Genesis 22.13-14-The Significance of the Ram in the Burnt Offering
Sunday March 19, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 22:13-14-The Significance of the Ram as the Burnt Offering
Lesson # 118
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 22:1.
This morning we will study Genesis 22:13-14, which records the Lord providing Abraham a ram in place of Isaac as the burnt offering.
Today, we will study the significance of the Lord’s provision of the ram.
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.’”
Genesis 22:13, “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”
The fact that Abraham was said to have “raised his eyes” indicates that he was looking down and concentrating upon Isaac who he was about to sacrifice before God stopped the proceedings.
“Looked” is the verb ra’ah (har), which means, “to notice” since the word “notice” implies becoming aware of something, which has caught one’s attention.
Abraham was so focused upon obeying God’s command to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac that he was not aware that a ram was caught in a thicket by its horns.
It wasn’t until God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac that he became aware of the ram.
Also indicating that ra’ah means, “to notice” in Genesis 22:13 is that the interjection hinneh (hN@h!), “behold” marks Abraham’s surprise that the ram is caught in a thicket by its horns and so we should translate it, “to his surprise.”
“Behind” is the substantive `achar (rj^a^) (akh-ar) should be translated “that” since context does not indicate Abraham looked behind since there is no pronominal suffix (“him”) in the text but rather it marks the “direction” in which Abraham noticed something, namely, in the direction of a ram.
Therefore, the interjection hinneh coupled with the verb ra’ah and the preposition `achar means that Abraham “to his surprise noticed that.”
“Ram” is the noun ‘ayil (ly!a^) (ah-yil), which refers to a mature male sheep and portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as our Substitute who died in our place on the Cross.
“Caught” is the verb `achaz (zj^a*) (aw-kahz), which is used in the niphal stem in the passive sense meaning that the ram as the subject is in a state of suffering the effects of being caught by an implicit agent, who is God as indicated by Abraham naming the mountain, “the Lord Will Provide.”
“Thicket” is the noun sevakh (Eb^s+) (saw-vak), which is a tangled mass of briers and thorns found in a forest and portrays the crown of thorns that would be placed upon the head of our Lord and Savior by the Roman soldiers who crucified Him.
John 19:2, “And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him.”
“Horns” is the noun qeren (/r#q#) (keh-ren), which portrays the power of God in the Person of Christ who provided salvation for all men since horns were the chief source of attack and defense with the animals to which God has given them.
Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Luke 1:68-69, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant.”
1 Corinthians 1:24, “but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Genesis 22:13, “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”
“Burnt offering” is the noun `olah (hl*u{) (o-law), which portrays or typifies that aspect of Jesus Christ’s spiritual death on the Cross, which would propitiate the Father (1 John 2:2; 4:10).
“Propitiation” is the Godward side of salvation whereby the voluntary substitutionary spiritual death of the impeccable humanity of Christ in hypostatic union satisfied the righteous demands of a holy God that the sins of the entire world-past, present and future be judged.
1 John 2:2, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
The spiritual death of Christ is recorded in Matthew 27:45-46.
Matthew 27:45-46, “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 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?’”
Isaiah prophesied of the spiritual death of Christ in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 53:11, “As a result of the anguish of His (Christ’s) soul, He (the Father) will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
“Anguish of His soul” refers to the intense suffering of our Lord’s human soul as a result of being separated from the Father on the Cross and which suffering no angel or man will ever be able to identify with since no angel or man has kept themselves experientially sinless.
The ram that the Lord provided Abraham to sacrifice in the place of Isaac and save his life portrays the “substitutionary” aspect of Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross meaning that He died “in the place of” all men.
Although Isaac was an obedient son, he could not die as a sacrifice for sin since he was “not” sinless.
Therefore, God the Father provided His sinless Son as our substitute.
God the Father sacrificed His Son in the place of Abraham’s son and in the place of the entire human race.
1 John 3:16a, “We know love by this that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) laid down His life for us.”
Romans 5:6, ‘For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Romans 5:7, “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.”
Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own (self-sacrificial) love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died (as a substitute for all of) us.”
Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”
Genesis 22:14, “Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’”
Abraham’s statement, “The Lord Will Provide” is a prophecy that God the Father would send His Son Jesus Christ as the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The fact that God commanded Abraham to perform a human sacrifice with Isaac also was prophetic in that it foretold that God the Son would become a human being in order to take away the sin of the world.
The statement “the Lord Will Provide” is prophetic in that God saw that sinners needed a Savior and that He would provide His Son as a substitute for them.
His perfect Son would die in the place of those who deserved to die.
He who provided the ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of Isaac would provide His Son as a sacrifice for sinners.
Abraham’s statement “the Lord Will Provide” expresses the fact that he looked forward in faith to the coming substitutionary sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
The mountain that Abraham named, “the Lord Will Provide” is Mount Moriah.
According to a comparison of Genesis 22:2 and 14, the name “Moriah” means, “the Lord will provide” memorializing God providing Abraham with a ram to sacrifice in the place of his beloved 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.
The main point of Genesis 22:9-14 is not the doctrine of Christ’s atonement for sin as portrayed by the ram and the burnt offering but rather it is the portraying an obedient servant of God worshipping God at a great cost to himself and in the end receiving God’s provision.
In Genesis 22:1-14 we see the greatness of Abraham’s faith where he was willing to obey God by sacrificing his son and it also reveals the greatness of Isaac’s faith in submission to his father Abraham.
This passage also teaches that when we as believers come to a particular test that God has imposed upon us, God always helps us according to our needs.
1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”
2 Corinthians 12:9, “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”