Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Genesis 22:1-18 “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ {2} And He said, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.’ {3} So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. {4} On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. {5} And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you.’ {6} And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. {7} And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ {8} And Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ So the two of them walked on together. {9} Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there, and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. {10} And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. {11} But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ {12} And he said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’ {13} Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. {14} And Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’ {15} Then the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, {16} and said, ‘By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, {17} indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. {18} And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.’”
It is a pretty safe bet that the people in this little congregation know the story of the Lord God, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Mt. Moriah. God had given Abraham a promise. Abraham would be given a son by way of Sarah. Their descendants would be as many was the stars in the sky and sand on the seashores. It took several years before Abraham and Sarah would see that promised fulfilled in the flesh.
The promised was initially given to Abraham when he was 75 years old. Abraham was 100 years old when God made that promise flesh and brought Isaac into this world. Abraham had two sons. The first from Hagar – Ishmael. The second, Isaac the promised son from Sarah. It was through Abraham and Isaac that God was going to bring the Messiah into the world. So the promise given and then the promise of Isaac fulfilled.
Then a twist in the story. When Isaac was a boy the Lord God came to Abraham and commanded to Abrahan, ‘Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Okay. God came to Abram in Genesis 12 and told him to pack up his household and all of his livestock and move from their home in Haran to a destination yet unknown. God told Abram to do it and he did. He believed that God was leading him someplace for the better.
Throughout his journey, Abram faced challenge after challenge. When confronted by enemies God promised Abram victory. And it worked out just as the Lord God said it would. In fact as Abram followed the commands of the Lord God Abraham was becoming a wealthier, more respected, and more powerful man.
In Genesis 15 the Lord God promised Abram a couple of things. He promised Abraham a long life and a son, an heir to Abraham and a patriarch to the promised Messiah and all believers. At that point (Genesis 15) a son was the only thing Abram and Sarah were really lacking. It just took a while – 25 years before the promise would be fulfilled, but it was as was the long life. Fast forward a dozen years or so after Isaac’s birth and now something truly puzzling was being required of Abraham.
Th Lord God tells Abraham is to put the son of the promise to death and it seems that Abraham was good with that. Abraham heard the command of the Lord God. He went to bed, fell asleep, got up the next morning, and conscripted a couple of servants and his son. They loaded up the donkey and set out to find the mountain that God would show him.
When the journeyed to a land called Moriah and there they saw a little mountain, Mt. Moriah {5} “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship and return to you.’” Two are going up the mountain and two will come down. Abraham has made that clear.
At this point we have three possible explanations for what Abraham told his his servants. 1. Abraham was lying to them. He was going to kill his son. He needed to set up the expectation they will both return and to state so as a matter of fact so that when Abraham shows up by himself they will assume an accident had befallen Isaac during the trip up the mountain. After all, Abraham statement indicated he had every intention they’d both return.
2. Abraham has no intention of sacrificing his son to the Lord God. He’d go up on the mountain. They would find something to sacrifice, burn it, and hope that God will be pleased with their offerings. Abraham could do like Cain. Offer just enough to get by. That’s pretty much how most people approach the offering plate of the work they do around the church. “Good enough for church work.”
3. Abraham had every intention of sacrificing his only begotten son and doing so in the full confidence that the Lord God would keep His promise regarding Isaac and decedents. Abraham and Isaac would be the patriarch through which the Messiah would come and both would be fathers to all those who believe. If Isaac is sacrificed the only way for that to happen would be by way of a resurrection.
The third explanation is the right explanation. Bible scholars and commentators didn’t come up with that idea themselvest. The Word of God tells us that was exactly what Abraham was thinking as he went up to Mt. Moriah.
Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and the one who had received the promises was offering up his only son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac your descendants shall be named.’ He [Abraham] considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type [type of christ].”
Abraham had a very specific kind of faith in a very specific God, who does very particular things; like keep His promises, forgive sins, create saints, and resurrect the dead. A blind generic faith is no faith at all, yet that is the kind of faith most people have toward God. They worship a generic god that does generic, abstract, and unverifiable things. Their faith is only confirmed in their imaginations and feelings.
That was not the kind of faith that Abraham had. It is not the kind of faith that is given to us in the Word and Sacrament ministry. True faith comes by from outside of us. True faith is created by the eternal Word of God.
