‘By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back’                     (Hebrews 11:17-19).

Just before I left my last church I redecorated our house because we were going to rent it. My friend who was a builder and decorator was helping me out. One day I had to do an online bank transaction. So I went into the room where the computer was that he happen to be redecorating. He was extremely interested in the process, but when I finished his words were: “and you trust that thing?” This did not surprise me as Neil has always been, by his own admission, old-fashioned where money is concerned, paying for everything upfront.  I suppose you could say he believed it if he could see it happening, whereas I trusted the invisible workings of online banking!

The writer of this letter is trying to combat a similar issue. Those receiving the letter wanted to receive blessing at the present time. But, as he has made clear, living by faith, their spiritual forefathers did not see or understand the full extent of God’s workings, yet they still trusted him. I suppose those who received this letter’s problem was they were like my friend, because they could not see it, they had trouble believing it!

So the writer now deals with this as he returns to Abraham. The verses before this highlighted Abraham did not see the result of the promises the Lord had made. Yet he acted in faith realising God’s promises were better than anything he could ever imagine. But now we have the real twist when Abraham was asked by the Lord to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering! After all, becoming a father of a great nation was possible even if Abraham did not see it in his own lifetime. But destroying the means of that promise, that was another thing entirely!

A quick look at Genesis 22:1-14 is useful here. Firstly, God is testing Abraham (Genesis22:1-2). We are party to what is going on behind the scenes, but Abraham was not!  John Calvin paints a credible picture here. Abraham: ‘was enjoying peace at home, but now God suddenly thundered out of heaven, denouncing the sentence of death upon this son.’[1] Secondly, Abraham displays much faith throughout this incident as he mentions to the servants that he and Isaac: “will go over there and worship and come back again to you” (Genesis 22:5). This fits with the writer of the letters comment that Abraham: ‘considered that God was able even to raise him (Isaac) from the dead’ (v19) in that he expected Isaac and himself to return. Lastly, there seems to have been compliance on the part of Isaac. He is probably a young man in his late teens or early 20s. As he is strong enough to carry wood for the sacrifice it seems unlikely that he would be overpowered by his father who was probably over 100 years old at this time. Indeed, the structure of the Genesis passage in verses 9-10 deliberately slows the narrative giving the impression of things being done thoroughly and meticulously by the use of the words: ‘and’ and: ‘then’. So, as much as our modern sensibilities may struggle with the idea of Abraham being able to contemplate sacrificing his son, even if: ‘figuratively speaking, he did receive him back’ (v19) from the dead, the emphasis here is on his remarkable faith![2]

Yet there is another aspect to Abraham’s faith we should note. In John 8:56, when Jesus is conversing with the increasingly hostile Pharisees, he makes the statement: “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” How are we to understand that extraordinary statement? The answer is in this example of faith. The phrase rendered: ‘figuratively speaking’ is actually rendered, in Greek, as ‘as a parable’.[3]  So Abraham receiving Isaac back from his figurative death acts as a parable that points to Christ’s work. So we have two ‘types’ in Abraham being willing to sacrifice his only son (with an understanding that God would somehow keep his promise to him) just as God gave up his only son, and the probable compliance of Isaac in the same way Jesus was compliant with his father’s will. Also, we have God’s substitute in the provision of a ram which leads to Isaac being spared (Genesis 22:11-14) just as we are spared through Christ’s substitution for our sin. God had promised that by Abraham: “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Maybe, through these events, in some way Abraham was partial to understanding how God would do that.

[1] John Calvin, Genesis, The Geneva Series of Commentaries (Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 561.
[2] John Currid makes the point that in Genesis 22:19  the idea of he and Isaac and going together has been used twice before in the passage (vs6 and 8) and therefore reflects a: ‘harmony between father and son on the way to the mountain. Now it is used here for the same reason: as they return from the mountain there is still harmony between them.’ John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Genesis, Volume 1, (Darlington, Evangelical Press, 2003), 396.
[3] Richard D. Phillips, Hebrews, Reformed Expository Commentary (New Jersey, P and R Publishing Company, 2006) 478.