God, Our Provider: Abraham, Isaac, and the Test of Faith | Genesis 22

Episode 18 

Hello, Welcome to Bible Wisdom Today, for those willing to think deeply. My name is Stan Watkins.

Have you ever asked God, “Why did this happen to me?” Perhaps you have asked, “Why would God do that?” or even “Why would God do that to me?” 

There are endless ways to ask this impossible “why?” question. The father in our story today would have asked, “How could God, the good God that I know, ask me to commit this immoral act? 

Today, we come to the esthetic and theological climax of Abraham’s story. It is a masterpiece written with great skill and craftsmanship, so I would like to read the entire story, Genesis 22:1-19, as one unbroken narrative. 

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
 “Here I am,” he replied.
 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” 
 
 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. ” 
 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. 
 
 As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
 “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
 “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 
 
 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 
 
 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” 
 “Here I am,” he replied.
 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. ” 
 
 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided. ” 
 
 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” 
 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.
 Genesis 22:1-19

This narrative is deeply gripping, highly emotional, and also carefully crafted literary art. The distinguished Bible interpreter Gordon Wenham points out that Genesis 22 is built using a vivid four-panel construction.[1] You may have seen visual artists use panel construction similarly, by creating distinct scenes side-by side to allow the story to carefully unfold sequentially. In this case, each panel begins with a call and response, which is then followed by similar references to Isaac, Abraham’s only son, the burnt offering, and the chosen place where this drama was enacted and a knife. By constructing these four distinct panels, the author does not simply tell what happened, he deliberately slows down our experience of the story, encouraging us to pause and meditate on each scene, make comparisons between sections, and feel the rising tension and ultimate relief from God’s provision.

Call of God

Our author begins the first panel of the story with the call of God and Abraham’s response. “Abraham!” “Here I am.” We are told from the beginning that God was testing Abraham. A test generally involves hardship that one goes through which ultimately brings benefit. God wastes no time announcing his test. “Take your son to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.” The original wording for “take” in Hebrew is actually, “Please take.” God tries to soften the blow. This is the only use of “please” in a divine command. [2]  He understands the true cost of his calling.

This is the climax of Abraham’s spiritual odyssey. The author uses an inspired literary word-play to connect this climax to the beginning of Abraham’s spiritual story. In Genesis 12, when God first called Abraham, he said, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Our story today echoes that same vocabulary, “Go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice your son on a mountain I will show you.” Remember, our narrator has arranged his story in a chiastic structure, with the most important point at the middle, and the points on either side parallel to each other. This final call of God parallels his initial call at least 40 years earlier. This second call is much more intense than the first, however. Then, Abraham was called to leave his father’s family and go to an unknown land. Now, he is called to go to a named country and sacrifice his son as a burnt offering.

God calls this place the region of Moriah. There has been quite a bit of discussion among scriptural interpreters regarding the meaning of Moriah. It seems to be a combination of two Hebrew root words. The first is the personal name for God, Yahweh. You can hear that right at the end of the word, even when brought into English, MoriAH. The other root word means either “see” or “provide.” Each of those word show up repeatedly throughout the story. In some ways, we can understand the connection between “see” and “provide,” especially when the actor is God. If God sees the situation, He can provide. If He does not see the problem, He cannot provide the solution. This reality leads us to a potential thesis statement: A God who sees all will provide.

But actually, on second thought, there is something incomplete about that statement. What if God is not powerful enough to do what is needed? That certainly was the case with the gods of the ancient world. Gods like Molech or Chemosh were vulnerable, reactive, local. The creator God is uniquely powerful. Let’s add that idea to our thesis: A God who sees all and can do all will provide. Is that better? 

Upon further thought, this idea is still not complete. What if God sees all and can do all, but he doesn’t want to? He doesn’t really care about the troubles of humanity? Now we know that is not true of the God of the Bible. In the story of Abraham, He already has shown patience toward Abraham’s self-protective nature and compassion toward Sarah’s crushing barrenness. Let’s modify our main idea again: A God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide. 

Hm…that is so close. But God will not provide whatever we ask. He is not a celestial Santa Claus, handing out presents to whoever asks. He only provides what we need, even when that is not what we want, even when, as in Abraham’s case, what He provides just feels totally wrong. God still knows what we need. Here, then, is the final version of our main thesis, which we will see fleshed out repeatedly in our story today: Our God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide all that we need. We see that clearly at the climax of the story where we read, “so Abraham called that place “The LORD Will Provide.” 

