Themes of the Bible – Sacrifice (Genesis 22)

 

Themes of the Bible – Sacrifice (Genesis 22)

If you’ve got your Bibles, please open to the 22nd chapter of Genesis. That's where we’ll be today, and that was your assignment to read for last night, and for tomorrow, make sure that you get Exodus chapter 3 read, and we'll be done in the book of Genesis after today.

Okay, so if you did your homework and you read the 22nd chapter of Genesis where God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, you know that this is an intense passage of Scripture. In fact, if you compiled a list of all those passages in scripture that you would rank as problematic for believers, this would definitely be up there. And when I say problematic, I mean it's problematic to try to explain to a non-believer why God would ask Abraham to go and kill his son. When they read that account, they see God commanding Abraham to go and kill his son simply to earn the favor of God. As if God is saying, ‘prove that you like me more than your son.’ It's a problematic passage because it raises a lot of questions. Isn't God commanding child sacrifice? And even if you say, ‘yeah, but God relents or God knew he was going to relent.’ Why would this God that we serve make Abraham believe that he was going to have to kill his own son just to earn God's favor? That's a very difficult question. And, by the way, maybe this is just me because of my mindset, but look at verse 2. Genesis 22 verse 2 and tell me this doesn't seem like God is actually taunting Abraham here a little bit. Starting in verse 1, [Read Genesis 22:1-2].

See, he's drawing out the fact this is your precious son that you couldn't wait for and I gave to you as a gift. This son that you love more than life itself, you know the one I’m talking about, and then he drops the bomb; go to the mountain of Moriah and kill him for me. That's what I want you to do.

That passage makes me a bit uncomfortable. Why is God doing this to Abraham? What kind of a God would ask for something like this? Because doesn't this conflict with everything that comes to mind when we think about God? God is completely loving, and he's so kind to us, and so generous to us, so isn't this the exact opposite of everything that we claim that God is? And. . . you might say, ‘Mr. Christian, you're always telling me that this, all of scripture, points to Jesus. That all these pages of the Old Testament that seem so confusing to us, that there's spiritual reality behind them and every page is pointing us to Jesus.’ So, how in the world is Christ connected to a passage like this where God is asking something so outrageous? That is why it's ranked as one of the more problematic passages for Christians in attempting to explain God's behavior. I always find that humorous, as though we have the ability to explain God's behavior. Well, let me explain what God's doing here. . . it's mind-boggling and asking to take a much bigger bite than we could ever chew.

First of all, let's address a couple things. First, remember that this is not the first experience that Abraham has had with God. Let's be very clear on that. Sometimes when you're just thumbing through Scripture and you come across it, you might think that this is the first time that God addresses Abraham and the first thing he says is, ‘hey, go kill your son for me.’ This is not the first experience Abraham has had with God. He has had multiple. In fact, we read yesterday in Hebrews where the writer says that Abraham was called a friend of God. Abraham had seen over and over and over again the character of God. He knew that God was faithful, he knew God fulfilled his promises, he knew God was trustworthy, and he knows that God is righteous. In fact, a couple chapters before this occurs, Abraham is speaking to God and this is what he says, 18:25, “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

Abraham was aware of God's righteousness, and what Abraham is saying about righteousness is that it's not just that God is righteous and does righteous things, but that God is righteousness. He is the standard by which we measure what is righteous and what is unrighteous, and Abraham is aware of this and this encounter as much as it seems problematic to us on the surface, and if that's all we do is just surface read the scriptures, then that may be the conclusion we draw, but, you will quickly see when you look into this passage that this encounter that seems so problematic really affirms in an unbelievably powerful way everything Abraham knew about God. God's faithfulness, his trustworthiness, all of that.

