Sacrifice of Isaac

There are several clues in the story that indicate God’s faithfulness to the covenant promise is the appropriate context for understanding his command. It is important to recognize that this was not an arbitrary demand, but rather, a test of faith: Would Abraham trust God to keep his promise? The following three clues are the main indicators that point us to the covenant behind the command.

First, God’s command to Abraham in chapter 22, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go (lek-leka) to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” is very similar to God’s call to him in chapter 12, “Go (lek-leka) from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” In other words, God was reminding Abraham of his promise to bless him and make him a great nation at the very moment he was instructing him to carry out an act that seemed completely contrary to that promise. In the first instance, he was asked to give up his past; in the second instance, he was asked to relinquish his future. In both cases, Abraham was challenged to surrender everything and to trust God alone for his provision.

Second, by referring to Isaac as Abraham’s “only son . . . whom he loved,” God was again reminding Abraham that the promise was supposed to come through Isaac. Abraham was assured that God was well aware of the fact that the fulfillment of the promise depended upon Isaac carrying on the family line.

Third, the land that God sends Abraham to is called Moriah, which is derived from the Hebrew word ra’ah meaning “provide, see, show.” God was giving Abraham another subtle hint that he would somehow provide a way for his promise to be fulfilled.

Before you dismiss these divine clues to Abraham as being so concealed they are undetectable, notice how the story lets us know that Abraham picked up on them. Indeed, he understood that God would somehow provide the means for the promise to be fulfilled through Isaac in spite of the required sacrifice. For, Abraham told his servants that “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you” (22:5). He believed that, if necessary, God would even raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill the promise (see Hebrews 11:17, 19).

So how does recognizing the specific covenant context of the story help us rightly understand the divine command to sacrifice Isaac? A couple things can be said. First, it is important to see that God did not ask Abraham to sacrifice something he was unwilling to surrender himself. In fact, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son Isaac foreshadows the Triune God’s own self-sacrifice in Christ (Romans 8:32). Recall that in the act of cutting the covenant with Abraham, God is the one who passed through the pieces (Genesis 15). God is the one who initiates, cuts, and keeps the covenant at great sacrifice to himself. Abraham was obviously being asked to fully trust God’s faithfulness; but, perhaps, more importantly, he was allowed to sense the depth of the self-giving love of God. Or to covey this another way, How else could God have communicated to his friend Abraham the immense cost he was willing to bear in order to maintain the covenant? Second, the point is the provision. God is the one who provides the sacrifice. Again, the test was whether or not Abraham would trust God to provide the means for his promise to be fulfilled.

For further reading see chapter 5 in Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011).