2023 | West Park Baptist Church

Genesis 22 is a common passage people wrestle with. God is supposedly good and loving, and yet here he point-blank asks Abraham to kill his own son. How do we reconcile that reality with the truth about God we see throughout the rest of the Bible? Is this story an ancient tale revealing God as a brute or is it a beautiful picture of God’s character? I’m arguing for the latter.

After promising Abraham many descendents (12:2), entering into a covenant with him (15:1-21), confirming this covenant (17:4-14), and determining that Abraham and his wife Sarah will bear a child themselves in their old age (17:17-21), Isaac is finally born (21:1-7). It’s a joyous occasion worth celebrating. God has delivered on his promise. So far, so good.

But then things take an abrupt, confusing turn as we enter Genesis 22. In the first two verses, God commands Abraham to take this son and sacrifice him. I’ll admit, this tends to make me raise my eyebrows and squint a bit. Thankfully, with a careful reading of Scripture we can see the beauty of this text.

For starters, there’s a piece of information in verse 1 present for the reader but absent from Abraham as he’s given the command: this is a test. The implication is that God never intended for Abraham to actually sacrifice Isaac. It’s all about Abraham’s faith. God has promised him repeatedly that he will make a great nation out of him through which he will bless the world; will Abraham stand firm in trust? One writer summarized the dilemma well, saying “Abraham had left his home in Ur and given up his past for the sake of God’s promise. Now he was being asked if he would trust God by apparently surrendering his future as well.”¹. God understood the gravity of the request, emphasizing not only that Isaac is the fulfillment of a promise, but that Abraham deeply loves Isaac (v. 3).

Abraham, in faith, trusted God. The next morning, he got up and took Isaac and two servants on a multi-day journey to a mountain in the region of Moriah. It’s crucial to notice Abraham’s words to the servants in verse 5. There, he affirms that he and Isaac are going to worship God, and they will both return soon. Whatever happens on top of the mountain, Abraham believes that God will intervene. If he must sacrifice his son, he believes that God will raise him from the dead (Hebrews 11:19).

This truth is solidified further in verses 6-8. Isaac astutely notices that everything is present for the sacrifice… except the sacrifice. Abraham answers that God will provide. Consider that to be strong foreshadowing.

Finally, on the mountain, Abraham prepared the altar, and then tied Isaac to it, pulling the knife on him and preparing to sacrifice him. No dialogue between Abraham and Isaac is recorded here, but I can’t imagine the tension present as Isaac was bound to the altar. Dad, if you’re reading this, don’t get any ideas!

Finally, in the height of the tension, the angel of the Lord stopped him, affirming his faith and obedience to God. The story ends with Abraham seeing and sacrificing instead a ram caught in a thicket. He praises God as Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides, and is then reassured by the angel of the Lord that God’s promises to him will come true.

It’s time we ask our key question: where is Jesus in this story?

I would encourage you to take a few moments and reread Genesis 22, looking for the various connections to the life and work of Jesus. If you’re up for the challenge, try to find at least five connections before reading the rest of this post.

Now let me point out a few that stick out to me.

Starting in verse 2, God’s request for Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the one whom he loves, is a sentiment echoed in perhaps the most famous Bible verse, John 3:16. Jesus is God’s beloved son (Mark 1:11), and yet God is willing to walk the very path he calls Abraham to walk in faith. The contrast here is that Jesus willingly offered himself as a sacrifice; Isaac was not active in the decision in Genesis 22.

Abraham and Isaac traveled alongside two servants, which can be reminiscent of the two criminals accompanying Jesus on the cross. Isaac carried the wood on his back as Jesus carried his cross. They were both raised (Jesus, literally; Isaac, figuratively) on the third day.

The sacrifice took place on a mountain in the land of Moriah– interestingly, this is the same location where Solomon would eventually build the temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). Burnt offerings, according to Leviticus, were to be male animals without blemish whose death would make atonement for the offerer. We know that Jesus is ultimately the spotless lamb who offered once for all for our sake on the cross (read Hebrews 9:1-10:18).

On the mountain, Jehovah-Jireh gave Abraham a ram (an adult male sheep) to offer instead of his son. God has likewise provided a spotless ram in our place, his head caught in a crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29).

There’s one more connection I want to bring to light, one that will show up repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. In verses 11-12, we’re told that it’s the angel of the Lord who stops Abraham from killing Isaac. A few verses later, in verses 15-18, this angel of the Lord reconfirms God’s covenant with Abraham that he’s established in the preceding chapters. I find it interesting that it’s God who talks to him directly at the beginning of the story, but then relegates the rest of the interaction to one of his angels. Why is this? Why has God gone silent?

The answer? He hasn’t! If you remember the introductory post to this series, I referred to theophanies– visual appearances of God that point to the incarnation– as one way we see our Messiah in the Old Testament. This is one of those times! See, the Angel of the Lord is best understood to prefigure Jesus!

