1. The earliest sacrificial offerings. The story of the Cross is as old as the sin of man. Sacrifices looking forward to, and anticipating the substitutionary Calvary work of our Lord began back in the days of Abel. We even believe that when God took the skins of the beasts, that He was then, purposefully suggesting the method by which man's sins were to be washed away, and his iniquity was to be covered.
2. The meaning of these sacrifices. There are some who imagine that Abel and others who followed after him, including Job and Abraham, etc., knew nothing of the far-flung vision which those sacrifices anticipated. With this contention we cannot agree for the following two reasons:
(1) God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice and of all other sacrifices was dependent upon the faith of the offerers. In Isaiah, chapter one, we read definitely that God has no pleasure in the blood of bullocks and of lambs. God even cried out, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" He called their oblations vain. He told them that their appointed feasts His soul hated. The reason for all this is plain. Israel was carrying out the rites which God had commanded but she had entirely lost the meaning of those sacrifices. In addition to this, she was living in abomination which entirely belied the cleansing power of the Blood which was shed.
(2) God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice, and that of Noah and of all others, was dependent upon the faith of the offerer.
The sacrifices from God's viewpoint anticipated the death of Christ. That, however, was not enough. God demanded that the individual offering the sacrifices should likewise see the Cross.
It was for this cause that of Abel we read, "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."
If we, in the ordinances of the church, fail by our faith to get the backward look which links us to Calvary and to the empty tomb, our ordinances are just as vain before God as the sacrifices of that early period would have been.
3. The culmination of sacrificial offering. Long before Christ came, the Prophets testified that during the Millennium, the Jews would, year by year, keep certain feasts in Jerusalem.
When we consider how the Blood of the Cross takes a poignant part in the earliest history of man, we are prone to look into our Bibles and to discover that the same precious Blood of Christ holds just as vital a place in the last days of man's history. In fact, the Book of Revelation almost closes with, "These are they which * * have washed their robes."
I. AN EARNEST CALL AND A PROMPT REPLY (Genesis 22:1 )
1. God did tempt Abraham. This verse by no means suggests that God tried to get Abraham to do something which was wrong. God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man. God's temptations are testings, trials, in which He would prove the heart of His children in order that He might lift them up to higher altitudes of faith and to larger enrichment. Satan's temptations or testings are malicious in intent and. design. Their import is to drag man down, to cause him to break connections with God, and to spoil fellowship.
2. God's call. God said unto His servant, "Abraham!" It was wonderful that God would deign to personally address one of His children, but God frequently did this very thing in the case of this mighty patriarch. Nor is that all. God spoke to many men of yore, and He is speaking to many today. His method of approach is not now with audible voice, nevertheless, His approach is real, and to those who walk with God, it is easily discerned.
3. Abraham's reply. Abraham replied, "Behold, here I am." God grant that we may be always as ready and as willing to answer when God speaks. In Abraham's expression there were the pulsings of a willing and obedient soul. Abraham spoke as one would speak who is ready to be, or to do, or to go, for his God.
The patriarch did not know what might be entailed in his response; yet, he was willing to go without knowing. To us, it seems that when Abraham said, "Behold, here I am," that he was signing his name as an obedient servant at the foot of a blank page, before the orders of his Master and Lord had been filled in.
II. GOD ASKS FOR ABRAHAM'S BEST (Genesis 22:2 )
1. The call was for Isaac. God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." Remember, that in Isaac every promise God had ever made to Abraham was vested. It was through Isaac that Christ, the Seed, was to be born. It was through Isaac that the chosen nation was to spring forth.
The lad had been called "Isaac" because of the great joy, the laughter, which had come to his father's house, when his birth was assured.
2. Isaac was a type of his Lord. God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." Jesus Christ was God's Son, He was God's only begotten Son, He was the Son of His love.
How marvelous it is that man can stand forth in Scripture symbolical of the Eternal. This, however, is often the case. No one man could be a type of Christ in everything, but, combining the various symbolic characters of the Word of God, we will have many of the outstanding features, which marked the character and Person of our Lord, set forth.
In addition to the suggestions above, how Isaac was a son, an only son, a son beloved, there is this further statement, Isaac was the son of his father's old age. We speak reverently, for what we mean to suggest is that Jesus Christ was the Son of Eternity. This is suggested in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, where it says, "From the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." Jesus Christ was ever young, and yet He came from the morning before the beginnings of all things. In Revelation, He is described with hairs as white as snow, suggestive not only of His purity, but also of His eternity.
III. THE COMMANDED SACRIFICE (Genesis 22:2 )
First of all, Abraham was to take his son. Thus, God was the One who took Christ and made Him an offering for our sins. Jesus Christ was not crucified by the overwhelming powers of a maddened mob, who carried Him to the Cross against His will; Jesus Christ was not crucified by our sins. Both of the above had important parts to play in the death of Christ. The Jews, the Romans and our sins all were set against the Son of God, but none of these could have nailed the Lord to the Tree. Unless Christ had been delivered by the Father, He had never been delivered.
In the second place, Jesus Christ had a designated spot upon which He was to be crucified. He was destined to die outside the camp. He was to be offered upon Mount Calvary, or Golgotha, the Place of Skulls.
In that memorable day, in which our Lord died, there was no outstanding event that had not long before been recorded, both in the typology of the Old Testament and also in its direct statements.
In the third place, Isaac was to be offered as a burnt-offering, so also, the Son of God was made an offering for us, a sacrifice full and complete for our sins.
The sacrifices and burnt-offerings according to the Law brought God no pleasure save as they anticipated the sacrifice of Christ. Those sacrifices could not take away sins, but Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sin, forever. Thus it was that Isaac in his offering was pleasing unto God in the fact that Abraham in the offering of Isaac anticipated Christ.
IV. ABRAHAM'S PROMPT OBEDIENCE (Genesis 22:3 )
Four things are noted in this verse:
1. Abraham rose up early in the morning. There was no hesitancy on the part of God's servant. There was nothing by way of argument and bickering and delay. The sacrifice was great, the grief was overwhelming, and yet, Abraham brooked no delay. God did not refuse to give His only begotten Son. There was nothing to suggest God's unwillingness to make so great a sacrifice for His creatures.
2. Abraham, "TOOK two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son." If Abraham could have sent Isaac away and not have been present, it might have been easier to know him slain, but when Abraham was compelled to take his son, to go with his son to the place of offering, it was different.
