Genesis 22.10-12-Abraham's Reverence and Respect for God
Thursday March 16, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 22:10-12-Abraham’s Reverence and Respect for God
Lesson # 117
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.
On Wednesday evening we studied Genesis 22:10-12, which records God putting to a stop Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac, which was in obedience to His command.
In this passage we studied the death and resurrection of Abraham and Isaac as a result of Abraham’s obedience, Isaac’s submission and God’s intervention in preventing the sacrifice of Isaac.
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.’”
A comparison of Genesis 22:12 and Genesis 22:1 indicates that God had no intention to let Abraham sacrifice Isaac but rather was testing his love for God, his faith in God and his obedience to God.
“Fear” is the verb yare (ar@y*) (yaw-ray), which does “not” refer to being afraid as a result of a threat to one’s life but rather in context, it means, “to have reverence” for the Lord and involves one’s total response to the Lord.
Therefore, we see that the Lord tells Abraham that his obedience to His command to sacrifice Isaac demonstrated that he had reverence and respect for God.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “reverence”: “A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this definition we would say that the phrase “I know that you (Abraham) fear God” teaches that Abraham’s obedience demonstrated his attitude of deep respect and awe for the Lord.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “respect”: “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or trait, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or trait.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this definition we would say that Abraham esteemed the excellence of the Person of God as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Psalm 33:18-19, “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.”
Psalm 34:7, “The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.”
Psalm 103:11, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.”
Psalm 103:13-14, “Just as a father has compassion on his children so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”
Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.”
Psalm 112:1, “Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.”
Psalm 128:1, “How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways.”
Psalm 128:4, “Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.”
Psalm 147:11, “The LORD favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His lovingkindness.”
Hebrews 12:28-29, “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.”
The verb yare denotes one’s total and complete devotion to God.
Therefore, in Genesis 22:12, the verb yare, “fear” denotes Abraham’s total and complete devotion to the Lord and the phrase to follow, “since you (Abraham) have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me (the Lord)” denotes this as well.
2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
The phrase “since you (Abraham) have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me (the Lord)” indicates that Abraham held nothing back from the Lord but loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.
Mark 12:30, “AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”
“Love” is the verb agapao (a)gapavw), which refers to the act of honoring, respecting, revering and being dedicated and devoted to God to the point of self-sacrifice.
This act is the proper, appropriate, obedient and obligatory response by the believer to God’s revelation of Himself since the believer has been created and redeemed for God’s purpose and good pleasure.
Abraham loved God to the point of sacrificing someone that he dearly loved, namely, Isaac.
The phrase “since you (Abraham) have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me (the Lord)” indicates that Abraham’s did not put his relationship with his beloved son Isaac between him and his obedience to God.
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.”
The Lord’s statement “I know that you (Abraham) fear God” does “not” mean that the Lord learned that Abraham revered and respected Him by being obedient to Him since the Lord is omniscient.
The Lord knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible, thus, the Lord has all knowledge of every event in Abraham’s life.
The Lord’s statement “I know that you (Abraham) fear God” means that Abraham’s reverence and respect for the Lord was manifested by his obedience to God’s command to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.
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).
Also, why did God halt the sacrifice?
God halted the sacrifice of Isaac for two reasons.
First, such a sacri¬fice would have no benefit for others.
The lamb must be “without blemish,” without sin, innocent (cf. Isaiah 53:9).
This is the truth which Micah implied (6:7).
Second, Abraham’s faith was amply evidenced by the fact that he was fully intending to carry out the will of God.
We have no question in our mind that had God not intervened, Isaac would have been sacrificed.
In attitude Isaac had already been sacrificed, so the act was unnecessary.