Viewing the Cross From the Old Testament: Leviticus 16

 THE DAY OF ATONEMENT:

GOD’S GOT YOU COVERED

 

The word “atonement” is one of those biblical terms that few of us can easily define. It is an incredibly important word with respect to our salvation, so it is worth tackling. Atonement means “to cover.” When it comes to our sinful natures and the moral debts that we have racked up in our lives, God’s got you covered. Let me try to illustrate atonement.

            A pastor was visiting a sheep ranch when he spotted what he thought was a two-headed lamb. He asked the ranch foreman, “Why in the world does that lamb have two heads?”

            The foreman smiled and said, “You’re from the city aren’t ya? Let me tell you what we did. Two ewes each gave birth to a lamb. One of the ewes died in childbirth and one of the lamb’s died also. We took the surviving lamb and put it in the pen with the living ewe to see if she would nurse. But she smelled the lamb and walked away. She knew it wasn’t hers.”

            “What did you do?” the pastor asked. “We took the coat off of the dead lamb and wrapped it around the living lamb and put it back in the pen. When the mother smelled the scent of her own lamb, she accepted the lamb and started to nurse.” 

            This is a faint picture of what the gospel does for us. On our own we are not acceptable to God because of sin. But through the blood of the cross of Christ, God covers us with the person of Jesus so that we can approach the throne of God.

            If you’ve ever tried to read the book of Leviticus, you know how challenging it can be to understand. The tedious repetition, strange laws and sacrifices leave us zoned out. It’s a tough book. But it is in this book that we find the basis for understanding the atonement – why we need the cross. 

            In the opening chapters of Leviticus, Yahweh offers forgiveness to his people, Israel. He sets up a way for humans to atone, or cover for, the sins that keep them outside of God’s presence. This is what we are going to explore in Leviticus 16

How do we approach a Holy God?

 

Let’s consider the context of Leviticus in the first five books of the Bible. The first five books, the books of Moses, are called Torah or Pentateuch. Leviticus is right in the middle. Not only that, Leviticus 16, which describes the Day of Atonement, is in the middle of Leviticus. If you know how Hebrew writing works, that is significant, like painting a target on the point the books are making.

            Further clues to the importance of Leviticus are found in Exodus and Numbers. At the end of Exodus, we read (Ex. 40:34-35). Because of the rebellion of Israel, Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle and the presence of the LORD. Then in Numbers 1:1 we read (Num. 1:1). Now we find that Moses was able to enter the tabernacle and meet with God. What’s happening here? Moses, the friend of God, the representative of Israel, was not allowed in the presence of God. And then he was allowed. The book of Leviticus answers this puzzling question of how he went from outside to inside. 

            Another incident takes place in Leviticus 10. Aaron, the high priest, had two sons who thought they could just waltz right into God’s presence in the holy of holies and offer an impromptu sacrifice of incense. God never asked for this strange fire to be administered before him. We read that “fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD,” (10:2).

            The question we are faced with is this: How do we approach a holy God? There is a right way and a wrong way. That’s what Leviticus 16 is about. Aaron is told to take off his fancy priest clothes that make him look like a king and put on linen garments that make him look like a slave. Then he is to make blood sacrifices and wash himself repeatedly before going into the holy of holies – the presence of God. 

            In short, Leviticus 16 acts as a regimen for approaching God. God wants to have a relationship with his people, but there is a glaring problem. To remedy that problem, restoration of the relationship between God and humans is needed. Something must be done to take care of the problem.

 

When sin and holiness collide

 

We know what the problem is: it’s sin. That reality is etched deeply in Leviticus 16 where the writer uses four different terms to express the problem. 

            Moses instructs Aaron to make atonement for the Holy Place “because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel,”(16). The word “uncleanness” implies spiritual pollution. It means that the people have been in contact with things or have been doing activities that have moral consequences. They are contaminated with sin and like a contagion are spreading it around. 