All this is exactly what God did. God sent His Son to be killed, but there was never a moment that God was not with Him. It was not until the darkness shrouded the Cross, as Christ went round the cycle of His suffering, that the Father hid His face. Even then, the Father saw the Son, although the Son saw not the Father. God accompanied His Isaac to the Cross.
3. Abraham "clave the wood for the burnt-offering." Once again, we see the personal part which Abraham played as he raised his axe to cleave the wood, he knew that he was, as it were, already undertaking in behalf of slaying his beloved Isaac.
Every step of the way toward the Cross was a step into deeper darkness. Long before Christ came to earth, He had begun with His Father the strange, but stately stepping toward Calvary. God was, as it were, all the time cleaving the wood for the burnt-offering.
4. Abraham "went unto the place of which God had told him." There was nothing haphazard, nothing by way of guess, or accident, that marked the journey of that day. As Jesus Christ went to the Cross there were no unexpected events taking place. From the Garden of Eden to Calvary, all was according to the plan and purpose marked out by the Father.
V. ABRAHAM'S FAR-AWAY LOOK (Genesis 22:4 )
How the words halt our attention: "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off."
The place he saw was the place of sacrifice. He saw the place from a distance. He saw the place with deep forebodings. He saw the place with faith that God would undertake and restore back to him his son.
1. God saw the Cross of Christ back of the creation of the world. Jesus Christ is spoken of as "A Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Peter said that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Down through aeons upon aeons God looked and saw the supreme sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. As events transpired, during the centuries lying between the Garden of Eden and Golgotha, nothing happened that was unforeseen of the Father. He saw the strategies of Satan long before Satan sought to put them across. He saw the race hastening on in its wickedness and God-rejecting attitude. He saw the Sanhedrin as it met to cast its lot for the death of Christ. He saw it all saw it before the world was.
2. God saw the Cross of Christ with forebodings of the anguish of its cost. Not one thing passed His all foreseeing eye. He saw the bitterness of Christ's cup of death the physical, the mental, the soul anguish.
God saw Christ uplifted, the inflamed wounds, the unnatural position, the maddened mob wailing out their maledictions, the word-thrusts of the thieves, the darkness, the weeping women, He saw it all.
But God saw more. He saw the fruitage of the Cross. He saw that the Lord would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. He saw the multitude of the redeemed around about the throne as they voiced their eternal praises to God and to the Lamb. He saw the golden city and its joys, the new heaven and the new earth, and its peace saw both as the result of the Cross.
VI. ABRAHAM'S FLIGHT OF FAITH (Genesis 22:5 )
Abraham said three things: 1, "Abide ye here." 2. "I and the lad will go yonder." 3. "I and the lad will * * come again to you." There are three things we can learn from this.
1. Where man cannot go. When Christ died upon the Cross, there were certain ones who stood about the Cross. There was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John, and Peter, and many, others. They were there, and yet they could not go into the cycle of His suffering. How helpless they must have felt as they stood there, all alone; so near, and yet so far from the Lord.
Today we are just as helpless. We can never fathom the depths of the anguish nor the full reach of the sorrow that befell our Savior. We may go with Him outside the camp, we may suffer His reproach, but we cannot feel the weight of the world's woe of sin. We cannot suffer the just for the unjust. We have no capacity for such a grief.
2. Where God and Christ together did go. Here is a glimpse of the eternal sacrifice of Christ that we are in danger of overlooking. God and Christ went together. They returned together. In death and in resurrection both were there. We do not mean that Christ saw the Father during the three hours of darkness. He did not. We do mean that the Father hid His face but for the while they Two went together.
3. The certainty of the resurrection. Abraham offered up Isaac by faith, accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead. Abraham spoke truly, when he said, "We will come again." He did not know that God would call unto him, "Stay thy hand"; he did know that God would keep His promise to him, that, through Isaac and his seed, the Seed of the woman, the Son of God would come. Abraham seeing Isaac slain, saw Isaac risen because God had promised. David saw Christ crucified, but he also saw Christ risen because God had promised that Christ would sit on His throne.
Thus also, did God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost revel in the joy of Christ's resurrection.
VII. THE MARCH TOWARD THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE (Genesis 22:6 )
Isaac bore the wood of the burnt-offering. Abraham bore the fire and the knife. Both of them went together. Thus may we sum up the three typical statements of our verse. Let us examine them one at a time.
1. Isaac bore the wood. Our Scripture says, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son."
Here was something so unusual, that it appears most striking. Why should Isaac bear the wood, save that, in all of this, God was foreshadowing the picture of Christ? We read, "And He bearing His Cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha" (John 19:17 ).
2. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Thus, it was again set forth in unmistakable symbolism, that the Father God, delivered the Son to the Cross. To be sure, this delivery was not against the will of the Son, for Christ, Himself, was sent as a Lamb to the slaughter. He freely gave Himself for us.
It still remains true, nevertheless, that the Father offered up the Son as a willing sacrifice for our sins. "He hath made Him to be sin for us." He made "His soul an offering for sin."
3. Abraham and Isaac went together. Once more the words, "They two went together" sound forth with a marvelous pictorial message. Thrice already in this lesson we have seen this same suggestion.
In Genesis 22:2 , "Take now thy son." Here Abraham and Isaac went together. The father taking the son. In Genesis 22:3 , Abraham took his son and they went to the place of which God had spoken. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham said, "I and the lad will go yonder." Finally, in our Genesis 22:6 , "They went both of them together."
The Lord certainly puts emphasis upon the fact that God went along the pathway with the Son as He. pressed through the centuries toward the Cross. We often speak of Christ being alone; yet, He was not alone until during the three hours of His dying for us, when the Father hid His face. This was suggested by the cry of Christ: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was as though Christ would acknowledge the fact that they had always been together, save in those three hours, and then, because Christ took in full the sinner's place, the Father of necessity hid His face.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE PRICELESS PRICE
"' The satisfaction must carry proportion with the merit of the offense. A debt of a thousand pounds is not discharged by two or three brass farthings. Creatures are finite, their acts of obedience are already due to God, and their sufferings for one another, if they had been allowed, would have been of limited influence.' Jesus alone, as the Son of God, could present a substitution sufficient to meet the case of men condemned for their iniquities. The majesty of His nature, His freedom from personal obligation to the Law, and the intensity of His griefs, all give to His atonement a virtue which elsewhere can never be discovered. None of the sons of men 'can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.' Jesus only could stand in our soul's stead, and pay the dreadful price.
