Pastor Scott
Jonas
Abraham and
His Son
6/3/18
Genesis 22
We continue
“In the Beginning.” Abraham and Sara are
such crucial characters in the story of salvation that Genesis spends 12
chapters on them. God picks Abraham out
of nowhere and promises that this old nomad will be the Father of a great
nation. Abraham holds onto that promise
for 25 years. Over that time, he travels
to Egypt and denies that he is married.
Abraham goes to the promised land of Canaan and ends up rescuing his
nephew from a foreign army. He tithes to
a king and priest named Melchizadek. He
circumcises himself and his clan as belonging to God. Three strange visitors foretell that Sarah
will give birth in a year. Abraham bargains
with God over Sodom which is destroyed by fire from the sky. Now you are caught up.
Chapters 21
and 22 are such contrasts. In Chapter 21,
The Lord visits Sarah and she bore Abraham a son in his old age. He is circumcised
on the 8th day, just as God stipulated in their covenant. Abraham is 100 years old. It is laughable that someone their age should
give birth. Therefore they name him
Isaac, which means “laughter.” If you
remember, Sara laughed when she was told she was going to conceive. She laughed then at the absurdity of it
all. Now that Isaac is born, she laughs
out of joy. The people of God are
literally born from laughter. The tone
of the story is glee.
That tone
disappears in chapter 22. Glee is
replaced with dark resolution. Isaac is
a grown boy, probably a teenager. God
speaks to Abraham and calls his name, “Abraham!” Abraham says, “I’m ready to do your bidding.” Little did he know what comes next. God says, “Take your son, your only son
Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there.” There is nothing funny about it.
This story
stops many a reader in their tracks,
What kind of God asks a Father to offer his son for sacrifice? Is God cruel?
Is he evil? Is he as bad as the
other gods of the time. Baal and Ashoreth required human sacrifices, child
sacrifices. It was an abominable staple of ancient religion. You show your faith by offering the most
valuable possession you have, a human. What
is going on here? The God we know
through Jesus Christ does not feel like this God.
It is hard
to make sense of it. Not just God’s extreme
command, but also Abraham’s response.
God says “Offer your son.” And
Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his
young men with him, and his son Isaac.
They headed for the mountain of sacrifice. What?
Not long ago, Abraham interrupted God because He said he had heard the
cries of Sodom. The Lord was going down
there to put an end to their lawlessness and perversion. Abraham bravely spoke up to God. He pleaded the God not kill the righteous
along with the wicked. Abraham bargained
God down to 10 people. If God found 10
righteous people he would not destroy Sodom.
Now God says
offer your son as a sacrifice and there is no bargaining. Abraham didn’t even know the people of that
city and he tried to save them. His son’s
life is on the line and there is not so much as a “Please Lord.” It doesn’t make sense.
Is Abraham such
a devoted follower of Yahweh, that he would do something immoral for him? Is Abraham now a brainless faith zombie that
will kill on command? To say that Abraham
loves God more than his son doesn’t cut it.
It doesn’t explain his actions here.
Nobody here would kill their son or daughter for God.
For three
days, they journeyed towards the mountain that would one day be Jerusalem. At the base of the hill, the servants
stay. Abraham gives the wood to his
teenage son to carry. Abraham carried
the fire starter and the knife. It
sounds like Isaac had made this trip before for animal sacrifice. He sees that they have everything they need
except one thing. Isaac says “We have
the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?” It’s like he knows. Abraham says, “God will provide the
sacrifice.” It breaks your heart. It makes you shake your head. God what are you doing?
Thankfully,
we have the new testament to give us the answer that we need. The book of Hebrews talks specifically about
this story. Hebrews 11:17 “By faith
Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the
promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said,
“Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was
able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did
receive him back.” He considered that
God was able to raise him from the dead.
That makes
sense. When Abraham was asked to offer
up his son, he had a lot to consider.
God had promised him that through Isaac specifically, Abraham was going
to be the Father of a great nation. The
Lord had kept all of his promises so far.
If God was going to take Isaac then resurrection had to be a part of the
plan. Isaac couldn’t stay dead, because
if he did then the promise was dead.
Resurrection was the only thing that made sense. God was going to show his power by taking
Isaac’s life and then giving it back. As
the messenger said to Sara, “Is anything too hard for God?” Certainly the God who can create the universe
can bring a boy back to life.
Resurrection. It had to be.
So Abraham
built an altar and laid wood on it. He
bound Isaac. He took the knife. He wasn’t a faith zombie. He wasn’t giving up his son forever. He would see a miracle. An Angel of the Lord shouted from the
heavens “Abraham, Abrham.” He said “I
ready.” Do not lay your hand on the
boy. I already know that you fear God.” Nearby was a ram, the substitute. Isaac was given back to him. There was no need for a resurrection
demonstration today. That would be
later.
In the next
chapter, Sara dies. There is no
immediate resurrection. Just as Abraham
trusted that Isaac would rise now he had to trust that Sara would rise as
well. We all are eventually put in the
position where we have to trust that God is not cruel, but that he loves us and
will use resurrection to restore us and the world.
Jesus is
that substitute ram. His father asked
him to go on a journey. Jesus was old enough
to volunteer. The Father led him to a
mountain in Jerusalem called Golgatha.
The miracle had been put off long enough. Abrham, Sara, Isaac and all the saints needed
to witness this sacrifice and resurrection.
The Father knew Jesus would rise but it still pained his heart. Jesus knew that he would rise but he still
felt forsaken. Instead of a knife, a
spear was used to ensure that he was dead.
Jesus may not have experienced the flames of a burnt offering but he did
experience all of the wrath of Hell on that cross.
Three days
later he rose so that Abraham., Isaac and Sarah will rise. And we will rise with them. God may do some things that we completely do
not understand, but we trust that in the end his resurrection will make
everything right.