The Offering of Isaac Part 1

Hebrews 11 and the Faith of Abraham

Now, Dr. White. Well, once again, we are studying out of the book of Hebrews, though we will not spend most of our time in the book of Hebrews this morning, but let's at least start there in Hebrews chapter 11, and then we will see where we go from there, Hebrews chapter 11.

As we look to God's Word, let us ask God to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we seek once again to handle or write your Word, we ask that you would help us to lay aside those many things that might seek to distract us, to keep us from hearing your truth.

And Lord, especially as we consider this very important portion of Scripture, that you would lift up our hearts and minds. Lord, that you would remind us that we are dealing with sacred things, that you might help us to concentrate upon your truth and be changed thereby.

We ask that by your Spirit, you would edify us this day, build us up in the faith. We pray in Christ's name. As most of you know, we have been studying for quite some time the book of Hebrews when I have the opportunity of speaking, and we are in the 11th chapter, the faith chapter.

When we were together last, we looked at the story of Abraham as found in this text, but we did not finish that. In fact, as you look at chapter 11, you discover that the discussion of Abraham is broken up into two parts with a parenthesis in the middle.

We are actually at the parenthesis, and I had to make the decision, do we address the parenthesis and go back to Abraham, or do we just do all of Abraham at once and then address the parenthesis? So we are going to look at all of Abraham at once and then look back at the parenthesis.

And what do I mean by that? Well, as we looked at the text last time, we finished up looking at the first section, and then you had, beginning in verse 13, all these died in faith without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

Well, I want to spend some time with that. I think we really, especially in our day, need to give serious consideration to what it means to be strangers and exiles on the earth. I think that is a very important section, but you will notice that it goes on for a few verses before verse 17, by faith Abraham.

Well, we are back to Abraham. Well, we will go back and cover that previous section, the section, the parenthesis there, but I want to finish up Abraham, and so let's look at these verses, verses 17 and following, and from that we will then take leave of the book of Hebrews for the rest of the morning, in essence, and probably this evening as well, and you will see why.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, verse 17, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he to whom it was said, In Isaac your descendants shall be called.

He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Well, I had mentioned as we began this section that I wasn't going to go back to the Old Testament and recover every single story, but I knew that we would do so here.

I knew that when it came to this particular text, it would be absolutely necessary to go back and look at the binding of Isaac, at the offering of Isaac. It is a story. It is an account in Scripture that I have almost stepped out of other things that we've been looking at a couple of times over the past couple of years to address, but at the same time, I must confess, it is a daunting task to try to take up the accounts in Genesis 22.

But I think to understand the interpretation of the writer of the Hebrews in verse 19, we have to go back. Because you'll notice he said he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

In other words, the author is saying, look, we've talked about Abraham and his faith in God. We've talked about Abraham and receiving the blessings, but have you given consideration to the faith that Abraham showed when he offered his own son upon the altar?

And then the writer clearly and directly asserts that Abraham did this not only by faith, but he considered that God is able to raise the dead. You see, Abraham had been told by God, in Isaac your seed shall be called.

Not in Ishmael. Not in that son that had been sent away, which I'm sure Abraham was deeply disturbed by that, but the promise was to Isaac. It was not to Ishmael. And God had told him straightforwardly that in this son I will bless all the earth.

And then he's told to offer that son. So he has what seems to be two completely conflicting revelations from God. I'm going to bless the whole world in this son. Now offer him up as a burnt offer. Now, sometimes in our lives, we feel like we're in that same spot.

We cannot see what direction we are to go. We seemingly feel that there is an insurmountable contradiction right in front of us. And yet Abraham, by faith, was obedient to God and in the process gave us what is one of the clearest, most incredibly compelling pictures of the entire story of redemption in all of the Bible.

In fact, I would tell you this is one of the stories. This is one of the elements of Scripture that absolutely convinces me of the supernatural nature of the biblical text. Think about it for just a moment.