I want you to notice a couple things, God just told Abraham you need to go kill Isaac for me on the mountain of Moriah, and we’ll see how he responds to this in verse three. [Read Genesis 22:3-5]. Okay, first of all, I think a lot of us when you read this passage, at least I did, we speculate, what was Abraham thinking that night? God gives him the command, you need to go and kill Isaac, and what does Abraham think that night? Does he tell Sarah? Is that a conversation that you have with your wife right before you go to bed? “Hey, by the way, I’m leaving on a trip tomorrow, going to take Isaac and kill him. Good night, honey.” I mean that's kind of an odd conversation. So does he tell Sarah or does he not? Is he angry with God? Is he depressed about this? You know how much he loved Isaac, how he was waiting for Isaac's birth his entire life. Is he worried? I mean he's got to be confused, right? Because this is a faithful and loving God, and now God's commanding something that seems totally unreasonable. Is he confused by that? I think he's got to be. Or, is he content? Is he so trusting in God that he knows that even though it doesn't make sense, it's all going to be okay, because this is God after all. Well, scripture doesn't tell us exactly what's going through Abraham’s mind that night but you know what scripture does tell us, even though we don't know what he is thinking, we do know that he is ready to obey.

Right in verse 3, Abraham goes straight from the command to doing. He goes out and he cuts the wood, he saddles up his donkey the next morning. There is no mention in scripture that Abraham ponders it all night, gets up the next day and does exactly what you or I would do: plead with God. Maybe go and make a sacrifice to God and say God would you please relent from this. But that's not Abraham. You remember from yesterday, when God told him to leave, the land of Ur, leave home where you're so comfortable, this metropolitan place, leave New York City and go out into the wilderness and I’m going to make a life for you out there. Leave everything, and even as he was being called, Abraham was all in. Totally obedient.

All we see in scripture is that Abraham obeys. The very next day he gets up and he leaves, he wastes no time and he sets off the next morning to obey. To me, that is the first big lesson for us about what God is teaching humanity through this passage. Make sure you write this down: Abraham valued obedience to God more than understanding God. I’ll say that again Abraham valued obedience to God's command more than he valued understanding God's command. Can we say the same about us?

I mean, I’ll just use myself as an example. Whenever I go through difficult moments in my life, every time I’m in the midst of a difficult or a confusing time, maybe I've lost a loved one, or maybe something's going on with my job, or something's going on with my family, or my health or whatever, but what I'm always praying is, “God help me understand why this is happening to me. Help me understand what you're doing.” Well, I'm telling you that if we take our cue from Abraham, the object here is that we spend less of our energy trying to comprehend what God is doing and focus more of our energy on trusting God and obeying him. We could rather say, ‘I know there's a purpose, I know him, and therefore I'm content. I will be obedient in that circumstance.’ I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying that's the lesson that we're picking up here in Genesis 22.

 

It's one that I certainly struggle with. Do we need to understand God? We have something that feels right to us, something we even embrace and believe is our identity. We've got these urges in a certain direction, and then we read God's word and it's telling us that we shouldn't act on those urges. ‘Why would you do this to me God? Why would you let me have these urges towards something that you tell me is wrong? Help me understand that, God.’ No! Just obey Him. Trust that he has your best interest in mind. Can we do that? Notice also how Abraham’s faith leads to supreme confidence in God. Look at verse 5. [Read Genesis 22:5].

Notice what it says, Isaac and I will go over and worship and then we, Isaac and I are going to come back. Wait a minute! He knows he's going over there to sacrifice Isaac so why is he telling the servants that they're going to come back? I think that it's more a depiction of Abraham’s hope that he truly believes. I mean, what is the only reason you would go through with something as awful as sacrificing your son? The only reason that you would go through with this is if you truly believed that God was trustworthy. If you don't believe God is trustworthy, and God tells you go sacrifice your son and you don't trust the one that told you that, you're not going to do it. Right? Abraham firmly trusts God, yes. But, what has God promised Abraham? Think about this. What has God already promised Abraham? That he is going to make Abraham a great nation through Isaac. And now God has told Abraham to go and kill him. Something's not computing.

