The Binding Faith of Isaac

Gen 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Last week I wrote about the Faith that Abraham in the Promises of God, that his Faith was deep and immense, that he was willing to walk his own son up the mountain and lay him on the altar to be Sacrificed. I wrote about how he believed in God fulfilling His promise that Abraham's seed would be called in Isaac so much that he believed that God would resurrect Isaac if he would actually go through with the Sacrifice.

I wrote about how it is that type of Faith that is needed for Salvation, that when we come to Christ for Salvation we must believe and have that deep of Faith in Him as the Gospel proclaims of Him. That He is the Son of God, God in Flesh who was born of a virgin, who lived a perfect life, who took all the Sins of Mankind, of you and me upon Himself at the Cross making Atonement for us and on the 3rd day Resurrected overcoming Death and Hell. One must believe and have Faith in that kind of fashion that we will be Saved and when we do we will be Born Again.

I also wrote how us who are Saved need that same kind of Faith, to believe in the many Promises of God and walk in them, and for us to think of what our individual lives would look like, our families would look like, our Churches would look like, our communities, cities, states, country, what the World would look like if we all walked in the Promises of God in the same fashion of Abraham did in believing so fundamentally in God's Promise about Isaac that he was willing to offer him as a Sacrifice believing that God would resurrect him.

I would have to say that that has been on my heart for this entire week, the Faith that Abraham had, it was amazing and it was immense but as I continued to meditate and think upon that event in the Bible, God began to turn my thoughts to Isaac. And that is what I want to give to you today, what God has shown me about Isaac, about his Faith and a more full picture of the Gospel that is given to us in the events that happened upon the Mount in Moriah.

Many times I have heard people try to call this event of Abraham and Isaac as being a horrible thing, to think of how Abraham could take his son and lay him on an altar and be ready to sacrifice him. I have heard people call Abraham a monster to force his child to go up the mountain to be slain. However studying this out further, praying on it, meditating on it there are some details people don't seem to consider concerning the events and especially Isaac.

In most people's mind when they hear or read this story because it says Abraham's son, they or at least I had in the past, pictured Abraham as taking a very young Isaac with him up the mountain. I always pictured Isaac as being 6-10 years old and I could suppose that if you were to come with that picture in your mind that maybe one could be convinced to believe that it is just to say that Abraham was acting monsterish, to take a child that had no power over himself to be sacrificed. However there is one detail I believe changes everything concerning this event.

See Isaac was not some young helpless child, it is believed that Isaac was actually somewhere between 20-30 yrs old at the time of this event. It has even been relayed by the Jewish Rabbis that he was 37, and while we may not know the exact age he was, what we can discern is that Isaac was not a young helpless child. With this in mind I would like to take a look at that event from the perspective of Isaac and the relation of it to the Gospel.

Last week I was thinking about the Faith of Abraham, this week it has been the Faith of Isaac that has been on my mind. Putting myself into his shoes, to be carrying the wood up the mountain that would be used to Sacrifice me. See at some point, I believe early on, Isaac had to understand that he was going to become the Sacrifice. What manner of Trust he had in his Father Abraham. Following him up the mountain, to willingly lay himself down to be bound, to be placed on the altar. That Faith is as poignant or more so than Abrahams.

The more I have thought and prayed on this the more that 2 major things have been brought to my heart and mind, the first is the idea of binding. As I already mentioned the amount of Faith and Trust that is seen in Isaac to allow himself to be bound in staggering. Trusting his Father, having Faith that whatever was going to happen it was going to be ok, even upto dying. That kind of Faith, that kind of Trust is inspiring to me. I want that kind of Faith and Trust to play out in my life.

However I have wondered and prayed about why Isaac needed to be bound, if he was willing to allow himself to be bound why did he even need to be bound? Couldn't he have just got on the altar himself and laid there?

It could be said that he was bound because it was the method of sacrifice for animals, but they are bound because they are not willingly going unlike Isaac, who chose to go to the altar as a Sacrifice. So I was asking God why would he need to be bound, what's the point and purpose of that, what's the Spiritual implication towards us that we can apply to our lives?

And immediately what sprung to mind, and was laid upon my heart was that it was about commitment. The binding wasn't there to force him to be sacrificed as it's used for animals, because Isaac willingly went to the altar. Instead it was about him showing outwardly his complete and total commitment to the act. Willing to give up his own power to avert it in anyway, Isaac was completely and totally committed to whatever was going to take place.

In Numbers 30 it is related multiple times about the Binding of one's soul to God, and to husband and wife. In these Scriptures we can understand the action of being bound as being completely committed in deed and word to either God or a Spouse. So what is it that we are choosing to be bound to? What are we committing ourselves to in this present time?

The Faith, the Trust, the commitment we see in Isaac's binding should cause us to seek after, to look towards, to understand what exactly it is that we have Faith in, how much are we Trusting and to what extent are we committed to that which we have placed our Faith in. It is my prayer going forward that God offers me the Grace to have the Faith, the Trust and the commitment towards Him and His call on my life as Isaac had towards Abraham and the Sacrifice. It is my hope that all who come upon this pray the same thing for their lives and for their calling.

The second major thing that was brought to my mind as I thought and prayed over this was the perfect and amazing picture of the Gospel that is shown in this event. I would like to just show you this picture as God has revealed it to me, that the Gospel may be preached and that someone may have the Faith of Abraham or the Binding Faith of Isaac in it and be Born Again.

There are two people present and three items mentioned in the Scriptures surrounding this event. The two people are Abraham and Isaac, and the 3 items are the wood, the fire, and the knife.

Genesis 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

Here we begin to see the Gospel coming to light and into focus. We have the Father who is sending His Son to be a Sacrifice. We see the Son in perfect obedience and trusting the Father completely. We see that the Father is carrying the Fire and the Knife to the Altar and the Son is carrying the Wood.

God sent His only begotten Son to become a Sacrifice for us for our Sins, God the Father carried the burning wrath of His furry and punishment towards Sin to the Cross with the instrument used to bring about the Death of His Son like unto the Spear used to pierce the side of Christ. Jesus the Son of God carried the Wood used to perform the Sacrifice Himself up the Mount of Golgotha where He willingly laid down His life, and allowed Himself to be bound to the Cross in full Trust, Obedience and Faith as to what was going to happen.

As I have reflected upon the Faith and Trust of Isaac, I am more so drawn to the Faith and Trust of Christ as He bound Himself to that Cross and I am moved in my Spirit to call out in Praise the Love He had to give Himself for me and my Sins. It is my prayer that all who come upon this are stirred up in their Spirit as well and look to Christ for Salvation, look to Christ for Faith and look to Christ for a pattern of Trusting the Father in all things.

I love you all, have a great day and blessed day in the Lord!

If you need prayer or anything else please feel free to reach out to me and I will help you the best I can and if I can't help I know one man that can, this man named Jesus!

Disciples

Are

Continually

Influencing

Peoples

Living

Existence

John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha