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November 20, 2016 |
| Sacrificing Isaac | ||
We should already be aware of the story where God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. We can probably imagine the flash of the knife as Abraham raises his arm to kill Isaac who is tied up on the alter. Then comes the voice of an Angel saying "Stop, you've shown me you will even give me what is most valuable to you." Then they notice there is a ram caught in bushes nearby and the ram is sacrificed instead of Isaac.
Those are the basics of the story but there is more and we will dig into it in this lesson.
In these verses we join the story just as God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son. There is a common misconception about the age of Isaac at the time. He is often pictured as a boy but he is a man. He is probably about 30 years old. Abraham is well over 100. So it needs to be understood that Isaac is easily able to resist this if he chooses. Understanding the age and strength of Isaac will be important later in the lesson.
That doesn't mean that Abraham was feeble from age. Remember that this event occurs only a few hundred years after the flood. Lifespans began to drop very quickly after the flood1 but they were still long by our standards. Abraham would live to be 175 years old.
1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
This is the first of three times in these verses that we will see the phrase "Here I am" spoken by Abraham. We'll cover it more when we get to the second occurrence but right now we need to understand what is implied by this response. It shows there is a relationship, that there are responsibilities in that relationship. The phrase means "I know who you are and I know who we are and I'm ready to serve."
2 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."
This is the first of two times that God will say "your only Son." This will also be important as we go on in the lesson.
The land of Moriah contains Jerusalem where one of the mountains is called Mount Moriah. These verses don't say which mountain God had chosen but it is generally accepted that it was Mount Moriah. Later we'll cover why most people think that.
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 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."
The English language word "lad" used here is probably the reason people believe Isaac was a boy. Even in English we sometimes use "lad" for a man. The Bible does also.
6 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.
We need to understand the scene. We see in verse 3 that Abraham had cut up the wood for the sacrifice before they left home. It would have consisted of smaller and larger pieces and been tied with a rope to keep it together. For a sacrifice there would be a fair amount of wood, enough to burn up the body. So there is a fair amount of it. Abraham puts the wood "on Isaac", on his back.
The last sentence says "So the two of them walked on together." This is the first of two occurrences of this phrase. It is also the innermost part of what is called in literature a Chiasm, or an A-B pattern. Phrase A appears in the text and later on repeats, either identically or in a very similar way. But coming before the first Phrase A there is a Phrase B which repeats, but after the repetition of Phrase A. Thus it is ordered in the text like this.
Phrase B
Phrase A
Phrase A
Phrase B
There can be Cs surrounding the Bs and Ds surrounding the Cs in large Chiasms.
In this Chiasm "So the two of them walked on together." is Phrase A. Phrase C is "your only son." Phrase B is a little harder to see. The first occurrence is the tied wood being laid on Isaac. The second occurrence is tied Isaac being laid on the wood. The difference in these two will be important later.
Chiasms appear frequently in the Bible, sometimes very large ones. This technique is used to highlight an important part of the text that might otherwise be missed. That text comes between the two As, the innermost text of the chiasm. Now we come to that innermost text in this chiasm.
7 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.
This might not seem special but we'll dig into it. The Hebrew language scholars say this text is odd. Why would it be stating that Abraham is his father, the reader already knows that? In fact the word "father" appears twice and then the word "son" appears twice.
These verses highlight the nature of their predicament. Abraham has earlier said "Here I am" to God and now he says "Here I am" to his son - I am here for you as your father who loves you. He has relationships with both and responsibilities that go with both of those, and they are now in conflict.
Instead of ignoring his relationship with one to maintain his relationship with the other he makes a better choice. Instead of distancing himself from his son so that he will be able to sacrifice him when the time comes, he says "Here I am". Instead of saying "this is crazy; this can't be the will of God" and distancing himself from God, he says "God will provide."
It's a huge act of faith. Abraham is saying he has no idea how this is going to work out. He knows God has made great promises to be fulfilled through Isaac but he has been told to sacrifice Isaac to God. He resolves it by saying essentially "God will work this out." For his part, he will continue to fulfill the "here I am" to both God and his son.
The Book of Hebrews speaks of this saying that Abraham believed, if necessary, that God could raise Isaac from the dead. "By faith, Abraham offered Isaac during his testing, and laid his only son on the altar, whom he had received by the promise. 18 For it was said to him, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called' 19 and he accepted in his soul that God was able to raise him from the dead, and because of this, he was given to him in a simile." (Hebrews 11:17-19) By saying "simile" the author of Hebrews says that Isaac was a type of Jesus.
Isaac's question is also a little odd in the Hebrew. It's as if he is about to say something and instead says something else, "My Father". Perhaps exclamation marks would be appropriate here in the verse. In saying this and asking his question Isaac shows that he has started to realize that he may be the sacrifice. He is really saying, "My father, can this be true, would you do that to your son?"
Abraham's response confirms for Isaac that he will be the sacrifice. It's hard to see this in most English translations. In a more direct translation it says "Elohim will provide for himself the sacrifice lamb son." To Isaac it's clear who the only son is on this mountain. But Abraham has also said God will provide - this is the work of God.
Instead of saying "you crazy old man; that's not happening," Isaac also acts in faith and the verses end with the A phrase "the two of them walked on together". They were not only side by side but in harmony, believing that God would work this out.
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 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 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."
The second occurrence here of "your only son" closes the chiasm.
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 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 phrase "mount of the Lord" is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to the Temple Mount / Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. This is part of the reason why people believe the mountain chosen for Isaac's sacrifice is that same mountain, but long before there was a city called Jerusalem.
You may have noticed it yourself as you read the verses - there are lots of parallels to Jesus. Things like "only son," being a sacrifice, in Jerusalem, father and son. None of that is an accident. Isaac is a type of Jesus.
We've covered the idea of a type before in these lessons. A type is generally a person who is similar in many ways to another person. We learn about both people from the things they have in common.
These are the parallels with Jesus:
The story of the sacrificing of Isaac provides an example of faith and works, and responsibility. We saw that Abraham acted in faith to sacrifice his only son. His faith made it possible for him to do the work God asked of him, when God gave him no justification or reason for it.
We also saw faith in actions with Isaac. He trusted in God and in his father and continued on after he understood that he would be the sacrifice. Instead of fleeing for his life, he was prepared to give up his life.
Abraham also shows us that we have multiple responsibilities in this life. Our responsibility to obey God comes first but we must do our best to fulfill the other responsibilities that we have, to family, friends, co-workers, and brothers and sisters in the faith, etc.
1 http://www.conformingtojesus.com/charts-maps/en/chronology_adam-abraham.htm