Genesis 22:7
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
On the way to worship at the place God chose, Isaac sees the fire and the wood but no animal and asks his father with trust where the lamb for the offering is, not yet knowing that he himself is to be offered.
Abraham answers that God will provide the lamb, and only when they reach the appointed place does he tell Isaac the whole matter, to which Isaac consents and willingly yields to be bound and laid on the wood.
God commands Abraham to surrender his beloved only son of promise, and though the command seems to threaten the promise, Abraham obeys at once without questioning or complaint, trusting that God can fulfill the promise even by raising Isaac from the dead.
The offered son is a figure of God's Son given for the sins of the world, and the ram God provides in Isaac's place is a symbol of Christ who would die in the sinner's place, revealing God's provision for salvation out of His love.
The account teaches implicit trust and obedience to God's requirements however painful, with entire surrender that lays all upon the altar and holds nothing back as too precious to give to God.
Dialogue on the Way
On the way Isaac sees the fire and the wood but no sacrificial animal, and he asks his father where the lamb for the burnt offering is. He asks in trust and affection, walking beside his father and repeatedly addressing him as father. When he asks he does not yet know that he himself is to be offered. The exchange takes place as father and son walk together to worship at the place God chose on Mount Moriah, during a three-day journey that has carried them away from the flocks.
Abraham answers that God will provide the lamb for the offering. He cannot yet tell Isaac that Isaac is to be the sacrifice, and the answer is painful for him because Isaac is the intended offering. Only when they reach the appointed place does he tell him the whole matter, and Isaac consents and willingly yields to be bound and placed on the wood as a sacrifice to God, trusting his father's integrity and believing his father would not make this sacrifice unless God had commanded it.
Isaac is the beloved only son of Abraham's old age, the child of promise to whom God's promise was given that he would become a great nation. Abraham had waked his son Isaac to go at God's command to offer Isaac himself as a burnt offering. The proving happened near Salem, the central and elevated place on the border of Benjamin and Judah that later became Jerusalem, the capital of David's kingdom, and that had been the home of Melchizedek eight hundred years before David.
Abraham's Test of Faith
God called Abraham to surrender Isaac, his beloved son, and offer him up as a sacrifice. The command was terrible, for to slay Isaac seemed to threaten and conflict with the promises God had given concerning that son who was to become a great nation. Through the long, painful three-day journey Abraham endured temptation, turning his eyes away from things seen to things unseen and looking to heaven each day in hope that God would countermand the order to sacrifice his only son whom he loved.
He did not hesitate until he could reason the matter out but started at once to obey. He did not stop to question how the promise could be fulfilled if Isaac were slain, for he could not reason out the command and so stopped reasoning. He trusted God implicitly and obeyed without complaint or reproach, even when obedience was deeply painful. No one could have been more severely tested, yet he went forward despite human attachments and grief and despite the anguish of sacrificing the son he loved.
He carried the command out fully until he was stopped just before striking Isaac, even raising the knife to slay him until the angel stayed his hand. In heart purpose he gave up his son as fully as if he had taken his life by his own hand. He trusted that God was able to fulfill His promise through Isaac even if Isaac were offered and then raised from the dead.
His willingness to offer Isaac in faith was counted to him for righteousness, for he believed God and was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner today is saved by faith in Christ. Because he bore the test and came off conqueror he was called the friend of God and the father of the faithful. His obedience brought God's commendation that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, because he had obeyed God's voice.
Foreshadowing Christ's Sacrifice
Isaac in his offering stands as a figure of God's Son, offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. His offering was designed to prefigure God giving His only Son to die for the guilty. When Isaac asks where the lamb for the burnt offering is, the answer that God will provide one points to the ram caught and offered in Isaac's place, which is a symbol of Christ who would die for human sin. That substitution makes the plan of redemption and God's provision for salvation more clearly revealed. The question and its answer thus point to God's gift of the sacrifice that reconciles people to Himself, given out of His love.
Through Abraham's anguish and obedience in being prepared to give his son, God impressed upon him the plan of redemption and the self-denial involved in giving His own Son to rescue humanity. Abraham was permitted to know in his own experience something of God's great sacrifice in giving His beloved Son to ransom fallen man. This reveals that God the Father truly accepted the death of His Son to save a guilty, rebellious race. Man had fallen from loyalty through disobedience, fallen so deep that great means were justified to procure a ransom, and man could never rescue and restore himself. Only by the immeasurable sacrifice of God's beloved Son, the guiltless suffering for the guilty in the sinner's place, could the ransom be obtained, from a love exceeding the love of an earthly father.
As Abraham prepared in faith to obey God and sacrifice Isaac, the promise opened before him the coming of Christ, the Lamb whose death was provided for human sin. Through faith he saw the incarnate Saviour and rejoiced. Abraham was willing in purpose to give up his son as fully as if he had taken his life, and the episode shows something of the great sacrifice made by the Father in giving His Son to save humanity.
Call to Wholehearted Obedience
The account teaches confidence in God's requirements however demanding they are, calling for implicit trust and unhesitating obedience without questioning, even when obedience is deeply painful, and for full surrender. Isaac's question about the lamb on the way to the sacrifice sets the scene for that test, in which Abraham is prepared to give Isaac in obedience and Isaac willingly submits until a ram is provided in his place. The same account teaches children submission to their parents and to God. It teaches that nothing is too precious to give to God, for the call to surrender Isaac shows the faith and obedience expected in giving God what is most precious. Entire surrender of the whole will means laying all possessions upon the altar just as Abraham laid Isaac, since Isaac was as dear to Abraham's heart as a man's own possessions are to him, and obedience to the whole will of God places a person by faith under divine protection, though the test tries the heart sorely and there must be no Isaacs held back as too precious to sacrifice.
Abraham's obedience in offering his only son, the child of promise, shows willingness to sacrifice what was most precious to him. His readiness to give up this child shows a devotion that can outweigh even the strongest earthly attachment. That readiness stands against the unwillingness of many to give up even some earthly possessions for God or for others and for eternal life. Merely claiming to be Abraham's children and to have the truth and the law of God is not enough, for true children of Abraham keep the law and obey as he obeyed. Obedience to God's voice and law is essential to receiving His favor and blessing, as shown when Abraham at God's command gave up his beloved son and brought God's commendation that in his seed all nations would be blessed because he obeyed God's voice.
The command to offer his son shows true faith as trust in God that produces fruits. Abraham knew the voice commanding the offering as the same voice that had told him to leave his country and go into a land God would show him, and he believed God and delighted to obey Him. He could not reason out the command, so he stopped reasoning and obeyed without hesitating until he could reason the matter out, starting at once, and no one could have been more severely tested, yet he came off conqueror. God gave the test to teach Abraham a lesson for his present and eternal good. The same testing comes to God's people today, who will be tested and tried 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.
Abraham going up Mount Moriah to offer his only son at God's command stands as an example of obedience and sacrifice. That example calls God's people with undaunted courage and living faith to sow beside all waters. They are not to confine labor to their own country or hover about the churches, but to meet opposition from selfish motives and bigotry and go out to the unbelieving world and convert souls to the truth, because the field is the world.