Transcript

Tim White tells the following: “In the first 15 years of his life, our son Ryan had over 30 surgeries. When he was about eight years old, he was in the hospital for another surgery.

The medical staff had already given him the “Barney Juice,” a purple liquid with something like morphine in it.

The medical staff then began to roll his surgical bed to the operating room. As usual, we accompanied him to the two big doors that led to the place of surgery.

That is where we stopped, and told him all would be okay for the last time before surgery. This day, as we got to the doors and they opened, he sat up in the bed, looked me in the eyes and pleaded, “Dad, don’t leave, don’t let them take me!”

And they wheeled him in. At that moment, my heart was broken. I would have done anything to take him off that bed except for the fact he had to have the surgery. That knowledge didn’t ease the pain in my heart at all.

I just stood there trembling as the doors closed, and he disappeared, and then I broke down into tears. Shortly after, when I was asking God how such a good love could hurt so much, I realized that He had gone through the same thing.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed: Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me. But out of unfathomable love God gave His Son for us.

I allowed the surgeons to take my son for his own good. God allowed the crucifiers to take His Son for our good. That is how much God loves me.

Beginning with this episode of Transformed by Grace, we’ll begin a short series walking through different events and prophecies in the O.T. which foreshadow the Cross of Christ.

In this episode, we’ll look at the account of Abraham taking his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to offer his only son as a sacrifice.

This, of course, prefigures and is a type of the Cross. And in this story, we’ll see the love of God in giving His only Son for our good, and how Christ willingly laid down His life for us.

Genesis 22:1-2: “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”

Verse one tells us that God “tempted Abraham,” which does not mean that He tempted him to do evil, but that He tried him, He tested Abraham’s faith. Talk about a test!

This test of faith would be the greatest test Abraham would ever face. What God asks of Abraham was to do something that would effectively negate all the promises of covenant blessing given to and through Abraham and Isaac.

In Genesis 17:19, God told Abraham: “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.”

In Genesis 21, God had told Abraham to send Ishmael his son away (vv. 12-14), and Abraham obeyed and did it, with difficulty and a broken heart (v. 11).

And now here in chapter 22, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and with greater difficulty and a broken heart, Abraham obeyed God.

Abraham was faced with the question of how God was going to keep His promises to him and whether he would trust God.

And this test of faith involved the true and grievous pain of losing Abraham and Sarah’s only son, whom for years they had longed for and prayed for, and who had miraculously been given to them in their old age.

This test is also a beautiful and breathtaking picture of God giving His only Son for us, of our Lord’s sacrifice at the Cross and His resurrection.

God speaks to Abraham in verse 1 and calls out to him: “Abraham.” Abraham responds, “Here I am.”

The Lord instructs him to take his “son, His only” son, his unique and solitary son, the only son of Sarah, of miraculous birth, the son of promise. And as we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, He too was of miraculous birth, and is God’s Son, His only begotten Son.

This miracle child, this son of his old age, was near to Abraham’s heart and dearly loved, as the Lord knew, telling him to take his “only son, whom thou lovest.”

In John 3:35, Christ says, “The Father loveth the Son.” At Christ’s baptism and transfiguration, God spoke from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Col. 1:13 speaks of Christ as God’s “dear Son,” or lit., the Son of His love.

Then God tells Abraham to take Isaac to “the land of Moriah,” which is the land and mountain range where Jerusalem would later be located.

Years later, when Solomon built the temple, 2 Chronicles 3:1 states, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah.”

Abraham was residing in Beersheba at the time, and this was an arduous journey of about 30 miles to go to the land of Moriah. Now why would God have Abraham go so far rather than do this at home, and to a particular spot He would tell him of?

The reason was that God knew that this would be where Jerusalem and the temple would stand, and where His Son would later die the death of the Cross at Calvary right outside the city walls.

And this sacrifice God asks of Abraham was to foreshadow that sacrifice, the supreme sacrifice for sin by His Son, and thus needed to be offered in the land of Moriah.

God told Abraham to take Isaac to Moriah to offer him there for a burnt offering. The burnt offering was the offering up until the time of the Mosaic law.

The burnt offering under the law was a completely consumed sweet-savor offering to God, symbolizing entire and whole surrender to God, perfect and full devotion to Him.

This was true of Christ at the Cross, offering a completely consumed offering of Himself for us to God, completely and wholly surrendered to God’s will.

As Ephesians 5:2 says, “Christ…hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

Genesis 22:3-6: “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

“Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

“And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.”

