Abraham's Learning Curve: The Near-Sacrifice of Isaac

00:00 - James Spencer (Host) By going and sacrificing his son. By being willing to sacrifice his son, Abraham demonstrates that he truly does believe that God is going to give him what he's told him he's going to give him, and so his conviction that God would provide allowed him to do what God asked him to do, knowing that God would in some way still keep his promise. 00:19 - Speaker 2 (None) Welcome to PREPPED, the podcast that equips you to live out God's story, not the world's story. Hosted by James Spencer, phd, each episode bridges the gap between academic insights and everyday life, preparing you to understand the Word of God and put it into practice. Whether you're diving into biblical studies, looking for ministry guidance or aiming to deepen your faith, PREPPED empowers you to think biblically and theologically in a world that encourages you not to Ready to get PREPPED. Subscribe now and transform the way you bring God's story into the world. 00:54 - James Spencer (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of PREPPED. In today's episode we're going to be exploring what it means to obey God, to have faith, and we're going to do that through the life of Abraham and particularly Genesis 22. So you know, we can say that faith is easy until it really costs us something. But what happens when God asks us for this thing that we love the most? What happens when obedience demands surrender? And today we're going to be looking at Genesis 22. It's the moment when Abraham is asked to sacrifice Isaac. It's the test that he's put into and it's a passage that has unsettled readers for generations. But I think the narrative is actually really crucial for understanding how our own faith in God works, and it points to the connection between faith and action that is to characterize our own lives and remind us that obedience following God's instruction is really always our best option. 01:52 As a bit of a disclaimer, before we jump into this passage, which has this unsettling ask from God, I think it's worth remembering that it can be easy to distort God's word, to think that we are obeying him when we're really just serving our own interests or following some distorted version of God's word. We do sort of see this in something like the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4, where Satan attempts to use God's word in ways that would have led Christ astray. And so we just need to be thinking about obedience. And when we think about obedience, we need to recognize that obedience requires a right reading of the biblical text. It requires us to be thinking through what it is that God actually wants from us. What does obedience really look like? It's not just following a set of rules. It's really about living wisely and along the grain of reality, as I like to put it. This is something that, when we look at Genesis 22, and particularly given what God asks of Abraham in Genesis 22, we can kind of see how, in various cult-like contexts, people might be asked to obey in ways that are inappropriate or immoral. 03:04 In this story, people could point to it and say look, this is what God did. This was the test that he gave Abraham. Why wouldn't you do a similar test? And you could justify all manner of different evils in this. And so, as we read through this passage, I do think that it is crucial to understanding what our faith is supposed to look like, but I'm also aware that it could easily be abused, and so, in the next couple of episodes I'm going to be talking about a concept that I call Christian resistance, and then we're going to do that in the following episode, after that episode on Christian resistance, we're going to talk a little bit about discussion or discernment and decision-making. 03:41 And so, as we go through these next three episodes, what I'd encourage you to do is just think about not the specific act that Abraham does although that's really crucial and important but also we want to be looking ahead to saying how is it that we cultivate the sort of faith that can recognize when God is asking us to do something and what God is asking us to do? How can we get ourselves out of the way in that process, so to speak? And what would it look like for us to be faithful, to avoid the sort of temptation that Christ avoids in the wilderness in Matthew 4, and really follow after God's word faithfully and obediently? So I think, as we see Philip, faithfully, we just need to begin with the summary of the law Christ provides in the gospels. You know, love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, with all we are and have and love our neighbors as ourselves. And if we have that sort of as the bedrock of what it is that obedience is going to look like. This is the summary of all the law and the prophets according to Christ. You know, if we have that in the back of our minds, what does it look like then to love? How does that love convey obedience? And we'll talk a little bit about that in future episodes as well, but just right now I just say this is about not just loving someone in sort of the way we often think of it, sort of a devotional love or a charitable love, a compassionate love. It's