The last Sunday my grand-daughter was here, she came up to me after the service with a serious question. Apparently not very impressed with either my eloquence or my theology, she asked: “Grandad do you ever tell Bible stories?” I assumed that she was comparing her Sunday School class to the most recent preaching services. Although she didn’t give me time for a thorough and answer, she did remind me that the great stories of the Bible should not be ignored – that adults need them as much as the children. But since most adults know those famous stories backwards and forwards, they do deserve a little more in-depth inspection than a Biblical newcomer.
Beyond looking at this chapter at least twice in the course of our adult Bible studies, I have preached from this text only twice. Shortly after my arrival – in November 1990, we made a study of faith as it is found here. Then it was ten years later – fifteen years ago – that I looked at this a second time. As Sahalie might suggest, it is time that we looked at this again. But I recognize that children might have a different approach to this narrative than many adults. Children often have a more simple faith than tough-minded adults. Children often don’t stumble over the difficult words and complicated ideas which sometimes lay immersed in the familiar stories of the Word of God. Are you prone to stumble at anything here?
When Israel left Egypt, she numbered in the millions – perhaps as many as four million or more. I hope that you don’t stumble over that figure – we can deduce that number from the Bible, and it is logical. By the time Israel reached the “Promise Land” forty years later, there were only two of that generation left. Ninety-nine percent of Israel fell by the wayside and were buried in the sand. And in a sense, most of them simply tripped over the things of God. Maybe, they expected an easy religion, but it proved to be otherwise. It was not impossible, as Joshua and Caleb proved, but it just wasn’t as smooth as they had anticipated.
Many honest people have picked up the Bible and started to read, looking for answers to life’s questions. But for some, it didn’t take long before they found things which were not easy to take. They stumbled. They fell in the wilderness. They didn’t reach the Promise Land. And there are things in this chapter which cause people to stumble. Oh, how I wish there was some way to implant the fact that God, His way, and His Word are always right. When men stumble over the Word of God, it is because they are clumsy. It is not because God has made mistakes, nor has He built traps to catch the unwary. It is not because there are problems with the Bible that we have problems with the Bible. We trip over the things of God, because we are spiritually clumsy.
For example, in verse 1, the Holy Spirit tells us “that God did tempt Abraham.” To the average ear that sounds like God tried to bring Abraham into sin – that God is the author of sin. Some people may be aware that elsewhere in the Bible we read that God does NOT tempt men. James 1:13 – “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” It appears that right here we have a blatant contradiction within the pages of Bible. When the average person reads the word “tempt,” he almost automatically thinks of temptation to sin. But when was the last time that average person looked up that word in his dictionary. Here is my favorite hard-copy dictionary – “Chamber’s Etymological Dictionary.” It says, “Tempt – v.t. – to put to trial; to test; to try.” Only in its third definition does it say, “to try to persuade, esp. to evil; to entice.” The English word “tempt” means first of all – “to put to the test.” And that is exactly what the original Hebrew word means – “prove, try, assay.” The holy God was making no attempt to draw Abraham into sin. He intended not to bring the worst out of the man, but to bring the best. Don’t stumble over the word “tempt.”
Also, many have stumbled over God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice his son. The command, as far as Abraham was concerned, was to kill his son as an offering to God. Not only that, it was particularly cruel, because of the emphasis on the father’s great love for his son. So not only does God appear to tempt people to sin, but He is an especially cruel God. Some deduce that if Abraham had not loved his son so much, there wouldn’t have been this command. Some people stumble over the command of God here. And they also stumble over Abraham’s obedience to the command. They conclude that Abraham is an horrible Father because he chose to obey the Creator. But keep your balance. As we see in the narrative, Jehovah had no intention permitting Isaac’s death. God does not sin in tempting others to sin. And, in Abraham’s comment to his servants, we see that he intended to bring his son home again. When properly understood, there is no reason to fault either Jehovah or Abraham.
