Abraham - The Lamb of God

Now, as I look at this scene, I say to myself, Isaac, you are very fortunate that ram took your place. And then I look into the mirror and I say, Warren Wiersbe, you’re very fortunate, the Lamb took your place.

And now let’s pray together. Father, whenever we open the Word, it is with a sense of awe and respect and even fear, lest we learn but don’t live, lest You speak to us and we do not listen. Help us today as we study the Word of God, speak to our hearts and help us to be all that we ought to be through Jesus Christ our Lord, we pray in His name. Amen.

Genesis 22 has as one of its keys John 8:56. In John 8:56, the Lord Jesus said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." Of course, Abraham saw the Lord Jesus Christ when Isaac, the promised son, was born, born by the miracle power of God, Genesis 21. He saw the day of the Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis 22, when he and Isaac walked to the altar on Mount Moriah where Isaac was to be sacrificed. And of course, in Genesis 24, Abraham saw the glory and the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ when the bridegroom, Isaac, received his bride. The Lord Jesus Christ was revealed to Abraham. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad."

Well, Abraham visits Calvary in Genesis 22 and so do we. This is now the third of the more recent tests that Abraham has gone through. He had a test with his family in the casting out of Ishmael and Hagar. He had a test with his neighbors, Abimelech and the others around there, concerning a well. But now his test comes from the hand of God. It seems so unreasonable. It seems so irrational. It doesn't seem to make any sense at all, but it’s God at work in Abraham’s life.

Now, what I’d like to do is read Genesis 22, and let’s find for our own heart’s nourishment Calvary: the Calvary love of the Father and of the Son. "Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am." This is now the seventh time in the record that we find God communicating in a special way with Abraham. "And He said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love." And by the way, that’s the first use of the word love anywhere in the Bible. "And go to the land of Moriah," that’s where the temple eventually was built, "and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

So Abraham rose early in the morning. I think I would have slept in. I would have found something to do, clean out the attic, do something. No, Abraham always obeyed instantly. You find that when God gave Abraham instructions, His servant obeyed immediately. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering. I wonder what his heart felt like as he was doing that. Abraham was an old man. He was probably, oh, close to 120 perhaps. Isaac was not a little boy. He was a young man now. And Abraham had a lot of servants, somebody else could have done this. No, Abraham was going to do it. He split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. The third day, that reminds us of resurrection, doesn’t it? On the third day, the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead. Abraham had experienced resurrection power in his own body; he was as good as dead. And yet God gave him and gave his wife resurrection power that they might be able to have a son. Well, I suppose all of us have an Isaac in our lives that we don’t want to give up. You might be saying, oh, if I lose this person, I can never trust God again. It might be a job, it might be possessions, it might be an ambition, I don’t know. Isaac was not a bad thing, he was a good thing. Isaac was God’s gift to Abraham and Sarah. And when God gives us a gift, He often says, I want you to give that gift back to Me. I want to be sure that you are trusting Me and that you love Me. You see, when the gift comes between the giver and the receiver, it becomes an idol. God gives us gifts not that we might honor the gifts and live for the gifts. He gives us gifts that we might praise and glorify the Giver. All of God’s gifts are good and perfect, and if we do not honor the Giver, then we end up practicing idolatry. And God did not want Isaac to become an idol in Abraham’s life.

Well, it was a test of love, wasn’t it? Abraham loved him deeply. Your only son Isaac, whom you love. It was a test of faith. God had said, In Isaac is your seed going to be named. Isaac is going to be the one. Then why kill him? It's a test of faith, a test of hope. The whole future of the plan of salvation was wrapped up in that boy, and so it was a test of hope. It’s good when you walk to the place of sacrifice to know that you are on resurrection ground. It’s good to know that come what may, Jesus Christ is alive and you share in the power of His resurrection. He lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.