There is no question whatsoever, none historically at all, that this story of Abraham was known to the Jews long before Christ. I mean, we can document this. Not only do we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, but there really isn't anybody who could seriously suggest for even a moment that, well, you've got this story in the Old Testament and so because of what happened to Jesus, they made that story up.

No, that's not possible. But it's also just as impossible that the New Testament writers could have tried to craft the Jesus story to match the story of Abraham and Isaac because they wouldn't have control over so many of the elements of the story to be able to bring it together.

For example, we will see that God sends Abraham to a particular mountain and it seems rather clear from the historical evidence that this is the mountain either where the temple was built or where the cross was put up.

It's there in the area of Jerusalem. At this time, it's not a really developed area. This is going to come later. But that seems to be where it is. And we're going to see that, for example, Abraham, he takes the wood for the fire and places it on Isaac who has to carry it to the place of sacrifice.

What does Jesus do? He bears the cross beam of that cross on his own back. Now, the Romans weren't around to do crucifixion yet. The whole idea wasn't there yet. There just would be no way to manufacture this kind of stuff.

And there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years between these events. And so it just is an amazing example to me of how in this instance you have just an incredible picture, not only of faith on Abraham's part, I'm going to argue on Isaac's part as well, but you end up with a picture, an unparalleled picture, of what the fulfillment of these promises is actually going to look like.

And there's one other verse before we go back to Genesis 22. There's one other verse I want you to think about. Have you ever thought how odd it is that at the end of the 8th chapter of John... Yeah, you know what happens at the end of the 8th chapter.

John says, before Abraham was, I am, and the Jews pick up stones to stone him. And we've talked about the evidence of the deity of Christ and the I am things in John 8 .24 and John 8 .58. And John 8 is just so rich with things like that.

But you remember that one phrase, that one statement that Jesus makes, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He thought and was glad to see Jesus' day. I think Abraham saw Jesus' day right here in Genesis 22.

I think he saw in what God had commanded him to do, how this son, laughter, Isaac, that's what it means, give thought, laughter. Remember how Abraham laughed when God said you're going to have a son. And Sarah laughed when God said you're going to have a son.

And then they both laughed when they had the son. So he's called laughter. In that son, laughter, he saw Jesus' day. He saw what God was going to do. And, as the writer of Hebrews says, he knew God could raise the dead.

And what is part and parcel of the gospel message but the resurrection of this one who gave himself upon that same mount. Now, there can be no question. There can be no question whatsoever that this particular text is absolutely despised.

Absolutely despised by the world. In fact, some of you may know of a particular individual. You may have heard his name a few times before. A fellow by the name of Richard Dawkins who has written a book called The God Delusion.

And he, amongst many others, look at the story of Abraham's offering of Isaac and say, look at that. Divine child abuse. Abraham should have been locked up as a nut. And anybody who would do this should be considered insane and thrust out of our society.

That's what Richard Dawkins says. Sadly, there are people who call themselves evangelicals today who likewise have utilized language in regards to the offering of Jesus Christ from the cross as divine child abuse.

In fact, I mentioned in social media that we are going to be dealing with Genesis 22 today at PRBC. And someone as well known as Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. tweeted me back and said, well, I certainly trust you're not going to be speaking of divine child abuse today.

And I assured him. In fact, I said, sir, if I were to ever do anything like that, please use your influence to refute and rebuke me. No, we will not be doing that. But let's be honest. It's a text that if you know the Bible, if you've been to church for any period of time at all, maybe not openly, maybe not in the middle of a Bible study class, maybe not amongst friends, but you've sat there and you've thought, what would I have thought?

I mean, there seems to be a real problem here. I mean, God commanded Abraham to do something that, well, it's wrong, isn't it? Let's take a look at it. Let's turn to Genesis 22 and let's consider some of these things.

I'm not going to rush through this. In fact, given that it's something I've wanted to speak on for years, we may be in trouble. And what's worse is, this past week I had the time to read an entire book, one of the best Jewish compilations of everything the Jews ever basically thought of, said, ruminated upon regarding this particular text, which is a fascinating study in and of itself.

