Abraham and Isaac

     KARIM AND ABOU LEARN ABOUT 

 ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

The footsteps of father and son sound loud in the quiet of the vast landscape as they walk silently towards the blue mountains on the horizon.  The father carries fire and a knife.  The son carries a heavy load of wood.  The servants they left behind.  The last part of the journey to the mountains they will walk alone. 

They do not talk much.  As the day grows, so does the heat.   In the end the son breaks the silence:  “Father?” 

“Yes, my son.”

“We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”   

The father takes a long time before he answers:  “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”  The father sighs deeply and falls back into silence.

Isaac glances at his father from time to time.  He notices something strange in the countenance of his ageing father.  He looks sad and deep in thought.  He respects his old father and keeps silent.

They reach the mountainous area and Abraham points to a rocky mountain.  “This is the mountain God has chosen, Son,” he says.  “Here are enough stones to build an altar.”

Isaac puts the wood down and starts to build the altar, taking the heavy stones from his father, not allowing the old man to work too hard.  He knows exactly what to do, having done this many times before.  It does not take too long before the altar was complete. They put the wood in place, ready for the sacrifice to be burnt.

Then Isaac looks his father straight in the eye.  “Father, the altar for the sacrifice is ready.  Where is the lamb?”

For the first time Isaac notices the strain on his father’s face as the old man fights back his tears.  Then Abraham steps over to his son.  He lays a heavy hand on his shoulder.  Tears start to run down the old man’s cheeks and trickle down his grey beard.

“Father?”

“God demands of me to bring you as a sacrifice to Him, my son.”  Abraham can hardly get the words out.  His voice cracks.

“Father?  Why?”  Isaac’s throat feels dry.  His heart misses a beat.  For a moment he doesn’t breathe.

“As a proof that I will obey Him in everything He asks of me, Son.”

Deep in his heart Abraham knows God has a plan.  He trusts God with all his heart because he loves God.  If God wants him to sacrifice his son and that means killing him and then burning him as a burnt offering, he will do it although it feels if someone is tearing his heart out of him.  God demands obedience and Abraham does not even think of disobeying the Living God, but he also knows that God is faithful, He has always been.  He cannot change.  God said that Abraham’s descendants would be uncountable and that the nations would be blessed through his seed.  He trusts God that this promise is going to ring true even if it means that the all powerful living God has to raise his son from the dead.

There is something else Abraham has pondered during these days. He knows that the living God hates sacrifices where people sacrifice their sons to their gods.  Isn’t he doing the same thing now?  God is holy in character.  He will never stoop down to the lowliness of idolaters.  He has to have something else in mind.  Abraham trusts the God he knows implicitly.  God is more than just a God to him.  God is his friend; his own trustful, devoted, loving friend.

Isaac slowly sits down on the side of the stone structure.  Abraham comes to sit beside him.  For a long time they just sit there, quietly, as if they wait for God to provide the lamb for the burnt offering.  Isaac’s life passes before him.  He is not married; has no offspring.  How will the nations one day be blessed through the seed of Abraham if there is no seed?  Are they all wrong in understanding who the covenant son is?    His life is to end.  God must have something else in mind.

He looks at his old suffering father and puts his arm around his shoulders.  “Father,” he says.  “Let us do as God desires.  Bind me onto the altar as we do with the lambs.  God will give you the strength to complete the task.”

The father takes the ropes and he binds his son on to the wood.  His movements are slow but secure.  With his left hand Abraham covers the eyes of his son and with his right arm he lifts the razor-sharp knife.  The muscles of his arm tighten.  For a moment his hand hovers over his son and then....

The air around them floods with electricity as if from a bolt of lightning.  Shivers run through the bodies of Abraham’s and Isaac as a voice thunders from above:  “Abraham!  Abraham! Do not kill your son!  Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son!”¹

Abraham jerks back the knife and swivels around.  Behind them they saw a ram caught by his horns in a bush.

“Father! God has provided!”  

