Knowing The Word in Genesis 24:1-8, Isaac Sacrificed?

A Comparison Between

Hagar/Ishmael and Abraham/Isaac

God orders Ishmael’s expulsion 21:12-13 22:2 God orders Isaac’s sacrifice

Food and water taken 21:14 22:3 Sacrificial material taken

Journey 21:14 22:4-8 Journey

Ishmael about to die 21:16 22:10 Isaac about to die

Angel of God calls from heaven 21:17 22:11 Angel of the Lord calls from heaven

“Do not fear” 21:17 22:12 “fear God”

“God has heard” 21:17 22:18 “You have obeyed (heard) my voice”

“I shall make into a great nation” 21:18 22:17 “Your descendants like starts, sand”

God opens her eyes;she sees well 21:19 22:13 Abraham raises his eyes; sees ram

She gives the lad a drink 21:19 22:14 He sacrifices ram instead of son

The Sacrifice of Isaac

1 After these things [is Isaac now a teenager?] God tested Abraham [prepares and cushions us from the horrific command; test is to show what someone is really like; the only time God does it] and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac [on whom all of Abraham’s hopes are riding], whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah [which some consider the temple mount; see 2 Chron 3:1], and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” [Now God tells him what he wants. A burnt offering involves cutting up and burning the whole animal on the altar and was the commonest sacrifice. It expresses two ideas: first, the offerer is giving himself up entirely to God and second, the animal’s death atones for his sins.] 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning [we don’t know what he is feeling; “only the facts ma’am”], saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering [last, which lets us into his state of mind finally] and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. [God must have given him additional instructions not recorded in this account.] 4 On the third day [a typical period of preparation from something important and even more agonizing as Abraham contemplated it/Israel also went out of Egypt three days to worship God] Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy [a better translation is “the lad,” showing how detached Abraham is getting, mentally giving him already to God] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” [Why leave the donkey and servants behind? Only Moses was allowed to the top of Mount Sinai; the people stayed at the bottom.] 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. [What does this remind you of? Think of Good Friday and Jesus carrying his cross.] And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. [There is companionship and isolation combined.] 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. [Isaac is totally trusting of and obedient to his father as his father is of God. This is one of the most prophetic and insightful passages in the OT. Jesus must have reviewed this with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.]