A reflection on Abraham, Isaac and the blood that sets us free! 

Abram, was a man who had an encounter with God. God had called Abram and promised him and his descendants the land on which Israel sits today. 

In Genesis 15:5-6, God makes a promise to Abram that he will have many descendants. Childless Abram believes God; he takes God at His word, and God credits it to him as righteousness. 

And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 

A few verses on, we read that God makes a covenant with Abram, Gen 15:18 

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: 

In our time, the proof or sign of a contract or covenant between parties is the contract itself, which is usually witnessed by third parties and recorded in writing; however, for Abram, the sign of the covenant was the circumcision of all Abram’s male descendants. This outward sign was a constant reminder, over generations, that God had made a covenant with  Abram. 

 Two sons 

Years passed, and Abraham, as he is now known, had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was the son of his own doing. Despite God’s promise, Abraham sought to shorten the timeline by having sex with his wife’s Egyptian slave. Abraham should have known better, but he conceived a child through his wife’s slave girl, and the child that was born was named Ishmael. 

But Ismael was not the child of the promise. God had made the promise that Sarah would bear Abraham a child and that through that child, he would have many descendants, and through him, the nations of the world would be blessed. 

 St. Paul describes Ishmael as the son of the flesh. Some years after Ishmael’s birth, Sarah fell pregnant and had a son called Isaac. Paul refers to Isaac as the son of the promise, as Isaac’s arrival was part of the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abram. 

But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. Gal 4:23 

Sometimes we find God’s timing to be tedious, and in our impatience, we would prefer to hurry the process up. This is where we look to our flesh to solve the problem. By flesh, I am not referring to the outer organ known as the skin. No, our flesh as described in the Bible is our sinful nature and sinful desires, through which we interact with others. These are the very enemy of faith. 

Eventually, when Sarah was 90 years old and Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah fell pregnant and Isaac, the promised son, was born. It goes without saying that Isaac was not an immaculate conception; Abraham and Sarah had been sexually active even in their old age, and Isaac was the result. God had blessed their union. 

But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Gen 17:19 

Hopes and dreams 

In Isaac, all of Abraham’s hopes and dreams had been realised. Isaac was indeed the son of his old age, and was dearly loved because of the promise that was attached to him, and one day, when Isaac had grown, God said to Abraham, 

 “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” Gen. 22:2

This is an important request by God. God had promised then he would make a covenant with Isaac and Isaac's descendants would be in vast numbers. God had made these promises, and now He was saying, “kill him”! 

God had given Abraham his heart’s desire, the one thing that he had longed for all of his life. Together with this heart’s desire, God had attached promises. Imagine if this were you. If God came to you and asked you to do the hardest thing you could do, the one thing that was of such high personal cost that it would cause you enormous pain and worry. Would you say, “Yes, Lord”? Or rebuke the devil and tell him to get his hands off the gift of God to you? Would you seek counsel from someone you know would take your side, or would you look up scriptures that might back your inclination to say no to that thought? Abraham didn’t. He knew the voice of God, and he knew that God was speaking, and he took steps of obedience. He obeyed God and went to Mt Moriah to sacrifice Isaac according to God’s command. 

On the approach to the site of the sacrifice, Isaac asked his father,    

“Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Gen. 22:8 

To which Abraham replied, 

 “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Gen. 22:9 

This is a key verse for us to consider, even though God had asked Abraham to kill his son, to whom the promise had been attached. Abraham knew that somehow, God would not claim the life of his son. I think also in this moment, Abraham was also being prophetic, but we will talk about that later. So, Abraham and Isaac built the altar, Abraham ties up Isaac and places him on the altar and is about to strike the death blow when an angel calls out to him to stop. He said, 

“Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Gen 22:13 

Abraham saw the ram caught in the thicket and offered it in Isaac’s place. God had indeed provided for himself a lamb! What a relief to Abraham, and for Isaac! 

 Sacrifices 

Animal sacrifice was a bloody business; the blood of the animal that was sacrificed would have sprayed all over the altar until the animal’s heart stopped beating. The loss of their blood brought about the loss of their life. But this was all part of the plan. God says in Lev. 17:11 

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ 

 The shedding of the blood ensured the taking of the life of the sacrificial animal. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that there can be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, or in other words, the sacrificial lamb must die, and the means of death is the shedding of its blood. Its heart will stop beating because of the lack of blood. 

 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Heb 9:22 

The sacrificial lamb was to make atonement for sins committed. It acted as a substitute for the person making the sacrifice. God insisted that the animal offered had to be the best of the flock, not the weak or the diseased. The animal sacrifice had to be costly to the one making the sacrifice. It was not an opportunity to get the poor breeding stock out of the flock! 

