Thursday, December 6

ISAAC

Genesis 22:1-18

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take you son your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey… On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

Isaac was a young man at the time of this story, somewhere, between youth and maturity. He was the son God had given Abraham, promising him, that through this son, would come many nations and kings, and that the Lord would be God of his descendants. (See Gen. 17:1-8) How very special this son must have been to Abraham. But one day, God called Abraham to sacrifice his only son. God literally wanted Abraham to lay down the very promise God had spoken to Abraham for his family! So Abraham moved forward to the mountain with his son. Along the way, Isaac saw the clues that were leading them both to the altar of God. There was wood, a knife, fire, and his father, an elderly man with enormous faith in the Almighty God.

Many of the neighboring communities were practicing child sacrifices at this time. Did Isaac wonder what had come over his dad that he would just end it all like this? Did he figure that his dad had become like one of the other uncaring parents that worshipped the gods of this world? Now, you would expect Isaac to panic because there was no animal for the sacrifice, but there is no indication that there was any kind of struggle. Sure, Abraham did bind Isaac, but I think Abraham bound him as a commitment that Abraham himself was making to the Lord. Isaac was strong enough to kick his old father out of the way, if he really had wanted to. But even so, how could a young man lay still and trust while his father held a knife over himself on an altar of fire? I believe that Isaac’s faith in the Lord was strong and showed through his life. He allowed himself to be bound on the altar in complete submission to his father. No pride, no complaining, no thought of self—he was just “a nobody” that had an attitude of the heart that spoke, “Into Thy (God’s) hands I commit my spirit.” Both father and son knew God would provide the perfect sacrifice. Both were looking to Jesus…and the two of them went on together.

~ Ryan Ward