Abraham and Isaac: Good Friday Foreshadowed

A few thousand years ago, there was a man named Abram. We don’t know much about his background, except that he grew up surrounded by a people with a culture that did not honor the God he was about to meet. The author of Genesis tells us that late in his life Abram was given a command and a promise. The command was to leave everything Abram had ever known. His family, his country, and his way of life were all considered secondary by God to God’s command. The promise was that from Abram a nation would come and through that nation all other nations would receive blessing and joy. So from the first moment we are introduced to Abram in Genesis, he has to sacrifice for the sake of something that he cannot see. At most, Abram has a promise he hears, but he has not what is promised. He cannot see with his eyes the nation that will come, which is in the future, beyond the borders of his knowledge. But he knows that God has given a promise. On this alone, he leaves everything, showing the first sign that he is truly the father of faith.

Abram continues on his journey, not even sure of the destination at the start, trusting even this to God. God then appears to Abram and forms a covenant, or agreement, with him. One hallmark of this new covenant is that God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and his wife Sarai’s name is changed to Sarah. God promises not only generally that a nation of kings and multitudes will come from the seed of Abraham, but that he and Sarah will have a son. Sarah laughed at God, because she did not think this was possible, for Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Old people, especially that old, do not have children. But Sarah’s laugh of disbelief turns into a laugh of joy a year later, when Isaac, literally meaning “he laughs”, is born.

If I had written the story, I might have chosen to tell a tale about Isaac growing up and the great nation that came from him, but that isn’t the story. Isaac does grow up, but God comes to test Abraham. God tells Abraham to take his only child, who was born out of a promise from the same God, and who Abraham loved, and sacrifice him. He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the thing that was most precious to Abraham on this earth and the physical embodiment of his promise. And, unbelievably, Abraham agrees.

We can only imagine what Abraham must have thought as he and Isaac traveled up Mount Moriah without an animal for sacrifice. When Isaac asks where the animal is for the sacrifice, Abraham replies that God will provide a sacrifice. God will provide.

And as the knife in Abraham’s hand came down to slaughter Isaac, a messenger from God stopped Abraham. When Abraham looked around, he saw that a ram was caught in a bush, and he, together with Isaac, sacrificed the ram. That day, God promised he would provide the sacrifice that would bring peace, so death would not have to reign in the offspring of Abraham.

2,000 years later, the whole of mankind faced a similar problem. We found ourselves at war with God, unable to bring about peace. The crimes of mankind piled up before God, and were so heinous and criminal and depraved that no good being could look away and pretend it didn’t exist. Things like murders, rapes, the pillaging of entire cultures, robberies, lying, betraying family, and pride that led nations could not be winked at and ignored. Pretending that evil did not happen is not only corrupt, it is not forgiveness. Forgiveness involves taking on suffering and death. But the kind of death that we would have without being forgiven would destroy us, slay us like Isaac was about to be slain. But God provided a sacrifice.

His name was Jesus of Nazareth, God’s own son, superior in every way to Isaac. Isaac was born of an old woman, Jesus was born of a virgin. Isaac did not perform miracles healing the sick, Jesus cleaned lepers at the touch and cured blindness at a word. Isaac sinned before God, Jesus was perfect.

And yet God provided his own son to save the sons and daughters of men and women that spat in His face. God provided a lamb on a cross on Golgotha, so that the sons of men and the daughters of women might live.

God made a promise to Abraham. God kept His promise on the cross.

So in conclusion, this Good Friday, remember that God promised, “The Lord will provide” and “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided”. With the Christ, God kept his promise. Remember.