"By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son" (Hebrews 11:17).
Do you remember the dramatic account of this incident in Genesis 22:1– 19? God told Abraham to take his son Isaac up to a certain mountain—and there to make of him a sacrifice and burnt offering—just as one would offer a lamb. But God was not asking for the sacrifice of a young animal from Abraham's flock; He was asking for Abraham's son—his only son of promise!
How did Abraham respond? He obeyed the voice of God, and only at the last moment did God spare Isaac's life, stopping his father from completing the act of sacrifice.
Over the years, countless theologians, ministers and believers have agonized over the meaning of this incident. At first glance, it may look more like an example of blind, unreasoning action than like an example of faith. Why would God have told Abraham to perform such a seemingly horrible act?
Understanding Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac will teach us about faith and obedience, and can lift from us the heavy burden of doubt regarding what we would do—and of what God would have us do, and why.
To begin our study, we need to understand the background and context of the event, so we can understand Abraham's faith and action. First, we should remember that there are conditional and unconditional promises. If you promise to do something conditionally, you are only required to do it if the other party fulfills the condition that was set. However, once the condition has been met, you must perform your promise unconditionally. In a conditional promise, there is often an "if" and "then" stated or implied in the promise.
Conditional and Unconditional Promises
God made a conditional promise to Abram: "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am Almighty God; [if you] walk before Me and be blameless. And [then] I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly'" (Genesis 17:1–2).
Later, because of Abraham's obedience, God made him a promise without conditions. "In Isaac your seed shall be called." If God was going to give Abraham "exceedingly" many offspring, they would have to come through Isaac. God had specified Isaac as the heir of the Covenant blessings of Abraham, and given Ishmael a different promise (Genesis 21:12–13). Abraham had no other children at that time.
Then, God tested Abraham. You can read the full account in Genesis 22:1–19. The Apostle Paul explained the meaning of the test. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called,' concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense" (Hebrews 11:17–19).
If Isaac had been killed and remained dead in the grave, the promises could not have been fulfilled. But Abraham believed God—he had faith about the promises. So, Abraham knew that— no matter what God was asking him to do—it would not result in God breaking any of His promises. Abraham knew that God had promised that "in Isaac your seed shall be called," so he knew that, somehow, Isaac would have to be spared, protected, resurrected or in some way made able to survive to fulfill God's promise. Indeed, even though Isaac's ordeal was an antitype of Christ's sacrifice, he survived and was in a figurative sense "resurrected" to his father Abraham, as the true type of Christ that he was (v. 19).
So, we can see that Abraham's obedience was not blind. He believed God, and acted on that belief. In an important sense, members of God's Church do that every time we keep the Sabbath. We cannot perform a scientific test to determine which day of the week is to be kept holy; we only know the day because God in His word tells us that it is the seventh day. We believe Him, and by ceasing our labors act on His commandment. In doing so, we are greatly blessed. "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:17–18). Abraham's faith was counted for righteousness—as is ours—and we see that he displayed a living, active faith. Abraham obeyed God because of his faith. Like Abraham, we need a living, active faith.
Abraham's faith and obedience did not suddenly appear from nowhere. He had developed his relationship with God, and he chose to obey because of his experience in that deep and real relationship. "And the scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God" (James 2:23). Abraham knew God's power; he had seen what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham also experienced God's faithfulness by seeing Sarah become pregnant in her old age, just as God had promised. He knew that God could and would do what He said.
People, particularly atheists trying to justify their position, sometimes mistakenly define faith as "belief without evidence." Abraham's faith was "belief based on evidence"—as is ours. So there is no conflict between Abraham's faith and his obedience. Abraham obeyed because of his faith in what God had promised.
Why God's Command?
Why did God command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? Paul explained to the brethren in Corinth, "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). God told Abraham to act out a type of an event that would be fulfilled centuries later—the sacrifice of Christ.
Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8), and God's plan for mankind existed long before this event at Mt. Moriah. But through this event,God's plan of salvation would be put into operation, and through it all the world would be blessed. God's promise became unconditional. So this historical account in the Old Testament is filled with meaning for the New Testament Church.
Looking in detail at Genesis 22 can help us better understand what God was doing. "Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' Then He said, 'Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you' (Genesis 22:1–2).
Scripture goes on to describe the event unfolding. "So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you'" (Genesis 22:3–5).
Notice that Abraham said, "We will come back to you." This means he knew that both he and Isaac would return to the two servants who had accompanied them.
Isaac, as a type of Christ, carried the wood of his sacrifice up the mountain, just as Jesus did centuries later. Like Christ, He had faith in God and trust in his father, but unlike Christ he did not yet know the details of what was to occur. "So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' Then he said, 'Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?' And Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering'" (vv. 6–8).
Indeed, God provided a ram for offering in Isaac's stead, though it would be centuries later when He provided the true fulfillment by offering the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Abraham built an altar and placed the wood, then bound Isaac on the wood. In doing so, the picturing of Jesus on His wooden "sacrificial altar" was complete. "And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' So he said, 'Here I am.' And He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.' Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son" (vv. 10–13).
