A Father's love for his son

Genesis 22:1,2

Most of us have read and I’m sure many have studied the actions of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Verse one and following goes like this; “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.”  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.”  “Take your son, your only son,” has God forgotten about Ishmael?  As I’ve stated in earlier chapters of Genesis, “Ishmael is man’s best effort of trying to help God fulfill his promise.”  Ishmael was an act of the flesh, and not an act of faith, and Hebrews 11:6 states; “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Do you know that the word love was first mentioned in Genesis 22:2.  Henry M. Morris states on page 374 of “The Genesis Record” the following; “Another word is mentioned in these verses for the first time, and this in many ways is the most important word in the Bible.  It is the word “love.”  Love is the greatest of the gifts (I Corinthians 13:13) and, indeed, God Himself is love (1 John 4:8).  In the first paragraph of page 375 he goes on with this insight, “With this in mind, it does seem strange, at first that “love” is first mentioned, not in connection with the love of a man for his wife, of a mother for her children, or brotherly love, of love for country, or even of man’s love for God.  Instead, it is used of the love of a father for his son.” 

As we look at Scripture, God seems to have not visited Abraham since the time of telling him to do what Sarah tells him to do, in regards, to the slave woman and her son.  Isaac is now a young man and God shows up with these instructions, “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.”  Once more Henry M. Morris tells us on page 377 the following, “The journey took them two full days and part of the third.  Moriah was near Jerusalem (that is, where Jerusalem would be) and Abraham’s home was in the south, evidently not too far from Beersheba.  The total distance was thus about thirty miles.”  This is the site where much later Solomon would build the temple to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 3:1.

Many have stated that perhaps Abraham and Sarah had come to love Isaac more than God, I do not believe that is true, but one things for sure Abraham’s actions showed that he believed God and that he loved God more than his only son.  There is a Hebrew word that Abraham understood, the word “Jehovah-jireh” which means “the Lord will provide” and with that understanding he got up early the next morning and began the longest journey of his whole life.  “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”  He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” (Hebrews 11:17-19)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice