And it came to pass after these things, that God tried Abraham, and said to him, Abraham! and he said, Here am I.
This is the sharpest turn in Abraham's life. God speaks, and He asks for the one thing Abraham never expected to give back. Older translations say God "did tempt" Abraham; the ESV says He "tested" him. That one word raises the first question commentators take up: can God tempt anyone at all?
Scripture elsewhere says God tempts no one. Commentators settle this by pointing to what each passage is talking about.
The Spirit of God, through Moses, speaks of God's trying Abraham's faith, which is no evil, but an honour put on the friend of God. Through the Apostle He speaks of evil things. In that sense, of course, "God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one" — clearly the same sense. The context puts the meaning of each beyond dispute.
The word itself, and God's right to make the demand, are both worth weighing.
When God tempted Abraham in the matter of offering up his son Isaac, God was not tempting him with evil, for God had a right to ask of him what He asked. God is the Giver of life and He can demand back what He gives. Genesis 22:1 is the very first mention in the Bible of the word tempt (Hebrew, nasah, to try, to prove).
The opening phrase, "After these things," is not filler. It marks a stage in Abraham's story, and the same phrase appears earlier in Genesis 15:1.
The words "After these things" in Genesis 15:1 and 22:1 divide Abram's life into three stages. I think the different aspects are these: first, the call and the response of faith; second, the promise and the response of hope; and third, the trial and the response of love.
Abraham had faced painful moments before, but this one was different in kind. Nothing here was about correcting a fault.
Abraham's heart, as another has observed, did grieve at the loss of Ishmael, but in that case his conscience had something to say to him. Offering up Isaac was very different. There Abraham's conscience did not speak, but his heart all the more. God was trying his heart, whether it rested more in the gift than in the Giver. Abraham stood the test.
Kelly weighs this trial against every other God has laid on one of His own.
It was the greatest trial to which God had ever put the heart of a saint. It was not tempting with evils, any more than God is tempted with them. On the contrary, God had His own good in view. He would make His friend the witness of it, while testing his confidence in Himself and His word to the very limit... God could not lie; but He might and does try, and those most whom He loves best.
God calls a name, and Abraham replies before he knows what is coming. That readiness, and the exact words of the demand, both repay attention.
Notice how responsive Abraham is. God calls, and at once comes the reply, "Here I am." Then consider how the words stress everything that would make the demand still more terrible to nature, instead of softening it: "Your son, your only son, whom you love." In such small details we see the Divine knowledge and the Divine interest. Nor is anything left to Abraham's choice in the matter of place.
Abraham obeyed, and he still held God's promise about Isaac. One writer names what steadied him.
Through all this trial of Abraham's we must not miss one thing: the faith of resurrection cheers the father's heart. God had made His promises sure in the son of whom He said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." So if God called for Isaac to be offered up, resurrection must restore him from the very flames of the altar.
The scene was never only about Abraham. What God asked of His friend, He would one day do Himself.
After these things, and quite distinct from them, God tried Abraham. What is not here for God as well as man! It is the picture, which only blind unbelief fails to see, of the Only-begotten Son given, of the Lamb which God would provide Himself for a Burnt Offering.
- Tested — the word is nasah, to try or prove; God never lures anyone toward evil, but He does put faith to the proof.
- Timed — "After these things" marks a new stage: after the call answered by faith and the promise answered by hope comes the trial answered by love.
- Targeted — this trial touched the heart, not the conscience: did Abraham rest in the gift or in the Giver?
- Trusted — he answers "Here I am" before hearing the cost, and goes on believing God can raise Isaac even from the ashes of the altar.
- Told in advance — a father giving his only son becomes the picture of the Son given, and of the Lamb God would provide Himself.
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son], whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Genesis 22 opens with God asking Abraham to give up Isaac, the son through whom every promise was to come. Each word of the command is chosen with care. Commentators read the scene as the first shadow of a far greater sacrifice.
The demand is severe, but its purpose is not cruelty. One writer weighs the trial, rules out any thought of God luring a man into evil, and tells us whom God tests most:
It was the greatest trial to which God had ever put the heart of a saint. It was not a temptation to evil, any more than God Himself is tempted by evil. On the contrary, God had His own good in view. He would make His friend the witness of it, while testing his confidence in Himself and in His word to the very limit. … God could not lie; but He can and does test, and He tests most those He loves best.
The command asked more than acceptance. Naming Isaac struck at two things at once — a father's affection, and everything God had promised through that boy:
Abraham had to do more than accept God's will. He had to act against himself. He had to sacrifice himself, so to speak, for the sacrifice of his son was nothing less than that... "Your son" — this word kindled in Abraham the tenderest of feelings; and he had to sacrifice that son! More than that, this name reminded him of God's promises. Those promises were to be fulfilled in this son, for God had plainly told him, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."
Notice, too, that God does not soften the blow, and He does not let Abraham pick the spot:
Then consider how God stresses, rather than softens, everything that would make the demand still more terrible to natural feeling: "your son, your only son, whom you love." Such small details show God's knowledge and His interest. Nor is anything left to Abraham's choice in the matter of place. The sacrifice was to be on one of the mountains that God would tell him of. So must it always be. In the service of the Lord, He Himself must order everything, in line with His will.
The Hebrew word behind "only son" means more than a number. The New Testament title for Christ answers to it:
This is a name of special affection for the Lord Jesus in His eternal Sonship, as He existed before He came into the world. He is called the only begotten Son, the only begotten of the Father. John 1:14, 18; John 3:16, 18. It is used here as the equivalent of a Hebrew word (yachid) which means 'only one,' and so 'darling,' Gen. 22:2; Ps. 22:20; 35:17.
Love enters the Bible's vocabulary in this verse, and it enters attached to a sacrifice:
The Bible's very first mention of love sets before us the supreme sacrifice that the Father made in giving His Son: "Take your son, your only son … whom you love … and offer him … as a burnt offering." The love of the Father for His Son comes first. As a picture, the love of Christ for His Church is the second mention of love in the Scriptures (Genesis 24:67).
Burnt offerings were not new. Asking one of a human life was:
We remember that Abel offered an offering from the firstborn of his flock. Noah, when he came out of the ark, took some of every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings to the LORD. But this was the first occasion that pointed so solemnly to a human sacrifice. That offering surely foretold the sacrificial death of our Lord, the only begotten Son of the Father.
What Abraham was asked to do, God Himself did — and the result reaches us:
Abraham's love for Isaac is only a very faint picture of the infinite love of the Father for the Son. Yet God was willing not to spare His own Son, but to deliver Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32)... In love, God gave His only Son, so that we might be accepted in all the value of that wonderful burnt offering. That offering glorified God and brought us before Him in all the acceptability of what the Son is and what He has done.
The exact mountain is not named here. Later history ties Moriah to Israel's sacrifices, and past them to the cross:
Four centuries or so after Moses, the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite stood on Moriah. Years after that Solomon built his temple there, and so it became the place for Jewish sacrifices. That to which all these sacrifices pointed took place "outside the gate," for the Lord Jesus was the rejected One.
- Tested — the command tried Abraham's confidence in God. It was never an enticement to evil; God tests most those He loves best.
- Named — "your son, your only son, whom you love" spares Abraham nothing. Each word touches his affection and the promise that hung on Isaac.
- Only — the Hebrew yachid means "only one," even "darling." It stands behind the New Testament title "only begotten Son."
- Loved — the Bible first speaks of love here: a father's love for the son he must give up, pointing to the Father's love for His Son.
- Given — what God asked of Abraham on Moriah, God Himself did. He did not spare His own Son, so that we might be accepted in the worth of that offering.