Abraham believed that God would bring about the resurrection of the son he was ordered to sacrifice and burn on a pier. His faith clung to God’s promise that his offspring would outnumber the sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky.
Modernist so called “Bible scholars” teach that this story is nothing more than an allegory. They say it’s an allegory that teaches us about the irrational nature of faith. They teach that true faith isn’t tied to anything real. Make no mistake about it. The whole story of Abraham and Sarah is written in the form of a historical narrative. It’s history. It really happened. There’s nothing symbolic about it.
Abraham believed that God would bring Isaac back to life. God had proven time and again to be faithful to His words. Think about all that Abraham endured. God asked Abraham to do some very risky things and God delivered on all those promises. Among those things, wars, the riff between Lot’s household and Abraham’s, the trouble between Sarah and Hagar, the establishment of the covenant between God and Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s family, the trip to Moriah, the death of Sarah, obtaining a wife for Isaac, and more. Some of those things were ordinary experiences we all share. Others required a faith more pure.
Of all the things that the Lord God told Abraham to believe and do to endure, the command to kill the promised son was the greatest test. Today people panic over running out of toilet paper. Sacrificing to them means giving up Starbucks. Words of war are things that offend self-righteous wokeness and hurt misplaced self-esteem.
Abraham was rooted in the words of God. “Faith comes through hearing; hearing the Word of Christ.” This folks is what it means to be heirs of Abraham and Isaac. This is what it means to be one of the stars in the sky of Abraham.
In John eight, Jesus had a confrontation with some Jews who did not believe in Him. Jesus said to and of them. “43 Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” Unbelief is of sinful human nature and the devil himself.
The Jews who challenged Jesus were the biological children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet, Jesus tells them that the Lord God is not their Father! He goes as far as to say that their father is the devil and they do the devil’s bidding.
The devil tempts to sin as we see in the temptation of Christ. God does not tempt to sin. He does something else. That’s the reason for the trip to the top of Moriah 22:1. “Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Some old translations used the word tempt here, but the word “tempt” came to exclusively imply an effort to mislead or cause someone to fall into sin. In regard to the Lord’s Prayer and the Sixth Petition “Lead us not into temptation,” Luther rightly wrote “God, indeed, tempts no one; but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us, nor seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and gain the victory.”
As for Isaac’s part in this whole episode, he simply walked with his father, trusted his father, and obeyed his father’s commands. In that way he too was obeying God the Father. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have a question. {7} ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ {8} And Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’
There are two things here that are interesting and most English translations miss it. ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son’ can be translated, “God will provide Himself [as] the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Also the Hebrew phrase for “God will provide” has more to do with the phrase “to see,” as in “God will see to it Himself.”
“If you want something done right do it yourself.” God will see to it Himself that His son is sacrificed. Abraham understood that it was the Lord God who provided Isaac in the first place. It would also be the Lord God who would provide the Sacrificial Lamb who would redeem Abraham and Isaac and all the descendants. God was going to see to it Himself that all that is needed will be provided.
Abraham and Isaac built an altar of wood. Abraham put Isaac on it, took the knife in his hand, and raise the knife. 11 “But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 12 And he said, ‘Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’ In that place and at that moment, the Lord God provided a substitute. 13 “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the LORD it will be provided.’” Again a more literal translation; “In the mount of the Lord, He will see to it Himself.”
The land of Moriah would eventually be populated and called Jerusalem. The temple would be built atop Mt. Moriah – the hill that Abraham and Isaac climbed.
Mt. Moriah is 2,427′ high. But there was another mount there in the land of or Moriah and God would call up to that mountain another substitute- His Son. His Lamb would be slain on a slightly higher mountain just about a half of mile from Mt. Moriah and the temple. Mt. Calvary (2,549′.
The Promised Son took carried the wood for His sacrifice up Mount Calvary. In His most awful death, Christ the Seed of God became the blessing upon all nations and earned forgiveness for our weak faith, our poor sacrifices, our failures to follow Him where he leads.
Romans 8:31-39 ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?’ So I say to you, sons of God, what Abraham said to Isaac. ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’
The God of Abraham praise, At whose supreme command from earth I rise and seek the joys at His right hand I all on earth forsake, Its wisdom, fame, and power. And Him my only Portion make, My shield and Tower.
AMEN.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.