            Another word used in Leviticus 16 is “transgressions.” There is an intensity in this word for sin. It is willful rebellion, a deliberate offence against God. “Iniquities” speaks of conscious wickedness. And the fourth word is a universal word for any wrongdoing: sin!

            The very word “sin” in recent decades has been lost from our vocabulary. The psychiatrist, Karl Menninger, in his book Whatever Became of Sin? says that many sins have become “crimes,” so that the responsibility for dealing with them has passed from the church to the state. Other sins are called disorders or sicknesses, thus needing treatment.

            The emphasis of Scripture, however, is on the godless self-centeredness of sin. Sin is the breach of what Jesus called the first and greatest commandment. Sin is failing to love God with all our being and actively refusing to acknowledge and obey him as our Creator and Lord (Stott, Cross of Christ, 90). 

            Why do we want to approach God? To find forgiveness for our sins, to be in relationship with God again. But the problem of forgiveness is confounded by the collision of God’s holiness (his divine perfection) and human rebellion. It’s a conflict of who God is and who we are. The obstacle to forgiveness is not just our sin alone, nor our guilt alone, but also the reality of God’s outstanding wrath towards guilty sinners. God is love – no question about it! But we need to remember that God is holy. It is a holy love he has for humankind. It is a love that yearns over sinners while at the same time refusing to condone their sins (Stott, 88). How can God show love without violating his holiness? And how can he be holy without being loving? 

 

Taking Care of Sin the Old Way

 

The Day of Atonement was held once a year in Israel to address the sins of the people. While other feasts were joyful occasions (Passover), this Day was a solemn occasion. People anticipated this day as the day God atoned for their sins. 

            One way that God demonstrated that he was removing people’s sins was through the use of two goats. The high priest took two male goats for a sin offering. Note in v. 5 that it says two male goats for a sin offering. Two goats; one offering. I made the mistake in the past of thinking that one goat was killed while the other got to live free in the desert. Both goats represent the people’s sins. 

            The priest would cast lots to see which goat was sacrificed as a sin offering and which one was presented alive before the Lord and sent into the desert. The blood of the first goat was sprinkled on the ark of the covenant. The live goat was presented before the Lord (see 20-22). 

            Laying hands on the head of the goat, the priest symbolically bestowed on the goat all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites. Then the goat was driven into the wilderness to Azazel (8-10). Azazel may have been a demon or the devil himself. Some say that in this way sin was being sent back where it belongs. Even if not, the symbolism of sending the goat away reflected David’s thought, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us,” (Ps. 103:12). In reality, they found that the goat would sometimes come back to the tabernacle. The people would freak out (sin was returning) and would wave blankets to scare the goat away. A man was assigned to take the goat away. He would tie a rock to its neck and make sure it fell over a precipice to its death, thus ensuring that sin did not return to the people. 

            The Day of Atonement, however, needed to be repeated year after year. Imagine the day after; all your sins are forgiven, but you know you have committed many sins already. You have to wait a whole year for atonement. Worse, the Day of Atonement achingly reminds you more of your guilt and shame than your forgiveness. 

 

The True “GOAT” 

 

A common expression in athleticism and in reference to celebrities is the term G.O.A.T. Have you heard of it? It means “Greatest Of All Time.” Many believe it started with Mohammed Ali, but it has been applied to the likes of Gretzky and others who have excelled beyond the norm. 

            The author of the letter to the Hebrews had no inhibitions about seeing Jesus as the GOAT. The writer never said it specifically, but he infers strongly that Jesus filled both roles of the goat that was sacrificed and the scapegoat, the goat sent into the wilderness that carried the people’s sins away. 

            As a sacrifice, the writer of Hebrews says of Jesus, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people,” (2:17). The more spiritually minded Israelites like Isaiah and others knew that the blood of a goat could not satisfy as a substitute for human beings. The people needed a perfect substitute, a human of perfect innocence. When Christ appeared, that substitute was never more presentable. The writer comments, “he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption,” (9:12). Jesus is the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice.

            As the scapegoat, the writer said that Jesus bore the sins of many and dealt with sin perfectly so that when he appears again, it will not be to deal with sin, but to save those who believe and wait for him (9:28). 