about loyalty, and so God is calling us to a complete and total loyalty to him. And within the context of our complete and total loyalty to him, then we understand what it looks like to love our neighbors as ourselves, to have an allegiance to our neighbors, to be for them in a sense in the same way that we would be for ourselves, and so all of this is sort of encapsulated in a love or loyalty to God. 05:33 Now, with all that said, we'll turn our attention to Genesis 22, but I'd encourage you to come back for the next couple episodes, as I think they'll really relate and help temper some of what might be problematic in this first story. So we're going to start with Genesis 22, 1 and 2, and I'm just going to read portions of this narrative and then comment on them as I go. This is a fairly long narrative, so we won't do the whole thing, but I do think that some of these aspects are actually important to understand. So Genesis 22, 1 through 2 reads like this After these things, god tested Abraham and said to him Abraham, and he said here I am. He said 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, as one of them, on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So let's just pause here for a second. Did you? Did you catch the emphasis? So, your son, your only son, whom you love. This is the first time love is really mentioned in the Bible, and it's not the context of marriage or friendship. It's in the context of a father being asked to sacrifice his son. And so, if we consider Abraham's journey up to this point, let's go back a little bit in Genesis and understand the significance of what's going on here, when we saw Abraham come out of the land. 06:51 In Genesis 12, god makes this initial covenant with him. Then we move through Genesis, chapter 14, which we talked about. Abraham has this battle with the kings. He rescues Lot, he refuses the rewards from the king of Sodom, and God appears to him in Genesis 15, just the chapter after, and says Abraham, don't worry, I am your strength, I'm your shield, I'll be with you. And Abraham says that's all great, lord. I'm paraphrasing, obviously. But that's all great, but Eliezer of Damascus is the heir in my household. I have no sons of my own, and so, from the very beginning, abram has struggled with this notion of who will be my heir. Who's going to be my heir? Who's going to take all of this that God has promised me and move it into the next generation? What's that going to look like? Who's going to be there to do that? Because I have no son of my own, and so who should I be looking to to do all of this? Now we have this then narrative where Abraham and Sarah because Sarah's barren, she decides and Abraham decide that they're going to use Hagar, who is Sarah's handmaid, and they're going to have a son through Hagar. 08:07 Now, this was as we talked about in a previous episode. This is pretty common back in ancient Near Eastern times, because there weren't any other real options for the propagation of a line you wanted to preserve and have a next generation, and so you didn't have in vitro, you didn't have fertility treatments, there wasn't a lot of medicine going around, you couldn't go to your local hospital and figure these things out, and so there was often this sort of provision made that people could have sex with another woman in their household to ensure that the generations would continue. And so what we have is Ishmael, and I think Abraham really thought that Ishmael was the solution to this problem. But in Genesis 17, god reveals to Abraham that it's not going to be Ishmael, it's not just going to be his child, it's going to be a child from him and Sarah, and so God is going to overcome Sarah's barrenness to have this other child. That creates tension for Abraham, because for one he's old and for two he's become fairly attached to Ishmael. I mean, ishmael's been around for a bit. It's obviously his son, he loves him, and so Abraham wonders why it is that Ishmael can't stand before God. 09:20 Now, after Isaac is born, there's this tension between Ishmael and Isaac, and there was always tension between Hagar and Sarah, and so, ultimately, hagar and Ishmael are sent away and God is going to bless them as well and Abraham is now left with just Isaac. And so, as we've come across the whole of Genesis, where we're left is Abraham has one son, isaac. There is no other son that's there. There's not Ishmael in the background, where Abraham's like well, if I get rid of Isaac, I've still got Ishmael. Ishmael's been sent away. 09:54 It's been made clear to Abraham that Ishmael is not the person who is going to carry the covenant forward. It's going to be Isaac. And so this test to sacrifice Isaac really comes at this point. It hits Abraham pretty hard because this has been what he's been asking about ever since Genesis 15. He's been wondering who's going to take over for him. What does this look like? Where you know, what is this next generation going to look like? 10:19 This has been the point of tension for Abraham in his faith for a very, very long time, and so, as we see, god is telling Abraham hey, give up Isaac, sacrifice Isaac to me. And Abraham goes about doing this. And I think we need to just key in on a couple of things here. The first is that it's a test. We know it's a test. Abraham doesn't know it's a test. Abraham thinks that this is a command from God, and so we know it's a test. We know that God is not going to allow this to happen. We know that he is testing Abraham's faith. 