Where Is the Lamb?

"And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"—Genesis 22:7

Excerpted from a discourse by Robert Seklemian

The Lord God loved Abraham, and called him away from country and kindred. Abraham loved God, and obeyed him in all things, instantly and completely. God made many promises to Abraham and his seed. These promises were most generous and substantital and of wide scope. They involved such sweeping expressions as, "I shall make of thee a great nation" (Gen. 12:2); "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3); "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth" (Gen. 13:16); "I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward" (Gen. 15:1); "Tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; so shall thy seed be" (Gen. 15:5).

Jehovah God and Abraham conversed directly together as intimate friends. They talked freely and frankly and hid nothing. The Lord said on one occasion: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? FOR I KNOW HIM . . ." (Gen. 18:17-19) [emphasis added].

Yes, they knew each other well. It was a close acquaintance. So it was not altogether surprising that, one day, after God had made one of his promises to Abraham, that Abraham frankly said to God, "Lord God; what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?" (Gen. 15:2). In other words, "These promises you have so graciously given me presume descendants. How can you make of me a great nation if I have no children? How can my name be great if there is no son to perpetuate it? How can all the families of the earth be blessed in me if there is only my own brief lifespan in which to accomplish it. My wife, Sarah, is barren and cannot have children. Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless?" A Seed Promised

Then God told him plainly: "You shall indeed have a child, of your own flesh and of Sarah’s, and you shall call his name Isaac." Then he gave him a most important promise: "I will establish my covenant with him [Isaac] for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him" (Gen. 17:19). The promised seed and all the blessings were to come through ISAAC—not through Eliezer, not through Ishmael, but through ISAAC.

In due time Isaac was born. He was the only child of Abraham by his beloved wife Sarah. An only child is always precious, but Isaac was doubly precious to Abraham and Sarah because he was born in their old age. They had wanted a child for so long and now it was here! They lavished all their love upon him. Hagar and Ishmael were sent away by God’s approval, and on that occasion God reiterated his promise: "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Gen. 21:12).

Abraham’s joy was great. He now had that which he desired most. The most high God, the Creator and ruler of the universe was his intimate friend. He had great material wealth of silver and gold, flocks and herds, and servants. He had a devoted wife whom he loved dearly. And now he had a fine son who was the heir of all the wonderful promises that God had made to him, in whom was wrapped up the hope of the world! Isaac grew up to be a handsome lad, a delight to his father and mother, obedient and considerate, fully returning their great love for him. Life seemed perfect.

Orders to Kill

Then, one day, Abraham heard God’s voice calling his name in the old familiar way. He loved these talks they had together. He eagerly answered: "Behold, here I am!" And God said (Gen. 22:1, 2), "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee of." Abraham was stunned! He could scarcely believe his ears! This was a terrible thing that God was asking: to kill his own son! How it must have wrenched his heart. All his dreams and plans and high hopes came crashing down upon him. But, though he loved his son, as his own soul, he loved the Lord God with all his soul. There was no question about his obeying—no asking why or pleading with God; only prompt and complete obedience.

He probably could not bring himself to tell the boy’s mother. He would want to spare her. Why cause her anguish before it was necessary? She would only protest and try to dissuade him, and that would only make things harder because he could not be dissuaded. After all, she could not know the Lord God as completely as he did—he who had frequent conversations with God.

So Abraham got up early in the morning, probably while Sarah was still asleep, to commence the three-day journey to Mount Moriah. First he may have cut wood for the sacrifice, and every blow of the axe would have cut his own heart. Then he asked his beloved son, Isaac, to accompany him on a trip into the wilderness to make a sacrifice to the Lord. Together with two household servants and a pack animal, they started out.

It must have been a heart-breaking journey for Abraham and his anguish of soul must have shown in his face and manner. It is said that man’s greatest love is self-love and his strongest animal instinct is self-preservation. But the Bible tells us that a greater love than this is possible: to lay down one’s life for a friend. Abraham’s love for Isaac was undoubtedly of this superior quality, and this high degree of sensitivity would make his suffering even keener. Isaac must have noticed his father’s burden, and, as a loving and dutiful son, must have been extra solicitous of his welfare, doing little things for his comfort on the journey.

The three days journey would give Abraham time to meditate and try to rationalize God’s command, to reason things out. Although he was determined to obey without question, he would naturally try to find the answer in his own mind. Again and again he would go over the facts and try to evaluate them. And the essential facts were these: God had made him many promises which could be realized only through his seed or posterity; these promises were given before he had a son; finally, a son was born to him in a miraculous manner and he was told by God himself to name him Isaac; he was also told by God himself that this same Isaac was the seed through whom the promises must come; God’s promises are absolutely certain of fulfillment and they must be fulfilled through Isaac; and now he was told to offer up Isaac as a burnt offer ing, to kill his only beloved son, and lay him on the wood of the altar, to set fire to the wood and burn the body to ashes! To put it simply: God had said Isaac would live to have children. Isaac did not, as yet, have children. Isaac was required to die before having children. These were the facts!

The Answer of Faith

To one lacking faith they made no sense. But Abraham had faith to a superlative degree, and to him there was only one answer, and that answer was clear: Isaac was to be raised from the dead!

