Sacrifice Day 9 Singular Love: Digging Deeper

Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
The Questions
1) What does “after these things” refer to in verse 1?
2) Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son? (verse 2)
3) Why did God stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and instead provide a ram? (verses 12-13)
Genesis 22:1-13
22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”
3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together.
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”
And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”
Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He replied, “Here I am.”
12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Original Intent
1) What does “after these things” refer to in verse 1?
In order to understand this narrative in full we must first understand the events leading up to this moment. In Genesis 12, God called 75-year-old Abraham (called Abram until Genesis 17) out of his homeland and into a relationship with Him and Abraham obeys. He marries Sarah (called Sarai until Genesis 17) and, as they travel, God promises to provide land to Abraham. (Genesis 12:7) Time continued and Abraham and Sarah remained barren. God promised to give Abraham a son and promised his descendants would outnumber the stars. (Genesis 15:5) Abraham and Sarah grow impatient and Abraham had a son with his wife’s servant, Hagar. Eventually, when they were both quite old and long past childbearing ages, God visited again and promised Sarah a son within the year. True to His word, the long-awaited son, Isaac, was born. These events are important because they provide context to the relationship between Abraham and Isaac as well as Abraham’s long-standing relationship of growing faith with God. When we study the backstory, we can better understand the depth of this particular narrative between God and Abraham.
2) Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son? (verse 2)
God chose Abraham for a reason (Genesis 12:2-3), with plans to use his surrendered life for eternal purposes. God had invited Abraham into an inheritance that would reach far beyond his imaginings but joining with God always requires active faith. Often, until we face a testing of our faith, we don’t even know our own heart position before the Lord. Do we really trust Him? God tested the quality of Abraham’s faith to see if he would choose God as his sole love or if his affections were divided. Through the testing, God was at work to continue molding Abraham into the man of mature faith He desired. Abraham’s faith failings in the past had proven he would place his desires above God’s, but this test was about obedience. Abraham had waited so long for a son, would Abraham love God or Isaac most? Had he made an idol out of his son? Only a test of obedience would prove the depth of his faith and love for God.
3) Why did God stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and instead provide a ram? (verses 12-13)
God’s intent was never for Abraham to shed Isaac’s blood; He is absolutely set against child sacrifice as He repeats often in Scripture. (Jeremiah 19:5) The Lord who knows all things, tested Abraham’s free-will decision to choose Him or choose his selfish desires. Heart passions are laid bare in the place of hardship and testing. The Lord brought Abraham to the point of no return in his obedience. With knife held high, Abraham proved with his actions that his first (and only) love was focused on the Lord God. Here, the Lord stopped the sacrifice and set Isaac free. However, there was still need for bloodshed in order to come before the Lord, which was a practice that began in the Garden of Eden when God spilled the blood of an innocent animal to provide covering for Adam and Eve’s bodies in the wake of their sin. (Genesis 3:21) Therefore, God provided His own sacrifice, a ram for Abraham and Isaac to offer together on the altar built for Isaac. This practice of bloodshed for sins remained in place until Jesus’ death on the cross hundreds of years later. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac because this moment wasn’t about the death of a son, but the heart of a man. Later, when it was Jesus’ body on the altar of the cross for the sins of the world, it would be about the death of the Son redeeming the hearts of man. And God would do the slaying of His only Son that we might forever be free when we, like Abraham, surrender our hearts to love Him first.
Everyday Application
1) What does “after these things” refer to in verse 1?
In studying Abraham’s life, we begin to understand how his relationship with God had grown and deepened over time into mature, solid faith willing to obey God even in what seemed an impossible command. We also glimpse a sneak peek into his sin. Though Abraham grew in his faith, it wasn’t a straight line “up and to the right”. Abraham tried to take matters into his own hands instead of waiting on God on more than one occasion. Likewise, there are times in our lives when we are tempted to take control, forging our own path according to our vantage point, instead of patiently waiting on God to move, act, and fulfill His promises in His timing. We also gain a much better perspective on why Abraham would have loved Isaac so much and we are able to put ourselves in Abraham’s shoes. Any parent can see how easy it would have been to disobey God’s command instead of follow through in obedience, but we appreciate Abraham’s faith all the more when we understand how many decades he had waited for this only son.
2) Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son? (verse 2)
God’s request would have been extremely difficult for Abraham to obey. He was asked to sacrifice his one and only son whom he loved. It’s never easy to be asked to give up what we dearly love. However, our understanding of God’s call to follow Him isn’t necessary, our obedience is the required component. God simply desires for us to put Him first in our lives just as Abraham did, for He knows that any lesser focus of our lives will lead us into sin and suffering. God will ask us to surrender what we hold dear in order to ensure He is our only love. This is painful! His purposes are not to wound us, but to refine our hearts, clear out our idols, and teach our hearts to settle for no lesser love than the best, Himself. He calls us to trust Him and obediently follow Him where He leads even when it increases our suffering. It’s in these moments our relationship with God deepens and matures into a steadfast faith that supports real, everyday life.
3) Why did God stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and instead provide a ram? (verses 12-13)
God saw Abraham’s heart and stopped his sacrifice, providing a ram in Isaac’s place instead. This event foreshadowed an event to come hundreds of years later when God would send His One and Only Son, Jesus, to earth to live a perfect life for us. Every human being has failed to live perfectly, which is the requirement to be in relationship with God. Jesus would end His life as a sacrifice on a cross, paying the debt we each owe. However, when Jesus hung on the Cross there was no “replacement sacrifice” for the Son. Jesus was the intended sacrifice. Jesus came to accomplish what only He could because He, as God, was perfectly righteous. Only the blameless One could pay the penalty for sin, which is death, and purchase the price of righteousness for everyone who would put their faith in Him. This time, God would not call it off at the last second to spare His Son. Instead, He would look on, knowing His Son was finishing the work we never could. (Isaiah 53:10-11) Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God’s relationship with mankind, which was ruined in the Garden as a result of sin, was forever restored. The debt owed became the debt paid. The Lord offers the credit of bill, which is righteousness, to each of us if we will acknowledge our sinfulness and His willingness to take our sin on Himself. In His death, we find life, for He rose from His own grave, defeating sin and death forever! If that isn’t enough reason for us to have the same heart of worship as Abraham that solely belongs to God, nothing will ever be enough. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac because he wasn’t the son who needed to be sacrificed for the redemption of mankind, Jesus was.
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3) Write down your questions
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4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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