            Jesus is the true GOAT. The writer of Hebrews unapologetically tells the reader that Jesus is greater than the angels of God; Jesus is greater than Moses; Jesus is greater than Aaron. There is no greater and there is no one who has done greater things than Jesus. Scoring goals and touchdowns are no comparison to making it possible for humankind to approach the Living and Holy God and finding forgiveness. In Jesus, we have a once-for-all, no need to repeat, sacrifice for the sins of all humankind.

 

Imagine a whiteboard the size of the church wall. On it are all your sins written in black, small print. All your secrets laid bare. Someone reads the sins and exclaims, “Look what you’ve done.” 

            Ever heard those words? You spilled something, you messed up, you blew it. And an adult says, “Look what you’ve done.” The same you felt. I’m a screw up. Apply that feeling to your sins and think of the guilt that would well up inside of you. Look what you’ve done. I think that’s what the scapegoat was supposed to alleviate, but as you watch the goat trail off over the hill, you know that your sin still nags you in your heart and mind. It doesn’t go away. 

            We are going to listen to a song by Tasha Layton that speaks to this reality. In it she talks about believing the shame and the guilt, believing the lies that you are worthless, that God could not love you, that you are irredeemable. The song turns suddenly when she recounts how God started digging up those lies and casting them out. Then in triumphant joy, she sings, “Look what you’ve done,” in praise of God’s work on her behalf. 

            (Play song)

 

The whiteboard is wiped clean. Your sins are perfectly carried away by the GOAT, Jesus Christ, and they can no longer be held against you. God’s got you covered. 

 

                                    AMEN

 

 

Benediction: Hebrews 10:19-22

Viewing the Cross from the Old Testament: Exodus 12

THE POWER IN THE BLOOD

 

We have often sung that dynamic chorus, “There is power in the blood, power in the blood, power in the blood of the Lamb.” If you have given some thought to those familiar lines, you will, as I have, mused on the meaning of blood as an agent of power. Why do we say there is “power in the blood”? 

            Blood is messy. Blood is sticky. Blood causes some people to faint at the sight of it. If a movie contains enough violence and blood, it is rated R for its graphic portrayals (think “Passion of the Christ”). Blood in a PS5 game garners a rating of M for Mature.

            And yet we celebrate the blood in Christian ceremony. Both in the Jewish Passover and the Christian celebration of communion, we focus on the blood of the sacrifice. In both, it is the blood which has the astonishing power to solve the problem of acceptance before God. Without the blood, all of Egypt suffered a small but frightful microcosm of the judgment of God. Having been marked by the blood, Israel was passed over and saved from this terrifying night. How can blood have that kind of effect? 

            What is it about the blood that saves us? This morning, I want to journey together with you into the unknown. There is a great mystery in Exodus 12 and the story of the blood. It is a mystery that defined the people of Israel in Moses’ day. But it is a mystery that permeates all of history to this very day as well and impacts us in our Christian faith. The mystery involves a story of emancipation, the liberation of those held in slavery. It is a story that foreshadows and leads to another story of significant importance. 

 

Let’s play the “Imagine” game. Imagine you are a Hebrew slave in the land of Egypt in 1400 BC. You are presently huddled in the darkness with your Jewish family. The coals of the fire that you roasted a lamb over have completely gone out and it is now pitch black, the type of darkness that you can almost reach out and touch. You and your family have eaten the meal of lamb and unleavened bread – Moses called it a Passover meal. Now you are waiting for something to happen. Though it is evening, and you normally put on your night clothes, you and your family are wearing traveling clothes. All your belongings are packed and ready to go; your hand is cramping up from holding your staff too tightly, waiting in anticipation for the moment. The kids are sleeping, but you are wide awake, waiting for that “thing” to happen. 

            Sometime in the middle of the night…it does. In the darkness, the only sound that you can hear are the screams coming from next door. The cries and the howls of anguish rise as your neighbors discover their firstborns dead. Now the kids are awake, and they are terrified, crying, asking, “What’s happening?” But you have no idea. You can’t see. You can’t explain it. All you can do is pray.