This was an amazing conclusion to draw. At that time there was no precedent whatsoever. At that time no one had ever been raised from the dead. Now if one had believed such a thing in the days when Elisha awakened the widow’s son (1 Kings 17:22), or at the time Elisha awakened the Shunamite’s son (2 Kings 4:35), it would have been easier to believe that the dead could live again. Or if one had seen Jesus take the hand of Jairus’ little dead daughter and gently raise her to life (Mark 5:42), it would have been a more natural conclusion to draw. Or if one had been with Jesus that day at Nain, when he took compassion upon a poor widow, whose only son lay in his coffin, and said "Weep not," as he delivered the boy alive into his mother’s hungry arms (Luke 7:13); or that day in Bethany when Jesus himself wept, his tender heart responding to the grief of Mary and Martha, and then, with a mighty display of power he summoned four-day-dead Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:44); or if one had seen Jesus die in agony on the cross and then had the glorious experience of walking and talking with the same Jesus alive—we can conceive that one who had seen such things could believe that Isaac would be raised from the dead. But Abraham had no such examples to go by! Not one! He trod totally unexplored paths. By an absolute reliance upon God, by sheer unwavering faith, alone and unaided by any other human, he reached out beforehand and grasped the most staggering truth: "There shall be a resurrection from the dead."

On the third day of the journey they came within sight of the spot designated by God for the sacrifice. Halting the caravan and telling his servants to wait for them, Abraham took the bundle of wood he had brought for the burnt offering and loaded it upon the back of his son Isaac. Here is something which is ordinarily beyond our understanding. To make Isaac himself carry the wood by which his own body would be burned is an unappealing idea to us. The only way such an act could be justified is by Abraham’s absolute belief that all would be well, that no permanent harm would come to the boy, that there would be a resurrection, and that he would live again.

Abraham’s Prophecy

Then Abraham took a knife and the urn of live coals saved from their last campfire and they started out. They would walk the last few steps alone together. But Isaac has a question to ask his father. "Father," he said. "Here am I, my son," Abraham answered. Then Isaac said, "Behold the fire, and the wood; but where is the lamb for the burnt offering." Then, with what sounded like an evasive answer but was really a grand prophecy, Abraham replied, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering" (Gen. 22:8).

"So they went, both of them together, and they came to the place God had told him of." What was so special about this particular place? Why had the Lord required them to journey three weary days to this wild and remote spot? The answer shows how perfectly God has laid his plans, with what minute detail he knows the end from the beginning. Long centuries afterward, in the time of Solomon, this spot probably became the site of the temple, and perhaps the place where Isaac was bound became the exact location of the Brazen Altar.

The Faith of Isaac

We read in Genesis 22:9, "And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood." Abraham bound Isaac his son. At this point Abraham could no longer keep his burdensome secret from Isaac. Why? Because Isaac could not be bound against his will! At this time Abraham was about 125 years old and Isaac was a vigorous young man in his twenties. In any case, Abraham would not want to bind Isaac against his will even if he had been physically able to do so. This was thus a trial, not only of Abraham’s faith, but of Isaac’s as well. This was Isaac’s first recorded opportunity to make a decision for God, to demonstrate his worthiness to inherit the great promises of God by his submission to the will of God. Abraham undoubtedly revealed to Isaaac the commandment he had received to offer him up as a burnt offering and, of course, he would also tell Isaac of the wonderful conclusion he had come to, of his unshakable faith that Isaac would be raised from the dead. As a loving, humble, dutiful son, Isaac completely submitted himself to his father’s will and allowed himself to be bound upon the wood of the altar. Isaac’s act of complete submission to his father, even unto death, stands as a brilliant jewel in recorded human experience.

The Supreme Test

Now came the supreme test of Abraham’s obedience to God. With the altar made, the wood arranged in order upon it, with Isaac bound and laid upon the wood, the fateful moment could no longer be delayed, "And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife, to slay his son" (Gen. 22:10). From the human standpoint, what tragic words these are!

Then we read the next three verses, "And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son."

Can you imagine the relief that Abraham must have felt? Even with his amazing faith the sorrowful load on his mind had been continuous and heavy for three days! Now it slipped away and his heart was filled with joy! Isaac had been as good as dead; and Abraham, instead of getting Isaac back literally from the dead as he had confidently expected to do, got him back figuratively from the dead. As it is summed up in Hebrews 11:17-19, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure."

God’s Oath

When the ordeal was over the Lord spoke to Abraham again. Even ordinary speech from God is an awesome thing. When, during the Exodus, God sounded his voice from the mountain, the Israelites were terrified. They begged Moses to talk to God privately, and then speak to them, saying, "let not God speak to us, lest we die" (Exod. 20:19). The plain, unadorned word of God is firm and absolutely sure, and Abraham believed this above all men. It is written in Isaiah 55:11: "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void." But the way God spoke to Abraham now was not with ordinary speech. It was most extraordinary. On this occasion, God actually took an oath.

In old time courts of law, before testimony was taken, a witness was required to take an oath to swear to tell the truth. When he took this oath his hand rested upon the Bible, the word of God. Thus even the civil authorities tacitly admitted to the absolute truth and trustworthiness of God’s word that there is no higher standard upon which to base an oath. Testimony given after such an oath was considered to be the truth and was so recorded. It ended all argument.

But if God’s plain word is already the perfect standard of truth, then why did God on this occasion take an oath to support his word? No one asked him to. No one doubted his word. Abraham had amply demonstrated that he believed God. In fact, he believed God so thoroughly that it was "accounted to him for righteousness."

God was so pleased with Abraham, so delighted with his unquestioning obedience which even the perfect man Adam lacked, so gratified by his unshakable faith maintained under the severest test possible that he emphasized his word, his promise to Abraham, to the superlative degree, by his oath: "And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Gen. 22:15-18). Thus we find the great God of heaven making a covenant, an unconditional oath-bound covenant, with a man.

It is written that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). It follows then that with faith it is possible to please God. With the astounding faith Abraham displayed, it is possible to please God very much indeed! Not that we can ever attain the degree of faith Abraham had, but we can follow him in this matter (Heb. 6:12, 14, 16-19).

As we reflect upon the events associated with the time when Christ our Passover was crucified for us, let us also remember both Abraham’s faith and his son’s trust in his father and in his God. May we each continue to develop such a faith and trust.