God then made the promise unconditional. "Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: 'By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son…In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice'" (vv. 15–16, 18).
How great was this promise? Describing His love of the unity of His family, God said, "It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forevermore" (Psalm 133:3). Truly, through His command to Abraham, God pictured the progress of the plan of salvation up through the death and resurrection of Jesus, our Passover, the Lamb of God.
Lessons We Can Learn
Abraham chose to obey because of his faith, and his belief in what God promised. By ourselves, we do not always choose what God would choose—we must strive to obey His will instead of our own in order to make the right choices. God converts us inwardly, and as we are converted, our will—our power to choose—becomes more and more like His.
This is one reason why God's word warns of the dangers of personal willfulness. People can be tempted to develop an attitude of fault-finding and criticism, because such an attitude helps justify willfulness. Willfulness is simply a matter of preferring one's own will—one's own choices—rather than God's. Faith, by contrast, leads us toward obeying God's righteous instructions— and obeying means that we subordinate our will to His. As our relationship with God grows, so does our obedience to Him—and so does our faith in what He says.
By believing and acting—by showing living faith—Abraham became the father of the faithful. Scripture shows us that, like Abraham, each of us must both believe and act. We are doing this when we obey God, overcome sin and grow in the stature of Christ. Abraham obeyed God, and Isaac obeyed his father, just as Jesus did. If we are to be children of God, we too must obey our Heavenly Father. To do so requires living faith.
Paul instructed the Galatians: "Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed.' So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.… For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:7–9, 26–29).
That promise, as we saw above, is "Life forevermore."
Question the Question
In the beginning, we posed the question, "If God asked you to kill your child like He did Abraham, would you do so?" Some in God's Church, wanting to be completely faithful, have agonized over that question.
We should always be careful about tempting ourselves by posing hypothetical questions. Consider that Satan may want you, in effect, to tempt yourself (and to doubt God as well as your own faithfulness) by asking yourself what you would do in that impossible situation. Remember, when God says that something will happen, it is not possible for it not to happen. God made unconditional promises to Abraham that included "life forevermore" for His children. There was no possibility that this would not occur—and Abraham recognized this!
When we are confronted with a gnarly seemingly-impossible-to-answer question, what is a good response? We should question the question! Is it possible that God would ask you to sacrifice a child as He asked Abraham? Biblically, we can see that the answer is: "No!" Still, some might reason, "Well, God can ask anything He wants." However, according to His own word, He would never do that. Remember, the promises began with Abraham, as we know from Genesis 12. The gospel was preached from the foundation of the world, but the plan of salvation was put into action with Abraham. There are not two plans of salvation.
Through their actions, Abraham and Isaac pictured Jesus Christ's sacrifice and resurrection. God arranged the whole event for that purpose. Abraham knew that God had said, "In Isaac shall your seed be called," as Paul explained in Hebrews 11. He knew there was no possibility that Isaac would not somehow live on, because he knew and believed God's promise, and trusted in His plan.
Abraham's consent to sacrificing Isaac was a one-time event that God arranged for a specific reason—and it is now a done deal! The conditional promises became unconditional. Furthermore, since then, Christ has died and has been resurrected.
As a side note, it is vital that we fully understand that we should not listen to just any "voice" that claims to be from God, or that tells us to do something contrary to His Law— such as killing someone. So how was the example of Abraham entirely different in that way?
Abraham believed the voice of God because he had personally heard that same voice—experienced that same personality—many times! For Abraham genuinely "knew" God and had walked and talked with God in the person of Jesus Christ, the "Rock" of the Old Testament (1 Corinthians 10:4) in a way none of us ever has. When told to sacrifice His son by One he genuinely knew as the Creator of the universe, Abraham did not wonder whether this was God's voice speaking to him. For that same Supreme Being had already spoken to Abraham and had interacted with Abraham many times in a way that you and I have never experienced. Therefore, Abraham's experience was entirely different from a mentally unstable person just obeying a "voice" speaking to him or her to do something terrible.
Unless you think that God is going to abandon His promises and the plan of salvation that He put into motion long ago—and reinstitute a whole new plan around you—then, according to God's word, there is no possibility that God will ask you to do what He asked Abraham to do. So, if we ask, "What would we do if God asked us to do what Abraham did?", we can answer clearly: "It's a specious question. God wouldn't ask this of us!" We save ourselves a lot of difficulty if we understand God's word—and take Him at His word!
Abraham's faith led him to obedience in making a very difficult choice. He believed—for good reason—what God had told him about Isaac, and he acted on that belief. Abraham was willing to subordinate his will to God's, and we can be grateful that he did!
We need to believe what God has said. We need to believe who He is, what He is doing, what He says is right and wrong and what action we need to take. Then we must act on it—submitting our will to God's. Like Abraham, all God's children need living faith!