Hinting at the Sacrifice of the Savior

Genesis 22:1-18

As a kid, we often ask questions that we would know the answer to if we only thought about it for a moment. But we’re lazy and don’t want to think. When I would ask a question like that, my dad would say, “I don’t know, you tell me.” He knew the answer, but he knew the wisdom would be better gained by coming to the realization myself as opposed to just hearing the right answer. From my perspective it was rather frustrating, but I had to learn to trust him. Eventually I did and learned how brilliant my dad was in those lessons. But first I had to walk through the difficulty of the lesson itself. So did Abraham.

Last week we talked about the importance of the location and I mentioned how Mt. Moriah matched with David’s sacrifice and later Jesus’. There is a huge significance to that, but Abraham’s test of faith is much more than a hint—it’s an explanation of how salvation would work.

The Testing Moment was a Teaching Moment

God already had a plan for Abraham. This was not about God showing up when needed, but about God showing that He already had it all figured out. Just like in John 6 when Jesus fed the 5000 and it tells us Jesus was planning the miracle from the beginning, this story shows us that the end was the plan all along. The author by starting us off with v1 makes it clear that God has a much larger perspective than we do and that when we don’t see all the workings, He does – He designed it. This wasn’t about just testing Abraham; this was a lesson about how powerful of a provider God is.

Low Information Requires High Trust

We recently finished a season of a TV show we’re watching and it got me upset. There were three storylines and all 3 were left with major cliffhangers – no resolution to any of the storylines of the season! Now we’re stuck waiting until who knows when (or if) we’ll get closure to anything! The tension of waiting to hear if there’ll be another season is incredibly frustrating. God knew how this situation would work out, but Abraham did not. He had to live with the tension of knowing God is good with God asking him to sacrifice his son. Can you imagine living in that moment? God has shown Abraham His goodness, yet this request absolutely flies in the face of goodness. Sacrifice a child? The very child He gave him? It’s an absolute conundrum. God would never require a sacrifice like that (no good God could) but allowing Abraham to journey through the dark night of the soul, Abraham was confronted with the reality of belief. Was God truly good? The details in the story show us that time passed as Abraham had to wrestle with this dilemma – what exactly does he believe about God? Where is Abraham’s faith? He trusted the Lord and only the Lord. Abraham trusted each step by obeying. He didn’t seek a loophole, or a way out, only believed that God would give him back Isaac. Abraham’s lack of perspective testifies to his trust in God and was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6).

The Basics of Substitutional Atonement

We’ve talked today that God would never ask for a child sacrifice, but He would have the right to do so. Sin is failure to render God His due, taking from God what is rightfully His and dishonoring Him. We can’t just return what we took, though. Sin comes with a punishment (Gen 3 – death) and it is on us (humans) to pay it. God’s violated honor can be put right again by either punishing us humans or by accepting a sacrifice made in our behalf. That’s a sacrifice that we can’t pay, even though it must, since we broke the original law. This is the power of the incarnation – only by the God-man Jesus who is 100% man and 100% God (and therefore able to be a perfect sacrifice) can our penalty be paid and our salvation be granted. That’s the significance of the ram. Isaac is the representation of humanity in the story and the ram is the acceptable substitution. God is showing us how salvation works. Jesus died as our substitution (that God provided), rendering any sacrifice on our part unnecessary. By trusting in God’s providence, we accept his substitution and God then applies that satisfaction to our account. We believe and then it gets credited as righteousness.

Next Steps

Genesis 22 foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus and explains how it works. He is our substitutional sacrifice, demonstrating the great extent of God’s love and desire to be with us. Abraham owed a debt and so does each one of us. God paid it off for you. Faith, when turned to action, is righteousness credited to us. Take a step towards faithful action today.

1. Share an experience where God was clearly working in your life, but you didn’t see it until after it was done.
2. Journal about a time you had to live in the tension, remembering how God was faithful through it all.
3. Act in faith by stepping into a life of discipleship. Start daily reading, join a class, or seek opportunities to share Jesus.

Belief, when turned to action, is righteousness credited to us. Take a step towards faithful action today.