The Test Has Arrived Genesis 22:13-24

The Qur'an and the Bible on the Near-Sacrifice of Abraham's Son

Last week, what we talked about was how the near-sacrifice of Abraham's son shows up in both the Bible and the Qur 'an. The Qur 'an is the holy book of Islam. And what's interesting is that this story fits in one book, but it doesn't fit in the other.

Because the near-sacrifice of Abraham's son is a story of a substitutionary sacrifice, where one sacrifice takes the place of another. Which, of course, is a major theme in the pages of scripture. But in the Qur 'an, in the religion of Islam, it doesn't really fit, but it's in there.

And I found it interesting that last week, actually, when I mentioned that they celebrate an annual holiday, that was actually last week, which was interesting, the timing of it. I didn't even know that when I preached this sermon.

But the reason I point this out is to show that the Bible has a cohesiveness to it, a unity to it, from beginning to end. There's a reason that God gave Abraham this test, and not another test. And what we're going to see today is that reason is this substitutionary sacrifice, that a sacrifice had to take place.

And if one wasn't going to be sacrificed, then another had to be sacrificed. And so today's sermon is part two of the sermon that we started last week. And we did point one last week. And point one focused on the first part of verses 9 through 12, and that focused on the test of Abraham.

And the proposition of our sermon is the near sacrifice of Isaac holds eternal truths that we must clearly see. And we saw the first biblical truth last week. And the first truth was that the Lord desired to show his trustworthiness through Abraham's obedience.

The Lord gave Abraham a tremendous test here. This son that they waited for for so long. And now the Lord told them, take him to this place and sacrifice him. And Abraham was able to do what he did because his faith had increased to a point where he trusted the Lord.

He knew the solid rock that the Lord was. So that was the first eternal truth. The second eternal truth in point two here is the Lord desired to show that a sacrifice was necessary. And we'll see this in verses 13 and 14.

Now we just saw that Isaac was very close to being sacrificed. The burnt offering was ready. The altar was ready. The wood was laid and Isaac was bound. Abraham had the knife and Abraham had the fire ready to be lit.

But the Lord stopped him from going through with the sacrifice of Isaac. So did they pack everything up and leave? To go home? No. There still needed to be a sacrifice. The Lord provided that sacrifice as we see in the first half of verse 13.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So we see that in verse 13. And I forgot to mention at the beginning, if you'd like to follow along in the Red Bibles, in the pews, it's on page 19. We always encourage people to follow along as we go through this text together.

So this is where we need to ask the question, why did God tell Abraham specifically to offer up Isaac in the first place? We saw last week that this is not the first burnt offering in Genesis. Burnt offerings took place for two purposes.

One was as praise to God. The other reason was to atone for sins. Another way to say atone is a payment for sins. To pay the penalty for sins. When Noah offered the burnt offering in Genesis 8 verses 20 and 21, this was meant to satisfy God's wrath.

The Lord had just destroyed the earth through a flood for the earth's wickedness. And whatever wrath was left was satisfied through Noah's burnt offering sacrifice. Verse 21 of that chapter says,. So God's anger toward sinners was appeased when that sacrifice was offered.

So the purpose of the offering was to show that there needed to be a sacrifice for sins. This is called by theologians, as I already mentioned, a substitutionary atonement. The position that I take is the meaning of the sacrifice on Moriah is a substitutionary atonement.

It's not just meant as a praise to God. It's the other meaning of a burnt sacrifice. And we can say this for two reasons. The first is what the second half of verse 13 says. The second half of verse 13 says,.

So a ram was offered up instead, in place of Isaac. What does this mean? One is spared, and the other is not. The ax falls on one, but does not fall on the other. Another reason we can say that atonement for sins is one of the purposes of the burnt offering is by looking at the larger context of scripture.

Leviticus 1 .4 says,. And it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Anytime you see that word atonement show up, it's talking about this substitutionary sacrifice. And atonement means that there needs to be a payment for sins because God is a just God.

And that's why this account doesn't fit in the Quran. But it does fit in the Bible. It fits the larger context of the narrative of scripture. God can't just forgive sins. There needs to be justice. I mentioned last week that justice takes place in two places.

Either in hell, or at the cross of Jesus Christ. God's holy character demands this. One of the main purposes of this test for Abraham was to show that a sacrifice for sins is needed. And this pointed ahead to the sacrificial system according to the law of Moses that you see throughout the Old Testament.

Because you might read all that and wonder, what's the purpose of all of this? It's to show the need for a substitution to pay for sins. And most of all, most importantly, this points ahead to the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

That's the whole point of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament is to explain that these sacrifices were just a shadow. They were a picture of this need for Jesus Christ to be sacrificed. To pay for every sin's past, present, future.

