Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

God Himself will provide a lamb
Genesis 22:8

"² Then He said, 'Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.' ... ⁴ Then on the third day ... ⁵ ... 'we will come back to you' ... ⁶ So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son ... ⁸ And Abraham said, 'My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.' So the two of them went together. ⁹ Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ... Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided." (Genesis 22:2-14)

You will find in this passage a beautiful hint at God's salvation plan, though described by commentaries as "the most baffling ... event in the life of Abraham"^F1. Not only is the sacrifice of an only son portrayed before us, who carries his own wood on his back as Jesus carried his cross, but Abraham says that God Himself will provide a lamb for the offering in lieu of his own son, Isaac. What in fact happens is that God provides a ram, a different Hebrew word, with the possible hidden hint that the 'lamb' is yet to come. The connection between ram and burnt offering is mostly made in atonement offerings (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 8:18; 16:3).

In addition, Abraham confirms his prophetic hint towards the future by calling the place "...The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, 'In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided.'" (22v14). He uses the Hebrew imperfect tense, implying an incomplete probably future or ongoing act, in YHVH Yireh to describe God's future provision even after receiving Isaac's reprieve. So something was yet to be provided still.

This passage (22:2) contains one of the five verses (Genesis 3:14; 15:5; Exodus 11:2; Isaiah 7:3) where, using the Hebrew -nâ', God says 'please' or "I beg you" to a person. But bizarrely few versions translate this at all.

The language surrounding "only son" and "the one whom you love" is reminiscent of God's declaration from heaven about Jesus "You are my beloved son" (Matthew 3:17; 17:5) and John's description of Jesus as the "only begotten son" (John 1:18; 3:16,18). The mention of love here in 22:2 is the first reference to love in the Hebrew bible (see my Hebrew Thoughts column on עהב 'âhabh, Strong's #157).

The rabbis tell a story of Abraham's response to God's call to take his only son. He says, "But I have two sons", God says, "Your only one"; Abraham replies but "each is the only son of his mother". So God says "the one whom you love", of course Abraham says, "But I love both!". Finally God says, "Isaac".

The real test in God's request was that God had promised back in Genesis 3:15 to provide a messianic serpent crushing 'Seed'. Even closer to home, but still in Messiah's eventual genealogy, Abraham was promised an heir, a nation, a populated land, and to be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 12:2-3,7; 15:2-5; 17:4-8) and these were to be fulfilled by name in Isaac (Genesis 17:16,18), and yet God was asking him to lay down that promised seed and promised heir.

"Go to the land of Moriah", God says, and just as in chapter 12 (the only two places where lekh lekha "Go forth" occurs), Abraham goes. God says he will reveal the mountain later, just as he would show him the Promised Land. Now this location housed several hills including Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1), Mount Sion/Sirion/Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:48), Mount Acra/Golgotha/Calvary. The rabbis said that traditionally it was regarded as the same location as Noah's altar and the altar in the Temple. If so, that is significant as a place of sacrifice, if not and it is identical with Golgotha instead it would be the location of Jesus' sacrifice instead.

The journey took three days, some say so that Abraham had a chance to change his mind. But the rabbis link it to the Hosea passage "On the third day He will raise us up..." (Hosea 6:2, Midrash Bereshit Rabba, 56.49.3). A passage also used by Christian commentators of Jesus' resurrection.

The first of Abraham's prophetic declarations is that "we will come back" (v5), not I, he had faith that they would return. Not necessarily that God would stay his hand before wielding the sacrificial blow but alternatively that God would raise Isaac from the dead, even if sacrificed, "concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead..." (Hebrews 11:19)

That Jesus carries his own cross is explicit in John 19:17 possibly because John wants to allude to this typological fulfilment of Genesis 22:6 where Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrificial pile. This interpretation was common amongst the early church, e.g., John Chrysostom, In Jo. Hom. 85.1.

Abraham's second prophetic forecast is in v8 "God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering". The Jewish Publication Society (JPS) version reads "God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering". It would be nice to read this as "God will provide Himself ... for an offering", a divine sacrifice, but the Hebrew reads literally as "God he-will-provide to-him the-lamb...".

Without even going down the line of rabbinic midrashic narrative expansion or early church father allegorical excess it is possible to see in this verse messianic hints. "Abraham rejoiced 'to see' my day - and he saw it", Jesus said (John 8:56). Indeed, Revelation 13:8, speaks of the lamb being slain before the foundation of the world. John and the early church were not alone in this thought for the rabbis thought of the Messiah or his name as being created or formed in the mind of God before the creation along with six other things including the Torah, repentance, and the Temple (Pes. 54a; Pesikta Rab. 152b). In addition, the lamb/ram provided in the thicket was considered by the rabbis^F2 to be a special creation of God from the Creation week and set aside until this moment.

Midrash Bereshit Rabbah, 56.9-10, on Genesis, also teaches from this passage about a messianic age and redemption by the ram's horn (based upon Zecharaiah 9:14). The shophar horn is one of Judaism's key symbols and Rabbi Judah said that although it could be made from five animal species at Rosh Ha-Shanah (New Year) it must be made from a ram. This was to symbolise submission based upon the story of Isaac's submission to his father and Abraham's to his heavenly Father. The ram in Hebrew is עיל 'ayil (Strong's #352) and whose name means twisted strength, as in its winding horn. Curiously, עיל can be shortened to על 'êl "a strong or mighty one" (Strong's #410) usually rendered "God", itself a shortened singular form of 'elôhîym (Strong's #430/#433). So even linguistically the ram is related to God!

FOOTNOTES:
F1: Hamilton, The Book of Genesis Chapters 18-50, NICOT, (USA: Michigan, 1995), p.99
F2: Pirqe Eliezer, Rashi, Jarchi, Targum of Jonathan

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