10:54 We have a lot of insight here, because the narrator has told us this is a test, but the question is, what's Abraham going to do? And so is Abraham going to get to the point where he's, you know, moving toward sacrificing Isaac, but won't actually do it? Is he going to go through with it? What's going to happen? And so we're really asking ourselves, throughout this entire narrative would Abraham cling to this gift that he's been given, this son that he loves, or would he trust the giver? And that's the question I think we all face at various points what do we love more? Where's our loyalty lie? Where are we finding our security? Where are we finding our hope? Where are we finding our sense of stability and, ultimately, peace? Are we finding that in God, the giver of all good things, or are we finding them? Are we finding it in the gifts that he's given us? So as we, as Abraham, makes this trip to sacrifice Isaac, the narrative is moving at a relatively quick pace. 11:59 In Hebrew narrative there's normally less dialogue, so that's fairly normal, and the story moves forward through a series of narrative descriptions. More narrative description and less detail makes the narrative move more quickly, and you can kind of see this in Genesis 22, three through four, all right. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place from afar. We're getting through a whole lot of time there in a very short period of verses. This is happening fairly quickly. I'm not exactly sure, you know. 12:42 It's difficult to know why the narrative would move so quickly, but I think part of it is that it's not about the preparations, it's not about the you know the emotional conversations that may be happening. It's not about Abraham's inner monologue. It's not about any of those things. It's about Abraham hearing this command from God and moving swiftly toward it. It's about Abraham hearing this command from God and moving swiftly toward it. And so in verse five we see Abraham. He's going to give a brief set of instructions to the young men who are with him before the pace picks up again. And in verse six, that's where we read and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac and his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 13:24 And at this point in the story Isaac begins to wonder about the burnt offering. He's asking his father behold, there's the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham's response is, I think, purposely vague. I think the narrator is actually playing with two perspectives here. So first, he's playing with a perspective of Abraham who's being tested but doesn't know it, and he thinks he's going to be sacrificing Isaac. And so his response the Lord will provide it. It's almost like the Lord already has provided it You're, you know. He's basically telling his son you're the sacrifice. But Isaac doesn't necessarily know that. And I think the second perspective the narrator is playing with he's playing with the reader's perspective. He's already told us that this is a test, and we know that Abraham's being tested, and so we're expecting God to do something that he doesn't, so that Abraham doesn't have to sacrifice Isaac. 14:16 Abraham from sacrificing Isaac I guess that's spoiler alert, I should put that in there but he sees a ram with its horns caught in the bushes there, and he sacrifices the ram instead of his son. And so the Lord does provide this offering. But we are getting a different perspective on what's happening here with Abraham, and so it's a clue to us that this is not actually going to happen, that God is going to provide a different sacrifice for Abraham. But for Abraham, I think it's sort of a quasi-resignation to what's going on. He's recognizing that God has already provided the sacrifice. Now it's tempting at this point to look at it and say well, abraham obviously is moving forward, thinking that this is a test. He knows that God is going to replace Isaac, and I could agree with that, if that's what we saw in Hebrews 11. We'll get to Hebrews 11 a little bit later, but suffice it to say that that passage doesn't exactly reinforce that interpretation here, and so that's why I go with the more narrator playing with these two perspectives. 