Jesus was sacrificed on the cross because the salvation of the world depended on it. You can see the deeper meaning of this passage. If the Lord did not want us to see this, but to merely see Abraham undergo a test, he would have tested him in some other way.

But what I submit to you is that the reason that he gave him this test was to show the readers the need for a substitutionary sacrifice. This points ahead to Jesus. That's what's so amazing about the Old Testament.

Sometimes people make the mistake of trying to find Jesus in every word. There he is! We can make that mistake of trying to find him in too many places. But when there's a clear reference pointing ahead to him, we need to bring that out in the pages of Scripture.

Hebrews 10, 11, and 12 says,. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

And he was able to sit down because his work was done. The payment was done. When Christ died on the cross, he said, It is finished. It's over. And Jesus is the sacrifice. We need to see this in the narrative in the sacrifice of Isaac.

The Lord shows that there needed to be a sacrifice. Aram took Isaac's place. But this pointed ahead to the one who would take all of our place. Jesus took our place at Golgotha when he was sacrificed to pay for the sins of anyone who would believe in him.

If you have trusted in Christ, the payment for your sins has been made. God's wrath has been satisfied. And God is forever in favor of you. How wonderful that is. I've heard someone describe the illustration as like the Chronicles of Narnia with Aslan, the lion.

If you're on Aslan's bad side, it's a terrifying sight. This ferocious lion. But if you're on Aslan's good side, how wonderful it is. This gentle lion who's protecting you, who's in your favor. As a Christian, it's like being on that side of God.

His favor is upon you. He's all-powerful. But he's not going to punish you for your sins. He's only going to protect you and keep you secure in him. Through a sacrifice for sins, the Lord is also able to maintain his justice.

As I mentioned, Romans 3 .26, as I read in the call to worship, he is just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. If God just forgave us our sins and didn't require a payment for sins, he would not be worthy of our worship.

Because that would show a major flaw in his character. And it's offensive to say this in our culture, but the God of Islam is a false God who's not worthy of our worship. And I think it's important to bring this out as we look at why justice needs to take place for us to receive entrance into God's kingdom.

And Abraham names this location, what he does to show that the Lord provides in verse 14. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

Abraham names this mount where the sacrifice took place, the Lord will provide. For obvious reasons. The author Moses writes this to point out that the Lord provided a sacrifice that would atone for sins.

And people, as they would look at this place, would say, the Lord provides. And all of this points ahead to the precious truth that the Lord provides the sacrifice that all humans need for their sins.

And this is a wonderful reality when you think about it, how every one of us will die one day. But you can die in peace. You can die without fear if you belong to Christ. And if you don't belong to Jesus, there is no peace.

And it's a terrifying reality to face the living God. And so every week when I get up here to preach, it's a warning. Are you in Christ? Do you belong to him? Are you saved? We need to ask that question.

Because the offer is there for you to have this sacrifice count for you forever. The near sacrifice of Isaac holds eternal truths that we must clearly see. The second biblical truth is the Lord's desire to show that a sacrifice was necessary.

The Lord Swears by Himself to Keep the Abrahamic Covenant

The third biblical truth that we see in this text is that he keeps his promises to the faithful. He keeps his promises to the faithful. We'll see this in verses 15 through 19. What we have seen in Genesis is that the best terminology for the Abrahamic covenant, which God established many chapters ago, the best terminology for the Abrahamic covenant is that it is a unilateral covenant.

It's common for people to say that this covenant is an unconditional one, meaning that Abraham didn't have to do anything to share in this covenant. But this terminology is not the best because Abraham had to be obedient in order for this covenant to happen.

Remember, a covenant is a promise. The Lord says, I'm going to do this, and I can't break it. But in order for Abraham to share in this promise, to enjoy this promise, he has to do something. Now, a unilateral covenant was seen in the ancient Near East at this time, and it was seen when a ruler would grant an inferior vassal a gift of some type.

But it takes two for this covenant to take place. If Abraham had abandoned the Lord, of course the Lord would no longer bless him with this promise. The Lord made this covenant to bless his faithful servant.

We need to understand this as we look at the following verses. I'm going to read here verses 15 through the beginning of verse 17. And the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

After telling Abraham to offer the ram instead of his son, the angel of the Lord calls to Abraham again, and the Lord swears an oath. He reaffirms the promise that he made long ago. You'll notice that the Lord swears by himself.

Sadly, in our culture, we hear people say, I swear to God. You hear that a lot. And typically people who say that, they're not very holy people. They're very profane people. To say, I swear to God, is to take the Lord's name in vain.

And that goes against the third commandment, which Exodus 27 prohibits us from doing. But why do people say, I swear to God? They do it because they are claiming to another person that God is their witness.

That they are telling the truth. If I can get God on my side, then of course they're going to believe me. But of course, God would not vouch for such a person to use this to sinfully persuade them to believe something they said.

