The Gospel Story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah (this post is currently incomplete)

The Gospel Story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah.

“Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. ‘Abraham!’ God called. ‘Yes, here I am,’ he replied. God said, ‘Take your son, your only son who you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” (Genesis 22:1-2). 

This sacred biblical event has been etched into the mind of every observant Jew or Christian for over 4,000 years. Hebrews, holding this moment in special reverence in Judaism, have a special name for this event, “Aqedah” which means binding. Perhaps the clearest reflection of the gospel story reflected in the life of Isaac was the unspeakable drama of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the near sacrifice of the purely innocent teenage boy. Some Jewish traditions maintain that Isaac was probably about 30 years old at this time, which only adds to the drama. Several years after the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, when it seemed like God and Abraham were bosom buddies, God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God suddenly said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham responded in his faithful way, “Here I am.” God asked Abraham to take his teenage son Isaac to a nearby mountain, Mt. Moriah. At the top of the mountain, Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac on an altar for a burnt offering. After Abraham and Sarah waited all those years for their promised child, God asked Abraham to a perplexing and horrific thing. Human sacrifice wasn’t all that uncommon, so despite his profound misgivings, Abraham obeyed God one step at a time and took Isaac to the mountain. There he made the altar, and Isaac cried out, “My father!” And Abraham answered, “Here I am, my son.” There he secured Isaac on the altar and prepared him for sacrifice. One often forgets that Isaac himself had to fully submit to God’s test. What was going on in Isaac’s mind as he was tied to the altar? What was the relationship between father and son after this difficult, agonizing scene? We do know that Abraham reconciled God’s impossible request with the fact that God could certainly raise Isaac from the dead if need be (Hebrews 11:19). How else, in fact, would Abraham’s descendants become as numberless as the stars, if Isaac’s line was cut off so soon? Following the binding of the living, breathing Isaac to the altar, the drama of this unforgettable scene intensifies. “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (22:10). But the Angel of the Lord, who very well could have been the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the Messenger of Yahweh, came to Isaac’s rescue. “The Angel of the Lord had called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” and Abraham once again, as was his habit, answered, “Here I am.” The Angel then instructed Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him!” (22:11-12). The Angel intervened just in the nick of time, saving Isaac from being sacrificed, and confirming Abraham’s deep trust in God. The Angel then spoke to Abraham a second time, repeating the promise made to him so long ago, that there would be countless descendants in Abraham’s line. The Lord then exclaimed that, “In your seed, all the nations of earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (22:18). The Angel’s message was straight from heaven, heard loud and clear by Abraham and Isaac. A ram was then found in a thicket, and this was God’s provision for the burnt offering. Isaac, perhaps still terrified and perplexed, must have been thinking, that could have been me. But God came to the rescue. In due time, Father God would know what it was like to lose a Son, and there would be no rescue that time. The Lamb of God, caught in the thicket of evil and hatred, sacrificed on the altar. It’s not surprising to know that Mt. Moriah is just a stone’s throw from Golgotha. The glorious fact is that Abraham received his son Isaac alive after Isaac had been as good as dead. This was a living parable, for it prefigured the Resurrection of Christ, and it hinted at the future universal resurrection of the dead.

One wonders, though, how that dramatic, historic episode on Mt. Morah impacted Isaac’s life. Think of it… As a young man with his whole life ahead of him, he was stretched out on a sacrificial altar, bound, expected to just lie there submissively like an obedient child. The knife was in his father’s raised hand, ready to slay him, and was only stopped at the last minute by the Son of God, the special heavenly Messenger. What was Isaac thinking during that near-death experience? Was he wondering what he had done so wrong that he would be executed? Was he mystified that the father he loved and trusted would kill him for no apparent reason? Did he doubt the very God that had been so close to his family growing up? If he was at all human, and he was, his whole world must have turned upside-down. He would certainly have been shaken to the core for who knows how long. The question is, did Isaac ever get over his experience on Mt. Moriah with his father? Did it effect his relationship with father Abraham in any way?  Did he have a difficult time trusting his father after this incident? We don’t know, since the Scripture never tells us about this incident from Isaac’s perspective.

(4.) The Blood of the Lamb. Is there any significance in a ram being caught in the bushes there on Mt. Moriah, other than being a suitable replacement for Isaac on the altar? Yes, that part of the story on Moriah is very significant.

The very next day, the Baptizer saw Jesus coming to him to be baptized, and John cried out, ‘Behold! Look! There He is – God’s Lamb who will take away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

When John the Baptist shouted out that Jesus was the Lamb of God, he was referring to the Passover lamb, the defining moment in Jewish history (Exodus 12). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, John is saying that, just as the blood of the perfect, unblemished male lamb provided a way to escape judgment and experience redemption from slavery in Egypt, Jesus will soon provide for redemption through His very own sacrificial blood. The lamb became the primary sacrificial animal in Mosiac Law, a lamb sacrificed in the Temple every morning and evening for the sins of the people (Ex. 29). For centuries, a lamb’s life had to be sacrificed for the penalty of sin. And now the Messiah, Jesus Christ, offering His pure blood as sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

“And now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said,
Here I am.”  (Genesis 22:1).