What sinners we are! What a sacrifice has been presented for us! No brass farthings were our price; nay, gold and silver are called 'corruptible things' when compared with the precious Blood which has paid our ransom."
The query in Genesis 22:7 , which was asked by Isaac, was most natural. He was on his way with his father to the place of sacrifice, he was carrying the wood, and his father was carrying the fire and the knife; as they journeyed along the way, Isaac said, "Behold the fire and, the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Abraham's reply was, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." The typical meaning of all of this stands before us in a plain and positive way.
In the purposes of God Isaac was not to be the lamb, but a ram caught by its horns in the thicket was to fulfil the type and was to be offered in the stead of Isaac.
1. The typology of the lamb. So far as Abraham knew, Isaac, himself, was to be the typical lamb. He went on with the full purpose in his heart, to sacrifice his own son at the command of God. He went in the full assurance of the resurrection. Not a resurrection, however, that lay far distant, but an immediate resurrection, inasmuch as he had honestly told the young men, "I and the lad will * * come again."
2. The voice of John the Baptist. As John stood by the waters of the Jordan, and beheld Jesus coming, he cried, "Behold the Lamb!" The voice of John seemed to be the response to every sacrificial lamb which had ever been offered since the days of Abel. All of these lambs had been typical lambs. Jesus Christ was the Lamb which responded to the types, and fulfilled them, taking away the sins of the world.
3. The statement of Paul. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, said, "Christ our Passover [Lamb] is sacrificed for us," Like John the Baptist, Paul seemed to gather up all of the Old Testament lambs that had been slain as he focused the fulfilment of their typical forecastings upon Christ Jesus, our Lord.
4. The message of Hebrews. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ is plainly set forth as the fulfilment of all the sacrificial offering's, commanded in the Old Testament. It is plainly shown that the blood offered from Abel to Christ, was not offered because it had any power to take away sins. It was offered, however, in anticipation of Christ, who, once in the end of the age, offered Himself for the sins of His people.
When, in these last days, we hear men mocking the Blood of Christ, and making it of no value so far as its redemptive power is concerned, we should remember that they not only take away from Christ the glory of His sacrifice, but that they also make the shedding of the blood of all Old Testament sacrifices no more than a heathen and barbarous rite, without any vital symbolical significance whatsoever.
I. THE LAMB WHICH GOD PROVIDED (Revelation 5:6 )
It falls to our lot to show how the Book of Revelation sets forth Christ as the Lamb which God provided. We are not so sure but that Abraham was thinking not only of God's providing a lamb for his own sacrifice, but that, through that sacrifice which he was, himself, about to offer, he looked down through the years and saw Christ as the Lamb which God would finally provide,
1. In Revelation the dominant Name for Christ is the Lamb. When John heard the angel say that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah had prevailed to open the Book, John turned to see the Lion, and, behold, "a Lamb as it had been slain." That Lamb was Christ.
2. In Revelation, the Lamb slain, is the Lamb worshiped. The multitudes around the throne of God sang a new song to the Lamb, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."
3. In Revelation, the Lamb is proclaimed worthy because it was slain. To the Lamb slain was accorded wisdom, and power, and riches, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
4. In the Book of Revelation, it was the Lamb who opened the seals. It was also "the wrath of the Lamb," and, the day of His wrath" that had come.
5. In the Book of Revelation, the great multitude out of the great tribulation had come, having washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.
6. In the Book of Revelation, it was the Lamb who stood on Mount Zion surrounded by a hundred and forty-four thousand, who had their Father's Name written in their foreheads. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
7. In the Book of Revelation, those who worship the beast and receive his mark are tormented in the presence of the Lamb.
8. In the Book of Revelation, the kings of the earth make war against the Lamb and the Lamb overcomes them.
9. In the Book of Revelation the Marriage of the Lamb is described as having come, and His wife as having made herself ready.
10. In the Book of Revelation, as we get the last visions of Christ, He is spoken of as the Lamb. The angel says, "Come hither, I will shew thee the Bride, the Lamb's Wife." The Lamb is described as the Light of the City; it is "the throne of God and of the Lamb."
II. THE APPROACH (Genesis 22:6-8 )
We wish to bring before you two things concerning the meekness of Isaac as he approached the place of sacrifice. These two statements, in an Old Testament Scripture, describe Christ approaching the Cross.
1. He is spoken of as a Lamb going to the slaughter. This vision of Christ is easily detected in the story of Isaac. The lamb, all unknowingly, and yet, all submissively, approaches the slaughter. Isaac did not know that he was to be the sacrifice, although he, doubtless, had certain surmisings because he said to the father, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" The Lord Jesus did know with certainty His coming death and He frequently spoke of the death which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. However, as Christ hung upon the Cross, there came an hour in which He lifted His face toward Heaven, and cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
2. He is spoken of as a sheep dumb before its shearers. This expression illustrates that, as the actual sacrifice took place, there was no spirit of resistance. The sheep before the shearers submits in all meekness to the hand that cuts away its wool.
As Isaac approached the altar he made queries to his father; yet, as his father bound him, and laid him upon the altar, there is nothing to suggest any hesitancy upon his part. He seemed quietly, even though wonderingly, to submit to his father with a confidence unshaken, and a love unabated.
As the Lord Jesus approached the Cross, and as He laid prostrate upon it, while the nails crashed through His hands and His feet; and, as upon the Cross, uplifted, He suffered and died, there was no cry of bitterness or of resistance to His Father's will. He yielded implicitly to the maddened mob, because in it He was yielding to God the Father. To Christ, the men who crucified Him were no more than the Father's executive. They were, so to speak, the Father's arm uplifting the knife.
III. THE INTENSITY OF GOD (Genesis 22:11 )
Our Scripture says the Lord called unto Abraham, and said, "Abraham, Abraham": and he said, "Here am I." Wherever we find such a repetition of words, they suggest intensity. We may speak unto a friend without excitement and nervous strain, but there will be no repetition of his name. When, however, there is strong stress, or a sense of danger, or a moment of intense excitement, a repetition of words is invariably the result. Let us suggest a few Scriptures where this Divine repetition is set forth.
