Lesson 1.7: God Gives Abraham A Son

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LESSON 1.7: GOD GIVES ABRAHAM A SON

Loved one, Abraham kept on trusting God. Even when Abraham's body was almost dead from old age, his faith was alive and strong. Abraham believed that God would keep His promises.

When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God made an agreement with him and promised that Sarah would have a son. Sarah was eighty-nine years old — far too old to be having a baby. Abraham believed that God could fulfill His promise, so he fell on his face and within himself laughed – probably a laugh of joy resulting from the amazing prospect of having a son by Sarah in his old age (Genesis 17:1-19).

Sarah Laughs

One day, the Lord came to Abraham and said, "Where is your wife Sarah?" (Read Genesis 18:9-15).

Abraham said, "She is there in the tent."

Then the Lord said, "I will come again in the spring. At that time, your wife Sarah will have a son."

Sarah was listening in the tent. When she heard these things, she laughed to herself in disbelief, thinking, "Now I am old, and my husband is old. I am too old to have a baby.”

God responded by asking Abraham about Sarah's laughter. And when Sarah denied that she had laughed because she was afraid, God forced her to confront the truth of her actions. Yet he did not punish her or retract his promise. God's grace was great enough, not only to do the impossible for Sarah, but also to accept her human limitations and forgive her unbelief.

The Lord said to Abraham, "Sarah laughed and said she was too old to have a baby. But is anything too hard for the Lord? I will come again in the spring, just as I said I would, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Isaac Is Born

The Lord did for Sarah what He had promised. Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. All these things happened exactly as God said. Sarah gave birth to a son, and Abraham named him Isaac, meaning "laughter." Abraham did what God commanded and circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old (Genesis 21:1-7).

Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. Sarah said, "God has made me happy, and everyone who hears about this will be happy with me. No one thought that I, Sarah, would be able to have Abraham's child. But I have given Abraham a son even though he is old." Sarah was filled with joy.

God Tests Abraham's Faith

When Isaac was a young man, God put Abraham's faith to a test (Genesis 22). God said to him, "Abraham!"

Abraham said, "Yes."

Then God said, "Take your son to the land of Moriah and kill your son there as a sacrifice for me. This must be Isaac, your only son, the one you love. Use him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which mountain" (vs. 1-2).

We can only imagine Abraham's grief. Abraham could have cried out, "How can you ask me to do such a thing, Lord? You promised that I would be the father of a great nation. You promised to give this land to my family. You promised that you would bless all nations through my descendants.

You promised that you would make an agreement with Isaac like the one you made with me. How could you ask me to kill my son Isaac and burn him to ashes?" But Abraham did not say that.

Abraham believed in his heart that God would somehow keep His promises.

Abraham Obeys

Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. He cut the wood for the sacrifice. Then they went to the place where God told them to go.

After they had traveled three days, Abraham looked up and in the distance saw the place to which they were going. Then he said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go to that place and worship. Then we will come back to you later" (vs. 3-5). Abraham believed that he and Isaac would come back together, no matter what happened on the mountain.

Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and put it on his son's shoulder. Abraham took the special knife and fire. Then both he and his son went together to the place for worship.

Isaac Asks A Question

On their way up the mountain, Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!"

Abraham answered, "Yes, son."

Isaac said, "I see the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb we will burn as a sacrifice?"

Abraham answered, "God himself is providing the lamb for the sacrifice, my son" (vs. 6-8).

Abraham Prepares To Sacrifice Isaac

So both Abraham and his son went together to the place where God told them to go. There, Abraham built an altar and carefully laid the wood on it. Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the wood (v. 9).

We must remember that Abraham was a very old man at this time, and his son Isaac was young and strong. Isaac probably could have overpowered his aged father and escaped if he had tried, but he did not. Without a struggle Isaac surrendered to his father's will.

Think of the emotions that Abraham felt as he laid Isaac on the altar and raised the knife to kill him. Faith pulled in one direction, and love pulled in another. Faith said, "Trust God." Love said, "Untie the boy and let him go." Abraham's trust in God won the tug-of-war. Abraham believed that God would keep His word–even if it meant raising Isaac from death.

God Provides A Ram

As Abraham reached for his knife to kill his son, the angel of the Lord called from heaven and said, "Abraham! Abraham!"

Abraham answered, "Yes?"

The angel said, "Don't kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you respect and obey God. I see that you are ready to kill your son, your only son, for me."

Then, Abraham looked and saw a ram whose horns were caught in a bush. So Abraham took the ram, killed it, and offered it, instead of his son, as a sacrifice to God.

With joy and thanksgiving in his heart, Abraham gave that place a name. He called it Yahweh Yireh, meaning "the Lord sees," and "the Lord gives" (vs. 10-14). The Lord had seen Abraham's faith and had given Isaac back to him. It was as if Abraham had received his son Isaac back from death.

God Confirms His Promises To Abraham

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time, saying, "You were ready to kill your only son for me. Since you did this for me, I will make you this promise: I, the Lord, promise that I will truly bless you and give you as many descendants as the stars in the sky. There will be as many people as sand on the seashore. Every nation on the earth will be blessed through your descendants. I will do this because you obeyed me" (vs. 15-18).

Abraham Returns To Beersheba

Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who were waiting for them. Then they traveled back to Beersheba (v. 19).

Things To Remember

1. Abraham's faith is a model. Abraham believed that God would fulfill His promises no matter how impossible they seemed. This is the kind of faith that God wants us to have.

According to the laws of nature, it was impossible for Sarah to have a baby. But Abraham believed that God could do anything. Abraham trusted God so much that he was willing to kill his own son when God commanded it. Abraham still believed that God would bless the whole world through Isaac–even if Isaac had to be raised from death. Abraham's faith is amazing. Abraham's trust in God is a model for everyone. Abraham's faith made him right with God. We, too, are made right with God when we trust and obey (Proverbs 3:5-6; Hebrews 5:9).

2. Nothing is too hard for God (Mark 10:27). From a doctor's point of view, it was physically impossible for Sarah to have a child when she was ninety years old. God, however, is not limited by natural law. He is all powerful. God gave Abraham and Sarah a son after their bodies were almost dead.

3. God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac. Offering animals to God as a gift was nothing new. Abel had brought the best parts of his best sheep to God as a gift. Noah had built an altar and burned birds and animals on it as a gift to God. But on Mount Moriah, we come to something new and different. A ram is substituted for a man.

Abraham's faith in God was so strong that he was willing to sacrifice his own son to the Lord. But God stopped him from killing Isaac and provided a ram instead. One life was put in the place of another. The life of the ram was substituted for the life of a human being. The ram died, and Isaac lived.

Many years later, someone would come and offer Himself to God as a sacrifice for all mankind. God would accept His life as a substitute for our lives. He would die that we might live. He would be called, "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

In the Old Testament, Abraham offered a ram instead of his son. In the New Testament, God offered His Son instead of a lamb.

4. God wants to rescue us from sin. When sin entered the world, God set in motion a plan for saving humanity from the power of evil. In the garden of Eden God promised that a descendant of Eve would crush Satan's head. Later, God revealed that all families of the earth would be blessed through a descendant of Abram.

Both of these promises pointed ahead to the same person. Someone was coming to defeat Satan and to bless all nations of the earth. If you know your Bible, you know that someone is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:13-16).