Abraham had two sons. Why did God say to Abraham - "Take your son, your only son, whom you love--Isaac--and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you." in Genesis 22:2?
The above Bible verse is very crucial to our believing in Jesus Christ. Please don't pay any attention to those who describe it as a “contradiction" in God's word. The entire Bible is like a perfect embroidery with no loose ends, all the books interconnected, making sense and giving life as a whole to all who believe and only through God’s Wisdom for all who believe - Grace Himself: Jesus Christ.
Just a quick background before we address God's reference to Isaac as Abraham's only son in Genesis 22:2.
Remember those two disciples (Cleopas and his companion) on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24? They were sad because they felt all hope was lost since Jesus had been crucified. They did not recognize the Lord Jesus as the one who walked with them on the way. Here's what Christ did as they went:
"27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures."
That same evening, the two disciples went to Jerusalem to share their experience of Christ with the other disciples. Jesus appeared to them there; check out what He did in verse 45 (MSG)-
“He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way.”
There was no New Testament at this time. Christ taught His disciples about Himself from the Old Testament. The Old Testament is filled with faith pictures of our Saviour Jesus Christ and our salvation in Him.
Christ teaches us to read the Old Testament by bringing Him out of ALL the Scriptures. ALL.
In one of the most popular passages of the New Testament, Christ Himself made one reference to Himself in the Old Testament: the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness is a picture of Christ lifted up to save the world from sin and death. See John 3-
14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
Christ draws a parallel between how the Israelites that were bitten by snakes got to escape death and how we who look to Jesus for salvation from sin and death get to “not perish but have eternal life.”
The Israelites that had been bitten by snakes only had to look at the bronze serpent on the pole - for us, Christ lifted up to free us from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin, grant us everlasting righteousness apart from our puny attempts at keeping the Law and give us eternal life - every blessing in John 3:16. All of these have nothing to do with our puny attempts at keeping the law or sowing seeds, just as the Israelites only had to look at the bronze serpent in order to live. Believing this way is seeing Christ lifted up.
Imagine the Israelites trying to rid themselves the snake sting/venom, rushing off to do burnt offerings, give gifts to God or doing their best to keep the Ten Commandments and the rest of the laws in order to be free from the snake sting and escape certain death instead of looking at the bronze snake on the pole. They would have been distracted from looking at the bronze snake on the pole with all of their futile efforts at doing what the Law commands in order to be made whole -
"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.
The effects of the snake sting/venom within isn't stalled by these futile and useless activities aka law-keeping in order to be godly/righteous. Rather, it gets worse. Death is the result. The letter (law) kills.
But this is exactly what many in the church today are doing with that false doctrine that says- “Yes we are saved by GRACE but we still have to obey the LAW in order to be godly, made whole, escape God's wrath and make it to heaven.”
1 Corinthians 15:56 says: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.”
Romans 6:14 says: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
The more one tries to do things by human effort (aka obey the Law) in order to be godly and saved, the more sins will multiply — same way the Israelites would have died if they had opted to run around looking for how to be free from the snake venom (sin nature) and its symptoms (acts of sin and their consequences) that lead to death, giving the venom time to spread and wreak havoc. Anyone who is keeping the law in order to get right with God rejects God's gift of righteousness and everlasting life that Christ died that we might have. Here's more on Christ's analogy of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up as Himself:
This brings us to Genesis 22:2-
"Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love--Isaac--and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you."
“Only” here is from the Hebrew word Yachad which has the following interpretations:
But let's dig even deeper to see how this verse impacts us as believers in Christ. Just to digress a bit, this faith picture of Abraham and Isaac at Mt. Moriah isn't at all about us giving up things we like for God. It's all about God giving up His own beloved Son for the world that He so loved. When you know just how much He loves you in that He sacrificed His own Son for you, you'll want to give your all to Him.
Remember all these things are types and shadows of our salvation through Jesus Christ? God not recognizing Ishmael as a son of Abraham has got to do with how Ishmael was born - Ishmael was born according to the flesh. See Galatians 4:
21 "Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. 23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. 24 This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. ...
28 And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also."
See the New Living Translation of verses 28-29: “And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit.”
Understand that "walk in the flesh" or “...according to the flesh” simply means “by human effort." It does not mean committing sins with reckless abandon or not giving a hoot about God as false doctrine preachers teach. We see an explanation of walking "according to the flesh" in the account of the births of Ishmael and Isaac in verse 23 of Galatians 4 already quoted above-
“23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, 24 which things are symbolic.”