1. "Abraham, Abraham." This is the repetition in our lesson, and it displays God's intensity, first in His approval toward Abraham; and, secondly, in His unwillingness that Abraham should fulfil the type, and give his son in sacrifice, as He, the Father, willingly gave His Son.
2. "Jacob, Jacob" (Genesis 46:2 ). This repetition occurred on the night in which Jacob, the aged, was journeying with all that he had to stay with his son Joseph in Egypt. That night Jacob offered a sacrifice, and the God of Israel with love toward His servant, and in anticipation of the history of the Chosen Nation, cried out, "Jacob, Jacob."
3. "Moses, Moses" (Exodus 3:4 ). It was when Moses turned aside to see the great sight of a bush burning without being consumed, that the Lord cried out, "Moses, Moses," and continued, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
4. "Samuel, Samuel" (1 Samuel 3:10 ). This repetition marked God's intensity as He beheld the form of the youth, Samuel, eagerly listening for the voice of God. Gad was intent because, being compelled to set Eli aside, and to refuse his sons as priests over Israel, He had found in Samuel a man to fill in the gap.
5. "Martha, Martha" (Luke 10:41 ). Here is God's intensity made manifest toward a good woman who meant well, and who loved Him, but who was cumbered about with much serving. In "Martha, Martha," is the tinge of sorrow and disappointment toward the sister of Mary, and, withal, Divine approval toward Mary, who had chosen the good part.
6. "Simon, Simon" (Luke 22:31 ). This time we have the intensity of God, our Lord, toward one of His servants, who was about to be temporarily overcome by Satan. It was then that Christ said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
7. "Saul, Saul" (Acts 9:4 ). We have now God's intensity toward one who was persecuting His children, and therefore, persecuting Him, God was also intent, because the hour had come that Saul's antagonism to Christ should be broken down, and the one who persecuted, should become the one who would preach and pray.
As you study these seven expressions of Divine intensity, you will find seven outstanding relationships, existing until this hour, between God and His saints, which yet cause God to be intense toward those who love Him, and whom He loves.
IV. THE DIVINE INTERVENTION (Genesis 22:12 )
1. God had learned fully Abraham's absolute obedience and trust. Thus, the Lord said, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only sort from Me."
God always knew Abraham's fidelity, but He had now proved it by putting Abraham to the test. God knows whether we will obey Him, but there is an added joy when that obedience is certified by our own acts.
2. God desired Abraham to stay his hand because He would not ask of His servant all, in the way of sacrifice, which He Himself, would gladly do. God freely gave His Son, His only Son, His beloved Son, as a sacrifice for us.
What we are suggesting is, that God will do far more for us by way of sacrifice and service than He asks us to do for Him. How gracious is the Lord. He asks us to give Him our tithes and offerings, while He gives to us His all in all, saying, "All tilings are yours." He withholds from us no good thing, whether it be things present, or things to come, they all belong to us.
3. There is a third reason that might be given. Man could not pay his own debt by any sacrifice which he might make. He must be saved by a substitute. For this cause also the Lord doubtless said to Abraham, "Stay thy hand."
V. BEHOLD * * A RAM (Genesis 22:13-14 )
As Abraham looked about him, he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. Then it was that Abraham called the name of that place, "Jehovah-jireh," the Lord will provide.
1. The message of substitutionary sacrifice. The ram was offered instead of the son. A similar thing occurred when the angel passed over Egypt. In every Egyptian home there was a son dead; in every Hebrew home there was a substitute, a lamb, dead. This same thing actually happened at the crucifixion of Christ when the people cried, "Release unto us Barabbas." "Let Him (Christ) be crucified." Barabbas could truly have said, "Christ died, and I live."
There was only one way open by which God could be just, and the justifier of those who believe. The Law of God must be sustained. The penalty of the Law must be fulfilled. The majesty of the Law must be upheld: God, therefore, gave Christ to die upon the Cross, When He died, we died in Him, "We live because He lives. He actually took our place. When people ask you concerning the theory of the atonement, tell them it is not a theory, but a fact. It is a blessed reality.
2. The message of Abraham's far-flung vision. We cannot but believe that when Abraham took the ram and sacrificed him instead of his son that he definitely saw the sacrifice of the Savior.
The fact is, as Abraham went out that day with his son to the place of sacrifice, he received him again from the dead, in a figure of the resurrection, not only of Christ, but also of saints at the Coming of Christ.
Yes, Abraham saw God's gift of His Son. He saw the Cross; he saw the resurrection; he saw the Second Coming; he saw the Children of Israel restored to the land, and possessing their possessions.
3. Jehovah-Jireh. Oh, the depth of the meaning of the name that Abraham gave to that place. He said, "It shall be called, The Lord will Provide." And God did provide a sacrifice, a Savior, a Risen Lord, and He will provide the Coming King.
That God has provided everything for us, physical, mental, and spiritual, we know; and for it we praise Him.
There is one thing we dare not omit. That is the marvelous statement of Genesis 22:16-18 , in which God said to Abraham, "Because thou hast done this * * in blessing I will bless thee."
May we say it , a new love came into the heart of God toward Abraham, when Abraham proved his fidelity to God; and a new blessing came along with it?
The Lord said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again."
God grant that we may prove our love by our deeds, and quicken in our God a new love toward ourselves.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE PRINCELY SUBSTITUTE
"' If a prince, passing by an execution, should take the malefactor's chains, and suffer in his stead, this would be a wonderful instance indeed.' The deed would ring through all history, and be quoted as an amazing instance of heroic pity; and well deserved would be all the words of praise and sonnets of admiration which would record and eulogize it. Yet our Lord Jesus did this and infinitely more for those who were not merely malefactors but enemies to His own throne and Person. This is a wonder of wonders! But, alas, it meets with small praise. The most of men around us have heard of it and treated it as an idle tale, and multitudes more regard it as a pious legend, worthy to be repeated as a venerable fable, and then forgotten as an unpractical myth. Even those who know, believe, and admire, are yet cold in their emotions with regard to the story of the Cross. Herein is love which ought to set our hearts on fire, and yet we scarcely maintain a smouldering spark of enthusiasm. Lord Jesus, be more real to our apprehensions, and so be more completely the Master of our affections."
Bibliographical Information Neighbour, Robert E. "Wells of Living Water Commentary on Genesis 22". "Living Water". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/lwc/genesis-22.html.
