God is Love

“Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14).

— David Rice

Our introductory text is the 100th time in the Old Testament in which the word Jehovah appears in the original text. In our King James version, for the previous 99 times, the word is rendered “LORD.” This Genesis account is the first occasion in which it has been rendered “Jehovah.”

The occasion was a special and unique one. The narrative in which it appears is about the time God asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering sacrifice — something God never asked of a man before or since. Isaac was a child of promise whom Abraham dearly loved, born to Abraham when he was 100 years old after a long wait. His offering of Isaac will be remembered by mankind forever as a testimony of faith, trust, and devotion to God.

Christians recognize in this renowned narrative a picture of God offering His own son, Jesus, to save the world from sin. In this we have a remarkable lesson about God’s love for His human creation. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life … God sent … His Son into the world … that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16, 17).

Jehovah Will Provide

As Abraham and Isaac made their way up Mount Moriah on that fateful day, Isaac observed, “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” (Genesis 22:7, 8). Abraham did not know how things would unfold, but his trust in God was remarkable.

The Apostle Paul refers to this episode in Hebrews 11:17-19. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

As it happened, an angel intervened at the crucial moment, sparing Isaac from death, for the literal death of Isaac was not necessary. However, when it came time for God to offer His own son, there was no intervention to save Jesus from the experience. It was necessary for Jesus to die in order to redeem the world — one man’s sinless life offered to bear the penalty imposed on Adam and mankind, to provide redemption and remove the penalty.

In this way, God did as Abraham had said, “God will provide himself a lamb.” Isaac was the lamb in symbol — Jesus was the lamb of God in fulfillment. How fitting, therefore, that Abraham subsequently named that place “Jehovah-Jireh” — “Jehovah will provide.”

The word “Jireh” is from Strong’s number 7200, and is the same word used in Genesis 22:8, God will “provide” a lamb. The word “provide” means “to see,” used here in the sense that God would “see to it.” He would care for the matter and provide the lamb. God has done that for all of us because of His love. He has seen to providing a redemption price at remarkable cost to Himself. Namely, the offering of His “only begotten Son.”

Jehovah

According to Exodus 6:3, God had not actually identified Himself by the name Jehovah to Abraham. “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them” (Exodus 6:3). This suggests that the 100 times the name Jehovah appears up to Genesis 22:14, some other name was in the original narrative — and that Moses, or an editor in his service, applied the name Jehovah retrospectively.

The Fuller Narrative

The account begins in Genesis 22:1, “God did tempt Abraham.” This is better rendered “God did prove Abraham” (RVIC, American Standard, Rotherham). Many other versions use the word “tested.” The Literal Standard Version and Young’s Literal Translation use the word “tried.” It was a dire test indeed. Abraham will be remembered by the world ever after for this example of remarkable faith and obedience. It will be an example for mankind, in their recovery in the Kingdom, for the kind of faith and devotion they also should seek to develop.

● Verse 2, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” This is the first of only two appearances of the word “Moriah” in the Bible. The other is 2 Chronicles 3:1, identifying Mount Moriah as the location of Solomon’s Temple. “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father.”

Thus, the place God told Abraham to offer Isaac, a picture of Jesus, was the same location where Israel would offer sacrifices in their temple, which also represented the coming atonement provided by Jesus. The temple was built in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was tried, condemned, and crucified on Mount Calvary, outside the city walls. This was in “the land of Moriah,” on “one of the mountains.”

The meaning of the name Moriah is related to the narrative of Genesis 22. It is Strong’s number 4179, “Moriyah, from 7200 and 3050; seen of Jah; Moriyah, a hill in Palestine.” The word 7200 is also the word see, or see to, or provide, and is the “Jireh” part of “Jehovah-Jireh.

● Verse 3, “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.” Saddling the donkey that would bring this company to the place of sacrifice, reminds us of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, acclaimed Hosanna by the crowds (John 12:13). The day was Nisan 10, and Jesus was focused on his approaching death. “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour” (John 12:27). Jesus knew that the Passover lamb was chosen on the 10th of Nisan (Exodus 12:3).

In verses 2 and 3, Isaac is identified as a “burnt offering.” There were three fundamental kinds of sacrifices identified in the opening chapters of Leviticus: (1) burnt offerings, (2) peace offerings, (3) sin offerings. According to Leviticus 1:4, a burnt offering secured atonement. A peace offering represented one’s commitment to God, based upon the peace attained after atonement.¹ A sin offering was to relieve the burden of sin from unintentional transgressions.²

A burnt offering was to be put directly “upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar.” This reminds us that our Redemption in Christ comes from Jesus being placed directly on the wood of the cross. There Jesus provided the price of redemption for sin that came from the “wood” in Eden, the forbidden tree.