The NLT version says: “The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of His promise.”
Recall that in the same Galatians 4, Hagar and Sarah are typified as the two covenants - Law and Grace. Galatians 4:24 -
“This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants:…”
Abraham here is a picture of Faith. Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (Law) to help her give birth to or raise/train Isaac (the church- you and I in Christ.) Grace is enough. Grace is a person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:
"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."
Ishmael was born according to the flesh aka "in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise." He was the result of Abraham (Faith) and Sarah's (Grace) human attempt at bearing fruit through Hagar (Law) in a bid to bring to pass God's promise to them that they would bear fruit - this is a type or picture of churchgoers claiming to be saved by Grace through Faith yet are still trying to keep the Law and are doing its works in order to bear the fruit of godliness or make God's promise come to pass in their lives, even when Ephesians 2:8-9 says:
"For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; 9 not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]."
Sarah and Abraham couldn't wait for their salvation from childlessness and so decided to hurry God's promise along by their own will-power; young and fertile Hagar was given to the still-virile Abraham so that they could bear fruit, this after God had already promised them that Sarah herself would bear the fruit of Isaac through His power.
Isaac did not come until Abraham and Sarah knew 100% that they were POWERLESS to bear fruit. For us today, Christ says in John 15:5-
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
See The Passion Translation: “I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.”
See how to get separated from Christ - “For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace.” Galatians 5:4.
But many churchgoers are yet to understand the weight and power of the Word of the Almighty about how we get to bear “much fruit" and think that they can at least do something to bear fruit to God.
Just as Abraham (Faith) and Sarah (Grace) did with Hagar (Law,) many are trying to help God to make His word come to pass through human striving at bearing fruit aka keeping the Law or dependence on human effort at obedience. This thought has its root in the belief that God's work cannot succeed without our making it so by some forceful effort on our part. This is exactly what Abraham and Sarah thought as they were engineering the birth of Ishmael through Hagar (a picture of the Law.)
Remember Galatians 4: “The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of His promise.”
So how come God did not recognize Ishmael as a son of Abraham in Genesis 22:2? To show we who believe in Jesus that any righteous act that is borne of human attempts at bearing fruit to God aka keeping the Law is not recognized by God.
Again, Ephesians 2:8-9 says: "For it is by grace [God’s remarkable compassion and favor drawing you to Christ] that you have been saved [actually delivered from judgment and given eternal life] through faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [not through your own effort], but it is the [undeserved, gracious] gift of God; 9 not as a result of [your] works [nor your attempts to keep the Law], so that no one will [be able to] boast or take credit in any way [for his salvation]."
Churchgoers who claim to be saved by Grace through Faith yet try to keep the Law (aka have a relationship with Hagar) in order to bear the fruit of godliness might have works to show for it, but God does not recognize such works of the Law. They just don't count with Him. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 describes such righteousnesses as a menstrual rag in God's sight:
"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."
Christ the Vine has all it takes to make we His branches bear the "much fruit" of godliness and right living. Law-keeping is anything at all that one does by human striving aka arm of flesh in a bid to bear the fruit of godly living, improve one's standing before God, as a means of getting Him to bless or as a means of enjoying the blessing of "not perish but have everlasting life."
There are works of the LAW (driven by human effort aka the arm of flesh and done to get right with God or get His blessing.) Man can boast about these kinds of work e.g. God blessed me because I sowed seed, obeyed the Ten Commandments and washed church toilet. The righteousnesses that proceed from these arm of flesh-driven works are like a menstrual rag in God's sight. All have sinned so no matter how good these works of the Law done to get God to bless are, the stain of sin is in it. Offering such (self) righteousnesses to God is infinitely worse than someone offering you a cool glass of water with a drop of their menstruation blood in it.
Then, there are works of FAITH which are the fruit of being under Grace: being one with Christ the Vine. Here, we know that of ourselves, we are powerless to generate even an atom of righteousness by ourselves. We utterly depend on God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ for salvation, including right living.
Beloved of God, there are works on both sides of Law and Grace. It's all about the mindset or thoughts behind the works that we do. Do you think it is you doing the work or do you know that there is no good in you of yourself and that you would be wallowing in sins like the vilest offender were it not for God's Mercy and His saving Grace?
Being under Grace does not mean that we sit idly doing nothing as antichrist preachers say. In Christ, our testimony is like Paul's in 1 Corinthians 15:10-
"But because of God’s grace I am what I am. And His grace was not wasted on me. No, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. But I didn’t do the work. God’s grace was with me."