Of course, beyond that he saw something else. He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God. It’s what’s beyond that enables us to endure what is ahead. Don’t forget that. It’s what’s beyond that enables you to do what’s ahead. The Lord Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. It is what goes beyond. And when you look by faith to the heavenly city that is beyond, it makes it possible for us to carry our burdens today and to go through the difficult experiences of life. I find in my own life when I get my eyes off of the goal, then I see a lot of obstacles and problems. But when I keep my eyes on that heavenly goal, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, looking to the reward that lies beyond, the glory that He has for us, then we are able to do these things. Humanly speaking, who could take a beloved only son and kill that son? Well, God did not ask for Isaac’s life; He really wanted Abraham’s heart. But humanly speaking, this is impossible. But with God all things are possible. You say, I can’t go through surgery, I can’t go through bereavement, my loved one’s been taken from me, how can I live? Just lift your eyes up and look beyond and see what God has for us.

And Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you." It’s an amazing verse. Stay here, we are coming back. Not I am coming back, we are coming back. He believed that even if Isaac did die, God would raise him from the dead. Abraham had experienced the resurrection power of God. And so Hebrews 11 tells us that even though Isaac had been slain, Abraham believed God could raise him from the dead. Here is faith: we will come back to you.

But notice something else. Here is love. "I will go yonder and worship." He didn’t say I’m going to go yonder and sacrifice my son; I’m going to go worship. Suffering can be an act of worship. Many people live with pain, many people live with difficult circumstances. Sometimes we take those difficult circumstances as weapons to fight with. Abraham didn’t do that. He wasn't feeling sorry for himself, he wasn’t wallowing in self-pity. Abraham said, We’re going to go and worship. We’re going to worship the Lord. When you look upon suffering as an act of worship, oh, what a difference it makes. You see, you’re not suffering for nothing, you are suffering for someone. When our Lord Jesus was on the cross, His suffering was an act of dedication and worship. He was serving His Father and doing His Father’s will.

Now let’s make some discoveries here about Calvary. First of all, I want us to look at the Father and the Son. Verse 6, "So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together." This is a rather poignant scene, isn’t it? The two of them went together. Here we have the Father and the Son going together. "For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son," but the Son so loved He gave His life. Here we have the love that planned Calvary.

Now we emphasize the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, we emphasize the love of God the Father. Have you ever thought of the love between the Father and the Son? I know that Jesus loves me, we sang in Sunday school, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Jesus loves me and the Father loves me, but have you ever stopped to consider how much the Father loves His Son? John 3:35, "The Father loves the Son, He’s given all things into His hands." In John 5:20, "The Father loves the Son." John 10:17, "My Father loves Me." God the Father loves His Son. Here we have them going together. There’s no disagreement, no argument.

Some people have the strange notion that Jesus died on the cross because God was angry at everybody. No, He died on the cross because He loves us and the Father loves us and the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. All of this was planned. None of this was by accident. Just stop to think of what it meant for God the Father to give His Son, the love that planned Calvary. Matthew 3:17, "This is My beloved Son." Mark 1:11, "Thou art My beloved Son." Luke 3:22, "Thou art My beloved Son." Matthew, Mark, and Luke emphasize God the Father loves His Son. And then John comes along and says God loves us. The Father and the Son, the love that planned the cross. They walked together, they planned together, they loved together, and we share now in that love.

I notice also in Genesis 22:6 that there is fire. Fire. Now in the Bible, fire speaks of the holiness of God. There are rather frightening things here. He has in one hand the fire and in the other hand a knife. Here is the Father carrying fire and a knife. Now the fire speaks of the holiness of God, the judgment of God upon sin. Sin is that which is only fit for the fire. The knife speaks of death, the very judgment of God, "the wages of sin is death." Now here we have Abraham carrying the fire. Deuteronomy 4:24 tells us that our God is a consuming fire. This is quoted in Hebrews 12:29. The sacrifices on the brazen altar went up in smoke, the fire of God’s judgment. You see, God cannot bear sin. Isaac was to be offered as a burnt offering, that’s why the wood was there. And God is a holy God. You see, Calvary was the judgment of God for us.

