How did Abraham know that God will provide a lamb (Genesis 22:8)?

Another, and the severest test of all, awaits Abraham's faith. It is said, "God did tempt [try] Abraham." These very words prepare us for the solemn scene. There had been previous trials, but of no other is it said, " God did tempt Abraham." In the life of every saint there is one trial which may be called the trial; all others are, to this one, comparatively light. It may be earlier or later in the life and walk of faith, but it comes. The trial of Abraham is now come; and whether we look at him, or the sustaining power of divinely supplied faith, we can but, as it were, stand aside as the scene passes before us. A man, at the command of God, going to offer lip his only son as a sacrifice! No sudden, and therefore imperfect, obedience on the spur of the moment, but a three days' journey, where was ample time for any conflict between love for his son and obedience to God. But faith triumphed — faith in the promise, that in Isaac the everlasting covenant should be established, and with his seed after him. (Gen. 17:19.) How, if Isaac were sacrificed? Faith gave the ready answer," Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." (Heb. 11:19.) His feelings, as he leads his unconscious son to the altar, are too deep, too mixed, to permit any analysis. God alone could gauge the depth of his affection for Isaac, but faith and obedience to Himself were greater; the feelings of nature were kept down, as, in the power of faith in God, he journeyed to the mount of Moriah. No stoical indifference pervaded his breast; all the intense love of a father for an only son was there. But how calm is Abraham! It is the calmness of faith. On the third day the appointed place is seen, and he bids his attendants to remain. He and the lad were going yonder to worship. How truly his heart is in communion with God, how unfeigned his obedience. He calls the offering up of Isaac "worship;" but he adds, "and come again." Here his faith shines, and casts its bright light over all the path. "Come again" — yes, he and Isaac were coming again. The word of promise was irrevocable, and if death come, resurrection must follow. But this faith is not at the expense of natural affection. As the two go on, Isaac says, "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Mere nature would have broken down here. No father's love, unsustained by faith, could have borne such a strain as this. Can anything more clearly indicate the entire submission of his heart to God, more complete control of parental feeling, than his answer, most expressive by its very brevity? "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." Isaac was carrying the wood on which he was to be a burnt-offering — type of Him who bore His cross before He was nailed to it; such a question at that moment must have pierced Abraham's heart. No, natural affection was there in its strength. Only God had the first place in his soul. If God demanded Isaac as a burnt-offering, who is Abraham to demur? He would teach Isaac to bow to God's will, but does not tell his son that he is the lamb. In this short answer are comprised his own submission to God's will, raising Isaac's thoughts above the circumstances up to God, and his deep love for him; perhaps his feelings too strong to say more. Exquisite is the blending of all these in his soul. God knew what the strain would be upon the father's heart, but He provided for it, and brings Abraham through the trying ordeal, and then commends him for what He had enabled him to do. This is grace indeed. How sweet and blessed to Abraham was God's commendation of his obedience of faith. "By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing, I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." (Gen. 22:16-18.)

Faith sacrifices its best and choicest things to God. Abraham did not withhold his choicest. This is one of faith's greatest victories. He is a mighty man of faith. They who conquered foes by faith, who gave their own bodies to torture, do not by that show the power of faith to the same degree as Abraham in giving up his only son, Isaac. For there was more than the putting aside of parental affection: the promises of God, of such immense blessing to and by the seed, were apparently given up — apparently, not really, for Abraham knew now that God's word must stand. He and the lad will come again. The Spirit of God tells us what Abraham meant when he told his young men to wait for them — "accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." This is the highest kind of faith — it is resurrection faith. No other kind will do in the presence of death. This is the special characteristic of faith now. We believe in Him "who lived, who died, who lives again," in Him "who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins."

But where would be God's promise? Where would be the righteousness that was reckoned to Abraham for believing it? There would be not only a conflict between the natural feelings of Abraham and the word of God, but a seeming contradiction between the command and the previous promise. Thus there was room for nature to question if his obedience could be right under the circumstances. Did he hear and understand aright the command? Would not the promise that his seed through Isaac should be a countless multitude and dominant in the earth imply that to sacrifice Isaac would be to thwart God's purpose concerning him and the world, and be like abandoning His promise? Did not the natural feelings of a father afford scope for doubt and unbelief, and help the thought that he had misunderstood? Here were three sanctions working with no small effect on Abraham's mind. Natural affection, and in this case a very special affection; secondly, faith which he by no means relinquished and by which he obtained righteousness, with which moreover nature could clearly unite to withstand obedience to the third sanction, viz., the present command of God.