There are people who stumble over Isaac himself. They picture an eight-year-old, or ten-year-old, boy. The fact is, he was in his late teens or more probably his early twenties. We learn this by making comparisons in several chapters to the ages of Abraham, Sarah and Ishmael. We are told that Sarah was ninety years old when Isaac was born. (Don’t stumble over that fact – with God all things are possible.) Sarah then dies in our next chapter, Genesis 23, at the age of 127 – 37 years later. Isaac was no helpless child, a victim of his father’s abuse and religious zeal. The truth is, Isaac offered himself to God, just as much as Abraham offered his son. He was certainly big enough and strong enough to oppose his aged father, who was well over a hundred. Don’t we see Isaac carrying enough wood to consume a large sacrifice – it was a large and heavy load. Don’t stumble over the Word of God. There are usually explanations for all of our questions.
Abraham and Isaac kissed Sarah and began their journey toward the place which God had appointed. “Take now thy son… and get thee into the land of Moriah” to “one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Mt. Moriah was the place, and it eventually became an important site to the nation of Israel. II Chronicles 3:1 tells us that this was the place where Solomon eventually built God’s temple. There was nothing there now, just the mountain top, but it was already special to Jehovah. It was no accident that Moriah was their eventual destination. Father and son and a couple of servants rode and walked for three days. They traveled from Beersheba, which was far to the south. Each carried a few supplies. When Abraham and Isaac left the servants at the bottom of the mountain and gave them orders to wait for them – both father and son were expecting to return. “”Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” We can’t know exactly what Abraham expected, but it might have been the resurrection of his son. Then the two men began to climb. It was not a huge mountain, nor was the climb terribly steep. But remember that the older man was really, really old – two decades past a hundred. One of the men carried a large load of wood, and one carried the fire. Perhaps they both had knives at their sides. Isaac knew only that a sacrifice was to be made at the top of this mountain. His father hadn’t revealed the details of God’s command. But it was obvious to Isaac that there was no animal to offer as a sacrifice. Perhaps when they left Beersheba, he expected that they would stop somewhere to buy a lamb. But they hadn’t stopped – “Maybe father has forgotten.” But there was no forgetfulness in this case. Finally came the obvious question: “Where is the Lamb for the burnt offering?” And to that came the reply of faith: “My son, God will provide himself the Lamb for burnt offering.”
There were two truths which lay behind Isaac’s question.
These truths are the same in every era, every place, and every circumstance – including our own. God requires a sin offering, for every soul – every man, every woman, every child — for you, and for me. Modern man may not like the thought, but not even the most modern man can deny that the Bible declares that only sacrificial blood can make an atonement for a sinful soul. Leviticus 17:11 – “The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I (Jehovah) have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” This is perhaps the most stumble-causing point in this story. Perhaps it must be accepted by faith – but accept it we must. God has said that “without the shedding of blood there is no redemption” from sin. If we deny that clear Bible declaration we do so at our eternal peril and eternal punishment.
In their day, Abraham and Isaac were two of the world’s finest people. I have no doubt about that. But human goodness is not good enough for the infinitely holy God. Human righteousness is not divine righteousness. Self-righteousness is not personal sinlessness. In the sight of God, “there is none righteous,” no not so much as even one. These two men, one very old, and one quite young, were both lacking something before God. They were sinners like all the rest of the human race. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”
There is only one approach to God, and that is with blood. That was true in the days of Abel, the son of Adam; and it was true in the days of Moses; It was true in the days of David; and it is true today. God does not change over time. God is immutable. God does not evolve. God does not mellow. God is not change His mind. Scripture says that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission,” there is no removal of sin. Isaac knew that there was no worship of God without the shedding of the blood sacrifice. He was probably wondering whether or not his father was trying to break the Lord’s rules.
They climbed that mountain with no offering to present to the Lord. They had lived pretty good lives, but God was not going to accept that as worship or sacrifice. They had wealth, but God was not looking for money. Later Peter said, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Abraham and Isaac both been circumcised – but that was not the sacrifice God demanded. Today millions have received various rites called “baptism” – but there is no cleansing in those rites. Isaac knew that God had no respect for His great grandfather Cain’s offering years earlier, because it had no blood. And on this occasion, he had no blood to offer God.
