Abraham and Isaac – Dr. Stephen Isaac explores the final test for Abraham as God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son of promise, Isaac, upon an altar.
Verses 1-2
God tests Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Abraham’s trust was to be weighed in the balance against common sense, human affection, and lifelong ambition; in fact against everything earthly.
Verse 3
Abraham acts in obedience, departing with Isaac and two servants. God leads Abraham to Mount Moriah. He does not linger, ponder or move slowly. Abraham prepares for what has been asked and leaves early in the morning.
Verses 4-6
After three days, Abraham and Isaac leave the servants and continue on together to the place of sacrifice. There are several Messianic foreshadowings in these three verses. Note the three days of travel only to end up on Moriah. Then the assurance that both Isaac as well as Abraham would return from the sacrifice was no empty phrase: it was Abraham’s full conviction, on the ground that ‘in Isaac shall thy seed be called’ (21:12). Hebrews 11:17–19 reveals that he was expecting Isaac to be resurrected. Loading the wood onto Isaac to carry up the mountain brings inevitably to mind the detail in John 19:17: ‘he went out, bearing his own cross.’ But the fire and the knife are in the father’s hands. The victim and offerer walking both of them together (the poignant refrain returns in verse 8) foreshadow, however, the greater partnership expressed in Isaiah 53:7, 10.
Verses 7-8
On the way, Isaac asks his father where the lamb is for the burnt offering, and Abraham assures him that God will provide it. Abraham’s response to Isaac, “God will provide” was to be immortalized in the name of Moriah. It might almost be called Abraham’s lifelong motto. His complete certainty of God, together with complete openness to detail, makes this a miraculous reply to an agonizing question.
Verses 9-10
Abraham then builds an altar, binds Isaac, and places him on top of the wood. The narrative seems to slow down with each step closer to the fateful moment. Even single movements between Abraham and Isaac are captured. There is no other faith story like this in the entire Bible.
Verses 11-12
As Abraham takes the knife to kill his son, the Angel of Yahweh calls out to stop him. The exact moment of intervention squeezes the last drop of meaning from the miraculous faith-defining experience. On the human side, the ultimate sacrifice is faced and willed; on the supernatural side, not a hint of harm is permitted, and not a nuance of faithfulness is unnoticed (as the phrase “your son, your only son,” is repeated from verse 2 and again in verse 16, makes clear). It is the answer, vividly conclusive yet anything but facile, to the question of Micah 6:6-8.
With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Verses 13-14
Abraham has proven his fear of God by his willingness to sacrifice his beloved and long-awaited son. In place of Isaac, Abraham sacrifices a ram from the nearby thicket. For the second time, God’s provision is found to have been ready and waiting. Interesting that in this sacrifice at least, the victim was a substitute (instead of his son), and what is explicitly modeled here would later become the lawful ritual of Leviticus 1:4.
Jehovah-Jireh (God who Provides) is, apart from the name for God, the expression Abraham had used in verse 8. In verse 14, “On the mount of the Lord, it will come clear’ it will be provided.”
Contextualizing the The Aqedah – Binding of Isaac
Within the biblical narrative of the Binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, lies the entire glory of Israel and their covenanted distinction and merit before their Father in Heaven. And that is why the story of Abraham and Isaac pervades our prayers every day.
…Rabbi Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508 AD)
Why did God test Abraham? Why does He test us? Why does a God who knows everything need to test anybody? Shouldn’t He know what is in our minds and hearts without testing us?
A good place to start in answering questions like these would be to provide a definition for the word “test” in the context of our covenant relationship with the sovereign and Almighty God. To test, in the biblical and spiritual context can be defined as any situation that demands more from you or your faith than you think you have. In a spiritual or faith test, one would most likely use their rational and logical mind and conclude the circumstance, “This is impossible. This is not what I signed up for. I don’t have to do this because it is not within my ability or skill set. It is beyond who I am and what my faith is capable of.”
Within the narrower context of our series “Now I Know,” we have learned that no one passes a test of faith in God merely with understanding, logic, or with reason – not even Abraham. You can only pass a spiritual or faith test of this kind with a righteous fear of God and complete trust in Him more than trust in one’s self. To pass the test one must lose one’s fear of man and find within them the righteous fear of God, and learn to live with confidence in an unquestionable trust in WHO GOD IS.