Verses 1-6
Abraham Offers Up Isaac
Genesis 22:1-6
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
1. The earliest sacrificial offerings. The story of the Cross is as old as the sin of man. Sacrifices looking forward to, and anticipating the substitutionary Calvary work of our Lord began back in the days of Abel. We even believe that when God took the skins of the beasts, that He was then, purposefully suggesting the method by which man's sins were to be washed away, and his iniquity was to be covered.
2. The meaning of these sacrifices. There are some who imagine that Abel and others who followed after him, including Job and Abraham, etc., knew nothing of the far-flung vision which those sacrifices anticipated. With this contention we cannot agree for the following two reasons:
(1) God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice and of all other sacrifices was dependent upon the faith of the offerers. In Isaiah, chapter one, we read definitely that God has no pleasure in the blood of bullocks and of lambs. God even cried out, "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" He called their oblations vain. He told them that their appointed feasts His soul hated. The reason for all this is plain. Israel was carrying out the rites which God had commanded but she had entirely lost the meaning of those sacrifices. In addition to this, she was living in abomination which entirely belied the cleansing power of the Blood which was shed.
(2) God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice, and that of Noah and of all others, was dependent upon the faith of the offerer.
The sacrifices from God's viewpoint anticipated the death of Christ. That, however, was not enough. God demanded that the individual offering the sacrifices should likewise see the Cross.
It was for this cause that of Abel we read, "By faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."
If we, in the ordinances of the church, fail by our faith to get the backward look which links us to Calvary and to the empty tomb, our ordinances are just as vain before God as the sacrifices of that early period would have been.
3. The culmination of sacrificial offering. Long before Christ came, the Prophets testified that during the Millennium, the Jews would, year by year, keep certain feasts in Jerusalem.
When we consider how the Blood of the Cross takes a poignant part in the earliest history of man, we are prone to look into our Bibles and to discover that the same precious Blood of Christ holds just as vital a place in the last days of man's history. In fact, the Book of Revelation almost closes with, "These are they which * * have washed their robes."
I. AN EARNEST CALL AND A PROMPT REPLY (Genesis 22:1 )
1. God did tempt Abraham. This verse by no means suggests that God tried to get Abraham to do something which was wrong. God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man. God's temptations are testings, trials, in which He would prove the heart of His children in order that He might lift them up to higher altitudes of faith and to larger enrichment. Satan's temptations or testings are malicious in intent and. design. Their import is to drag man down, to cause him to break connections with God, and to spoil fellowship.
2. God's call. God said unto His servant, "Abraham!" It was wonderful that God would deign to personally address one of His children, but God frequently did this very thing in the case of this mighty patriarch. Nor is that all. God spoke to many men of yore, and He is speaking to many today. His method of approach is not now with audible voice, nevertheless, His approach is real, and to those who walk with God, it is easily discerned.
3. Abraham's reply. Abraham replied, "Behold, here I am." God grant that we may be always as ready and as willing to answer when God speaks. In Abraham's expression there were the pulsings of a willing and obedient soul. Abraham spoke as one would speak who is ready to be, or to do, or to go, for his God.
The patriarch did not know what might be entailed in his response; yet, he was willing to go without knowing. To us, it seems that when Abraham said, "Behold, here I am," that he was signing his name as an obedient servant at the foot of a blank page, before the orders of his Master and Lord had been filled in.
II. GOD ASKS FOR ABRAHAM'S BEST (Genesis 22:2 )
1. The call was for Isaac. God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." Remember, that in Isaac every promise God had ever made to Abraham was vested. It was through Isaac that Christ, the Seed, was to be born. It was through Isaac that the chosen nation was to spring forth.
The lad had been called "Isaac" because of the great joy, the laughter, which had come to his father's house, when his birth was assured.
2. Isaac was a type of his Lord. God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." Jesus Christ was God's Son, He was God's only begotten Son, He was the Son of His love.
How marvelous it is that man can stand forth in Scripture symbolical of the Eternal. This, however, is often the case. No one man could be a type of Christ in everything, but, combining the various symbolic characters of the Word of God, we will have many of the outstanding features, which marked the character and Person of our Lord, set forth.
In addition to the suggestions above, how Isaac was a son, an only son, a son beloved, there is this further statement, Isaac was the son of his father's old age. We speak reverently, for what we mean to suggest is that Jesus Christ was the Son of Eternity. This is suggested in the one hundred and tenth Psalm, where it says, "From the womb of the morning: Thou hast the dew of Thy youth." Jesus Christ was ever young, and yet He came from the morning before the beginnings of all things. In Revelation, He is described with hairs as white as snow, suggestive not only of His purity, but also of His eternity.
III. THE COMMANDED SACRIFICE (Genesis 22:2 )
First of all, Abraham was to take his son. Thus, God was the One who took Christ and made Him an offering for our sins. Jesus Christ was not crucified by the overwhelming powers of a maddened mob, who carried Him to the Cross against His will; Jesus Christ was not crucified by our sins. Both of the above had important parts to play in the death of Christ. The Jews, the Romans and our sins all were set against the Son of God, but none of these could have nailed the Lord to the Tree. Unless Christ had been delivered by the Father, He had never been delivered.
In the second place, Jesus Christ had a designated spot upon which He was to be crucified. He was destined to die outside the camp. He was to be offered upon Mount Calvary, or Golgotha, the Place of Skulls.
In that memorable day, in which our Lord died, there was no outstanding event that had not long before been recorded, both in the typology of the Old Testament and also in its direct statements.
In the third place, Isaac was to be offered as a burnt-offering, so also, the Son of God was made an offering for us, a sacrifice full and complete for our sins.
The sacrifices and burnt-offerings according to the Law brought God no pleasure save as they anticipated the sacrifice of Christ. Those sacrifices could not take away sins, but Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sin, forever. Thus it was that Isaac in his offering was pleasing unto God in the fact that Abraham in the offering of Isaac anticipated Christ.
IV. ABRAHAM'S PROMPT OBEDIENCE (Genesis 22:3 )
Four things are noted in this verse:
1. Abraham rose up early in the morning. There was no hesitancy on the part of God's servant. There was nothing by way of argument and bickering and delay. The sacrifice was great, the grief was overwhelming, and yet, Abraham brooked no delay. God did not refuse to give His only begotten Son. There was nothing to suggest God's unwillingness to make so great a sacrifice for His creatures.
