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PAGE 13 (22)
LESSON #1 Quiet-Eager-Trusting Obedience/Ge.22:1-5
LESSON #2 Isaac and Jesus/Ge.22:6-8
LESSON #3 Love, Faith and Obedience/Ge.22:9-12
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LESSON #1 Quiet-Eager-Trusting Obedience...Ge.22:1-5
Thu Mar 29, 2001
This is one of the great scenes of the Bible. This is the story of Abrahahm when he was told by God to offer his only son Isaac.
I recently wrote in a lesson [The Nature of Man #6/Death] that we are in a time of probation or testing. In Genesis 22, Abraham faced what may have been his greatest test. Abraham's close relationship with God had been built over a long period of time and through many difficult experiences. God does not require more from us than we are able to give*. No matter how demanding the sacrifice may be, we can do what God wants*. We should all be as quick to hear and answer God as Abraham was (1). God told Abraham, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love,
Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering..." (2).
The burnt offering [see "Not Conformed, But Transformed #7"] was the normal offering made to God in earliest times. This was a total commitment sacrifice. Nothing would be left of the sacrifice after it was offered on the altar. Abraham knew full well what it meant to make a burnt offering. He knew God was asking for his best and that he should give it without reservation. Abraham had waited a long time for his son Isaac. He had believed God when it was inconvenient and when all of the outward evidence contradicted the promise of God. He had watched his son grow into a teen-ager and had enjoyed the blessings of God for all those years. Now God is giving him a command that would take his son away in a violent and bloody death. But no argument from Abraham.
There is nothing missing from the record. God commanded and Abraham accepted it. No argument. No excuses. No rationalizing. Not just obedience. but QUIET obedience. Not only did he not argue with God, he did not complain about God and His directive to Abraham. We will find out why as we study.
There is no Biblical record of God ever requiring a human sacrifice before this time. It is reasonable to think that God had never required it before. There was a reason for Him to direct Abraham to offer Isaac at that time. We will also see this as we study.
Abraham rose early the next morning and saddled his donkey for the journey. This is what God wants from us. Not just obedience but EAGER obedience. Abraham had been given another directive from God which required him to do something which would cost him personally.
When Ishmael was mocking his young half-brother Isaac, God told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away and that He would take care of them. Abraham's response was getting up early the next morning, giving them their provision for their journey and sending them away (21:14). Abraham trusted God to do all things well and he knew that God never fails. When you know Him well and trust Him fully, you are eager to obey His commands.
It would take a while to reach Mount Moriah. A long, hard and demanding jouney, during which he would think about the sacrificing of his son. Two servants carried the wood which Abraham had split for the burnt offering. He didn't ask God to have extra time with Isaac, he didn't say how unfair God was, he didn't question the wisdom of God...he just headed out early to do God's will (3). Three days later they approached the mount of sacrifice (4). Abrhaham told his servants to wait at that point with the donkeys and he would go ahead with Isaac to the mount so that they might worship.
Do we see it. Total commitment is reasonable worship to God*. It wasn't a time to brag on his own level of grace or his own obedience. It was a time to worship the true and living, everlasting God. But then what did he say about returning? Did he say that he would return after the sacrifice? NO! NO! NO! "WE will return to you." God had made a promise to Abraham and Abraham remembered and believed the promise. He knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19).
Not just obedience but TRUSTING obedience.
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LESSON #2 Isaac and Jesus...Ge.22:6-8
Wed Apr 4, 2001
This is more than just the historical record of Abraham and his son Isaac. It is more than just the inspirational story of a man making a total commitment. It is a living picture of the sacrifice that Jesus would make. Jesus would become the substitute for a lost world. This account is an historically accurate record of an actual event, but it is emblematic of another and loftier reality which was yet to take place.
The name given to such an emblematic representation is called a TYPE. A type is more than just a figure of speech, it is a figure of thought and a PREFIGURING of the life, ministry or person of Jesus Christ.
To this point in our chapter we have seen Abraham was told to take his son, his only son whom he loved and offer him as a burnt offering (2). This of course is a type of our heavenly Father taking His Son, His only Son, Whom He loved and offering Him as a sacrifice. Abraham rose early and prepared for the trip (3). This reflects that God had planned, before the world was formed, to give His Son for the sins of the world.
Though Abraham knew full well that his task was to offer his son as a burnt offering, he told his servants that he and Isaac would return to them (5.) Abraham's trusting obedience expected god to raise Isaac from the dead. Likewise God fully planned, not only the sacrificial death of His Son, but the physical resurrection and return of His Son from the dead.