 

You remember that the Hebrews had been living in Egypt for over 400 years. They had traveled to Egypt to escape the worldwide famine. Under Joseph, things had been good. But after a time, Egypt forgot Joseph and enslaved the children of Israel. Yahweh heard the cries of his chosen people and began to move to rescue them. God was on the move. That’s when he chose Moses as a deliverer. Through Moses, Yahweh demanded that Pharaoh free his people. Pharaoh said “no.” So the Lord used nine plagues to convince Pharaoh to release the people. Frogs, gnats, flies, boils, and hail were among these plagues. And when they were at their worst, Pharaoh promised to let the people go; but when the plague ended, Pharaoh broke his promise. And God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. 

            Among the nine plagues that Yahweh sent, many were targeted against specific Egyptian gods. In the first plague, Moses took his staff and struck the waters of the Nile (7:17) so that they turned to blood. The Nile River was so important to Egypt’s agricultural industry that they practically worshiped it. They believed it was a gift of life from the gods. Now, Yahweh turned it into a river of death. 

The ninth plague, the plague of darkness was directed at the Egyptian god Ra. He was the sun god, one of their greatest deities. They believed that Ra would get in his boat of sorts and sail across the heavens descending at the end of day into the underworld only to emerge the next day. Moses stretched out his hand to the heavens where Ra lived and there was pitch darkness for three days. You could not see your hand in front of your face. In all of this, the plagues declared that the LORD, Yahweh, the God of Israel, was greater than the gods of Egypt. 

 

The tenth and final plague would be the clincher for Pharaoh. The tenth plague was horrible. Moses explained, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill…” (11:4-5). It's going to hit every class of people in Egypt. From princes to paupers. 

But this time, not only are the Egyptians facing this horrific plague that kills every firstborn, but the Hebrews also need to prepare for this plague. If you read about plagues 4 through 9, you will notice that the Lord spares his people from the effects of each plague. The Lord does not need markers or signs to know where his people were to exclude them from the calamities. The flies avoided their land (8:22); Egyptian owned cattle died where Hebrew owned cattle did not (9:4, 6); hail did not fall on Hebrews (9:26). 

            BUT…and this is important…if the Lord showed favor to the children of Israel during the previous nine plagues, why did God now need blood on the door posts to spare the Israelites? 

            The need to mark the house with blood is emphasized three times in Exodus 12. First, they are told to mark their houses, “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it,” (7). Then the blood marking is explained, “The blood shall be a sign for you…when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt,” (13). And then finally in vv. 22-23, the instructions are repeated together with a warning not to go outside the house until morning. But here it says that the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow “the destroyer” to enter the house. The plague is personified; he’s given a personality of sorts. Call him the “angel of death” if you will, but he will not enter the house marked by the blood of a lamb. This is the only way to avoid this night of death.

            We must ask the question another way: If God showed his favor to the Israelites during the other nine plagues, why are they not exempt from the tenth that targets the firstborn? 

            

            It is easy to overlook a subtle clue to the answer. According to verses 29-30, “At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt…” Every family from Pharaoh to the man in prison, even the firstborn of all the cattle, died. “…there was not a house where someone was not dead…”

            The firstborn of EVERY family, Egyptian or Hebrew, was the object of the terror of the tenth plague. What we may not realize is that this plague hits the firstborn of every Egyptian family, but it also hits every person in every Israelite family. Any family that did not observe the Passover ritual Moses prescribed would die in this plague. How is that possible if it only targets the firstborn?

            We must remember God’s purpose in sending Moses into Egypt. From the beginning it was revealed as a contest of the firstborn, for the Lord tells Pharaoh, “Israel is my firstborn son…let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son,” (4:22-23). Pharaoh’s firstborn son is an individual, but the Lord’s firstborn is a corporate entity called Israel. 

