Genesis 22 records the testing of Abraham. You know the story…God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. And this after God miraculously opened Sarah’s womb when she was very old. Also after God had repeatedly promised Abraham a son and descendents. Also after Abraham’s son through Hagar had been sent away. Abraham had to have had some doubts…but the text does not suggest that he did. In fact, verse 8 suggests that he knew God would be faithful if he was faithful, and provide an alternative sacrifice.
What interested me as I read this passage this time through was the repeating of the phrase “your son, your only son” (v. 2, 12). A Christian can not help but think of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
Now, I don’t know that this is much more than a coincidence that these phrases are similar in these passages, but it is amazing how God’s story of redemption contains, at the very least, so many parallels. To think that Abraham’s promised son, the one who would bring blessing to all nations, would have to die…that would have been difficult to understand. Yet, the “blessed” one that came from this very family line would have to do just that to bring the blessing anticipated…anticipated even clear back in Genesis.
Jason Cooper
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