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6 And Abraham took the wood 7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham of the burnt-offering, and laid it his father, and said, My father: and upon Isaac his son; and he took he said, Here am I, my son. And the fire in his hand and a knife: he said, Behold the fire and the and they went both of them to- wood: but where is the lamb for a gether. burnt-offering?

d John 19. 17.

perhaps, sufficient ground for a positive affirmation on the subject.

only, should his seed be called and multiplied, could not fail, he must have been, on the whole, persuaded that God 7. And Isaac spake, &c. At the pewould accomplish his word by raising riod of life to which Isaac had now arhis son from the dead. Accordingly rived, he must necessarily have been the Apostle goes on to affirm that he re- conversant with the rites and ceremoceived Isaac from the dead in a figure,' nies which obtained in the Abrahamic or parable. That is, as he is said to age, and more especially with the manhave been not actually, but intentional-ner in which expiation was made for ly and virtually offered up; so he was sin,--that for this purpose it was not literally, but virtually and figurative- necessary that the lives of animals ly restored to life from the dead. Oth- should be sacrificed, and the blood of ers, however, refer this to a parabolical bulls and of goats should be shed. It was representation of the sufferings, death, natural, therefore, seeing they were unand resurrection of Christ.¶ Go yon-attended by any thing by which the reder and worship. Heb. lit. and quisite expiation could be made, that bow down, the usual posture of worship; Isaac should propose the question here thus confirming the conjecture above mentioned, and which was so well calmentioned, that the Divine glory appear-culated to harrow up a father's heart. ed on the summit of the mountain. He For we must assuredly regard it, under had a good reason therefore for pro- the circumstances, as one of the most posing to go thither and worship. affecting questions ever addressed to 6. Laid it upon Isaac. As the sacri- mortal ears. How keenly must it fice was to be burnt to ashes, no small | have put the faith of Abraham to the quantity of wood would be requisite; test! Let the tender parent substitute and from Isaac's bearing such a burden himself in the place of the patriarch, up the hill, it is inferred, that although and he cannot but understand and feel in v. 5 he is called in our translation the ineffable pathos comprehended in 'lad,' instead of young man, yet he this brief interrogation. 'If,' as Bp. must now have arrived at adult age. Hall remarks, 'Abraham's heart could Josephus makes him twenty--five; have known how to relent, that question others thirty-three, that his age might of his dear, innocent, and pious son had correspond with that of his great anti-melted it into compassion. I know not type at the time of his crucifixion. The whether that word, 'my father,' did point is wholly uncertain. If, however, not strike Abraham as deep as the as intimated above, the transaction in knife of Abraham could strike his son.* the main were designed to be prefigu- ---¶ Where is the lamb? Heb. seh, rative of the crucifixion of the Saviour, applied to the young either of sheep or we see no objection to considering this goats. Ex. 12. 5. Deut. 14. 4. The particular incident as typical of Christ's | Gr., however, has rо πроẞarov тo εis odobearing his cross as related by the Evan-xαport the sheep for holocaust. gelist, John, 19. 17. Yet there is not, 8. God will provide himself a lamb for

8 And Abraham said, My son, | Abraham built an altar there, and God will provide himself a lamb for laid the wood in order; and bound a burnt-offering: so they went both Isaac his son, and laid him on the of them together. altar upon the wood.

