Old Testament - Genesis 22 - February 18, 2022

 2/18/2022 – Genesis 22

This is when the Lord commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his son, as a test of his faithfulness. The first thing we think of is that Abraham, as a much younger man, was miraculously saved from his father’s giving him up to be sacrificed to false gods. 

Sacrificing Isaac is a commandment that certainly surprises us. But Abraham obeyed immediately by making plans and preparations for a commandment he probably didn’t understand, and certainly didn’t want to do. 

V 1 explains “that God did tempt Abraham”. In Hebrew, the word ‘tempt’ means ‘to test or to prove’. Could it be that Abraham was such a good, and honest, and compassionate man who had always kept the Lord’s commandments, even when Abraham helped those who were not helping him at all? He always put others first, and often at a physical or temporal cost to him. Could it be that because of the amazing covenant that God had made with Abraham and would include all of Abraham’s—and Isaac’s—posterity, that they both needed to prove their absolute faith in the Lord?

V 3:  “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.”

This journey took 3 days. Abraham and Isaac left those few who had come with them, and went privately toward where the sacrifice would be made. When Isaac asked where was the lamb they would be sacrificing, Abraham merely said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering”, and they continued to make preparations. 

Sacrifices were to be made by offering a male, firstborn, unblemished animal with no broken bones, placing it on the wood upon an altar, and then burning it—This was to symbolically demonstrate to God a willingness to give Him everything.

When Abraham and Isaac got to the place of the sacrifice, they built an altar of stones, laid the wood, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. (v 9) Isaac must have also been not only mystified, but frightened, but he went forward following his father’s instructions, and that is exactly what Abraham was doing. 

It was only when Abraham “stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son” (v 10) that “the angel of the Lord called upon him out of heaven, and said, Abraham…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.” (v 11-12)  This is so similar what Heavenly Father would go through with his own son, Jesus Christ. So the Lord is not only teaching Abraham and Isaac, but also us as we feel the concern and worry and fear, when we only read about this.  Abraham named this place “Jehovah-jireh – “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” (v14) That is a phrase that I believe it would be good for us to remember. In our day, we are warned that there will be so much evil, and danger, and strife. If I live to see this end, I pray that I might remember “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” If we stay always close to the Lord, He will stay always close to us, and that will make all the difference as to how we cope with complex and difficult situations.

As the Lord saw Abraham’s faith and strength of that faith, He was then able to go forward in the beautiful blessings that we find in v’s 17-18.

Neal A Maxwell explains things I never could: “The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we ‘give,’ brothers and sisters, are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him!” (“Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 24). 

I need to add to my prayers the plea to help me develop more deeply my willingness to obey the Lord, and when the need arises, put the needs of others before my needs and do so in a spirit of honest love.


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