 At Mt. Moriah, Abraham was giving his costly best; he was making a sacrifice for sin and using his only begotten son as the sacrificial offering. To Abraham, he was giving the absolute best he had. 

 Providing the lamb 

Now, let’s go back to Abraham’s words, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” Abraham knew that God was going to keep his promise through Isaac. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way. 

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Hebrews 11:17-19 

And, true to His character, God did not let Abraham sacrifice his son, but at the critical moment stopped him. The sins of the Canaanites were partially centred on child sacrifice and were an abomination to God. God would not be asking Abraham to sin by sacrificing his child. Hence, the provision of the ram in the thicket. 

 After the sacrifice of the ram was completed, God said to Abraham, 

 “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” Gen 22:16-18 

Covenant actions 

So, what is going on here? Let’s backtrack to the fact that Abraham had a covenant with God. When a covenant exists between two people, one person cannot deny the other person what they have first asked of them. So, if the person who is in covenant with you asks you for a cup of sugar, they cannot deny you a cup of sugar when you need one. 

God had asked Abraham to put to death his only begotten son, as an offering for sins committed. Abraham’s only son, whom he loved, and Abraham had not withheld him. At Mt Moriah, God was putting Himself in a position where He could not deny sending His only begotten Son to shed his blood on a cross for our sins. John 3:16 says 

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

 “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love …. Gen. 22:2 

Abraham did not withhold his only begotten son, and now God would not withhold his only begotten Son. At Mt Moriah, Calvary was locked in! 

So how old was Isaac when Abraham placed him on the altar? 

This is an interesting question. Most people think he was just a young boy of about 12 years, because the text translates the word as “lad”, but some scholars say that the same word has a wider range of meanings and can mean anything from a baby to a fully grown man. Some Bible scholars estimate Isaac’s age at about 37 at the time of the sacrifice. The Jewish historian Josephus said Isaac was about 33 years old at the time of the Mt Moriah sacrifice. We cannot say for sure how old Isaac was at the time of the sacrifice, but for a minute, let’s say that Josephus was right and Isaac was about 33 years old. How old was Jesus when He died on the cross? About 33 years old! 

 The Passover 

Abraham eventually died, but his descendants through Isaac continued to grow and multiply. At the time when the Hebrews entered Egypt, there were about 70 of them. When they left 400 years later, there were 600,000 men, plus women and children. So, it is possible that well over a million people followed Moses into the wilderness. 

At the first Passover, God told the children of Israel to kill a lamb and place its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their houses, so that when the Angel of death passed through the land, he would “pass over” the houses that were marked with the blood of the lamb. 

 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:13 

This configuration of blood on the lintel and doorposts is symbolic of the cross. There would have been blood at the top of the cross from Jesus’ head and on the sides from the nails in his hands. It was the spilling of the blood of the lamb that saved the Israelites from death, and it is the spilling of the blood of Jesus that saves us from eternal death. 

 The Lamb of God 

The New Testament picks up the whole idea of the sacrifice of Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus pass by, he said, 

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29 

 Remember earlier I said that Abraham was being prophetic when he said, God will provide for Himself the lamb. John was making this connection for us. God was up to something. Abraham’s children and the rest of the world all needed their sins forgiven, and the only way this could ever happen would be if someone died in their place. That someone was Jesus. 

Some time ago, I released a video that talks about the 4 reasons why only Jesus could die for us. You can find that video here. https://youtu.be/DSbnHOd4Q94 

These comments by John indicate that John was in on the secret. He knew Jesus was going to be offered up for the sins of the entire world, and by the shedding of His blood, we would be forgiven. 

Jesus was not being forced to give up His life; it was something that He willingly did because of His great love for us. 

 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” John 10:17-18 

 Remembering that the Bible says that with the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. If Jesus had not shed his blood, if His life had not been taken, there would have been no forgiveness for our sins, and we would have been damned, eternally. 

 The hymn writer was right when he penned these words. 

 “O the blood of Jesus it washes white as snow.” 

 And again. 

 “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the Lamb.” 

 And finally 

"Are you washed in the blood, in the precious blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"

The cross was a bloody and painful way to die, like an animal sacrifice; it was messy and not easy to watch, but through it, we are now forgiven and free and heaven-bound. 

Jesus died for us because of His great love for us. To receive the benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Bible tells us that we need to do only two things: repent (turn away from) of our sins and believe the gospel. I will go into this in greater detail another time. 

 We love, because He first loved us. 1John 4:19 

 Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. 

 The sacrifice of Jesus is directly linked to the promise that God made to his friend Abraham, all those years ago. Isa 41:8. 

 God is both a promise maker and a promise keeper who we can trust!