Genesis 22:17

17. Bless… multiply Compare the promises that had gone before . Genesis 12:2; Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:14-17; Genesis 15:5; Genesis 15:7; Genesis 15:18; Genesis 17:1-8; and Genesis 18:18.

Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies Fulfilled primarily in the conquest of Canaan, (comp . Genesis 15:18-21,) but pointing even now to Christ’s ultimate triumph over the gates of hell . Matthew 16:18. In the rapturous hour of this revelation and promise, Abraham, doubtless, saw Messiah’s day, and was glad. John 8:5-6.

With this account of the attempted offering of Isaac it has been common to compare the Grecian legends of Phrixus, Idomeneus, and Iphigenia; and also the Phoenician tradition of Chronos, who in a time of war and impending perils took his only son Jehoud, clothed him in royal apparel, and offered him in sacrifice upon an altar which he had built. But these tales have no more connexion with Abraham and Isaac than have the narratives of Jephthah’s vow (Judges 11:0) or the sacrifice of the king of Moab’s son. 2 Kings 3:27.

The bearing of this act of Abraham on human sacrifices is worthy of notice. We need not go to the extent of Kurtz, who imagines that Abraham might have descried, on all the heights around him, altars smoking with human sacrifices; but we may believe that the idea of human sacrifice sprung from deep religious promptings; the consciousness of guilt, and the felt necessity of offering up the dearest and most precious gift as an atonement. Abraham’s act, adapted to be monumental in the history of the chosen race, recognised at once the necessity of sacrifice, and that our life is not our own; but it also revealed the authority from heaven to substitute animal life instead. In this revelation human sacrifices stand condemned, and animal sacrifices sanctioned and established as meeting the divine requirement.

The typical significance of the offering of Isaac has been recognised by nearly all Christian divines, but the pressing of all analogies and correspondencies as types may well be condemned. We have noted above (on Genesis 22:12) how Isaac is no proper type of Christ; but as the apostle speaks of Abraham’s receiving his son from the dead “in a figure,” (Hebrews 11:19,) we may, by a legitimate accommodation, speak of the points in the narrative which in any way prefigure or suggest great Gospel facts . Thus 1) Abraham’s not withholding his only son suggests that greater act of Him “who spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all . ” Romans 8:32. Romans 8:2) Isaac bearing the wood for the sacrifice suggests Christ bearing his own cross . 3) The ram caught in the thicket of thorns reminds us of Jesus with the thorn-wreath on his brow. 4) Isaac and the ram together have been taken as a double type, Isaac representing the divinity of our Lord, and the ram the humanity which Christ assumed (“a body hast thou prepared me,” Hebrews 10:5,) that he might taste death for Man 1:5 ) The three days from the command to sacrifice his son to the time of the deliverance of Isaac, his son was as one already dead to Abraham; and so, “in a figure,” his release was a resurrection from the dead. Hebrews 11:19. All these analogies may be truthfully presented as parabolic, ( εν παραβολη ,) but not as proper types .

Other lessons of this chapter are abundant. 1) Here is the notable instance in which to see how faith wrought with works and was thus made perfect. James 2:22. James 2:2) The moral sublimity of ready obedience and submission when God demands our beloved . 3) The moral value of temptation and stern discipline . 4) The word of God the highest law . 5) Two immutable things, the oath and promise of God, a permanent source of consolation to the Christian believer . Hebrews 6:17-18. NAHOR’S CHILDREN, 20-24.