So, maybe have a little bit of background information to go through as well. But let's read this text together. This is Genesis chapter 22. We'll be reading the first 14 verses. It happened after these things that God tested Abraham.

He said to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, Here I am. God said to him, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac. This is my own translation, in case you're wondering why it's somewhat stilted, but that is a fascinating line, as we'll see here in a moment.

Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will indicate to you. Arising early in the morning, Abraham prepared his donkey and took two servants along with Isaac his son.

He prepared wood for the burnt offering and set out to the place which God indicated to him. On the third day. Catch that? On the third day. Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Abraham said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey.

I and the lad will go there and worship and will return again to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son and took in his hand the fire and the knife and the two of them walked together.

And Isaac said to Abraham, Father, and he said, Here I am, my son. He said, See the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering? Abraham said to him, God will provide for himself the lamb for the offering, my son.

And they walked on together. They came to the place that God indicated. Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood and bound Isaac his son and placed him on top of the wood upon the altar. Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of Yahweh called out from heaven and said, Abraham. Abraham said, Kinei. And he said, Do not lay your hand upon the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not held back your son, your only son, from me.

Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and behind him there was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. He went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham called the name of the place, well, you've heard it before, as we slaughter it in English, Jehovah Jireh.

Yahweh Jireh. Yahweh sees, and we'll talk about how that then becomes Yahweh provides. So it is said this day, in the mount of Yahweh he will provide. Now there's more to the story, but it's not the part that is relevant to Hebrews chapter 11.

It goes on to talk about the certainty of the blessing. But here is the Akedah, the story of the binding of Isaac. And as I said, it shouldn't surprise us that this story resulted in a tremendous amount of speculation and thought on the part of the Jewish people, both before and after the time of Christ.

Of course, after the time of Christ, that speculation took on a different form because as Judaism was in conflict with Christianity, and they recognized how central this story was to the Christian gospel proclamation and were very uncomfortable with the many parallels that were there, things started to change.

But what's fascinating is, there seems to be a pre-Christian tradition in these stories that says that Abraham, despite what the Torah says, plunged the knife into Isaac. That Isaac died. In fact, there's two different strains amongst the Jewish sources.

One that he was killed by Abraham in that way and then another said that he actually burned him and that's in the Psalter when it talks about the dew of Hermon. That's actually the dew of resurrection and that the dew of resurrection fell down and fell upon the ashes of Isaac and that he was resurrected.

Fascinating realm of speculative thinking that ended up in Jewish thoughts. So many different understandings of different rabbis which normally in my experience was indicative of a story that even they could see it's pointing past itself.

It's pointing to something else. And until the fulfillment, obviously it could then create all sorts of interesting speculation and then after the fulfillment, if you don't accept what the fulfillment was and Judaism has rejected that as a system, as a religion, then you come up with some real interesting ways of trying to break the parallels between what actually happened and what you don't want it to be parallel to specifically the work of Christ.

But the text is very straightforward. And one of my fears is we look at what Abraham does and it just strikes us that it's almost mechanical. But I don't think that's the way we should look at the text at all.

Now remember it says, it happened after these things. What are these things? Abraham's an old man now. I mean he's up there in years. He's been through a lot. It was tough to lose Ishmael. Now he knew that Ishmael was going to do well because he had a promise from God that God would bless Ishmael, make nations out of him.

But still it was difficult for him. And think of all the things that Abraham had been through. Remember, he's met with God. He's left his homeland. He's lived in a tent for decades. I have to wonder if Sarah ever looked at some of the nice houses that the folks had built in the land and sort of looked at Abraham and said, you know, you've got plenty of money.

I could use some indoor plumbing or something. Something tells me that conversation took place at some point. But he's lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the land. One thing we have to keep in mind to even begin to understand how Abraham could do what Abraham did was this was not the first time Abraham had had dealings with God.

We tend to chop these up into chapters and we don't see the continuous flow. Look, Abraham has had direct supernatural discourse with God many times. God had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. God had made a covenant with him more than once.