            Israel was faced with a choice: take their chances with the Egyptians and weather the storm of the coming plague, or put their faith in Yahweh’s plan of substitution. If they follow the directions outlined in 12:1-13, the lamb will act as a substitute for the firstborn and by its blood they will be saved. 

 

            How was this lamb chosen? It seems like a trivial thing. Take a lamb, any lamb, and sacrifice it. No, it’s not that simple. Precise instructions were given to cover every stage of the ritual of Passover to ensure that everything was done according to God’s will and purpose. 

            First, the instructions were given to all of Israel to follow in their households. No word is mentioned about whether the Egyptians were given fair warning to follow this ritual, but we do read that “a mixed multitude went up with them” in the exodus (12:38). So, who knows? 

            Then the lamb that is chosen must be proportionate to the size of the family. How much can you eat (3)? It seems very important that there are no leftovers. If you are a small family, join with another small family and share the lamb (4). There is a gracious provision from the Lord in this recognizing that some households might panic at the requirements. 

            The lamb itself must be without spot or blemish. It must be a male and only a year old. It is in the prime of life. The lamb is to be kept in the house from the tenth day of the month till the fourteenth day. It is presumed that this allows for inspection to make sure that it is as pure as one thought and that it will be the right size. Some writers speculate that it will become a cherished family pet in those four days and thus to kill it will be a true sacrifice. But I think this is sentimental hogwash and pretty cruel. Can you imagine forcing your children to eat what used to be “Lambert”? 

            On the fourteenth day, they drain the blood into a basin and roast the lamb. Boiling is not good enough. It must be grilled. And if there is any of the lamb leftover after the feast, the remains must be burned (10). This is a “now” moment. It is not something you can save for later. It couldn’t be passed on to someone else at another time. There is no other time. This is a one-time salvation event. 

            And as was mentioned earlier, those who partook in the Passover lamb ate it with traveling clothes on. It was eaten by those who were ready to leave the land of death and embark on the journey to freedom and life. They acted as if they were already set free. 

 

So, what do we see in this ancient ritual called Passover?

            Passover was a one-time event, but Moses instructed the Israelites to eat this feast as a remembrance of their escape from slavery. They ate it every year to remember and celebrate what God had done. 

In the year AD 29, Passover was being commemorated as it had been for centuries. But now something similarly profound was happening. A new mystery was being introduced as Jesus ate this Passover with his disciples.

Jesus brought the Passover into a new paradigm; it had the same meaning, but the theme of deliverance and rescue is transformed from the merely physical to the spiritual. When Passover was observed the first time, it was not enough to slaughter a lamb and eat it. You had to take the blood and apply it to the door. An act of faith was required. With Jesus’ death on the cross, the same could be said. Many people are aware of the historical Jesus, that a man, a good teacher, a prophet lived and died in first century Palestine. Some even confess that Jesus dies on a cross for our sins. But not everyone has applied the blood to their own lives. 

What does it mean to apply the blood to your own life? The blood of Jesus asks each of us to surrender to the truth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has come to be our King. It means submitting to his lordship over our lives and choosing his ways over our own ways. It is a way of self-giving, of love, and of whole-hearted obedience to the Father God. 

Participation is required. You cannot watch someone else’s relationship to God and share their experience. You must make a conscious effort to apply the blood of Christ to your own life and go after Jesus. 

            The Passover that Jesus shared with his disciples bridged the OT Passover with the new covenant. It still spoke of deliverance from bondage and slavery, but now it took on a fuller meaning. Jesus broke the bread and shared it saying, eat, this is my body. He took the cup, and he gave thanks saying, drink it, this is the blood of the new covenant shed for you. He said, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God,” (Luke 22:15-16). 

            Do you see the connection? 

            In the Gospel according to John, Jesus is revealed as the Passover Lamb – the Lamb that was slain. Jesus is even crucified at the very moment that priests are slaughtering lambs for the Passover Feast (it was the day of preparation 19:31). He was as John the Baptist described him, “The Lamb of God.” 