We see a preview in the briefer statement here at the beginning of the story, “Take Isaac to the region of Moriah.” If our English version translated Moriah according to its meaning, not simply as a place name, it might read, “Take Isaac to the region of God’s provision.” Did Abraham understand God’s command that way? Was this a clue to Abraham that God had another purpose beyond a burnt offering? Probably not. After all, the location was not yet called that until Abraham named it later in the story. Rather, the narrator includes that place name for geographic clarity to his later readers, and also as a literary clue to us, his audience, that God had another plan to provide for Abraham’s needs. Abraham, however, obeyed God blindly, without the comforting name, “Moriah.”

Abraham got up early the next morning and prepared to obey. When I say that he got up, that does not mean that Abraham had any sleep that night. Of course he didn’t! What true father would! Abraham loaded his donkey, took two servants with him along with Isaac, and cut the wood for the burnt offering. Do those preparations seem odd? This is an illogical order. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut the wood and then load the donkey? Perhaps this gives us a window into Abraham’s mindset as a distraught father. Was his mind so disordered that he couldn’t think straight? Was he putting off the most painful part of the preparation until the last?

Finally they set out for the place God had told him about. This implies that God had given him some directions that we do not have. The journey would take three days. The traditional location of Moriah is Mount Moriah within the city of Jerusalem, a three-day journey from Abraham’s home in Beersheba. This later became the site of Solomon’s temple, according to 2 Chronicles 3. Abraham’s obedience was not an impulsive decision. He had three days when he could have turned around. He had three days of silence from God. Our God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide all that we need. 

Abraham needed those three days to think, to try to come to grips with the command of God which seemed so out of harmony with everything he knew about God. The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament gives us a clue as to what passed through Abraham’s thoughts during those three days.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
 Hebrews 11:17-19

During these three troubling contradictory days, when Isaac was already dead in his eyes, Abraham forged his resurrection faith. It was only his active faith that propelled him forward one step after another. At last, Abraham looked up and saw the place God had told him about in the distance. Usually, to “look up and see” implies something of great significance. In this case it is the place God had designated. This was a holy place. 

“Stay here with the donkey,” he told his servants. “I and the boy will go over there and worship. Then we will come back to you.” Really? Did Abraham plan to disobey? Was he simply keeping everyone else in the dark? Was this a statement of faith? Perhaps he was just being a good father. What kind of father would say, “My son and I will go offer a sacrifice and then I will come back?” Abraham left his servants and donkey at the bottom of the mountain and began climbing with his son. This might have caught the attention of the Israelites with Moses as they recognized a parallel with Moses at Mt. Sinai, leaving his countrymen at the bottom of the holy mountain.

Abraham took the wood off the donkey and placed it onto his son Isaac. This was an unmistakable show of an obedient father’s determination. The wood lying on Isaac’s back anticipates the next scene when Isaac will lie on his back on the wood. Many Bible interpreters have commented on this image, but one ancient Jewish commentary, called Genesis Rabbah, says in chapter 56 verse 3 that Isaac carrying the wood of the offering was like someone bearing his own cross on his shoulder. Written at a time when public execution was still a horrific element of Roman life, this image highlights Isaac’s tragedy as well as his willing submission. It also suggests a later story of another man willingly offering his back to his own cross in obedience to his heavenly Father.

For Abraham and Isaac, this part of the journey was the most strenuous physically and exhausting emotionally. Isaac carried the wood; Abraham carried coals in a firepot to light the offering fire along with a knife. This is the first reference to a knife, and its mention is an ominous marker of the challenge still to come. This would be the perfect time for another call from God.

Call of Isaac

“Father?” called Isaac. “Yes, my son?” 

Our narrator begins the second panel of this riveting narrative, not with another call from our mysterious God, but with a questioning call from the condemned son. “The fire and wood are here,” he said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” The conversation between Abraham and Isaac reveal a little bit about their emotions. It is framed before and after with the statement “the two of them went on together, showing their isolation—and companionship. They obviously had deep affection for one another, calling each other “my father” and “my son.” The New International Version translates Abraham’s response as “Yes, my son,” but a more direct translation would keep the parallel with the previous literary panel, “Here I am, my son.”

