The Good Shepherd: Part 2
Abraham and Isaac
Abraham and his son Isaac were shepherds, sojourners who
followed their flocks to good fields, and never put down roots in a single
place: "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a
foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with
him of the same promise" (Heb 11:9). "For [God] gave him no inheritance here,
not even a foot of ground" (Acts 7:5). "They did not receive the things
promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they
admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth" (Heb 11:13).
Abraham's offering of his son Isaac -- which involved the
cooperation of his son also -- is a powerful picture of the Father's offering of
HIS only-begotten Son. Notice how Gen 22:12,16 ("because you have done this and
have not withheld your son, your only son...") is quoted by Paul in Rom 8:32:
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all -- how will he not
also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (In the Septuagint, the
phrase is practically identical.)
Thus Paul makes Abraham -- almost uniquely so in all of the
Scriptures -- a man who typified GOD! This analogy invites us plainly to
consider our Heavenly Father from a HUMAN perspective: His character and
thoughts being traced in the tenderness and the gentleness and the love and the
loss Abraham displayed in sacrificing his son. So much, and so well -- and far,
far beyond -- must the Almighty have loved His offspring! Yet He was willing to
give him up, in death, a painful death, because He loved all of us as
well:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John
3:16).
That Abraham and Isaac both participated in the offering
itself is surely indicated by the repetition of Gen 22:6,8: "The two of them
went on together." (Besides, Isaac was a young man, and Abraham a very old one,
and Isaac could surely have resisted had he wished!) These two phrases bracket,
and thus highlight, v 7 and the first part of v 8:
"Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, 'Father?'
'Yes, my son?' Abraham replied. 'The fire and wood are here,' Isaac said, 'but
where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' Abraham answered, 'God himself will
provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.' " (This last phrase might be
translated: "God will provide my son AS the lamb...!") If Isaac did not know and
understand ahead of time, then surely he did after hearing those words. And yet
-- still -- "the two of them went on together."
Likewise, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself" (2Co 5:19). Surely the two of them, Father and Son, went on together to
the cross!
Thus Abraham suffered along with (perhaps even more than)
Isaac in the anticipation of the sacrifice. But the outcome of their dedication
was the promise of blessing to all nations (Gen 22:17).
And so the Father in heaven participated in the offering of
His Son (cp Isa 53:10; Acts 2:23). And though, in a sense, it was His "pleasure"
to do so (Isa 53:10), nevertheless the effort involved a sacrifice and an
affliction on His part. Here is a side of God's character hinted at in such
passages as Isa 63:9 ("In all their afflictions HE was afflicted"!): the
ultimate act of sacrificial love from God's viewpoint, portrayed by Abraham on
the human level. And we have been privileged to see it! And, finally, completing
the parallel, this was all done so as to bring blessing upon others (John 3:16).
Extraordinary!
Can GOD sorrow? Can GOD feel pain? Can GOD be compassionate?
Can HE love? The Greek "gods" sat on Mount Olympus, mocking and scorning poor
feeble men. But the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, is no such God. He is,
simply, a Father. In His revelation of Himself, He takes pains to draw back the
veil, and invite us into the "most holy place" of communion with, and
understanding of, His own heart. In the enacted parable of the two shepherds, of
Abraham offering his son Isaac, Yahweh reveals Himself as a Father who piteously
loves His children, finding boundless joy in their birth, endless care in their
nurturing, and great pride in their smallest faltering steps toward knowing and
serving Him. In this He reveals Himself, also, as a Father who has provided and
will provide all things we shall ever need for our salvation.
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for
us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for
us all -- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
(Rom 8:31,32).
*****
The writer, AW Tozer, offers an insight into the mind and life
of Abraham, the friend of God:
" 'Take now thy son,' said God to Abraham, 'thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him
there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of'
(Gen 22:2). The sacred writer spares us a close-up of the agony that night on
the slopes near Beersheba when the aged man had it out with his God, but
respectful imagination may view in awe the bent form and convulsive wrestling
alone under the stars. Possibly not again until a Greater than Abraham wrestled
in the Garden of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human soul. If only the
man himself might have been allowed to die. That would have been easier a
thousand times, for he was old now, and to die would have been no great ordeal
for one who had walked so long with God. Besides, it would have been a last
sweet pleasure to let his dimming vision rest upon the figure of his stalwart
son who would live to carry on the Abrahamic line and fulfill in himself the
promises of God made long before in Ur of the Chaldees.
"How should he slay the lad! Even if he could get the consent
of his wounded and protesting heart, how could he reconcile the act with the
promise, 'In Isaac shall thy seed be called'? This was Abraham's trial by fire,
and he did not fail in the crucible. While the stars still shone like sharp
white points above the tent where the sleeping Isaac lay, and long before the
gray dawn had begun to lighten the east, the old saint had made up his mind. He
would offer his son as God had directed him to do, and then trust God to raise
him from the dead [Heb 11:19]. This, says the writer to the Hebrews, was the
solution his aching heart found sometime in the dark night, and he rose 'early
in the morning' to carry out the plan. It is beautiful to see that, while he
erred as to God's method, he had correctly sensed the secret of His great heart.
And the solution accords well with the New Testament passage, 'Whosoever will
lose... for my sake shall find...'
"God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the
point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a
hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, 'It's all
right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only
wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign
unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your
love. Now you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to your
tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son, from me' [cp Rom 8:32].
"Then heaven opened and a voice was heard saying to him, 'By
myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee,
and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as
the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his
enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice.'
"The old man of God lifted his head to respond to the Voice,
and stood there on the mount strong and pure and grand, a man marked out by the
Lord for special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most High. Now he was a
man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He
had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it
from him. God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham's life and worked
inward to the center; He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it
over in one sharp act of separation. In dealing thus He practiced an economy of
means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective.
"I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this
poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was still his to enjoy: sheep,
camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends,
and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he
POSSESSED nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of
the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. The books on
systematic theology overlook this, but the wise will understand.
"After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words
'my' and 'mine' never had again the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of
possession which they connote was gone from his heart. Things had been cast out
forever. They had now become external to the man. His inner heart was free from
them. The world said, 'Abraham is rich,' but the aged patriarch only smiled. He
could not explain it to them, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real
treasures were inward and eternal..." (The Pursuit of God).
*****
In Abraham the shepherd, we have a man in whom Old Testament
and New Testament are blended together, and lose their commonly accepted
distinctiveness. The chief patriarch of the Old becomes the chief exemplar of
faith in the New. And it is surely highly suggestive of this that our New
Testaments begin with the words "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ...
THE SON OF ABRAHAM"! This old shepherd's life and character and hope link all of
God's revelation together.
In his life he was a "picture of redemption". In his pure
heart he saw the face of God (Mat 5:8). He learned the secret of forsaking one's
life so as to gain another, deeper life. In the words of his descendant, he
rejoiced to see Jesus' day; and he saw it and was glad (John 8:56).
And so may we be glad for grasping just a morsel of the
"bread" that fed this old man's soul.
