Total Surrender | Genesis 22:1-19
INTRODUCTION
In 1858, Scottish minister John G. Paton left a fruitful ministry in Glasgow to take the gospel to the New Hebrides, South Pacific. People warned him not to go. A minister of God had already been killed there. But Paton said: His life belonged to Christ. There was no turning back.
That is the kind of moment Abraham faces in Genesis 22. Isaac was his son he loved, his promise, his future. And now the question was: Will Abraham trust God completely and obey God, or will he turn back?
Open your Bibles with me to Genesis 22.
Genesis 22:1-2
1Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Scripture repeatedly condemns child sacrifice. Leviticus 18:21 forbids it, and Jeremiah 32:35 says it was something God “never commanded.” So Genesis 22 is not God’s endorsement of child sacrifice, but a test of Abraham.
Go to the land… Two times it is spoken by God, and both times it is addressed to Abraham.
The first time Abraham heard this phrase was in Genesis 12.
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Genesis 12:1-2 |
Genesis 22:1 |
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1Now the Lord said to Abram, |
2Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” |
This command to go forth also has three elements:
Genesis 12:1 – Go from your country, relatives, and your father’s house and go to the land…
Genesis 22:2 – Take your son, your only son, the one you love and go to the land…
In Genesis 12, Abraham had been asked to sacrifice his past—his country, family, and clan. Now, in Genesis 22, he is being asked to sacrifice his son—his future—as a burnt offering.
Genesis 22:1
Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham…
That is a very important introduction because the author connects God’s test to Abraham here to “all these things”—everything that has happened in the story so far.
It is in Genesis 11 when we are first introduced to Sarah, do you know what is told about her?
Genesis 11:30
Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child.
The first thing we are told about Sarah is something deeply painful—a deep wound. In the patriarchal society in which she found herself, a wife’s value was associated with her ability to produce children. This was a deeply painful, shameful wound that she carried.
Remember, just sentences later, the first thing God says to Abraham is the promise of children and land in Genesis 12:2.
Abraham obeyed God and left his father’s house; however, Abraham faltered in his walk.
Genesis 12: Abraham was in Canaan and there was a famine. Instead of trusting God, Abraham goes to Egypt. In Egypt he acted out of fear concerning Sarah and told Pharoah that she is his sister.
Genesis 15: He wondered whether Eliezer would become his heir.
Genesis 16: Abraham and Sarah tried to secure the promise through Hagar.
Genesis 20: Abraham again acted out of fear concerning Sarah and Abimelek.
Abraham’s journey of faith had not been a straight line. Yet God remained faithful.
Genesis 21:1-2
1Then the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had promised. 2So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. 3Abraham named his son who was born to him, the son whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
Abraham and Sarah finally have the child they have longed for all these years.
Genesis 21:8-10
8And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
Sarah Turns against Hagar
9Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking Isaac. 10Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave woman and her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac!”
Those are the words of someone who is very afraid, deeply wounded, and insecure. “This is my son Isaac, right? That Egyptian son will never be an heir.”
ILLUSTRATION
Sometimes love can quietly become control and manipulation. A child can become so central to a parent’s identity, security, and hopes that the gift begins to take the place of the Giver. This can be true with any relationship.
This is a very complicated situation. God intervenes. He tells Abraham that these mothers and their sons have to be separated. Abraham is deeply distressed about this.
Abraham and Sarah send Hagar and Ishmael out into the wilderness. They give them a loaf of bread and a container of water. The provisions run out. This mother has a dying child. She places him under a bush and then retreats because she says, “I cannot watch my own son die before my eyes.” It is a horrible scene. This happens immediately before the story in Gen. 22.
God hears her cry and intervenes. He opens her eyes, and she notices a well of water. She is able to get water for herself and her son. God meets them and promises to bless them, give them a large family, and provide them a place to live. They survive.
“After these things, God tested Abraham.”
God if I paraphrase it, says, “Abraham, you know that son whom you and Sarah were willing to manipulate for, you abuse other people to obtain and protect your son? I am going to test you with your son?
