seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
Here's the link to the study guide I use.Offer him there as a burnt offering: God told Abraham to offer him as a burnt offering. This was not an offering that was burned alive, but one with the life first taken by sacrifice and then the body completely burnt before the LORD.
Abraham lived as a sojourner, a pilgrim, in the land of Canaan. The priests of many of the Canaanite gods said their gods demanded human sacrifice. The people of Canaan found nothing especially strange about human sacrifice, but Abraham had believed Yahweh was different.
With this command, Abraham might have wondered if Yahweh, the God of the covenant and creator of heaven and earth, was like the pagan gods the Canaanites and others worshipped. By the end of this story, Abraham knew that God was not like the pagan gods that demanded human sacrifice. In truth, He was just the opposite.
How would we react if God told us to do such a thing? Many years ago, Jack Smith, a columnist for the L.A. Times, wrote about this Biblical incident. He said he would have told God to mind his own business. That’s what the world always says to God.
And we will come back to you: Abraham was full of faith when he spoke to the young men who were with him. He believed that both he and Issac would return; that we will come back, and he told them so.
This does not mean that Abraham somehow knew this was only a test and God would not really require this of him. Instead, Abraham’s faith was in understanding that should he kill Isaac, God would raise him from the dead, because God had promised Isaac would carry on the line of blessing and the covenant.
Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac: At this time, Abraham was more than 100 years old and Isaac would have been able to escape his coming death had he chosen to. Yet he submitted to his father perfectly. In remembering Abraham’s faith, we should never forget Isaac’s faith.
Some Jewish commentators think Isaac was in his thirties at the time of this event. “The younger man, perhaps five-and-twenty — so Josephus thinks — possibly thirty-three years of age, and, if so, very manifestly the type of Christ, who was about that age when he came to die” (Spurgeon).
Upon the wood: As an obedient son, Isaac laid down on the wood, ready to be sacrificed.
Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son: We must believe Abraham was completely willing to plunge the knife into Isaac, because his faith was in God’s ability to raise Isaac from the dead, not in God’s desire to stop the sacrifice. Abraham didn’t think this was a drama or a mere ceremony.
Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him: With this, God emphatically showed Abraham that He was not like the pagan gods worshipped by the Canaanites and others, gods that demanded human sacrifice and were pleased by it. God strongly and clearly demonstrated that He did not want human sacrifice.
This is a big deal. Abraham took his son on a three-day trip to be sacrificed like a lamb or a ram or an ox. He was willing because, according to the commentary, he believed God would bring his son back to life. I told y'all that I once taught Sunday School, Youth Class, and Children's Church. I also volunteered at Vacation Bible School once while we were in Florida. That's where I helped teach a wicked story about how God doesn't ask us to sacrifice our children like the pagans had to sacrifice their children. I don't remember what the story was. I'm pretty sure it was this one.
At any rate... I remember vividly... I was teaching children that God doesn't want them to be slaughtered as a sacrifice.
There was this monstrosity of an idol named Molech. Pagans would heat the idol up until it was glowing and then pagans would throw a baby on the lap of the idol... and sing... while the baby was roasted to death. They sang to cover the sounds of the baby crying and dying.
This is not one of God's ideas... it was pagan worship.
I remember teaching little children that God would never ask for them to be sacrificed.
Isaac was never in danger. I'm not so sure Isaac knew that from the get-go but Abraham believed that Isaac would be with him when he rejoined his slaves. Check out verse 5. Abraham was the one with the fire and the knife.
Why is it... in Sunday School we are taught that God doesn't want us to sacrifice our children.... and yet children are being slaughtered in war and in schools.
Anyway... the Vacation Bible School lesson had a moral. The moral of the Story is.... God would never ask Us to sacrifice our babies.
Feel good little children... we are not going to slit your throats and throw you on a fire... and sing.
Be happy little children.... we will not fry you on an idol's lap.
Jesus loves the little children.
God loves the little children.
