018. Abraham--Offering of Isaac
Abraham--Offering of Isaac
Heb 11:17-19. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead: from whence also he received him in a figure. The parts of history which please and instruct us most, are those which exhibit to us illustrious persons in trying situations, holding fast their integrity, conducting themselves with wisdom, and overcoming great difficulty by patience and fortitude, and trust in God. The passages of our own lives which we recollect with the greatest satisfaction, and which we find ourselves most disposed to relate to others, are those which, while they passed, were involved in the greatest danger and distress. The memory of past joys is generally insipid and disgusting, but the recollection of the perils which we have escaped, the obstacles which we have surmounted, the miseries which we have endured and overcome, is in truth the chief ingredient in the happiness of our more tranquil days, and the consolation which a life of fatigue, exertion, and calamity, provides for the inactivity, feebleness, and retirement of old age. No man thinks of calling to his own remembrance, or of describing to another, the festivity of an entertainment, a month after it is over; but the horrors of a battle or a shipwreck, are thought and talked of with delight, as long as we are capable of thinking or speaking. What a feast was Abraham preparing for his remaining years by the sacrifice he tendered upon Mount Moriah! What a subject of useful meditation, what an example of praiseworthy conduct, has he furnished to mankind to the end of the world! This is one of the peculiar happy portions of history which at once awaken and interest our feelings; fire the imagination; seize, restrain, exercise, improve the understanding, and powerfully tend to affect and influence the conduct. As a scene in private life, we contemplate it again and again, with new and increasing admiration and delight; as entering into, and connected with the great, the divine plan of Providence and redemption, we regard it with religious veneration.
Most men, during the bustling period of human life, amuse themselves with prospects of retreat and tranquility in its close. And so most probably did Abraham. He had arrived, through much tribulation, at that period when nature wishes for, and expects to find repose. All that a wise and good man could reasonably propose to himself, he had, through the blessing of Heaven, happily attained. Religion crowned his multiplied temporal comforts, and opened the celestial paradise to his view. Isaac, the joy of his joy, the essence of all his other felicities, is born, has grown up, is become amiable, and wise, and good. His eyes have seen the salvation of God, and he is ready to depart in peace whenever the summons comes. But ah, how vain to think of rest till the scene be closed indeed, and death have sealed the weary eyes forever! All the trials which Abraham had hitherto endured, are merely superficial wounds, compared to the keen stroke of that two-edged sword which now pierced him, even “to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow.” To suffer banishment from his country and friends at the age of seventy-five years; to be driven by famine from the land of promise into a distant country; to have the companion of his youth, and the affectionate partner of all his fortunes, repeatedly forced from him; to have his domestic quiet disturbed, and his life embittered by female jealousy and resentment; to be reduced to the necessity of expelling his elder son from his house, with the slender provision of a little bread and water: these, taken either separately or in connection, and compared with the usual afflictions to which man is exposed, present us, it must be allowed, with a lot of great severity and hardship, but they are lost in the severity of the greater woe yet behind. For “it came to pass after these things,” in addition to all foregoing evils, and apparently to the defeating of the great designs planned by God himself, and in part executed, “that God tried Abraham” in this manner: “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
We mean not to go into the unnecessary criticism which has been employed with perhaps a good intention, to vindicate the divine conduct on this occasion. Surely the infinitely wise God is equal to his own defence. He has transmitted to us this part of his procedure without rendering a reason, without making an apology; and it is presumption, not piety, which shows on every occasion, an eagerness to reason in his behalf. Is it not sufficient at present to say, that men are very incompetent judges of the divine conduct; that a view of the detached parts cannot enable us to form a just and adequate conception of the whole; and that without knowing the ultimate end and design, we must of necessity have a very imperfect idea of the means and instruments employed?
It were easy to declaim on the horrid idea of demanding a human sacrifice, and of employing the hand of a father in a service so unnatural; on the mischief which might arise from an example so dreadful! on the manifest contradiction between this mandate and other laws, both general and special; and perhaps it were as easy to refute all such declamation, and to prove it nugatory and absurd. But let any man, learned or unlearned, read the story throughout, and if he is not both pleased and instructed, he must either be stupid or fastidious in a very high degree. In what manner the command of Heaven was communicated to Abraham, we are not informed. It was unquestionably conveyed with so much clearness and certainty, as left him no possibility of doubting from whom it came. And it again leads us to reflect on the irresistible power which God possesses and exercises over our bodies and minds, whereby he can communicate himself to us in a thousand ways, of which we are able to form no conception, and against which we should in vain attempt to arm ourselves. It appears to have been in the night season: probably, when, as on a former occasion, “God had caused a deep sleep, and a horror of great darkness to fall upon him.”
