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Patriarchs and Prophets
“accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead.”
Hebrews 11:19
.
Yet none but God could understand how great was the father’s
sacrifice in yielding up his son to death; Abraham desired that none
but God should witness the parting scene. He bade his servants remain
behind, saying, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come
again to you.” The wood was laid upon Isaac, the one to be offered, the
father took the knife and the fire, and together they ascended toward
the mountain summit, the young man silently wondering whence, so
far from folds and flocks, the offering was to come. At last he spoke,
“My father,” “behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering?” Oh, what a test was this! How the endearing words,
“my father,” pierced Abraham’s heart! Not yet—he could not tell him
now. “My son,” he said, “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt
offering.”
At the appointed place they built the altar and laid the wood upon
it. Then, with trembling voice, Abraham unfolded to his son the divine
message. It was with terror and amazement that Isaac learned his fate,
but he offered no resistance. He could have escaped his doom, had he
chosen to do so; the grief-stricken old man, exhausted with the struggle
of those three terrible days, could not have opposed the will of the
vigorous youth. But Isaac had been trained from childhood to ready,
trusting obedience, and as the purpose of God was opened before him,
he yielded a willing submission. He was a sharer in Abraham’s faith,
and he felt that he was honored in being called to give his life as an
offering to God. He tenderly seeks to lighten the father’s grief, and
encourages his nerveless hands to bind the cords that confine him to
the altar.
And now the last words of love are spoken, the last tears are shed,
the last embrace is given. The father lifts the knife to slay his son,
when suddenly his arm is stayed. An angel of God calls to the patriarch
out of heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” He quickly answers, “Here am
I,” And again the voice is heard, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.”
[153]
Then Abraham saw “a ram caught in a thicket,” and quickly bring-
ing the new victim, he offered it “in the stead of his son.” In his joy and