in the words.
Examples of this figure are found in many passages and I will give you two of them.
Matthew 23:37, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Matthew 27:46, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’”
Therefore, the Lord’s statement “Abraham, Abraham” is a figure of speech called epizeuxis, which calls special attention to the solemn moment where the Lord stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, thus ending the testing of Abraham.
“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.
Abraham expected a miracle but it came in a totally unexpected shape and form since he expected that he would indeed have to kill Isaac but that God would raise Isaac from the dead according to Hebrews 11:19.
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.”
The real resurrection would have to wait another three centuries when Jesus Christ would be raised from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-7).
The moment the Lord intervened Abraham saw with the eye of faith the day that Jesus Christ would rise from the dead.
John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
Even though God intervened, there still was a death and resurrection, Abraham’s and Isaac’s.
Abraham died the moment he raised his hand to kill his son Isaac and was raised when God intervened.
There was also the death and resurrection of Isaac since he did not resist his father Abraham and willingly laid himself down upon the altar to be sacrificed by his father and Hebrews 11:19 teaches that God’s intervention in a sense brought back him from the dead.
Abraham died when he demonstrated his willingness to give up all that he had and that which was near and dear to him, his son Isaac.
It had been a long process that started when God called him to give up his country, his people and his father’s household to go to the land that God would show him.
There had been a great leap forward when he believed God and his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
It had found its expression in the death of Sarah’s womb and in his own body.
The laughter at Isaac’s birth had been the joy of resurrection but the final death blow had been this experience of giving up Isaac.
It is so much harder to die and keep on living than to die and be dead.
The only way to possess anything is to give it to the Lord and receive it back from His hand, which Abraham was able to do.
So Abraham died to self and lived to do God’s will, which the Lord taught His disciples and practiced.
Luke 9:23, “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’”
Luke 9:24, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”
John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
John 12:25, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.”
Abraham died to self also in the sense that he did not put his love for his beloved son Isaac ahead of being obedient to the Lord.
Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”
Luke 14:27, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”
This death to self meaning exchanging one’s own will and desires (even legitimate desires) for being totally dedicated and devoted to doing God’s will is called “identification with Christ in His death.”
At the moment of salvation the church age believer through the baptism of the Spirit has been placed in union with Christ and positionally identified with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session, which is called in theology, “positional truth.”
Our position in Christ means that the Father looks at us now as He looks at His Son and that we share the same life as the Son.
Our position in Christ means that God the Father considers the believer to have been crucified with Christ.
Romans 6:6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
Galatians 6:14, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Our position in Christ means that God the Father considers the believer to have died with Christ.
Romans 6:8, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
Our position in Christ means that God the Father considers the believer to have been buried and raised with Christ.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Colossians 2:12, “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
Colossians 3:1, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
Our position in Christ means that God the Father considers the believer to have not only been raised with Christ but also seated with Christ at His right hand.
Ephesians 2:4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.”
Ephesians 2:5, “even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
Ephesians 2:6, “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
The believer is commanded in Scripture to appropriate by faith his position in Christ, which will enable him to experience identification with Christ in His death and resurrection.
The apostle Paul appropriated by faith his position in Christ, agreeing with God’s view of himself that he was crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
The apostle Paul died to self in the sense that he didn’t place any value on his pre-salvation distinctions as the top celebrity in Judaism because of his union and identification with Christ in His death and resurrection.
Philippians 3:2-3, “Beware of those dogs, beware of those evil workers, beware of the mutilation because we are the circumcision those who are serving (God the Father) by means of the Spirit of God, who are priding themselves in the nature of Christ Jesus, who have no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3:4, “Although I myself having confidence in the flesh, if anyone of the same race (i.e., Jewish) claims to have confidence in the flesh and some claim to have confidence in the flesh, I more.”
Philippians 3:5-6, “With respect to circumcision: eighth day, descended from the nation of Israel, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew (speaking Jew) from Hebrews (Hebrew speaking parents), legalistically: a Pharisee, zealously persecuting the church, self-righteously religious: I conducted myself irreproachably!”
Philippians 3:7, “Nevertheless, what pre-salvation distinctions were assets for me, these I have come to regard as a liability because of the Christ.”
Philippians 3:8, “Furthermore in fact, yes without a doubt, I continue to regard each today as a liability because of the incomparable knowledge pertaining to Christ Jesus, my Lord because of whom I have renounced all of them, even regarding all of them as piles of excrement in order that I might gain Christ-likeness.”
Philippians 3:9, “So that I might be identified with Him, not by possessing my own legalistic righteousness, but rather faithful Christ-likeness, the divine righteousness based upon doctrine.”
Philippians 3:10, “that I come to know Him experientially and the power from His resurrection and the participation in His sufferings by my becoming like Him with respect to His death.”
Philippians 3:11, “If somehow (by becoming like Him with respect to His death), I may attain to the exit-resurrection, namely, the one out from the (spiritually) dead ones.”