Spiritual tests of faith are closely related to miracles. In fact, in the Hebrew tradition, they are practically the same word. The Hebrew word used here in Genesis 22, is, Nasah; meaning – to test. Nisah, meaning – miraculous outcomes.
A miracle is when God purposefully breaks out of his standard pattern of natural law and demonstrates His unlimited powers. A test is when God invites you to do the same.
That is why people who pass tests of faith can cause miracles to happen — God is mirroring them.
To clarify, there are different kinds of tests. All of them break barriers and overcome obstacles. Some tests take a person past old patterns and behaviors to a breakthrough and freedom. Other types of tests draw out of us new or renewed strength, tenacity, discipline, or a deep confidence in our purpose and the inherent goodness and meaning within the world.
The ultimate test is that which takes a person beyond the ultimate barrier: The barrier between creation and Creator. Such was the test Abraham passed when he was asked to offer up his son Isaac.
Abraham had passed many tests before — ten in total. Throughout his life, he had never questioned God’s justice, despite navigating significant faith-forming moments of unfaithfulness and much adversity. But the test of offering Isaac was in a class by itself – there was nothing comparable. In real time this test would have made absolutely no sense to anyone but God and Abraham. In hindsight, it built the faith of millions.
The Akedah (“Binding” of Isaac) didn’t fit the same profile or expectations as any of Abraham’s other tests.
Leaving All Behind – Famine in the Land of Promise – Pharaoh and Sarai – Four Kings – Barrenness of Sarah – Taking Hagar as a Wife – The Cut Covenant, Circumcision – Abimelech and Sarah – Sending Hagar Away – Ishmael Forever Estranged
The Akedah appeared to be a contradiction to everything Abraham ever believed in or stood for: that God is good and kind, that He keeps His promises, and has a plan, purpose, and destiny for us and His world. All this is off the table when God says, “Abraham! Remember that son I promised you, for which you waited for so long? The one about whom I promised would be destined to carry on all that you began so that it will continue until eternity? Remember how I told you to listen to Sarah against your own judgment and send Ishmael away so that this other son could flourish? The son who you have fostered with your wisdom and trained for his destiny these many years? The son of your old age, that you love more than any father has ever loved a son?
“Take him to the land of Moriah and raise him up for a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will show you there.”
No explanation. No consolation. No excuses. Just do it. Turn around and destroy everything you have built until this day so that there will never be a chance to rebuild.
A mindless and senseless act.
Could there be anything redeemable or right come from this command of God? What we can see and learn is that Abraham in this final faith-forming faith-defining moment feared God and trusted Him with what he loved most. This was a moment that carried with it the highest risk for devastating tragedy that a father could ever face. And in that moment Abraham shows a thousand generations how to fear and trust God. He would finally demonstrate to the world to what potential a righteous and God-fearing man could realize when trusting God completely in any given moment with an extraordinary act of faith.
Abraham and Isaac – No Other Witnesses
In spite of that fact, on Mount Moriah that day, the scene of Abraham’s most faithful stand, there was not a soul to witness what happened except for Isaac his son. No armies, no throngs of disciples, no impressionable bystanders, not even the two young servants he had taken with him (remember he left them at the base of the mountain). The most dramatic moment of Abraham’s life and significance was performed in horrifying solitude. Abraham, Isaac, and the God of the Promise. Did Abraham come down from Moriah (God Will Provide) and tell Sarah that he came within inches of killing her only son? The Bible is silent on that possibility. That there were no witnesses that day is one of the greatest miracles of Abraham’s life of faith. Eventually, Isaac would tell Jacob and Esau, Jacob would tell his twelve sons and the story of the Aqedah – the Binding of Isaac would be told and read over and over again, every day since the day it took place.
On that day, Abraham passed not one but ten tests. Just in case there had been any doubt beforehand, now we could say in retrospect, “All that fortitude, tenacity, iron faith that Abraham showed in the face of challenge, it wasn’t just another human creature with his ego tied to a cause. It wasn’t just another obsessive religious fanatic or unhinged believer who must believe because, well, everyone has their crutch. This was real.”
Abraham was no longer just another self-focused human-being seeking one’s own fulfillment. In the language of our ancient past, Abraham had become a chariot — a vehicle for a Higher Will and Purpose than his own. In modern language, we would say he was “transparent, aware, open, ready.” He was a window through which you saw God.
