The beauty of the Scriptures is that they are inexhaustible: In fact, in my experience reading the Bible, when one desire is satisfied, you gain a desire for a dozen more, expanding your quest beyond its original bounds. And the more one is instructed by the Word, how little he knows becomes increasingly apparent. Yet the inexhaustibility of the Word is never exhausting in that it leaves one frantically searching; instead, the diligent Bible student is rewarded with an increased appetite for truth, which is responded to with even more wisdom and illumination.
I say all this to say that after more than four decades, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, I think I have finally begun to understand some select passages in Hebrews. In this episode, I will share said understandings and thoughts with you; that is, I will share what I have called Abraham’s secret or the knowledge of God’s future plans that nudged him forward at Mount Moriah, where Isaac was to be sacrificed. The verses I think I have finally begun to understand are Hebrews 11:17-19. The overall theme of Hebrews 11 is the triumph of faith, and the chapter gives countless biblical examples of those who lived life trusting in God no matter what. In Hebrews 11:17-19, the text says:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
These verses refer to events and promises that happen in Genesis, so to begin to truly understand what the author of Hebrews is saying, we have to go back to go forward. We’ll begin by going back to Genesis 17. There, God establishes a covenant with Abraham which is rehearsed in future generations with the practice of circumcision. In Genesis 17, God essentially obligates Himself to Abraham while also obligating Abraham and his wife (Sarah) to God. Specifically, God promises to be God to Abraham and his descendants; additionally, the Lord will give Abraham land and offspring (Genesis 17:6-8). Now, at this point in biblical history, Abraham is childless by his wife, Sarah, but does have a child by his wife’s maid, Hagar. So, Abraham logically asks God, “Does this mean the covenant you are establishing will be made through my firstborn son, Ishmael?” (paraphrase of Genesis 17:18). God says no and then tells the elderly Abraham:
No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. (Genesis 17:19)
God’s promise here is crucial, above and beyond the fact that God cannot lie and His promises are always trustworthy. God’s promise is crucial because God is telling Abraham, not only will you have a future son (Isaac), but he will have children, and the Lord will establish His covenant through Isaac and his descendants.
We now move on to Genesis 21, where it speaks of the birth of Isaac, which is a miraculous event considering his father (Abraham) is one hundred years old and his mother (Sarah) is ninety-nine years old. After Isaac is born, a conflict arises as to whether Abraham’s illegitimate son (Ishmael) should remain in the house. It is then that God tells Abraham it is okay to send Ishmael away, “for through Isaac your descendants shall be named” (21:12). In essence, then, we now have two occasions in which God Himself confirms that Isaac will have descendants and through those descendants, the Abrahamic covenant will be fulfilled. This then leads to a crucial premise: that in order for Isaac to produce descendants, he must be alive.
We now arrive at Genesis 22, where God tests Abraham. Recall at this point that Isaac has not yet met his wife and has no children. Verses 1-19 say:
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 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. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.” 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. 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 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
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. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.” 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. 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.”
Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 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, 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. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.
So, to summarize what you just read: At the beginning of Genesis 22, God tells Abraham to offer his only covenantal heir, Isaac, as a burnt offering. Abraham asks no questions but simply obeys, getting up early the next morning to get a jump start on his journey. When he arrives near the designated location, he tells his traveling companions, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Genesis 22:5). Who is “we”? Abraham and Isaac. This means that whatever Abraham understood was going to happen at Mount Moriah, Abraham thought both he and Isaac would return. After the pair arrive at the place God had appointed, Abraham builds an altar, arranges the wood and binds Isaac atop the wood. Verse 10 then tells us not only what Abraham did but also his intent: “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Genesis 22:10). In other words, Abraham was neither pretending nor hesitating about what he was about to do.
Here now is where I will stop in order to reveal Abraham’s secret. You see, Hebrews 11 champions many titans of faith, Abraham included. By grace, it is faith that gave all of those saints the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1-2). So, just as Abraham believed God when the Lord called him to leave his homeland and family, he obeyed, even though he didn’t know where he was going (Hebrews 11:8). Consequently, in Genesis 21:12, when God promised Abraham that through Isaac his descendants would be named, did Abraham believe God’s promise? Of course he did. He trusted a trustworthy God, and I am fully persuaded⎯based on the rehearsal of his faith in Hebrews 11⎯that Abraham was 100 percent convicted of the ironclad truth that Isaac would bear progeny. Here now is the dilemma: Because Abraham trusted that he would have descendants through Isaac, how could he unquestioningly follow God’s command to sacrifice his son? How could Abraham kill his designated heir if an heir was required to perpetuate the covenant? Here, then, is the secret. Because Abraham trusted God, he sincerely believed God’s promise and followed God’s command. Hence, I am firmly persuaded that Abraham could only reconcile the promise and the command if he actually thought Issac would die but then God would resurrect Isaac, who would then go on to father children and continue the covenant. The secret, beloved, is trusting God and what He says⎯whether promise or command⎯no matter what. Is this not what Hebrews 11:17-19 suggests when the writer juxtaposes Abraham’s faithful obedience on Mount Moriah with the promise of descendants through Isaac? Again, that text says:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
Abraham’s secret, then, was twofold. The first part of the secret was faith, which did not doubt God’s word and then try to reconcile present obedience with a past promise. Instead, his faith trusted fully in God, which then compelled him to obey, cognizant that with all-powerful God, nothing is impossible. This is one reason why Abraham is included in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11. Truly, as we grow in our faith, we may still have questions, but we don’t doubt first and then delay; rather, we do first and then ponder in obedience. The second part of the secret is that Abraham placed his hope in a type of lowercase-r resurrection before the capital-R Resurrection of Christ ever happened. You see, by grace, to Father Abraham, it was irrelevant what happened in between promise and fulfillment, because the word of God would not and could not fail. Therefore, whatever God promised would come to pass, “for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.” Abraham’s faith⎯just like our faith⎯is only valid because its object, God, is infinitely trustworthy.
