By J.R. Miller
Genesis 21-22
The record of the birth of Isaac is made as quietly and simply as if it had been an event of very small importance. The birth of a baby is indeed no unusual occurrence. Every moment, an infant is born somewhere in the world. Yet there was something about the birth of Abraham's child, which made the event momentous. It had been long promised and foretold and painfully waited for. This was the child of promise, included in the Divine covenant, from whom was to spring the posterity numberless as the stars, promised to Abraham. The birth of Isaac, was one of the most important events occurring in any century of history. Yet it is recorded in a few simple words, "Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him." Genesis 21:1-3
Faith now had its reward. But little is told of the childhood and youth of Isaac. The child grew and was weaned. His weaning was celebrated by a great feast given by his father. Almost nothing else is related of him. When he was only a child, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away from Abraham's home. After that, Isaac grew up with his mother, who was very old, and was "molded into feminine softness," says one, "by habitual submission to her strong, loving will."
The offering of Isaac was the highest reach of Abraham's faith. For many years his faith was sorely tried in waiting for the promised heir. At length the child was born--and there was great joy. Great hopes center in every child in a true home. Every worthy father has large plans and expectations for his boy. But they were no ordinary dreams and hopes, which filled the heart of Abraham. "As the stars--shall your seed be," ran the promise. "In you and in your seed--shall all the families of the earth be blessed," the Lord had said.
This lad in the patriarch's tent was the son in whom this glorious future lived. Many a man in business, with great interests in his hands, knows with what expectations he thinks of his son as living after him, to continue his name and business. But there was far more than this in Abraham's expectation concerning Isaac. There was fatherly love of the gentlest and truest kind, as the records show. There was a vast property to transmit to his heir. But besides these human affections and interests, there was a new nation to spring from Abraham--and this boy was the single link.
There was also a Divine cause represented in Isaac. "Abraham saw My day," said Jesus, "and was glad." The Messiah and Christianity were in Isaac too!
It is only when we think of all that Isaac meant to Abraham, and to the cause of God, that we can in any sense understand what it cost him to obey this call. "Some time later God tested Abraham." The narrative suggests that the purpose was the still further testing and proving of the patriarch's faith. It had been put to the test already through the long years of waiting, and had not failed. Now it must be put to one other test. "God tested Abraham."
The command by which he was tested startles us. Why did God demand a human sacrifice? We must remember, first of all, that in those days such sacrifices were not considered wrong. On the other hand, the highest religious act a father could perform, was to sacrifice his first and only son to God. Abraham, therefore, did not think it a sin to offer his son. If any father should now make such a sacrifice, he would be regarded either as guilty of murder, or as insane--and would be dealt with accordingly. But in Abraham's time he would have been considered as having paid to God the highest worship he could pay.
But in God's judgment, then as now--it was wrong to make such a sacrifice. God wanted to teach Abraham that he must actually make this offering--but in spirit only, not in outward act. From that moment, human sacrifice was forever forbidden. "God meant Abraham to sacrifice his son--but not in the coarse, material sense. God meant him to yield the lad truly to Him; to arrive at the consciousness that Isaac more truly belonged to God--than to him, his father."
"Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am,' he replied." What did Abraham do when this command came to him? Did he hesitate and begin to argue the case with God? No! He quietly and unquestioningly obeyed the Divine command. When he heard his name called, he answered, "Here I am." He was ready to do whatever was wanted of him.
It was said by someone of William Carey, the missionary, that he was a man who could not say 'No' to God. He was called from the shoemaker's bench to preach, then to the mission field, and from service to service, and never could say 'No'. We call a man weak' who cannot say 'No'--and imagine that he has no will of his own. But the man who cannot say 'No' to God--is strong. "Here I am" was always Abraham's answer--to every calling of his name by God. Whatever the bidding was, it must be instantly and quietly obeyed.
We talk a great deal about consecration--but do we mean it? Consecration is no mere sentimental good feeling; it is the surrender of our will to God without question, without reserve, without shrinking.
To "Here I am" came a call which cut into the depths of his heart. Abraham's God said "Take now," immediately, "your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac,"--not Ishmael--but Isaac. "And go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering." Remember all the Divine promises which centered in Isaac. Remember the posterity which no man could count, the glory stretching away into the future--all in Isaac. "Take this Isaac"--his name is given that there could not possibly be any mistake, "and offer him as a sacrifice." Could there have been any other test so searching as this?