The normal human response to such a request to offer your only sin as a sacrifice would be “Why Lord?” We would want or demand an explanation. But as Warren Wiersbe states, “Faith does not demand explanations; faith rests on promises.”

Even though this was a heart-wrenching request, Abraham says nothing, and without question, he immediately obeyed it. Heartbroken, we can be sure, but trusting God.

Abraham knew that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and His will would never contradict His promises. And the promise he held tight to and trusted wholly was the Lord’s promise to him that “in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (21:12).

So Abraham “rose up early” to obey God’s Word, knowing God is faithful to His promises. He saddled his donkey, took 2 servants and Isaac.

In preparation for obeying God’s will and making a burnt offering of fire, Abraham “clave” or split the wood for the offering, and by faith went to the place God instructed him.

The 30-40 mile trip took two full days and part of the third. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place he was to go.

“On the third day” should catch our eye as believers. Regarding this, Henry Morris writes:

Abraham was “fully set to do God’s will, from the moment they started out. Thus, for all practical purposes, Isaac had been dead 3 days. The 3 days of apparent death obviously correspond to the 3 days during which Christ was actually dead.”

Another way to look at this too, is that it was on the third day that Abraham received Isaac alive, back from the dead, as it were.

Seeing the place far off, Abraham stopped, dismounted and told the servants to remain with his donkey, telling them he and Isaac would go “yonder and worship, and come again to you.”

The transaction that was going to take place was only between the father and the son, between Abraham and Isaac. That pictures the Cross as well. The transaction in the payment for all our sins was only between the Father and the Son at the Cross.

Abraham was sure that they would BOTH come back to them. The idea in the original Hebrew is that they would BOTH come back. It’s literally, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and we will BOTH come again to you.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 says this, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

God had told Abraham that Isaac would become a great nation and in him all nations would be blessed. Abraham knew this would take place.

And Isaac had been given to Abraham and Sarah in their old age in a miraculous way, and Abraham was prepared to believe that Isaac would be restored to him again by a miracle. Abraham, therefore, anticipated that God could and would raise him up from the dead.

So according to Hebrews 11, Abraham trusted that God would raise his son Isaac from the dead and that He must do so according to His promises made unto him. Therefore, he told those servants, “We’ll be right back.” And that’s tremendous faith!

In verse 6, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it upon the back of Isaac, and likewise the wood for Christ’s offering at the Cross, was laid upon His back as He both bore the wood for His sacrifice.

John 19:16-17: “And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.”

Also as the burden and weight of wood was laid on Abraham’s son, so a great weight was laid on God’s Son as Isa. 53:6 says, “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

The knife Abraham took pictured the physical instrument of death for his son Isaac. The Cross was the physical instrument of death for God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fire in Abraham’s hand pictured the spiritual judgment of Christ. As Isaac’s father had “fire in His hand” so the Father had the fire of His terrible judgment against sin in His hand which He fully poured out on Christ at the Cross.

Christ experienced the fierce and fiery judgment of God in full measure as He paid for our sins and for the sins of the world.

Verse 6 says “they went both of them together,” which portrays a very touching picture in the sacrifice of Christ. So the Father was with the Son each step as they walked the hill to Golgatha together (II Cor. 5:18).

As heart-wrenching as this was for Abraham with his son which he loved, and would be for any father with their son, so was this case to an infinite degree with God the Father and God the Son, the Son of His love, as He went the Cross.

As the song goes: “How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure.”

God’s justice against sin demanded death, which Christ as our Substitute did for us. While Isaac’s loving father Abraham remained with him, in contrast the Father in His holiness had to forsake His Son at the Cross, when He was made sin for us.

This caused Christ the greatest agony from the Cross causing Him to cry out: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?”

Genesis 22:7-8: “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”

Much of this should tear at our hearts. Isaac innocently questions his father as they ascended the mount, “My father, I see the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Isaac logically wonders where the lamb is for the offering, and Abraham answers carefully at this point telling him, “God will provide Himself a lamb.”

A question which had to add to the anguish he already felt, knowing it was to be his son, Abraham simply says that God would provide the sacrifice and not he.

“Where is the Lamb?” Isaac asks. Centuries later the answer echoed back from John the Baptist: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

“So they went both of them together,” verse 8 says again, and as they go, we see the faith of one and the willing, trusting submission of the other.

Genesis 22:9: “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.”

As they arrive at the place that God had told him of, Abraham carefully arranges and builds an altar and “laid the wood in order.” It was at this time that Isaac was likely told who was to be the lamb for this offering.