What a knell to the fond paternal heart! Every word in the oracle seems calculated to awaken some painful feeling, and to increase the difficulty of compliance. A person of humanity like Abraham might naturally be supposed to revolt from the idea of a human sacrifice, had the meanest slave of his household been demanded, and had the choice of a victim been left to himself. What then must have been the emotions of his soul from the moment its darling object was mentioned by the voice of God, till the mandate was completed. “Take now thy son;” this must have at once produced eagerness of attention in a mind ever awake and alive to the welfare and prosperity of Isaac. The tender manner in which God is pleased to describe that favorite child, would undoubtedly excite the most pleasing hope of some new mark of the divine regard to him; “take now thy son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest,”--and invest him with all the honors of the promise, put him in possession of his destined inheritance? Ah, no! Turn him out a wanderer after his brother Ishmael, with a loaf of bread, and a bottle of water for his portion? That had been severe; but more dreadful still, “and offer him for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Abraham hesitates not, argues not. He who before staggered not at the promise, staggers not now at the precept through unbelief. As a proof of his being in earnest, he rises immediately, while it was yet early; he makes all needful preparation for this heavy journey and costly sacrifice, with the utmost serenity and cheerfulness; he communicates to no one the order given him, lest the wickedness of others might have shaken his own firmness, or interrupted his progress. Having saddled his ass, for it was in this simple style that the great men of the East, in these better days of the world, used to travel; having summoned two of his young men to attend and assist in the preparation, having called Isaac, and cleft the wood for the burnt offering, they proceed together from Beersheba for the land of Moriah.
Josephus represents Isaac at this time as in his twenty-fifth year, and describes him, with much appearance of truth, as a young man of singular accomplishments, both of body and of mind. The trial was, without doubt, greatly increased to Abraham by the delay, and the distance of the place of sacrifice. Had the oracle demanded an instant offering, the immediate impression of the heavenly vision would account for the suddenness and dispatch of the execution. But leisure is afforded for the reflection; parental affection has time to strengthen itself; the powerful pleadings of nature must in their turn be heard; the oppression of grief, of fatigue, of old age; the sight, the society, the conversation of Isaac, combine their operation to make him relent, and return. But though nature knows faith, such as Abraham’s knows not what it is to relent. With steady steps, and unshaken resolution, he advances to the fatal spot, now first distinguished by the choice of God, for the scene of this wonderful sacrifice; distinguished in the sequel, as the seat of empire and of religion among Abraham’s chosen race; and finally, distinguished most of all by a sacrifice in finitely more valuable and important, and of which this of Isaac was but a shadow. Being arrived at the foot of the mountain, which was pointed out by some sensible token, the servants are left behind, and Abraham, armed with the fire and the knife, and Isaac bearing the wood destined to consume the victim, ascend together. And now, had his faith been capable of failing, could his purpose have changed, the question which Isaac in the simplicity of his heart, proposed, must have triumphed over his resolution, and decreed the victory to flesh and blood, “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and his said, Here am I, my son: and he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the Lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”[*]Gen 22:7-8 The heart that feels not this is lost to sensibility. Every endeavor to illustrate or enforce it, were idle as an attempt to perfume the rose, to paint the tulip into richer tints, or to burnish the sun into a brighter luster. At length with weary steps they arrive at the place which God had told him of. The mighty secret, which had hitherto labored in the anxious paternal breast, must at last be disclosed, and “the lamb for the burnt offering” must be produced. It is not the sacrifice of a bullock or a sheep, which are able to make no resistance; nor of a child unconscious of its situation; but of a man, whose consent must be obtained; and who, either by entreaty, by argument, be speed, or by force, might have delivered himself. The Jewish historian presents us with the dialogue which passed between the father and son on this occasion, striking and pathetic indeed, but far inferior to the beautiful simplicity of Moses. Having built an altar, having laid the wood in order upon it, and made all other necessary preparation, the unhappy father is thus represents as communicating to the devoted victim the will of the Most High: “O my son, begged of God in a thousand prayers, and at length unexpectedly obtained; ever since you were born, with what tenderness and solicitude have I brought you up! Proposing to myself no higher felicity than to see you become a man, and to leave you the heir of my possessions. But the God who bestowed you upon me, demands you again. Prepare then to yield the sacrifice with alacrity. I give you up to Him. Who at all seasons, and in all situations, has pursued us with loving kindness and tender mercy. You came into the world under the necessity of dying; and the manner of your death is to be singular and illustrious, presented in sacrifice by your own father to the great Father of all: who, we may presume, considers it as unfit and unbecoming, that you should depart out of this life by disease, in war, or by any other of the usual calamities to which human nature is subject: but who waits to receive your spirit, as it leaves the body, amidst the prayer and vows of your affectionate parent, that he may place it in perfect blessedness with himself. There, you shall still be the consolation and support of my old age, not indeed by your presence and conversation, but bequeathing me, when you depart, the presence and the blessing of the Almighty.” Isaac, the worthy offspring of such a father, cheerfully complies, and piously answers--“I should be unworthy of life, were I capable of showing reluctance to obey the will of my father and my God. It were enough for me that my earthly parent alone called me to the altar, how much more when my heavenly Father redemands his own.”