15:23 I think that's probably more what's going on here Now, in verses 9 and 10, we see the action pick up again. When they came to the place of God, which God had told him, abraham built the altar there, laid the wood in order to bound to. He laid sorry. He laid the wooden order, bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and he took the knife to bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and he took the knife to slaughter his son. 15:49 So we're not privy to anything other than the action going on in this narrative, and while many scholars have attempted to sort of reconstruct how Abraham and Isaac must have been feeling at this moment, the reality is that the text doesn't give us any clues. Isaac all but disappears from the narrative. He doesn't speak again, nor do we have any sense of his emotional state. In part that is because the narrator is intending to showcase Abraham's trust in God rather than delving into the psychological and emotional challenges that may have been going on at this moment. We don't know what Isaac is doing here. Maybe Isaac is like Abraham, just trusting God. He could be kicking and screaming and trying to get away. We don't know. We don't have any idea. We just know that Abraham is executing on the command of God that he's been given, and so it's very difficult to sort of read back in anything, because even as we see Isaac kind of come into his own and get married and have children of his own, we don't have this narrative re-referenced. Isaac is never talked about in terms of oh, and Isaac finally got over the trauma of Abraham trying to sacrifice him. The Bible is silent on it, and so we just have to be careful about thinking through what's going on here. We just don't know. In any case, after we see Abram raise the knife, he's ready to kill Isaac and sacrifice him to the Lord. Abraham is actually stopped from sacrificing Isaac by the angel of the Lord. 17:26 Now some commentators suggest that the angel of the Lord is a Christophany or a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ. Others simply recognize the angel of the Lord as an angel, and so I think, with regard to this latter view, the Hebrew term used malak. It's actually used elsewhere in old testament to refer to angels. So, for instance, gabriel is described as a malak in daniel 8 9. It was not uncommon for angels to deliver these sorts of messages and scriptures, and so the fact that an angel comes down to stop abraham is not odd in the biblical text. I think one difficulty with that view is that the angel speaks as God rather than explicitly delivering a message from God, so he speaks as though they are his words. But there are other points in the Old Testament where angels tend to deliver a message from God rather than speaking as God. So the Christophany view tends to lean pretty heavily on the angel speaking as God and on the times when an angel of the Lord or the angel of the Lord rather receives worship without rejecting it. 18:32 And I think you know personally the primary difficulty with the view that the angel of the Lord is identified with Christ in the new is is that we don't really see it developed beyond these narratives and we don't see it referenced in the New Testament. So there are times when the angel of the Lord distinguishes himself from God. We also need to recognize those, and so could the angel of the Lord be pointing to the plurality in God? I think could be. I think it goes a little too far to say that this is Christ. A Christophany I just I'm not as strong on that as some other commentators, but I understand the idea of it. I think that, especially the context in which the angel of the Lord receives worship and doesn't reject those those are in different passages. I think those are actually pretty convincing that this is something more, maybe, than just another angel, convincing that this is something more, maybe, than just another angel. But at the same time, I think we need to be careful about over-identifying the angel of the Lord as Christ, particularly since we just don't have references to this. You know, the angel of the Lord is not identified with Christ anywhere else, and so we don't have New Testament authorization to do this, which isn't always limiting, but in this case, I think we should probably be a little bit more careful and a little bit more patting the pulpit as opposed to pounding the pulpit, as they say in our seminaries. 20:08 The angel of the Lord is sort of more of some sort of an angel or a mediator. But I will say that the challenge of the angel of the Lord receiving worship really are challenging, and so, while I don't take the Christophany view of the angel of the Lord, I would also just say I'm not sure I'm ready to say that this is just a run-of-the-mill angel either. In any case, the angel of the Lord is the one who stops Abraham from harming Isaac, and he says this do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything else to him, for now I know that you fear God. Abraham had done enough to pass the test and shown himself to be the one who fears God. The fear of God, or the fear of the Lord, is actually a pretty prominent concept in scripture, and I think one of the most helpful ways to think about the fear of the Lord is in terms of this immense respect that demands our attention above anything or anyone else. 20:58 So my family and I got to go to the Grand Canyon a few years ago. We also got to visit the Cliffs of Moher. Many of you are familiar with the Princess Bride. These are the cliffs of insanity that you see in that movie, and in both cases you know you're standing there looking at these massive natural phenomena and you just have this awe and respect for them. There's only so close to the edge of the Grand Canyon or the Cliffs of Moher that I want to go. There's only so close to the edge of the Grand Canyon or the Cliffs of Moher that I want to go. In fact, when