When Isaac asks “where is the lamb” Abraham answers  with a puzzling response, “God himself will provide the lamb.” What did he mean? It may have sounded like evasion to Isaac, but since our narrator has organized this story with God’s provision as the turning point, this statement sounds more like hope, or a prophecy, or a prayer. It was the settled faith of a man who had walked long with God. He had learned that our God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide all that we need.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham set about building an altar. His son, Isaac, undoubtedly helped find stones and arrange them in a stable fashion. Abraham then arranged the wood on the altar. These details slow down the narrative, prolonging the tension, but they also remind us that Abraham continued to obey. James, the writer of the letter bearing his name in the New Testament, says that Abraham’s faith and his actions were working together. His faith was made complete by what he did. 

In this story, Abraham, Isaac, and God, all refer to a burnt offering. What exactly was a burnt offering? In this time before the sacrificial system was codified under Moses, the primary meaning was that the offeror was giving themselves entirely to God. This was represented by the animal, which was totally consumed by fire. There are at least two differences between the offering in this story and the later burnt offering defined by Moses. The Mosaic burnt offering did not include binding the animal. Secondly, in the Mosaic system, the animal was slaughtered, dismembered and dressed before being laid on the altar to be burned. In this scene on Mount Moriah, Isaac is bound and laid complete on the altar. It appears that Abraham plans to take his life then immediately burn him whole on the altar. Isaac must have been at least a teenager by this time, perhaps even older. The fact that his old father could bind him strongly suggests that Isaac offered himself willingly.

After all was prepared, Abraham reached out his hand. This indicates that the next act is of great importance. 

Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife. This is the second mention of the knife which heightens the horror.

Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slay…. This is a sacrificial term meaning to slit his throat. 

Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Oh, the awfulness to come. “Oh God! Could you please call to me again?”

Call of the angel of the LORD

“Abraham! Abraham!” It was the angel of the LORD, calling to him from heaven.

“Here I am,” he replied.

This is how our Genesis writer begins the third panel of the story. The angel of the LORD calls twice because of the importance of the message. He doesn’t even wait until his feet touch the ground. This message is urgent!

“Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

The messenger is called “the angel of the LORD.” We have seen this character in earlier stories regarding Hagar. Many Bible interpreters, including me, believe that the angel of the LORD is specifically an appearance of God the Son before His incarnation. This identification also reintroduces the covenant name of God, Yahweh, last seen when Isaac was born. Up to this point in this story, the author has used the impersonal term “God,” perhaps because God was acting so strangely in asking Abraham to do this thing. Now we hear again the gracious LORD who keeps his promise.

God’s original order is now explicitly reversed. “Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him.” The parallelism emphasizes the importance and the joy of the message. “Now I know that you fear God.” This reminds us of the earlier story of the destruction of Sodom, when God sent his representatives to investigate Sodom to see if all He had heard about its wickedness was true. Here, God investigated Abraham’s faith. It was true. The expression “fear God” is a common Old Testament idiom meaning to honor God in worship and with an upright life.

The narrative tells us nothing about Abraham’s possible reply to the angel, but we do see his action. Abraham, for the second time in this story, looked up and saw. Not the ominous mountain; this time he looked up and saw a ram, caught by its horns in a thicket. This was not a random coincidence, it was the provision of God. Abraham ran to the ram, brought it back to the altar, and offered it in Isaac’s place. As Abraham, surely with Isaac’s help, slaughtered the ram by slitting its throat they must have rejoiced in the blood that spattered over them. God had required the life of his son. Now this ram paid the price to buy his life back. This was the blood of redemption!

“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” Abraham had proved the point: our God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide all that we need. 

Second call of the angel of the LORD

For the second time, the angel of the LORD calls to Abraham from heaven, beginning the fourth panel of this narrative. Because this panel brings the story to its final resolution, there are several elements missing from this section. There is no mention of a burnt offering, no mention of the place chosen by God, and mercifully no mention of a knife. What is here is a lengthy restatement of God’s promises to Abraham. These are the last recorded words of God to Abraham and the last statement of his promises, not only last, but also the most emphatic.

