Genesis 22: The Ultimate Sacrifice

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” -Genesis 22:12-18

At 100 years old, Abraham had a son. A few years later, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. We expect Abraham to object. After all, he had acted like Sarah was his sister when he was in Egypt. He had attempted to bypass God’s plan for children by having a child with his servant. But this time Abraham obeyed.

We read of no objections. Abraham took the instructions literally, all the way to the point of raising a knife against his own child. The reader is horrified, as is Abraham, when God intervenes. Abraham is told he passed the test and would now certainly be blessed. Why? Abraham would do anything God commanded.

If someone were to attempt this today, he would be arrested for attempted murder. Yet this event simply foreshadows the sacrifice Jesus, the Son of God, would later make on the cross. Jesus gave his life as the ultimate sacrifice. He held nothing back.

Are we willing to live with all-out commitment to Christ? I’m not talking about child sacrifice, but about obedience. If God says to do something, will we do it? This is the goal of our lives. We are not called to live our own way; we are called to live for Him.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.