you go to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the resounding warnings that the tour guides gave us, that the people at the you know who are working in the visitor center gave us, was don't take selfies near the edge of the cliffs, because what was happening was people would sort of back up. They're trying to get the best picture they possibly can and they stop paying attention to the ledge, and so what I think of it is I think of the fear of the Lord as this deep awe and respect that, this feeling that you get when you're staring out at these massive natural phenomena the Grand Canyon or the Cliffs of Moher. You have a deep respect for them. There's an awe there. They're beautiful, they're amazing, but they're also you recognize the danger that you're in, and so you conduct yourselves at these sites with a reverence for and respect for, the damage that could be done if you fell over the edge. You don't mess around near the edge of either of these. You don't mess around on the edge of the Grand Canyon. You wouldn't attempt to mess around with the cliffs of Moher. You just don't do it, and it's not that they are, you know, intimidating you. I mean, these are not, you know, they're not animate objects, right? But you just have a deep respect and a reverence for the dangers that appear there, and I think that's a good way to think about the fear of the Lord. 22:53 This is for Abraham, this moment where he's recognizing that, okay, disobeying God could result in more severe consequences than sacrificing his son. He's recognizing that God is infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor he could ever face. And so when God tells him to sacrifice his son, abraham is recognizing that I don't understand why this is happening. I don't understand why this is happening. I don't understand what God would want to do with this. I don't understand it fully, but here's what I know. I know that responding to God faithfully is always my best choice, and I know that God has promised me that Isaac will be my heir. And so, even when he's telling me to sacrifice him, there must be something else beyond the sacrifice that I don't understand, that I'm not missing and that I don't need to know, because all I know is this God is trustworthy and that there's no chance that Isaac is not going to be my heir. And so, while I can't reconcile the two things in my head, that Isaac is not going to be my heir. And so, while I can't reconcile the two things in my head, god is going to do something beyond my understanding here. And so he recognizes that God is infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor, recognizing that by recognizing and by obeying God's command, he is acknowledging that God is infinitely more relevant. He is acknowledging that God is infinitely more relevant. So we see this. 24:26 I think that interpretation fits, in part because of what we see about Abraham in Hebrews 11. And so, before we wrap up, I wanna fast forward to the New Testament and just reflect for a moment on Hebrews 11,. It's 17 through 19. And what insight that gives us to what's happening in Abraham's heart during this test. So here's what those verses say by faith, abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he, who had received the promises, was in the act of offering up his son, of whom it was said through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 25:08 And so what we're seeing here is that the author of Hebrews is giving us sort of an insight, an understanding of what was going on with Abraham. He's got these two irreconcilable things in his mind that God would promise that Isaac would be the chosen one through whom the covenant would continue, and that God is asking him to sacrifice Isaac to him. These two things just don't fit together. They don't work together. Knew something else could happen, that the promise of God was so irrevocable. It was so sure that even a sacrifice like this that he was going to make would not keep that promise from being kept. And so Abraham's faith right. And if we think about that, you know, abraham believed in resurrection before anyone had even seen it happen. And this is sort of faith at its deepest level. He's trusting God. Even if Isaac died, god would still be faithful to his promise. 26:09 And so what we see is that Abraham, as Hebrews 11, 1 defines it, is really living out this faith. He's living out the assurance of things hoped for. He's living out the convictions of things not seen. And while it can be tempting to think of faith in terms of just belief in something, you know, I believe in this proposition. Faith is really a matter of trust. It requires that we take steps of obedience, and that's what James talks about in his epistle, referencing Genesis 15, 6, where Abraham believes God and has credited him as righteousness. He goes on to talk about Abram's belief prompting Abraham's action or working with Abraham's works in Genesis 22. That faith in Genesis 15, 6 ultimately shows itself to be the right sort of faith, a faith that prompts action, a faith that drives obedience. 