Genesis 22:3, commentary and pictures

Abraham rose early and made prompt, practical preparation, saddling his animal, taking two servants with Isaac, cutting wood for the offering, and setting out for the place God had named. That place was Mount Moriah near Salem, a three days' journey, on which he at last left the servants behind and went on alone with Isaac bearing the wood while he himself bore the fire and knife. His going was immediate obedience without delay, hesitation, murmuring, or reasoning against the command, with duty and trust in God's goodness and power to raise the dead ruling over age, affection, and anguish. The offering of Isaac was appointed to foreshadow God's offering of His own Son for guilty humanity, and Abraham's grief and self-denial taught him something of the Father's infinite cost in giving His beloved to death. It therefore calls for entire surrender to God, holding back no treasured possession as too precious to lay upon the altar and trusting Him forever for strength and protection.

Journey Preparations and Setting

Abraham's start was immediate and practical: he rose early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men with Isaac his son, clave the wood for the burnt offering, and went to the place God had named, without hesitation, distrust, or delay. That prompt setting out equipped him for the burnt offering and began the test of faithfulness through which trust and obedience would be proved. The destination was a distant mountain, Mount Moriah, and the journey lasted three days. It lay near Salem where Jerusalem later stood as Israel's capital, and Isaac's presence with his father was part of the preparation to offer sacrifice.

On the way Abraham left the two servants behind so they could not hinder or prevent him from carrying out the command, and continued with Isaac alone. Abraham then carried the fire and the knife while the wood for the offering was placed on Isaac, who was to be offered. He traveled in silence, weighed down by the secret he bore and by the thought that Isaac's death would break Sarah's heart.

He set out before light after a night of grief, prayer, and seeking confirmation with no added light. Before leaving he looked on sleeping Isaac, the joy of his heart and the joy and comfort of his old age, and on sleeping Sarah, whose pride and entwined heart were bound up in Isaac. Not knowing the strength of Sarah's faith and fearing her love would hinder him, he deliberately did not wake her for a last look and did not tell her God's full requirement. He awakened Isaac and told him only that God had commanded a sacrifice on a distant mountain and he must go along, then called his servants, made every preparation for the long journey, and went forth with Satan at his side suggesting unbelief and impossibility.

Through long days and nights of prayer he resisted Satan's doubts and sorrows and the doubts Satan suggested, while hoping the trial might end. He held firmly to God's promise that Isaac would be the line through which his descendants came, rather than reasoning that the promise must now come through Ishmael. On the third day a cloud of glory over the mountain confirmed to him that the command had come from heaven.

Abraham's Prompt Obedient Faith

Abraham began to obey at once, rising early and making every practical preparation to go to the place God had named, without delay, hesitation, distrust, murmuring, or complaint. His prompt setting out with Isaac and the provisions for the burnt offering exemplified implicit trust, perfect obedience, and surrender of the divine will, holding nothing he possessed as too precious to give to God. Though the command to offer Isaac seemed terrible and in conflict with God's promises about his son, he did not question its justice but trusted implicitly through the three-day journey when he had time to doubt yet did not distrust.

He obeyed despite advanced age, personal weakness, deep love for Isaac, and terrible anguish with a breaking heart, with duty and faith controlling feeling rather than feeling controlling duty. He went forward carrying the fire while the wood was placed on Isaac, who as a full-grown young man submitted because he trusted his father and believed God had commanded it, so that the journey tested the faith of both father and son. His obedience did not depend on feeling but on confidence in God leading him to submit to God's will even while suffering deeply.

He did not treat age, affection, reputation, harm to his work, or apparent conflict with God's promises centered in Isaac as grounds to refuse or as an excuse from obeying. Though old and deeply distressed, and though he could have made excuses based on age or the harm the act might do to his reputation and work, he did not stop to murmur or give up along the way but carried out the command until God stopped him. He did not stop to question God's justice, reason against the command, or reason how the promise of descendants through Isaac could be fulfilled if Isaac died. He held firmly to God's promise that Isaac would be the line through which his descendants came, refusing Satan's sorrowful doubts and suggestions to reason that the promise must now come through Ishmael, and obeyed without murmuring.

His obedience rested on implicit trust in God's goodness, justice, and righteousness, believing God could raise Isaac from the dead and restore him to life, and that God sees the end from the beginning. His faith was so complete that he counted Isaac as sacrificed in his heart, and it was counted to him for righteousness as an example meant to give strength, courage, and faith to others. Strengthened by God, he looked not at seen mortal things but at eternal things, and every step toward Moriah the Lord went with him through the three days of dark and fearful trial.