He accordingly submits to be bound, and to be laid as a victim upon the wood. And now behold a sight from which nature shrinks back, and stands confounded;--a father lifting up his only son, his is already made the sacrifice; for with God, intentions are acts; and he receives his Isaac a second time form the hand that gave him at first. The voice of God is again heard. It is ever welcome to the ear of faith: welcome when it announces heavy tidings, welcome when it demands an Isaac; and O, how welcome when it brings glad tidings of great joy; when it says, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.[*]Gen 22:12
Abraham prophesied without being conscious of it, when he said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:” for lo, behind “him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.”[*]Gen 22:13We know but in part, and we prophesy in part, but God sees the end from the beginning; he is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he.”[*]Deu 32:4 With what different feelings does the patriarch descend from the mountain! His Isaac lives, and yet his sacrifice is offered. He came to yield his dearest earthly delight at the call of God, and he goes away enriched with new blessings and fresh promises. Who ever sacrificed to God and was a loser? “Who ever hardened himself against God and prospered?”
It is impossible that any one can be so inattentive as not to observe, through the whole of this wonderful history, the mystery of redemption shadowed forth? Is the divine conduct, in this trial of Abraham, dark and inexplicable to human reason? Angels desire to look into the plan of gospel salvation, and are unable to comprehend it. Was Abraham ready at God’s command to offer up his only son for a burnt offering?”
God himself so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[*]John 3:16 God had pity upon an afflicted, earthly father, and a devoted child, and sent his angel to deliver him: but God “spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.”[*]Rom 8:32 Isaac was ready to be slain, Jesus was actually put to death. Isaac cheerfully submitted to the will of Heaven, and offered his throat to the sacrificing knife; and of Jesus it is written in the sacred volume, “Lo, I come, I delight to do thy will, O God, thy law is within my heart;”[*]Psa 60:6;Psa 60:8 “he gave himself for us, a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savor unto God.”
Isaac having first typified the Savior, passes into a type of the elect sinner, bound and stretched upon the altar, in trembling apprehension of the fatal blow. He is reprieved by a voice from heaven; and thus, when there was no eye to pity, nor hand to save our sinful devoted race, a voice is heard from the most excellent glory, “deliver from going down to the pit, I have found out a ransom.” “I have laid help on one who is mighty to save.” Behold the ram caught in the thicket, conducted and detained of Providence, and substituted as a sacrifice in the room of Isaac, and think of him of whom it is written, “he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”[*]Isa 53:5-6 From the tendered sacrifice of Isaac arose new prospects and new promises to his family; from the death of Christ sprung up the hope of “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that faded not away,” to all them that believe. The substituted sacrifice was of God’s appointment, providing an acceptance, both in the figurative and the real history, and by both we are instructed, that when men have the wisdom to submit to, and follow God their Maker, they may safely commit the issue of all to him. To view the history of Abraham in detached parts, is to involve ourselves in difficulty and distress--to read patiently to the end, is the road to light, and peace, and joy. The prejudiced Jew, and the self-conceited Greek, look at the cross and pronounce it foolishness, or fall over it as a stumbling block; but to them that believe, who wait the issue, who look to the end, “Jesus Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” Presumptuous men will take upon them to judge of a plan which is not yet executed, and will apply to the narrow and erroneous scale of their own reason and understanding, the infinite and eternal designs of the only wise God. When the fabric of creation was completed, God pronounced all to be very good, and then “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy;” when the plan of redemption is executed, then, and not till then, let men or angels presume to judge of the fitness or un fitness of it. Determine nothing before the time. The Lord, and the day of the Lord, is at hand. In meditating on this history, may it not be asked--Who among you is with Abraham sacrificing, I do not say, his lawful joys, but his sinful lusts? Who among you is rising up early, and, with a resolute hand, slaying his sloth, his pride, his avarice, his lust, his malignity, before the altar of God? Who among you is rising betimes to “offer unto God thanksgiving:” to contemplate the glories of nature; to adore and admire the wonders of Providence; to look into the mystery of redemption, and to meditate with new and increasing delight on that love of Christ which passeth knowledge? The little good which we do, we wish to be seen of all men; not like Abraham, who would have his devotion neither witnessed nor interrupted by any one. But glory pursues true goodness, notwithstanding its own modesty and humility. Why should I suffer myself to be teased and vexed with the cavils of an unbeliever? Let him start ten thousand objections, if he will, to the frame of nature, the conduct of Providence, or the method of salvation. I will thus simply reply; Do you comprehend the whole! Are you of the privy council of heaven? Can you account for any thing you behold! Do you know to what all these things tend, and in what they are to issue?
Rest, Christians, in general, obvious, useful, practical truth; and know that devotedness to God is the essence of religion, and the sum of human happiness. Look forward to that day when light shall arise out of obscurity, when all mysteries shall be unveiled; when the faculties of the human mind shall be strengthened and increased, and the objects contemplated shall be brought nearer the eye, placed in a fairer point of view, and irradiated with a fuller glory; when God shall in the most complete and satisfactory manner vindicate his ways to men. The next Lecture will conclude the History of Abraham, and the proposed course for this season. If to your former attendance and kind attention, you will indulge me with one audience more, it will increase the affectionate regard of a grateful heart, and afford an opportunity of expressing that gratitude at greater length. May God bless all the means of knowledge, of piety, and of improvement. Amen.