Someone might think: but there must have been thousands of blood sacrifices prior to this day. Surely God must become satisfied at some point. No He doesn’t. Don’t stumble over this either. There are no generic sacrifices – universal sacrifices. Each and every soul must have its own sacrifice – its own particular atonement. If I don’t have a sacrifice of my own — a personal substitute for me — I have nothing at all. No more than any one of us could eat a meal to sustain all of us. I don’t want a generic Savior. I want, and need, a personal, effectual substitute specifically for me.
What were Abraham and Isaac to do?
The father answered in verse 8 – “My son, God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt offering.” From the very beginning of time, man has been forced to trust God to provide the sacrifice we need. We must trust God. Abraham was a priest of sorts – He had offered many sacrifices to the Lord before. Isaac had always trusted his father’s priesthood. What a beautiful picture with a beautiful relationship. But there’s a very great danger in trusting the priest rather than the Lord. There are millions today doing exactly that — trusting their church. Trusting some ceremony carried out in their church, trusting their preacher, trusting their priest. Some are trusting in dead Saints, as they pray to them for help. Some trust in Mary, the mother of Jesus. This kind of religion sends millions of people to hell.
If your faith demands baptism to take you to heaven, what if there was no man to baptize you? What if your religion demanded that some priest put a wafer on your tongue? Have you been taught that it is essential for some saint to pray for you? Then you’re in trouble, because he or she might not pray for you. God was forcing Isaac’s eyes away from his priestly father towards the Lord himself. That is the ministry of every gospel preacher. Perhaps the only exhortation more important is to stop looking toward yourself for deliverance from sin. “Look unto me and be ye saved, saith of the Lord, for I am God and there is none else.”
What were Abraham and Isaac to do? They were to accept God’s Lamb, when and in what way He provides it. Abraham was wealthy and had hundreds if not thousands of his own sheep. He might have quarreled with God and said, “Lord keep your ram and take one of mine. I’ve got plenty, let me give You one that I have raised from birth.” But the fact is we will never have a lamb, ram or dam good enough for the Lord’s demands. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Until we accept God’s proscribed and provided sacrifice, we shall stand before Him spiritually naked.
Isaac asked his father, where he is the Lamb?
Abraham replied that God would provide HIMSELF a Lamb. Obviously, those words can be understood two ways. And in this case both are true – and both must be accepted. God Himself WILL PROVIDE the sacrifice necessary to save our souls. And God will provide HIMSELF as that necessary sacrifice. In the New Testament two men, both named “John” shed, light on that statement. John the Baptist pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, saying “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” Later John the Apostle saw Lord Jesus in heaven and described him as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. But isn’t Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Isn’t he deity? Isn’t He the second person of the Trinity? Precisely. Don’t trip over that fact. The Bible says that “God shall provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering.”
Why is this Lamb so special? Why is it necessary that Jesus be our sacrifice? Don’t stumble over the Word of God. Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is their salvation in any other, for there’s none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Why? Without getting into a new and lengthy sermon – it is because animal sacrifices, earthly sacrifices are less than perfect – less than necessary to get the job done. But Jehovah has provided a sacrifice. God has provided HIMSELF a sacrifice. “For God so loved the world that He gave is only begotten son that whosoever believeth on HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We stand like Abraham and Isaac of the top of a mountain. We have nothing to offer God. Don’t stumble over that. Don’t worry over that. Because God has provided himself a sacrifice for us. Abraham merely turned around and accepted the sacrifice that God provided. He put his hands on that Ram. He put his knife to the throat of that Ram. By faith he accepted and made that God-given sacrifice his own.
Nothing has changed since that day so many centuries ago. We have the same needs, we have the same ability (none), we have the same emptiness. We, too, are sinners. We need the Saviour which God has provided. Look to the Lamb of God. “If you from sin are longing to be free, look to the Lamb of God” in humble repentance and in faith.