Because typically when people say that, they're not telling the truth. It's usually a red flag. Get ready, this isn't going to be the truth. But who does God swear to? Is anyone higher than God? No. He swears to himself.

Because there's no one above him. Of course, if God had to swear to someone else, right, he wouldn't be God. But because he swears to himself, he shows that there's no one above him. It's not as if Mark, is Mark here?

I like to use Mark as my prop. Mark doesn't swear to himself, right? Because there's someone above you. God's above you. But God swears to himself. The Lord explains to Abraham that because he was obedient by offering up his son Isaac, he would bless him.

And the Lord says he's going to keep this. He swears to himself, this is going to happen. The promise the Lord specifically focuses on is blessing his offspring. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son at the Lord's command.

And now the Lord says, I am going to fulfill my promise to you. That through Isaac, there will be so many offspring, that there will be as many as the stars in the heavens. Or the sand on the seashore.

There's going to be so many, you won't be able to count them. The Lord also highlights that this offspring will not be a pushover at the end of verse 17. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

The Hebrew word for offspring can be both a singular or a plural. And it depends on the context, how it's being used. The offspring at the end of verse 17 is best to be taken as a singular. And of course the offspring at the beginning of 17, that describes the stars in the heavens, that of course is taken as a plural.

But the end of verse 17 should be taken as a singular. Because the Hebrew says his enemies, not their enemies. Some translations say their enemies, but that's not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew is actually singular.

So the better translation is his enemies. So one offspring is in mind here at the end of verse 17. What scripture shows is that God established a chosen line that brings blessing to the whole world. From this chosen line comes Jesus Christ.

This line started with Seth back in Genesis 5. And it goes all the way to Jesus. You see how this line is traced? It goes from Seth, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David, all the way to Christ. You see that it's traced all the way through the Old Testament.

And remember, Genesis 3 .15, which some people say is the gospel beforehand. It's called the proto-gospel. Genesis 3 .15, it says that he, singular, shall bruise the head of the serpent who is Satan.

Excuse me. The offspring of Genesis 3 .15 has Jesus chiefly in mind. He is the one who brings salvation to the world and defeats Satan and his offspring. And all those united to Jesus defeat the devil as well.

In that way, he possesses the gate of his enemies. So, as we look at this verse, he shall possess the gate of his enemies. The Messiah, Jesus, is in mind. And of course, we share in this because we are united to him as well.

Jesus is also the offspring of Abraham that brings blessing to the nations. Verse 18a, it says, And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Galatians 3 .7 -9 says, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

The nations, and that includes us in Eureka, are blessed through the one offspring. That is Jesus. He is the linchpin that holds this offspring together. Because without him, there is no offspring. That's why Galatians 3 .16, when the Apostle Paul mentions this, he mentions the singular, he emphasizes the singular aspect of the offspring.

He says, it doesn't say offsprings, it says offspring. And he says that to show that Jesus is the crucial offspring that holds all of the offspring together. He's the one who unites it all. He's the one who brings us to God.

Both Jew and Gentile. All of these promises are wonderful. That he's made to his children. That he's made to his offspring. And God cannot break them, he swears by himself. This promise is to Abraham, and this offspring is to us.

The Lord said he would have offspring, and we are that offspring. It is those who are of faith, whether it be ethnic Israel or the church. Because of course, in the New Testament, we see the Jews were saying, you know what, these promises are for us.

And it's true, they were for them, but they would only get to share in the eternal promises that God has made if they believed in their Messiah. And so many of them did not. And that's the tragedy of it, is that they did not get to share in these great promises that God made to Abraham long ago.

The blessing that we receive from Abraham is salvation. We are saved by Abraham's offspring, Jesus, and we become his offspring. The only way that Abraham was able to know that this promise was sure from the Lord was his willingness to believe and follow the Lord.

The end of verse 18 says, Because you have obeyed my voice, these promises are yours. As I mentioned earlier, if Abraham had abandoned the Lord, he would not have these blessings for himself or his people who would come from him, his future offspring, including us.

The same goes for us. If you have yet to believe in Jesus Christ, the promise of being Abraham's offspring is not yours. The promise of salvation is not yours. The promise of eternal life is not yours.

If you belong to Jesus, then all of these wonderful promises of the Lord revealed in Scripture are yours. But if you do not belong to him, then you cannot have hope on these promises. You need to believe.

And how do we know that it's true belief? It's the test of time, right? How do we know that this building was built well? It's the test of time. I mentioned this last week. Ninety-six years old, this building has been here.

We know. We don't have to ask, were they good carpenters? We know they were good carpenters, right? How do we know someone's faith is real? Does it last? If you start with the Lord and fall away and never come back, these promises of forever being reconciled to God are not yours.

