Genesis 22:1-18
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen,
St Ambrose said that the whole Gospel is hidden in Genesis 22. The word of command, spiritual anguish, the hope of eternal life, the cost of sacrifice, the confidence of faith, the wood of the Cross, the power of a substitute, the life of the Son for a son. All of these are there and more.
Abraham believed God and the Lord reckoned saving faith to him as righteousness. But it wasn’t easy. Believing never is.
Abraham was an old man, and old men know about life’s disappointments; how dreams fade, how promises are broken, how violence permeates, how greed and lust corrupt, how ignorance dominates, and how the best days are already gone.
Abraham knew about death. All old men do. And all old men know about regret. The whole fiasco with Abimelech was still a fresh wound, pricking his conscience.
Yet God promised him that he would be the father of a great nation. His descendants would number more than the sands on the seashore, more than the stars in the sky. But he was old. He had only one son; and that son was a miracle. Isaac was a glimmer of hope, the star that shone in the darkness, the hope that somehow his family line would continue; that God can make the desert bloom and cause barren women and virgins to give birth.
Then God told him to kill his son, to end his hope. Isaac would not survive being a burnt offering. Abraham would use the knife to slit his throat and then set his son on fire and watch him burn. He would watch his genealogy enter oblivion and the promise to be null. Abraham believed in the resurrection, but this didn’t make any sense. And it would be painful beyond what fathers can endure. God had asked too much of him.
That anyone believes is a miracle. By the grace of God alone Abraham trusted. It was not fair. It was not just. But God is good. God is merciful. Even when it seems as though He is not. The Lord would provide.
So he suffered this indignity. He shared it with no one; told no one his plan. They would have thought him insane anyway. He submitted to the will of the Lord. He subjected his reason and his own notions of justice and fairness to the Word of God. Perhaps he even prayed as Job did, The Lord giveth and the Lord taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.
By grace Abraham believed. He waited. Three days he traveled. He hiked up the mountain with that awful knife, too scared to even look his little boy in the eye. He hoped against hope. He held God to His Word. He is a man of faith; faith reckoned to him as righteousness. But it wasn’t easy. Believing never is.
When Abraham raised that flinty knife to offer his only son, whom he loved, the son of promise, he was completely convinced that God would return him through the resurrection of the dead. Abraham was absolutely confident of the Word and promise of God. Such confidence is faith. The assurance of things hoped. Trust in things unseen.
Abraham, the father of God’s people, trusted in the divine promises of the Seed. He longed for an rejoiced to see the day of the Seed’s incarnation and atonement. He saw it and rejoiced. Did he see it in the near sacrifice of Isaac and in the providence of the ram caught in the thicket? He named that place not “the Lord has provided,” but The Lord will provide. Abraham saw more than the temporary reprieve of Isaac. He saw the future.
The Lord provides in the Temple built on that same mountain. He provided the ram, so also He provides on Mount Golgotha the sacrifice of His only Son, His beloved Son, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. Did Abraham see Good Friday in a vision or in some other prophecy or type and rejoice? Or did he see it from heaven like Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration? I don’t know. Perhaps the answer is all, or any, or another manner. All that matters is that Abraham saw it and rejoiced. So should we. We should rejoice in the death of Jesus Christ because it is in that unjust death that causes Abraham to believe and live. By the substitute for his son, Abraham received Isaac back alive. They see and rejoice.
Again, Ambrose: “The father offered the son, but God was not pleased with blood, but with faith. God showed the ram in the wood of the thicket so that He might restore the son to his father and a victim would not be lost to the priest. And so Abraham was not stained with his son’s blood, nor was God deprived of the sacrifice” (On the Resurrection of the Dead, 98).