ILLUSTRATION
Have you seen that parents buy costly mobiles or play stations and gift their children? There is nothing wrong with gifting your children gadgets but have you seen that in most cases the children get so attached to the gift that they overuse it and then the parents will have to sometimes deny them the gift for a time. This is an act of love.
God takes the abuse of enslaved people and children very seriously in Scripture. That is what we are watching being expressed in God’s test of Abraham.
But God is also merciful, more merciful than any of us could possibly imagine. Remember, at the last moment with Hagar, God intervened and saved her and Ishmael by providing that well of water as the son lay under a bush. I wonder if God has another merciful intervention here.
There will be tests in our life. Tests of faith are part and parcel of our spiritual walk with God.
1. Expect God’s Testing
God’s tests reveal what is in our hearts and mature our trust in Him. Expect God’s Testing. Of course, our tests may not follow Abraham’s pattern.
An irregular EKG. A suspicious mammogram. A disturbing report of diagnosis. Health gone.
Bank account empty. Stock market at rock bottom. No money for your need. Finances gone.
A layoff is announced. The boss calls. Your name is on the list. Your dream job —gone.
Death in the family. Someone whom who love is suddenly gone. No more. Only memories.
Perhaps some of you are in the midst of tests like that.
Note: Not every suffering is a direct test sent because we have done something wrong. Job and John 9 prevent us from saying that.
But every difficult season does confront us with the question:
Will I continue to trust God?
How important am I to you? Am I enough for you?
2. Trust God’s Faithfulness
Genesis 22:3-4
3So Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place of which God had told him. 4On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.
Three days. Three days to rethink this matter of trusting God. Is this God trustworthy? Why Isaac, my only son, the one I love. We have no record of Abraham’s thoughts or words during this excruciating test by fire. We have long silence and obedience.
Genesis 22:5
5Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”
The boy and I are going to worship and we will return to you. He is certain that he will return with Isaac. That is a sign of somebody who trusts.
Hebrews 11:17-19
17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
Genesis 22:6-8
6And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8Abraham said, “God will [Lit. see] provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
NASB – God will provide [Lit. see] for Himself the Lamb.
The Hebrew word used here is “to see.” Abraham is saying that “God will see to it.” That’s trust.
Genesis 22:14
Abraham names the place “The LORD Will Provide” (Yahweh-yireh). Literally, “The LORD will see.”
The verb is ra’ah — “to see.”
This relates back to the creation and the story of the Garden of Eden. God saw that it was good. The same verb ‘to see’ is used in God saw it was good and the woman saw in Gen. 3:6.
Genesis 1, God repeatedly sees and declares what is good; Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31
Genesis 3:6, the woman sees the fruit is good and takes what God had forbidden as good.
There is an important biblical contrast: human beings repeatedly try to determine and secure what is good by what they can see which leads to sin and disaster.
But Abraham is learning something different: “God will see to it.”
Abraham is no longer saying, “I must secure God’s promise myself.” He is saying, “God sees what I cannot see. God will provide what I cannot provide.”
How can we face God’s test? Expect God’s Test. Trust God’s faithfulness…
3. Exhibit God’s Fear
Genesis 22:9-10
9Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10And Abraham reached out with his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
Many a father has lost his child through some illness, accident, or tragedy. But a harder trial was reserved for this father. His child would be taken by God, but through Abraham’s own hand holding the knife. Abraham decided to trust God now, and he drew the knife.
Genesis 22:11-12
11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Abraham exhibited the fear of God. God said, “for now I know that you fear God.”
There is an interesting contrast with Genesis 20. When Abraham passed Sarah as his sister to Abimelek, God told Abimelek that Sarah is married and the people were filled with the fear of God.
Genesis 20:8
So Abimelech got up early in the morning and called all his servants, and told all these things in their presence; and the people were greatly frightened.
Genesis 20:11
Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.
Abraham acted out of fear of man rather than confident trust in God. Now, two chapters later, God says: “Now I know that you fear God.”
Something has changed in Abraham. He has learned through experience that God can be trusted. The fear of God is not running away from God in terror. It is reverential trust that takes God so seriously that we refuse to place anything above Him.
