And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
At the last instant with Isaac bound and the knife raised, heaven called out repeating his name, and his immediate answer showed he was listening, and the command stayed his hand so the boy need not die and a ram could be offered in his stead. The call came only after the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac had been fully tried, proving that he feared God and did not withhold his only beloved son. To all intents he had already made the sacrifice in his heart, believing God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, and that trust was counted to him for righteousness. The intervention was designed to prefigure the sacrifice of God's own Son, opening to Abraham by faith the promise of Christ the Lamb slain for humanity's sins. Isaac was spared by divine interposition, but God's Son was given to a shameful death with no voice to stay the sacrifice, revealing the measure of the Father's self-denial for a rebellious race.
Moment of Intervention
The intervention came at the last instant, when Isaac lay bound on the wood upon the altar and Abraham's hand was raised with knife and sword to slay him, and the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven and stopped him from harming the boy. The call came just as the hand was lifted to strike, before the blow could fall, and it halted the act and ended the test of obedience and faith at the moment the sword was drawn. The call repeated his name, Abraham, Abraham, and he answered at once, Here am I, showing he was listening.
The angel had watched Abraham's faithfulness on the journey to Moriah, and called to stop the sacrifice because that faithfulness had been seen. The voice that called was the same voice that had told him to leave his country for a land God would show him. The call commanded him to stay his hand and do his son no harm, declaring it was enough. It was a joyful message that Isaac need not die, for God did not require Isaac's death, and it opened the way for the ram caught in the thicket to be offered in his stead.
The setting is the offering on Mount Moriah, reached after waking Isaac to go and after a three-day journey that Abraham did not use to excuse himself, question how the promise could be fulfilled, or reason away the command. It took place near Salem, the central and elevated place protected by hills that later became Jerusalem, David's capital twenty miles from Hebron. The call begins the resolution of the test and leads into a second call renewing the oath of blessing and multiplying. That renewal carries the commendation that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed because he obeyed God's voice, with obedience to God's voice and law shown as essential to receive His favor and blessing.
Faith Proved Genuine
The call from heaven marks the end and completion of the test, coming only after the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac had been fully tried. It stopped Abraham at the very moment he raised the knife to sacrifice Isaac, closing his trial of obedience and faith. The interruption declares that God does not require Isaac's death.
It proves that Abraham feared God and did not withhold his son, his only and beloved son. He had obeyed the command to the very point of raising the knife, even when obeying seemed impossible. God saw his full consecration and read how severely he felt the test. He bore the test faithfully, showing his fear of God and trust in Him.
Abraham obeyed without questioning God's justice, without hesitating, murmuring, or reasoning away the command, and without pleading old age and feebleness. The command seemed terrible and uncalled for, for Isaac was the joy of the aged father's life and the son of promise to whom the promises had been given. He did not use the three-day journey to excuse himself or to question how God's promise could be fulfilled. He could have argued that the command conflicted with the promises concerning his son, but he never questioned and never hesitated, obeying with implicit trust. He stopped reasoning, believed God, and delighted to obey, and so came off conqueror under the severest test ever placed on anyone.
To all intents he had already made the sacrifice in his heart and carried it out as fully as if he had taken his son's life. He believed and taught Isaac that God was able to raise him from the dead and sees the end from the beginning, with perfect trust at every step. He trusted God so fully that he carried out the sacrifice in heart purpose as completely as if he had taken his son's life with his own hand. That faith was counted to him for righteousness.
For this he received God's approval and the names father of the faithful and friend of God, because he bore the trying test. His obedience was witnessed by heaven and refutes Satan's accusation, while the ram provided in Isaac's place helps reveal God's plan of salvation to heavenly beings. Isaac too felt it a privilege and honor to yield his life as an offering to God.
Foreshadowing God's Sacrifice
The voice that stopped Abraham was meant to point forward to the sacrifice of God's own Son, and in the very act of preparing in faith to obey, the promise of Christ was opened to him. He was shown the Just One, the Lamb slain for the sins of humanity, and by faith he beheld the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced. The three days of grief, agony, mental anguish and torture of soul on the way to Moriah were shared by God with Abraham as a lesson in perfect faith and obedience. Through them Abraham was given in his own experience a measure of the great sacrifice made when God gave His Son to save a rebellious, guilty race.
He carried out the command in heart purpose as fully as if he had taken his son's life with his own hand, and for this he is called the father of the faithful. As Abraham gave his son, so God the Father accepted the death of His beloved Son, because only by that immeasurable sacrifice could the ransom be obtained. The Father suffered with His Son in that giving.