“God has provided, my Son!”  sobs the father.

Together they loosen the ram and sacrifice it on the altar while they worship and praise God.

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“What a marvellous story!” exclaims Karim.  “You really know how to tell a story, Abou! “But there are a few things I do not understand.  Why would the Almighty God take Abraham to the point of   nearly killing his son and then stop him.  Isn’t it a little meaningless?”

“If one looks on the surface, one could say that,”  Abou answers.  “But there is much more to the story.  In fact in the sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham, the whole story of redemption is foretold.”

“How can you say that?”   Karim asks.

“Abraham was told:  ‘Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love’.” ²  The Scriptures tell us: ‘God so loved the world’, that is you and me and others,  ‘that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’.³  You see, Karim,  the death of Jesus was not something that just happened to Jesus while God, the Father watched from afar.  No the Father GAVE his only Son because He loved man and wanted man to be saved.

The apostle John puts it this way: ‘In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the expiation of our sins’.” ⁴ 

Abou goes on explaining, “Furthermore Isaac was born in unique circumstances.  Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit. Both were born from a promise of God.  Isaac was to be sacrificed as a burnt offering.  A burnt offering is a sin offering.  Remember the words of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus coming to him:  Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. ⁵   Here is a difference though.  God spared Abraham the killing of his son, Jesus had to go all the way through death.  But after He had accomplished what He was sent for, He was resurrected.

“Do you now understand the deeper meaning behind the sacrifice of Isaac?” Abou asked.

“I think so.”  Karim nods.  “God was showing his people  that He plans to do something else much later.”

“Yes, exactly.  Abraham took Isaac to a rocky mountain that God had pointed out to him for the sacrifice of his son and through that God said to man: ‘One day I will choose another rocky mountain where I will sacrifice My own Son for the sins of mankind, because I love man and want them reconciled to Me.’”

Karim is astonished.  “This is awesome! I never understood the story of Abraham and Isaac in this way.”

“And there is more, Abou says.  “The ram was not a ram by chance.  It had to be a male animal.  When God later gave the exact conditions for sacrifices to Moses, He specified that the burnt offering had to be a male without defect, a perfect animal.  This also pointed to Jesus who was the only man ever without sin.”

“What exactly was the burnt offering?” Karim wants to know.

“This was a sin offering.  The man who wanted to make a sacrifice for his sins brought a ram to the priest. He first  put his hands on the head of the animal to say ‘I identify with this animal that now dies in my place’.  This took place hundreds of times everyday.”

“Do we still have to do it today?” Karim asks.

“No. This is the happy ending.  Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. When Jesus was sacrificed all animal sacrifices ended.  The Scriptures say:  ‘For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.    He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself’.” ⁶ 

“So, Jesus took the sins of all people and now man is without sin?” 

“No, not all,” explains Abou.   “Remember the man who identifies with the animal and accepts that the animal dies in his place?   It was the same with Jesus.  The man who accepts His sacrifice is cleansed from sin.  John puts it like this:  ‘...but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.    If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.    If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.⁷  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…⁸

“So how do I confess my sins?”

“You tell Him.  God is alive and you can talk to Him whenever and wherever you want to like we talk to each other.  Let me give you and example of how to do it. You pray:

Living God, I honour you as the only Living and True God who loved me so much that you gave your Son to die in my place.  I accept the sacrifice Jesus made for my sin.  I confess my sins.  I agree that I am a sinner.  Thank You, Jesus, that you died in my place.  Thank you that you forgive my sins and that you cleanse me from my sins by your blood.  I receive you as my Saviour. According to your Word you give me the power to become your child when I receive you and believe in your Name.  I believe in your Name.  I thank you Jesus.

                        

¹Genesis 21:11-12; ²Genesis 22:2; ³John 3:16;  ⁴1 John 4:10; ⁵John 1:29; ⁶Hebrew 7:26-27. ⁷1 John 1:7-10; ⁸John 1:12.