Interestingly, Abraham’s body was a step ahead of his mind in this regard. Having received his mission at night, Abraham awoke early and plunged into his task. He prepared everything, the wood, the knife, the fire starter. All was calculated, not in a drunken stupor of religious fervor or self-loathing pity — but rather, faithfully, carefully, mindfully, worshipfully.
For three days, Abraham and Isaac walked until Abraham found that place. He kept quiet. He did not reveal his goal, nor was he swayed from walking towards it. Even once his son (a young man) had discovered his awful fate in this journey, even then his determination did not falter. On the Inside: questions, struggle, confusion. On the Outside: firm footsteps, a wise, fatherly, assured countenance, an intense focus on worship, and an alerted awareness of the presence of God.
When Abraham raised an altar of stones, his hands did not falter. As he set the wood, as he bound his son and laid Isaac upon the altar, he did not slip. He did not cry. Only when he needed the knife, only then his hand refused, “And he sent forth his hand and grasped the knife.” His hand knew what his mind did not — that this was not the Divine Will, that Isaac was only to be raised as an offering, but not, God forbid, to be slaughtered as a sacrifice. But Abraham’s mind did not yet know, and so he “set forth his hand,” against its will, by force.
As we know, in the end, there was no sacrifice of Isaac. “I told you to offer him up,” God said, “and you did. NOW I KNOW YOU FEAR GOD – take him down.” This is extremely important to understand. The test of “the Aqadah” was not necessitated by God’s need to know that Abraham feared and trusted Him, but rather by Abraham’s need to demonstrate for a thousand generations to come his fear, his trust, and his faith in God. He could only do this through the ultimate and sacrificial way. In the Aqedah, his fear of God becomes eternally unquestionable, his trust in God incomparable, and his potential for faith is completed and fully realized. This ultimate act of fear and faith secures for the patriarch the covenant promises God has all along ensured would come to pass.
But in spite of the fact there was no sacrifice that day on Moriah the gateway to genuine faith and extraordinary faithfulness was forever opened. Through the testing of Abraham, God had created a template for fearing and trusting Him and revealed to His people the formation and fulfillment of the process of faithfulness and the path for the righteous to live by faith in Him. It became possible for other human beings to transcend the limitations and obstacles of their human pride and ego-centric behaviors and become a righteous channel for the sovereign will of God in our world.
Close to 3700 years have passed. We, too, are the seed of Abraham and we too are his descendants. We are alive and here now. This is not the ancient past – this is the present, and we are in the moment. We too stand must learn to stand together in the fear of God and complete trust in Him. Millions of the righteous and God-fearing have gone before us. The many pages of non-Jewish history are drenched in the blood of Christian martyrs led to the slaughter on an altar or in a public arena in God’s name. Not only the Jew – but every Gentile believer in Christ Jesus.
In truth, many of them would much rather have lived. They did not necessarily see themselves as martyrs furthering a cause. They did not die to save their principles or because life without those principles would be a life not worth living. Neither did they die in order to attain eternal reward.
They simply found themselves incapable of ripping apart their bond to the faithfulness of the God of Abraham to His people. They refused to fear the very evil danger and fatal threat of man more than they faithfully feared and trusted God. In their greatest faith-forming, faith-defining moment of life or death, all the world disappeared from before them; there was only the one righteous truth of their covenant bond of faithfulness to the One God Almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth – all else was meaningless.
This is the unmatched strength of generation upon generations of the God-fearing faith of Abraham. There is power for conquering the enemies of God when we trust in Him alone and walk in the belief of His promises. Abraham and the Fathers of Faith opened the access channel by which the strength and power of faith come down to us to this present day. This is power not only to die for Him but to live for Him as faithful God-fearing, God-trusting people of the faith. Despite adversity, difficulty, and opposition. God has right and righteously tested us in faith-forming moments, and now He knows that we fear Him more than we fear man and that we trust Him more than we trust ourselves. For this is the greatest miracle: that in this day and age in which we live, there are millions of God’s people around the world with 50,000 coming to faith per day. These are the days of the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob – these are the days of our Lord God Almighty. These are the days of those who righteously fear God and not the evil of this world. We have the promises of God before us waiting for the day of fulfillment. We have the eternal and everlasting Word of God easily and readily accessible, and it is hidden in our hearts.
Now He Knows…