Genesis. Priorities ~ Part 2 22:1-14

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1 Genesis Priorities ~ Part 2 22:1-14 I saac grew into a comely youth, a son of genuine respect and obedience, the blessing upon his father s old age. Abraham gave his heart completely to the boy. There were days when the man would take Isaac with him to a high promontory and show him not only the tents, the servants, the flocks and herds of his household, but also the land as far as the lad could see, north and south, east and west. I, when I die, Abraham would say; will give you the tents, my son. But God will give you the land. The old man loved his son so deeply that he was like life inside his bones. But then God said, Abraham. The man said, Here I am. And God said, Take your son Isaac to a mount in Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering to me. In the evening Abraham carried his straw mat to a private place and unrolled it on a hill. All night he lay gazing up at the stars. Early in the morning he returned to the tents and cut wood. He saddled a donkey. He asked two servants to accompany him on a journey he was about to make, then he entered Sarah s side of the tent and touched his son to waken him. Come, he whispered. Don t disturb your mother. Come. So they left the encampment together. They traveled for three days in a northerly direction. On the third day the old man lifted his eyes and saw the place of sacrifice afar off. He said to the servants. Wait here. The boy and I will go ahead and worship the Lord and then come back to you. Abraham took the wood and laid it on the back of his son. In his left hand the man bore fire. In his right, the knife. So they walked together toward Moriah. Isaac said, Father? Abraham said, Here I am, my son. Isaac said, We have the fire and the wood for our sacrifice, but where is the lamb? Ah, the lamb, said Abraham. And then he said, God will provide. So they continued, climbing the side of Moriah together. When they came to the place, Abraham bent and built an altar. Wiry and silent, the old man laid wood on the altar. Then he bound Isaac his son and lifted him up and laid him on the altar, too, upon the wood. So then Abraham bound his robe to his waist that nothing hung loosely, and with his left hand he touched the boy at the breastbone, and with his right hand he picked up a long copper knife and raised it very high in order to kill the boy with a single thrust. 1 VI. The Patriarchs Chapter 11:11-Chapter 50 B. Abraham Chapters The Ultimate Test Chapter 22 1 Wangerin, Jr., Walter, The Book Of God, Zondervan Publishing House, Kindle Edition, Grand Rapids, MI, 2010, p

2 a. Abraham s Test Verses 1-14 i. Isaac s Age ii. Mt. Moriah iii. The Text Introduction: This morning we are going to consider one of the more famous accounts from Genesis, God s request that Abraham sacrifice Isaac. But before we go into the text itself I want to consider two issues, Isaac s age and the site of the sacrifice. i. Isaac s Age: First, I want to reiterate a few reasons the general impression of Isaac as a young boy is wrong. Unger notes he could have been somewhere between 16 and 27. Following Josephus where authors speculate they seem to lean towards mid-twenties. Remember no answer can be conclusive as the text does not specifically spell out his age. 1. The language seems to require that at this point Isaac was older than Ishmael in the previous incident. Chapter 21, verse 14 called Ishmael a child while at the time he was probably in his late teens. Genesis 22:5 calls Isaac a lad, a word that implies older than a child therefore older than late teens. And keeping in mind that if Isaac was in this early late 20s, Abraham would have been in his late 120s which would have made Isaac a lad in comparison. 2. Isaac would have had to been old enough to consent to his participation in this sacrifice to have completed the picture, which is clearly intended, of the sacrifice of the Messiah. 3. He is large enough to carry wood for the sacrifice. 4. Josephus, in his writings, states that Isaac was 27. What is more important than Isaac s actual age was that he was old enough to consent and participate in these events. Or as we read in the New International Bible Dictionary His exact age then is not stated, but he is described as a lad, able to carry the wood for the burnt offering up the mountainside. In this whole experience his unquestioning submission and obedience to his father stand out almost as remarkably as his father s faith. 2 ii. Mt. Moriah: Tradition states that Isaac was offered up on the site of the future Temple, where the sacrifices were offered up to the Lord. Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (2 Chronicles 3:1). It is unclear as to whether this is the same location or they are called by the same name to link the Isaac sacrifice with the Temple sacrifices. But clearly God, through the Spirit creates the parallel. We will see He intends us to do the same with the sacrifice of Isaac and Jesus. 2 Douglas, J. D., New International Bible Dictionary, Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, MI, ) 244 (

