The Sacrifice of Isaac

Can you imagine how Abraham’s heart ached as he was told to kill his son? He had waited so long for a son. All the promises – many descendants, a great nation, the Savior – were tied to that son. But God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Genesis 2:22).

Abraham had plenty of time to meditate on this sacrifice. It was a three day journey to Mt. Moriah. Each day, each step, must have been harder than the last for Abraham. When they arrived, each stone he lifted to build the altar must have been heavier than the last, matching the growing heaviness of his heart. And when he bound his son, the knots in the rope were probably nothing compared to the knot in his stomach as he laid his son on the altar.

The Italian master, Caravaggio, captures the fear in Isaac’s face as Isaac is about to be killed on the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord. Before, Isaac had seemed calm, even humbly obedient, asking a simple question, “Father, where is the lamb for sacrifice” (Genesis 22:7)

Now Isaac realizes that he is the sacrifice!

Old Abraham, pictured by Caravaggio, as being grey-haired and bald, has his knife at his son’s throat. He had done this countless times to the lambs’ throats for sacrifice.

Caravaggio portrays the exact moment when the Angel of the Lord calls out with a doubly urgent, “Abraham, Abraham.” “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” (Genesis 22:11-12). With His right hand, the Angel of the Lord prevents the sacrifice of Isaac and with His left hand He points to the substitute victim – a ram caught in the thicket.

Light directs the viewer to scan the scene from left to right as it picks out the Angel’s shoulder and left hand, the quizzical face of Abraham, the right shoulder and terrified face of Isaac and finally the docile ram.

Caravaggio combines a hint of horror with pastoral beauty. In the foreground the sharp knife is silhouetted against the light on Isaac’s arm. In the distance is a beautiful, peaceful landscape.

When we examine Caravaggio’s painting and read the Scripture account of the sacrifice of Isaac, we can marvel at the Abraham’s strong faith or marvel at Isaac’s humble obedience. But the main point of this account – like any account in the Bible – is to connect the text with Jesus. And Jesus is all over this text. We see Jesus who is the Angel of the Lord announcing, “I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 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, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:16-18).

We see Jesus in Isaac, the obedient son who humbly accepted being his father’s sacrifice. We see Jesus as the ram caught in the thicket as Isaac’s substitute.

But as we see Jesus in these verses, we also see ourselves. For if Jesus is going to become our substitute, our sacrifice, our Savior, then there must be something wrong with us that we need a substitute, and a sacrifice, and a Savior. That something wrong with us is simply called “sin.”

• We can compare ourselves to Abraham and see how we have not been faithful like him.
• We question. We doubt. We talk back to God.
• We have difficulty traveling more than 15 minutes for worship. We could never travel three days for our Lord.
• We love the things God has given us too much – our home, our family, our possessions. We are unwilling to devote our time or energy or money or ourselves to God.
• When life becomes difficult and God asks us to endure more, we don’t surrender our will to our Lord. We object and fight back. We complain and cry out the whole way.
• We have failed to learn God’s promises in Bible study and worship so we fail to trust God’s promises when we are away from our Bibles and church.

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We can compare ourselves to Isaac. Though he did nothing to warrant his death, we have. We all stand individually in Isaac’s place. We are dressed for the sacrifice in the poor clothing of our sins. We are bound by the ropes of our guilt and over our heads is poised the knife of God’s justice. Isaac did not deserve to die. We do. We deserve the wrath of God to fall upon us and take the life from us.

We can see our sin and our need for Jesus all over these verses! And praise God! Jesus is all over these verses! The Lord provides!

Once, when Martin Luther read this Bible story to his family, his wife Katie could not contain herself. She burst out, “I do not believe it.” She was incredulous that God could do something like that, ordering a man to kill his own son! Even though it turned out that Isaac did not die at Moriah, Katie thought this whole episode seemed pretty cruel on the Lord’s part. She said, “God would not have treated his son like that.” Luther simply told her, “But, Katie, he did.”

Indeed He did. God killed His own Son. At Calvary, two thousand years later, there was no one to shout “stop!” when Jesus was hung on the cross. The Lord was not going to call off this sacrifice. He was going to keep His promise, even at the cost of His own Son.

Just as we can see ourselves in Abraham and Isaac, we can especially see our heavenly Father in Abraham – for God went to Mt. Calvary to sacrifice His Son on the altar of the cross. We also see Jesus in Isaac. Jesus carried the wood of His own cross upon His shoulders to Mt. Calvary. He was innocent. He did nothing to deserve this death. He was silent – like a sheep before her shearers (Isaiah 53:7). He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on the altar of the cross (Philippians 2:8). As Isaac asked, “Father, where is the Lamb for sacrifice,” so Jesus asked, “Father, may this cup be taken from me,” (Matthew 26:39).

All of the promises were contained in Abraham’s beloved son. All of God’s promises were contained and fulfilled in God’s beloved Son. Jesus was killed at the hands of sinful men, but it was also the Father behind the scenes who allowed for the sacrifice of His Son.

We also see Jesus in this text when we pay close attention to where these events took place. Abraham and Isaac had traveled three days to get to Mt. Moriah to make the sacrifice. About a thousand years later, King Solomon built the Lord’s temple, the place of sacrifice, on top of Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3:1). A little over eight hundred years later, Jesus was crucified on Mt. Calvary, just outside the walls of Jerusalem and not far from this Temple Mound.

Caravaggio also painted another picture with the theme of Abraham sacrificing Isaac.

Isaac was his father’s beloved and his mother’s laughter. Jesus was the Father’s Delight, the Promised Seed, Immanuel and the One who saves. But Isaac stopped being a type or picture of Christ when the Angel of the Lord intervened. Then the ram became the type of Christ. For the ram was sacrificed upon the altar of Mt. Moriah. His blood was shed. He died so that Isaac might be spared. And Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was sacrificed on Mt. Calvary. His blood running down the cross. He died so humanity might be spared. He died at the hands of God the Father, who never shrank from doing it. For God knew, as Abraham did, that His Son would come back to life from the nearby tomb.

The ram became Isaac’s substitute. Jesus became our substitute. That was our perfect Substitute on Calvary’s cross.

• He bled so we might be forgiven.
• He died so we might live.
• He cried out to God in agony so we might offer God our praises.
• He suffered the righteous anger of God so we might feel the awesome love of God.
• He became this world’s greatest sinner so we might be made God’s redeemed saints.
• He experienced the eternity of hell in His hours upon the cross so we might enjoy an eternity of glory in heaven.

But after doing that for you, notice also the last similarity between Jesus and Isaac – the one we haven’t yet mentioned. That both sacrifices took three days to complete, and after those three days, both walked away from their altars alive! Both walked away unbound and completely whole!

Can you imagine how Abraham’s heart ached as he was told to kill his son? But can you imagine how God’s heart ached as He had planned to kill His Son from eternity? But He did it so that all nations on earth would be blessed through Him.