Genesis 22:1, commentary and pictures

God putting Abraham to the test meant permitting Satan to try his loyalty, not luring him toward wrongdoing, to make his trust, confidence and obedience plain before heaven and earth while providing strength and a way through. The trial came in his old age after his failure to wait patiently for the promised child, when he was told in a night vision to go to Moriah and offer up Isaac, his beloved only son of promise, a command that seemed to destroy every promise of descendants and leave him childless. He obeyed at once without questioning, murmuring or pleading age and grief, trusting God's justice and faithfulness and believing He could even raise Isaac from the dead, until the angel stopped his hand and a ram was given in his son's place, with Isaac himself willingly submitting. His willingness carried out in heart as fully as the deed foreshadowed the Father giving His only Son to die for guilty humanity, opening to Abraham the cost of redemption and the vision of Christ the Lamb slain for sins. So the verse calls for implicit confidence in even the severest requirement, perfect obedience and surrender of nothing as too precious to give God, by which true children of Abraham are known and the covenant blessing is renewed.

Meaning of Tempt and Test

The word tempted in this verse means that God permitted Satan to tempt and test Abraham, not that God Himself enticed him to sin. Though God knows every heart, motive and thought, He allows such testing to reveal trust and confidence in God and obedience to His written Word, and to reveal the genuineness of faith.

The trial proceeds from God for the good of those who love Him, so that faith may be found unto honor and glory when judgment sits and each is judged according to deeds done in the body. It is permitted to magnify the name of the Lord and to reveal His abundant grace before the heavenly universe, before worlds unfallen, and before men. Abraham recognized God's voice and trusted His promises as infallible, being willing to yield whatever God asked as already belonging to God, while those who do not know His voice may fail to recognize a real call to surrender what they cherish. With every permitted temptation God makes a way of escape and imparts divine strength to resist temptation and escape the snare, so His children are not tempted above what they are able to bear but can endure it.

Setting and Circumstances of Test

The test came after these things, in Abraham's old age, after he had shown distrust of God and failed to wait patiently for the promised son by taking Hagar as wife. If he had waited patiently he would not have faced this test, and the test was given to bring his faith to its highest standard and to make up for his earlier lack of perfect trust.

The command came in a night vision at Beersheba directing him to go to the land of Moriah and offer his son as a burnt offering, calling him to set out at once on a long and painful journey. On the third day he recognized the command as from heaven when he saw a cloud of glory over Mount Moriah, having endured the trial through prolonged prayer. That testing place was near Salem, the central and elevated place on the border of Benjamin and Judah near Ephraim later selected as Jerusalem, the capital of David's kingdom.

He was commanded to offer Isaac, his beloved only son, the child of promise through whom God had promised covenant, a great nation, and descendants like the stars. The command seemed terrible and uncalled-for, at odds with God's promises, threatening to leave him childless, and raising the apparent impossibility of reconciling it with the promise.

The voice commanding the sacrifice was the same voice that had told him to leave his country for a land God would show him, and Abraham recognized God's voice and trusted His promises as infallible. Yet he struggled with grief and age, wondered if the command was a delusion, prayed for confirmation and hoped for further guidance, but received no additional light before setting out to obey. He did not reason that the promise must come through Ishmael, and he resisted Satan's suggestions of doubt and unbelief.

Abraham's Faith and Obedience

Abraham obeyed promptly, without stopping to reason the matter out, without questioning God's justice, and without complaint, murmuring, or giving up along the way. His advanced age and weakness, his deep love and attachment to his son, and his grief and fear did not become an excuse to turn aside, and he did not let his feelings rebel against God's will though he suffered deeply. He stopped reasoning and came off conqueror, carrying out the duty laid upon him in faith, confidence, and submission despite anguish.

Though human and feeling deep attachment and pain, he trusted that God was just and righteous, good and faithful, and he delighted to obey rather than holding back what was most precious to him. He believed God could raise Isaac from the dead and still keep His promise concerning the covenant, and he trusted that the outcome was known to God from the beginning. His trust was complete, and he obeyed exactly, placing obedience to God above love for his son.

He carried the command through to the moment he was about to strike, when God's angel stopped him from harming Isaac and a ram was provided in Isaac's place, so the test was not completed by Isaac's death. His willingness showed that he feared God and had not withheld his son, his only son, demonstrating perfect obedience and loyalty expressed through action. Heavenly beings watched this faithfulness as it was proved.

Isaac also submitted willingly, because he trusted his father and believed he would not require this sacrifice unless God had commanded it. Both Abraham's faith and Isaac's submission were tested together under the gaze of heaven.

Abraham is called the friend of God because he bore the test, and the father of the faithful because he carried out the purpose in his heart as fully as if he had by his own hand taken his son's life. His faith was counted to him for righteousness. His response reveals true faith, a faith joined with trust in God that produces fruits, and by that faith in Christ he was saved just as the sinner today is saved by faith in Christ.

