It was all God's Doing (Genesis 22:1-19)

God told Abraham to offer his son--his only son Isaac, whom he loved--for a burnt offering on the mountain of God’s choosing (v2). Abraham rose up early the next morning. He clave the wood. He set out to go where God told him to offer his son (v3). On the third day, Abraham saw the place afar off (v4). He told his two young servants to stay with the beast of burden. He told them that he and Isaac would go to yonder mountain and worship and return again (v5). Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac (v6). He took the fire and the knife in his hand (v6). Both Abraham and Isaac went together up that mountain (v6). Isaac spoke to his father. He 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” (v7)? “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together” (v8). They came to the place God told Abraham to go. Abraham built an altar. He laid the wood on it. He bound his son. He laid his son on top of the wood on the altar (v9). Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven (v11)!

In all that Abraham did and in all that he said in this account, he did and said as God’s prophet (Gen. 20:7). He corresponds to God the Father in all that He purposed and promised and in all that He did when He took His Son and offered Him up for us all, all of His elect (Rom. 8:32-34). Moreover, all that Abraham did with his son Isaac, and in all that Isaac said and did, Isaac corresponds to the Son of God, who in obedience submitted Himself to His Father as the Lamb of God, to offer Himself for our sins (Php. 2:8; John 10:17-18; Heb. 9:12, 14, 25-26; 10:7-12; Rom. 5:6).

Notice: Abraham clave the wood. Abraham led his son. He took Isaac to the mountain to offer him as a burnt offering. He took his only son Isaac, whom he loved. Notice: he went with his son to the place of God’s appointing. Notice: he saw that place afar off. Notice: he took the wood there; he laid the wood on Isaac to carry it up the mountain. Notice: Abraham took the fire in his hand; he took the knife in his hand. He built the altar. He laid the wood that would consume his son upon that altar. Notice: he bound his son; he laid his son on that wood upon that altar. Notice: Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife to slay his son. In Abraham we see God the Father. Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5:17). This is the work of God the Father. He slew His Son (John 10:17-18; Zech. 13:7; Ps. 88:7; Rom. 8:32)!

As sinners, we are anxious to find warrant to trust Christ and find our refuge in Him. But here we see that it was God’s will and His purpose of grace to offer His Son. The offering of Abraham’s son was made to God. In all of this, we have a lesson that causes us both to tremble and endears our heavenly Father to us for His eternal grace! God offered His Son for sinners (2 Cor. 5:18-21)! He Himself offered Him. He offered Him to make atonement. He made Him the ransom for indebted prisoners to magnify His truth and grace, to bring us to Himself according to His eternal will (Eph. 1:4-7). It was He who purposed, He who promised, He who provided, He who offered, He who accepted His only begotten Son for sinners. It was His doing. Therefore, to remain indifferent or distant as if some change in me would give me confidence to come to Christ, or to think that by something other than Christ crucified I can worship God, is evidence of horrid unbelief, evidence that I do not know God. To know the true and living God is eternal life (John 17:3). To see His will and work in Christ, to know that by all that is holy and good He offered His Son to save sinners, is to know the work and character and mind and heart of God. The work of God the Father to offer His Son is every sinner’s warrant to look upon and look to Christ and worship God by Him (John 4:22-24).

“On the third day he lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” The place afar off is the eternal will of God. God saw His eternal will fulfilled in Christ’s obedience in the offering of His Son as our Mediator (Heb. 10:7; John 17:4; 19:30). The wood laid on Isaac to carry up that mountain is God laying the cross on His Son, even the curse we earned by our sins against God (John 19:17; Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13). Abraham bound Isaac. God bound His Son. He nailed His Son to the cross (Acts 2:23). Isaac asked, My father, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the burnt offering for the sacrifice. When Abraham answered, Isaac did not protest. Thus, Christ prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done” (Matt. 26:39-42). Abraham took the fire and the knife. God took the fire of His wrath and the knife of His justice and plunged it into the body and soul of His Son. He afflicted Him with all that His justice required to spare sinners. Abraham stretched forth his hand to slay his son. God the Father stretched forth His hand against His Son (Zech. 13:7; Acts 4:28). God commanded His Son to lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:17-18). It was the Father who bruised His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (Isa. 53:4-10). Isaac made no protest. Christ was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth (Isa. 53:7). The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior “...poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:12). Abraham and Isaac went both together up that mountain. The Son of God, our precious Savior, did not go to the cross alone; His Father was with Him (John 16:32). He came to do His Father’s will (Heb. 10:5-18). The two servants came along to bear witness. Throughout scripture the law and the prophets bear witness to Christ crucified (1 Pet. 1:10-11; Luke 24:26-27).

This was God’s will. He promised Abraham that in his Seed (Christ), all nations of the world would be blessed (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:7-19). This is how God fulfilled His promise. He provided Himself a Lamb for the burnt offering (v8). The Word was made flesh (John 1:14): Emmanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). He who died is rightly called “the mighty God, the prince of peace, the everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6). "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:29)! The Father took the Son of His love, His only begotten Son, and delivered Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). The revelation of His will to Abraham or to us did not come all at once. But it did come (Eph. 3:5-11). And it is now repeated over and over and over again throughout scripture, reverberating by the Spirit of God in the hearts of chosen sinners! This is the message of all of scripture: Christ, the Lamb of God, chosen, appointed, provided and offered by God the Father, received as a sweet-smelling sacrifice by which God saves sinners by His infinite, incomprehensible grace, and brings them to Himself (Eph. 1:4-7; 5:2)! This is the heart of God. This was on His mind from eternity. This is His doing. This is His great glory (Ex. 33:18-19; 34:6-7; 2 Cor. 4:6; John 17:1-4).

Abraham told his servants, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (v5). Every sinner so given eyes of faith to see Christ crucified as God’s offering and justifying grace for ungodly sinners will worship here. There is no other altar than the altar God has built and on which He offered His Son, even the altar of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 13:10; Matt. 23:19).
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Tremble in awe as you look here. Stand in awe at our great God and Savior. Do not leave this place. See the heart of the everlasting God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Know the heart and eternal purpose and incomprehensible provision God made in His Son. Consider that God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for sinners (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). In so looking, come to God by Him! This is God’s doing. Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD. This is the ark of the testimony opened in heaven (Rev. 15:5). This is your warrant to come to God. Draw from this well of salvation (Isa. 12:3). To neglect this so great salvation is the unpardonable sin (Heb. 2:3). Agree with God’s law. You are guilty. Your sin is all your fault. You deserve God’s wrath. And you will not and cannot do anything about it (Rom. 1:18-3:20). Then, while paralyzed in that state, look here: see the heart and will and promise and provision and work of the everlasting God in offering up His Son! Worship God only here. Worship Him here only. This is the altar and the offering by which sinners are accepted. Take from Christ here. As a sinner needing mercy, find your all in Him (Col. 2:9-10; Heb. 4:3, 10; Isa. 45:21-25)! May God in His sovereign grace so give you and me to do so, both now and forever (Col. 2:6).

"Upon a life I did not live,
Upon a death I did not die;
Another's life, Another's death,
​I stake my whole eternity" -- Horatius Bonar

Rick Warta