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Bible 101 Lesson 4B

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Bible 101 Lesson 4B

God tells Abraham to kill Isaac, to butcher him, and to offer him on an altar as a burnt offering.

Gen 22:1-2 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

This time Abraham does exactly what he is told. He takes Isaac, the son of promise, and prepares to sacrifice him to God as a burnt offering. That won’t even leave him something of Isaac to bury.

To this terrible command, Abraham doesn’t offer any protest. He just takes Isaac with him to Moriah where he plans to kill him, butcher him, and offer him to God as a burnt offering on the altar he will build there.

This is inconceivable.

How can Abraham even think about obeying such a command?

What about God’s promise for a son and offspring from him as numerous as the stars?

What is going on, God?

So Abraham and Isaac go to make the offering and Isaac (who is probably a teen ager and could easily run away from Abraham) doesn’t even object or try to escape.

Isaac, the son of promise, willingly participates in being sacrificed to God.

Isaac is a type of Christ who will willingly offer himself as a sacrifice to God.

But, at the last minute God provides a sacrifice; a ram with his horns caught in a thicket. (Talk about a bad day for the ram!)

So Abraham doesn’t have to offer Isaac after all.

Because of his obedience, God blesses Abraham.

Gen 22:15 -18 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.

Abraham is thoroughly blessed, but he never talks to God again……

One of the blessings is “. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”.

And the seed to whom God referred is Christ.

Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

Gen 22:20-24 is a genealogy indicating that the story is moving to the next phase.

Gen 23 contains the story of Abraham buying land from Ephron the Hittite in order to have a place to bury Sarah and other family members.

It gives some insight into near-eastern bargaining.

Gen 23:12-16

Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.”

And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.”

And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants.

Abraham says, “I’ll buy the field from you.”
Ephron says, “No, no.Take it. By the way; it’s worth 400 shekels but you take it.”
Abraham gives him 400 shekels of silver.
This way Ephron can say he offered it as a gift and Abraham can say he paid full price and they both look good.

Gen 24: Abraham gets a wife for Isaac

Gen 24:1-9 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things. So Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please, put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell; but you shall go to my country and to my family, and take a wife for my son Isaac.

Two items to note:
1. Abraham doesn’t want his son to take a wife from among the people of the land where he is living.
A. They do not worship God.
B. The do not have the covenant of circumcision.
2. He tells his servant to put his hand under his thigh and swear. What’s that about?

From: https://www.gotquestions.org/hand-under-thigh.html
The thigh was considered the source of posterity in the ancient world. Or, more properly, the “loins” or the testicles. The phrase “under the thigh” could be a euphemism for “on the loins.” There are two reasons why someone would take an oath in this manner: 1) Abraham had been promised a “seed” by God, and this covenantal blessing was passed on to his son and grandson. Abraham made his trusted servant swear “on the seed of Abraham” that he would find a wife for Isaac. 2) Abraham had received circumcision as the sign of the covenant. Our custom is to swear on a Bible; the Hebrew custom was to swear on circumcision, the mark of God’s covenant. The idea of swearing on one’s loins is found in other cultures, as well. The English word testify is directly related to the word testicles.

Jewish tradition also offers a different interpretation. According to Rabbi Ibn Ezra, the phrase “under the thigh” means literally that. For someone to allow his hand to be sat on was a sign of submission to authority. If this is the symbolism, then Joseph was showing his obedience to his father by placing his hand under Jacob’s thigh.


Should I take Isaac with me?
What if she doesn’t want to come?

Gen 24:5-9 And the servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I take your son back to the land from which you came?”

But Abraham said to him, “Beware that you do not take my son back there. The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my family, and who spoke to me and swore to me, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land,’ He will send His angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there.”

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

Abraham does not want Isaac to go back with the servant because God promised that Abraham’s offspring would possess the land where he was living. He didn’t want Isaac exposed to the possibility of not coming back and, thereby, not receiving God’s promise.

Abraham’s servant asks God for help. He asks that a specific sign will be given to him so that he knows when he has found the right woman to be Isaac’s wife. By this we understand that the servant is also a worshiper of the One God because he prays to God and God answers his prayer.

God grants the sign and the servant encounters the daughter of Abraham’s brother, Laban, who will become Isaac’s wife. So Isaac marries his cousin.

Genesis 25:1-4 is a genealogy indicating that we are about to enter the next phase of the story.

Interesting item: (to me, anyway) When Abraham dies, both Isaac and Ishmael bury him. That indicates that the two sons were on speaking terms.

Gen 25: 5-6 Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac. (Nothing to Ishmael)

He also gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and then sends them away to the east to get them away from Isaac.

He does this to prevent his sons by his concubines from attacking Isaac in order to take his inheritance. It was a common practice in the ancient east for the son of a king, when he succeeded his father to the throne, to have all his brothers and their mothers killed so that there would be no attempts to take the throne from him. By sending his other sons far away, Abraham avoided this potential bloodshed to protect the son whom God promised and he spares the lives of his other sons.

Yeah. It was a brutal world back then.

Gen 25:12-18 Another genealogy ending one episode and signaling the next installment of “The Story of Us.” (Jews).
 
I'm not going to lie to you on this one. If I was Abraham I wouldn't have been as obident, and if I was Isaac, I would scream, wet myself, and then run for my life! :lol And please realize that although this comment is meant to be humorous, it's also just being honest as I admittingly don't have that much faith and commitment that they had.
 
I'm not going to lie to you on this one. If I was Abraham I wouldn't have been as obident, and if I was Isaac, I would scream, wet myself, and then run for my life! :lol And please realize that although this comment is meant to be humorous, it's also just being honest as I admittingly don't have that much faith and commitment that they had.
Being faithful can be a challenge. Many people have been killed because they insisted in being faithful to God's command.

Your honesty is a statement of your current level of faith. You are on the right road.
 
Being faithful can be a challenge. Many people have been killed because they insisted in being faithful to God's command.

Your honesty is a statement of your current level of faith. You are on the right road.




Really? Thanks even though I'm not a hundred percent certain what you're talking about. :confused
 
Being faithful can be a challenge. Many people have been killed because they insisted in being faithful to God's command.

Your honesty is a statement of your current level of faith. You are on the right road.

Can you name any, Brother? Or did you mean extremists who're like, lets go play on the freeway cuz God,ll save us huh huh huh...?
 
Can you name any, Brother? Or did you mean extremists who're like, lets go play on the freeway cuz God,ll save us huh huh huh...?



Alright, even though it probably wasn't supposed to, that comment REALLY just made me laugh!! :hysterical
 
Rashi,was quoted,StoveBolts.
Yitzhak,the three wells will be interesting.according to the midrash, the sages say moriah is where Adam was made.moriah,is where the temple lies later on and and the cross.this we do know as Jerusalem is jebus,and they dwelt on Mt .moriah
 
I hope my late posting isn't out of order, but this lesson is SO great! And foundational to our Faith

Isaac, the son of promise, willingly participates in being sacrificed to God.

Isaac is a type of Christ who will willingly offer himself as a sacrifice to God.

This story creates lots of problems for lots of people. This side of it is taught, but what about the other side? Abram had to be significant in being a 'type' of God the Father, willing to sacrifice His "only begotten Son," as Isaac truly was to Abram, and is why he was renamed Abraham.

Also:


Abraham is thoroughly blessed, but he never talks to God again……

Really? That's a detail I've missed. Seems like Abraham had some problems with this story, too!
 
Interesting, what i get from this is that God didnt want Abraham to kill his only son Issac. But a clue is in what i just said. Issac was the son of promise. If Abraham didnt want to kill his son, he would be telling god he doesnt trust that God will fulfill his promise. Abraham was an old man at the time, and Abraham's wife was laughing doubting even before Issac was born. I can make an educated guess as to what went through Abraham's mind as he went up the mountain with Issac. Alot of doubt and sorrow.
 
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