Isaac need not die, for he was spared by divine intervention, but God's Son was given to die a shameful death for the world's salvation. At the crucifixion legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul-anguish of the Son of God, yet they were not permitted to interpose as in the case of Isaac. No voice was heard to stay the sacrifice while God's dear Son was insulted, mocked, derided and tortured until death, and that absence reveals the reality of the Father's self-denial and infinite sacrifice.
Twisted in Temptation
In the wilderness temptation Satan twisted the call that stopped Abraham into a false identity and a false mercy, claiming to be himself the angel of the Lord who had stayed the knife over Isaac and to have come again from heaven on an errand of sympathy to save Christ's life from suffering and death as he had saved Isaac's. The claim presented him as sent from heaven to spare Christ, turning the intervention that had rescued Isaac into a plea to turn Christ aside from the plan of redemption. He even presented himself as the one who had stayed Abraham's hand, using that past deliverance as credentials for his present mission.
The lie argued that Christ, like Abraham, had only been brought to the edge to show perfect obedience and prove willingness, having only set foot in the blood-stained path without being required to travel it through self-denial, suffering, hunger and death from starvation. God, he said, had only designed to prove willingness and did not require endurance of what lay ahead, as though the Father were now satisfied with willingness and had sent an angel to release Jesus from His fast and deliver Him. With that he offered to help bear part of the work in the plan of salvation, promising relief if Christ would accept rescue instead of the suffering ahead.
By contrast the call stands as the true pattern for what the Father actually did for Jesus, for as God sent an angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, so the Father, satisfied with Jesus' willingness to enter the path of suffering, sent an angel to deliver Him.
Call to Surrender
The account stands recorded in sacred history to give strength and courage and faith to believing children. It teaches implicit confidence in God, perfect obedience to His requirements, and complete surrender to the divine will. Faith and love for God are proved through willing self-denial and surrender, trusting Him as the best friend through the experiences He gives in His own way without questioning His dealings. Nothing possessed is too precious to give to God.
Professed Christians must yield up to God their beloved and darling treasures, denying self and not clinging to earthly things. All possessions, however dear as Isaac was to Abraham, are to be laid upon the altar in entire surrender of the whole will, with no Isaacs too precious to sacrifice, saying in trust in the Lord Jehovah for everlasting strength that they are His, bought with a price. Abraham's willingness to give up his only son, the child of promise, shows a readiness to sacrifice greater than giving up earthly possessions. That self-denial is the example for service to God in tithes and offerings, in leaving confined easy labor, in sowing beside all waters, in meeting opposition, and in laboring to convert souls.
Obedience to God's voice and law is essential to receive His favor and blessing, as proved by the commendation that in his seed all nations would be blessed because he obeyed God's voice. True faith is not belief only but trust in God that produces fruits, and Abraham was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner is saved by faith in Christ today, his belief imputed to him for righteousness. Being a child of Abraham means that same immediate obedience, with cheerful, unhesitating compliance with the least of God's requirements and strict observance of every requirement as infinite debtors meeting God's claim upon faith, service, and affections. Claiming to be Abraham's children while having the truth and the law of God without keeping the law proves false.
The same testing and trying comes to God's people today, when the Lord puts His purposes in the place of their devising, often contrary to human desires and inclinations and contrary to the dictates of the flesh. Age and feebleness do not excuse anyone from obeying the divine commands, for Abraham did not plead old age nor question God's justice nor hesitate, but obeyed without murmur with implicit trust even though the command seemed terrible and uncalled for concerning Isaac the joy of his life and son of promise. Reproof of sins that imperil eternal welfare must be patiently endured, and man has no right to plead convenience or want, for God will provide and will not suffer His faithful ones to want for food, as He fed Elijah by the brook by a raven. Christian parents must educate and mould their children to have high respect and exalted reverence for God and everything sacred and holy, regarding God's claims first and sacrificing all for Him and exemplifying faith by works as Abraham did and as Isaac did in feeling it a privilege and honor to yield his life as an offering.
Laying a child upon the altar also means parents giving themselves fully and unreservedly to the work God has given them to do and leaving their little child for another to do a mother's duty and give a mother's care. The sacrifice is made after many prayers, many tears, and severe soul conflict, with the heart bound up with the child, and is done for Jesus who has done much. He who has called the parents to the work accepts the child and guards him and loves him as a lamb of His fold, providing loving care through a kind family and giving peace and rest in Jesus with firm confidence.