And I can just see Abraham, the loving father who loved his son, his only son. I can see Abraham with the knife in one hand, that means death, the fire in the other hand, that means destruction, burn it up, and he is carrying those things to be used on his own son. I tell you, when I think about Calvary and what it means to the Father and the Son, it makes me ashamed of myself that I ever sin against the Lord. The fire speaks of the holiness of God that demands a sacrifice. Our God is a holy God. I fear that today in many places the holiness of God is not considered. We don’t hear about the holiness of God in preaching. We don’t hear about the holiness of God in music as much as we used to. We hear about the love of God, the tenderness of God, as though God closes his eyes to sin. God cannot close His eyes to sin. God the Father has the knife in one hand, "the wages of sin is death." God the Father has the fire in the other hand, "our God is a consuming fire." And my friend, if you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior, then God will one day have to use that death and that fire on you because hell is a lake of fire, the second death.

Let's look at the wood. In verse 6, "he took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son." He laid it on him. Now this word suggests Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." It’s two different words in the Hebrew, but the idea is there. You see, the fire represents the holiness of God. I agree with Dr. R.T. Ketcham that this wood represents our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had our sin laid upon Him, "who his own self bore our sin in his own body on the tree." All we like sheep have gone astray, the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Here is Isaac carrying the burden of the wood. Here is the Father carrying the knife and the torch, and they go up to the mountain.

And Isaac says to his father, "My father," and he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." And the two of them went together. What must have been going on in the heart of Abraham? Well, Abraham built the altar, Isaac willingly laid himself on the altar. He could have fought his father. He could have overcome that old man, but he didn’t. Willingly he laid himself on the altar and willingly Abraham was about to kill his own son, and God stopped him. Abraham, Abraham, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. That reminds me of Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The unsparing God, He did not spare His own Son.

Well, look at the Father and the Son walking together, that’s the love that planned Calvary. Look at the fire, that’s the holiness that demanded Calvary. Look at the wood, that’s the sin that required Calvary. Now let's look at the ram. Abraham lifts up his eyes in verse 13, he sees a ram caught in the thicket. And Abraham went and took the ram and sacrificed it in the place of his son Isaac. Now at this point the picture sort of falls down because nobody took, nothing took the place of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not a contradiction at all. Abraham said God will provide the lamb and God did provide the lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world."

Now as I look at this scene, I say to myself, Isaac, you are very fortunate that ram took your place. And then I look into the mirror and I say, Warren Wiersbe, you’re very fortunate, the Lamb took your place. Suppose that I had to go and die for my sins. It wouldn’t do me any good, it wouldn’t do anybody else any good. But Jesus Christ came and He died for my sins and He died for the sins of the whole world. God will provide for Himself the lamb. Not a lamb, the lamb. And throughout the Old Testament, the cry has been "Where is the lamb?" Verse 7, "Where is the lamb?" Millions of lambs were slain on the Jewish altar in the Old Testament period. And then along came John the Baptist and said, "Here's the lamb, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." And He is to be our lamb. In the Old Testament, men brought a lamb to God; in the New Testament, God sent a lamb to men. Only one lamb, behold the Lamb of God, the lamb that takes away sin. His blood does not just cover sin. It’s a lamb slain for the whole world, not just for the people of Israel.

Isaac died typically. He didn’t die actually, he died typically, and Hebrews 11:19 tells us that. That Abraham received him in resurrection in a figure, that is, symbolically. Isaac did die symbolically; he was raised from the dead symbolically, and Abraham received his son again. As I read this chapter and consider the Lord Jesus Christ, it makes my heart want to worship and adore Him. It makes me realize how much the Father loves the Son, how much the Son loves the Father, and how much the Father and the Son love lost sinners. When I think of Isaac willingly putting himself on the altar and the Lord Jesus Christ willingly laying down His life for me, it makes me want to worship Him. How we ought to praise the Lord for this kind of love, for Calvary love, for the Lord’s goodness to us, His grace toward us in sending us His Son.

But remember, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are not going to escape the fire and the knife. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Hell is a lake of fire, the second death. And therefore I would plead with you today to open your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ask Him to come in to save you. He will save you. He is faithful and He will save you and you can become a child of God and enjoy Calvary love.

And now Father, we do pray that You will help us as we study the life of Abraham, because we want to know how to walk by faith. When we walk by faith, we bring joy to Your heart. When we walk by faith, we bring glory to Your name. Encourage us as we seek to walk by faith, I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.