Genesis 22
by Pastor David Groendyk
In one of the greatest tests of a person’s faith in history, Abraham is called by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. It would be hard enough for any parent to fathom this sort of command coming from God and losing their only child, but keep in mind that Isaac was unique. He was the child of promise. He was the fruition of 25 years of waiting during old age for a son. He was the bright morning star of the fulfillment of magnificent promises to bless the entire world through Abraham’s descendants. And now God asks for Abraham to kill him. Amazingly, Abraham passes the test. What must have been going through Abraham’s mind that caused him to be willing to go through with this? Hebrews 11 helps us out and explains that Abraham expected God to raise Isaac from the dead. What Abraham ended up getting was a metaphorical resurrection rather than a literal one. God does not actually let Abraham go through with the sacrifice, yet God is pleased and proclaims that Abraham’s faith is most definitely true (v. 12).
Time and space do not permit us to plumb the full depths of this chapter, but let’s meditate briefly on three lessons. First, faith is always imperfect and must be purified. We’ve seen in Genesis numerous ways in which Abraham’s faith fails and he goes against God’s revealed will. He lies about Sarah being his sister twice out of fear, he has a son with his servant out of doubt concerning Sarah’s ability to bear children, and he vocally doubts God’s promises multiple times over the course of 25 years. And aren’t we the same way? We can look back over this past day, week, and lifetime and see numerous ways we’ve doubted God and sinned against him despite knowing the difference between right and wrong. It always comes down to imperfect faith that is not 100% true to God which leads to sin. Therefore, as Peter says, we undergo various trials so that our faith would become more pure as gold that is refined by fire. And as Derek Kidner puts it, rather than being broken by this trial, Abraham is drawn into a lifelong walk with him, which is how all of us must respond to God’s trials.
Second, God is given another awesome name—the Provider (v. 14). John Piper explains in one of his books (and you can see in a footnote for verse 14) that ‘providing’ is very close to the word ‘seeing’. In other words, God’s providence means that he always sees. The Lord sees to all of our needs in his most holy, wise, and powerful ways. His eyes constantly scan to and fro throughout the earth looking for his children and giving them strong support (2 Chr. 16:9). We never need to fear or be anxious, because our Father is taking care of us. That is certainly a lesson that Abraham needed to and did learn. We do too. Whenever we pray to God with our doubts, anxieties, fears, and needs, his response is always, “Don’t worry, I’ll see to it. Trust me.”
Third, we can’t help but see a foretaste of the gospel in this chapter. All of these themes of faith, providence, and resurrection come to their grand conclusion in Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate “only son” who was not withheld but willingly offered as the ultimate sacrifice, himself being the ultimate act of God’s providence. Never again do we have to fear, because we’ve seen our greatest need met and have a bright future ahead of us. Praise the Lord that he graciously redeems us sinners, provides for us, and constantly strengthens and purifies our faith.