9 And they came to a place which God had told him of; and

among

e

e Heb. 11. 17. Jam. 2. 21.

a burnt offering. Heb. un 13 nyi- on the altar on the wood. Not that this reh lo hasseh, will see for himself the lamb. was necessary as a measure of precauChal. My son, there will be revealed tion to prevent Isaac's escaping, but before God for himself a lamb for a burnt simply to conform to the usual rites preoffering.' Gr. operai cavтw пpoßarov, scribed in the offering up of animal sacwill see for himself a sheep. The idiom rifices. As the victims were bound by is Hebraic, that language having no oth- their four legs, so Isaac was doubtless er term for provide or foresee, than to see. bound by the hands and feet.-Hitherto Thus 1 Sam. 16. 1, 'I have provided me a it appears that Abraham had not informking among his sons.' Heb. I have seen ed his son of the true import of the comme a king, &c. Gen. 41. 33,' Now there- mand which he had received. But fore, let Pharaoh look out a man discreet now the mighty secret with which his and wise,' &c. Heb. Let Pharaoh see bosom labored must be divulged, and a man, &c. The answer thus returned, the lamb for the burnt-offering produced. though evidently evasive, was yet so The Jewish historian, Josephus, presents happily framed, that it could not but us with a dialogue which passed behave been satisfactory to Isaac. Piety tween the father and the son on this octo God, and filial reverence and defer- casion, striking and pathetic indeed, ence to his father, had no doubt been but far inferior to the beautiful simplicithe earliest lessons with which ty of Moses. He has not, it is true, inhis mind was imbued; and the present formed us of the express words in which reply addressed itself to both these the annunciation was made to Isaac ; principles It was clear that his father, but whatever they were, their purport from the fixed solemnity of his manner, was evidently this ;-Thou thyself, my and from the strange and inexplicable dear child, art the destined victim. nature of the whole proceeding, was That God, who graciously gave thee to engaged in some religious service of my longing desires, is now pleased to more than usual sacredness; and as he require thee again at my hand. knew from his father's general conduct Lord gave, the Lord taketh away; that he would neither do nor say any let us both adore the name of the Lord.' thing unadvisedly, and as he was doubt-But the sacred historian has thrown a less aware that he had entered upon veil over this affecting scene, that the the business in obedience to a divine imagination of the reader might portray command, he would probably take it to him more vividly than it is in the for granted that Abraham was fully au- power of language to do, the struggle of thorised to reply as he did, and that he the father and the agonies of the son. did not speak at random in saying that God would provide himself a lamb for sacrifice. His ready acquiescence, therefore, in the answer made to his enquiry, shews the working of a genuine faith in him as well as in his father.

The

Had not the patriarch been sustained by the consciousness that he was doing every thing in obedience to the will of God, it is easy to perceive that the conflict would have been too great for human endurance. We cannot see how

9. Bound Isaac his son, and laid him it would have been possible for him so

10 And Abraham stretched forth called unto him out of heaven, and his hand, and took the knife to slay said, Abraham, Abraham. And he his son. said, Here am I.

11 And the Angel of the Lord

coolly and composedly to have gone ful crisis. Nature shrinks back at the about the execution of the fearful order. spectacle here presented of a father And as it was, what must he have suf- lifting up his hand armed with a deadly fered while building the altar-laying weapon against the life of his son! But on the wood-binding his beloved son-- here was the completion of Abraham's and placing him upon the pile so soon to obedience and of his faith. Any thing be smeared with his blood and mingled short of this, and all would have been with his ashes! Every view we can unavailing. This last, this agonizing take of the affecting procedure works moment, when the knife was taken our sympathies to a higher pitch of in- and the hand outstretched to strike, tensity, and elevates the character of consummated the trial of Abraham, the patriarch immeasurably in our es- and bequeathed his faith to the church teem. But let not the almost equal me- of God as the most perfect model which rit of Isaac be forgotten. The conside mere mortality has ever offered of it. ration of his exemplary conduct, his And as he proceeded so far in his obemeek and pious resignation to the divine dience as to afford demonstrative eviappointment, is perhaps apt to be lost in dence that he would have gone to the the vague impression that he was too utmost extent of the letter of the comyoung to entertain an adequate sense of mand, God accepted the will for the his danger, and too feeble to have made deed, and the apostle therefore speaks resistance, had he been so inclined. of it, Heb. 21. 17, as if the act were But allowing him to have been no more than twenty-five, can it be supposed that an old man an hundred and twentyfive years of age, could have bound, without his consent, a young man in the very prime and vigor of life? Unques-nify not a purposed but an actual offering. tionably Isaac now approved himself 11. The Angel of the Lord called unto the worthy son of such a sire; and in him, &c. A moment more, and the vichis cheerful compliance we seem to tim would have been smitten; but in hear him saying, 'I should be unworthy that moment the awful mandate is coun of life, were I capable of shewing re- termanded. A voice too familiar to luctance to obey the will of my father Abraham not to be at once recognised as and my God. It were enough for me that my earthly parent alone called me to the altar; how much more when my heavenly father re-demands his own.' Thus it was not so much the superior strength, or even the parental authority, of the father, as the filial affection and pious obedience of the son, that prevailed on this trying occasion.

