offering: so they went both of them together. 9. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and he laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took a knife to slay his son.
We have here Abraham's obedience to this severe command: Being tried, he offered up Isaac, Heb. 11. 17. Observe,
I. The difficulties which he brake through in this act of obedience; much might have been objected against it. As,
1. It Seemed directly against an antecedent law of God, which forbids murder, under a severe penalty, ch. 9. 5, 6. Now can the unchangeable God contradict himself? He that hates robbery for burnt-offering, (Isa. 61. 8.) cannot delight in murder for it.
2. How would it consist with natural affection to his own son? It would be not only murder, but the worst of murders. Cannot Abraham be obedient, but he must be unnatural? If God insist upon a human sacrifice, is there none but Isaac to be the offering; and none but Abraham to be the offerer? Must the father of the faithful be the monster of all fathers?
3. God gave him no reason for it. When Ishmael was to be cast out, a just cause was assigned, which satisfied Abraham; but here Isaac must die, and Abraham must kill him, and neither the one nor the other must know on what account. If Isaac had been to die a martyr for the truth, or his life had been the ransom of some other life more precious, it had been another matter; or if he had died as a criminal, a rebel against God or his parents, as in the case of the idolater, (Deut. 13. 8, 9. ) or the stubborn son, (Deut. 21. 18, 19.) it might have passed as a sacrifice to justice; but the case is not so: he is a dutiful, obedient, hopeful, son; "Lord, what profit is there in his blood ?"
4. How would this consist with the promise? Was it not said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called? But what comes of that seed, if this pregnant bud be broken off so soon?
5. How should he ever look Sarah in the face again? With what face can he return to her and his family, with the blood of Isaac sprinkled on his garments, and staining all his raiment? Surely a bloody husband hast thou been unto me, would Sarah say, as Exod. 4. 25, 26, and it would be likely to alienate her affections for ever both from him and from his God.
6. What would the Egyptians say, and the Canaanites and Perizzites which dwelt then in the land? It would be an eternal reproach to Abraham, and to his altars. "Welcome nature, if this be grace." These, and many the like objections, might have been made; but he was infallibly assured that it was indeed a command of God, and not a delusion; and that was sufficient to answer them all. Note, God's commands must not be disputed, but obeyed: we must not consult with flesh and blood about them, (Gal. 1. 15. 16.) but with gracious obstinacy persist in our obedience to them.
II. The several steps of this obedience: all which help to magnify it, and to show that he was guided by prudence, and governed by faith, in the whole transaction.
1. He rises early, v. 3. Probably, the command was given in the visions of the night, and early the next morning, he set himself about the execution of it, did not delay, did not demur, did not take time to deliberate; for the command was peremptory, and would not admit a debate. Note, These that do the will of God heartily, will do it speedily: while we delay, time is lost, and the heart hardened.
2. He gets things ready for a sacrifice, and as if he himself had been a Gibeonite, it should seem, with his own hands he cleaves the wood for the burnt-offering, that that might not be to seek, when the sacrifice was to be offered; spiritual sacrifices must be thus prepared for.
3. It is very probable that he said nothing of it to Sarah; this is a journey which she must know nothing of, lest she prevent it. There is so much in our own hearts to hinder our progress in duty, that we have need, as much as may be, to keep out of the way of other hindrances.
4. He carefully looked about him, to discover the place appointed for the sacrifice, which God had promised by some sign to direct him to. Probably the direction was given by an appearance of the Divine Glory in the place, some pillar of fire reaching from heaven to earth, visible at a distance, and to which he pointed, when he said, (v. 5.) "We will go yonder, where you see the light, and worship."
5. He left his servants at some distance off, (v. 5.) lest they should have interposed, and created him some disturbance in his strange oblation; for Isaac was, no doubt, the darling of the whole family. Thus, when Christ was entering upon his agony in the garden, he took only three of his disciples with him, and left the rest at the garden door. Note, It is our wisdom and duty, when we are going to worship God, to lay aside all those thoughts and cares which may divert us from the service, leave them at the bottom of the hill, that we may attend on the Lord without distraction.
6. He obliged Isaac to carry the wood, (both to try his obedience in a lesser matter, first, and that he might typify Christ, who carried his own cross, John 19. 17.) while he himself, though he knew what he did, with a steady and undaunted resolution, carried the fatal knife and fire, v. 6. Note, Those that through grace are resolved upon the substance of any service or suffering for God, must overlook the little circumstances which make it doubly difficult to flesh and blood.
7. Without any ruffle or disorder, he talks it over with Isaac, as if it had been but a common sacrifice that he was going to offer, v. 7, 8. (1.) It was a very affecting question that Isaac asked him, as they were going together: My father, said Isaac; it was a melting word, which, one would think, should strike deeper in the breast of Abraham, than his knife could in the breast of Isaac. He might have said, or thought at least, "Call me not thy father, who am now to be thy murderer; can a father be so barbarous, so perfectly lost to all the tenderness of a father?" Yet he keeps his temper, and keeps his countenance, to admiration ; he calmly waits for his son's question, and this is it. Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb? See how expert Isaac was in the law and custom of sacrifices: this it is to be well-catechised. This is, [1.] A trying question to Abraham. How could he endure to think that Isaac is himself the lamb? So it is, but Abraham, as yet, dares not tell him so; where God knows the faith to be armour of proof he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. Job. 9. 23. [2.] It is a teaching question to us all; that when we are going to worship God, we should seriously consider whether we have every thing ready, especially the Lamb for a burnt-offering; behold, the fire is ready, that is, the Spirit's assistance, and God's acceptance; the wood is ready, the instituted ordinances designed to kindle our affections, (which indeed, without the Spirit, are but like wood without fire, but the Spirit works by them,) all things are now ready; but where is the lamb? Where is