If he believes God is trustworthy, he believes that God is going to bless the world through Isaac, and God can't do that if Isaac is dead, which means what you got three options here. I truly believe Abraham realized there's three options that could take place, and it explains perfectly why he says and does the things that he says and does. Option one: God's going to change his mind. He'll have second thoughts and he's not going to make me actually go through with this. Second option: he's going to provide a substitute. It's kind of like changing your mind, but he'll provide something else to take Isaac’s place as the sacrifice. The final option, and I think it's backed up by scripture the best is that Abraham does believe he's going to have to kill Isaac, but that God's going to resurrect Isaac, that he's going to bring him back. I think that Abraham knows that, yes, I’m going to kill my son, but we're coming back because God cannot bless the world through Isaac if Isaac doesn't have a lineage, so he's going to have to perform a resurrection. The writer of Hebrews gives us a clue into that when he says that, ‘Abraham considered that God was able to even raise Isaac from the dead.’ I think that that's why Abraham had hope and why he says that to the servants.

Ok, moving on to verse 6. So, this is an awkward moment between father and son. [Read Genesis 22:6-7]. Okay so you look at these words that he has with Isaac, first of all Isaac asked the logical question, right? ‘So, Dad, we got the wood and we got the stuff for the fire, but, uh, where's the, you know, the sacrifice?’ It's a logical question and then you get Abraham’s response. Now, I can't believe that Abraham is intentionally misleading his son. I don’t buy into that. That's not the character of Abraham. What good would it do if you're standing right here and Isaac asked the question and you're going to lie to him, and 10 steps later over here he's going to find out the truth? I don't think that this is just Abraham dodging the question saying that God will provide himself a lamb, and then mutters under his breath and say that it's you my son. Rather, I think that he's hopeful that there's going to be a resurrection. I think that he's hopeful this is all going to turn out okay, but here's the key: Abraham is willing to obey no matter what. Are we willing to obey no matter what? Abraham was submissive to God's will even when he didn't understand.

Even when he wasn't sure how it was all going to turn out, Abraham is submissive to God's will. So, I want you to consider this also; Isaac may have well been submissive to God's will as well. We don't know from scripture how old Isaac was at the time. I've always pictured him maybe like somewhere between 6 and 10 years old, but there's a little bit of a problem with that. Number one, Isaac has to be big enough to carry his own wood. A Junior camper couldn't haul themself up a hill, no less the wood for a sacrifice. And secondly, he has to cognitively be aware to make the connection that there's no sacrifice. A six- or seven-year-old wouldn't necessarily make that connection, especially while out hiking with his dad. He'd just follow up the hill trusting his dad and he wouldn't put together the fact that there's no animal to be sacrificed, and that's why, if you watched the Bible mini-series on History Channel, they depict Isaac as an adolescent, a teenager. He's old enough to carry the wood, he's old enough to be aware of this, and let's also consider how old Abraham is. He's way too old to have kids. So you take a healthy adolescent boy who finds out that he's going to be sacrificed, and it's kind of ridiculous to think that Isaac wouldn't put up some kind of resistance and that if he did that Abraham would be able to overcome that. So, this is my personal conjecture, but this logic would suggest that there's a distinct possibility that Isaac was compliant and obedient to God as well. I mean, that just is mind-boggling to me. To be willing to go through that, number one, because your dad has heard this message from God. I mean I don't know which one is more impressive.

This story is an unbelievable demonstration of where I want my faith to be, and I know that it's not there yet. Genesis 22, let's look at the way this kind of closes out verses 12 through 18. [Read Genesis 22:12-18]. This is when Abraham sets down the knife and just lets out a huge sigh of relief, but look at it further. He doesn’t just get to not kill his kid, rather all nations on earth will be blessed because it's through this son, Isaac that the promised seed, the promised messiah will come.

