Living sacrifices

“And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and 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? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.”

The first thing that we notice about this episode is that Isaac was old enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice. This would mean that he was, at least, in his teens and that Abraham was more than 110 years old. Isaac was not a child and was certainly stronger than his father. Isaac had a young enquiring mind and wanted to know where the sacrificial animal was because everything for the sacrifice was available. At this stage, Abraham’s heart was probably breaking as he had waited 25 years for Isaac’s birth but now he had to kill this son. I expect that he believed God would bring Isaac back to life after the sacrifice. I also wonder what he said to Sarah, perhaps he was waiting till everything was over. Abraham built the altar out of stones and we can assume that Isaac helped with this as well. Isaac carried the wood so he probably put it out on top of the stones as well. Then we read that Abraham bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. How did Abraham explain this to his only son? Of course, he would not have been able to go through this process without Isaac’s full cooperation. What a level of trust between father and son and how much faith did both of them have in the Lord God? Abraham had the knife and he had probably sharpened it well so that he could kill his son with one quick blow. He had absolute faith in God and was willing to do even this for the Lord. God doesn’t want anyone to kill their own child, this is made abundantly clear in the Law when He outlawed murder (Ex 20: 13). In 2 Kings 3: 27 we read that Jehoram, king of Israel, offered his son as a sacrifice and we find that there was great indignation against Israel. God wants people who are living sacrifices like both Abraham and Isaac were.