Abraham had much the same start in life that many of us probably had, with little to no understanding of, or even interest in, God. And for Abraham it lasted for the first seventy years of his life too, because his father, who ruled the family roost, “worshipped other gods.” 

And maybe we grew up in a culture that focused our minds on “other gods” too, like materialism, self image, and personal gain. So wouldn’t it have been nice if God had done for us what he did for Abraham?

Like, for instance, God speaking in person to us, just as he did to Abraham in Genesis 12:1, when “the Lord said to Abram.” And later in verse 7, “the Lord appeared to Abram” too.  

And in Genesis 13:14-17, God pronounced amazing promises in person to Abraham too. He also encouraged Abraham “in a vision,” Genesis 15:1. And when Abraham needed further assurance that God would fulfill his promises to him in Genesis 15:8, God responded in the most remarkable way. He had Abraham “bring a heifer, a goat and a ram” in verse 9, and told him in verse 10 to “cut them in two and arrange the halves opposite each other.” And that evening in verse 17, “a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces,” to get the point across to Abraham, that if he, God, broke his covenant to bless Abraham’s descendants as promised (in verses 18-20), then he, God, should be cut in two like those animals. 

Talk about dramatic visuals, but that’s how God helped Abraham to know him. So does God do the same for us? 

Yes he does, Hebrews 1:1-2 – “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” God still speaks, just as he did “in the past,” but he’s updated his way of speaking in our day through Jesus. 

And that would include appearing to us in Jesus too, because as Jesus himself said in John 14:21, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 

Which he did in person to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and “their eyes were opened and they recognized him,” Luke 24:31. So they knew it was Jesus talking to them. 

But “How do we know Jesus is talking to us?”…(next blog)

By the time God told Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering in Genesis 22, Abraham had known God for at least fifty years. Twenty five of those years were between the time God first spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12:1, to the time Isaac was born. Then another twenty-five years (or more) to the day Isaac was to be sacrificed, just before the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, in Genesis 23:1. She was 127 years old when she died, so Isaac was 37, or close to it, when Abraham was told to sacrifice him in the previous chapter. 

For at least fifty years, then, Abraham had known God. And during that time God had made himself known to Abraham, and well enough for Abraham to know it was God too. Which is extraordinary, because Abraham had been brought up in a family led by a hierarchical outrightly pagan father who “worshipped other gods,” Joshua 24:2. 

It was only because “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia (Iraq),” Acts 7:2 – when Abraham was already at least seventy years old – that any knowledge or relationship with God began for him. It was totally by God’s doing and calling, therefore, that Abraham came to know God at all (Isaiah 51:2) – and even then it took another five years for Abraham to be released from his pagan father and finally get to Canaan by age 75 (Genesis 12:4-5). 

And in Canaan that’s when God told him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to take possession of it,” Genesis 15:7. “I am the Lord” was the first and major point God had called Abraham to know about him. And Abraham got it, because in verse 8 he replies, “O Sovereign Lord,” in clear recognition and understanding that God was the supreme power, majesty and ruler in his life now. 

Which was good, but at this point in his life Abraham didn’t know God that well, because he asks in verse 8, “how can I know that I will gain possession of it (the land of Canaan)?” To which God replies in verse 13, “You’ll know for certain.” And in an amazing combination of visual and vision in verses 9-17, God then helps Abraham know for certain. So again, it’s by God’s doing that Abraham came to know him so well. 

Which is encouraging, because we’re now “children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7), and equally called by God to know him (John 17:3) – so we can expect God to do the same for us that he did for Abraham. 

To the next blog, then: “How does God help us to know him?” 

What God was asking of Abraham in Genesis 22 was (humanly speaking) completely nuts, because it meant Abraham having to give up everything God had promised him. So what was God’s point in promising incredible blessings to Abraham in Genesis chapters 12, 15, 17 and 18, when a few chapters later it would all go up in smoke (literally) with the death of Isaac in a burnt offering? 

It does say in Genesis 22:1, though, that God was “testing Abraham.” But what a strange test, and with no explanation as to the purpose of it either. So what made Abraham obey God so willingly, or at least humbly and without question? 

It wasn’t because of any benefit to him personally, because there was no pre-promise from God that “If you obey me there’ll be a reward waiting.” Quite the opposite: if Abraham obeyed God he’d not only lose his much loved son, but all that God had promised to his son too.  

For the first time in Abraham’s relationship with God, therefore, there was nothing to be gained from trusting him. Up to this point it had been nothing but huge and extremely positive blessings for Abraham – reason enough for him to obey; but not this time. 

Which was much the same situation Job found himself in, and at roughly the same time Abraham was faced with his situation in Genesis 22. The question asked of Job in his case was: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9). If there’s no personal gain, in other words, why obey? 

