Abraham, Here I Am
Our Father asks Abraham for the son the promise depends on. Abraham says nothing to Sarah, walks three days, and answers Isaac's question about the lamb by trusting provision. The knife is stopped mid-air and a ram is found in the thicket.
22 1Some time later, our Father tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," Abraham replied.
2Then our Father said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac. Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will name." a a v2 The threefold tenderness — "your son, your only son, whom you love" — points to John 3:16 and Romans 8:32. Abraham was spared from giving Isaac; our Father did not spare his own Son.
3Early next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took two of his young men and his son Isaac, split the wood for the burnt offering, and set out for the place our Father had told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He told his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there, worship, and return to you." 6Abraham took the burnt offering wood and laid it on his son Isaac, carrying the fire and knife himself. The two walked on together. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father?" "Here I am, my son," Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8Abraham answered, "Our Father himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two walked on together. 9When they reached the place our Father had told him about, Abraham built the altar, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar atop the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
11But our Father's messenger called to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he answered.
12"Don't lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do nothing to him. Now I know you fear me, since you haven't held back your son, your only son, from me."
13Abraham looked up and saw a ram behind him, caught by its horns in a thicket. He went, took the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14Abraham named that place "The Father Will Provide," meaning "our Father will provide." To this day it is said, "On his mountain it will be provided." b b v14 YHWH-Jireh means "YHWH will provide." Abraham named this mountain after our Father provided the ram in place of Isaac — pointing forward to the eternal provision of Jesus on the cross.
15The messenger of our Father called to Abraham from heaven a second time,
16and said, "I swear by myself, declares our Father: because you have done this and not held back your son, your only son, 17I will surely bless you and surely multiply your offspring like the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies, 18and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed my voice."
19Abraham returned to his young men, and they set out together for Beersheba. Abraham settled in Beersheba.
20Some time later, Abraham was told, "Milcah too has borne sons to your brother Nahor: 21Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), 22Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel." 23Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These were the eight sons Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. 24Nahor's concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