3 So, time has passed. How much we can t say. But Abraham has been living in the land occupied by the Philistines and has continued as a nomad. But Isaac has been growing up. iii. The Text: It is not by accident God called Abraham to give up Isaac after the giving up of Ishmael. He was demonstrating to both us and to Abraham the extent of Abraham s faith and priorities. Consider, Abraham had recently sent away his son, Ishmael, a boy he loved. He did this in obedience to God because the line of promise was to go through Isaac. Isaac was the child of promise, the one who miraculously came from the dead womb of Sarah. His love, His hope, His everything, or not? God was testing Abraham. And the test was, what were his real priorities? It was intended to demonstrate his willingness to give up the son he loved because his love of God was greater. Was obedience to God his actual priority? Keep in mind, from God s perspective, Isaac was the first born as he was the child of Abraham and Sarah, and later God would make it clear that all the first born belonged to Him. When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD s. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem (Exodus 13:11-13). God went on to tell Abraham to take Isaac up to Mt. Moriah, or in the land of Moriah, to make of Isaac a burnt offering. This opened all sorts of questions. Beyond the issue of God taking away the son of promise, what did God s request for a human sacrifice say about God s character? Of course Moses, wanting to avoid any confusion, makes it clear right from the start that this isn t about sacrificing Isaac. This test is for Abraham. It s about his willingness to trust and obey God. Verses 3-10: From our perspective it is hard to understand Abraham. After the devastating instructions the day before, He nevertheless demonstrates complete obedience because early the next morning he, two servants, and Isaac, taking the necessary materials for a sacrifice, set out for the site God identified. They arrive three days later. He and Isaac had all this time together. A real father, son outing. But Abraham had a secret. Clearly only Abraham knew what was to occur. Think about the pain he must have been in. Traveling for three days, knowing what was at the end of the road, what did/would he tell Isaac. Isaac would try to carry on a discussion with his father, but for some reason dad seemed more with drawn than usual. As the two go off by themselves, Isaac have wondered what was up. After all there was no sacrifice. But Abraham reassured the boy that God would provide. Did he mean that God had ) 245 (

4 provided Isaac, so Isaac was to be the sacrifice, or was this a statement of faith that God would intervene and provide a different sacrifice. Well actually we do know one thing, which we ll see in a minute. Well they arrived at the site itself. At this point Isaac must have know something was up. He asked, where s the sacrifice? God will provide! And he allowed himself to be bound and placed on the altar. Whether he was a teenager or a young adult, I suspect he could have subdued a man in his 120s. But he accepted his fate. Now Abraham lifts the knife, ready to bring it down on the throat of his beloved son. The sun glints off the falling blade. Does Abraham hesitate as the knife trembles in his hand? By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). But, we ll have to wait until next time to see what happens. Does Isaac die, or Of course you can cheat by reading ahead. Conclusion: The message of both these incidences is that of Abraham identifying his priorities. In the first Abraham showed that God s priorities overweighed his. He was willing to send his son away because God required. In this section Abraham was willing to give up Isaac, the son of promise, because again God required it. What he demonstrated and what serves as a lesson to us, is that obedience to God is the highest priority he/we can have. And, as we ll see, Abraham was willing to carry out his obedience to what could be the bitter end. Abraham was willing to trust God to fulfill His promises while demanding an action that would seem, by its very nature to violate these promises, and possibly violating Abraham s view of who God even was. But Abraham was obedient, even though he couldn t have possibly wanted to obey. What in your life is most important? family, children, material positions, a job, having life go your way, what? What if God come to you today and said: Give up. Give them up. Could you? I don t know about you, but I don t like to consider these questions, because there are things I don t want to give up. Is this a problem? I don t think there is anything wrong with not wanting to give something up. Remember in the garden, Christ didn t want to give up his life. The issue isn t not wanting to give something up, it is being willing to give it up, not wanting to, but wanting more to be obedient to God. And the Holy Spirit will empower us to be obedient. The question we must be willing to ask ourselves is: Are we willing to let the Lord help us examine our lives and see where we may be giving something or someone a higher place in our life than Him? This was the real question Abraham was being asked. Was God more im- ) 246 (

5 portant to him than Isaac, not was Isaac important, not did he want to slay Isaac, but was he willing to if that was what God demanded? Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied. There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which ones? the man inquired. Jesus replied. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself. All these I have kept, the young man said, What do I still lack? Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:16-23). In a very real sense both this young man and Abraham faced the same test. Was God the one who held highest place in their hearts? Was Isaac more important than God? Was wealth more important than God? Abraham passed. This young man failed. I wonder if God ever tests us in the same way? Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6: 25, 33-34). But of course this is only possible if we trust in the Lord and put Him above everything else in our life. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God s commandments. This is the love of God: we keep God s commandments. God s commandments are not difficult, because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. Who defeats the world? Isn t it the one who believes that Jesus is God s Son? (1 John 5:1 5 CEB). ) 247 (

6 Genesis Priorities ~ Part 2 22:1-14 VI. The Patriarchs Chapter 11:11-Chapter 50 B. Abraham Chapters The Ultimate Test Chapter 22 a. Abraham s Test Verses 1-14 i. Isaac s Age ii. Mt. Moriah iii. The Text Introduction: i. Isaac s Age:

7 ii. Mt. Moriah: (2 Chronicles 3:1) iii. The Text: (Exodus 13:11-13) Verses 3-10: (Hebrews 11:17-19) Conclusion: (Matthew 19:16-23, 6:25, 33-34; 1 John 5:1 5 CEB) Personal Application: What/Who is your Isaac? If God asked you to place it on the altar, would you do it? If not, why? Prayer for the Week: Father, may Your Spirit give me the courage to place my Isaac on Your altar. Amen.