Genesis 22:14, commentary and pictures

On Mount Moriah Abraham named the spot of deliverance Jehovah-jireh, meaning the Lord will provide, to declare that there the Lord is seen to provide. The provision appeared when his raised hand was stopped by a voice from heaven, and turning he found a ram caught by its horns in a thicket which he offered in place of Isaac. His obedience was unquestioning, not reasoning against the promise concerning Isaac but trusting that God sees the end from the beginning and could even raise the dead, and that trust was counted to him for righteousness. The event was appointed as a lasting lesson in implicit, wholehearted surrender, teaching that nothing possessed is too precious to give back to God. The ram given in Isaac's stead unveiled more fully the mystery of redemption, foreshadowing God not sparing His own Son but giving Him to die in the sinner's place.

Name, Place, and Provision

Abraham called the place on Mount Moriah Jehovah-jireh, meaning the Lord will provide. The memorial name declared that the mount is the place where the Lord is seen to provide. It was given after God supplied a ram to be offered in place of Isaac, expressing God's provision at the place of the test.

The provision came when his uplifted hand was stayed by the angel's voice from heaven. He then found a ram caught in a thicket by its horns behind him. He offered it as a burnt offering in the stead of his son Isaac. In this God provided a substitute for Isaac, the ram offered in his place.

The ground was near Salem, on the ground later chosen for the capital of Israel. It lies twenty miles from Hebron, central and elevated in the country and protected by hills. It stands on the border between Benjamin and Judah in close proximity to Ephraim and easy of access to the other tribes. Called Salem before Joshua led Israel over Jordan, it was home eight hundred years before David's coronation to Melchizedek the priest of the most high God. The account begins with Abraham waking his son Isaac to go at the command of God to offer Isaac as a burnt offering.

Tested Faith and Obedience

Abraham obeyed without stopping to question how the promise concerning Isaac could be fulfilled if Isaac died, and without reasoning out a command that seemed terrible and uncalled for and conflicted with the promises. When he could not reason it out he stopped reasoning and obeyed, never questioning its justice, never hesitating, never murmuring. He began the long, painful journey without waiting, though he was sorely tested in old age and could have pleaded that he was old and feeble.

He trusted that God could see the end from the beginning and could raise Isaac from the dead, making the sacrifice in his heart. His true faith was not mere belief but trust producing fruits, shown in obeying the same voice that had told him to leave his country, and his belief was counted and imputed to him for righteousness, for he was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner is today.

No one could have been more severely tested, and God gave the test as a lesson for Abraham's present and eternal good. Abraham came off conqueror, and his experience gives strength and courage to trust God through testing. God's people today will likewise be tested when the Lord puts His purposes in place of their own devising, often contrary to human desires and to the dictates of the flesh.

The account is recorded for the benefit of believing children to teach implicit confidence in God's requirements however difficult and painful, perfect obedience, complete surrender to the divine will, and cheerful response to God's claim on faith, service, and affections. It shows genuine faith that accepts God's will and gives back to Him what belongs to Him, that nothing possessed is too precious to give to God. Every requirement must be strictly observed since to disregard one precept is to be a transgressor. Age does not excuse disobedience, man has no right to plead convenience, and God will provide temporal needs and will not suffer His faithful ones to want for food, as when He fed Elijah by the brook making a raven His messenger.

Isaac's submission illustrates submission to parents and to God, teaching children submission to their parents and to God. God approved Abraham's faith by giving him the name Father of the faithful, and Abraham was called God's friend because he obeyed the command concerning his only son of promise who would become a great nation.

The example calls those who profess to be Christians to follow Abraham in yielding up beloved treasures and dearest things instead of hesitating and clinging to earthly things. It rebukes the lack of faith and devotion in those who refuse to sacrifice wealth for God or others. It lays duty on Christian parents to educate and mould minds to high respect and reverence for God and all that is sacred, to regard God's claims first, and to count it honor and privilege to be accepted as an offering to God.

Foreshadowing Christ's Sacrifice

Isaac's near-sacrifice was a figure pointing to God giving His Son to die to save humanity, to rescue humanity from ruin and to ransom fallen man. The provision of the ram offered in Isaac's place revealed more clearly the mystery of redemption and God's provision for salvation through the death of His Son. The trial impressed the plan of salvation upon Abraham and made the plan of redemption real to him.

Abraham carried out the fearful sacrifice in purpose and in heart as fully as if he had by his own hand taken his son's life. Through this he was permitted to know something of the great sacrifice and self-denial of God the Father in accepting the death of His Son to save a guilty, rebellious race and in suffering with Him. Unlike Isaac, God's Son was not spared but endured humiliation, suffering, and crucifixion. As Abraham prepared in faith to obey, he was shown the coming of Christ, the incarnate Savior and Lamb to be slain for human sin, and by grasping God's promise in faith he saw Christ's day and rejoiced.

This sacrifice was made necessary because man fell from loyalty through disobedience and could never rescue and restore himself, so the ransom could be obtained only by Christ taking the sinner's place, the guiltless suffering for the guilty. When Abraham raised the knife he set his feet in the blood-stained path without having to travel it because his hand was stayed, showing perfect obedience. Applied to Christ in the wilderness, this means God designed only to prove Christ's willingness to endure self-denial and suffering and not to require Him actually to endure painful hunger and death from starvation, so that as Isaac's life was saved by the staying of Abraham's hand, Christ's life could now be saved and relieved.