Genesis 22 · The Lantern

Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

“Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told his servants. “The boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will return to you.”

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.

Isaac is another type too (he can easily be taken in this other sense), this time of the Lord. He was a son, just as is the Son (he is the son of Abraham; Christ, of God). He was a victim, as was the Lord, but his sacrifice was not consummated, while the Lord's was. All he did was to carry the wood of his sacrifice, just as the Lord bore the wood of the cross.

After these things, "Abraham took," it says, "the wood for the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son, and took the fire in his hands and the sword, and they went together." That Isaac himself carries for himself "the wood for the burnt offering," this is a figure that Christ also "Himself bore the cross for Himself," and yet to carry "the wood for the burnt offering" i…

In the mystery of the calling, Christ is symbolized by the sacrifice of Isaac, because Abraham is a proper representation of God the Father. Christ is represented by Isaac who carried his own wood on his neck, like the wood of the Cross.

Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

What after these things? "Isaac said," it says, "to Abraham his father: Father." And this too, uttered by the son at that moment, is a voice of temptation. For how do you think the son, about to be immolated, shook the father's heart by this voice?

In two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, "through Isaac shall your descendants be named," was not lying.

Therefore he brings his well-beloved son to be sacrificed, and offered promptly him whom he had received late; nor is he restrained by being called by the name of father, when his son called him "Father," and he replied, "My son." Dear pledges of love are these names, but the commands of God are loved still more.

Abraham answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two walked on together.

When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood.

Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

Just then the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”

"And Abraham stretched out," it says, "his hand to take the sword, and to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called him from heaven, and said: Abraham, Abraham. And he said: here I am. And He said: do not lay your hand upon the boy, neither do to him anything.

We have heard enough on how God does not know the sinner, so we ought to consider now how the just man is known by Him. God said to Abraham: 'Leave your country, your kinsfolk.' [Gen 12:1] Abraham accordingly came into Palestine; he was in Abramiri; he sojourned a long time in Gerara.

In the same way he said to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God," wherein he was saying, "Now I have made people (who up to now did not know) recognize what I, in my own mind, always held to be certain, [namely], that you fear God."

Then Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. So he went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

"And Abraham looking up," it says, "with his eyes saw, and behold, a ram was held by its horns in the thicket Sabech." We said, I think, in what preceded that Isaac bore the figure of Christ, but the ram here too nonetheless seems to bear the figure of Christ. But how each fits Christ, both Isaac, who was not slain, and the ram, who was slain, is worth knowing.

Very many deny that the Sacred writers wrote according to the rules of art. Nor do we contend for the contrary; for they wrote not according to art, but according to grace, which is above all art; for they wrote that which the Spirit gave them to speak.

But when the ram was killed and Isaac was not killed, it happened thus because Isaac was a figure and not the reality; for in him was designated what was later fulfilled in Christ. Behold, God is contending with people in great devotion. Abraham offered God his mortal son who was not to die, while God surrendered in death his immortal Son for the sake of humankind.

And Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”

And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time,

saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,

In the former there was only speech, here an oath is interposed, which the holy Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, interprets, saying in this manner: "God," he says, "wishing to show to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his purpose, interposed an oath." And again: "men," he says, "swear by one greater than themselves." "But God, since he had no one greater by whom he m…

The Old Law alleges that God swore an oath; for it says, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord” (Gen. 22:16). But the Savior forbade swearing (Matt. 5:34): how then did he not destroy the old things?

This is Isaac the co-heir of the promises and the blessings of God given to Abraham his father—who was a type of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ, since for three days he travelled on to death, and afterwards returned alive—who on his own shoulders carried the wood for his own sacrifice, as also the Lord Christ carried his own cross on his shoulder—who died in intention and was…

I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. [Genesis 22:17] And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.

Rightly then is he blessed because he was faithful; and rightly was he faithful because he was patient.

It is written in the prophet, speaking in the person of the Lord: "and in the hands of the prophets I was made like." This saying indicates that, although our Lord Jesus Christ is one according to his substance and is nothing other than the Son of God, nevertheless in the figures and forms of the Scriptures he is displayed as varied and diverse.

And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

And to Abraham's seed he promised—what? In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. His seed is Christ; because from Abraham came Isaac, from Isaac Jacob, from Jacob twelve sons, from these twelve the people of the Jews, from the people of the Jews the Virgin Mary, from the Virgin Mary our Lord Jesus Christ.

For, in all humility, we too belong among those descendants of whom it was said that it shall be an everlasting law for him and for his descendants throughout their generations. We are not born of the lineage of Aaron, but we have believed in him in whom Aaron also, with the saints of that age, believed.

Abraham went back to his servants, and they got up and set out together for Beersheba. And Abraham settled in Beersheba.

Some time later, Abraham was told, “Milcah has also borne sons to your brother Nahor:

Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram),

Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”

And Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor.

Moreover, Nahor’s concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

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