Abraham was now exhibiting the fear of God. What does that fear look like?
Genesis 22:12
He said, “Do not reach out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
Genesis 22:2
Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land
Something is missing. What is missing? “The one you love.”
“You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Abraham loved Isaac deeply. The issue was not whether he loved Isaac. The issue was whether he loved and trusted God above even Isaac. Surrender does not mean loving the gift less; it means recognising that the Giver is greater than the gift.
The moment Abraham releases the gift of his son fully back to God is the moment he receives his son back. It is as if, in the act of losing Isaac, that is how he saves Isaac.
Jesus said something like that:
Matthew 16:25
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.
Abraham puts Isaac, himself and his future into God’s hands—and discovers that surrender to God is not destruction. God can be trusted.
God’s Provision
Genesis 22:13-14
13Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in the place of his son. 14And Abraham named that place [Heb YHWH-jireh; lit the Lord will see] The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord it will [Lit. seen] be provided.”
Abraham called that place “The LORD Will See to It.” Yahweh Yireh. “Jehovah Jireh.”
On the same mountain, God shows justice concerning the sins of Abraham and Sarah against Hagar. On that very same mountain, God shows mercy—something Abraham and Sarah never showed to Hagar and Ishmael.
God’s priority demands that His children hold back nothing from Him. Nothing.
Isaac lives because another dies in his place. The sacrifice of Isaac never happened, but another sacrifice did: the real sacrifice—the sacrifice of Abraham himself, his all for God. The narrator tells us this. Look at how the story ends in verse 19, and pay attention to the characters mentioned there.
Genesis 22:19
So Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.
Who returned? Abraham and his young men. Hey, someone is missing. Where is Isaac?
After the test, it is as if Isaac has completely vanished. The narrator has wiped out any mention of Isaac. The fact is that this a deliberate omission. The next time they are shown together is when Abraham is dead and Isaac and Ishmael come to bury him.
I am sure they did speak to each other after this behind the text. The author is clearly making a point. A line had been drawn. A decision had been made. Nothing would come between Abraham and his God anymore—not even Isaac.
For Abraham, “my son, my only son, the one I love” had become “my God, my only God, the One I love.”
This God deserves the sacrifice of everything we hold dear—everything.
CONCLUSION
Genesis 22:14
And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
Abraham called the place “The LORD Will Provide.”
And the narrator adds: “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
Genesis 22 leaves us looking forward.
Who is the son of Abraham? Isaac.
But who is also the Son of Abraham? Jesus.
The genealogy in Matthew. This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
When Jesus goes into the Jordan River to be baptised, God the Father says about Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
On Moriah, Abraham was willing to give his beloved son—but God stopped him. A ram died instead of Isaac. Centuries later, Paul deliberately uses the language of this story:
Romans 8:31-32
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
On Moriah, Abraham’s son was spared. At Calvary, God’s Son was given.
Isaac carried the wood. Jesus carried the cross.
The ram died instead of Isaac. Jesus died instead of us.
Jesus is God’s provision, Jehovah Jireh. We should read Genesis 22 and see a mirror. We should also see that God is more generous and more merciful.
Nothing ought to come between us and God. Anything or anyone that does is an idol.
What are you holding too tightly?
Is it your family, your children or any relationship?
Is it money, career, security or success?
Is it your reputation, position, influence or dream for the future?
A good gift becomes an idol when it begins taking the place that belongs to God.
Can you trust God completely, total surrender, to a point of no return?
ILLUSTRATION
Pilots have a critical speed during take-off, maximum throttle called V1. Before V1, if there is a serious problem, the pilots may still be able to abort the take-off safely. But once the aircraft passes V1, there is no turning back. The safer course is normally to continue the take-off. Should something go wrong after V1, there is no turning back.
Have you reached a V1 commitment in your walk with God—the point of no return in your fear of God? Full throttle, complete obedience, total surrender, with nothing—absolutely nothing—held back from Him.
God wants that from us. When the tests of faith come, may they increasingly reveal a heart that trusts God, fears God and withholds nothing from Him.