Hineni (Hebrew word, literal meaning “Behold, I am!” but is generally translated in Bible as “Here I am.”) In Scripture it is a response of someone to someone else asking for attention. It could be a response to God, to an angel, a response of a child to a parent, or a servant to a master. Sometimes it is even a loving response of a parent to a child. The Biblical Here I am means you have my full attention; I am at your service; I am completely available to you; whatever you want, I am all in; I am in total readiness to hear and obey you; I have no hesitation in responding to you. Most of the time in Scripture the person saying Here I am doesn’t yet know what the caller wants from him. So hineni can essentially be a statement of faith. When someone in authority initiates Here I am, such as God, it is a declaration of presence and readiness to speak or act. Generally, hineni is often stated in a pivotal moment of that person’s life. Here I am can just be a casual response to a caller, but it often is an important moment in the life of the person responding.

If we are truly children of Abraham, we should be developing the pattern of saying Here I am in our walk with God. Abraham is the Biblical champion of saying hineni, saying it three times in one chapter alone (Gen. 22). By this time he and God were building on an intimate friendship. Many years earlier, Abraham left his home in Ur at the simple urging of Yahweh, and “Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:4). When he and Sarai and his possessions finally made it to the land of Canaan, he built an altar at Bethel and “called upon the Name of Yahweh” (12:8). He made a little side trip to Egypt and returned to Bethel, and once again “called on the Name of Yahweh” (15:4). Abram was then known as “Abram of El Elyon, God Most High,” and was blessed by Melchizedek (14:19), the mysterious king and priest of Salem, soon to become Jerusalem. Yahweh then spoke to Abram in a vision and promised him a son and countless descendants. Abram took God’s words to heart, as he always did. Fast forward to the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, and the divine encounter with the Lord in respect to the doom of Sodom. Abraham and the Lord seemed to be bargaining as to Sodom’s fate at that time, and they seemed to trust each other as close friends through the whole exchange (Gen. 18). As we approach chapter 22, it’s clear that Abraham is a model of faith in God, and that he maintained, usually, an attitude of “Here I am” with Yahweh. Abraham lived with God in the spirit of ongoing availability and trust. It’s no wonder why Abraham became known in Scripture as “the friend of God” (James 2:23, Isaiah 41:8).

Several years after the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, when it seemed like God and Abraham were bosom buddies, God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God suddenly said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham responded in his faithful way, “Here I am.” God asked Abraham to take his teenage son Isaac to a nearby mountain, Mt. Moriah. At the top of the mountain, Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac on an altar for a burnt offering. After Abraham and Sarah waited all those years for their promised child, God asked Abraham to a perplexing and horrific thing. Human sacrifice wasn’t all that uncommon, so despite his profound misgivings, Abraham obeyed God one step at a time and took Isaac to the mountain. There he made the altar, and Isaac cried out, “My father!” And Abraham answered, “Here I am, my son.” There he secured Isaac on the altar and prepared him for sacrifice. One often forgets that Isaac himself had to fully submit to God’s test. What was going on in Isaac’s mind as he was tied to the altar? What was the relationship between father and son after this difficult, agonizing scene? We do know that Abraham reconciled God’s impossible request with the fact that God could certainly raise Isaac from the dead if need be (Hebrews 11:19). How else, in fact, would Abraham’s descendants become as numberless as the stars, if Isaac’s line was cut off so soon? Following the binding of Isaac to the altar, the drama of this unforgettable scene intensifies. “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (22:10). But the Angel of the Lord, who very well could have been the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the Messenger of Yahweh, came to Isaac’s rescue. “The Angel of the Lord had called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” and Abraham once again, as was his habit, answered, “Here I am.” The Angel then instructed Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him!” (22:11-12). The Angel intervened just in the nick of time, saving Isaac from being sacrificed, and confirming Abraham’s deep trust in God. The Angel then spoke to Abraham a second time, repeating the promise made to him so long ago, that there would be countless descendants in Abraham’s line. The Lord then exclaimed that, “In your seed, all the nations of earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (22:18). The Angel’s message was straight from heaven, heard loud and clear by Abraham and Isaac. A ram was then found in a thicket, and this was God’s provision for the burnt offering. Isaac, perhaps still terrified and perplexed, must have been thinking, that could have been me. But God came to the rescue. In due time, Father God would know what it was like to lose a Son, and there would be no rescue that time.

In many ways, Isaac was Jesus before there was an incarnate Christ. Isaac proclaimed the gospel story thousands of years before the gospel. For one thing, Isaac was precisely and purposefully named before birth, just like Jesus. And with that name came a particular mission in life. So, as it turned out in history, both Isaac and Jesus were men of a destiny determined in the heavens.

