Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the book of Genesis, the 22nd chapter:
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This is perhaps one of the strangest passages in the Scriptures, and certainly one of the most difficult passages to explain to our children and grandchildren, much less even ourselves. It brings up a lot of questions, but sometimes leaves us scratching our heads all the more. Why would God ask Abraham to kill Isaac? Why would an angel stop him? Why doesn’t anyone ask any questions about the sacrifice?
You see, it’s weird, isn’t it? But, if we understand this, that everything in the Scriptures point us to our Lord, then we more easily understand exactly what is happening here, and we understand then what this means even for us.
Let’s look at that first. The only thing we can truly take out this story, if you ever want to make it practical, is that our Lord God is going to test us as He did Abraham. He will. If you are a Christian, you will be tested. It, thank God, will likely not be in the ways of Abraham, or even Job, but testing happens to discipline us, to teach us. It happens to make us cling ever more tightly to God and to His promises. Testing and discipline from the hand of God are not because our Lord hates you; instead, you only discipline the one you love.
And so your testing, and my testing, because God loves us, will likely look more like combatting sin, battling depression, fighting apathy, taming our flesh. This is our sanctification, this is our becoming more like Jesus, becoming holy as we are already declared holy by Christ. And as we will see for Abraham, when we are tested, we are called to cling to the promises of God. When we are tested, we are called to remember that God is holy and He has promised to remain with us. He has called us His own children. He has promised the forgiveness of sins. He has promised us everlasting life. He has promised us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, so that He is with us always and wherever we go. He will never leave us or forsake us.
These are the promises of God in Christ Jesus and if we are to be tested we are to cling to these in Christ’s Word and His Sacrament. That’s why being here is so important. This is the only place you will get these things. This is the only place where you can be strengthened in the very promises that our Lord gives you.
Would that Abraham had such physical means. Would that he had a pastor to give to him the Lord’s body and blood in his mouth for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith unto everlasting life. But, Abraham, absent this Sacrament, still had the Word of the Lord in his ears as we do. And Abraham still had the promise of the Lord that he would be the greatest of all the patriarchs.
For our Lord called Abraham, the man whom He called out of paganism and promised to make the father of many nations, and asked him to travel to the land that would one day be called Israel. There, Abraham was to take his son, Isaac, and sacrifice him to the Lord. This was troubling, for Isaac was the child through whom the promise to Abraham was given. All of Abraham’s descendants were to flow through this child, this son, but Abraham was asked to kill him before any seed would grow.
But there is here some idea that Abraham had such confidence in the Lord, that even should Isaac be dead, the Lord would fulfill His promise to Abraham and raise up countless descendants from his dead and lifeless body by putting new life into it. Abraham trusted in the promises of God, as we do.
This here is like our Jesus, is it not? That Jesus, the Son of God, son of Mary, would be killed, and out of His lifeless body, countless descendants, the Church would grow? This is why we preach Christ and Him crucified. Yet, you see, Christ even would not stay dead. The body of Christ would rise from His grave, just as Abraham believed Isaac would, and there we see every brother and sister of Christ coming down through the ages in the Church.
But, why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice a person, a living being? After all, it is only the pagan gods that required such horrific sacrifice. It was commonplace for the heathens to place their children upon the altar and sacrifice them, just as Abraham was told to do. It seems completely contrary to the nature of our God that He would ask anything like this.
But, remember, our Lord, in the person of the angel, and we would say this is even Jesus, stopped the sacrifice. There was no desire that Abraham’s son would be sacrificed before the promise would be fulfilled. But this is here, and in this way, so that our Lord would point us to Jesus. It is not the son of Abraham that would be sacrificed, but the Son of God.
So, if you think it odd for God to demand the death of a person, then think of what Christ did. If you think it odd for God to demand a human sacrifice, then what of our Lord Jesus Christs? For, in the same land of Moriah that would become Israel, on the very same mountain that Abraham made his son carry a load of wood, on the same ground where Abraham laid his son upon that very same wood, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was laid down on a load of wood He was forced to carry. And there He was nailed, tied, and lifted into the air, the perfect sacrifice, demanded by His Father.
Yes, the same mountain Abraham was on is the mountain Jerusalem would one day sit on. And the wood that Isaac carried is to point us to the cross our Lord was forced to trudge with through the city. And being laid down upon the wood, for Isaac to be burned by fire, and for Christ to be burned by the wrath of God upon Sin itself, Isaac shows us Jesus.
Remember, this is here to show us Jesus. It’s to point us to Him and to His story, and to the purpose He came for. Isaac and Abraham show us Jesus and the Father, where we see deep compassion, but the necessity to sacrifice. Abraham had no choice to attempt to sacrifice Isaac. God gave him no option. Yet, God never intended to let Abraham plunge the knife into his son. God is never late on His promises; He delivers them exactly when He intends. The Angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ before taking on human flesh, never arrives late, but always exactly on time.
And so, in His incarnation, when the time was fulfilled, Jesus took on flesh and lived with us, so that some 30-odd years later, on the exact day that was intended, the High Passover day, He would be led to a mountain, nailed to a cross, lifted up into the world for all to see, and there die for your sins and mine, taking them all to Himself, and crucifying death and sin. Jesus is never late. That was right on time.
So, do not believe that God would have truly demanded a human sacrifice from Abraham. God demanded a human sacrifice from Himself; so He took His Son, His only begotten and beloved Son, gave to Him humanity and its flesh, and sacrificed His Son for the sake of the whole world, for your sake, and for mine.
God’s ways look strange to us. Very strange, indeed. And there, we have often many more questions than answers. We’re not truly given to know why God did all this to Abraham in this exact way. We don’t know exactly why God did to Job what He did to Him. We aren’t given these answers, nor are we to really look for them.
What we are given to know is that Jesus says that all of the Law and Prophets, all of the Scriptures, the Old Testament, even, testify about Him. Every word from Genesis through Malachi, every jot, every tittle, works to show us our Jesus. Abraham’s story here is no different.
Jesus is our better Isaac. The cross is better wood. The sacrifice of Jesus is better than the sacrifice of the ram. The death of the Son of God is better than the death of an animal, for there we find the sacrifice for our sins. Our Jesus is better than we ever imagined, for being the Son of God, He always fulfills His promises to us, even when we are tested, even when we are led into sin, even when we lose all hope, even when it seems that all is lost. Our Jesus is still found here, fulfilling His promises to you, the promise of eternal life. If He fulfilled His promise to Abraham, and He did and continues to do, even 4000 years later, for, indeed, you are Abraham’s descendants of the faith, then He will fulfill His promises to you
And in your Baptism, He promised you everlasting life. In His Word, He promises you the forgiveness of your sins. And in His Supper, He promises you the strengthening of your faith. He is fulfilling His promises, and He will fulfill them. Our Lord is able, and He is good, and He is with you always, doing what He said He shall do. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment