18 And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.
You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth.
To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.
I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth; Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.
Now to Abraham were the undertakings given, and to his seed. He says not, And to seeds, as of a great number; but as of one, he says, And to your seed, which is Christ.
May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name.
About his Son who, in the flesh, came from the family of David,
And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to put his son to death.
For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes.
And the holy Writings, seeing before the event that God would give the Gentiles righteousness by faith, gave the good news before to Abraham, saying, In you will all the nations have a blessing. So then those who are of faith have a part in the blessing of Abraham who was full of faith.
Because if the heritage is by the law, it is no longer dependent on the word of God; but God gave it to Abraham by his word.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the sign that the things not seen are true. For by it our fathers had God's approval. By faith it is clear to us that the order of events was fixed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made from things which only seem to be. By faith Abel made a better offering to God than Cain, and he had witness through it of his righteousness, God giving his approval of his offering: and his voice still comes to us through it though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken up to heaven so that he did not see death; he was seen no longer, for God took him away: for before he was taken, witness had been given that he was well-pleasing to God: And without faith it is not possible to be well-pleasing to him, for it is necessary for anyone who comes to God to have the belief that God is, and that he is a rewarder of all those who make a serious search for him. By faith Noah, being moved by the fear of God, made ready an ark for the salvation of his family, because God had given him news of things which were not seen at the time; and through it the world was judged by him, and he got for his heritage the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham did as God said when he was ordered to go out into a place which was to be given to him as a heritage, and went out without knowledge of where he was going. By faith he was a wanderer in the land of the agreement, as in a strange land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had a part with him in the same heritage: For he was looking for the strong town, whose builder and maker is God. And by faith Sarah herself had power to give birth, when she was very old, because she had faith in him who gave his word; So that from one man, who was near to death, came children in number as the stars in heaven, or as the sand by the seaside, which may not be numbered. All these came to their end in faith, not having had the heritage; but having seen it with delight far away, they gave witness that they were wanderers and not of the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are searching for a country for themselves. And truly if they had kept in mind the country from which they went out, they would have had chances of turning back. But now their desire is for a better country, that is to say, for one in heaven; and so it is no shame to God to be named their God; for he has made ready a town for them. By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body, Of whom it had been said, From Isaac will your seed take their name: Judging that God was able to give life even to the dead; and because of this he did get him back as if from death. By faith Isaac, blessing Jacob and Esau, gave news of things to come. By faith Jacob gave a blessing to the two sons of Joseph, when he was near to death; and gave God worship, supported by his stick. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, said that the children of Israel would go out of Egypt; and gave orders about his bones. By faith Moses was kept secretly by his father and mother for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a fair child; and they had no fear of the king's orders. By faith Moses, when he became a man, had no desire to be named the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Feeling that it was better to undergo pain with the people of God, than for a short time to have a taste of the pleasures of sin; Judging a part in the shame of Christ to be better than all the wealth of Egypt; for he was looking forward to his reward. By faith he went out of Egypt, not being turned from his purpose by fear of the wrath of the king; for he kept on his way, as seeing him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover, and put the sign of the blood on the houses, so that the angel of destruction might not put their oldest sons to death. By faith they went through the Red Sea as if it had been dry land, though the Egyptians were overcome by the water when they made an attempt to do the same. By faith the walls of Jericho came down, after they had been circled for seven days. By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land. What more am I to say? For there would not be time to give the stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets: Who through faith overcame kingdoms, did righteousness, got their reward, kept the mouths of lions shut, Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations. Women had their dead given back to them living; others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come; And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons: They were stoned, they were cut up with knives, they were tested, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and in goatskins; being poor and in pain and cruelly attacked, Wandering in waste places and in mountains and in holes in the rocks; for whom the world was not good enough. And not one of these got the good things of the agreement, though they all had a good record through faith, Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 22
Commentary on Genesis 22 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 22
Ge 22:1-19. Offering Isaac.
1. God did tempt Abraham—not incite to sin (Jas 1:13), but try, prove—give occasion for the development of his faith (1Pe 1:7).
and he said, … Here I am—ready at a moment's warning for God's service.
2. Take now thy son, &c.—Every circumstance mentioned was calculated to give a deeper stab to the parental bosom. To lose his only son, and by an act of his own hand, too!—what a host of conflicting feelings must the order have raised! But he heard and obeyed without a murmur (Ga 1:16; Lu 14:26).
3. Abraham rose … early, &c.—That there might be no appearance of delay or reluctance on his part, he made every preparation for the sacrifice before setting out—the materials, the knife, and the servants to convey them. From Beer-sheba to Moriah, a journey of two days, he had the painful secret pent up in his bosom. So distant a place must have been chosen for some important reason. It is generally thought that this was one the hills of Jerusalem, on which the Great Sacrifice was afterwards offered.
4. on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, &c.—Leaving the servants at the foot [Ge 22:5], the father and son ascended the hill, the one bearing the knife, and the other the wood for consuming the sacrifice [Ge 22:6]. But there was no victim; and to the question so naturally put by Isaac [Ge 22:7], Abraham contented himself by replying, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." It has been supposed that the design of this extraordinary transaction was to show him, by action instead of words, the way in which all the families of the earth should be blessed; and that in his answer to Isaac, he anticipated some substitution. It is more likely that his words were spoken evasively to his son in ignorance of the issue, yet in unbounded confidence that that son, though sacrificed, would, in some miraculous way, be restored (Heb 11:19).
9. Abraham built an altar, &c.—Had not the patriarch been sustained by the full consciousness of acting in obedience to God's will, the effort would have been too great for human endurance; and had not Isaac, then upwards of twenty years of age displayed equal faith in submitting, this great trial could not have gone through.
11, 12. the angel … called, &c.—The sacrifice was virtually offered—the intention, the purpose to do it, was shown in all sincerity and fulness. The Omniscient witness likewise declared His acceptance in the highest terms of approval; and the apostle speaks of it as actually made (Heb 11:17; Jas 2:21).
13-19. Abraham lifted up his eyes … and behold … a ram, &c.—No method was more admirably calculated to give the patriarch a distinct idea of the purpose of grace than this scenic representation: and hence our Lord's allusion to it (Joh 8:56).