Genesis 22

Chap. XXII. Ver. 1-24. Abraham offered up his son Isaac.—The opening of this narrative informs us, “God did tempt Abraham.” Dr. A. Clarke remarks, that though the word tempt (from cain) signifies no more than to prove or try, yet, as it is now generally used to imply solicitation to evil, “God cannot be tempted to evil, neither tempteth he any man.” ((James 1:13).) But, God proved or tried Abraham, whether he could sacrifice to him the dearest object of his heart. The narrative itself is at once so beautifully simple and pathetic, that we shall not attempt to heighten or to embellish it; but only offer two or three remarks upon the conduct and probable views of Abraham. One main Abraham had been trained gradually to a principle of implicit obedience.

He had been called to leave his native country, and go into a land unknown. When he arrived in that land, he was required to believe that, after a few hundred years, it should be peopled by his posterity, which should be innumerable, though as yet he had no child, and his wife was past the time for bearing children. This passes on till Abraham was near a hundred, and Sarah ninety, years old, when procreation must be considered as miraculous. At length, the promised child is born, and reared almost to maturity, and now a command is given to offer him in sacrifice. Thus he was gradually trained to expect and believe in miracles, and to account nothing impossible which the power of God should be employed to effect: there is no doubt, therefore, but he obeyed in the full expectation of an event still more wonderful than the birth of Isaac, namely, that after being sacrificed, he should be raised immediately from the dead.

Hence he had said to the young men who had accompanied him, “Abide here with the ass: and I and the lad [Isaac] will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.” For this opinion we have also the authority of the inspired author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who has these remarkable words: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.” We seem here to have a full view of the state of Abraham’s mind, and it is by this key that we must explain the motives of his conduct; and probably, also, the arguments by which Isaac was rendered content to be the victim, for he was certainly able to resist. “Accounting,” reasoning, says Dr.

Macknight, “that God was able to raise him from the dead, from whence also he received him, in a figure.” ((Hebrews 11:17-19).) The latter words appear capable of two senses, which so well harmonize, that we are not willing to exclude either of them. 1st, Abraham accounted God able to raise Isaac from the dead, “from whence, by a figure, (or figuratively,) he also had received him:” for, as the sacred writer had just observed, (verse 12.) he “sprang of one whose body was as good as dead.” This, therefore, might well encourage him to believe that the Lord both could and would, to make good his own promise, “raise him from the dead.” 2dly, The words may be understood with a farther reference to the Messiah himself: Abraham himself believed God would raise Isaac from the dead, from whence he now received him in a parable, or for a parabolic or typical representation of the death and resurrection of the Son of God, who is supposed to allude to this circumstance when he said, “Abraham desired to see my day, he saw it, and was glad.”

((John 11:51).) This view of the subject affords the best answer to all the Deistical objections against this history. “Where,” it has been said, “were Abraham’s feelings, that he could kill his son?” His feelings were absorbed in his faith; and his full conviction of immediately receiving him again, “alive from the dead,” took away the horror which he must otherwise have felt. “But where were Abraham’s principles? did he not know it was an act of murder?” Certainly not; for he was fully satisfied he should bring down the youth alive and uninjured, except only for the moment, and therefore had he left the two young men he brought with him waiting at the bottom of the hill. “So Abraham returned unto his young men,”

and doubtless Isaac with him; “and they went together to Beersheba,” where Abraham dwelt. (ver. 19.) From the event, it is very clear that God never intended that Abraham should slay his son. God’s precepts are not to be taken as the measure of his decrees. God may, as in this case, command what he has not decreed; and he may also, as he did respecting the death of his own Son, decree what he does not command. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of his law.” ((Deuteronomy 29:29).) The memorial of this event remained in the name given to the scene of the intended sacrifice, which may be either rendered actively, as in the margin, “In the mount the Lord will provide;”

that is, in all cases of extremity the Lord will see or provide for the exigences of his people, as he did the ram for a burnt-offering; or it may be taken passively, “In the (or this) mount the Lord will be seen;” and then the words will be a prediction of the sufferings of Christ on or about that spot: for “the land of Moriah” probably included all the mountains on which Jerusalem was built. The narrative closes with another confirmation of God’s covenant with Abraham, delivered in a voice from heaven, and confirmed by the oath of God: “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee,”

&c. which promise concludes with the crowning blessing of all, “In thy seed,” that is, Christ, as an inspired commentator explains it, “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” ((Galatians 3:16).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXII. Ver. 1. Tempt is here meant to prove, and is an essential to the illustration of moral character. It forces not, whilst it affords a noble opportunity for man to show his allegiance to God. Seduce—to destroy. Land of Moriah.—The temple was built on Mount Moriah, which therefore Maimonides and others take to be the place intended,—But many Christians consider Calvary to be the spot, according to their interpretation of Jehovah Jireh, “In the (or this) mount the Lord shall be seen.” —A. Clarke. It is very possible that the residence of Melchizedek, (see Note on (Genesis 14:17).) the threshing floor of Araunah, ((2 Samuel 24:18).) and the mount of Olives were all included in the land of Moriah. Ver.

5. I and the lad will go yonder.—Rather the young man, for it is the same word applied to the two young men who remained with the ass. Josephus reckons Isaac to have now been twenty-five years of age.—Ver. 7. My father, where is the lamb?—There is something exquisitely touching in this question, and indeed in the whole narrative. Ver. 12. Lay not thine hand upon the lad.—It has been often objected, by certain Deistical writers, that this command of offering up Isaac, gives countenance to human sacrifices; but, on the other hand, it has been asked, “If the God of the Jews had approved of such sacrifices, would he have stopped the hand of Abraham, who was offering up his son to him? Satisfied with this trial of his servant’s faith and obedience, he forbids him to stretch his arm over so dear a victim, and substitutes another into its place.

Does not this conduct, at a time when, according to you, (Voltaire,) the Canaanites were beginning to sacrifice their children to their divinities, show that the God of Abraham did not resemble the gods of these idolaters who delighted to see innocent blood flowing?” Letters of certain Jews. Ver. 14. Jehovah Jireh.—In (or on) the (or this) mount, the Lord shall be seen.”—Dr. A. Clarke and others. See Poole and Ainsworth. That the apostle’s words “In a parable,” refer to a parabolic representation of Christ’s sufferings and death, was maintained by Prof. Wodgius, (Cure Philolog.) and is very ably supported by Bp. Warburton. Ver. 17. Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.—For gate (or gates) the LXX.

read cities; but the sense is much the same; for in fortified places, those who possess the gates of course possess the town also. But as the term seed is here used in the singular, “the gate of his enemies,” may it not refer particularly to him in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed? See (Matthew 16:18).