God had come and had lunch with him for crying out loud. Abraham had tried to intercede for Sodom and Gomorrah because of Lot. Well, what do you find 40? What do you find 30? I mean, it's not like Abraham really didn't know much about God and all of a sudden he had this strange experience where a voice came to him.

Well, is that really God? He knows God. He knows that voice. He knows that means of communication to him. And so, we need to remember that this story has a context and it's a number of chapters long. And the man who acts with such faith is a man who already knows his God intimately.

That's very important. But God tested Abraham. Now, is it because God didn't know Abraham's heart? There are some people, honestly, I've debated at least one of them, about, wow, 12 years ago now, who look at this text and they go, well, God tested Abraham because he didn't really know whether Abraham would be faithful to him or not.

So, he sees what he's going to do. And he says, now I know. I didn't know before, but now I know. I was ignorant, but I've got you now. Boy, you've passed the test. I'm feeling much better now. There are some people who read it that way.

The reality is twofold. First of all, what God does with Abraham, what God does with Moses, all the times he has Moses intercede for the people of Israel, all these things, first of all, they're meant to make those people even more like him.

But they're also examples for us. Abraham especially, as we see, obviously, in Hebrews chapter 11. They become an example. They become something we point to. They become something we draw from in our own experience.

And when God calls us to go through difficult situations, we don't go alone. We don't go, boy, God's never called anybody to do anything this tough before. If we know our Bibles, we know that's not true.

We may say that to ourselves in our own self-pity. But if we know the Bible, we know that's not true. And in a sense, these great men and women of faith walk with us through these trials and difficulties.

God tested Abraham, not so he could find out, because he didn't know Abraham's heart. But he becomes a pattern. He becomes a type for all of us. And Abraham is changed in the process. And one thing to keep in mind, remember how many times Brother Cross used to tell us, temptations do not stop when you get old.

Abraham's been walking with God for a long time. You would have think Abraham could have said, well, you know what? I think I'm ready for a vacation from this spiritual warfare thing. It doesn't work that way.

It doesn't work that way. And one of the greatest goals you should have in all of your life, even as a young person, is to finish well. Abraham is. He's an old man. And God comes to him and he tests him.

He calls him Abraham. And Abraham says, kinei ni? Here I am. It's not meant to communicate the idea I'm over here. I know you don't know where I am. But it's more, I'm at your service. I'm at your service.

This isn't the first time that Abraham has responded to God's call. But he could not have had any idea of what God was about to say to him. Now I want you to keep something in mind as we hear what God says to Abraham.

Remember in the exodus. It's going to come later, but it's a good illustration of this. Remember in the plagues, some of the plagues made a clear differentiation between the land of Goshen and the Jewish people and the Egyptians.

God made a clear differentiation. He was bringing judgment upon the Egyptians, but then they could look over where the Jews are and they're not going through what is happening to the Egyptians. But, but, what was the last plague?

The firstborn. The firstborn. And what would have happened to any Jewish family if they had not followed God's instructions, offered the sacrifice, and put the blood upon the lentils of the Dorpos? Their firstborn would have died as well.

You see, the concept is the firstborn belongs to the Lord. The firstborn must be redeemed, purchased back. The firstborn belongs to the Lord. You say, well, Isaac's not Abraham's firstborn. Yes, he is.

Well, Ishmael is a true son, in a sense, but not the son of promise. And so listen to those words now that God says to him. God said to him, and this is the order of the Hebrew. It's a very unusual Hebrew syntax here, but I think there's a reason for it.

Take your son, your only son, whom you love. It's not take Isaac and then all the descriptions. Take your son, your unique son, the one you love. Offer him up as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will indicate to you.

We hear those words, and we cannot help but immediately ask ourselves the question, what was Abraham's response? All we're told, all we're told is that there is an immediate response of obedience. Rising early in the morning, Abraham prepared his donkey.