What a device of Satan to bring past truth into apparent collision with present obedience! But with Abraham natural feelings counted as nothing compared with God's unmistakable though inexplicable command; and all that passed through his mind was at once brought into subjection to the word of God. There was in truth but one way in which he could bring together and harmonise the promise and the command, and that way he took, wonderful as it was and unheard of. It was the way of resurrection. Abraham accounted that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. No such thing had he heard before, that any one should be raised from the dead. He might have heard of Enoch's translation; God could prevent death. But to bring through death was an unknown thing; and now it must be, for the command was irrevocable. If Isaac's birth was miraculous, so would his life be. At all events every doubt and every fear was hushed by his ready obedience in faith. And thus Abraham and Isaac journeyed together till the third day. And when be sees the mountain, his faith does not fail but seems to grow stronger. He bids the young men wait with the ass, while he and the lad go yonder and worship; and his worship was to sacrifice the lad, and to receive him in resurrection, so that it gives a new feature to the original promise. Abraham's seed must still be as the stars innumerable. But death is in the way; only by resurrection can the promise be made good.

How wonderfully the purpose of God for the whole earth is combined with the trial of faith in an individual saint! Indeed we are told by the Holy Spirit that Abraham had the assurance of resurrection, "accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." His faith in the previously given promise is not shaken by the present command. Mark the words "worship" and "come again." It is a seal to the promise, and Abraham worships. Faith removes all difficulties, and the path of the believer shines more and more unto the perfect day. In the quiet command to his servants there is no boasting of his faith: enough for them that he, the father, and the son, will come again; in his bosom the yearning of nature and obedience to God are reconciled by faith. And faith governed Abraham from the time that he was called away from His kindred, not knowing whither he went, only knowing that he was to receive an inheritance.

But in Gen. 22 we come to a trial sore enough to shake the faith of any man. Yet the patriarch staggers not, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." What a cut was this to his loving heart — who can say? And the three days' journey, and Isaac's question, "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" All this was heart-rending to the father. Again, "On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." Isaac knew not what was forthcoming. Yet at the supreme moment, when he saw that he was to be the victim, "he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Abraham knew all, and nevertheless, nothing could deter him. Was it through hardness or insensibility? Far be the thought. Does he love the less that only son? Rather the more. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down My life." Again we ask, What was it then that made him equal to the sacrifice? It was that, step by step and in proportion as God revealed His purpose and pledged His promises, he had got to know and understand God, and therefore to fully rely on Him. On his part, it was not blind, but intelligent, obedience. This we learn from Heb. 11:19, "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." He believed in Him who was the God of resurrection and, as such, able to give him back in his hands the loved object he surrendered. He accounted that having received him by a miracle, by a miracle he could receive him back. And so it was, in a figure or parable. Admirable faith

The sacrifice commanded was to be a burnt offering, hence to the eyes of Isaac the fire and the wood were perfectly natural, and the only question raised in his mind was, "Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham's answer, though he may not have known it, was prophetic of something far beyond his own days: "God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." No lamb that ever died on any altar, patriarchal or Jewish, was other than provisional, and in view of that which was to come. The question, "Where is the lamb?" was unanswered until John the Baptist was able to declare, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." Abraham, however, was fully persuaded that God would provide the lamb for this occasion, and in that faith both father and son went together.

But Abraham takes that son, without hesitancy and promptly, and goes to the appointed place. He goes through the whole terrible test; he lays the wood upon his child; they go up the mountain side together; and the boy's question comes to him, "My father: behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" How it must have pierced that father's heart! but what faith shone through that answer, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt-offering." Did he mean to say that Isaac was not to be put to death? He knew that if he was to be put to death, God could raise him up. He counted upon the God of resurrection, and he received him thus, in a figure, as from the dead.

I need not enlarge upon what is so precious to us, how this is a type of God giving up His only begotten Son. God would not call upon Abraham to do what He, later on, had to do. Not only was the wood put upon Him, as Jesus bore the cross; not only was He bound to the altar, when our Lord was nailed to the cross; but when divine Justice lifted up the hand, there was no voice to stay. The Son was given up to death. That is where God's love transcends all other love — where He is infinitely beyond the type. He gave His only Son.

