Gen 22:1-19 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Isaac was born: “Abraham was one hundred years old when his son, Isaac, was born to him” (Gen 21:5). God told Abraham, “your offspring will be named through Isaac” (Gen 21:12).
This is the last lesson about Abraham. At its very start, the passage tells the reader something: “After these things, God tested Abraham” (v. 1).
1After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
2He said, “Now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”
3Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey; and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.
4On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.
5Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there. We will worship, and come back to you.”
6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.
7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, “My father?” He said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
8Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they both went together.
9They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.
10Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.
11The LORD’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
12He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
13Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
14Abraham called the name of that place “The LORD Will Provide”. As it is said to this day, “On the LORD’s mountain, it will be provided.”
15The LORD’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky,
16and said, “‘I have sworn by myself,’ says the LORD, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
18All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’”
19So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.
God tested Abraham. “After these things, God tested Abraham” (v. 1). That line is told to the reader; what Abraham heard was only God calling his name, and he answered, “Here I am” (v. 1).
One of the mountains. God said, “Now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of” (v. 2). In Lesson 1, the LORD sent him out of Haran “to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1). This time too, God does not say beforehand where.
Early in the morning. “Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey; and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him” (v. 3). “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off” (v. 4). He said to the young men, “The boy and I will go over there. We will worship, and come back to you” (v. 5). The passage does not say what he was thinking; it records only his words.
They both went together. The wood was laid on Isaac, and Abraham “took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together” (v. 6). Isaac asked, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (v. 7). Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (v. 8). Once more the passage says, “So they both went together” (v. 8).
Here I am. At the place, Abraham built the altar, laid the wood, “bound Isaac his son” (v. 9), and “stretched out his hand, and took the knife” (v. 10). “The LORD’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’” — and again he said, “Here I am” (v. 11). The angel said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him” (v. 12).
The LORD Will Provide. “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns” (v. 13); he took the ram and “offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son” (v. 13). He named the place “The LORD Will Provide”; “As it is said to this day, ‘On the LORD’s mountain, it will be provided’” (v. 14).
Like the stars of the heavens. The angel called a second time: “I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore” (v. 17), and “All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice” (v. 18). In Lesson 2, he had looked up at the stars outside his tent (Gen 15:5). The last line of this passage is: “So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba” (v. 19).
The place Abraham went was “the land of Moriah” (v. 2). Many years later, the name appears again: “Then Solomon began to build the LORD’s house at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah” (2 Chr 3:1).
Readers can see this: the saying “On the LORD’s mountain, it will be provided” (v. 14) went on being said in Israel; and the mountain where they built the temple was also called Moriah.
This lesson is not asking you to offer up your child, and it does not say God will surely ask you to give up what you love most.
What it shows you is this: Abraham walked three days without knowing what would happen on the mountain; when Isaac asked where the lamb was, he said, “God will provide himself the lamb” (v. 8). Perhaps you, too, are walking a road whose end you cannot see.
This week: Write down one thing whose outcome you cannot see, and beside it write ‘The LORD Will Provide.’ Pray about it once each day this week — not asking to see the answer right away, only saying, ‘God will provide.’
The New Testament speaks of this: “By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his only born son” (Heb 11:17), “concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead” (Heb 11:19).
The angel told Abraham, “All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring” (Gen 22:18). Paul says: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, ‘To descendants’, as of many, but as of one, ‘To your offspring’, which is Christ” (Gal 3:16).
God spoke of the promise to Abraham’s offspring in more than one place (Gen 12:7; 13:15; 17:8; 22:18), and Paul does not say which one he is quoting. These are simply read side by side: from Lesson 1’s “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:3) to Paul’s “which is Christ” (Gal 3:16).
Scripture: World English Bible.