“I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
 Genesis 22:16-18

This is the seventh, most detailed statement of promise, but this time, the focus is on the fulfillment of the promise through Abraham’s descendants. This have been especially meaningful to the children of Israel under Moses.

First, God himself stood behind this promise. God swears by himself, since there is nothing greater. This is the only divine oath in all the stories of the patriarchs and it is frequently recalled in the life of the Israelite nation. Additionally, the expression “declares the LORD” adds emphasis. It occurs 364 times in the Hebrew scriptures, mostly in the prophets, but only one other time in the first five books of the Bible. Additionally, God stresses the reliability of his pledge with the word “surely.”

Second, Israel’s national future was secure. God has said before that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky. Now He adds an additional metaphor, as numerous as the sand on the seashore. He also makes a specific, practical promise, “your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies.” What this must have meant to a young nation preparing for conquest! It motivated them to fulfill their divine directive.

Third, Israel would be a blessing to the world. Previously, God promised Abraham that he, personally, would be a blessing to the nations, as he had been to the king of Sodom and to Abimelek. Now, his offspring would be a blessing to all nations. This gave them purpose as a new nation, even if they did not truly realize it.

Fourth, there was an unstated condition of the promise. God explicitly ties this promise to Abraham’s obedience. God says He would keep this promise “because you have obeyed me.” This implies that Abraham’s descendants also must continue to obey God in order to see these promises fulfilled in their national life.

Finally, there was one additional unstated message for Israel. Without ever saying so, this story was the strongest possible sermon against child sacrifice. Modern readers could easily read right past that implication, but this message would have rang loudly in Israel’s ears. They were entering a territory where child sacrifice was commonly practiced. The gods of the surrounding nations, like Chemosh of the Moabites or Molech of the Ammonites, sometimes demanded such sacrifice in order to maintain their favor. The God of Israel wanted nothing to do with that practice. In time, God would completely turn that practice around by offering his one and only son as a substitute.

By ending his communication to Abraham in this manner, God left Abraham—and Moses’ generation—with the understanding that Mount Moriah was the turning point where Abraham’s personal faith became the prophetic destiny for a nation. Their assurance of the promise was grounded, not only in the will of God, but also in the obedience of Abraham. God would keep His word because Abraham had obeyed. 

The final verse is a typical simple Old Testament ending: “Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba (v. 19). There is no mention of Isaac, or Sarah’s feelings.  Mentioning them would draw attention away from the central point: Our God who sees all, can do all, and who loves all WILL provide all that we need.

Final Comments

Our story, today, has been a difficult, emotional journey. It began with God’s stunning request that Abraham offer his son, his only son as a sacrifice and climaxed with Abraham standing on the mount of God’s provision, his son bound on the altar, and his knife poised to slit his throat. We finally caught our breath with the call from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy.” At the conclusion of the story, Abraham named the place, “The LORD will Provide.” Then the narrator adds this interesting comment. To this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” Generations of Jewish readers of Genesis interpreted the temple on Mount Moriah as the provision of God which Abraham foresaw. 

One Rabbi, however, had a different view. Standing within the temple courts on Mount Moriah, speaking with the Jewish elders, Jesus claimed, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” The religious leaders gasped! According to John 8 they cried out, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?!” But Jesus held His ground. He understood this story better than they. Abraham saw the desperate needs of humanity and he foresaw that God would provide. He saw another only son who would carry his own cross to the place of sacrifice. He saw a better lamb whose blood would offer redemption to the whole world. He saw another father, a Heavenly Father, who would receive his resurrected son after three days. Abraham certainly did not see all these things clearly, but from the top of Mount Moriah, he caught a glimpse of Mount Calvary. He knew that God would provide.

In our next episode, we come near the end of our story of Abraham. We will spend time grieving with Abraham at the death of his wife, and find encouragement from his active faith, even in grief.

If you would like to examine the story we have explored today in more detail, I have prepared two blogs which you may wish to consider. The first lays out in visual form the four-panel story which I presented in this episode. The second is another example of the literary craftmanship from the author of Genesis, when he creates a parallel between this story of Abraham on the mountain and the earlier story of Hagar in the desert.

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[1] Wenham, Gordon J. (2000). Word biblical commentary. volume 2, Genesis 16-50. Zondervan.
[2] Wenham