really performed; 'By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac : and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son;' where the term is that usually employed to sig

that of God himself addresses him out of heaven, and averts the dire catastrophe. Though termed an Angel, yet it is evident from the manner in which he here speaks of himself, and from what is said v. 12, 16, that he was not a created being, but was no other than the divine personage so often introduced into the sacred narrative under the title of the 10. And Abraham stretched forth his Angel Jehovah, the Angel of the Covehand, &c. We feel an involuntary nant, &c. respecting whom see note on shuddering as we draw near to the fear-Gen. 16. 7.

12 And he said, f Lay not thine 13 And Abraham lifted up his hand upon the lad, neither do thou eyes, and looked, and beheld behind any thing unto him: for now I him a ram caught in a thicket by know that thou fearest God, seeing his horns: and Abraham went and thou hast not withheld thy son, took the ram, and offered him up thine only son, from me. for a burnt-offering in the stead of

f 1 Sam. 15. 22. Mic. 6. 7, 8. 8 ch. 26.5. Jam. 2. 22.

his son.

cover to him the state of his mind; but for our sakes he made the exhibition of Abraham's obedience a ground for acknowledging the existence of the inward principle from which it sprang. It is by

12. Lay not thy hand upon the lad, knew, by a new proof, by having actu&c. The Heb.yeled, is applied ally made trial of him. He speaks here, not only to lads or children, but also to as in multitudes of other cases, in accomgrown up young men, as above to modation to human usages of speech. Abraham's armed or trained servants, It is common for men to say that they ch. 14. 14; to the young man of She- know that which they have found out by chem who ravished Dinah, ch. 34. 19; special trial, which they have learned to Joseph when called to interpret Pha- as the result of experiment; and the raoh's dreams, ch. 41. 12; to Joshua Most High is here pleased to adopt the acting as a servant or minister to same language. Thus Ps. 139. 23, it is Moses, Ex. 33. 11; and to Absalom said, 'Search me, O God, and know my making war against his father, 2 Sam heart;' though the psalmist had just be18. 2. The command was intended fore said, v. 2, 'Thou understandest my merely for trial; and as it fully ap- thoughts afar off. For himself he needpeared on trial that Abraham was cor-ed not the patriarch's obedience to disdially willing and determined to resign his son in obedience to the will of God, the end of the command was answered; consequently the counter-command to forego the sacrifice is not to be viewed as militating at all with the unchange-a holy and obedient deference to the ableness of the divine counsels. The divine authority that faith and fear are voice of God was never so welcome, made manifest. As a sinner, Abraham never so sweet, never so seasonable as was justified by faith only; but as a pronow. It was the trial that God intend fessing believer, he was justified by the ed, not the fact. Isaac is sacrificed, and works which his faith produced. This is yet alive; and now both of them are view will probably reconcile the appamore happy in what they would have rent discrepancy of Paul and James in done, than they could have been dis- regard to Abraham's justification. They tressed, if they had done it. God's both allege his case as an example of charges are oftentimes harsh in the be- what they are teaching, but the one resginnings and proceeding, but in the con-pects him as ungodly, the other as godclusion always comfortable. True spir-ly. In the first instance he is justified itual comforts are commonly late and by faith exclusive of works; in the last sudden; God defers, on purpose that by faith, as producing works, and thereour trials may be perfect, our deliver- by proving him the friend of God. ance welcome, our recompences glo- 13. Behold, behind him a ram caught rious.' Bp. Hall. ——¶ I know that thou in a thicket. This was in fact an accomfearest God, &c. God previously knew plishment of what Abraham himself all this, and had in effect declared it, had a little while before unwittingly prech. 18. 19. The idea is simply that he dicted. In reply to Isaac's question,

