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The binding of Yitskhak was more of a test of our belief than it was for Abraham or Yitskhak (Isaac). It’s also a “shadow” of the suffering in Gethsemane of the ultimate “one and only son,” Yeshua the Mashiakh (Jesus the Christ).
What was the test God place on Abraham here? Did Abraham have something to prove to God? Although the binding of Yitskhak was a profound test for Abraham and Yitskhak, it was also recorded for us. Abraham knew that even if Yitskhak was killed, that God would keep His promise to Abraham and Yitskhak by resurrecting Yitskhak from the dead. He knew that one way or another that God would keep His promise.
God tells Abraham to bring Yitskhak to a mountain called Mt. Moriah to offer Yitskhak as an עוֹלָה ’olah, or a burnt-whole offering. The name מוֹרִיָּה Moriah can mean “from and seen of Yah” (Strong’s lexicon No. H4179).
Gen. 22:9 tells us that Abraham “bound his son Yitskhak.” The Hebrew word here is עָקַד ’aqad, (Strong’s H6123) and this verse is the only use of this word in the entire Torah.
The memory of Mt. Moriah was carried through many generations of Abraham’s descendants as we are told that Solomon built the Temple on Mt. Moriah as recorded in 2 Chron. 3:1:
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
1st Chronicles 21 records how and why King David met Ornan the Yebusite on Mount Moriah. God did not want any human blood to be spilled on Mount Moriah, only a ram caught up in a thicket was offered there.
A lot of commentaries consider the book of Genesis as a collection of fables and stories, but this is not true. Men like Noah and Abraham kept God’s law in so far as it was revealed to them.
It didn’t have to be written, they simply obeyed whatever God told them. Moses did not invent the Torah on the spot. There are aspects of the law that were not written, but they were common knowledge and followed by those who knew God.
But those who survived the Exodus has lost a lot of knowledge about God’s law and needed for it to be written for them to re-learn how to worship God. They were slaves in Egypt and did not have the ability to study and practice God’s law freely while in captivity.
In Heb. 11:8 we read:
“By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Abraham did not understand everything God was doing or why He was doing it. Abraham didn’t fully understand his own place in God’s plan but Abraham went where God told him to go. God did not tell him to follow or die. God offered Abraham His word, and Abraham trusted and obeyed God’s word.
Abraham, Yitskhak, Ya’akov (Jacob) and Sarah did not ever witness the “the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” with their own eyes, they believed God’s word in faith. They died trusting in God’s promise, seeing them from far away. The only assurance they had was God’s word. They didn’t even have a home yet they believe in the promise that their heirs would own the Promised Land.
Yeshua said that God is the God of the living not the dead and tells us that Abraham, Yitskhak and Ya’akov are living not dead.
Speaker: Richard Agee. Reader: Jeff. Summary: Tammy.