Hebrews 11:17-19 NIV
[17] By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, [18] even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ [19] Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
We now come to one of the most theologically important, but also deeply challenging and controversial, moments in all Scripture. This passage is also often deeply misunderstood, particularly nowadays, in our somewhat queasy West. It is rather akin to trying to crossing a theological and philosophical minefield, in heavy boots, with a poor sense of balance. I am not going to hide from just how hard this passage is. It is necessary for us to face it, understand it and apply it.
But I don’t doubt for one second that you will have many, many questions about it.
Let us set this passage in context. Abraham has two sons: one by his wife’s Egyptian slavery (Ishmael), and one by his wife (Isaac).
Tradition at the time allowed Abraham to essentially divorce Hagar and disinherit Ishmael, which is what he did (Genesis 21:8-13).
Right away, the hackles of our modern sensitivities are rising. Yes, nowadays this should not happen. Yes, there is a lot wrong with it. Yes, it is exploitative. Yes, there are later prohibitions in Jewish law to stop this from happening again (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).
But we should not stand in judgement over Abraham. This was a different time – at least five thousand years ago – and a different place (the Middle East). So yes, we absolutely would not – and should not – do such a thing here and now. But it happened. So we must deal with it.
The upshot is that, although Abraham had two biological sons, only one – Isaac – is actually reckoned as his, and only through one – Isaac – will God’s promises to Abraham be fulfilled (Genesis 21:12).
Which makes God’s requirement of Abraham all the more shocking, and, if we are honest, quire unnerving:
Genesis 22:1-2 NIV
[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 that I will show you.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.22.1-2.NIVUK
Before we proceed, we need to be aware that at no time at all did human sacrifice play any part in the worship of God.
It absolutely played a part in the worship of the pagan nations among whom Abraham lived.
That is why there is a later clear and uncompromising prohibition against it when Abraham’s descendants began to take the promised land:
Leviticus 18:21 NIVUK
[21] ‘ “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 20:2-5 NIV
[2] ‘Say to the Israelites: “Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. [3] I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. [4] If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, [5] I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek.
Absolutely shockingly, this very barbaric sacrifice was something that King Solomon participated in (1 Kings 11:7), and something that, generations later, the Israelites still had to be told was wrong (Jeremiah 7:31).
So what we see here is God telling Abraham to make a human sacrifice to Him in the way that the pagans around him did, and to do so with his only son, whom he loved.
We all know that a sacrifice isn’t really a sacrifice if it doesn’t hurt in some way, but this is well beyond hurting. In sacrificing Isaac, Abraham would be destroying his family line and any chance at all for God’s promise to be fulfilled.
Or so it looked.
There is likely no bigger price that Abraham could pay.
This really is extraordinary.
The question we should ask ourselves is ‘Why?’
Why would God ask Abraham to carry out what seems like a pagan – not to mention utterly barbaric – ritual in His Name that would cost Abraham everything he had longed for, not to mention Sarah?
And that is a very difficult question, with a no less challenging answer.
Many Christians approach this text as a picture and an illustration of what God did when He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross. And that is correct. It is. In a way, it is absolutely the perfect illustration of it.
But we cannot concentrate on it to the exclusion of the immense human cost Abraham was being asked to pay here.
I think there is another explanation.
And it rears its head thousands of years later, in Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler:
Mark 10:21-22 NIV
[21] Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ [22] At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. https://bible.com/bible/113/mrk.10.21-22.NIVUK
In the case of the rich young ruler, Jesus knew that his great wealth was preventing him from truly following God, and so, out of nothing but love, Jesus pointed the finger at this young man’s stumbling block and told him to clear it.
The fact that the rich young ruler could not only shows just how correct Jesus was.
Isaac had been born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. His birth had been miraculous. It was clear both of them had struggled with the idea that he would come at all. So now he was here, was it possible that they treasured him a little too much? Is it possible that their love for him had become greater than their love for God?
Could Abraham be valuing the gift more than the giver?
Imagine going to a doctor to ask him to clip your fingernails and toenails and asking him to knock you out with total anaesthesia.
He would likely think there was something pretty wrong with you, and it would have nothing to do with the length of your nails.
But imagine if you needed open heart surgery. I would not want to undergo such a serious operation without being completely unconscious.
Serious conditions are treated with serious treatments. Trivial conditions are treated with trivial treatments.
That much is completely obvious, right?
Then think about this for a second.
Both Abraham and, thousands of years later, the rich young ruler, underwent some pretty serious spiritual surgery.
So something must have been going very seriously wrong.
Something God had to get radical to fix.
So God’s requirement was shocking, it was radical and it was absolutely painful.
Now we will move on to Abraham’s reaction.
In one sense, his reaction seems quiet and ordinary – almost banal:
Genesis 22:3 NIVUK
[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.
This seems like a simple event. But let me pose one challenging question in all this:
Where is Sarah?
She became pregnant in her very old age. She bore Isaac for nine months in conditions that even nowadays would be considered as risky.
She gave birth to him in a very dangerous situation. She has raised him and by now into his teens.
Yet as Abraham heads off to the place God has told him about, where he intends to kill his Isaac in a human sacrifice to God, he seems to do so without telling Sarah and without bringing her with him!
What’s more, look what happened next:
Genesis 22:4-5 NIV
[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.’
So not only Sarah is unaware of his intentions, so are the two servants who assisted him!
For a modern ear, this is all very peculiar. Some might even say shocking.
But there is a reason why Abraham did this:
He is focused and single-minded in his obedience to God.
If Abraham had told Sarah what was happening, do you think she would have accepted it? As the boy’s mother, would she not have tried to stop her husband?
If the servants knew, would they not have intervened?