Abraham passes this test proving that he fears the Lord. I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time that you see this word “fearing God” come up in Scripture, and I want to make sure we understand that this doesn't mean he's scared and wants to run away. That isn't the kind of fear of the Lord we're talking about. This means that Abraham in the truest sense knows his place in the universe. Do you think maybe we'd be better off if we had that perspective instead of the 2021 American perspective of, ‘I'm going to process through this, and run it through my channels of what I believe is moral and what is appropriate. I'm going to see what the culture has to say about this and then decide whether or not this command of God is legitimate or not.’ No! Abraham knew his place in the universe. This is God speaking, so I have one option and that is to obey, and that's what I will do. Fear inspires submission and obedience. That's the kind of fear of God that we should strive after.

Ok, so I think the next logical question that we might want to ask ourselves is, is God going to test me like he tested Abraham? I think that's a question that all believers have. Are we going to have to undergo a test like this? I want to be very clear about this; God will never test you like he did Abraham. If you are hearing a voice that is telling you to sacrifice your son or your daughter, that is not the voice of God that you're hearing. He makes that abundantly clear in scripture, and I know that in some ways that seems like I'm making a joke, but there are people who have done that and things like that. If you're hearing a voice like that, you need to see somebody about that, because that's not the voice of God that you are hearing. But, God will test his people and he'll do it for the same reason: to strengthen their faith and to see their faith lived out.

I want you to notice another truth from this account: Abraham distinguished between God and the gifts that God gives, and he chose properly which one was more valuable. Here's the truth; Isaac was an incredible gift that God had given to Abraham. Maybe the one thing that Abraham wanted most in life was to have a child with his wife Sarah, and because of a life of faith, Abraham was rewarded with this son, Isaac. He loved this gift more than anything in the world, loved Isaac more than life itself, but he loved God more. That's key: all of the gifts that God has given us, do we love God and worship God more? Are you here today to praise God because of what he has done for you, or are you here to praise God for who he is? There's a big difference and distinction between the two. Too often, we thank God and we're obedient to God because we've received all of these blessings and we think that we need to do this, otherwise I might not get those blessings anymore. If that’s you, you're actually praising God simply for the blessings. This is the key: would you love God and would you serve God if he took away every gift and blessing that he'd poured out into your life? Because that's what he asked of Abraham. ‘Give me everything that means anything to you, give me your son, the greatest gift you've ever received.’ Would you still love God if he took away every blessing and gift? If God alone was your reward would that be enough for you? I think that's a question that all of us need to ask, and that's a question that comes out of Genesis chapter 22. For Abraham, the answer was ‘yes.’

I want to give you one last consideration; this passage is one of the most powerful Old Testament prophetic foretelling of the spiritual truth that comes along in the New Testament. You can see instances like this throughout the entire Old Testament. Hosea the prophet, in Hosea 1 is told to go and marry a prostitute, and we sit there and we read that and think, ‘uh so what's the lesson here? That I’m supposed to go out and marry a girl like her? Well, no. When you start to understand the scriptures, you get that this is a redemptive picture of God's love for a rebellious people that no matter how often his bride, his church, cheats on him and turns after idols that God's love is relentless. He's forgiving and he blesses even those that cheat on him.

That's what this is a picture of in Hosea, and then you get to Ezekiel, and you got that passage in chapter 4 where God has the prophet lay on his side for a year, and you think, “oh my gosh! What is that all about? It doesn't make any sense, so why am I studying this, why am I reading it?” And then, you realize that it is symbolism of the siege that comes to Jerusalem, and it all starts to make sense. And one of these spiritual truths that we see from the Old Testament that hits you between the eyes is Genesis chapter 22.

So, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. I know this isn’t a seminary class, but what in the world could this be foreshadowing? I’m going to lay down a lot of sarcasm here, but what in the world could this mean? Let's look at this in pieces.

God tells Abraham take your miraculously born child, remember this was a miracle because Sarah should not have been able to bear a child at that age, so take your miraculously born, only begotten son and sacrifice him. Number two: God tells Abraham do this on a mountain, mount Moriah. That requires a three-day journey, so for three days in the mind of Abraham, his son his only begotten son, his miraculously born, only begotten son, Isaac, he is “dead” for three days, in the sense that Abraham was going to obey, so Isaac was as good as dead. How about number three: Isaac carries the very wood up the hill that he was to be sacrificed upon. How about number four? When Isaac asked the logical question ‘where's the offering,’ Abraham replies, ‘God will provide himself a lamb.’ God will satisfy his need by providing himself a lamb.

