God tempted (tried) Abraham:  These years of perfect bliss were followed by the greatest trial that Abraham had experienced up until that time. This test came through the word of God, and was a test of Abraham’s willingness to part with the dearest object of his affections. “Take now thy son thine only”, and offer him up. This test may have seemed unreasonable to Abraham. After all God had said that in Isaac would a seed be called to Abraham. And now He was asking him to offer that chosen son as a burnt offering, But God knew what He was doing, and He knew what the outcome would be also. The we might ask, “Why did God have to test Abraham, if He already knew what his response would be? The answer is that God did not test Abraham to find out what he would do for His own satisfaction, but He tested him so that you and I, and countless others down through the ages might also know. So that what Abraham did might be a challenge us also.

 

Let us remember this when we are also tested! God saw the whole of our lives before we were born, and He knows how we will react to every trial. He does not have to prove anything for His own satisfaction, but He wants to make our response an example to others, and also a blessing to them. Others are watching how you are reacting to the trials through which you are passing. May your response be a blessing to them!

 

What a shock God’s request must have been to Abraham? But was it unreasonable that God should ask Abraham to give back to Him, the son that He had given him? The answer must surely be NO. Job’s initial reaction was so wonderful, when on that dreadful day he suddenly lost all that God had given him. He just said, “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord”. Job 1:21.

 

Some of us are inclined to think that somehow God owes us a lot. He owes us a life of ease, a life that is free of trouble, and sickness etc. But God owes us no such thing, He will never be under any obligation to us, we can never put Him into our debt. “Who has first given to Him, that it shall be required of Him”? Romans 11:33-36. Those that teach such things are only deceiving God’s children. However when God chooses to send a trial to any of us, no matter how severe the trial may be; He pours His enabling grace into our lives; not just to enable us to scrape through, but to be “More than conquerors through Him who loves us”. Romans 8:37.

 

Sarah's surrender:  Though the scriptures do not tell us of the anguish of Sarah’s soul when called upon to give up to God the son of her love, the one that had brought such laughter into her life. Neither do they tell us of Abraham’s sorrow and anguish, but it is obvious that he did pass through the greatest sorrow. But he was not alone in this. There are some who think that Abraham succeeded in concealing this matter from his wife, and life-partner, but it seems to me that this suggestion is both unreasonable and probably impossible. So Sarah had to share this great sorrow with her husband, and the sacrifice and surrender was equally hers also. All their married life they had tried unsuccessfully to have a child, and this baby was born when Sarah was past all hope of bearing. Isaac had been given into her bosom, and had brought such joy to her, yet now she was asked by God to give him up, to let him go, perhaps forever. Only those mothers who have lost a treasured child through death will know what anguish Sarah passed through!

 

There was a journey of three days ahead, food and water must be prepared and provided. Are we to suppose that Abraham did this alone? Wood had to be cut and prepared, sufficient to consume the burnt offering. An ass, and two reliable servants had to be readied for a journey that would take them six days until they reached home again. Is it reasonable to assume that Abraham did all this secretly, and that Sarah did not know? I for one do not think so. And when Sarah saw Abraham and Isaac disappear into the distance, she must have thought that she would never see Isaac again in her life here in this world. Yet she did not rebel, she just meekly surrendered the deepest object of her affections. The challenge comes to you and me, “Are we willing to do this, to give up to God, without complaint, the dearest object of our affections”?

 

The journey:  Moriah means “Chosen of Jehovah”, and the mountain was at least forty miles from the place where Abraham had his camp. The country would have been familiar to him, and as they went along, the old man probably recounted to Isaac the different experiences he had passed through at different places. I would encourage my younger brethren to cultivate intimate relationships with older brethren, those that have walked with God during their lifetime. There is no substitute for experience with God, then seek to gain all that you can from the lessons learned by your elder brethren in the path of the will of God.

 

At last (on the third day), Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place from afar. It is significant to notice that it was on the ‘third day’. That is the day of resurrection, and all that God does, is on the principle of resurrection, life out of death. Some Jewish writers think that Abraham saw the cloud of God’s glory resting on that mountain. Others that he saw a pillar of fire standing at the place where the sacrifice was to be made. However it was not left to the wisdom of Abraham to choose the place, it had been divinely chosen by God. The place later became a threshing floor, and it was there that David erected an altar to Jehovah, and by doing this the plague that was slaughtering so many of the Children of Israel was stayed. David bought that site, and later Solomon erected the Temple there. A beautiful Muslim mosque now stands on that site, “The dome of the rock”.

 

Abide ye here with the ass: Abraham commanded his young men to remain at that point with the ass, saying that he and the lad would go yonder and worship and come again to them. I believe that this statement demonstrates the great faith of Abraham. He did not know what God was going to do, but in his heart he believed that God would fulfil His promises, and that even if he did have to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, then God would give him back, after raising him from the dead. We are told this in Hebrews chapter eleven, and that in the figure he did receive Isaac again from the dead. Hebrews 11:19.

 

However there are some experiences that are so intimate and precious, that others cannot share them. They removed the wood from the back of the ass, and it was laid upon Isaac. This tells us that Isaac was no mere child at this point, but a strong young man. He was at least twenty years of age, and some Jewish writers suggest that he could even have been in his thirties. In any case, he was strong enough to carry enough wood to consume his own body, up that mountainside. But as they went both of them together, it occurred to Isaac that something was missing. So he asked Abraham, “Where is the sheep for a burnt offering”? Abraham replied that God would provide Himself with a sheep for a burnt offering. But it must have been plain to Isaac that he was to be the burnt offering. [To be concluded]