How is God's grace wasted on a person? See this in Galatians 2:20-
"I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!"
Only God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ will suffice for God the Righteous Judge, and it is free for all who believe in Jesus Christ. Romans 5:9 tells us how God sees all who look to Christ alone for salvation:
“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."
Just as God did not recognize the child that Hagar (who is a type of the Old Covenant of the Law) bore through Abraham and Sarah's human attempt at bringing His promise to pass, God does not recognize the righteousnesses that proceed from obeying the Law or doing its works in order to produce fruit, even though these works are visible, like those of the Pharisees.
Until one realises how useless his will-power/human attempt at bearing fruit to God is - whether the fruit of moral excellence, righteousness or anything that is done to get any blessing that comes from God - all that he will produce for his efforts at obeying the law in order to bear the fruit of godliness is work that is like Ishmael, not recognized by God.
Even though these righteous works of the Law that are done to get right with God or to bear the fruit of godliness are visible to the world just like Ishmael who was born to Abraham through Hagar (a picture of the Law,) God does not recognize them-
“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the Law commands. The Law simply shows us how sinful we are.” Romans 3:20.
The promise that God made to Abraham can only be inherited by Grace (typified by Sarah) through Faith (typified by Abraham.) There is no room for Law (typified by Hagar.) See Romans 4:13-
"Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith."
In Christ, we are Abraham's descendants- "If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised." Galatians 3:29.
Like Isaac, we who believe in Jesus Christ (Grace-personified) are borne of and saved by Grace through Faith and not by works of the law. We inherit the promise of God by virtue of our being "born-again" children of God. We have no righteousness or strength of our own. As it was with Abraham and Sarah bearing the fruit that is Isaac, our "much fruit" - godliness, righteousness, living a life of moral excellence and living in triumph over sin and death - don't come by human striving or will-power at keeping a relationship with Hagar (the Law.) Our fruit of godliness and every blessing of God is the result of our being part of the True Vine Jesus Christ who is Grace-personified.
Faith without works is dead. This is the Truth. But what works are we doing? Is it works of the Law that one can boast about or works of Faith? Remember Hagar and Sarah typify the two covenants of Law and Grace? Look what Hagar did to Sarai after she got pregnant: Genesis 16:4-
"Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar realized this, she became very proud and began to feel that she was better than Sarai her owner."
You know that it is works of the Law if like Hagar (Law) you take pride in your pregnancy (work of the Law) and the fruit you bear and despise Grace for not bearing fruit on time according to your own human reasoning. This is why you can never find a true believer boasting about how God gave her a jet because she obeyed the Law and sowed her car. For all who believe, every single blessing that we receive is like Isaac, a gift of God's Grace aka undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.
Remember Sarah went through the same gestation process that Hagar did to bear the fruit of Isaac? It was not as if a stork miraculously dropped him in a basket at Sarah's feet. There are works on both sides of Law and Grace.
Sarah (Grace) had Faith. Her work (of faith) was Isaac and it had nothing to do with her human effort at bearing fruit through Hagar (Law.) She knew that she and her husband were powerless to bear fruit.
Sarah also had work (Ishmael) through Hagar (Law.) But God does not recognize such human effort- driven works at bearing fruit. She and Abraham were powerless to do anything by their will-power when Isaac was given. God does not recognize such works that come from human effort at getting what He promised.
Remember Galatians 4:28 says: "And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise."
Just as Sarah (Grace) did not need Hagar (Law) to train Isaac (believers in Christ) in the way of godliness, we who are children of God in Christ (Grace-personified) do not need to keep a relationship with the Law in order to attain godliness, righteousness or live a life of moral excellence. Grace is enough.
As it was when Hagar (Law) gave birth to Ishmael, works of the Law (human effort at bearing the fruit of godliness, righteousness, moral excellence, etc to God) can come very quickly but its doers are servants and cannot remain in the house forever. They are doers of the word of the Law and not doers of the word of Faith. The Law is not of Faith.
Grace might take her time like Isaac did but here, the promise is sure and forever and brought to pass by the Spirit of the Lord; not by human might or power.
Only by receiving God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death: Romans 5:16-17:
"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."
Only God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ suffices for God to see us as righteous/godly. In God's reckoning, any “fruit” of Hagar aka righteousnesses from keeping the Law might as well not exist. They are like “a menstrual rag" in His sight.
Right believing always produces right living.
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