Abraham
71
Isaac believed in God. He had been taught implicit obedience
to his father, and he loved and reverenced the God of his father. He
could have resisted his father if he had chosen to do so. But after
affectionately embracing his father, he submitted to be bound and laid
upon the wood. And as his father’s hand is raised to slay his son,
an angel of God who had marked all the faithfulness of Abraham on
the way to Moriah, calls to him out of heaven, and says, “Abraham!
Abraham! And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that
thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me.
[108]
“And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind
him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and
took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of
his son.”
Abraham has now fully and nobly borne the test, and by his faith-
fulness redeemed his lack of perfect trust in God, which lack led him
to take Hagar as his wife. After the exhibition of Abraham’s faith and
confidence, God renews his promise to him. “And the angel of the
Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said,
By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou has 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.”
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