2. Abraham, "TOOK two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son." If Abraham could have sent Isaac away and not have been present, it might have been easier to know him slain, but when Abraham was compelled to take his son, to go with his son to the place of offering, it was different.
All this is exactly what God did. God sent His Son to be killed, but there was never a moment that God was not with Him. It was not until the darkness shrouded the Cross, as Christ went round the cycle of His suffering, that the Father hid His face. Even then, the Father saw the Son, although the Son saw not the Father. God accompanied His Isaac to the Cross.
3. Abraham "clave the wood for the burnt-offering." Once again, we see the personal part which Abraham played as he raised his axe to cleave the wood, he knew that he was, as it were, already undertaking in behalf of slaying his beloved Isaac.
Every step of the way toward the Cross was a step into deeper darkness. Long before Christ came to earth, He had begun with His Father the strange, but stately stepping toward Calvary. God was, as it were, all the time cleaving the wood for the burnt-offering.
4. Abraham "went unto the place of which God had told him." There was nothing haphazard, nothing by way of guess, or accident, that marked the journey of that day. As Jesus Christ went to the Cross there were no unexpected events taking place. From the Garden of Eden to Calvary, all was according to the plan and purpose marked out by the Father.
V. ABRAHAM'S FAR-AWAY LOOK (Genesis 22:4 )
How the words halt our attention: "Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off."
The place he saw was the place of sacrifice. He saw the place from a distance. He saw the place with deep forebodings. He saw the place with faith that God would undertake and restore back to him his son.
1. God saw the Cross of Christ back of the creation of the world. Jesus Christ is spoken of as "A Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Peter said that Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
Down through aeons upon aeons God looked and saw the supreme sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross. As events transpired, during the centuries lying between the Garden of Eden and Golgotha, nothing happened that was unforeseen of the Father. He saw the strategies of Satan long before Satan sought to put them across. He saw the race hastening on in its wickedness and God-rejecting attitude. He saw the Sanhedrin as it met to cast its lot for the death of Christ. He saw it all saw it before the world was.
2. God saw the Cross of Christ with forebodings of the anguish of its cost. Not one thing passed His all foreseeing eye. He saw the bitterness of Christ's cup of death the physical, the mental, the soul anguish.
God saw Christ uplifted, the inflamed wounds, the unnatural position, the maddened mob wailing out their maledictions, the word-thrusts of the thieves, the darkness, the weeping women, He saw it all.
But God saw more. He saw the fruitage of the Cross. He saw that the Lord would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. He saw the multitude of the redeemed around about the throne as they voiced their eternal praises to God and to the Lamb. He saw the golden city and its joys, the new heaven and the new earth, and its peace saw both as the result of the Cross.
VI. ABRAHAM'S FLIGHT OF FAITH (Genesis 22:5 )
Abraham said three things: 1, "Abide ye here." 2. "I and the lad will go yonder." 3. "I and the lad will * * come again to you." There are three things we can learn from this.
1. Where man cannot go. When Christ died upon the Cross, there were certain ones who stood about the Cross. There was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John, and Peter, and many, others. They were there, and yet they could not go into the cycle of His suffering. How helpless they must have felt as they stood there, all alone; so near, and yet so far from the Lord.
Today we are just as helpless. We can never fathom the depths of the anguish nor the full reach of the sorrow that befell our Savior. We may go with Him outside the camp, we may suffer His reproach, but we cannot feel the weight of the world's woe of sin. We cannot suffer the just for the unjust. We have no capacity for such a grief.
2. Where God and Christ together did go. Here is a glimpse of the eternal sacrifice of Christ that we are in danger of overlooking. God and Christ went together. They returned together. In death and in resurrection both were there. We do not mean that Christ saw the Father during the three hours of darkness. He did not. We do mean that the Father hid His face but for the while they Two went together.
3. The certainty of the resurrection. Abraham offered up Isaac by faith, accounting that God was able to raise him up from the dead. Abraham spoke truly, when he said, "We will come again." He did not know that God would call unto him, "Stay thy hand"; he did know that God would keep His promise to him, that, through Isaac and his seed, the Seed of the woman, the Son of God would come. Abraham seeing Isaac slain, saw Isaac risen because God had promised. David saw Christ crucified, but he also saw Christ risen because God had promised that Christ would sit on His throne.
Thus also, did God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost revel in the joy of Christ's resurrection.
VII. THE MARCH TOWARD THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE (Genesis 22:6 )
Isaac bore the wood of the burnt-offering. Abraham bore the fire and the knife. Both of them went together. Thus may we sum up the three typical statements of our verse. Let us examine them one at a time.
1. Isaac bore the wood. Our Scripture says, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son."
Here was something so unusual, that it appears most striking. Why should Isaac bear the wood, save that, in all of this, God was foreshadowing the picture of Christ? We read, "And He bearing His Cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha" (John 19:17 ).
2. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Thus, it was again set forth in unmistakable symbolism, that the Father God, delivered the Son to the Cross. To be sure, this delivery was not against the will of the Son, for Christ, Himself, was sent as a Lamb to the slaughter. He freely gave Himself for us.
It still remains true, nevertheless, that the Father offered up the Son as a willing sacrifice for our sins. "He hath made Him to be sin for us." He made "His soul an offering for sin."
3. Abraham and Isaac went together. Once more the words, "They two went together" sound forth with a marvelous pictorial message. Thrice already in this lesson we have seen this same suggestion.
In Genesis 22:2 , "Take now thy son." Here Abraham and Isaac went together. The father taking the son. In Genesis 22:3 , Abraham took his son and they went to the place of which God had spoken. In Genesis 22:5 Abraham said, "I and the lad will go yonder." Finally, in our Genesis 22:6 , "They went both of them together."
The Lord certainly puts emphasis upon the fact that God went along the pathway with the Son as He. pressed through the centuries toward the Cross. We often speak of Christ being alone; yet, He was not alone until during the three hours of His dying for us, when the Father hid His face. This was suggested by the cry of Christ: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was as though Christ would acknowledge the fact that they had always been together, save in those three hours, and then, because Christ took in full the sinner's place, the Father of necessity hid His face.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE PRICELESS PRICE
"' The satisfaction must carry proportion with the merit of the offense. A debt of a thousand pounds is not discharged by two or three brass farthings. Creatures are finite, their acts of obedience are already due to God, and their sufferings for one another, if they had been allowed, would have been of limited influence.' Jesus alone, as the Son of God, could present a substitution sufficient to meet the case of men condemned for their iniquities. The majesty of His nature, His freedom from personal obligation to the Law, and the intensity of His griefs, all give to His atonement a virtue which elsewhere can never be discovered. None of the sons of men 'can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.' Jesus only could stand in our soul's stead, and pay the dreadful price.
