2. Abraham

Abraham was born about 2,000 years before Jesus and grew up in Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq. One day God appeared to Abraham as He had appeared to Adam and Eve in the garden.

“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.” (Acts 7:2)

You might think that a man to whom God would appear in visible form must have been especially holy. Precisely the opposite was the case. Abraham worshiped idols (Joshua 24:2). So, God took the initiative and made Himself known to Abraham. It is almost as if God had said, “If I wait for these human beings to seek me, they will never come. I will seek them, I will find them, and I will bless them.” God was looking for Abraham long before Abraham was looking for God, and God seeks us before we seek Him.

A promise given

When God appeared to Abraham, He gave a marvelous promise.

“I will bless you . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:2, 3)

The promise to Abraham is a promise for us and for every member of the human family. The Old Testament focuses on the line of Abraham, not because the rest of the world doesn’t matter, but because the rest of the world does matter, and God’s plan is to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham.

Notice again the abundant goodness of God. We have turned away from God and put our own gods or our own choices in the place that belongs to Him. Evil has multiplied across the human family as generations have rebelled against God, and yet God’s desire is to bless not just some but all the families of the earth.

But how would God’s blessing come?

God promised that His blessing would come through Abraham’s offspring (Genesis 22:18). But Abraham was an old man, and he had no descendant, so how could this promise be fulfilled?

Years passed and Abraham waited. His wife, Sarah, laughed when God promised her a child (Genesis 18:12). But God is always true to His word, and sure enough, in her old age Sarah gave birth to Isaac (Genesis 21:2–3). Every child is precious, but after waiting so long for a child on whom so much would depend, Isaac was Abraham and Sarah’s greatest treasure.

A promise fulfilled

God’s promise to bless all people would be fulfilled at an unimag- inable cost, and that cost is illustrated by the harrowing story of how God tested Abraham.

He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2)

Abraham never questioned the need for a sacrifice. He seems to have understood that if God’s blessing was to reach the nations of the world, some great sacrifice would be needed.

Try and put yourself in Abraham’s shoes. What would you have done?

Abraham must have wrestled with what God told him to do. “God has called me to make the ultimate sacrifice, but how can I give up my son? God’s plan is to bring blessing to all people, but how can that happen if I don’t do what He says? God’s promise is to bless the world through my offspring, but how can the promise be fulfilled if Isaac dies? And what in the world would I say to Sarah?”

Whatever battles Abraham went through, he chose to obey God.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 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?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. (Genesis 22:6–8)

Isaac was in the prime of his life. He carried the wood on his shoulders, and he could easily have overpowered Abraham, if he had wanted to. But Isaac didn’t do that. He was willing to lay down his life. So, what you have here is a father willing to give up his son, and a son who is willing to give himself. And they were one in this, so that blessing would come to the world.

When they arrived at the top of the mountain, Abraham built an altar.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham! . . . Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.” (Genesis 22:10–12)

God tested Abraham, but He would not allow Abraham to give up his son. God provided the sacrifice, as Abraham said He would.

Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. (Genesis 22:13)

The ram was a substitute for Isaac. Isaac’s life was spared because the ram took his place on the altar. The life of a ram was of far less value than the life of Isaac, but God accepted a lesser sacrifice for the time being because one day a greater sacrifice would be made. Abraham must have wondered, What will it cost for God’s blessing to come to the world? What sacrifice could be greater than the sacrifice of my son?

We are meant to respond to this story in two ways: First, I hope you will feel a sense of recoiling in horror at the thought of anyone sacrificing his own son. That is what you are meant to feel.

Second, I hope you will gaze in wonder at the reality to which this story points. God did what He would not allow Abraham to do. He gave His Son, and His Son gave Himself. God’s promise to bring blessing to all the families of the earth came through His Son Jesus, and it came at unimaginable cost to both the Father and the Son.