Genesis 22:9, commentary and pictures

They reached the exact place God had appointed, where Abraham built an altar, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the wood. That place was Mount Moriah near Salem, the consecrated ground where Jerusalem and later Solomon's temple would stand, on the threshing-floor of Ornan where David offered to stay the pestilence. Abraham acted in prompt, complete obedience without questioning or turning back, believing God could still fulfill His promise through Isaac even by raising him from the dead, so that in purpose he had already offered him. Isaac was not a small child but a full-grown young man who willingly submitted in shared faith with his father, and his binding was appointed as a figure of the Father giving His own beloved Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The act therefore calls for perfect obedience and entire surrender to God, withholding nothing however precious, doing His will without reasoning or delay as true children of Abraham.

Place and Sacred History

They came to the exact place God had told of and named for the sacrifice, and there Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order upon it. It was the appointed place God had directed him to, reached together with Isaac for the preparing of the offering.

That place was Mount Moriah near Salem, the site afterward chosen for Jerusalem. It was the very spot where Solomon's temple was later built, ground long regarded as consecrated. It was afterward identified as the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, made holy by David's altar and burnt-offerings that stayed the pestilence before it was chosen as the site of the temple.

There God renewed with Abraham the covenant of blessing, including deliverance through the sacrifice of the Son of the Most High. Because Abraham obeyed God's voice in giving up his beloved son, God commended his obedience and promised that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, showing that obedience to God's law is essential to receiving God's favor and blessing.

Abraham's Tested Obedience

Abraham carried out the command at the appointed place by building the altar, laying the wood in order, binding Isaac his son and laying him on the altar upon the wood, with trembling yet loving hands, ready to give him up. Isaac willingly submitted as an offering in obedience to God and in faith shared with his father, trusting that his father would not make this sacrifice unless God had commanded it. The act was done in purpose and in the heart as fully as if Abraham had taken his life.

He acted in prompt, complete obedience without delay, questioning, hesitation, murmuring, complaint, protest, or turning back. Though he had time to doubt and felt the pain of sacrificing his son, he carried God's just and righteous requirement out to the very letter, even as he was about to strike when God stopped him. His obedience rested on implicit trust in God and fear of God.

He obeyed despite grief, doubts, anguish, love for Isaac, old age, weakness, and hardship, and even when the command seemed to conflict with God's promises concerning his son. He let duty and faith in God govern rather than feeling. He held to the promise that his descendants would be called through Isaac rather than Ishmael.

He believed God could still fulfill the promise through Isaac by raising him from the dead, telling Isaac so before binding him. He trusted God's wisdom and care at every step and counted the sacrifice as already made in his heart. His faith was counted to him for righteousness as the fruit of believing God. His faithfulness in this test redeemed his earlier lack of perfect trust that had led him to take Hagar as wife. The command to offer Isaac came from the same voice that had told him to leave his country and go into a land God would show him, and he was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner today is saved.

The episode tested whether he feared God and would withhold nothing from Him, testing his faith and Isaac's submission before the heavenly beings. It disproved the charge that he was unfaithful and displayed that God requires perfect obedience. When God stopped Abraham and provided a ram in Isaac's place, the angels saw more clearly God's provision for humanity's salvation.

Isaac's Willing Submission

Isaac stands in the verse as the son of promise, the only son, bound and laid upon the altar as an unresisting victim. He was not a small child but a full-grown young man, strong enough to have resisted if he had chosen to do so.

His submission was willing, rendered in obedience to God and in a faith he shared with his father. Having been told that God Himself had commanded the offering and could raise him from the dead to fulfill the promise that descendants would be called through him, he yielded to be bound and laid upon the wood. He trusted God's command, revered his father, and trusted his father's integrity, believing Abraham would never make such a sacrifice unless God had required it. He accepted being offered as an honor and a privilege rather than shrinking from it as mere loss.

That readiness had been formed by training to love obedience. The father's authority over his children rested on love and concern for their welfare and happiness, not on selfish or arbitrary control, and the son's yielding on Moriah grew out of that nurture.