Purpose and Outcome of Testing

The test proved Abraham's loyalty before the universe of heaven and exposed as untrue the accuser's charge that he had failed the covenant. God gave this most severe trial for Abraham's present and eternal good, to give him an experience that strengthens faith. He has the right thus to direct the lives of His children.

Abraham trusted God through the trial, believing God could raise Isaac from the dead and that the outcome was known to God from the beginning. He believed God and delighted to obey Him, and because he could not reason out the command he stopped reasoning and obeyed, and came off conqueror. That account gives others courage to trust God at every step. The same testing comes to God's people today, when the Lord puts His purposes in place of their devising, often contrary to human desires and inclinations and contrary to the dictates of the flesh.

Abraham's obedience in not withholding Isaac was followed by God's reaffirmation and renewal of the promise to bless him, to multiply his descendants, to give them victory over their enemies, and to bless him and all nations through his seed. That obedience was recorded in Bible history to prove that obedience to God's voice and law is essential to receiving His favor and blessing, and it brought God's commendation that in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed because he had obeyed God's voice. The trial showed that God accepts nothing less than perfect obedience and that obedience to His covenant is rewarded.

Abraham was tested in old age by a command that seemed terrible and at odds with God's promises concerning his son, yet he did not question its justice or hesitate but obeyed without complaint, trusting God completely. His response demonstrates perfect obedience and willingness to endure, setting his feet in the path of sacrifice until the test ended when the angel stayed his hand. Age or difficulty does not excuse anyone from obeying God's commands.

Foreshadowing Christ's Sacrifice

Abraham's offering of Isaac was designed to prefigure the Father's sacrifice of His only Son, Isaac's offering representing God's giving of His Son to die to save humanity. Through anguish and suffering God made the plan of redemption real to Abraham, and Abraham's anguish and obedience helped him grasp the depth of that sacrifice and the reality of the Father's self-denial in giving His Son to die for guilty humanity. God put Abraham through the fearful test so he would know in his own experience something of the Father's great sacrifice in giving His beloved Son as the immeasurable ransom for fallen, guilty, rebellious man who could never rescue and restore himself.

Abraham is called the father of the faithful because he carried out the purpose in his heart as fully as if he had by his own hand taken the life of his son. His willingness to do so gave him a glimpse of the great sacrifice made by God in giving His Son to save humanity, paralleling how God the Father accepted the death of His Son, the guiltless suffering for the guilty to save the race. The ram provided in Isaac's place shed light on the mystery of redemption and God's provision for salvation. As Abraham prepared to obey, faith in God's promise opened to him a vision of the coming Just One, Christ the Lamb slain for humanity's sins, whom he saw as the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced in.

Satan claimed that Christ, like Abraham, was tested only to show willingness to endure, and that the angel who stopped Abraham as the knife was raised to slay Isaac had come to spare Christ from suffering. Christ rejected this claim and remained faithful to carry out the plan of redemption. The same kind of proving that required Abraham to set his feet in the path of sacrifice without requiring him to travel it to death, the test ending when the angel stayed his hand, was applied to Christ in His wilderness fast and temptation.

Lessons for Believers Today

The account teaches implicit confidence in God's requirements however severe, perfect obedience, and complete surrender to His will. It shows that nothing a person possesses is too precious to give to God, for the test demanded what was most precious to Abraham. The test reveals genuine faith and love through willing obedience and sacrifice, calling believers to surrender their possessions and themselves to God.

It also teaches children submission to their parents and to God. It teaches trust in God even when His requirements are painful and cause anguish, as shown when the command came in a night vision at Beersheba and led to obedience despite anguish, with Isaac's willing submission until God stopped the hand before the son was killed.

Abraham's readiness to give up what was most precious, his promised only son, the child of promise, contrasts with those who cling to earthly possessions rather than make sacrifices for God's cause or for others. His willingness to give up what was dearest stands against those who will not part with earthly possessions for eternal life. Willingness to sacrifice for God is a condition of valuing the gift of everlasting life, and his obedience and self-sacrifice call believers to surrender possessions and themselves.

The same testing comes to God's people today, when the Lord puts His purposes in place of their devising, often contrary to human desires and inclinations and contrary to the dictates of the flesh. It was the most severe test that could come to anyone, given for present and eternal good to teach a lesson, and it was met by believing God, delighting to obey, stopping reasoning, and coming off conqueror. The trial gives an experience that strengthens faith, and the account gives others courage to trust God at every step.

Being a true child of Abraham means such prompt obedience without hesitating to reason it out, and keeping God's law. It does not mean merely claiming descent from Abraham or possessing the truth and the law. The test was of trust producing fruits, not mere belief, and by that faith Abraham was saved just as the sinner today is saved.

The verse means obedience and sacrifice. It is an example to meet opposition arising from selfish motives and from bigotry and prejudice with undaunted courage and living faith. It calls to sow beside all waters, not to confine labor to one's own country or hover about the churches, but to go out to the unbelieving world to convert souls where the field is the world and the harvest is ripe.