“God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah, which means princess. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.’ Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man 100 years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90?’ Then God said, ‘Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac, which means laughter.’” (Genesis 17:15-19).

In this prenatal naming ceremony, God shows a sense of humor. That shouldn’t surprise us, since God is the eternal source of humor. Abraham could only laugh in wonder when the Lord told him about having a son with Sarah. Seemingly in honor of Abraham’s laughter, God told him to name the boy Isaac, which means laughter. Perhaps the name reflects the fact that both Abraham and Sarah laughed when they heard the baby news from the Lord. Or maybe Isaac’s name reflects the unspeakable joy that an unexpected miracle child will bring to a childless couple in old age. Or perhaps naming the boy laughter reflects the joy of bearing a son who is a promised child of the Covenant, the boy who will produce countless descendants, blessing the world in a promised relationship with the Almighty God. Isaac will continue the line of God’s chosen people, which would surely bring the joy of laughter to anyone’s heart.

Perhaps the clearest reflection of the gospel story reflected in the life of Isaac was the unspeakable drama of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the near sacrifice of the purely innocent teenage boy. Several years after the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, when it seemed like God and Abraham were bosom buddies, God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God suddenly said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham responded in his faithful way, “Here I am.” God asked Abraham to take his teenage son Isaac to a nearby mountain, Mt. Moriah. At the top of the mountain, Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac on an altar for a burnt offering. After Abraham and Sarah waited all those years for their promised child, God asked Abraham to a perplexing and horrific thing. Human sacrifice wasn’t all that uncommon, so despite his profound misgivings, Abraham obeyed God one step at a time and took Isaac to the mountain. There he made the altar, and Isaac cried out, “My father!” And Abraham answered, “Here I am, my son.” There he secured Isaac on the altar and prepared him for sacrifice. One often forgets that Isaac himself had to fully submit to God’s test. What was going on in Isaac’s mind as he was tied to the altar? What was the relationship between father and son after this difficult, agonizing scene? We do know that Abraham reconciled God’s impossible request with the fact that God could certainly raise Isaac from the dead if need be (Hebrews 11:19). How else, in fact, would Abraham’s descendants become as numberless as the stars, if Isaac’s line was cut off so soon? Following the binding of Isaac to the altar, the drama of this unforgettable scene intensifies. “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (22:10). But the Angel of the Lord, who very well could have been the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the Messenger of Yahweh, came to Isaac’s rescue. “The Angel of the Lord had called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” and Abraham once again, as was his habit, answered, “Here I am.” The Angel then instructed Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him!” (22:11-12). The Angel intervened just in the nick of time, saving Isaac from being sacrificed, and confirming Abraham’s deep trust in God. The Angel then spoke to Abraham a second time, repeating the promise made to him so long ago, that there would be countless descendants in Abraham’s line. The Lord then exclaimed that, “In your seed, all the nations of earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (22:18). The Angel’s message was straight from heaven, heard loud and clear by Abraham and Isaac. A ram was then found in a thicket, and this was God’s provision for the burnt offering. Isaac, perhaps still terrified and perplexed, must have been thinking, that could have been me. But God came to the rescue. In due time, Father God would know what it was like to lose a Son, and there would be no rescue that time. The Lamb of God, caught in the thicket of evil and hatred, sacrificed on the altar. It’s not surprising to know that Mt. Moriah is just a stone’s throw from Golgotha. The glorious fact is that Abraham received his son Isaac alive after Isaac had been as good as dead. This was a living parable, for it prefigured the Resurrection of Christ, and it hinted at the future universal resurrection of the dead.

One wonders, though, how that dramatic, historic episode on Mt. Morah impacted Isaac’s life. Think of it… As a teenager he was stretched out on a sacrificial altar, bound, expected to just lie there submissively like an obedient child. The knife was in his father’s raised hand, ready to slay him, and was only stopped at the last minute by the Son of God, the special heavenly Messenger. What was Isaac thinking during that near-death experience? Was he wondering what he had done so wrong that he would be executed? Was he mystified that the father he loved and trusted would kill him for no apparent reason? Did he doubt the very God that had been so close to his family growing up? If he was at all human, and he was, his whole world must have turned upside-down. He would certainly have been shaken to the core for who knows how long. The question is, did Isaac ever get over his experience on Mt. Moriah with his father? Did it effect his relationship with father Abraham in any way?  Did he have a difficult time trusting his father after this incident? We don’t know, since the Scripture never tells us about this incident from Isaac’s perspective.

Unsurprisingly, Isaac grew up as a protected, if not coddled, only child. Even his marriage to Rebekah was arranged by father Abraham. But Isaac seemed to accept the way he was raised, he tended to mind his own business, and was not an initiator like his father. Isaac was content to stay at home, raise a family, and increase the family’s wealth as an owner of much livestock. Isaac was a very patient man, and a first-rate husband to Rebekah. He faithfully grew into his enduring role of Jewish patriarch, and is a major hero in Biblical history.