The one point I must also make here is that we ought not to forget that Abraham’s faith was based on a precise divine promise made specifically to Abraham and his wife. Accordingly, there are multitudes of promises the Lord gives to His people in the canon of Scripture. Yet the last thing I would encourage anyone to do is trust in a personal wish that is completely detached from any promise that the Lord made in His Word.
In Genesis 22:1, it says that God tested Abraham. Now, why would God test one of His own? Because of love. God tests His saints to prove the quality of their faith and obedience, often through hardship. God tests us and not vice versa, as we are commanded not to test God (Deuteronomy 6:16). After all, what would the Creator need to prove to a creature through testing?
Biblically speaking, God uses the pressure and pains of testing to yield positive results. This is what Romans 5:3-5 tells us about why we exult in our tribulations, because the end result is resilient hope. You see, all tests that God gives to His children not only are intended for spiritual good, but they also reveal to us what’s really in our hearts. In other words, tests don’t teach, they reveal. Now I realize that in Abraham’s case, he wasn’t tested with letting go of something wrong, because a father loving his son and wanting him to live a full life is not sinful. But when it comes to ultimate desire, it is helpful for all of us to ask ourselves: “What do I want so bad that I will sin to get it?” and “What do I want so bad that I will sin if I can’t have it?”
In Abraham’s case, he was forced to consider if he was devoted to the Lord merely due to blessings or for God’s sake. Hence, did Abraham fear the Lord even in the face of loss? Would Abraham prize God even more than Isaac, his most beloved son, who was conceived by miraculous circumstances? Beloved, do you love God more than everything else? If God took away all that you had, would you still fear Him for Himself and be devoted to Him?
In Genesis 22:22, the angel of the Lord tells Abraham, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” When we now use this Scripture as a mirror and ask ourselves, “for now I know that I fear God, since I have not withheld [blank] from Him,” are we able to shout that statement with confidence regardless of what the blank is?
God tested Abraham. What, then, was it a test in? Perhaps idolatry. As I did in the last [post], I will quote from Iain M. Duguid’s Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality: The Gospel According to Abraham:
“Insecurity. For many of us, it could be our middle name. We are terrified that we won’t get the things in life that we want, and if we have them, then we are terrified that was are imminently going to lose them.
Of course, another, more biblical name for insecurity is idolatry. Whenever you are insecure, it is because you are determined that there is something that you absolutely must have, apart from God, in order to be happy and for life to be meaningful. For Lot’s wife, it was the city she left behind, Sodom. For Lot’s daughters, it was having children. For Abraham, in his encounter with Abimelech, his desire for personal safety won out over obedience. In effect, he was saying, “God is not enough; I must have safety as well.” What is it in your life that you must have? Is obedience to God always your top priority, or are there areas of your life where you are not willing to say, as Job did, “Though he slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15)?
Declaring that God himself is enough is not the kind of decision that you make once and for all, and then the conflict is over. It’s not as if you say to yourself one day, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” and your idol says, “OK, I guess I better move out then.” No! This is a daily battle with which we all struggle. Whom will I choose to serve today⎯God or my idol? It is a lifelong battle that we all face every single day until the day that we die. There may be areas where we make some progress and by the Lord’s grace find the struggle less intense than it used to be. But there will also be new areas of struggle as we grow and mature. As our life situations change, new challenges will expose idolatries in our hearts, new areas in which battles will rage.”
If I were to stop there, I would leave the impression that Genesis 22 was about either Abraham or Isaac. Perhaps I would leave you with the impression that Genesis 22 is about you, as you insert yourself into Abraham’s place and out your faith on trial. In both situations, the impressions are false. Abraham was not an end in himself. Isaac was not an end in himself. You are not an end in yourself. The point of Genesis 22, like the rest of the Bible, is about God. Genesis 22:1 says that God tested Abraham. The end of the chapter says nothing like “And Abraham passed the test.” It does conclude by saying, “The Lord will provide” (22:24). Accordingly, when we consider any Scripture, we must ask, “What does this tell me about God?” So, what does Genesis 22 tell us about the Lord?