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering from his servants and laid it upon Isaac (6), and he took the fire and the knife. Together he and Isaac set out to the mount of sacrifice, which would later be the location of the Temple and the place of Israel's alter of sacrifice. Not only does God know the end of all things*, He works all things together for good*. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!*"
As Isaac would carry the wood up his mount of sacrifice, so Jesus would carry His wooden cross up His mount of sacrifice. As Isaac did not refuse or complain, so Jesus would not refuse or complain. Abraham would give his son, prophetically showing us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." Abraham, in his quiet obedience, did not argue or hesitate and neither did our Heavenly Father.
Isaac was not an infant who had no understanding or responsibility in this matter. He was at least in his teens and certainly aware of self preservation and capable of self defense or escape. Isaac remarked to Abrhaham that they had the fire and the wood, but where was the lamb for the burnt offering (7)? Isaac could see what was happening and chose to be a willing participant in obedience to his father's will.
Jesus chose to come* and give His life as a ransom for many* and He delighted to do the will of His Father*. Not only had the Father planned to give His Son, since before the foundation of the world, Jesus had always been a ready and willing participant in the Fathers plan.
Abraham told Isaac that God would provide a lamb for the burnt offering (8.) This was more than just a matter of his faith that God would provide a sacrifice at this time. This was prophetic of the Lamb which God would provide to take the place of all mankind on the cross. As John the Baptist said when Jesus came to be baptised, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
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LESSON #3 Love, Faith and Obedience...Ge.22:9-12
Tue Apr 10, 2001
The account of Abraham and Isaac in this sacrificial act of love, faith and obedience is now brought to a conclusion.
They came to the place of which God had told them. God had the plan from the beginning and was showing it to Abraham step by step. It was up to Abraham to follow God's plan. God had a time, a person, an event and even a place to accomplish His purpose in Abraham's life.
God has an agenda for all of us to keep. Though this account merits a place in the Biblical record, we all have appointments with God which we must keep or risk great loss. The only way to reach the place to which God has called us, is to follow step by step by step by step... We will never come to a point or place of full commitment or deep spiritual experience or close relationship with God if we don't follow His directives along the way. If we have faltered at some point, we need to get back on the upward trail immediately. We cannot tarry in the way of failure, we do not have the luxury of self pity and belly-aching. If we find ourselves slipping down the steep precipice of life's trials, we need to take hold of God's word with a firm grip rather than just let go and throw ourselves down to certain destruction. Faith needs to take over and fatalism needs to be thrown over.
Abraham built the altar and laid the wood on it in preparation for the total sacrifice of his son Isaac. Total commitment is not a "slip-shod" or "spur-of-the-moment" emotional reaction. Total commitment is a calculated and deliberately executed act of love, faith and obedience. We must not only see the cost of discipleship, we must willingly pay it. Total commitment is our response to the total sacrifice which Jesus made for us on the cross.
Abraham then turns to Isaac, bound him and laid him on the wood which was on the altar (9). Our sacrifice must be costly if it is to be worth anything. When the payment for sin was made in our behalf, God gave the best He had. God held back nothing. He put His own Son on the cross. God gave His only begotten Son...for us.
We have a song written by one of the music ministry people in our church which says,
"I owe God nothing for what I've done to Him,
For on the cross, Christ paid my penalty for sin.
I'll give my life to serve Him faithfully,
I owe Him everything for what He's done for me.
To me the thought that I owe God nothing for my sins because He paid the price is just to much for words. It takes action. The action is love, faith and obedience. I do owe Him everything for what He has done for me.
Though we do not know the age of Isaac at this time [probably in his mid 20's] we know he was old enough to not only protest but to resist his elderly father. We don't see any of that, instead Isaac was bound by willing submission to his father rather than by overpowering force. Jesus likewise was not forced to die on the cross. He gave His life freely in submission to the Father's will. While it is true that the Father planned the Son's death and the Jews conspired His death and satan stirred the populace to call for His death the Romans executed His death...Jesus said that no man took His life from Him but He gave it freely.
When everything was ready, Abraham reached up with the knife and prepared to thrust it into Isaacs body (10.) Abraham witheld nothing from God. At the last moment, the Angel of the Lord stopped Abraham by calling out his name and saying (11), "...Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (12)"
Abraham had passed the test which God had given Him. Abraham's love, faith and obedience did not hold anything back from God. We are also to be williing to give everything to God with no reservation.
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