Abraham
and
Isaac:
Genesis 22
Sacrificing
for God
Offer up Isaac
• Abraham had waited 25
years for Isaac to be born
• Isaac may have been
around 20 years old now –
maybe older
• God hates human sacrifice
(Deut 12:31)
Why ask Abraham to offer up
Isaac as a burnt offering?
Why ask Abraham to
offer Isaac?
• “God tested Abraham” to see if
Abraham would trust God
completely – really have faith!
– “The lad and I will go yonder and worship, and
we will come back to you” (v.5)
– “for now I know you fear God” (v.12)
– “concluding that God was able to raise him up, even
from the dead, from which he also received him in a
figurative sense.” (Heb 11:19)
Why ask Abraham
to offer Isaac?
• God wanted Abraham
and many others to
understand what it would cost God to
save us all
– God did this again when he took
Ezekiel’s wife (Ezek 24:16-18) “the
desire of your eyes”
– “He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?” (Rom
8:32)
This isn’t just
about types
• God could have told a story
or parable to illustrate types
• He wanted Abraham and us
to understand and feel what
it would cost God to save us
from Sin.
• Unfortunately for us, to feel it,
we have to go through the experience
• Academic studies don’t touch what really
happened
We need to feel it, to impact our lives
Take your only Son Isaac
• “whom you love” – as God felt for His
son, Jesus. [“love” = “friend” of God in
2 Chr 20:7; Isa 41:8] ]
• Isaac wasn’t really Abraham’s only son
– “By faith Abraham, when he was tested,
offered up Isaac, and he who had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son, of
whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called,“
(Heb 11:17-18)
• “You have not withheld your son,
your only son” (v.12)
• God only counted Isaac as
Abraham’s son of the promise –
Ishmael had been cast out
10 miles
60 miles from Beersheba
Mt. Moriah
• Angel appeared to
David, & God relented
on destroying
Jerusalem (1Chr 21:15)
Like Abraham ready to
kill his own son
• David determined
temple to be built here
(2 Chr 3:1)
Mt. Moriah
is where the
David
located the
temple and
where the
Dome of the
rock was
built!
Do not lay
your hand
on the lad
• Isaac had been dead in Abraham’s head for 3
days already! He had offered him up.
• Now I know you fear God – Abraham trusted
God no matter what happened.
• “You have not withheld your son, your only son,
from Me” (12)
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the
present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to
those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:11)
Faith completed
by Works
James 2:21-23
21 Was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he offered
Isaac his son on the altar?
22 Do you see that faith was
working together with his works,
and by works faith was made perfect?
23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to
him for righteousness." And he was called the
friend of God.
Faith without works is dead
Ram in the thicket
• Rams (male goats) were used in
burnt offerings (Lev 1:10)
• Jesus was the only male lamb offered
as a sin offering – “Behold! The lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the
world” (Jn. 29)
When God told
Abraham to stop
offering his son, God
committed to Abraham
that He would offer
His Son for the sins
of the world
God shows Abram what
salvation will cost God
• Your only son Isaac who you
love (v.2)
• On the 3rd day (4)
• Abraham laid the wood on
Isaac (6)
• God will provide for Himself
the lamb (8)
• The two of them went
together (6, 8)
The two of
them went
together
• God wasn’t punishing Jesus for our sins
• He wasn’t putting Jesus
through the punishment
we deserve
• God was helping his son
defeat Sin – never give in
to it no matter how bad
Jesus was treated
• The two of them were showing us the way back
to the Father – hate Sin like God
On the Cross….
• Christ was not suffering some
other person’s punishment
• Christ was not illustrating the
punishment sinners deserve
• Christ did not deserve the cross
because he had human nature
• Christ was not going through a
ritual or ceremony to save us
Christ showed us how to live the
righteousness of God in our daily lives
By myself I have
sworn (v.16)
Hebrews 6:13-18
13 For when God made a promise to
Abraham, because He could swear by no
one greater, He swore by Himself,
14 saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will
multiply you."
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for
confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of
promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,
18 that by two immutable things (promise & oath), in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
“In your seed” (v.18)
• This is the first time the promise
that all nations will be blessed
is directed at “your seed” –
Jesus Christ
• Peter quotes this in Acts 3:25
and applies it to God turning
away every one of you from
your iniquities
A key component of the blessing of
Abraham is learning to live with Abraham’s
faith - walking in the steps of the faith
of Abraham – the Father of the faithful.
Lessons to
take home…
• God wants obedience to His
commands – let’s be obedient to
our parents (like Isaac) and to our heavenly
Father (like Abraham)
• Faith is the motivating power that will generate
obedience
• Appreciate His love to us in giving His only Son
so we can join His family
• Trust God – He knows what He is doing far
better than we do – He wants you to make it!