God’s blessings are not only reserved for the future world to come, but also are a reality already here and now.
Genesis 22 provides an essential background for the understanding of the sacrifice, atonement, and substitution in the sanctuary service. God told Abraham to send Ishmael away (Genesis 21:12, 13), and then directed him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to Him (Genesis 22:1–13). In both cases, Abraham rose early in the morning to fulfill the biddings. In accomplishing these tasks Abraham was actually saying goodbye to his future, to all of his hopes and dreams. But it goes even further.
Between chapters 21 and 22 are a number of obvious connections. In both narratives God calls upon Abraham, and Abraham hears two distinct and challenging, if not “strange” calls. These narratives contain linguistic, grammatical, and thematic connections.
First, in both places for “go” an unusual Hebrew expression is used: “lek leka.” The word is used only in Genesis 12:1 and 22:2. Because of this unique phrase, readers cannot but connect these two passages.
Second, the grammar in both places is similar: an imperative is used, followed by three direct objects. Genesis 22 states: “Take” your son, your precious son whom you love, Isaac. Here for the first time in the Bible the word love is used. Genesis 12 tells Abraham: Leave your country, your homeland, your father’s house. In both cases, each direct object narrows it down more and more, and zeroes in on something or someone very dear to the heart of Abraham.
Third, in both places God gives the promise to Abraham that He will again communicate with him and provide him with additional information regarding the calls. He promises that He will either show him or tell him. Genesis 12:1: “‘Get out of your country… To a land that I will show you’” (NKJV); Genesis 22:2: “… on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.’”1
In chapter 22, the promise to engage in additional communication before the actual “goodbye” to his son was of enormous help to Abraham. The phrase: “‘on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you’” was the deal breaker.
These three connections between these two calls were also intended to provide additional assistance to Abraham to encourage him to follow God’s calling, because they referred to God’s leading in the past. The obvious connection to the first call reminded Abraham “that his obedience to that call had been rewarded with great blessing; now he had the opportunity to show an even greater act of obedience. God was helping him obey by recalling the formal call.”2
The way God addressed Abraham in Genesis 22:2 is of great interest. “The divine command ‘Take’ is followed by the particle -nāʾ, which is normally translated something like ‘please’ or ‘I beg you.’ … -nāʾ, which occurs more than sixty times in Genesis, is used only five times in the entire OT when God speaks to a person. Each time God asks the individual to do something staggering, something that defies rational explanation or understanding.”3
Interestingly enough, out of the five occurrences of this usage in the Old Testament, God addresses Abraham this way three times: Genesis 22:2; 13:14; and 15:5. Thus, this unusual way that God addresses Abraham serves as a reminder of His previous communication and leading in Abraham’s life. It refers the patriarch back to the promises God has already given to him.
Here’s a lesson for us. Whenever we go through a difficult phase in life, it is good to look back and remember God’s leading in the past. Ellen G. White so eloquently reminds us of this: “In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”4
In Genesis 12, the command to leave his country, his homeland, and his father’s house was actually a summons for Abraham to say “goodbye” to his past; and now in chapter 22, Abraham is invited to say “goodbye” to his future. Which is easier to give up: the past or the future?
Here the principle of substitution is beautifully underlined. Are you willing to give Me your all in exchange of My all to you? You give me your all, and I will give you My all.
Sometimes we may think that God requires too much from us, but we need to consider what God expects from us in the light of His promises, in the light of what He is giving us in exchange. As we will see from the end of this story, God not only promises us a future in the kingdom to come, but also blesses us with an abundant life in the present age.
Abraham’s response is simple but very meaningful. “‘Here I am.’” Genesis 22 records this phrase three times: twice as a response to God’s speaking to him, and once as a response to Isaac’s puzzling question (vss. 1, 7, 11). The phrase underlines Abraham’s humility on the one hand, and his readiness to serve, on the other.
Genesis 22:2 also names the actual place where Abraham should go, namely to the “‘land of Moriah.’” The only other biblical reference to Moriah is in 2 Chronicles 3:1, where it refers to the temple hill in Jerusalem. This mention of Moriah is significant in that it connects this story with the place where the substitutionary atonement will take place years later through the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross. Isaac had the privilege to serve as a type of the actual sacrifice. It is this ultimate substitutionary atonement that made it possible for Abraham to return home, together with his son Isaac.