At the last instant with Isaac bound and the knife raised, heaven called out repeating his name, and his immediate answer showed he was listening, and the command stayed his hand so the boy need not die and a ram could be offered in his stead. The call came only after the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac had been fully tried, proving that he feared God and did not withhold his only beloved son. To all intents he had already made the sacrifice in his heart, believing God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, and that trust was counted to him for righteousness. The intervention was designed to prefigure the sacrifice of God's own Son, opening to Abraham by faith the promise of Christ the Lamb slain for humanity's sins. Isaac was spared by divine interposition, but God's Son was given to a shameful death with no voice to stay the sacrifice, revealing the measure of the Father's self-denial for a rebellious race.
Moment of Intervention
The intervention came at the last instant, when Isaac lay bound on the wood upon the altar and Abraham's hand was raised with knife and sword to slay him, and the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven and stopped him from harming the boy. The call came just as the hand was lifted to strike, before the blow could fall, and it halted the act and ended the test of obedience and faith at the moment the sword was drawn. The call repeated his name, Abraham, Abraham, and he answered at once, Here am I, showing he was listening.
The angel had watched Abraham's faithfulness on the journey to Moriah, and called to stop the sacrifice because that faithfulness had been seen. The voice that called was the same voice that had told him to leave his country for a land God would show him. The call commanded him to stay his hand and do his son no harm, declaring it was enough. It was a joyful message that Isaac need not die, for God did not require Isaac's death, and it opened the way for the ram caught in the thicket to be offered in his stead.
The setting is the offering on Mount Moriah, reached after waking Isaac to go and after a three-day journey that Abraham did not use to excuse himself, question how the promise could be fulfilled, or reason away the command. It took place near Salem, the central and elevated place protected by hills that later became Jerusalem, David's capital twenty miles from Hebron. The call begins the resolution of the test and leads into a second call renewing the oath of blessing and multiplying. That renewal carries the commendation that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed because he obeyed God's voice, with obedience to God's voice and law shown as essential to receive His favor and blessing.
Faith Proved Genuine
The call from heaven marks the end and completion of the test, coming only after the faith of Abraham and the submission of Isaac had been fully tried. It stopped Abraham at the very moment he raised the knife to sacrifice Isaac, closing his trial of obedience and faith. The interruption declares that God does not require Isaac's death.
It proves that Abraham feared God and did not withhold his son, his only and beloved son. He had obeyed the command to the very point of raising the knife, even when obeying seemed impossible. God saw his full consecration and read how severely he felt the test. He bore the test faithfully, showing his fear of God and trust in Him.
Abraham obeyed without questioning God's justice, without hesitating, murmuring, or reasoning away the command, and without pleading old age and feebleness. The command seemed terrible and uncalled for, for Isaac was the joy of the aged father's life and the son of promise to whom the promises had been given. He did not use the three-day journey to excuse himself or to question how God's promise could be fulfilled. He could have argued that the command conflicted with the promises concerning his son, but he never questioned and never hesitated, obeying with implicit trust. He stopped reasoning, believed God, and delighted to obey, and so came off conqueror under the severest test ever placed on anyone.
To all intents he had already made the sacrifice in his heart and carried it out as fully as if he had taken his son's life. He believed and taught Isaac that God was able to raise him from the dead and sees the end from the beginning, with perfect trust at every step. He trusted God so fully that he carried out the sacrifice in heart purpose as completely as if he had taken his son's life with his own hand. That faith was counted to him for righteousness.
For this he received God's approval and the names father of the faithful and friend of God, because he bore the trying test. His obedience was witnessed by heaven and refutes Satan's accusation, while the ram provided in Isaac's place helps reveal God's plan of salvation to heavenly beings. Isaac too felt it a privilege and honor to yield his life as an offering to God.
Foreshadowing God's Sacrifice
The voice that stopped Abraham was meant to point forward to the sacrifice of God's own Son, and in the very act of preparing in faith to obey, the promise of Christ was opened to him. He was shown the Just One, the Lamb slain for the sins of humanity, and by faith he beheld the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced. The three days of grief, agony, mental anguish and torture of soul on the way to Moriah were shared by God with Abraham as a lesson in perfect faith and obedience. Through them Abraham was given in his own experience a measure of the great sacrifice made when God gave His Son to save a rebellious, guilty race.
He carried out the command in heart purpose as fully as if he had taken his son's life with his own hand, and for this he is called the father of the faithful. As Abraham gave his son, so God the Father accepted the death of His beloved Son, because only by that immeasurable sacrifice could the ransom be obtained. The Father suffered with His Son in that giving.
