Sacrifice of Isaac

Before Yahweh could make the Abrahamic Covenant, He had to test Abraham. We know from the beginning that Yahweh had no intention of allowing Abraham to sacrifice his son because we are told that it was a test (Gen. 22:1). On one hand, Abraham knew Yahweh well enough by this time to know that He did not approve of child sacrifice and had promised him Isaac, but at the same time he knew that Yahweh expected obedience. Abraham was not just offering his son up to Yahweh but was also offering up the promises of Yahweh since they were bound up in the life of Isaac. Why was Abraham willing to do this? Abraham believed that he could sacrifice Isaac and that Yahweh would raise him from the dead (Heb. 11:17-20). Abraham told his servants that he and Isaac would come back from the hill (Gen. 22:5), and he told his son that Yahweh would provide a lamb (Gen. 22:8). Abraham knew Yahweh so well that he reasoned that if Yahweh was asking for Isaac’s sacrifice (through whom the promises would come), and since He was all powerful and good, then Yahweh simply intended to raise Isaac from the dead.

Isaac demonstrated just as much faith in Yahweh as Abraham did, for he willingly offered Himself up as a sacrifice for his father and the covenant. As a young man between the ages of 12 and 18, he could have easily overpowered and outrun a man over 100 years old, yet he did not. This event becomes a typology of what Christ would later do. Likewise, it is on this hill, Moriah in Jerusalem, that the temple of Yahweh would later be built (2 Chron. 3:1), which was a typology of Christ as well.

It is after Abraham’s act of faith that Yahweh makes the covenant unconditional, not only for Abraham but all of his descendants as well (Gen. 22:16-18). Thus this covenant is for all people who place their faith in Yahweh’s one day blessing the whole world (Jn. 3:16) through the nation of Israel (Jesus), which will bring and restore the kingdom of Yahweh on earth (Rev. 21).