Passage to Study: Genesis 22:1-19
Passage to Read with class: Genesis 22:1-13
Memorization Text: - Romans 8:32 “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all...”
OBJECTIVES:
1. To understand that God tests the love of those that love Him.
2. To teach that even a man of faith has his faith tested.
3. To demonstrate that love as well as true faith become evident through obedience.
4. To show by Abraham’s example what it cost God to give His Son for our redemption.
5. To clarify how Isaac is a type of Christ.
6. To also present Isaac as a figure of the sinner and to show what it means to have a
Substitute.
SCENE No. 1. At the home of Abraham and his family.
DEVELOPMENT: - Abraham and Sarah are living happily with their son, Isaac.
- A day came comes when God put[s] Abraham’s faith to the test.
- God’s instructions to Abraham are clear:
- He tells him WHEN: “Take now”, not at some unspecified time in the future. He
tells him WHOM, “your son, your only son, Isaac”. No other will do. He
tells him WHERE to go, “into the land of Moriah, ... upon one of the
mountains that I will tell thee of.”
- He tells him WHAT to do, “offer him there for a burnt offering”. Not
only did he have to take his life, but also he was to be burnt to
ashes.
- BUT, God did not tell him WHY. In the past, Abraham had questioned God, (Gen.15:2,8;
18:23). Now, in complete trust, he submits to the will of the God he fully trusts. His
obedience was complete and total. He rose up early to make preparations. With
the wood for the offering now cut, he “went unto the place of which God had told
him”. Abraham shows his obedience from the beginning, but making all the preparations
necessary.
>> Cns. Abraham wasn’t harboring any thoughts of a possible change in
God’s plans because He might “feel sorry” for him.
- God did not demand of Abraham anything more than what He was willing to do Himself: He
gave His son.
- Abraham becomes a figure of what God the Father would do with His Son in a future day.
- We do not read of Abraham telling others what he was going to do.
>> Cns. God took counsel only with Himself when he designed the plan of our
salvation. He did not consult with others, not even the angels which were present.
>> Apl. God willingly made possible our salvation through His Son.
- Isaac was obedient, as was the Lord Jesus was when he He went to the cross.
- Genesis is the Book of Beginnings and in this chapter we find the first mention of the
words “love” (v.2), “adoration”, (v.5) and “lamb”,
(v.8).
SCENE No. 2. Father and son going up Mount Moriah.
DEVELOPMENT: - Abraham’s obedience has been complete. He has traveled three days
without a change of mind.
- Abraham’s faith is seen in his words to his two servants when he says “I and
the lad will go yonder ... we will worship... and we will come again to you.” (The
verbs are plural).
- “They went both of them together.” Abraham and Isaac go together,
leaving the servants behind.
>> Apl. The work on the cross was accomplished by the Lord Jesus, in obedience to
the Father and guided by the Spirit.
>> Cmt. The cry from the the Lord on the cross, “My God, My God, why has thou
forsaken me?” was not directed to the Father. Christ is seen as a representing
humanity before the Creator God.
- Isaac carries the wood upon which he will be placed.
>> Apl. The Lord Jesus carried His cross when he went out to the place called
Calvary.
>> Cns. The title SON OF MAN has to do with the cross. Mat.17:9, 12, 22; 18:11;
19:28; Mar.10:33, 45; Lu.19:10.
- Abraham carries the instruments of death, the knife and the fire, reminding us it was
the Father who sent the fire of the His wrath upon
the Lord Jesus when He suffered for us.
- Abraham answers Isaac’s question about the apparent absence of a lamb with a reply
that will prove to be a prophesy: God Himself would provide a lamb for a burnt
offering.
SCENE No. 3. Mount Moriah.
DEVELOPMENT: - Isaac is submissive to the will of his father, allowing himself to be bound
and laid upon the wood on the altar.
- In the same way the Lord Jesus was submissive to the will of His Father in going to the
cross.
- Abraham’s obedience is complete when he fulfills God’s will to offer Isaac.
- Suddenly, the angel of the Lord with a word restrains his hand.
>> Cns. Abraham’s obedience brought about a renewal of the promises God had
made previously, this time with an oath. “When God made promise to Abraham,
because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself...” Heb.6:13-18.
>> Apl. God delights to bless those who are faithful, not on account of merit, but
because He can trust them with His blessings.
>> Apl. TWO symbols of the Lord Jesus are seen in this scene.
1. ISAAC,
the only son,
loved by his father,
willing to do the will of his father
brought back from death.
- For Isaac there was a substitute, while for the Lord Jesus, there was none.
2. THE RAM
caught by his horns in a thicket,
taken to occupy the place of another,
submits to the will of another and dies.
>> Apl. “Caught” by His love for us, the Lord Jesus gives Himself up to
death on the cross.
- In the first place, Isaac is a type of the Lord Jesus in His obedience to the Father,
offered on the altar of the Cross.
- In the second place, Isaac can be presented as a type of the sinner whose place was
occupied by another.
As Isaac would look upon the ram offered in the place where so recently he had been, he
would sense God’s satisfaction and be content.
- Isaac’s need was supplied by the death of a substitute.
>> Cmt. The teacher will need to be careful in making the transition from teaching
Isaac as a type of Christ to Isaac as a type of the sinner. The principle lesson is
Isaac as a type of Christ, obedient to the Father.
SCENE No. 4.
DEVELOPMENT of the lesson:
>> Prepare an acrostic putting up the name ISAAC, adding the words as you
explain their meaning.
I .. GNORANT of DANGER
S .. EPARATED from his COMPANIONS
A .. NXIOUS about the FUTURE
A .. CCEPTED the SACRIFICE
C .. ONTENT with the SUBSTITUTE
>> If possible, have figures to represent each a part of the application.
- Isaac illustrates the truth of the sinner that finds in Christ all that he needs.
- The sinner is ignorant of the danger he is in.
>> Cns. Isaac is alone before God, with no companions nearby.
>> Apl. The unsaved sinner is alone when he dies and when he is before the judgment
of God. No companion is there to help.
- Isaac asks about the future, something every sinner ought to do.
- Isaac accepts the sacrifice provided by God.
- Isaac without a doubt was content and satisfied with the sacrifice.
>> Apl. Satisfaction with the work of Christ on the cross for the individual is seen
when he/she trusts in Him for salvation.
HISTORICAL NOTE which illustrates obedience and loyalty to God:
In their book “By Their Blood”, James and Marti Hefley recount the story of many
of the twentieth century Christians who were tortured
and killed for their faith in Christ. They “loved not their lives unto
death” (Rev.12:11) and have left us an example of (what) true love to God, similar to
(what) [that which] we see in Abraham.
On page 343, speaking of the persecution in Armenia, they tell of some who were branded on
the chest with red-hot iron crosses. An
18-year old girl, who escaped into Russian territory and made it into an American relief
camp, told this story: “The Turks stood me up and asked, “Mohammed or
Christ?” I said, “Christ, always Christ.” For six days they
asked me this same question, and each day when I said ‘Christ’, a part of this
cross was burned into my shoulder. On the seventh day they said, “Tomorrow if
you say ‘Mohammed’ you live. If not, you die.” Then we heard
that Americans were near, and some of us escaped. That is how I learned the meaning of the
cross.”
<< Extracted from the publication Israel My Glory which they published with
permission. >> |