Like the Passover Lamb…

            Jesus was a male in the prime of life

            Jesus was examined and found spotless (1 Pet. 1:18-19)

Jesus’ bones were not broken on the cross (Ex. 12:46; John 19:31-36)

            Jesus was slain for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3)

            From that supper in the upper room where Jesus shared the bread and the wine, his body and blood, the apostles understood the connection to the Passover. Peter would later write, “…knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but the with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot,” (1 Peter 1:18-19). 

             Peter uses the terminology of Passover to describe how we have been ransomed from our inherent slavery to tradition and sin. With the precious blood of Christ painted on the doorposts of our hearts, Christ has set us apart from the destruction that sin brings. 

            When we participate in communion, the sharing of the bread and juice, we see the gravity of the event more clearly. Just as the Hebrews acted in faith by painting their doorposts with blood, by faith we also receive the marking of Christ’s blood by sharing in the cup. 

And that’s what Paul means when he says that “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,” (1 Cor. 5:7). Our salvation comes through his substitution. That’s why God can say to us, “When I see his blood, I will pass over you.” 

What is it about the blood of Christ that saves us? Why did God choose blood as the sign of our exemption from judgment? Why is there such power in the blood?

            I don’t know. It’s a mystery, a sacred mystery that needs no other answer than that the Lamb of God became my substitute. 

 

 

                                                            AMEN

             

 

Viewing the Cross From the Old Testament: Genesis 22

THE LORD WILL PROVIDE

 

The Bible contains many difficult passages that make us scratch our heads in confusion. Few are more challenging than when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on the altar. It leaves us with a lot of questions about the kind of God we believe in who would ask this.

            Imagine you are a couple that has had trouble conceiving a child. You have tried everything that modern science has developed. No results. Then, when all hope has vanished for having a family, when you are too old to have children, the doctor tells you that you are going to have a baby. You and your spouse are the parents of a healthy boy. Fifteen years later, God somehow speaks to you and asks you to give up your beautiful son, your only child, the one on whom your hopes and dreams rest. Give him up! 

            That makes it too real, doesn’t it? What are we supposed to learn from a difficult situation like this? In one way or another, everything in the OT points to Jesus. Where is Jesus in this? Is the God of love found anywhere in this passage? Or do we only see a divine mischief-maker?

            This is the first of five OT passages that we will be studying as we anticipate the cross of Christ. In these difficult passages, we will examine the text to discover that God is saying something to us about his plan to save us. 

            We are going to look at Genesis 22 from three perspectives: Abraham’s, Isaac’s, and the Lord’s. Then we will try to figure out what’s really going on in the text.

 

A Father’s Costly Sacrifice 

 

There’s a lot of backstory to this encounter. In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham specifically to leave his land and his father and to go where God directs him. The Lord promises Abraham and Sarah that they will have a son through whom Abraham will be the father of many nations. But it takes a long time for them to conceive. Out of despair and desperation, Sarah tells Abraham to have a child with her maidservant. She gives Abraham a son whom he names Ishmael. But this wasn’t God’s plan and at the age of 91, Sarah gives birth to the son that the Lord had promised. In Genesis 21, Sarah has Abraham cast out into the wilderness Hagar and her son, Ishmael. 

            For the seventh and final time, the Lord speaks to Abraham in Genesis 22. We are told that “God tested Abraham.” Scholars say that this is the only time that God tests an individual in the Bible. God tested nations and groups of people, but never individuals. Except Abraham!

            So, God tested Abraham. God calls to Abraham and tells him to take his son and sacrifice him in the land of Moriah. This is a strange test for Yahweh to issue for many reasons. First, God called Abraham out of his polytheistic family and land to essentially create a new faith, faith in Yahweh alone. Abraham came from a family that worshiped many gods, some of whom required human sacrifice. If you know Yahweh, he abhors human sacrifice. When the Lord gives Moses the law on Mount Sinai, one of the commands specifically forbids child sacrifice (see Lev. 20:1-3). So why is Yahweh stepping out of character to ask this weird request? 