There was no personal gain for Jesus either, in giving up everything to become a human and be “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” in Mark 14:34 – much like Abraham must have felt at the thought of killing his son. So what enabled Jesus to obey in a similarly excruciatingly painful test? 

Two words in verse 36: “Abba, Father.” His Father was the reason Jesus obeyed, because he knew his Father (John 10:15). Which was the same point God brought Job to, where Job could at last say, “now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). And God made sure Abraham came to know him over many decades as well, so that when tested beyond his human ability to cope, Abraham had a clear reason for obeying, and that was the God he’d come to know so well. It was God himself, therefore – above all the promises and blessings God had given him – that made Abraham obey him so willingly.      

Next blog, then: “How did Abraham come to know God so well?” 

For Abraham it all started with obedience in Genesis 12:1 when “The Lord said to him. ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’” “So,” verse 4, “Abram left, as the Lord had told him.” 

It was Abraham’s obedience, then, that got God’s great plan to “bless all peoples on earth” started. This is how and when the plan of salvation and rescuing us humans from the mess Adam and Eve made began – in Abraham doing what he was told by God. 

But it took another test of Abraham’s obedience for him to picture the level of obedience that God required. And that test came in Genesis 22:2 when God told Abraham to kill his son. Because for Abraham to properly represent and picture Jesus, the ultimate source of salvation, nothing less than being “obedient to death” would suffice. 

What God required of his own son – to “humble himself and become obedient to death” in Philippians 2:8 – meant, therefore, that Abraham needed to humble himself and become obedient to death too. That’s why God required Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It was a test of obedience, at the level Jesus would willingly go through later. 

And the parallel with Jesus on this score is made even more apparent in the response that Abraham and Jesus both had to what God wanted them to do. 

Because when God planned to test Abraham in Genesis 22, Abraham’s immediate response in verse 1 was: “Here I am.” And what was Jesus’ response to God wanting him to die in a human body for our salvation? “Here I am,” Hebrews 10:7, “I have come to do your will, O God.” 

So – in both attitude and action – Abraham and Jesus did what God required for the blessing and salvation of the human race. And it was because both Abraham and Jesus “reverently submitted” to God’s will, and never questioned it, that God, in response to their obedience, “exalted Jesus to the highest place” (Philippians 2:9), and swore to Abraham he would bless “all nations on earth, because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:18). 

It was their obedience, therefore, that reversed the devastation that Adam and Eve’s disobedience had caused. Which is why the salvation of us messed up humans started with obedience.

But next blog: “What made Abraham obey God so willingly?”

When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering, what he wanted to know from Abraham was that Abraham feared him. 

Because, again, this was a perfect parallel with Jesus who, “During the days of his life on earth, offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission (or godly fear),” Hebrews 5:7. 

And it was because of his godly fear that Jesus stuck to obeying God perfectly through excruciating physical and mental suffering (verse 8), the result of which was him “becoming the source of eternal salvation,” verse 9.

Godly fear, therefore, was attached directly to Jesus becoming the greatest blessing of all to the human race, pictured perfectly by Abraham sticking to obeying God perfectly through his excruciating suffering too, the result of which, Genesis 22:16, was God “swearing by myself, that because you have done this and not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you….and through your offspring (verse 18) all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  

So just as Jesus’ obedience resulted in him becoming the greatest blessing for the whole human race, Abraham’s obedience resulted in him becoming the source of blessing for all nations too. And the reason for God enabling them both to be such a massive blessing for us humans was their godly fear.  

And God certainly tested them both on that score, because it was only after he knew that they feared him that he opened up his amazing promises to them. For Jesus the test came in the Garden of Gethsemane when he cried out in agony, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but yours be done,” Luke 22:42. For Abraham the test came in Genesis 22:2, when God told him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering, and Abraham didn’t question it. 

What made them both succeed in their test was their absolute and total reverence for God. When Abraham was told, “Now I know that you fear God,” the Hebrew word for “God” there is Elohim, the great majestic “King above all gods” (Psalm 95:3). That’s the God they both saw. No wonder they both obeyed him without question. 

To the next blog, then: “It all starts with obedience”  

So much of what happened in Genesis 22 pictured Jesus. I imagine Jesus referring to it on his walk with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:27, when “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Like the story in Genesis 22 of God telling Abraham to “Take your son, your only son, whom you love,” clearly picturing Jesus as God’s only son whom he loved. And telling Abraham to “go to the region of Moriah” to sacrifice Isaac “as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about,” an obvious parallel with Jesus being crucified on Mount Moriah, where Jerusalem was built.  