Even though he is called a “lad” in v. 5, Isaac was no small boy as seen by the fact of the wood for the offering being laid on him and him carrying it up a mountain.

Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born, and in 23:1 we find that she was 127 when she died. So we know he wasn’t older than 37, and was probably in his 20s or early 30s.

Being of this age, and his father being around 125 and slower and weaker, Isaac could have easily escaped and fled had he wished. But we see the faith of Isaac as well, as he willingly, obediently, submissively allowed himself to be bound and laid on this altar.

In John 18, when the band of men and the officers of the Jews came to arrest Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord asked them who they were seeking. They said “Jesus of Nazareth.” Then the Lord said, “I am He.” As soon as He said, “I am He,” this large group of men all went backward and fell to the ground.

Then John 18:12 says, and I imagine this happening with a good amount of trepidation, “Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound Him.”

Like Isaac, our Savior allowed Himself to be bound. He went willingly to the Cross. He was bound in order that He might set us free from the bondage of our sins.

Isaac allowed himself to be “laid on the altar” by His father. And so as a type of Christ, he was “obedient unto death.” Christ also submitted to the will of His Father, as He said in the Garden the night before His death: “Not my will, but thine be done.”

And as John 10:17,18 says, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”

The Cross was the altar upon which the Lamb of God was offered and He willingly submitted Himself to be nailed to it and hang on it, and stay on that Cross to die for us.

Genesis 22:10-14: “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.”

Once the altar was prepared and his son bound and laid on the altar, Abraham stretched forth his hand, reaching for the knife, took it and was holding it. As we try to place ourselves in Abraham’s place in this difficult moment, it had to be overwhelming.

The father looking at his son, the son gazing at his father, probably both with tears flowing, Abraham took that knife and was absolutely going to slay his son, and as he brought the knife to slay him, at that moment, “the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven.”

The “angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament is the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, and so our wonderful, merciful Savior calls out to him: “Abraham, Abraham,” and stops him. And our Lord tells him to not harm him, to not do anything to him.

Abraham passed the test and had demonstrated that he feared, loved, and trusted God so much that he would not withhold even his only son from Him.

Abraham did not withhold his son like God the Father with His Son, and while God spared Abraham’s son, Romans 8:32 says of God the Father, “He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”

Jason Elam, kicker for the Denver Broncos (Falcons), tells the following stody: A minister told me that a little boy in his congregation had been killed in a car accident.

He was called to the hospital, to visit the parents. The little boy’s father in anguish told him, “If I could have prevented this, I would have.” The minister later realized the power of God’s love through this statement.

Here was a father who said, “If I could have prevented his death, I would have.” Whereas God could’ve said, “I could prevent my Son’s death, but I won’t.” And He didn’t because of His great love for us.

Abraham told Isaac that God will provide Himself a lamb, and God did provide a sacrifice, a ram and not a lamb. The complete fulfillment of this statement and prophecy awaited the true Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Abraham “lifted up his eyes,” for a second time in this passage and saw a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham offered it on the altar “in the stead of his son,” in substitution for his son.

By grace a substitute was provided and died for Isaac. And so by grace a Substitute was provided for us and died for us, as Christ in His vicarious death, took our place, was our Substitute, took our sins on Himself and died for us and for our sins.

Verse 14 says that Abraham called that place “Jehovah-jireh,” or “the Lord will provide,” as God intervened and provided for Abraham and his son, providing a ram, a substitute, to take Isaac’s place on the altar.

He is Jehovah-jireh to us too, providing a glorious Substitute, a Savior for us.

Heb. 11:19 again says, “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure [or in a figurative sense].” Isaac didn’t actually die and rise again, but in a figurative sense he did.

Laying on the altar it was a picture of death, and he had for all practical purposes been dead for 3 days. Then here on the third day, in a figurative sense, when Isaac stood up from the altar, it was a “figure,” a picture of the resurrection and being delivered from death. And all of this is a picture and foreshadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His actual death and actual resurrection from the dead.

I’d like to close this episode with the following meaningful quote about the Cross and our Savior: “He whom none may touch is seized; He who looses Adam from the curse is bound. He who tries the hearts and inner thoughts of man is unjustly brought to trial;

He, before whom the powers of heaven stand trembling, stands before Pilate; The Creator is struck by the hands of His creature. He who comes to judge the living and the dead is judged and condemned to the cross. He who is life is enclosed in a tomb.

O thou who dost endure all these things in thy tender love, Who died to deliver men from the curse of sin, O long-suffering Lord, glory to thee, glory to thee.”