Abraham and Isaac: The Promise He Carried Up Moriah (Genesis 22)

Abraham got up early. He saddled the donkey, split the wood for the fire, and set out with his son toward a mountain God had not yet shown him (Genesis 22:3).

God had called his name, and Abraham had answered, "Here I am" (Genesis 22:1). Then the command came, one phrase after another, each closer to the boy: "Take your son," God said, "your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you" (Genesis 22:2).

What happens in Genesis 22:1–14?

Three days of walking. Three days to turn round. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance and told the servants to wait: "The boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will return to you" (Genesis 22:5). He said we before he had climbed a step.

Abraham was carrying two things God had said, and they pulled against each other. One was the command. The other was older, a promise God had made about this same boy: "through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned" (Genesis 21:12). The letter to the Hebrews tells us how Abraham held both: "Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead" (Hebrews 11:19). He weighed the new command against the promise already on record, and kept walking up the hill.

With the wood on his back, Isaac turned to him: "My father!" "Here I am, my son," he replied. "The fire and the wood are here," said Isaac, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" (Genesis 22:7). Abraham answered, "God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two walked on together (Genesis 22:8).

Why did God test Abraham?

At the top Abraham built the altar, bound his son and took the knife. A voice from heaven said his name twice. For the third time in the chapter Abraham answered, "Here I am" (Genesis 22:11). Then came the sentence that explains the test: "now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me" (Genesis 22:12).

God tested Abraham to know him, and Abraham came down the mountain knowing God by a new name. A ram was caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham offered it in place of his son and called the place The LORD Will Provide. The name stuck long after he was gone, and the narrator's own listeners still said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided" (Genesis 22:14). His answer to his son became a saying a whole nation repeated.

How does Genesis 22 connect to Jesus?

Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the lamb. Around two thousand years later John the Baptist saw Jesus coming and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Isaac carried the wood up the hill, and Jesus went out "Carrying His own cross" (John 19:17). On Moriah God stopped Abraham's hand. At Golgotha He went through with what He had spared Abraham: "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32).

Abraham could keep climbing because he had something God had already said to hold while the command made no sense. If God has promised you something and the road in front of you seems to contradict it, write the promise down with today's date in the Doxa app and read it back before the next step. When He provides, name it the way Abraham named the mountain, so you can find it again.

What has God already said to you that you need to hold on to this week?

Deeper study today in the Doxa Deeper Dive: why the Hebrew for provide is the verb for see, and what that did to a mountain in Jerusalem. Read it here.