An immediate response of obedience. And you and I go, argued with God about Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, what if he finds 50? What if he finds 40? Couldn't he have gone, well, Lord, you know, I've got a lot of servants.

I have huge flocks. I mean, I could offer for you lambs and bulls that would cover the countryside with blood and carcasses. I could do it. How about that, Lord? How about that? He could have said, I have servants.

They have children. There's one over there. I've never really liked that guy. Something... Nothing. Nothing. We want paragraphs inserted between verses 2 and 3. We really do. We want to at least know more about what that night was like.

There's no response from Abraham other than doing what God said. And the silence is deafening to us. It's just deafening to us. And some people would say, it's so deafening. We have to know. We have to enter in here, because otherwise, how can this story really have meaning to us?

Because we just have so many questions. What was Abraham thinking? I mean, just think of some of the questions. Did Sarah know? Sarah know? It's pretty easy for me to come to the conclusion, no. I think the donkey would have had four broken legs the next morning or something if Sarah had known.

It doesn't tell anybody. Sarah doesn't seem to know, and I have to wonder what it was like when she found out when they got back. The servants don't know. The servants are left behind, because I don't think they would have been with this program either.

I think when he started reaching for that knife, the servants would be going, whoa, whoa, sir, Abraham, sir, getting a little old there, sir. Not thinking real straight, sir. Let's restrain you, sir. Servants don't know.

One thing is very obvious. Isaac doesn't know. And it takes three days to get there. Could Abraham have found some excuse some way out during those 72 hours? Was he praying? Was he begging God for a reprieve?

There's just nothing between verses 2 and 3. I looked. Tried to find something there. Nothing there. But there's a reason for that. You see, if there was a bunch of stuff between 2 and 3, I just don't know that this story would have the value to us that it does, because it's in struggling with it.

It's in trying to put ourselves in this situation and trying to hear and trying to understand. I think we really enter into the fullness of it. You see, Abraham knew this was a miracle son. He knew that Sarah could not give birth.

Hadn't been able to do that for decades. And yet, there's Isaac. God Himself had showed up to say, I'm going to give you this child. God Himself had told him, I am going to bless all the nations of the earth through this son.

The very same God that told him about what was going to be happening to Sodom and Gomorrah, and so they've got their little back and forth, told him, I'm going to bless the earth through this son. And Abraham stood out upon the hillside and watched that smoke ascending from Sodom and Gomorrah.

Talked a lot. This God who has called me. He is the maker of heaven and earth and He is absolutely truthful in everything He does. See, what the writer of the Hebrews is telling us is that Abraham, every step he takes toward Moriah, every step is motivated by the faith he has that God is the God of truth and He has said, I'm going to bless the earth through this son.

So whatever is going to happen on that mountain, God gave me this miracle child and He can take this miracle child if He tells me to do so. I have His word that this blessing is going to take place. And so, you know what?

This miracle child is going to be raised from the dead. This miracle child is going to be raised from the dead. He has faith. Rising early in the morning, Abraham prepared his donkey, grabs two servants along with Isaac, his son, prepares wood for the burnt offering.

He sets out to the place which God indicated. He obeys immediately. And for three days, I don't know what the conversations were like. Were there questions about, well, we've offered offerings to God many times, you know, right where we live, Abraham.

Well, God has appointed a place. God wants us to go to a particular place. Okay? Long journey. But we need to worship God the way He says we worship. And where He says we worship. Now, am I simply reading too much into the text to see that third day as important?

Maybe I am. If I am, it's because of 1 Corinthians 15. Remember 1 Corinthians 15? The summary of the gospel right at the beginning? It says that on the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures.

Now, I have said that I think the according to the Scriptures thing there has to do with the resurrection. It's not necessarily saying that the Old Testament said the third day. But, at the same time, if that is what Paul is indicating, if he is saying that both the resurrection and even the timing of it is in accordance with Scriptural witness, and I look at the Old Testament, of any possible reference, this seems to be the best.

It seems to be almost the only one. That is that there was this third day. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And if, as many scholars think, this is the Temple Mount, or Calvary itself, as you know, you can see the two.

