Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Friday December 12 2025
(More Bible Studies Available @ www.marktabata.com)
To Receive These (And Other) Free Bible Studies And Updates Via Email, Contact Mark Tabata @ 606-216-1757 (Text Message) Or hazardhomecoc@gmail.com (Email)
Genesis 22:1-1-14-Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now 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.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.” 6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
The story of Abraham preparing to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to God is known to the Jewish people as the Akedah. Literally, this word means “the binding.” There are many profound lessons this event teaches us about God and the Christian life. Usually, people are drawn to the gruesome command of this passage. How could God order Abraham to kill his son? Of course, the text makes it clear here that there is much more going on than meets the eye. Copan points out to us:
“Four things about God’s character emerge as we work through Genesis 22. First, we’re immediately tipped off to the fact that God is testing Abraham (v. 1). God doesn’t intend for Isaac to be sacrificed. No, Abraham isn’t yet aware of what the reader knows—namely, that this is only a test. Second, even the hard command to Abraham is cushioned by God’s tenderness. God’s directive is unusual: “Please take your son”—or as another scholar translates it, “Take, I beg of you, your only son.” 10 God is remarkably gentle as he gives a difficult order. This type of divine command (as a plea) is rare. Old Testament commentator Gordon Wenham sees here a “hint that the Lord appreciates the costliness of what he is asking.” 11 God understands the magnitude of this difficult task. In fact, one commentator states that God is not demanding here; thus, if Abraham couldn’t see God’s broader purposes and so couldn’t bring himself to do this, he wouldn’t “incur any guilt” in declining God’s pleas. 12 A third indication of God’s good character highlights his faithfulness. God reminded Abraham of “your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac” (v. 2). God’s covenant acknowledgment is apparent: the divine promise to Abraham can’t be fulfilled without Isaac. Abraham is struggling to keep two things in mind: his deep love for Isaac is good and right, and the circumstances surrounding Isaac’s birth clearly showed that God was fulfilling his covenant promise to Abraham. While this is the most fearful and dreadful thing Abraham would ever have to do, he is trying to come to terms with just how God would fulfill his promise through Isaac. A fourth reminder of God’s faithful character is that God is sending Abraham to a mountain in the region of Moriah—derived from the Hebrew word ra’ah, “provide, see, show.” As we noted earlier, the place “which I will tell you” is linked back to God’s initial call to Abram to “go” to “the land which I will show you” (12: 1, emphasis added). Abraham was also aware of God’s provision for Hagar and Ishmael when they first fled. Hagar said (using the same Hebrew word ra’ah), “You are a God who sees” (16: 13). So in the very word Moriah (“ provision”) we have a hint of salvation and deliverance. Wenham helpfully observes, “Salvation is thus promised in the very decree that sounds like annihilation.” 13 In all of these ways, we see God’s faithful tenderness cushioning the startling harshness of God’s command. It’s as though God is saying to Abraham, “I’m testing your obedience and allegiance. You don’t understand, but in light of all I’ve done and said to you, trust me. Not even death can nullify the promise I’ve made.”” (Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God, 47-48 (Kindle Edition); Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books)
God was using this incident to “test” or “prove” Abraham’s faith. What is truly amazing to me about this passage are the ways that all of this points us beyond Abraham and Isaac and directly to Jesus Christ and the Gospel!
Let’s study.
First, we have two fathers. Abraham is the father who loves his son, just as God is the Father Who loves His Son that will one day come into the world to be sacrificed. Isaac is called the “only” son of Abraham (Genesis 22:2, 12). The Greek Old Testament translates this phrase with the word “monogenes,” literally “only begotten” son. The same phrase is applied to Jesus in John 3:16, and again to Isaac in Hebrews 11:17-19. The two fathers must be willing to sacrifice their son that they love.
Second, we have here the two sons, Isaac and Jesus. Many believe that Isaac was just a very young child at the time of the Akedah. They usually arrive at this conclusion because of the word “lad” used to describe him (Genesis 22:5). In our modern tongue, this word usually coneys a very young child. Yet notice how the same word is used throughout the Book of Genesis:
Genesis 18:7-And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it.
Genesis 19:4-Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house.
Genesis 34:19-So the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. He was more honorable than all the household of his father.
Genesis 37:2-This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
Genesis 41:12-Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream.
Genesis 43:8-Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.
Genesis 44:22-And we said to my lord, ‘The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’
We can see from the usage of this word throughout Genesis that it has reference to a person who is at least into his teenage years, and indeed at least as old as his late thirties or early forties. We know this since Joseph is called a “lad” after being in captivity in Egypt for several years and reunited with his brothers. Prager points out:
“Joseph was unrecognizable to his brothers for many reasons. He was seventeen years old when his brothers last saw him; he was now thirty-nine (he was thirty when appointed vizier of Egypt, and an additional nine years passed since then—the seven years of plenty and two years of famine).” (Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible: Genesis, 606 (Kindle Edition): Washington, DC: Regnery Faith)
Jewish tradition also clarifies that Isaac was in his thirties when these events took place:
“Where did this concept of righteous martyrdom first arise? According to Jewish tradition, it went back to the binding of Isaac. When Abraham was ready to offer his own son as a sacrifice to God, this same Book of Fourth Maccabees states: “Isaac offered himself for the sake of righteousness…. Isaac did not shrink when he saw the knife lifted against him by his father’s hand” (4 Maccabees 13:12; 16:20). This was the understanding of the rabbis. They believed that Isaac was a grown man (actually, thirty-seven years old!) when God tested Abraham, commanding him to offer Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis sis 22). Although the biblical account emphasizes the obedience of Abraham, the rabbis also stressed the obedience of Isaac. In fact, there is a midrash that says at the time of creation, when God was about to make man, the angels asked what man’s significance was. One of his answers was this: “You shall see a father slay his son, and the son consenting to be slain, to sanctify my Name” (Tanhuma, Vayyera, sec. 18). That was the height of sacrificial service: A father offering up his own son, and the son willingly laying down his life for the glory of God. Yes, I know that sounds like the gospel. In fact, the midrash compares Isaac, who carried on his shoulder the wood for the burnt offering (himself!), to “one who carries his cross on his own shoulder.”270”. (Michael L. Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Theological Objections Vol. 2, 158-159 (Kindle Edition); Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books)
In the same way, Jesus began His ministry when in His thirtieth year.
Luke 3:23-Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,
See the amazing faith of Isaac as well as Abraham! Both Isaac and Jesus were sacrifices. Each could have resisted (Matthew 26:53), yet both were willing to submit, even knowing what would happen.
In addition to all of these similarities, we have:
Two crosses being carried by the two sons (Genesis 22:6; John 19:17);
Two mountains near Jerusalem where the sacrifice was to be made (Genesis 22:2; 2 Chronicles 3:1; Hebrews 13:12-13);
Two crowns of thorns (Genesis 22:13; Mark 15:17-20);
Two promises of hope and new life on the third day (Genesis 22:5; John 20:1-2; Hebrews 11:17-19).
Consider with me now.
Can you see other ways that Isaac foreshadowed Jesus?
Are you able to see other ways that some of the great saints of the Old Testament were similar to the coming of the Messiah?
What are some other ways that Abraham and God our Father are shown to be alike?
Do you see the love that God has for people in the Akedah?
Are we able to see the love that God has for Jesus in the love that Abraham has for Isaac?
One way that Isaac and Jesus were different is evident: Isaac lived, but Jesus died. There was a sacrifice in place of Issac, but none for Jesus.
Do you see His love flowing at Calvary?
Thank You Lord. Amen.
Leave a Reply