(1) Thus, in Romans 4:24-25, Paul says that Jesus, having died for us, was “raised again for our justification.” Then, in Romans 5:1, 2, “Therefore … we have peace with God,” and thus have our consecration offering (our peace offering) accepted, “and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
(2) The trespass offering was a deeper kind of sin offering, described in Leviticus chapter five. This included sins for which the transgressor had a higher degree of culpability, and thus the requirements were more costly for the offerer.

Two young men accompanied Abraham and Isaac, suggesting that two classes are atoned for by Jesus’s sacrifice: Israelites and Gentiles.

● Verse 4, “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” As Jesus said in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” Abraham lived many centuries before the time of Christ, and thus, by faith, his vision of the coming atonement was “afar off.” According to the years recorded in Genesis, there were 1656 years to the end of the flood and another 427 years to the time Abraham came into Canaan after his father Terah’s death.

That sums to 2083 years. It was another 25 years to the birth of Isaac and some years later until this episode of offering Isaac to God. Thus, this experience occurred during the third thousand- year “day” from Adam. This means that Abraham’s view of the coming atonement was “on the third day.”

● Verse 6, “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.” This reminds us of John 19:17, “And he [Jesus] bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.”

● Verse 7, “Isaac spake unto Abraham … Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Isaac would be that lamb, picturing Jesus “the lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

● Verse 9, “Abraham built an altar there,” suggesting that God arranged the offering of Jesus. Abraham then “laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.” It was also God who offered His only begotten Son.

● In verses 10-12, Abraham was stopped at the last moment, an angel calling out to Abraham, directing him to “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”

● “Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” The discussion had always been about a lamb — but now a ram was located. The “lamb,” Isaac, had been accepted by God, just as Jesus, the “lamb of God,” was accepted by God.

The ram caught in a thicket does not represent a substitute for Jesus, but another animal also representing Jesus. A passover “lamb” represented Jesus each spring. On the day of atonement, a “ram for a burnt offering” represented Jesus every autumn (Leviticus 16:3). The ram in Genesis 22:13 was caught by his horns in a “thicket.” This reminds us that when Jesus died for our sins, he bore a crown of thorns on his head, to represent that part of the curse that Jesus bore for mankind. Part of the curse specified that the earth would bring forth “thorns also and thistles … and … in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Genesis 3:18, 19). Jesus bore every part of the curse.

It was then that Abraham named the place, “Jehovah-Jireh.” God, in His love and kindness, would Himself “see to” providing for and redeeming mankind by offering His own son. “Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jirreh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (verse 14). God’s gracious gift will be recognized by all.

God’s Oath

Verse 14 ends the narrative. But in verse 15, “the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time.” God had an important message to give to Abraham. For the first time on record, God would provide an oath to confirm what He had promised on two previous occasions. In Genesis 12:3, God promised Abraham, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” In Genesis 18:18, He said “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.”

But now, an oath of confirmation was given. “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed [bless themselves]; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18).

The Apostle Paul commented on this. “When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself … God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things [God’s word and God’s oath], in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” (Hebrews 6:13, 17, 18).

Description of the Seed of Abraham

In Genesis 22:17, God likened Abraham’s seed, or descendants, to be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea shore. This is the first time the expression “sand of the sea shore” is used to describe the seed of Abraham. Earlier, in Genesis 15:5, when God was speaking about the coming birth of Isaac, He used the expression “stars of heaven.” Isaac, of course, represents Jesus and the church (Galatians 3:16, 29, 4:28), and these will all be heavenly. Then, for the first time, God also used the description “sand of the seashore.”

On the Chart of the Ages, after the sacrifice of Jesus, two ages of redemption follow: the Gospel Age for the heavenly class, and the Millennial Age for the earthly class. Thus both expressions, stars and sand, are appropriate to describe those blessed by the offering of Jesus. An earlier expression had been used, before either stars or sand, namely, “dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16). “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth.” This was immediately after telling Abraham that his posterity would receive the land of promise — north, south, east, west — “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever” (Genesis 13:14, 15). The dust of the earth applies to natural Israel. They received the land of promise after the Exodus, during the Jewish Age, which preceded the death of Jesus.

Thus, we have three sequential descriptions — dust, stars, and sand — picturing three ages, the Jewish Age, Gospel Age, and Millennial Age. Just as Abraham had three women in his life — Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah — who connect symbolically to the same three ages.

Beersheba

“So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.” Beersheba means the well (beer) of an oath (sheba). Following God’s oath- bound commitment to Abraham, it was an appropriate dwelling place for Abraham. Genesis 22:20-24 concludes the chapter and the narrative. After returning home, Abraham heard news from far north. His brother Nahor and his wife Milcah had remained in the area of Haran, after the passing of Terah. Abraham then learned that his brother Nahor, his wife Milcah, and Nahor’s concubine Reumah, had 12 sons. This is perhaps a reminder that good news from past times will come after the Gospel Age sacrifice of Christ and the subsequent development of the Church class. By God’s love and care, twelve tribes of natural Israel will have been regathered. Then the next age of redemption will be at hand.