            Second, if God’s plan is to establish a new faith out of Abraham’s only and promised son, why would he want Abraham to kill him in sacrifice? God’s plan in choosing Abraham was to establish that there is only one God, and he is to be worshiped differently than how the gods of the ANE were worshiped. From this story, it looks like Yahweh is no different than all the other gods of the ancient world. 

            How does Abraham respond to this test of his obedience? Strangely, Abraham does not hesitate. He gets up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, calls two young boys to come along, wakes Isaac, and then cuts wood for the altar. Notice anything out of order? Scholars speculate that Abraham was a little out of sorts about the order of things in preparation; perhaps he was a little anxious about the whole thing. But he doesn’t hesitate. 

            After three days, they get to the mountain that God indicated. Abraham leaves the two boys and the donkey and together with Isaac, climbs the mountain. Then he says something really odd, “We will go over there and worship and come again to you,” (5 NIV). He says, “we will worship;” he doesn’t hint at all that he’s going to sacrifice Isaac, or that Isaac isn’t coming back alive. Abraham expresses unquestioning faith. He and his son were going to enter more fully than ever into the presence of God and worship. 

            Was Abraham fooling himself? Was he trying to deceive the boys and Isaac? What was going on in his mind? It seems that he meant what he said when he told the boys, “we will return.” In those three days of travelling, Abraham would have had time to think and wrestle with God’s command. He must have concluded that God’s command and God’s promise would not and could not violate or contradict each other. The writer of Hebrews even tells us that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead (see 11:19), even though that had never been done before. 

            Abraham possessed uncommon faith in Yahweh. This is the only explanation. He fully intended to go up the mountain, slaughter his son like a lamb, believing that God would do something utterly incredible.

 

A Son’s Willing Submission

 

Now look at the drama from Isaac’s perspective. Go back to v. 2 and see how God describes Isaac. God says, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love…” Twice more, God calls Isaac, “your son, your only son” (12, 16). Here in v. 2, God uses four descriptors to emphasize the importance of this young man. 

            Think of it, Isaac is not Abraham’s only son. Remember Ishmael? But as Galatians 4:23 tells us, Ishmael was born of the flesh (human effort) while Isaac was born of the promise (a gift of God). So, God’s hard drive is not full like mine when I can’t remember someone’s name or what I did yesterday. God is deliberately pointing to the covenant he has with Abraham and saying, “this son; this is the one.” 

            We come to the mountain again. Leaving the boys and the donkey behind, Abraham loads the wood on Isaac’s back. The wood is for the altar fire, so it’s ironic. Isaac bears the burden of the wood that will be used for his own funeral pyre. The Genesis Rabbah, the Jewish Midrash (commentary) says that Isaac with the wood on his back is like a condemned man, carrying his own cross. That’s remarkable since this is not a Christian commentator. But this is what the Jews saw.

            Then Isaac asks an important question. “Where’s the lamb, dad?” Isaac is possibly in his late teens or early twenties. He’s not so dull as to ignore the missing ingredient in a sacrifice – a lamb. Did his eyes grow large as he sees his dad pull out a wicked knife? Did Abraham have a steely look in his eye as he said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son,” 

            But you know what’s remarkably odd? Isaac shows a voluntary submission to being sacrificed. Here’s a strong teenager entering his prime and an aged father of nearly 120 years facing off. Isaac could easily overpower his father. But he doesn’t. He allows his father to tie him with ropes and place him on the wood. Even as Abraham holds the knife aloft ready to plunge it down into his son’s chest, Isaac submits. 

            CFS would not appreciate this scene. This is something out of a horror flick. Something’s loco in the cabeza. But rather than seeing this from a 21^st century human rights lens, we ought not to miss that Abraham and Isaac are in harmony. The narrator hints at this in v. 6 where he writes “they went both of them together.” Isaac does not play the victim card. He is a willing participant in this act of faith.

 

The Lord’s Gracious Provision

 

Now the purpose of the test is revealed. Abraham lifts his arms and prepares to make the fatal thrust. And the LORD calls out to him, “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,” (12). 