Abraham rose early in the morning, split wood for the burnt offering, took his beloved son and two of his servants, saddled his donkey, and began his journey to the mount. “Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you’” (Genesis 22:4, 5).
Here the party splits into two. One party stays with the donkey. The other party goes up the mountain.
Abraham describes the purpose of the journey up the mount with the words: “‘the lad and I will go yonder and worship.’” This is the first time the word worship occurs in the Bible. Worship is important in the new relationship God reveals between Himself and His children.
Abraham shows us this and expresses his confidence in God’s guidance and promises by affirming that “‘we will come back to you.’” He is using a plural form here. This also underlines that Abraham understood that God’s blessings are not only reserved for the future world to come, but are already a reality here and now. Abraham believed that he would return in a little while together with his son Isaac. It was this hope that gave him strength to continue the journey, and as verse 6 states, “and the two of them went together.”
As the two walked together, Isaac broke the silence by a question that for Abraham was like a knife piercing through his heart: “‘My father!’” And Abraham responded: “‘Here I am, my son.’” Both use the pronoun my (“‘my father,’” “‘my son’”), which underlines the close relationship they enjoyed. The actual question follows: “‘Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’” (Genesis 22:7).
Abraham’s response was very profound and meaningful. It entailed much more than translations can transmit. Usually, Genesis 22:8 is translated: “‘God will provide for Himself the lamb.’” However, the original Hebrew wording is trying to say more than translations could do justice. Doukhan points to the fact that “the word ‘God’ is put in the beginning of the sentence before the verbal form. This goes counter to the Hebrew regulation, which normally places the verb before its subject. The intention of this irregularity is to emphasize ‘God,’ to indicate that the solution is only in God. It is God who will see.”5
The actual rendering “‘God will provide for Himself the lamb,’” is quite difficult. A more exact translation would be, “God will see in connection to Himself,” or, “God will see Himself as the Lamb.”6 In this way, the substitutionary atonement becomes clearer in the text itself.
The narrative continues: “Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’ So he said, ‘Here I am’” (Genesis 22:9‒11).
In Genesis 22:1, God used Abraham’s name only once. In 22:11, however, He calls out his name twice, as if to demonstrate not only the deep desire of the Lord to share the good news to Abraham but also to acknowledge the willingness of Abraham to really fulfill God’s order. God is now ready to intervene: to stop Abraham’s innermost suffering and to acknowledge his readiness to accept the prescribed avenue to salvation. The gospel thus bursts forth: Salvation is not of the human but of God, and His alone.
Note God’s acknowledgment that Abraham’s faith in His saving purposes was authentic: “‘You have not withheld your son, your only son’” (Genesis 22:12). It is indeed a pointer to God’s ultimate sacrifice to save humanity, including Abraham, Isaac, and us, as Paul would later point out: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”(Romans 8:32).
Now to the dramatic conclusion of the story. “Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, ‘In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided’” (Genesis 22:13, 14).
At this point it is perhaps of great importance to ask the question, “Why a ram and not a lamb?” After all, Isaac was asking, “Where is the lamb?” Abraham’s response also spoke of a lamb, but a ram is in the picture? Would the usage of a ram here instead of a lamb be to link this Genesis narrative with the services of the Day of Atonement, where also a ram is involved (Leviticus 16)?7 One can also see the symbolic connection of Genesis 22 with the substitutionary atonement of the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.
Abraham then calls the name of the place: “YHWH Jireh,” meaning “‘The-Lord-Will-Provide.’” The Hebrew verb “ra’ah” used here can be translated as “He will be seen.”8 “In the mount of the Lord HE WILL BE SEEN.” He will show Himself, His character, His love! After such a revelation of God’s love, it is easy to trust Him, to follow Him, be guided by Him. Such a God will not let us down. He will provide!
Artur Stele (PhD, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Michigan, U.S.A.) is a General Vice-President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.
Recommended Citation
Artur Stele, “The Lord will provide: Meditation on Genesis 22,” Dialogue 30:1 (2018): 18-20
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture passages in this article are quoted from the New King James Version of the Bible.
2 Allen Ross, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Genesis (Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2008), 141.
3 V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1995), 101.
4 Ellen G. White, Life Sketches of Ellen G. White (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press, 1915), 196. Jacques B. Doukhan, Genesis. Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press; 2016), 280.
5 Ibid.
6 V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 18–50, 113.
7 Ross, Genesis, 140.