Foreshadowing the Father's Sacrifice

Isaac's offering was designed to prefigure God's offering of His Son for the sins of the world, with Isaac representing the Son given to die for guilty humanity. The anguish, grief, agony, and self-denial Abraham endured on the journey were meant to impress upon him and enable him to understand something of the cost, self-denial, and infinite sacrifice of the Father in giving His only Son to die a shameful death to rescue the guilty race. God in divine compassion and infinite love required no more of Abraham than He Himself had given in giving His only begotten Son to die that guilty man might live. As Abraham surrendered Isaac, the Heavenly Father surrendered His beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion, where legions of angels witnessed the humiliation and soul-anguish of the Son of God but were not permitted to interpose, and no voice stayed the sacrifice. There God's dear Son was insulted, mocked, derided, and tortured until He bowed His head in death, which is the greatest proof of divine love and pity and the ground for freely giving all things with Him.

Abraham carried out the test in heart purpose so fully that he counted Isaac as sacrificed and was as if he had taken his son's life with his own hand, and for that reason he is called the father of the faithful. As he obeyed, the promise opened before him and Christ was revealed as the coming Just One, the Lamb who would die for humanity's sins, and Abraham saw the incarnate Savior and rejoiced. The ram provided in Isaac's place made clearer to heavenly beings how God would provide for humanity's salvation. In that provision Christ the guiltless took the sinner's place and suffered for the guilty, so that the ransom for fallen, guilty, rebellious man could be obtained.

Doctrine and Related Scripture

The prompt rising and going with Isaac and the wood set the test of faith in motion, and that obedience before heaven exposed Satan's accusations as false and showed that God requires perfect obedience. The ram provided in Isaac's place through that obedience made clearer to heavenly beings how God would provide for humanity's salvation. The test was designed only to prove willingness to endure, requiring Abraham to set his feet in the blood-stained path but not to travel it to the end, for the angel stayed his hand as the knife was raised to slay Isaac.

Satan took up that pattern and used it against Christ in His wilderness fast and suffering, arguing that God required only willingness and not painful hunger and death from starvation. He pressed the claim that Christ need only show willingness to suffer and not continue along the blood-stained path, even falsely claiming to have been the angel who stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. Christ rejected the argument and remained determined to carry out the plan of redemption fully.

Abraham knew the voice commanding the sacrifice as the same voice that had told him to leave his country and go to a land God would show him. His prompt obedience was the true faith of Abraham, which is not mere belief but trust in God that produces fruits. That belief was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was saved by faith in Christ just as verily as the sinner today is saved by faith in Christ. Because he obeyed and set out equipped for the burnt offering to the place God had named, God renewed the promise to him. His obedience in giving up his beloved son brought God's commendation that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed because he had obeyed God's voice, showing that obedience to God's voice and law is essential to receiving His favor and blessing.

Being a true child of Abraham means obeying God as Abraham obeyed, starting at once on the long painful journey to offer up his only son Isaac without hesitating until he could reason the matter out, even though God had promised that this son should become a great nation. He stopped reasoning and obeyed though he could not reason out the command, and that exceptionally severe test brought him through as a conqueror. His experience teaches that God's commands may run contrary to human wishes and inclinations, and that obeying God's purposes rather than one's own brings present and eternal good. His complete faith, counting Isaac as sacrificed in his heart while trusting God could raise him from the dead and seeing the end from the beginning, was counted to him for righteousness and is meant to give strength, courage, and faith to others.

Call to Surrender Today

Abraham's early rising to prepare for the journey teaches confidence in God even when His requirements are painful, with faith submitting to the divine will and duty controlling the sufferer rather than feeling controlling duty. It is entire surrender of the whole will to God, trusting forever in the Lord Jehovah for everlasting strength and protection. Such obedience is given without questioning even when the command is startling and sorely trying.

Nothing possessed is too precious to give to God, and no Isaacs are to be held back from the altar. All possessions, though as dear as Isaac was to Abraham, are to be laid upon the altar by those who acknowledge they are bought with a price and are not their own. Such surrender places one under the protection of Jehovah and leads at last to hearing the welcome to inherit the kingdom, instead of belonging to the father the devil.

Isaac's part in the journey shows a child's submission to parents and to God, for though a full-grown young man he submitted because he trusted his father and believed God had commanded it. Abraham's willingness to give up Isaac, his only son and the child of promise, stands as the measure of the sacrifice others should be willing to make. He could give up the child of promise more readily than many will give up earthly possessions, which contrasts with those unwilling to surrender earthly things for eternal life and shows that obedience to God and regard for the heavenly inheritance outweigh attachment to wealth.

The prompt, unquestioning obedience that gives up what is dearest when God requires it calls believers, especially ministers, not to remain hovering about the churches but to go out to the unbelieving world. They are to sow beside all waters and labor to convert souls with undaunted courage and living faith despite opposition from selfish motives, bigotry, prejudice, and formidable agents of Satan. The journey to the appointed place with son and provisions for the offering thus exemplifies genuine faith and devotion, obedience and sacrifice in response to God's command. It is costly faith and surrender, ready to yield to God whatever belongs to Him while trusting His promises.