I have four observations.
The first thing Genesis 22 tells us about God is that He doesn’t need our sacrifices. The very idea that God would need a human sacrifice from Abraham is absurd, because God doesn’t need anything. After all, why would anyone want to serve a needy God? What kind of a deity would the Lord be if He required something from us? In fact, the Scriptures reveal that that God is the great unmade Maker, the great self-sustaining Sustainer (cf. Exodus 3:14; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 46:9; Malachi 3:6; John 5:26; Acts 17:25; Colossians 1:16-17; James 1:17). He thus requires nothing from those beings (us) which He made. Consequently, “to obey is better than sacrifice” (II Samuel 15:22), because to submit to God is better than to offer Him something and then go about your business. In fact, human sacrifice is a pagan idea, because all pagan religions are predicated on the idea that “God needs something.” Thus, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward, because your dedication is measured by your effort.
Consequently, the death of Isaac through sacrifice was never even a remote possibility, because human sacrifice is a pagan idea, not a biblical one. After all, what would God gain from the death of Isaac? Absolutely nothing. God does not operate based on the idea that you must suffer so that He may live; rather, He operates on the principle that He will die so that you may live.
The second observation is that God stops Abraham from slaying Issac by speaking to him directly. That is, heavenly instruction⎯revealed directly from God⎯told Abraham that his sacrifice would not be required. The subject matter was so crucial, the Lord did not delegate the responsibility to a mere created messenger.
There are several instances in the Old Testament where the identity of the angel of the Lord is unclear. There are other instances where the angel of the Lord clearly refers to God Himself. I am persuaded that the angel of the Lord who calls to Abraham from heaven is not a created being but God Himself. Consequently, I say that God spoke to Abraham directly because in Genesis 22:1, the text says that God commands Abraham to take Isaac to Mount Moriah. Then, said angel issues a cease and desist before the sacrifice happens. Verses 11-12 say:
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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.
Of course, Abraham was not commanded by an angel to sacrifice Isaac, but by God Himself. So, God issues the original command and then says, “You have not withheld Issac from Me, the Lord.” Next, verse 15 refers to the same agent⎯the angel of the Lord⎯who calls to Abraham a second time. Verses 15-18 say:
Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 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, 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. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
The Lord’s words here are interesting because He tells Abraham, “because you have done this thing,” yet, as we read, Abraham’s experience on Mount Moriah was characterized by his lack of activity. So, then, what did Abraham do? He trusted God. God then directly confirms that Abraham’s faith is the means by which he and his descendants will be blessed. And the “seed” of verse 17 is singular. Meaning, God is blessing Abraham now but ultimately looking forward to a ruler-King who will possess the gate of His enemies, or rule over them.
The third observation is that what Abraham didn’t do, God did; that is, provide the sufficient sacrifice in Isaac’s place. After the Lord issues the command to Abraham to put his knife down, what happens next? God provides a substitutionary sacrifice instead. Verses 13-14 say:
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. 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.”
The Hebrew word for “thicket” refers to a dense growth of shrubs or bushes, often with thorns. The ram, then, having its horns caught in a thicket means it was symbolically wearing a type of crown of thorns. Here, then, is what God is telling us on Mount Moriah: Our sacrifice will not do. But the Lord will provide a substitutionary sacrifice in our place, and He will wear a crown of thorns. God is telling us at Mount Moriah that because He will provide, our faith clinches to Him, not our performance.
Beloved, the fourth, final and ultimate observation about Genesis 22 is that it is neither about Abraham nor Issac: It is about Christ. The only difference is that while Abraham looked forward to what God would provide in His promise, we look backward to Who God has already provided. We look back to Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. We should have been the sacrifice, but Jesus took our place.
Mount Moriah is the place where the Jerusalem Temple would be built, but that temple was only temporary. Moriah ultimately points forward to the Christ and the Cross, where Jesus would not offer a temporary, insufficient, repetitive atonement for sin, but rather offer Himself as an eternal, sufficient, once-and-for-all sacrifice for all of God’s elect. Now why would God voluntarily give Himself up to be sacrificed for our sakes and in our place if He needed nothing? Because of love.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:16-17)
Beloved, what Abraham’s son could never do⎯provide a sufficient sacrifice⎯the Son of God already did on our behalf. Abraham would have no secret if God wasn’t a trustworthy God; Abraham would have no secret if he did not simply trust the Lord no matter what. Faith in an all-sufficient, all-powerful, all-knowing, holy and eternal God opens a multitude of doors of possibilities in a finite, material world made of mere creatures. Faith also opens the only door that truly matters in the end: the one that leads to salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. Truly, because the Lord has already provided a sacrificial Lamb for us, all that is left for us to do is return faithful service to God for the faithfulness He has already shown us.
Dr. C. H. E. Sadaphal