They are right next to each other. If this is, in fact, the Temple Mount, then third day, Temple Mount, offering, wood, too many things to be dismissed as mere coincidence. But you also have that period of time between God's command and you have three days of obedience.

On the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And so what does he do? He's not bringing the servants along. Abraham said to his servants, stay here with the donkey. I and the lad will go there and worship and will return again to you.

I'm going to take my son. You stay here. We're going to go to the place. There it is. It's on the horizon there. That's where God has told me to go. I'm not sure how God told him that. God had gotten him out of the Ur of the Chaldees so he can somehow give decent directions.

Lad and I will go there and we will worship. Does it bother you just a little bit that Abraham considers this worship? It shouldn't, but it probably does. Obedience and worship go hand in hand. Abraham knows this God and he knows that he has the right to ask of him anything.

And so I and the lad will go there and worship and we will return again to you. I think this is again where the writer of the Hebrews is getting his information. Abraham believes that God can raise the dead.

He is fully intent upon doing what God has commanded him to do, but he's doing so within the context of accepting all that God has said and that this son will be the one through whom the world is blessed.

So we will return again to you. ...thing that he can see in front of him because notice it then says, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son and took in his hand the fire and the knife and the two of them walked together.

He takes the knife. He takes the wood for the fire. Burnt offering. He's not playing here. And again, it just strikes me with tremendous weight. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac.

Jesus bears his cross to the place of sacrifice. That wood, he bears himself. Isaac bears the wood. And Abraham put it upon him. The Father put it upon his son. What's Isaiah 53? He's laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

I mean, it's just astounding. Especially because the one incident that even the most skeptical scholars in the world will admit is undoubtedly historical was the crucifixion of Jesus. How it happened.

Why it happened. Things like that. Does anyone know when, and again, let's just go at it from a liberal perspective here. Even if you look at all this in Genesis as having been something that Moses didn't write and all the rest of that stuff, it still long predates Jesus.

And it could not have possibly been written by someone who could have known how the Romans were going to do something under Pontius Pilate hundreds of years later. It couldn't. And so the skeptics recognize this is before Jesus.

The skeptics recognize this is how Jesus died. And yet, look at that. It fits together like a glove. How did that happen? Well, we don't know because we're skeptics. We don't believe. Even when there's stuff like this right in front of us.

It's amazing. Abraham takes the wood for the burnt offering and lays it upon Isaac. What was he thinking? Carry this, son. He took his hand to fire. Normally it would be a smoldering thing that they would use and allow you to start fires fairly easily and keep it in a pot.

The knife and the two of them walk together. Well, they still have a little ways to go, evidently. I can just imagine them walking along and Isaac says to Abraham, Father? And he says, Here I am, my son.

There's he, me, me again. Here I am, my son. He said, See the fire and the wood. But, Where is the lamb for the offering? That was a perfectly logical question to ask. I mean, Abraham didn't bring a bow.

He didn't bring a spear. He didn't bring any hunting implements with him. And so, it's a pretty logical question to ask and I would imagine even the servants that had that question earlier were they just afraid to go, Have you forgotten something?

We just don't know. But as they're getting closer, I can imagine Isaac goes, Well, Dad, you've made preparations for everything except for the most important part. Where's the lamb for the offering? Are you going to do a little hunting beforehand?

But you've only got the sacrificial knife. I mean, how is this going to work? And Abraham's response to him, again, can either be read mechanistically like he's just a robot going through the motions if you want to just avoid the depth of the text.

But we don't want to do that. So we hear his response, God will provide for Himself the lamb for the offering, my son. And they walked on together. Now this term, provide, you know, some of you who have grown up in this church may have never heard the phrase Jehovah Jireh.

It's a popular phrase in certain worship choruses. We did for a while have the red Trinity hymnal and we had Pastor Frye's favorite hymn which we don't have anymore. What was that one again? The kids that always requested and I could just see the look on Pastor Frye's face.