How did Abraham stand the test? Keen as was the pang which the call of God sent to his heart, he promptly obeyed. "Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about." He did not stop to reason or to question WHY such a hard thing was asked of him; without a moment's hesitation, he set out to do that which God had bidden him to do.
That is what we should do, whenever God asks a hard thing of us. We had better not perplex ourselves with the why and wherefore--it is enough to know that it is God's will for us. God's will is always good and perfect. If our consecration is sincere--we may never withhold anything that God asks of us; nor surrender anything for which He asks--with any but the most loving submission.
A friend said to a mother whose son had been appointed as a foreign missionary, "I hope that you will be able to give him up for the work." "Oh," said she, "I gave him up to God in his infancy--but never knew until now--where God wants him." Every true Christian parent gives his child to God at birth--to be His entirely and forever. What God may want to do with the child--he knows not. God ordinarily gives the child back to the parent to be trained for Him--but always for Him, and then to be surrendered at His call, without murmuring, either for service in this world--or to live with God Himself and to serve Him in glory.
Parents may not make their own plans for their children, without consulting God. He knows what He wants them to do, and the parents' prayer should always be--that the child may become that for which God made him and redeemed him. George Macdonald says that he would rather be what God made him to be--than be the grandest being he could think of.
It is significant that before reaching the place for the sacrifice, Abraham dismissed his servants. He wanted no human eyes to look upon his agony. Perhaps they might have interfered in some way. Certainly their uncontrolled grief would have made it harder for Abraham to do the bidding of God. So he left the men behind, out of sight of the act of sacrifice he was to make on the mountain.
The incident reminds us of Gethsemane. Our Lord said to the disciples, "Wait here," while He Himself pressed on a stone's cast farther into the heart of the solitude. Alone He entered into the anguish of that mysterious hour.
We all need to be alone in our times of great testing. Human sympathy is very sweet--but there are experiences in which even human sympathy will not help us; it will only do us harm, and endanger our perfect doing of our duty, in which, indeed, no human friend can ever be near to us. Alone, we must meet the sore trials, the hard struggles, the great questions of life. Others may stand near us with their cheer, their encouragement, their sympathy--but really--they are far away, and we are alone with our sorrow, our struggle or our decision.
Very pathetically reads the narrative of Abraham's preparations for the sacrifice. "Abraham took the wood . . . and laid it upon Isaac his son." Isaac was not altogether passive, either, in this day's events. Abraham did not tell him at first, what the journey meant. Until the very last moment, he did not disclose to him that he was to be sacrificed. Yet Isaac did his share in the preparations. "So they went both of them together." Together, but with what different feelings! Abraham's heart was breaking. Isaac was awed by the unexplained mystery. Then, his father's anguish must have oppressed him.
The journey lasted two days. We may suppose there was little said, as the two went on together. The boy's mind was busy. "My father," he said, near the end of the long walk, "my father, behold the fire and the wood--but where is a lamb for a burnt-offering?" It was a terrible question. Abraham answered, not disclosing yet to Isaac, what was before him--yet giving faith's true answer: "God Himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering."
In all this extraordinary story, we see the earthly picture of another still greater sacrifice. Our Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to actual death without substitute, because of His infinite love for sinners. In Isaac carrying up the hill--the wood for the sacrifice in which he himself was to be consumed as a burnt-offering, we have a wonderful picture of Jesus going out to Calvary, bearing the cross on which He was to die for sinners!
Isaac's part in this great transaction, is sometimes overlooked. He must have consented to the sacrifice. He said not a word in resistance, made no outcry, did not flee--but quietly submitted to be laid upon the altar without a murmur. Thus the sacrifice was Isaac's--as well as his father's. He devoted himself to God, made himself over to God in perfect trust. He was the son of promise with great Divine purposes depending on him; if God wished him to die--he was willing to die. By this sacrifice Isaac became indeed Abraham's heir.
The supreme moment was reached without any failure of faith. "Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." Abraham stands here as the sublimest hero of faith. He knew only one thing--to obey. What terrible emotional pain it cost him--to make that long journey to Mount Moriah, then to build the altar and lay his son upon it, then to stretch forth his hand to slay him--no human heart can conceive! Yet he faltered not.