Now, if you're a little slow on the uptake, let me help you a little bit. This miraculously born, only begotten son, we know that this is a man named Jesus who was born to a virgin. This miraculous, only begotten son is an atoning sacrifice for humanity’s sin. See the parallel yet? In the mind of Abraham, he's dead, for three days, and we read, Jesus says to his disciples that “the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of evil men, and they will kill him and after three days he will rise.” Three days in the tomb, three days dead, and he comes back to life. Isaac carried the very wood up the hill, and John tells us in his gospel that Jesus carried his own cross, which we know was made of wood. Isaac asked, ‘hey, where's the lamb?’ And Abraham correctly replied that God will provide himself a lamb. Do you remember what John the Baptist said the first time he saw? Jesus is coming towards him, it’s a hugely powerful moment, and John sees him and says, “behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Ok, real quick, remember what we know about Satan. From the very start, Satan is trying to upset the Genesis 3:15 promise. Right from the beginning, at the fall of man when humanity first sinned and turned away from God, and God said this prophecy that ‘there is going to be one born of woman, not born of man, born of woman who is going to crush your head, Mr. Serpent. You'll hurt him, you'll strike his heel, but he will crush your head. Right then, Satan went to work trying to corrupt anything and everything, to destroy that possibility for their son Cain, who’s name means ‘striker.’ Adam and Eve thought this was the one, this was the promised seed, and Satan goes to work and corrupts him. Cain kills Abel, so now you have Seth that comes along, and what does Satan do? He immediately tries to get the corrupt sons and daughters of Cain to intermarry with the Godly sons and daughters of Seth, trying to corrupt that line. That's what Satan is all about, trying to destroy, and he was almost successful, but there stood Noah and his righteous family. Over and over, that's what Satan is doing, and he was there for this moment; when Abraham lifts that knife, he's there for the moment. When Isaac says, ‘where's the sacrifice?’ and Abraham says back to him that God will provide himself a lamb, Satan’s watching this and knowing that Isaac’s the one through whom the messiah is supposed to come. He’s watching, he doesn’t understand exactly what’s going on here, but he thinks he’s going to win, until he doesn’t, until God provides a lamb to be his sacrifice. Perhaps, Satan was in the crowd at Golgotha, watching what he thinks is his great victory. Jesus being put to death. It looks like he did much more than bruise the Messiah’s heel, yet the serpent’s head is uncrushed. Then, all of a sudden, as Jesus is hanging there on the cross, breathing his lasts breaths of life, and what’s happening? The picture becomes clear. Echoing down through the ages comes the memory of Abraham’s voice to Isaac: “God will provide for himself the lamb. . .”

So, what do we take from this passage? What is it from Genesis 22 that makes it such an important message to humanity? On the surface, Genesis 22 is a problematic passage for us, but when you understand it, when you uncover what's being said, you see it for what it is. This event is, maybe more than anything else, the clearest, most vivid account of scripture that is pointing towards an event that will be God's ultimate solution to the problem of sin and death that we brought on ourselves. This event isn't celebrating death, this event is pointing towards the end of death. That's what it is for us.

God hasn't asked us to sacrifice our children, but he has asked us to do something, and the prophet Micah told us what that is. Micah 6:6-8, “With what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil?” That's what they did in the Old Testament, make sacrifices to God with calves, and thousands of rams, and olive oil, and all sorts of other things. Now look at these words hearkening back to Isaac, in verse 7, “Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Is that what God wants of me? The answer comes next, in verse 8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” He has not asked us to sacrifice our children or animals to him, instead he's asked us to sacrifice our hearts and our will to be obedient to his. Will you do that? Will you trust him as Abraham did? Don’t take this question lightly, because the consequence is eternity. 

Let’s pray.