27:08 In Genesis 22, by going and sacrificing his son, by being willing to sacrifice his son, abraham demonstrates that he truly does believe that God is going to give him what he's told him he's going to give him, and so his conviction that God would provide allowed him to do what God asked him to do, knowing that God would in some way still keep his promise. So what does this passage mean for us today? First, I think it really does call us to surrender. Abraham had to trust that God's promise didn't depend on his grip, but on God's goodness. So when I say God, when I say his grip, his ability to fold on to things, abraham didn't have to hold things together. He didn't have to achieve the promise on his own. This was going to be done by God's goodness. And so we can ask ourselves what are we holding onto so tightly that we can't trust God with it. 28:06 What is it that is keeping us from following God, from being obedient to God? Where are we not exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Where are we shoving those things aside and saying God, I know this is the way you tell me to act. I understand this is the way you want me to go. I understand that the way of your son is the right way to live, but in this instance it doesn't seem to work. It really seems like I'm gonna fall off the ledge if I keep walking this way, and so I'm not gonna keep walking this way anymore, I'm gonna veer off. 28:38 When we do that, what we're really doing is we're rejecting God's way. We're saying that God is not the most relevant actor or factor in our entire lives. We're choosing to respond unfaithfully to God as opposed to responding faithfully to him, and so we've got to learn to sort of give up some of these things and to obey, even when obedience doesn't seem to make sense. Second, it calls us to fear the Lord, and we need to recognize that God is infinitely more relevant than any other actor or factor. He is the living and active God whose presence we need to respect at all times. We need to be paying attention to him. He is living and active all around us and we often don't attend to him, and so we need to learn to attend to God in every instance where we are, and that is you know. 29:25 Just think about that picture of standing on the ledge of the Grand Canyon. There are just certain things you're not going to do because you're on the ledge of the Grand Canyon. You're probably not going to let your kids play tag on the edge of the Grand Canyon. You know you're probably not going to. You know, try to do some sort of pull up off the side of the Grand Canyon, right? You're just not going to do those things because you understand the implications, the negative consequences If something goes wrong. We understand the negative consequences that that would bring, and I think that's a similar way that we need to be reacting in the presence of holy God. It's not that God is threatening us he's not trying to keep us in line by issuing threats but he is so big and so powerful and so amazing and so awe-inspiring that there are just certain things that we don't do in his presence. We want to respond to him faithfully, we want to recognize him, we want to pay attention to him, and as we do that, our behavior does change. 30:35 And I think, finally, as the culmination of Abraham's story, genesis 22, really does remind us that our lives are a process. I don't think Abraham would have passed this on day one. He wouldn't have passed this test early on. If God gives him this, you know, maybe even with Ishmael, I don't even think he would have passed it. He had to learn to live in relation to God. It wasn't some innate characteristic trait that, you know, only Abraham had oh, look at how amazing Abraham is. It's something that he developed as he walked with God and he considered what God could and would do, and he came to recognize God as the one who was willing and able to bless those who obeyed him. 31:19 And so I think we have to give ourselves a little bit of a break and recognize that our lives are a process and that as we continue to pay attention to God, recognize what God does in our lives, acknowledge what God does in our lives, we will learn to walk more faithfully with him. So today, let's just try to trust God, let's surrender to him, and let's know that God is the one who provided for Abraham. He's the one who still provides for us, and that obeying God is always our best choice. Hey, thanks for listening to the Prep Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please share it with a friend, as always. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Subscribe to the podcast. Leave a positive review. All those things help us out tremendously and, as always, let's just stay in the Word and stay ready for what God has next. Take care everybody. 32:09 - Speaker 2 (None) Thanks for tuning in to PREPPED. If today's episode helped you view the world through a God-centered lens, be sure to hit subscribe so you're always prepared for what comes next. Don't forget to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more believers eager to live out God's story. Share this episode with a friend, family member or loved one, and together let's keep challenging the world's narratives. Until next time, stay grounded, stay inspired and continue living out God's plan. See you soon on our next episode of PREPPED.