We can raise in these days a thousand questions as we study the story--but Abraham raised none. It was not his business to settle perplexities; his business was simply to obey. He knew very well--that all Divine promises centered in Isaac, and that if he were cut off--the foretold innumerable seed would be destroyed in Isaac. But this did not trouble him. The same God who made the covenant and gave the promise--now gave the command which seemed to sweep all away! But Abraham's one duty was to obey. We have a glimpse of his heart in the book of Hebrews, where we are told that he obeyed in faith, accounting that God was able to raise Isaac up from the dead. Nothing that God commands ever can bring harm or real loss to us. His commandments never cancel His purposes--nor clash with them. No painful sacrifice He ever demands of us--can possibly interfere with His covenant of love.
When Abraham had gone thus far in obeying, God withdrew His request. "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son."
Abraham had proved his faith and obedience--by going straight forward, up to the very point of actual sacrifice, and God was satisfied. He did not want a literal offering of Isaac upon the altar--what He desired was the perfect surrender of the father's will--and this surrender was now made. This is the true sacrifice always, and the only one that counts with God. God is pleased far more with submission and obedience, than with the most costly offering. "To obey is better than sacrifice." The richest gifts amount to nothing--if the heart is not in them. The things we try to do for God, in obeying His commandments, even though they fail--are accepted and rewarded. God takes the will--for the deed.
The testimony which God gave to Abraham after his testing and proving, is very beautiful. "Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son." God is pleased when we endure trials well--when He calls us to pass through afflictions, or to endure losses and make sacrifices. His eye is upon us in tender love. He watches us to see how we are obeying Him and trusting Him. Murmuring and rebellion grieve Him--but He is pleased when we submit to His will, though it is hard to submit, and though it cost us pain and tears. When He sees us faithful, patient, and submissive, He knows that we love Him and trust Him.
What does all this mean to us? We shall never have precisely this test of our faith--but we may have, we almost certainly shall have--some time in our life, a trying of our faith which shall be a testing of our life. We may be called to lay on the altar one dearer to us than life. He was a friend of promise. His coming to us was the fulfillment of a thousand hopes and dreams. All our future of happiness and good, seemed to depend upon him. Then we may hear the command to give him up. At first it will seem to us that we cannot possibly do it. There must be some terrible mistake. Certainly God cannot mean this. He gave us our friend--He would not take him away from us again. All the blessings of our life are in him, and to lose him--would be to lose all.
But there is a higher view of life into which we must seek to rise. We belong to God--and not in any sense to ourselves. It is not our conception of life that we are to seek grace to fulfill--but God's purpose for us. Abraham thought that Isaac was to live, and that through him, he was to become a great nation and be a blessing to the world. Now for three days it appeared as if God's will for Isaac was death, not life. Abraham raised no doubt, expressed no surprise, asked no question, even showed no anguish. It was God's matter, not his. He had thought that the will of God was for Isaac to live--but if it was sacrifice on the altar instead--it must be right. Abraham was silent.
When we seem called upon, to give up the friend upon whom all our happiness depends, let us remember that it was God who gave us the friend; that He knows how the friend can be the very most to us, to God, and to the world; that the thought in God's mind is our good and the blessing of others; that His will is not an arbitrary tyranny--but is the expression of perfect love; and that the very aim we seek will be reached--only by quiet acquiescence in that will. Our vision is too short-sighted to perceive what is best for us and others. The only safe thing for us--is to let God have His way. If we had our own way instead--our life might be hurt and our future darkened!
Faith is the absolute submitting of our life to God--so that He and not we shall direct it. Then let us learn that we and all our interests are absolutely safe in God's hands. No harm came to Abraham's hopes, through this experience on Mount Moriah. Abraham was a better man afterward. Isaac was a truer and worthier son after having been laid on God's altar. The promise lost nothing in its splendor and glory.
Likewise, we shall never lose anything in any sacrifice we make to God. What we surrender to Him--we receive back in rich beauty. Whatever plans of ours are broken--are only superseded by God's infinitely better plans, and brought into harmony with His perfect will. In the book of Hebrews it is said that "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." When we give to God in simple faith--the friends and the things we love--we receive them back again, and they become more to us than ever they were before.
"Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh"--"the Lord will provide." We may write the same name over every place of sacrifice in our life. Whatever our need or danger, the Lord will provide. When we are convicted of sin, and only condemnation seems possible, the Lord will provide a Redeemer, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." When we meet sorrow and loss, when everything seems gone, the Lord will provide, and our sorrow will be turned into joy--and our loss into gain!
