I preached this sermon on Sunday, June 28, 2026, at Christ Presbyterian Church in Milford, Ohio.
The lectionary text is Genesis 22:1-14, 19
Do you remember the tests of the emergency broadcast system on TV decades ago? The announcement starts “This is a test. This station is conducting a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test.” Then you would hear an attention signal beep like a modem trying to connect to your AOL account to see if “You’ve got mail.” But you were told ahead of time and throughout the beeps and signals that it was a test.
This passage starts out like that. The narrator, supposedly Moses, tells us in the first verse that God is testing Abraham. That should assuage us with our concerns of this rather atrocious ask of Abraham by God. But it is still disturbing, and can serve to highlight the balance and possible conflict between ethics or law and blind devotion to God.
Another way to understand God’s test of Abraham is to realize the shortcomings of western culture. If God is part of western culture, He will just say, “I’m not like other gods. I’ll never demand child sacrifice.” Abraham would understand that and go on with his day.
But if God is part of Eastern culture, He will set up Abraham with a rabbinical moment of discovery, a moment Abraham will never forget. This was God’s approach, and this single bit of understanding helps me accept and appreciate God’s method here.
Now we can focus more on Abraham and how he responds to God’s command, a demand we already know is a test. But Abraham doesn’t know it is only a test. He only hears the attention signal. He already has the official instructions, not by a local broadcaster, but from God.
Every “god” system Abraham has been exposed to demands child sacrifice. God’s request is not surprising to him. We don’t know how old Isaac was in this passage, but he was between age 3, when Ishmael was banished to the wilderness, and 37, when Genesis tells of Sarah, his mother’s, death. In between these two events is the phrase, “Some time later,” both in chapter 22. If we split the difference using those clues, Isaac would be age 20, old enough to understand the blood sacrifice and strong enough to carry the wood for it.
Remember that Abraham’s father, Terah, made and sold idols to travelers and idolaters. According to the Jewish Midrash, after the story of Abraham discouraging customers from buying these idols, Terah turned him over to King Nimrod, who sentenced him to death by burning. Abraham survived the furnace unscathed with God’s help, but I have to wonder if this had an effect on him when he himself went to sacrifice Ishmael (last week) and Isaac (this week). Did he think that having your child killed was typical and acceptable? Is that why he was callous to Ishmael and now seemingly to Isaac?
The same Abraham who pleaded on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah, who put himself on the line to save his nephew Lot, somehow sees fit to heed God’s command to set Isaac on the altar. Theologians have been struggling with this story of Abraham’s obedience for centuries. We aren’t alone with our questions.
Soren Kierkegaard in 1843, under a pseudonym, published “Fear and Trembling,” a philosophical work that is an extended meditation on Genesis 22, also known as the Binding of Isaac. Kierkegaard was a theologian and philosopher in the 19th century who felt many Christians in his home country of Denmark were lazy in their religion, were Christians in name only.
I didn’t have enough time to study “Fear and Trembling,” not that I would have fully understood where he was going with his philosophy anyway. He highlights three questions he has with the story of the Binding of Isaac. The first two, as I read them, define Abraham’s relationship with God as one of faith, overriding all other ethical duties. This book examines the tension between ethical duty and faith through an analysis of Abraham’s psychological state during this journey to Moriah. Since Abraham’s actions could not be understood through an ethical framework, Kierkegaard argues, they can only be understood through faith.
The third question is an interesting one: Was Abraham’s concealment of the ordeal from Sarah and even Isaac ethically defensible?
Leonard Cohen, the Jewish songwriter and singer, taps into the message of Genesis 22 as well. “The Story of Isaac” is Leonard Cohen’s retelling of the biblical sacrifice of Isaac as a nine-year-old boy, used as a critique of those in power who sacrifice younger generations for their own visions, wars, or ideologies. His song blends the ancient story with modern moral warning, shifting from a child’s perspective to a direct address of contemporary authority.
| God tests | Abraham trusts | Isaac trails |
With these questions raised, let’s walk through the scripture passage. In the first verse, God calls out to Abraham, and Abraham responds with a single word, Hinaynee – “Here I am.” He says Hinaynee three times in this passage, twice to God. He is immediately obedient to Him.
At age 82, shortly before his death, Leonard Cohen wrote “You Want It Darker,” title track of his final album. The repeated refrain line is, “Hinaynee, Hinaynee. I am ready, Lord.”
Verse 2, God says, “Take your only son, whom you love – Isaac. I’m pretty sure we studied Abraham’s earlier son, Ishmael just last week! There are two ways of looking at the statement, “your only son.” One is to consider Isaac, “your favored son.” I could accept that, as Ishmael said, with me putting words in his mouth, “Father always liked you best.” The more likely explanation, however, is that Ishmael is considered out of the picture permanently, just as Sarah wanted, and Isaac is now the only heir.