The promise was as explicit as the command, and he would cleave to the promise and obey the command; he could count upon God to bring him out of the seeming difficulty. How this dependence is felt and acknowledged too in his answer to Isaac, when the latter enquired for the lamb, — "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb!" Besides the dependence due to God the father's love is subdued by real trust in God Himself. But it bursts out in the words, "My son," and is as quickly brought into submission, as is evident by the words following, "God will provide." Whatever he distress, if he felt any in his soul, all was calmed by this, "God will provide." His dependence on God is unshaken and firm, and makes him like a rock when assailed by mighty but unavailing waves. And this when his natural affection and his faith in the promise that he was to be the father of a numerous seed would have led him to hesitate as to the sacrifice of his son. He had sent away Ishmael, and was going to sacrifice Isaac, none being left. What would become of the promise? This is his strength," God will provide." During the fiery trial how his faith shines, rising above circumstances and seeming contradictions! And, when the trial is completed, with what joy and confirmation of faith he would sing in his heart, Jehovah-jireh!

We cannot tell all that passed through the heart of the loving father, but there must have been thoughts of deepest sorrow at the prospect of having to relinquish the son of his love, on whom his affections specially rested. This we do know however, that as he pondered the implications of his great sacrifice, he was assured “that God was able to raise him (Isaac), even from the dead” (Heb. 11:19). He did not know if God would raise Isaac from the dead, but he knew that God was able to do this if it was in His plan, and his faith rested on the knowledge of the goodness of God and the perfection of His ways. God has promised that all His blessings were to be fulfilled through Isaac, and Abraham’s faith rested quietly and confidently in this while passing through the trial that reached to the very depths of his being.

We cannot tell all that passed through the heart and mind of Abraham, but we do know that his heart would be filled with sorrow at the thought of giving up his well-beloved son. Yet his confidence in God rose above every natural feeling, for the Scripture tells us that he went to the mount of sacrifice “Accounting that God was able to raise him (Isaac) up, even from the dead” (Heb. 11:19). Abraham did not know that God would raise up Isaac, but he knew that He was able to do it, and he no doubt judged that this was the only way in which God would be able to fulfil His promise concerning Isaac (Gen. 17:19).

In Genesis 22 we have the historical account of that which is so beautifully and touchingly epitomised by the Spirit of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up His only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure " (Heb. 11:17-19). It might be helpful, at this point, to note with reference to that remark-able expression "… he that had received the promises," that despite the fact that Abraham was asked to offer up Isaac, the one in whom all the promises reposed, he had so found that inward strength in faith as to lay hold upon the One Who had made these wonderful promises, and which he had taken up and appropriated, although in the present circumstances it seemed as though they had been given to be capriciously revoked.

But it was with Abraham as it is sometimes with us, that God tried his faith in a way that he never could have expected. Isaac was a son specially given to Abraham by divine promise in his old age; could he then possibly have anticipated that he would one day be suddenly called upon to give him back to God, by offering him up as a burnt-offering? Again, all the promises of God, both as to his descendants and the nations, were given in Isaac: "In Isaac shall thy seed be called;" and "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Can it then be possible that God would have this one put to death? But the hoary-headed patriarch asks no questions. He knows that God's calls are imperative, and that His word must be implicitly obeyed; and when the man of faith was thus occupied with God, and accounting that He was able to raise him up again from the dead, he was strengthened at once to arise and obey every detail of direction for the accomplishment of His will. He knew that God is faithful, that He could not deny Himself, that the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and in some way or other all His own promises must be fulfilled. As on the occasion of Isaac's birth, "he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform;" so now He could go forth, "accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." It was reckoning then entirely upon the faithfulness and almighty power of God, that enabled the heavy-hearted patriarch to go forth, step by step, according to the divine command in this time of deep affliction. The trial finding him as it did occupied with God, calm and happy in His presence, he went forth looking to God, walking step by step, and day by day, according to His bidding, believing that if his beloved Isaac were bound to the altar and killed, and consumed to ashes as a burnt-offering, that He was able to raise him up from the dead, and establish all His promises in him. This was the way of faith; hence we are told, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac," etc. It was not reckoning upon any arm or stratagem of the flesh, not brooding over circumstances, painful, most painful to nature as they must have been, but having to do with God, the living and true God. No doubt he felt his own weakness, and his feelings must have been acutely sensitive, every emotion of affection too put to its utmost stretch; but all this only the more earnestly cast him unreservedly upon God, and, like another, he might say, "My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever;" or again, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," for faith knows no other resource or confidence.