"God Will Provide the Lamb" Sermon: Genesis 22:1-14

“God Will Provide the Lamb”
[Genesis 22:1-14]
March 8, 2009 Second Reformed Church

This morning’s Scripture is probably a familiar one to many of us. The history of God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is one that is often taught in Sunday School classes. What does it teach us?

We will remember that God called Abraham to leave his homeland and his family and to travel to the land of Canaan – which would become Israel. God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation – his would be a promised people, a chosen people, God’s people. And Abraham believe God – Elohim – and took his wife, Sarah, and his possessions and went to the land of Canaan.

We may also remember that when Abraham and Sarah got to Canaan, Abraham was in his eighties and Sarah a few years younger, and Sarah was barren – they had no children. And Sarah began to wonder about this promise of God, “We’re old and I’m barren. We have no children. How will God make a great nation from our children if we don’t have children?” So Sarah approached Abraham and made a suggestion, “I have an Egyptian servant named Hagar, have a child with her to fulfill the promise of God.” And Abraham did, and Hagar bore a son named Ishmael.

But this showed a lack of trust on their part, and when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God came to him and told him that Ishmael was not the chosen son, but Sarah would bear him the son of promise. And they laughed – their circumstances were ridiculous – they were now older, Sarah was still barren – and that’s why they named their child – their son – Isaac, which means “laughter.”

By the time we reach this morning’s Scripture, Isaac is a teenager. He is the one and only child of Abraham and Sarah. He is the son of promise – the one through whom God promised He would raise up a great nation. And we’re told that God came to test Abraham, and let us understand, God was not testing Abraham because God didn’t know what the outcome would be – God knew very well what would happen, and God was not commanding Abraham to sin – as awful and severe as this test was – God cannot and did not lead Abraham into sin. This test was to show Abraham and us something. And God came to Abraham and told him, “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.”

It had been about thirty-five or forty years since God made the promise to Abraham. Isaac was now a teenager. There were no other children. Abraham must have been devastated to hear what God commanded. He must have been throughly confused by what God had said. Was God going back on His Promise? How could Abraham become a great nation if his only son was to be sacrificed? How could God command that he sacrifice his son, when God forbid His people to sacrifice their children? “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods” (Deuteronomy 12:31, ESV). What was going on?

But this time Abraham trusted God. He couldn’t have understood. He must have been sweating – his mind racing about the problems this request raised – not to mention the simple fact that he loved his son Still, we’re told, the next morning, Abraham saddled his donkey, and took two servants and his son, Isaac, whom he loved, and they cut the wood for the sacrifice and brought the fire and headed out for the land of Moriah.

The land of Moriah was a three-day walk from where they were, so for three days, these questions ate away at Abraham. “How can God ask me to do this? To sacrifice my only son, whom I love? How can God fulfill His Promise to me if I sacrifice Isaac, my only son, whom I love? How can God ask me to sacrifice Isaac, my only son, whom I love, when that goes against God’s command?” For three days, he was plagued with questions. Still he trusted – though it was not a trust that came lightly.

On the third day, God told them to stop – they had reached the place where God wanted the sacrifice to occur. And Abraham told the servants to wait at the base of the mountain – that he and the boy would go and worship, and then they would come back. Did you notice that? Abraham specifically said that they would go up and worship and they would return. God hadn’t told Abraham that, but Abraham knew enough about God to know that God cannot lie, so, somehow, Isaac had to survive the sacrifice. Even if Abraham had to kill Isaac and have God bring him back to life – somehow, God would not sin – God would not break His Promise.

Abraham and Isaac began the trek up the mountain, and Isaac began to wonder: “My father ” “Here I am, my son.” “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for burnt offering?” What was Isaac thinking? We’re not told – only that he noticed there was no offering to offer.

And then Abraham makes an amazing confession of faith, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Abraham still didn’t know what God was going to do, but he trusted that God would work this out somehow. Abraham believed that somehow, God would make this impossible request right. So he told Isaac that God, in His Providence, would provide the sacrifice. And Isaac accepted his father’s answer.

They reached the spot for the sacrifice, and they built the altar, and they laid the wood, and then we’re told that Abraham tied up Isaac and placed him on the altar. Notice the trust Isaac had in his father: Abraham was over a hundred years old; Isaac was a teenager. It was very unlikely that Abraham could have overpowered Isaac, so what we see is Isaac submit to Abraham’s offering him up as a sacrifice. Surely, Isaac didn’t want to die, but he knew something was going on. He knew his father was right before God and spoke to God. So he trusted that what was happening was right – whatever the outcome was to be.

