Q8. Wasn't God Cruel to Test Abraham by Asking Him to Sacrifice Isaac?

Abraham attempting to sacrifice Isaac.

One of the Bible passages I struggled a lot with was the story in Genesis 22, whereby God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a way to prove to God that he loved God.

I recall reading an article that appeared in the Sunday Times more than a decade ago whereby the writer made reference to the abovementioned portion of Scripture and said that she would never believe in a God who would be so cruel enough as to test a person's faith by asking him to give up a child that he had waited so many years for.

If one were to put himself in Abraham's shoes, one must have agonised over the situation.  Here was the promised son that took 100 years to come to pass.   In a modern day Singapore context, it was as though that dream bungalow or dream sports car one had to slog 20 years to get, was suddenly going to be taken away overnight.

To understand why God asked Abraham to do the above (and also the significance of many other seemingly confusing events that are recorded in the Old Testament), one has to again use that "scarlet thread" to "connect the dots".  (See the blog entry entitled "Connecting the Dots Via the Scarlet Thread")

There is this saying that "The Old Testament is in the New revealed.  The New Testament is in the Old concealed."  In other words, the Old Testament contains hidden truths that get uncovered and unveiled when one reads the New Testament passages that make reference to those Old Testament passages.

Another way of putting this is that the Old Testament contains types and shadows that point towards the antitype and substance, which is the person of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.

A good example of this was used by Jesus Christ Himself.  We are all familiar with the verse John 3:16.  But let's look at the context of that verse:

"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[b] have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)

Jesus was having a conversation of Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was very familiar with the Old Testament.  He made reference to the event that took place in Numbers 21, whereby the Israelites were bitten by snakes in the wilderness.  The cure was for them to look at a bronze serpent on a pole that God had asked Moses to make.  Jesus was in essence telling Nicodemus that He was just like that bronze serpent!

That bronze serpent being the solution to the Israelites' snake bites in the wilderness was the "type and shadow" which pointed to the antitype and substance, which is Jesus on the cross being the solution to mankind's sins.

Now back to Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son would be a picture of God the Father being willing to sacrifice God the Son. God had told Abraham in Gen 22:2 to "take his son, his only son, the son that he loved" was an indication that He would in time to come take His son, His only son, the Son that He loved.

While Abraham was willing to give up his son, he eventually did not have to do so because Jehovah Jireh provided a ram. While Abraham and Isaac had made their way up one side of the mountain, God's provision had made its way up the other side.

So, Abraham giving up Isaac was something that pointed to Daddy God giving up Jesus Christ. Note that no one else in the Scriptures, be it Jacob or David or Solomon or Peter was asked to make such a sacrifice.

So was God cruel to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?  Not if we understand that Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac was but a type and shadow of the ultimate sacrifice that took place on the cross 2,000 years ago.  While Isaac was ultimately spared, Jesus was not.