            We now see that Yahweh wanted to test Abraham’s faith. He said, “now I know that you fear God.” Is there anything that God doesn’t know? Did he really have to test Abraham to find out what he already knows? Or is something else going on here? We need to ask this of texts we think we know because we often skim these familiar stories and forget to “hear” the word of the Lord. 

            In Romans, we read that Abraham is the father of all those who believe in God. It is through Abraham that faith in God comes to all nations (that’s the blessing). The testimony that Abraham feared God is not a light application. It goes deeper and says that Abraham honored God in worship and in an upright life. Abraham is the prime example of a person who has faith in Yahweh. Abraham needed to demonstrate that faith in this act. 

            The key to Abraham’s faith was his confidence that the Lord would provide for him in this testing. “Moriah,” the mountain setting for this event, means “land of vision” or “to see” which anticipates Abraham’s insight that the Lord would provide. That’s why he could say to Isaac when asked about the missing lamb, “the Lord will provide.” Then when Abraham looks up and sees a ram caught in a thicket he calls that place, “the Lord will provide.” 

            Did you notice the time stamp on that name? He does not say “the Lord provided” (past tense), but the Lord WILL provide (future tense). And everyone in the narrator’s day still called that place “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 

 

What’s Really Going On Here? 

            

There are three observations that will help us to understand this passage. No doubt you have seen some of these hints as we explored the passage just now.

First, this was not Abraham’s first experience with Yahweh. Remember that this was Abraham’s seventh discussion with God. The Lord began with a man who knew nothing about the God who called him but walked patiently with him through many ups and downs, successes, and failures, spiritual and otherwise. Once, he even asked God if he would put to death the righteous with the wicked saying that would be a horrible thing. “Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:25). 

            Abraham’s confident faith in God was not automatic. It was the result of a long obedience spanning a lifetime. 

Second, Abraham didn’t think that Isaac would die. We’ve seen this already in his cryptic words to the two boys, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Then there’s the question about the missing lamb. Abraham prepared himself to do what God asked, but he expected something else to happen. 

Third, the story of Abraham and Isaac is what we call a prophetic re-enactment. Throughout the OT, God often asked his prophets to act out promises of God or the will of God for his people. God told Hosea to marry a prostitute to exemplify his undeserving love for his people; God told Ezekiel to lie on his side for a year to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem (Ezek. 4). And here in Genesis 22, God asked Abraham to play the part of God in the sacrifice of his own son. 

 

So, it’s a prophetic re-enactment. Of what? I think you can guess. Genesis 22 points to Jesus! Of all the OT glimpses of the Heavenly Father’s heart for his people, this one is a mountain over hills. It speaks of how far the Father will go to save a people that do not deserve saving, whose repetitive and unimaginative sins should disqualify them, but God keeps reaching out and saying, “I love you this much.” 

            Think of the parallels in the narrative. Both Isaac and Jesus are long-awaited sons. Both are beloved and only sons. That familiar phrase perked your ears. John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son…” (1:14; 3:16). Both are born in miraculous ways (one to a senior woman; one to a virgin). Both sons carry the wood that is to be the instrument of their deaths on their backs. In both stories, the father leads the son up the mountain, the son follows obediently toward his own death. Jesus, like Isaac, was in harmony with the Father. Jesus said he laid his life down of his own will (10:18). And finally, in both cases, God provides a sacrificial substitute (a ram, a male lamb). When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming for baptism, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). 

            Isaac’s role in the enactment is a shadow of the true story of redemption seen in Jesus. Just as the lamb replaces Isaac on the altar, Jesus “the Lamb of God” takes our place on the cross. 

            The promise, “the Lord will provide,” is eloquently expressed in Paul’s words in Romans 8:31-32: “If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

 

                                                AMEN

 

 

** much thanks to Bibleproject.com for their insights into this passage, many of which I incorporated into this message. 

https://bibleproject.com/blog/why-did-god-ask-abraham-to-sacrifice-isaac/