And Abraham took the knife and raised it above Isaac, his son, his only son, whom he loved, ready to bring it down and kill him and offer him as a sacrifice to Elohim, the God Who had called him to the land of Canaan and made him the Promise that he would become a great nation. Abraham would have known God’s Law, “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 24:17, ESV). It didn’t make any sense, but God told him to do it, and Abraham knew God, so he was prepared to do it. And he raised up the knife, ready to plunge it into his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved.

“But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’”

The Angel of the Lord called down from heaven and told Abraham not to offer up his son as a sacrifice because the Angel of the Lord now knew that Abraham feared God. This raises some questions: First, Who is this Angel of the Lord? And second, is He saying that God didn’t know whether or not Abraham feared God?

We can discover Who the Angel of the Lord is by understanding that the word “angel” means “messenger” and is applied to humans, the beings we call “angels,” and other beings – we have to understand who and what is being referred to by the context. Here, our understanding is found in the last phrase of verse twelve: “you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” Who called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? God. Who said, “you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me”? The Angel of the Lord. They are one in the same: in this case, we understand the Angel of the Lord to be God. That’s what makes sense in the context.

So, why is God called “the Angel of the Lord” here, instead of just “God”? There are a few times in the Old Testament where we see the Persons of God – Father, Son, and Spirit. There are times when the context leads us to understand that God in the Person of the Son is being referred to – the theologians call this a “theophany” – what the theologians mean this to signify is a pre-Incarnate appearance of the Son. In other words, there were a few times when the Son appear on earth before the Incarnation – before He took on human flesh. This is understood to be one of those cases. Here, we understand the Angel of the Lord to be God the Son.

So, what did He mean by saying, “now I know that you fear God”? Well, it cannot mean that God was ignorant of whether or not Abraham feared Him. God is all-knowing, so that cannot be what this phrase means. John Calvin explains “Moses, however, simply means that Abraham, by this very act, testified how reverently he feared God” (Calvin’s Commentaries, on Genesis 22:12). The language that is used is not meant to suggest that God didn’t know Abraham; it is a condescension in language to help us understand what God proved through His Actions.

Surely Abraham – and Isaac – were rejoicing Abraham took his son off of the altar and noticed a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And they took the ram and they offered him up in worship to God instead of Isaac. Now something had been made very clear to both Abraham and Isaac and it caused them to offer up the sacrifice and proclaim the worth of God. What did they learn? What was made brazenly clear to them? What did Abraham name the mountain? “The Lord will provide.” Abraham and Isaac now knew without a doubt that God will provide whatever is necessary to carry out God’s Will.

Do you believe that God will provide for you? Do you believe God’s Promise that He will provide everything that you and I need and everything that is necessary to accomplish His Will? There will be plenty of times – perhaps more often than not – when we look at our circumstances, at our health, at the economy, at our neighbors, and think, “It’s over, there’s nothing left, there’s nothing we can do.” But God says, “No. Follow me in faith, obediently, trusting in Me, and I will provide.”

How will you and I get from point A to point B? How will the future come to pass? Jesus said, “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:24, ESV). Is Jesus telling us to never think about the future? To never plan ahead? No. What He is saying is we ought not to worry about the future. We ought to trust Him. We ought to do what He has called us to do today, believing that God will provide for us. And when we get to tomorrow, we ought to do what He has called us to do tomorrow, believing that God will provide for us.

Abraham didn’t have the slightest idea how God was going to work out His Command to Abraham to sacrifice his son and still keep His Promise to make him a great nation. But Abraham trusted for the day. He was obedient for the day. He believed that God would provide for that day. And God proved his faith. Will you believe Him for today?

Let us understand one other thing this morning: the call on Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, is a foreshadowing of how God will redeem His people: God would, one day, provide the Lamb of Sacrifice, in the Person of His Only Son, His Beloved Son, and God would not without a horrible death from His Son, but carry it through to the fullest, because no other Sacrifice could pay the debt for sin and credit His Righteousness to us.

John the Baptist said, “‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.” I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God’” (John 1:29-34, ESV).

And Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God” (John 3:16-21, ESV).

God planned from before the creation to provide the Lamb of His Only Son to be the salvation of all those who will believe in Him. If God was willing to do that, can we not also believe that God will provide everything we need, for this day, and for eternity? Abraham and Isaac learned that lesson. May God be pleased to give us that same assurance as He leads us in faith, trust, and obedience.

Let us pray:
Sovereign God, we thank You for the history of Abraham and Isaac. We thank You for making it clear that You require difficult things and You do not always explain to us why they happen, yet You provide for all our needs. We thank You for providing for our greatest need, in the Person of Your Son, with Whom You did not hold back Your Hand, but sacrificed Him for our sake. May Your receive all the Glory. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.