What sinners we are! What a sacrifice has been presented for us! No brass farthings were our price; nay, gold and silver are called 'corruptible things' when compared with the precious Blood which has paid our ransom."
Verses 7-24
Where Is the Lamb?
Genesis 22:7-24
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The query in Genesis 22:7 , which was asked by Isaac, was most natural. He was on his way with his father to the place of sacrifice, he was carrying the wood, and his father was carrying the fire and the knife; as they journeyed along the way, Isaac said, "Behold the fire and, the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Abraham's reply was, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." The typical meaning of all of this stands before us in a plain and positive way.
In the purposes of God Isaac was not to be the lamb, but a ram caught by its horns in the thicket was to fulfil the type and was to be offered in the stead of Isaac.
1. The typology of the lamb. So far as Abraham knew, Isaac, himself, was to be the typical lamb. He went on with the full purpose in his heart, to sacrifice his own son at the command of God. He went in the full assurance of the resurrection. Not a resurrection, however, that lay far distant, but an immediate resurrection, inasmuch as he had honestly told the young men, "I and the lad will * * come again."
2. The voice of John the Baptist. As John stood by the waters of the Jordan, and beheld Jesus coming, he cried, "Behold the Lamb!" The voice of John seemed to be the response to every sacrificial lamb which had ever been offered since the days of Abel. All of these lambs had been typical lambs. Jesus Christ was the Lamb which responded to the types, and fulfilled them, taking away the sins of the world.
3. The statement of Paul. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, said, "Christ our Passover [Lamb] is sacrificed for us," Like John the Baptist, Paul seemed to gather up all of the Old Testament lambs that had been slain as he focused the fulfilment of their typical forecastings upon Christ Jesus, our Lord.
4. The message of Hebrews. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ is plainly set forth as the fulfilment of all the sacrificial offering's, commanded in the Old Testament. It is plainly shown that the blood offered from Abel to Christ, was not offered because it had any power to take away sins. It was offered, however, in anticipation of Christ, who, once in the end of the age, offered Himself for the sins of His people.
When, in these last days, we hear men mocking the Blood of Christ, and making it of no value so far as its redemptive power is concerned, we should remember that they not only take away from Christ the glory of His sacrifice, but that they also make the shedding of the blood of all Old Testament sacrifices no more than a heathen and barbarous rite, without any vital symbolical significance whatsoever.
I. THE LAMB WHICH GOD PROVIDED (Revelation 5:6 )
It falls to our lot to show how the Book of Revelation sets forth Christ as the Lamb which God provided. We are not so sure but that Abraham was thinking not only of God's providing a lamb for his own sacrifice, but that, through that sacrifice which he was, himself, about to offer, he looked down through the years and saw Christ as the Lamb which God would finally provide,
1. In Revelation the dominant Name for Christ is the Lamb. When John heard the angel say that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah had prevailed to open the Book, John turned to see the Lion, and, behold, "a Lamb as it had been slain." That Lamb was Christ.
2. In Revelation, the Lamb slain, is the Lamb worshiped. The multitudes around the throne of God sang a new song to the Lamb, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."
3. In Revelation, the Lamb is proclaimed worthy because it was slain. To the Lamb slain was accorded wisdom, and power, and riches, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
4. In the Book of Revelation, it was the Lamb who opened the seals. It was also "the wrath of the Lamb," and, the day of His wrath" that had come.
5. In the Book of Revelation, the great multitude out of the great tribulation had come, having washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.
6. In the Book of Revelation, it was the Lamb who stood on Mount Zion surrounded by a hundred and forty-four thousand, who had their Father's Name written in their foreheads. These follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
7. In the Book of Revelation, those who worship the beast and receive his mark are tormented in the presence of the Lamb.
8. In the Book of Revelation, the kings of the earth make war against the Lamb and the Lamb overcomes them.
9. In the Book of Revelation the Marriage of the Lamb is described as having come, and His wife as having made herself ready.
10. In the Book of Revelation, as we get the last visions of Christ, He is spoken of as the Lamb. The angel says, "Come hither, I will shew thee the Bride, the Lamb's Wife." The Lamb is described as the Light of the City; it is "the throne of God and of the Lamb."
II. THE APPROACH (Genesis 22:6-8 )
We wish to bring before you two things concerning the meekness of Isaac as he approached the place of sacrifice. These two statements, in an Old Testament Scripture, describe Christ approaching the Cross.
1. He is spoken of as a Lamb going to the slaughter. This vision of Christ is easily detected in the story of Isaac. The lamb, all unknowingly, and yet, all submissively, approaches the slaughter. Isaac did not know that he was to be the sacrifice, although he, doubtless, had certain surmisings because he said to the father, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" The Lord Jesus did know with certainty His coming death and He frequently spoke of the death which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. However, as Christ hung upon the Cross, there came an hour in which He lifted His face toward Heaven, and cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
2. He is spoken of as a sheep dumb before its shearers. This expression illustrates that, as the actual sacrifice took place, there was no spirit of resistance. The sheep before the shearers submits in all meekness to the hand that cuts away its wool.
As Isaac approached the altar he made queries to his father; yet, as his father bound him, and laid him upon the altar, there is nothing to suggest any hesitancy upon his part. He seemed quietly, even though wonderingly, to submit to his father with a confidence unshaken, and a love unabated.
As the Lord Jesus approached the Cross, and as He laid prostrate upon it, while the nails crashed through His hands and His feet; and, as upon the Cross, uplifted, He suffered and died, there was no cry of bitterness or of resistance to His Father's will. He yielded implicitly to the maddened mob, because in it He was yielding to God the Father. To Christ, the men who crucified Him were no more than the Father's executive. They were, so to speak, the Father's arm uplifting the knife.
III. THE INTENSITY OF GOD (Genesis 22:11 )
Our Scripture says the Lord called unto Abraham, and said, "Abraham, Abraham": and he said, "Here am I." Wherever we find such a repetition of words, they suggest intensity. We may speak unto a friend without excitement and nervous strain, but there will be no repetition of his name. When, however, there is strong stress, or a sense of danger, or a moment of intense excitement, a repetition of words is invariably the result. Let us suggest a few Scriptures where this Divine repetition is set forth.