And carrying right on with the parallels in verse 3, we have Abraham saddling up his donkey and taking two servants with himself and Isaac to the place where Isaac would be sacrificed – just as Jesus (in Matthew 21:1-2) sent two disciples to fetch a donkey for him to ride on his way to Jerusalem where he would be sacrificed. 

And in verse 4, it was “On the third day” that “Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.” That links to Jesus too, when he “began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem….to be killed but on the third day be raised to life again” (in Matthew 16:21). So Jesus knew on the third day he’d be raised back to life again, which is interesting because it was on the third day Abraham told his servants that “we will come back to you.” “WE will,” he said, meaning that both he and Isaac would be returning, so Abraham had grasped that if Isaac was to be sacrificed he would also be raised back to life again – and on the third day too. 

And then in verse 6, “Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac,” a direct parallel with Jesus having to carry his own wooden cross. And just like Jesus’ cross, the wood that Isaac had to carry was heavy too. For a burnt offering to totally consume a body (which it was meant to do) it took about 60 pounds of wood, which suggests Isaac was more than a youngster (“boy” in verse 5 can also mean young man). 

Which meant that Isaac was also strong enough to resist the very old Abraham sacrificing him, but like Jesus he willingly submitted (verses 8-10). 

So many parallels – and one more in the next blog too, in the statement to Abraham in verse 12: “Now I know that you fear God”…

Galatians 3:14 says that Jesus “redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.”

In other words, it’s because Jesus redeemed us that the promise God made to Abraham of blessing all peoples on earth was made possible. So did God help Abraham see Jesus in his role of Redeemer/Saviour too? 

Yes he did, and in the most dramatic way, by asking Abraham to “sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering” in Genesis 22:2, because a burnt offering pictured Jesus perfectly. It was totally burnt, with nothing left but ashes, picturing Jesus giving up his life in total, his body completely shattered to “obtain eternal redemption” for us (Hebrews 9:12).

Abraham knew what burnt offerings meant too, and especially what they meant to God – because four hundred years earlier in Genesis 8:20, Noah had done burnt offerings right after God had destroyed the known world because of how evil humans had become. But Noah’s burnt offerings in response to the Flood pleased God so much he determined there and then “never to destroy all living creatures” again (21). Not only did the burnt offerings represent an atoning for the sins of the world, then, they were also such a “pleasing aroma” to God (21) that he guaranteed the world would never end. 

Which, again, pictured Jesus perfectly, because when Jesus “gave himself up for us,” Ephesians 5:2, that was “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” too. So God was asking Abraham to go through a vivid enactment of the role Jesus would play – in Jesus not only offering up his body totally to atone for the world’s evil, but also to be so pleasing to God that God would guarantee our eternal redemption. 

And it was in Abraham that God made these points so vivid and clear, because his plan of salvation through Jesus began with Abraham. And the burnt offerings – that were already a familiar form of sacrifice by Abraham’s day – fit in with that. We see that in Isaac asking Abraham in Genesis 22:7, “The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” So Isaac knew burnt offerings involved the sacrifice of a lamb, the lamb too picturing Jesus perfectly in his title as “the lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36). 

So much of what Jesus would later be as a burnt offering for the saving of the world was being played out here in Genesis 22, and Abraham clearly understood the significance of such an offering, because he never questioned God as to why he should sacrifice Isaac.  

There’s more too in “The parallels with Jesus in Genesis 22”…(next blog)

Abraham was given extraordinary insight into the part Jesus would play in the blessings God had promised him – when God told him in Genesis 22:2, “take your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there.”

Because if Abraham went through with sacrificing his son, God promised in verse 18 that “all nations on earth will be blessed because you obeyed me.” The result of this one act, then, would impact the whole world. But why this act of killing his son of all things? And especially since Abraham knew God’s promises were going to be fulfilled through his son Isaac too (Genesis 15:4, 17:19).

So what went through Abraham’s head to make him willing to go through with the sacrifice? 

Well, according to Hebrews 11:19, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead.” That was the direction of his thinking. It wasn’t questioning God’s promise, because Isaac’s miraculous birth had already proved God stuck to his promises. So God breaking a promise was out of the question. For God to be true to his promise, therefore, he’d have to raise Isaac back from the dead. A staggering proposition, but what other solution was there? 

But it still seemed like a strange thing God was asking him to do, unless the death of Isaac would somehow connect to the whole world being blessed as well. But how?   

Well, Genesis 22 showed him how. It was God asking Abraham to sacrifice “the son he loved” that clued him in (2). It would help Abraham see that for God to bless the whole world – that by his standards deserved to be dead forever – he, God himself, would be making the ultimate sacrifice of the son he loved too. Which was another staggering proposition, but this was the route God had decided to go, and in asking Abraham to go the same route it would make real the sacrifice that God himself was willing to make to rescue humanity from eternal death.  