Isaac need not die, for he was spared by divine intervention, but God's Son was given to die a shameful death for the world's salvation. At the crucifixion legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul-anguish of the Son of God, yet they were not permitted to interpose as in the case of Isaac. No voice was heard to stay the sacrifice while God's dear Son was insulted, mocked, derided and tortured until death, and that absence reveals the reality of the Father's self-denial and infinite sacrifice.
Twisted in Temptation
In the wilderness temptation Satan twisted the call that stopped Abraham into a false identity and a false mercy, claiming to be himself the angel of the Lord who had stayed the knife over Isaac and to have come again from heaven on an errand of sympathy to save Christ's life from suffering and death as he had saved Isaac's. The claim presented him as sent from heaven to spare Christ, turning the intervention that had rescued Isaac into a plea to turn Christ aside from the plan of redemption. He even presented himself as the one who had stayed Abraham's hand, using that past deliverance as credentials for his present mission.
The lie argued that Christ, like Abraham, had only been brought to the edge to show perfect obedience and prove willingness, having only set foot in the blood-stained path without being required to travel it through self-denial, suffering, hunger and death from starvation. God, he said, had only designed to prove willingness and did not require endurance of what lay ahead, as though the Father were now satisfied with willingness and had sent an angel to release Jesus from His fast and deliver Him. With that he offered to help bear part of the work in the plan of salvation, promising relief if Christ would accept rescue instead of the suffering ahead.
By contrast the call stands as the true pattern for what the Father actually did for Jesus, for as God sent an angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, so the Father, satisfied with Jesus' willingness to enter the path of suffering, sent an angel to deliver Him.
Call to Surrender
The account stands recorded in sacred history to give strength and courage and faith to believing children. It teaches implicit confidence in God, perfect obedience to His requirements, and complete surrender to the divine will. Faith and love for God are proved through willing self-denial and surrender, trusting Him as the best friend through the experiences He gives in His own way without questioning His dealings. Nothing possessed is too precious to give to God.
Professed Christians must yield up to God their beloved and darling treasures, denying self and not clinging to earthly things. All possessions, however dear as Isaac was to Abraham, are to be laid upon the altar in entire surrender of the whole will, with no Isaacs too precious to sacrifice, saying in trust in the Lord Jehovah for everlasting strength that they are His, bought with a price. Abraham's willingness to give up his only son, the child of promise, shows a readiness to sacrifice greater than giving up earthly possessions. That self-denial is the example for service to God in tithes and offerings, in leaving confined easy labor, in sowing beside all waters, in meeting opposition, and in laboring to convert souls.
Obedience to God's voice and law is essential to receive His favor and blessing, as proved by the commendation that in his seed all nations would be blessed because he obeyed God's voice. True faith is not belief only but trust in God that produces fruits, and Abraham was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner is saved by faith in Christ today, his belief imputed to him for righteousness. Being a child of Abraham means that same immediate obedience, with cheerful, unhesitating compliance with the least of God's requirements and strict observance of every requirement as infinite debtors meeting God's claim upon faith, service, and affections. Claiming to be Abraham's children while having the truth and the law of God without keeping the law proves false.
The same testing and trying comes to God's people today, when the Lord puts His purposes in the place of their devising, often contrary to human desires and inclinations and contrary to the dictates of the flesh. Age and feebleness do not excuse anyone from obeying the divine commands, for Abraham did not plead old age nor question God's justice nor hesitate, but obeyed without murmur with implicit trust even though the command seemed terrible and uncalled for concerning Isaac the joy of his life and son of promise. Reproof of sins that imperil eternal welfare must be patiently endured, and man has no right to plead convenience or want, for God will provide and will not suffer His faithful ones to want for food, as He fed Elijah by the brook by a raven. Christian parents must educate and mould their children to have high respect and exalted reverence for God and everything sacred and holy, regarding God's claims first and sacrificing all for Him and exemplifying faith by works as Abraham did and as Isaac did in feeling it a privilege and honor to yield his life as an offering.
Laying a child upon the altar also means parents giving themselves fully and unreservedly to the work God has given them to do and leaving their little child for another to do a mother's duty and give a mother's care. The sacrifice is made after many prayers, many tears, and severe soul conflict, with the heart bound up with the child, and is done for Jesus who has done much. He who has called the parents to the work accepts the child and guards him and loves him as a lamb of His fold, providing loving care through a kind family and giving peace and rest in Jesus with firm confidence.