1. "Abraham, Abraham." This is the repetition in our lesson, and it displays God's intensity, first in His approval toward Abraham; and, secondly, in His unwillingness that Abraham should fulfil the type, and give his son in sacrifice, as He, the Father, willingly gave His Son.
2. "Jacob, Jacob" (Genesis 46:2 ). This repetition occurred on the night in which Jacob, the aged, was journeying with all that he had to stay with his son Joseph in Egypt. That night Jacob offered a sacrifice, and the God of Israel with love toward His servant, and in anticipation of the history of the Chosen Nation, cried out, "Jacob, Jacob."
3. "Moses, Moses" (Exodus 3:4 ). It was when Moses turned aside to see the great sight of a bush burning without being consumed, that the Lord cried out, "Moses, Moses," and continued, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
4. "Samuel, Samuel" (1 Samuel 3:10 ). This repetition marked God's intensity as He beheld the form of the youth, Samuel, eagerly listening for the voice of God. Gad was intent because, being compelled to set Eli aside, and to refuse his sons as priests over Israel, He had found in Samuel a man to fill in the gap.
5. "Martha, Martha" (Luke 10:41 ). Here is God's intensity made manifest toward a good woman who meant well, and who loved Him, but who was cumbered about with much serving. In "Martha, Martha," is the tinge of sorrow and disappointment toward the sister of Mary, and, withal, Divine approval toward Mary, who had chosen the good part.
6. "Simon, Simon" (Luke 22:31 ). This time we have the intensity of God, our Lord, toward one of His servants, who was about to be temporarily overcome by Satan. It was then that Christ said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not."
7. "Saul, Saul" (Acts 9:4 ). We have now God's intensity toward one who was persecuting His children, and therefore, persecuting Him, God was also intent, because the hour had come that Saul's antagonism to Christ should be broken down, and the one who persecuted, should become the one who would preach and pray.
As you study these seven expressions of Divine intensity, you will find seven outstanding relationships, existing until this hour, between God and His saints, which yet cause God to be intense toward those who love Him, and whom He loves.
IV. THE DIVINE INTERVENTION (Genesis 22:12 )
1. God had learned fully Abraham's absolute obedience and trust. Thus, the Lord said, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only sort from Me."
God always knew Abraham's fidelity, but He had now proved it by putting Abraham to the test. God knows whether we will obey Him, but there is an added joy when that obedience is certified by our own acts.
2. God desired Abraham to stay his hand because He would not ask of His servant all, in the way of sacrifice, which He Himself, would gladly do. God freely gave His Son, His only Son, His beloved Son, as a sacrifice for us.
What we are suggesting is, that God will do far more for us by way of sacrifice and service than He asks us to do for Him. How gracious is the Lord. He asks us to give Him our tithes and offerings, while He gives to us His all in all, saying, "All tilings are yours." He withholds from us no good thing, whether it be things present, or things to come, they all belong to us.
3. There is a third reason that might be given. Man could not pay his own debt by any sacrifice which he might make. He must be saved by a substitute. For this cause also the Lord doubtless said to Abraham, "Stay thy hand."
V. BEHOLD * * A RAM (Genesis 22:13-14 )
As Abraham looked about him, he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. Then it was that Abraham called the name of that place, "Jehovah-jireh," the Lord will provide.
1. The message of substitutionary sacrifice. The ram was offered instead of the son. A similar thing occurred when the angel passed over Egypt. In every Egyptian home there was a son dead; in every Hebrew home there was a substitute, a lamb, dead. This same thing actually happened at the crucifixion of Christ when the people cried, "Release unto us Barabbas." "Let Him (Christ) be crucified." Barabbas could truly have said, "Christ died, and I live."
There was only one way open by which God could be just, and the justifier of those who believe. The Law of God must be sustained. The penalty of the Law must be fulfilled. The majesty of the Law must be upheld: God, therefore, gave Christ to die upon the Cross, When He died, we died in Him, "We live because He lives. He actually took our place. When people ask you concerning the theory of the atonement, tell them it is not a theory, but a fact. It is a blessed reality.
2. The message of Abraham's far-flung vision. We cannot but believe that when Abraham took the ram and sacrificed him instead of his son that he definitely saw the sacrifice of the Savior.
The fact is, as Abraham went out that day with his son to the place of sacrifice, he received him again from the dead, in a figure of the resurrection, not only of Christ, but also of saints at the Coming of Christ.
Yes, Abraham saw God's gift of His Son. He saw the Cross; he saw the resurrection; he saw the Second Coming; he saw the Children of Israel restored to the land, and possessing their possessions.
3. Jehovah-Jireh. Oh, the depth of the meaning of the name that Abraham gave to that place. He said, "It shall be called, The Lord will Provide." And God did provide a sacrifice, a Savior, a Risen Lord, and He will provide the Coming King.
That God has provided everything for us, physical, mental, and spiritual, we know; and for it we praise Him.
There is one thing we dare not omit. That is the marvelous statement of Genesis 22:16-18 , in which God said to Abraham, "Because thou hast done this * * in blessing I will bless thee."
May we say it , a new love came into the heart of God toward Abraham, when Abraham proved his fidelity to God; and a new blessing came along with it?
The Lord said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again."
God grant that we may prove our love by our deeds, and quicken in our God a new love toward ourselves.
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE PRINCELY SUBSTITUTE
"' If a prince, passing by an execution, should take the malefactor's chains, and suffer in his stead, this would be a wonderful instance indeed.' The deed would ring through all history, and be quoted as an amazing instance of heroic pity; and well deserved would be all the words of praise and sonnets of admiration which would record and eulogize it. Yet our Lord Jesus did this and infinitely more for those who were not merely malefactors but enemies to His own throne and Person. This is a wonder of wonders! But, alas, it meets with small praise. The most of men around us have heard of it and treated it as an idle tale, and multitudes more regard it as a pious legend, worthy to be repeated as a venerable fable, and then forgotten as an unpractical myth. Even those who know, believe, and admire, are yet cold in their emotions with regard to the story of the Cross. Herein is love which ought to set our hearts on fire, and yet we scarcely maintain a smouldering spark of enthusiasm. Lord Jesus, be more real to our apprehensions, and so be more completely the Master of our affections."