And the Angel of Jehovah called to him from the heavens, and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, Here am I.
Abraham has the knife raised over his bound son when a voice breaks in from the sky. Three things decide the verse: who speaks, why now, and why He calls the name twice.
The verse names the speaker: the angel of the LORD. Who is this?
We have a higher thought in "the Angel of the Lord," spoken of often (Gen. 16:7-13; Gen. 22:11, 15; Ex. 3:2; Ex. 23:20; Judges 2:1, and others). In many cases He seems to be the Lord Himself appearing in this form; at other times He is the Lord's representative.
The call does not come when Abraham sets out, or builds the altar, or binds Isaac. It comes with the knife already in motion.
Verses 9 and 10 relate how full the measure of Abraham's obedience was. Nothing was lacking up to the point where the death stroke would have taken place. At the last possible moment the Angel of the Lord intervened. His obedience had been tested to the full and had stood the test. He had not withheld his only son.
Up to that moment God gave no sign that a substitute was coming. Yet the silence was not absence.
All was made ready for the sacrifice, but as yet there was no sign that God would step in and provide a substitute. The lamb Abraham had spoken of to Isaac — where was it? Isaac was now bound on the altar. The father raised his hand and was about to kill his son, when the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven. Someone unseen had watched everything Abraham was doing. That same One could read his heart and knew all that he was suffering in his soul. … Now the trial was over, and the angel of the Lord, Jehovah Himself, stepped in.
God does not shout a command; He says a man's name, doubled. Others in Scripture gave the same short reply when God called them like this.
God's greatness and majesty produced a striking response when He spoke in grace to saints of old. When He called, "Abraham, Abraham," at once the answer came, "Here I am." When He said, "Jacob, Jacob," the reply came at once, "Here I am." He spoke to Moses, "Moses, Moses!" and Moses answered at once, "Here I am." … Later the same One speaks in the same way, but now He has come down in lowly grace: "Martha, Martha!" and "Simon, Simon!" Once again, after His ascension, "Saul, Saul!"
God stopped one father's hand. He did not stop His own.
God did not allow him to strike the blow. He had gone to the very furthest limit; he had come up to the line beyond which God could not let him go. The Blessed One spared the father's heart the pang which He did not spare His own heart, even that of smiting His Son. He, blessed be His name, went beyond the furthest limit, for "he did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all."
Why could Abraham go this far? He was counting on something beyond death.
To man death is the end of hope. To God it is only the occasion to use the power of resurrection. Abraham trusted without a waver, certain of God's power on Isaac's behalf. … Faith then could go no further. Abraham counted on God completely to make good in resurrection the seed given up to die at His word — and with that seed, the promises. What fresh gain for Abraham! And what gain for all who do His will, give up what is dearest to them, and receive it all back better than ever in resurrection!
Abraham passed the test. Did that give him a claim on God?
He had done what was right in surrendering Isaac, for God had commanded him to do it. Could he then claim anything from God because of this display of obedience? Clearly not. He had only done what it was his duty to do when God commanded it. … We can claim no merit on the ground of obedience to God. Yet how often a thought lurks in a corner of the heart, even when it is never said out loud: the thought of pressing a claim on God to be rewarded for the obedience we have given Him. If God rewards obedience He is free to do so, though we could never demand it.
- Tested fully — Abraham held nothing back. He went to the very line beyond which God would not let him go.
- Stopped in time — The voice came at the last possible moment, from One who had watched every step unseen.
- Named twice — God interrupts not with a command but with a name, and the ready heart answers, "Here I am."
- Not spared — God held Abraham's hand back. He did not hold back His own Son.
- Received back — Death ends man's hope. For God it is the moment for resurrection power. What we give up at His word comes back better.
And he said, Stretch not out thy hand against the lad, neither do anything to him; for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son], from me.
Abraham has bound his son on the altar and raised the knife. Then a voice from heaven stops him, and God explains what the test has proved.
God says He now knows something, yet nothing about Abraham was hidden from Him before:
Abraham's devotedness was fully proved, and fully accepted. Notice, it is "now I know." It had never been proved before. It was there, no doubt, and if it was there, God knew it. But the valuable point here is this: God bases His knowledge of it on the plain evidence given at the altar on Mount Moriah. Faith is always proved by action, and the fear of God by the fruits that flow from it. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?" (James 2:21). Who could think of calling his faith in question? Take away faith, and Abraham appears on Moriah as a murderer and a madman. Take faith into account, and he appears as a devoted worshipper — a God-fearing, justified man.
The fear of God moved Abraham to act, while the fear of man would have stopped him:
Then the angel of the Lord intervenes. Abraham's hand was held back from plunging the knife into his son. Abraham's faith has answered the test. God says, "Now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Acting in the fear of God, he overcame the fear of man by doing what man would have utterly condemned.
God's words go past the deed to the person:
What was it that so raised the value of Abraham's surrender to God? The patriarch gave up his only-begotten son (Heb. 11:17). Isaac was the son before they went up Mount Moriah together, and before he was laid on the altar. In the eyes of Jehovah, the moral value of Abraham's act of faith was measured by the one he gave at His bidding. It was not Ishmael, but his son, his "only son," Isaac, whom he loved. In Isaac all Jehovah's promises to him were centred.
The interruption comes after everything, not before:
Verses 9 and 10 tell how complete Abraham's obedience was. Nothing was lacking up to the point where the death stroke would have fallen. At the last possible moment the Angel of the Lord stepped in. His obedience had been tested to the full and had stood the test. He had not withheld his only son.
The angel of the Lord speaks, yet He calls the son withheld "from Me":
So you see the angel of the Lord here is the same as God Himself. God sometimes veils Himself under the title of angel; so the angel of the Lord is often Jehovah Himself.
God asked Abraham to trust Him past the point where a man can see any way forward:
Nowhere in the Old Testament do we find such complete trust in God. Here the father was willing to sacrifice his only son. All God's promises and his own hopes were bound up in that son. To man, death is the end of hope; to God it is only the occasion to exercise the power of resurrection... The proof was complete. Faith could go no farther. God was fully counted on to make good in resurrection the seed — and the promises in the seed — given up at His word to die. What fresh gain for Abraham! The same gain belongs to all who do His will and give up what is dearest to them naturally. They receive everything back better than before, in resurrection.
Isaac came down the mountain alive. That is where the picture stops being a picture:
I need not enlarge on what is so precious to us — how this is a type of God giving up His only begotten Son. God would not ask Abraham to do what He Himself later had to do. The wood was laid on Isaac, just as Jesus carried the cross. Isaac was bound to the altar, just as our Lord was nailed to the cross. But when divine justice lifted up its hand, there was no voice to stay it. The Son was given up to death. That is where God's love goes beyond every other love — where He is infinitely beyond the type.
- Tested — The command came first. Abraham obeyed to the last possible moment, and only then did the voice from heaven stop him.
- Proved — "Now I know" points to evidence, not new information: faith is proved by action, and the fear of God by its fruits.
- Measured — What God names is not the deed but the cost: the son, the only son, the one loved, the one holding all the promises.
- Restored — Abraham trusted a God of resurrection. Everything he gave up at God's word came back better than before.
- Surpassed — A voice stopped the knife on Moriah. At the cross no voice stopped the hand, and God's love went beyond the picture.