14 And Abraham called the name said to this day, In the mount of of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is the LORD it shall be seen.

'Where is the lamb for a burnt-offer- a burnt-offering.' The striking coring?' he had said, 'My son, God will respondence between this name and provide himself with a burnt-offering.' · Moriah' will be evident upon reBy this answer he merely intended to ferring to what is said of the etymolsatisfy his son's mind for the present, ogy of that word in v. 2. The whole till the time should come for making thread of the sacred story makes it known to him the command which he evident that good men of old were parhad received from God, in which com- ticularly solicitous to express in some mand that provision was actually made. public and permanent manner their But now, through the miraculous inter-grateful sense of the divine mercies. position of Heaven and the substitution| Hence they scarcely ever received any of the ram in Isaac's place, it had been remarkable deliverance from evil or literally verified in a way which he him- communication of good from God, but self had never contemplated. He that they erected some memorial of it, and made that beast brings him thither, fast-gave either to the place or to the memoriens him there. Even in small things al itself, some name that should transmit there is a great providence!' Bp. Hall. to posterity a remembrance of the blessThe command to sacrifice the ram, ing vouchsafed. Such was 'Beth-el,' though not expressly affirmed, is yet to where Jacob was favored with a special be presumed from the cirsumstances; vision, Gen. 23, 19; and 'Peniel,' where and in that incident we perceive not on- he wrestled with the angel, Gen. 32. ly the gracious interposition of Heaven 30; and Eben-ezer,' the stone erected in behalf of Abraham, but also a clear by Samuel in memory of Israel's vicintimation of that system of animal sacrifices which afterwards constituted the grand feature of the Jewish economy, and which was designed typically to foreshadow the future paramount sacrifice of the 'Lamb slain from the foundation Ex. 17. 15; 'Jehovah-shalom,' the Lord of the world.' In order to intimate send peace, Judg. 6. 24; 'Jehovah-shamthis still more forcibly, it can scarcely mah,' the Lord is there, Ezek. 48.25. In admit of doubt that the very place like manner the father of the faithful where the ram, after getting entangled, bestows a commemorative name upon was offered up, was the place subse- the scene of this remarkable transaction. quently chosen for the site of the Tem- As it is said to this day, In the ple, and, by consequence, of the offer-mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Heb. ing up of the stated perpetual sacrifices yeraeh, it shall be seen; the same of the children of Israel. 3 Chron. 3. 1. letters as in the preceding clause, but 14. Abraham called the name of that differently pointed and pronounced. place Jehovah-jireh. Heb. Gr. v Top opει Kupios woon in the mounYehovah-yireh, the Lord will see or provide. tain the Lord hath been seen. The Chal. Gr. Kupios eldev, the Lord hath seen. evidently interprets it of the future The import of this will be considered erection of the Temple as a place of worin the note on the ensuing clause. The ship on the spot, And Abraham prayed name was doubtless given in allusion to and served (God) there in that place, the expression mentioned above, v. 8, and said before the Lord, Here shall the 'God will provide himself a lamb for generations (to come) serve (God).

tory over the Philistines, 1 Sam. 7. 12, Frequently the name of Jehovah himself was annexed to some word expressive of the event commemorated, as 'Jehovah-nissi,' the Lord my banner,

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