The Angel of the Lord is a unique messenger of God who appears numerous times in the Old Testament. But this angel is not just a messenger. He’s also the Lord himself. This messenger of God communicates God’s words, but also speaks and acts in ways that are exclusive to the Lord himself. Read the story of Hagar in Genesis 16 and Moses in Exodus 3 to see a couple other examples of the angel of the Lord appearing to also be the Lord himself. This distinction provides a basic framework for our understanding of the Trinity, that Jesus is both God and yet distinct in personhood from the Father.

Praise be to God that he is willing to do all that he asks of his people, that he has given up his beloved Son for our sake, that we may be reconciled to Him! Praise be to God that he knows the purity of our relationship with Him is more important than the blessings we receive from Him!

There’s a popular kind of media that I struggle to watch– the kind that fosters skin-crawling secondhand embarrassment. You know the type. You desperately want to look away but can’t. That’s how I feel sometimes when I read Genesis 3. It’s a horrific story that causes me to cringe, but I can’t look away.

The curtains close on Genesis 2 to a joyous melody; the curtains reopen for Genesis 3 and the atmosphere has noticeably shifted. The serpent is present; the serpent tempts; Adam and Eve sin. It’s tragic, truly. Paradise is now paradise lost.

The reader is invited into the story, to see that this is the common story of humanity. It is as much my fall as it is Adam’s. The secondhand pain of failure is inescapable as each of us is brought into the plot. And now, we’re all in search of rescue. Where is our help? Will there be good news for us, or are we doomed?

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait long for an answer. The first mention of the Gospel, contrary to what many might think, is not in the early pages of the New Testament. It’s in the early pages of Scripture as a whole. You might not notice it immediately if you’re on the lookout for words like “Jesus” or “cross” or “resurrection.” While all of those words are crucial to our understanding of how God’s plan to save sinners has unfolded, they aren’t the words that we see in Genesis 3.

Here is the earliest Gospel message recorded in Scripture: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (v.15).

Tucked in a set of consequences that God is outlining to the serpent, Eve, and Adam is this verse. Some people question why God didn’t intervene right when they sinned; I think the text is clear that he did. Although the details themselves are sparing at this point in the story, God is clear: the serpent will be defeated. Evil will be overcome by good. And this defeat will come at the hands of Eve’s own offspring, who we will later see is Jesus himself.

Let me walk you through how we see this.

The serpent, Satan, is promised that there would be future strife between his offspring and Eve’s offspring. On face value, this seems a bit vague, admittedly. Does this really point to Jesus, or is it a more vague promise that humans in general will defeat evil? With the latter view, our whole understanding of the Gospel would be undermined, as it would mean that we have the ability within ourselves to overcome evil.

But that’s not what the text is saying. The offspring of Eve here is not referring to all human beings in general. What we see throughout the entire Biblical text is that there is not only a physical element to the idea of offspring, but a spiritual element. Later, for instance, both Jesus and Paul will emphasize that Abraham’s descendents are descendents by faith, not blood. Look at Jesus’ words to the Jews in John 8: “They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did… You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (v.39-44). Paul adds this in Galatians: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (3:7). The message is clear: the wicked are the serpent’s offspring and the righteous (by faith) are Eve’s offspring.

So, at the very least now, it’s evident that there will be a triumph of the righteous over the wicked, but the question remains if this is a collective victory of all righteous. Will the good people one day band together in one last hurrah– the few against the many– and win? Is this a story of the underdog sports team beating the best team in the nation off the power of friendship?

No. It’s not.

It’s the story of a single descendent rising up to defeat the serpent in combat. The underlying Hebrew sentence structure strongly suggests that this promised offspring is referring to an individual. This means that a manhunt has been set in motion the second we read Genesis 3:15. From that point forward, as we read our Bibles we ask the question, “Who will be this serpent-crusher?” By the time we get to the stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, among others, we should be looking eagerly to see if they will be the promised one. With each one’s failures, our senses of both hope and desperation heighten as we scour the Bible’s pages, asking, “So where is he?”

This is the buildup of the entire Old Testament. God, in his grace, provides more and more details as to who this individual will be as the story unfolds. He will be a descendent of Abraham (Genesis 22:17-18); he will be a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-18); he will be in the line of David (2 Samuel 7:16).

When Jesus arrives on the scene, we hear the triumphal announcement of Mark: “The beginning of Jesus Christ, the son of God” (1:1). This is who we’ve been waiting for. This is our serpent crusher.

As the Gospel story unfolds, we see our serpent crusher crushed by crucifixion. Surely, this was a shock to all the onlookers of the day– even to us today who are appalled at the notion of a crucified savior– but here is where the words of Genesis 3:15 must echo in our ears: “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Jesus was bruised. The cross was a fatal wound, but it wasn’t a final wound. But as for the serpent, he would be totally crushed.

The Revelation of John bookends the story. In chapter 20, we hear that Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where he will be tormented for eternity (v. 7-10). In chapters 21-22, in the great Garden City, there is no longer any serpent, but only God and his creatures in eternal bliss. Praise God.

Christ in the Old Testament: Christ in the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)

Christ in the Old Testament: Christ in the Fall (Genesis 3)