The sacrifice of Isaac is a challenging story for most of us, myself included. Our tendency may be to read our modern context back into a 4,000-year-old story. From that perspective, God seems to endorse child sacrifice? Is he really like one of the gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, the land from which Abraham came. Is that the lesson the Bible is teaching us or is something else at play?
Once we consider that there may be a different interpretation to the story, we are still left with a nagging question. Let me try to articulate it.
It seems like the “Binding of Isaac” is out of place. Every time I’ve read this story, it doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the narrative about Abraham and Sarah. How does Abraham sacrificing his son connect to the rest of Abraham’s journey? I believe the answer lies in Sarah’s inability to have children. Her barrenness perfectly fits the Abraham narrative and connects back to the garden story two millennia before and the garden story two millennia in the future.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…Gen 3:16 (KJV)
Multiplied Sorrows
Sarah’s barrenness is key to unlock this mystery. Before the journey to Canaan began the text states that Sarah was barren, she had trouble, hardship, and sorrow in conceiving. From that point forward every time the family traveled to a different location, one obstacle remained-barrenness.
Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Gen. 11:30
Moses (author of Genesis) really wants us to understand this point about Sarah. Using a very short sentence and repeating the point twice, she has no offspring; in fact, she can’t get pregnant. No matter how much they try, it’s not going to happen.
When they traveled to Haran, the issue comes up again, but this time it is from God’s perspective.
…”and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Gen. 12:3
All the evidence says, “Abraham and Sarah, you will not have children of your own.” But then God speaks, “Oh, but you will, in fact you will have so many offspring that the whole earth will be blessed by them.”
Maybe we’d be thinking, “Lord, can we talk about this? You do know that my wife is 90 years old. We’ve been trying to have children for 70 years, the odds don’t seem to be in our favor; we can’t even produce one child.”
The caravan left Haran and was traveling through Canaan when God brought up Abraham’s offspring once again.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. Gen. 12:7
It seems God won’t let this offspring issue rest, but now he added something else to the promise. First God said that all the earth would be blessed by his children, but now he’s also going to give us this land. Maybe he thought, “I know you’re a great and powerful God, but the only thing that has changed is our location: Mesopotamia to Haran and now Canaan. And Sarah is still infertile, we still have no children.”
Later there was a terrible famine in Canaan. To survive, Abraham’s family moved to Egypt for provisions. While there Sarah was taken and held in Pharaoh’s harem. If by some miraculous event she were to become pregnant, her child would belong to Pharaoh. What could be done; this is disastrous?
But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Gen. 12:17-18
Sometime later, while Abraham and Sarah were back from Egypt and after he and his nephew Lot separated their herds, the Almighty spoke again about offspring. But this time he added even more detail.
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”
Gen. 13:14-17(ESV)
How might we have responded, “Lord, this is incredible. All the land that I can see and every place I walk will belong to my descendants forever. There is just one little thing, and I really hate to keep bringing this up. Uhm, you remember my wife Sarah, well, she still can’t get pregnant.”
Connecting The Promised Child To The Covenant
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Gen 15:1 ESV
Let’s pause here. After what things?
Abraham and 318 of his men had just chased down and defeated the 4 kings with their armies. These marauders had been plundering the land and taking hostages. After securing a tremendous victory, Abraham encountered Melchizedek, a foreshadowing figure of the Messiah, which we will discuss another time. And then God speaks again with the following words, “fear not Abram…”
It was after a battle, a rescue and a strange encounter with a mysterious priest-king from Salem, that the Most High once again adds more detail to the offspring promise. Earlier, God had promised his offspring would be a blessing, that they would inherit the land of Abraham’s wandering, now God promises to be his shield and provide him a great reward.
“Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Gen. 15:1-6(ESV)
This seems to be the first hint of a complaint from Abraham. You keep making promises, but what will you give me? I’m still without a son, and a foreigner will inherit my house. Oh, by the way, Sarah is still barren.
This conversation between God and Abraham is the setup for the Abrahamic covenant. It has been evident from the beginning that Abram and Sarah have no power in themselves to bring about a family tree. The covenant between the two Yahweh figures (firepot and torch) establishes the promise of numerous offspring and a homeland will only be accomplished by the divine power of the Most High fulfilling the covenant terms (the covenant is described in Gen. 15:7-20).
Notice the verses immediately preceding the covenant ritual.
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” Gen. 15:13-16
In these passages, God connects the offspring promise to the land promise. In other words, the offspring that he doesn’t have will possess the land that he doesn’t have.
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates… Gen. 15:18
But now at least Abraham has a clue. The promises for offspring, land, shield, and reward will be fulfilled through a mysterious covenant between two divine entities – emblems of fire as he witnessed them (a firepot and blazing torch).
Covenant – The Fine Print
If you have been tracking along, you must read Genesis chapter 17. God and Abraham finally have a face-to-face meeting, and we get some details on how this is going to work out.
- Your age is not an obstacle to God.
- The promise is based on the covenant we made. Remember who made the covenant (firepot and torch). These are everlasting beings making an everlasting covenant.
- You and your male offspring will carry the sign of the covenant(circumcision) for all generations.
- Your names will be changed to Abraham and Sarah
- The covenant is for descendants and land.
Finally! Time For A Baby Shower
Sarah is having a baby! God, you did it, even in our old age.
Perhaps Abraham and Sarah are finally relieved. Thanks be to God; this whole thing about a promised son, promised land, fighting enemies, traveling from place to place is over. Let’s just settle down, enjoy life, and raise our son before we die.
That would be a nice Hallmark ending, but that’s not how the story goes.
Breaking the Bad News
All of this “back and forth” between Abraham and God about a promised child. Maybe he thought, “There’s no way I can tell Sarah what God is asking me to do; it will crush her, but I have no other choice.”
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Gen. 22:2(ESV)
As they walked to the mount of sacrifice, a conversation between father and son is captured in the text.
And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. Gen. 22:7(ESV)
Conclusion
Abraham has learned who this God is. He makes promises, and he keeps those promises. If he has me sacrifice my son, he must have a way to bring him back to life, because he promised that my offspring, from my own body, will possess the land.
God, on the other hand, is after something in Abraham. He is leading Abraham to a place of complete trust and surrender to his word. God has made these promises about offspring, about land, about protection and reward; but now he wants me to offer up that which is the answer to the promise he gave. In a sense, we might say that God is intentionally putting Abraham into a dilemma so that he can prove himself beyond any doubt. Even if Isaac dies, God will resurrect him. Abraham could not possibly understand the larger story being written through these circumstances; we can barely understand them four thousand years later.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. Hebrews 11:17-19
The Lord then demonstrates how all of this will happen. Yes, Abraham, your descendants will be blessed and multiplied, and kings will come from you. And yes, all the land of Canaan will be given to your descendants as an everlasting possession. But you must know and understand that you have no power in your own body to make these things happen. It is a divine work that will only be completed by the smoking firepot and blazing torch, it will be a work done by the Godhead.
This is why Jesus, the night before his crucifixion, in the garden of Gethsemane spoke these words:
Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
Mat 26:53-54 ESV
Abraham carried the fire for the sacrifice, and now the ram is caught in the thicket. These are divine images for our Heavenly Father and his Son who together “cut covenant” on the cross at the ancient site of Mount Moriah. It was the sacrificial ram in the fire of judgment that foreshadowed the lamb of God thousands of years later on that same mountain. And it is the same eternal Abrahamic covenant that is still at work today, stronger than ever, because it was made by two eternal beings.
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