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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
Faithful Abraham
My mind goes back to faithful Abraham, who, in obedience to the
divine command given him in a night vision at Beersheba, pursues
his journey with Isaac by his side. He sees before him the mountain
which God had told him He would signalize as the one upon which
he was to sacrifice. He removes the wood from the shoulder of his
servant and lays it upon Isaac, the one to be offered. He girds up his
soul with firmness and agonizing sternness, ready for the work which
God requires him to do. With a breaking heart and unnerved hand,
he takes the fire, while Isaac inquires: Father, here is the fire and the
wood; but where is the offering? But, oh, Abraham cannot tell him
now! Father and son build the altar, and the terrible moment comes for
Abraham to make known to Isaac that which has agonized his soul all
that long journey, that Isaac himself is the victim. Isaac is not a lad;
he is a full-grown young man. He could have refused to submit to his
father’s design had he chosen to do so. He does not accuse his father
of insanity, nor does he even seek to change his purpose. He submits.
He believes in the love of his father and that he would not make this
terrible sacrifice of his only son if God had not bidden him do so. Isaac
is bound by the trembling, loving hands of his pitying father because
God has said it. The son submits to the sacrifice because he believes
in the integrity of his father. But when everything is ready, when the
faith of the father and the submission of the son are fully tested, the
angel of God stays the uplifted hand of Abraham that is about to slay
his son and tells him that it is enough. “Now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.”
This act of faith in Abraham is recorded for our benefit. It teaches
us the great lesson of confidence in the requirements of God, however
close and cutting they may be; and it teaches children perfect submis-
sion to their parents and to God. By Abraham’s obedience we are
taught that nothing is too precious for us to give to God.
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Isaac was a figure of the Son of God, who was offered a sacrifice
for the sins of the world. God would impress upon Abraham the gospel
of salvation to man. In order to do this, and make the truth a reality
to him as well as to test his faith, He required him to slay his darling
Isaac. All the sorrow and agony that Abraham endured through that
dark and fearful trial were for the purpose of deeply impressing upon