It is quite possible that Abraham did not inform these important people so he could do what God had commanded him to do without interference. His obedience of God was not a public affair. It was deeply private.
Ours should always be private first. It should never just be for show. Religion should be neither a performance nor a museum artefact. It has to be real. And to be real, it has to take place in the private place first, when we are utterly alone with God, as Jesus taught:
Matthew 6:5-6 NIV
[5] ‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. [6] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
True obedience begins when no-one is watching.
But there is another turn of phrase in this event that is easily missed, but is utterly unmissable:
Genesis 22:5 NIVUK
[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.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/gen.22.5.NIVUK
The implications of this verse is that two people will go to worship God and two people will return.
Do you see what this means?
Either Abraham is deliberately lying to his servants to prevent them from stopping him sacrificing Isaac, or this is true:
Hebrews 11:19 NIVUK
[19] Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
In other words, so strong was Abraham’s faith that God would keep His promise and that his family would be reckoned through Isaac (Genesis 21:12), that he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead after he had sacrificed Isaac to God.
You can see the logic in that, but it doesn’t stop it from being utterly remarkable.
So God’s requirement was extremely challenging, but necessary, and that was to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham’s reaction was single-minded obedience and unwavering faith.
What about God’s response to all this?
It was – and is still now – quote extraordinary.
God allowed Abraham to make the journey to the mountain.
He allowed Isaac to bear the wood for the fire (Genesis 22:6), in a situation that paralleled the way Jesus would carry the cross (John 19:17).
He allowed Abraham to get to the point where Isaac was bound – in an act of incredible obedience to and faith in his very aged father (Genesis 22:9).
He even allowed Abraham to raise the knife over his son in order to kill him (Genesis 22:10).
And only then did God stop him.
And only then did God provide the ram for the sacrifice (Genesis 22:10-14), as Abraham believed that He would do (Genesis 22:8).
These moments are full of drama and symbolism, bursting with meaning.
Here see God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only begotten son, as God will do at the cross (John 3:16).
The ram God provided was caught by its horns in a thicket – a dense group of bushes and trees. The ram takes Isaac’s place on the altar, as Jesus took our place on the cross.
Here’s the really stunning thing.
Mount Moriah, where this event took place, is Temple Mount in Jerusalem – where the sacrifices of every Jew were made once the Temple was constructed.
The summit of Mount Moriah is Golgotha – the Place of the Skull, where Jesus was sacrificed on the cross.
But listen to God’s final words about this event:
Genesis 22:15-18 NIV
[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.’
Something has happened. We don’t know what, but something had plainly gone wrong somewhere along the way. God's blessing for Abraham has become conditional. But now, because Abraham is willing to give his all to God, God will provide the blessing.
This reminds me of the disciples’ bewildered questioning when the rich young ruler was not able to follow Jesus:
Mark 10:28-30 NIV
[28] Then Peter spoke up, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’ [29] ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel [30] will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life.
Faith inevitably leads to prioritisation – to deciding which things in our lives are the most important. Prioritisation inevitably leads to sacrifices. Sacrifices are always painful.
Yet faith assures us that the pain is always worth it: that we will be rewarded, and far more than we lost out on.
When I followed God into the mission field in Romania, I had no idea what it would cost. I missed my grandmother’s funeral. I missed my sister’s wedding. I missed weeks of my father’s life as I returned from Romania to watch him die of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. I missed three years of my family’s life and struggles and joys.
But I gained far, far more than I lost.
That stands to me as an example of why the life of faith is always, always better.
Later on in Hebrews, we read these famous words:
Hebrews 12:1-2 NUV
[1] Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, [2] fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. https://bible.com/bible/113/heb.12.1-2.NIVUK
The writer to the Hebrews is using the athletes of his day as an example to his readers of how following Jesus implies sacrifices, and some of them will be painful. Of course we must sacrifice the sins that hold us back. That stands to reason.
But we must also sacrifice anything that entangles us and trips us up.
From what God did here with Abraham, it seems that something in his attitude towards Isaac in particular was wrong. We don’t know what it was, but it must have been very serious, given the radical nature of what God required him to do.
And that should be shocking to us. Disturbing even. Abraham is a person who is revered by billions. From this one man three of the world’s greatest religions were founded (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). He is unusual in that he has two entries in the Hall of Faith listing in Hebrews 11, not just one (unlike many of the others, who are hailed as great heroes).
And yet... and yet something could go wrong even in this man that required major spiritual surgery from God.
When we go to the doctor, there are two diagnoses we would hate to hear. One of these is that we are seriously ill, but a serious cure can fix it. The other is that our serious illness is too far gone for a cure and will be fatal.
We balk at the sacrifice Abraham was asked to make. We object to it. We protest against it.
Yet this sacrifice was the spiritual equivalent of a serious operation or a course of chemotherapy. It was very painful, let there be no doubt about that, yet it was necessary to cure a serious illness.
I don’t know about you, but I would rather have God ask me to make a serious sacrifice than tell my that my sin was beyond cure.
Abraham’s calm, reasoned obedience of God is what elevated him to the Hall of Faith and brought about the fulfilment of God’s promises, which we now enjoy.
So if God ever comes calling and asks you to sacrifice something close to your heart, what will you do?
Will you trust God?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I find these verses difficult and challenging – even unnerving. I feel You pointing at parts of my life that I have treasured more than You. Help me to be willing to put You first over all. Amen.
Questions
1. Why do you think God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? What was so unusual about this sacrifice
2. Why did Abraham tell no-one what he was about to do? What does this tell us about our obedience?
3. Whose sacrifice is reflected in these events? If God was so willing to sacrifice Him for you, is it right to hold anything back from Him?
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