Once you believe in Christ and the Holy Spirit is given to you, you cannot fall away. So that means that if you do fall away and never come back, you were never saved to begin with. You never had the Holy Spirit.

He's described as a seal. Some translations say he's a deposit. He's given to you and he can never be taken away. So you see people fall away, it just means they never had Christ to begin with. And 1 John 2 .19 says that.

They went out from us to prove that they were not of us. Because if they continued with us, that would prove that they were with us. As John writes that to the church there. So I stress to you, if you have not believed in Christ, you must believe in him.

I also stress that if you do not finish the race of following Jesus, these promises are not yours. Abraham receiving these wonderful promises were contingent on him, trusting the Lord and doing what the Lord told him.

The same goes for us. We must be his and we must continue to follow him to share in his wonderful promises. And by the way, we have this sense where we want to relax. We want to know, okay, I'm good. I can just kick up my legs because I'm going to heaven.

It's human nature to just want to relax. But what I want to say to you is an encouragement, is that if you see fruit in your life, if you see the Lord working in your life, if you see your desires for the Lord being strong, if you know truly that you love the Lord more than anything, you can be confident that you are saved.

God doesn't want us to always question whether we're saved. He wants us to have assurance. And by the way, that's why the letter of 1 John was written. 1 John 5 .13 says that you may know that you have eternal life.

And it gives litmus tests to know whether we are saved. And in the men's Bible study on Saturday mornings every month, we're going through that letter. And it's good to do that. God wants us to know that we belong to him.

So we should be encouraged if we see fruit in our life. But the point is, is that you will persevere over the long haul. And if you do, these promises are yours. And what is so great about this is that these promises come from the one who cannot break a promise.

So it's not as if, okay, I'm going to walk with the Lord my whole life, and then somehow he's going to change his mind and say, you know what, I'm not going to give him what I promised. No, the Lord can't break his promises.

Hebrews 6 .18 says that it is impossible for God to lie. We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. If you belong to Christ, these eternal promises that the Lord has made to you belong to you.

And you can be sure that God's word is always true. He's going to keep his promises. He swore an oath to himself that he cannot break. Now, after hearing this wonderful news, after Abraham's obedience, he returns to the young men who were down from the mountain, who had accompanied him.

And this is what verse 19 says. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba. So Abraham and his son Isaac, who he didn't have to sacrifice, and now these two men take the 45-mile trek south back to Beersheba.

And, of course, they go to Beersheba because that's where they lived at this time. So this is the third eternal truth that we must hold tightly to here and see clearly. And that truth is that he keeps his promises to the faithful.

He keeps his promises to the faithful. So to summarize this morning, the near sacrifice of Isaac holds eternal truths that we must clearly see. In the last two Sundays, we have seen three biblical truths in this text that we need to hold tightly to.

The first is the Lord's desire to show his trustworthiness through Abraham's obedience. The second is the Lord's desire to show that his sacrifice was necessary, which points ahead, of course, to the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement, which we see in Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us.

And the third truth is he keeps his promises to the faithful. The story on the life of Abraham is slowly coming to a close. And to prepare us for that, the author, Moses, starts to introduce to us major characters who are on the horizon.

In verses 20 through 24, give us a little preview of where we're going to be going. So I'm going to close today by reading these final four verses. Now, after these things, it was told to Abraham, Behold, Milcah also has born children to your brother Nahor.

Uz, his firstborn, Buz, his brother, Chemuel, the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jitlaf, and Bethuel. Bethuel fathered Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Ramo, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tehash, and Maka.

Did you get all that? We're not going to name our child any of those names. That's on the way, just so you know. But anyway, the reason he ends with this is to preview that Jacob, Isaac and Jacob, Jacob, of course, comes from Isaac and Rebekah.

And what's significant is that Jacob is going to be a very significant figure, as we'll see throughout Genesis. And so we spent a lot of time with Abraham. We're also going to spend a lot of time with Jacob as well, down the road.

But as the book is closing on Abraham, we're going to look at Sarah next week as she dies. And what we're going to see is this burial place focuses on the significance of the land the Lord promised to Abraham.

I look forward to looking at that with you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your help each week in guiding us through Genesis. Lord, we can go through tough waters at times. There's a lot to see here.

And Genesis is a big book, and I thank you for sustaining us over the long haul as we've gone through this. And Lord, may we grow to be more like you as a result of this. May people come to know Christ.

If anyone here does not know Jesus, may they come to know Jesus through this. We ask, Lord, that the Spirit would give growth to believers. And the goal, Lord, of our church is that we would be the fourth seed in the parable of the sower, that by patience and hearing the Word of God, we would bear fruit.

And may that take place here. And may those who do not know Christ come to know Him and love Him forever. And it's in His name we pray. Amen.