The Angel of the Lord who stayed the hand of Abraham from sacrificing his little boy and swore by His own Name, is the One who became a Child, bearing that Name, in order to make Himself a Sacrifice for you. He took up our flesh to suffer what we suffer - loss and pain and death - to be tempted as we are tempted - in false belief and lust and idolatry - to die as we die, only worse. Our father in the faith was spared the sacrifice of his son. Not so our Father in heaven. For while Abraham believed and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, Jesus believed and it was reckoned to Him as sin and guilt and death.
The Father sacrificed the Son. There was no angel to stay His hand. He was forsaken upon the Cross. There was no ram to take His place. He is the Perfect Substitute and payment for sinners who could not save themselves; caught in the thicket and thorny mess of your sin and guilt and shame.
But He went willingly, obediently, carrying the wood. He climbed the mountain in silent pain. He endured the fires of Hell. He felt the bitter agony and guilt for sin not His own in the very depths of His soul. He endured the abuse and mockery of violent men and demons who had their way with Him. In all this He loved you and honored His Father. He is the obedient Son. He keeps His Word and the Father glorifies Him. He is the Innocent One who dies for the guilty. His death is our Life. His Flesh is our Bread. His Blood sustains us.
And like Isaac to his father, we are returned to ourselves because of the life offered by God’s Son. Given to live in holy fear, fervent love and steadfast trust in Him above all things. The wood of the Cross holds the Lamb of God on Moriah so that we might have our lives back. Lives that are lived in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another. Such faith is reckoned as righteousness in His sight. It is not easy. Believing never is.
So it is that you go through this life much as Abraham did: cast about by temptation and doubt, poor choices and petty grudges, always living by faith and not by sight, never at home in this land, but awaiting the Promised Land, trusting the Word of the Lord, even when it seems as if His word is self-contradictory.
But fear not dear Isaacs, rescued by the hand of the Angel of the Lord and a Substitute offered in your place, for on the mount of the Lord is has been provided: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb who bears your sin. And here, on the Altar of the Lord, the heavenly Mount Zion, the Lamb bestows to you the fruit of His sacrifice, the blood that was shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Fellowship in a once-for-all death and participation in a life that never ends.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen,
St Ambrose said that the whole Gospel is hidden in Genesis 22. The word of command, spiritual anguish, the hope of eternal life, the cost of sacrifice, the confidence of faith, the wood of the Cross, the power of a substitute, the life of the Son for a son. All of these are there and more.
Abraham believed God and the Lord reckoned saving faith to him as righteousness. But it wasn’t easy. Believing never is.
Abraham was an old man, and old men know about life’s disappointments; how dreams fade, how promises are broken, how violence permeates, how greed and lust corrupt, how ignorance dominates, and how the best days are already gone.
Abraham knew about death. All old men do. And all old men know about regret. The whole fiasco with Abimelech was still a fresh wound, pricking his conscience.
Yet God promised him that he would be the father of a great nation. His descendants would number more than the sands on the seashore, more than the stars in the sky. But he was old. He had only one son; and that son was a miracle. Isaac was a glimmer of hope, the star that shone in the darkness, the hope that somehow his family line would continue; that God can make the desert bloom and cause barren women and virgins to give birth.
Then God told him to kill his son, to end his hope. Isaac would not survive being a burnt offering. Abraham would use the knife to slit his throat and then set his son on fire and watch him burn. He would watch his genealogy enter oblivion and the promise to be null. Abraham believed in the resurrection, but this didn’t make any sense. And it would be painful beyond what fathers can endure. God had asked too much of him.
That anyone believes is a miracle. By the grace of God alone Abraham trusted. It was not fair. It was not just. But God is good. God is merciful. Even when it seems as though He is not. The Lord would provide.
So he suffered this indignity. He shared it with no one; told no one his plan. They would have thought him insane anyway. He submitted to the will of the Lord. He subjected his reason and his own notions of justice and fairness to the Word of God. Perhaps he even prayed as Job did, The Lord giveth and the Lord taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.