Note that Abraham doesn’t ask for clarification. He doesn’t ask if God is sure what He’s asking for. He doesn’t try to negotiate. He obeys.
| God points | Abraham prepares | Isaac probes |
In verse 3, Abraham gets up early the next morning, just as he did when he banished Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness. With all his servants available and surely a stack of firewood already cut somewhere, Abraham still cuts his own wood for the burnt offering that he believes will be his son. This is not a test to Abraham.
On the third day, Abraham sees the mountain in the distance. He tells his two servants to wait with the donkey; they will go worship and Abraham tells the two servants, “We will return.” This shows that Abraham has faith that God could raise Isaac from the dead if needed. A resurrection would be something new in the Bible though, so is Abraham’s faith in God’s abilities extreme? Hebrews 11 may provide some insights in a minute.
Abraham places the wood for the sacrifice on Isaac and the two of them went on together. In verse 7, Isaac finally speaks in the only recorded dialogue between Abraham and Isaac. Isaac asks, “Father?” Abraham replies, Hinaynee – “Here I am.” Isaac asks the obvious question, “where is the lamp for the burnt sacrifice?”
Abraham answers, ““God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Or did we read that right?
The ancient Biblical Hebrew did not have punctuation marks like commas and colons, so this sentence has two completely different meanings depending on where a reader places a pause or comma. The NIV adds a comma, so it gives the message that Abraham is talking affectionately to Isaac. Remove the comma and in that reading, Abraham is no longer hiding anything. He is telling Isaac the terrifying truth right to his face: You are the lamb. This will make more sense in a moment.
Just like verse 6, the passage says the two of them went on together. Like Sheriff Andy Taylor and Opie walking down the road to go fishing. Father and son, together.
| Isaac’s bound | Abraham unsheathes | Angel stops |
In verse 9, Abraham builds an alter on Mount Moriah and binds Isaac. Whether Isaac is age 9, 20, closer to 37, he’s going to be strong enough to fight back against the centenarian Abraham. The only explanation here is that Isaac allowed himself to be bound ; he knew he was to be the sacrifice. I believe, with this simple act, Isaac was showing even more faith than Abraham himself.
Then Abraham went to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord stopped him, calling him twice, “Abraham, Abraham!” Abraham replied, again, “Hinaynee. Here I am.” The angel said, “I know you fear God because you did not withhold even your only son.”
| God provides | Abraham returns | Isaac vanishes |
Then Abraham opened his eyes and saw a ram caught in the thickets, and he sacrificed it, saving his son, a parallel to Hagar seeing a well and saving her son. In his relief, Abraham called the mountain, “The Lord Will Provide.” I’m sure it has a more poetic name than our four English word title.
The lectionary ends there, but I added verse 19. Listen carefully at the characters mentioned, or more importantly, who is *not* mentioned. “Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.”
What happened to Isaac? Hebrews 11:17-19 might provide an answer as to what happened to Isaac after the binding.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[a] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
The commentators suggest that Abraham considered Isaac dead once God told him to sacrifice his son. When God spared Isaac on the mountain, Abraham, in a manner of speaking, did receive Isaac back from the dead on the third day. Other scholars argue that original source text say that Abraham followed through with the slaying.
Referencing the Midrash again, there are a couple explanations for what happened to Isaac on the mountain. The most realistic and human explanation is that Isaac is traumatized by the near-death experience and runs away. This is feasible, as there is no mention of Isaac for a long time in Genesis, including through the death of Sarah.
In fact, it wasn’t until Abraham ages even more when Isaac is finally mentioned when Abraham goes to find him a wife, even though Isaac is not living with Abraham, in Genesis 24:62. Isaac and Abraham never speak to one another again in the text. Isaac is actually living where Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, had been known to go!
| Christ foretold | Sons beloved | Promiser trusted |
I’ve hinted at some of the parallels between the story of Isaac’s near sacrifice and Christ’s crucifixion.
Comparisons between Jesus Christ and Isaac:
· Both were their fathers’ only son, with Ishmael being considered out of the picture
· Both were beloved by their fathers
· Both offered themselves willingly
· Both carried the wood up the hill of their sacrificial death
· Isaac was considered dead by Abraham as soon as God gave the command, and Isaac was “made alive’ (risen) three days later.
· Both were delivered from death on the third day
· Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son. God the Father did sacrifice His only Son.
Did you know that the first time “love” is mentioned in the Bible is Genesis 22? Verse 1: Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love.”
Compare that to the first time “love” is mentioned in these synoptic gospels:
· Matthew 3:17 – “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.
· Mark 1:11 – “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
· Luke 3:22 – “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
· Then John 3:16, includes God’s love for His Son and for the world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son.”
Difference between trusting the promise (God’s covenant) and the promiser (God). Trust the Promiser no matter what, and the promise will be taken care of.
When God asked Abraham for the ultimate demonstration of love and commitment, He asked for Abraham’s son. When God the Father wanted to show us the ultimate demonstration of His love and commitment to us, He gave us His Son.To the Lord our God, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end,
be all glory and honor forever.