Foreshadowing Christ's Sacrifice

Isaac bound and laid unresisting upon the altar on Mount Moriah was set by God as an emblem and figure of the offering of His own Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He was the son of promise, the beloved only son, prepared by his father in complete obedience with altar built, wood arranged, son bound and laid upon it, and submitting willingly as to an honor and privilege. Through the anguish of giving up that beloved son Abraham was taught the plan of redemption and given a measure and glimpse of the Father's self-denial in giving His beloved Son to die to save guilty, rebellious humanity. He completed the sacrifice in purpose and in his heart as fully as if he had taken Isaac's life, and his experience opened the cost of the sacrifice in which God accepted the death of His Son to save a rebellious race. The Father suffered with His Son in that giving, and Abraham's anguish makes real the reality of that self-denial. Yet Isaac was spared when God stopped Abraham, while God's own Son was not spared from crucifixion, with no voice to stop that sacrifice.

Through faith in the promise at that time Abraham was shown the coming of Christ, the Just One and incarnate Saviour, the Lamb slain for the sins of humanity, and he rejoiced. The test required only that he set his feet in the blood-stained path and prove willingness, not that he travel it to the end, for the angel stayed his hand as the knife was raised to slay Isaac. That pattern was twisted to claim Christ likewise needed only to show willingness to endure self-denial and suffering and was not required to endure painful hunger, starvation and death to carry out in every particular the plan devised for the redemption of the fallen race. Satan pressed the comparison, claiming that Christ like Abraham was being tested only to prove obedience, and falsely claiming to be the angel who had stopped Abraham from killing Isaac, to persuade Him He need not endure the suffering ahead. But Christ rejected the temptation and remained faithful to the plan of redemption.

Call to Surrender Today

The binding and laying of Isaac on the altar teaches implicit trust in God, the fear of God, and perfect, complete obedience that surrenders even what is most precious. Nothing is too precious to give to God, and obedience to the whole will of God places a person by faith under the protection of Jehovah through entire surrender of the whole will in everlasting strength, saying I am Thine, I am not my own, I am bought with a price, holding no Isaacs too precious to sacrifice though the test tries sorely. That obedience rested on implicit trust and did not question God's justice or protest, even when the requirement was painful and the son was the father's joy.

Age, weakness, hardship, and deep personal attachment do not excuse anyone from duty. Old age did not excuse Abraham, but he acted in faith without delay, without questioning, murmuring, or turning back, with cheerful and complete obedience to every divine requirement even when obedience was difficult. His prompt, unreasoning obedience, starting at once on the long painful journey to offer his only son Isaac, the son promised to become a great nation, is the example and pattern for God's people today, who will be tested and tried as 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.

Willingness to sacrifice his only son, the child of promise, exposes how reluctant many are to give up even earthly possessions for God's cause or to help the poor. In contrast with those who cling to earthly possessions rather than sacrifice for the poor, God's cause, or the heavenly inheritance and eternal life, Abraham was ready to give up what was most precious to him for God. The surrender of the son he loved is a test of love for God and genuine faith, calling people to be willing to surrender what they value to God and to do His work with undaunted courage and living faith.

Mere descent from Abraham and possession of the law of God is nothing; true children of Abraham do Abraham's works of immediate obedience without hesitating to reason the matter out. Abraham is called the friend of God and the father of the faithful because he bore the fearful test and came off conqueror, completing the sacrifice in his heart as fully as if he had taken Isaac's life. His obedience was the fruit of believing God that was imputed to him for righteousness, coming from the same voice that had told him to leave his country for a land God would show him, and he was saved by faith in Christ just as the sinner today is saved by faith in Christ.

The binding of Isaac is an image of parents binding their children to God by earnest prayer and living faith, dedicating them and placing them under His care. God's guiding hand and guardian angels will then protect them through the perils of the last days and lead them to victory over every foe. Laying a child on the altar can mean, after many prayers, tears, and severe soul conflict with a heart bound up with the child, giving even a one-year-old child into another's care so as to give oneself fully and unreservedly to God's work, refusing to excuse oneself on account of the child. Done for Jesus in return for what He has done, it brings tears yet peace and rest in Jesus and firm confidence that He who called to the work will accept the child and guard and love him as a lamb of His fold. The same example is held up to brethren and sisters to do God's work with undaunted courage and living faith, sowing beside all waters despite opposition from selfish motives, bigotry and prejudice, not confining labor to their own country because the field is the world and the harvest is ripe.