By grace Abraham believed. He waited. Three days he traveled. He hiked up the mountain with that awful knife, too scared to even look his little boy in the eye. He hoped against hope. He held God to His Word. He is a man of faith; faith reckoned to him as righteousness. But it wasn’t easy. Believing never is.
When Abraham raised that flinty knife to offer his only son, whom he loved, the son of promise, he was completely convinced that God would return him through the resurrection of the dead. Abraham was absolutely confident of the Word and promise of God. Such confidence is faith. The assurance of things hoped. Trust in things unseen.
Abraham, the father of God’s people, trusted in the divine promises of the Seed. He longed for an rejoiced to see the day of the Seed’s incarnation and atonement. He saw it and rejoiced. Did he see it in the near sacrifice of Isaac and in the providence of the ram caught in the thicket? He named that place not “the Lord has provided,” but The Lord will provide. Abraham saw more than the temporary reprieve of Isaac. He saw the future.
The Lord provides in the Temple built on that same mountain. He provided the ram, so also He provides on Mount Golgotha the sacrifice of His only Son, His beloved Son, the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. Did Abraham see Good Friday in a vision or in some other prophecy or type and rejoice? Or did he see it from heaven like Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration? I don’t know. Perhaps the answer is all, or any, or another manner. All that matters is that Abraham saw it and rejoiced. So should we. We should rejoice in the death of Jesus Christ because it is in that unjust death that causes Abraham to believe and live. By the substitute for his son, Abraham received Isaac back alive. They see and rejoice.
Again, Ambrose: “The father offered the son, but God was not pleased with blood, but with faith. God showed the ram in the wood of the thicket so that He might restore the son to his father and a victim would not be lost to the priest. And so Abraham was not stained with his son’s blood, nor was God deprived of the sacrifice” (On the Resurrection of the Dead, 98).
The Angel of the Lord who stayed the hand of Abraham from sacrificing his little boy and swore by His own Name, is the One who became a Child, bearing that Name, in order to make Himself a Sacrifice for you. He took up our flesh to suffer what we suffer - loss and pain and death - to be tempted as we are tempted - in false belief and lust and idolatry - to die as we die, only worse. Our father in the faith was spared the sacrifice of his son. Not so our Father in heaven. For while Abraham believed and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, Jesus believed and it was reckoned to Him as sin and guilt and death.
The Father sacrificed the Son. There was no angel to stay His hand. He was forsaken upon the Cross. There was no ram to take His place. He is the Perfect Substitute and payment for sinners who could not save themselves; caught in the thicket and thorny mess of your sin and guilt and shame.
But He went willingly, obediently, carrying the wood. He climbed the mountain in silent pain. He endured the fires of Hell. He felt the bitter agony and guilt for sin not His own in the very depths of His soul. He endured the abuse and mockery of violent men and demons who had their way with Him. In all this He loved you and honored His Father. He is the obedient Son. He keeps His Word and the Father glorifies Him. He is the Innocent One who dies for the guilty. His death is our Life. His Flesh is our Bread. His Blood sustains us.
And like Isaac to his father, we are returned to ourselves because of the life offered by God’s Son. Given to live in holy fear, fervent love and steadfast trust in Him above all things. The wood of the Cross holds the Lamb of God on Moriah so that we might have our lives back. Lives that are lived in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another. Such faith is reckoned as righteousness in His sight. It is not easy. Believing never is.
So it is that you go through this life much as Abraham did: cast about by temptation and doubt, poor choices and petty grudges, always living by faith and not by sight, never at home in this land, but awaiting the Promised Land, trusting the Word of the Lord, even when it seems as if His word is self-contradictory.
But fear not dear Isaacs, rescued by the hand of the Angel of the Lord and a Substitute offered in your place, for on the mount of the Lord is has been provided: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb who bears your sin. And here, on the Altar of the Lord, the heavenly Mount Zion, the Lamb bestows to you the fruit of His sacrifice, the blood that was shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Fellowship in a once-for-all death and participation in a life that never ends.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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