It would also make real the willingness of Jesus to be the sacrifice. Which is what Abraham saw as he looked down at his son on the altar, already bound and knowing what was coming next, but utterly willing and trusting in what it was for too. It was in his own son, then, that Abraham was being given the chance to see Jesus and the part he was so willing to play as well.  

To the next blog, then: “Did Abraham know Jesus would be the Saviour?” 

Abraham knew Melchizedek as the “priest of the Most High God” (Genesis 14:18). Put that together with Hebrews 6:19-20 about Jesus entering the inner sanctuary on our behalf because he’s “a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek,” and we have Jesus being a priest of the Most High God too. 

It’s not surprising, then, that Hebrews 7:3 describes Melchizedek’s office and function as being “like that of the Son of God.” In which case, Abraham would learn a lot about Jesus’ function as a priest from Melchizedek. And from what Jesus tells us in John 8:56, what Abraham saw in Jesus from Melchizedek filled him with joy. But what did he see that created such joy in him? 

Well, curiosity asks why the priest of Most High God appeared in Genesis 14 at this specific moment in time. Abraham had just returned from an exhausting campaign defeating the tyrant king Kedorlaomer, who’d bullied the entire region for so long a rebellion had broken out, which he’d brutally crushed, stripping the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah of all their food and possessions, and carrying off Abraham’s nephew too. 

Abraham immediately gathered all his trained fighting men and they roared off in pursuit of Kedorlaomer, attacked his camp at night and defeated him so soundly that they recovered all the food and goods lost – and the people he’d carried off captive too.  

It was an exhausted Abraham, therefore, who was met on his return by Melchizedek, who “brought out bread and wine,” Genesis 14:18, the purpose of which was to announce the Most High God’s celebration of the victory. Because the victory had been God’s; he was the one who’d blessed Abraham by delivering his enemies into his hand (verses 19-20).  

So it was in this act by Melchizedek that Abraham was learning about the priesthood of Jesus, who one day would repeat the same process of bringing out bread and wine for his disciples to announce the victory over sin and evil the Most High God had accomplished for all humanity through Jesus’ death.

No wonder Abraham was filled with joy, seeing in Melchizedek what one day Jesus would be doing, as proof that the Most High God would be true to his promise of blessing all peoples by bringing about total victory over evil – just as he’d blessed Abraham with victory over evil too. 

Which explains why Melchizedek appears at this specific point in time. Abraham had just been given a great victory of his own over evil, the perfect timing, therefore, for giving him extraordinary insight into what the future would hold with Jesus as priest of the Most High God too.

Expanding on this then: “What part did Jesus play in the promises to Abraham?” 

But how could Abraham have even known if Jesus was included in the promises to him? And yet Jesus told some Jews claiming “Abraham is our father” in John 8:39, that “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad,” verse 56.  

You mean, Abraham actually knew about the life and ministry of Jesus 1900 years ahead of time? Well, yes, but not surprisingly, because it sounds like Abraham actually knew him, or at least someone in human form who pictured Jesus perfectly.  

This “someone in human form” first appears in Genesis 14:18. Abraham has just returned victorious from his battle with four invading kings, rescuing his nephew Lot in the process, to be met by “Melchizedek king of Salem – and also priest of the Most High God – who brought out bread and wine.” So whoever this great priest king was, Abraham knew him personally. 

King David also knew who this Melchizedek was, because in Psalm 110:4-6 David sees the appearing of a future Melchizedek lifted up at the right hand of God to “judge the nations” and “crush the rulers of the whole earth.” The author of Hebrews tells us who he is too, because in Hebrews 1:1-3 the one seated at the right hand of God is God’s Son. And in verse 13 his Father says to him, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” So the one seated at God’s right hand and crushing all enemies is Melchizedek in Psalms, and Jesus in Hebrews. 

So they’re both great kings. Melchizedek was a great king in physical form in Genesis, and Jesus is the great king, stationed at God’s right hand picturing the time when all enemies of God will be dealt with and crushed. 

And according to Jesus in John 8:56 Abraham “saw” this. He was given a clear picture of Jesus as king of kings with enormous power. No wonder he “was glad.” It was thrilling, knowing that one day all evil would be eradicated as part and parcel of God’s great promise in Genesis 12:3 to bless all peoples on earth. 

But that wasn’t all that Abraham saw in the life and ministry of Jesus pictured by the life and ministry of Melchizedek, because back in Genesis 14:18, Melchizedek “was also priest of the Most High God.” 

Next blog, then: “Did Abraham know about Jesus’ priesthood?”