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Patriarchs and Prophets
cerning the father of the faithful the Lord declares, “Abraham obeyed
My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and
My laws.”
Genesis 26:5
. Says the apostle James, “Faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone.”
James 2:17
. And John, who dwells so
fully upon love, tells us, “This is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments.”
1 John 5:3
.
Through type and promise God “preached before the gospel unto
Abraham.”
Galatians 3:8
. And the patriarch’s faith was fixed upon the
Redeemer to come. Said Christ to the Jews. “Your father Abraham
rejoiced that he should see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.”
John
8:56
, R.V., margin. The ram offered in the place of Isaac represented
the Son of God, who was to be sacrificed in our stead. When man was
doomed to death by transgression of the law of God, the Father, looking
upon His Son, said to the sinner, “Live: I have found a ransom.”
It was to impress Abraham’s mind with the reality of the gospel, as
well as to test his faith, that God commanded him to slay his son. The
agony which he endured during the dark days of that fearful trial was
permitted that he might understand from his own experience something
of the greatness of the sacrifice made by the infinite God for man’s
redemption. No other test could have caused Abraham such torture
of soul as did the offering of his son. God gave His Son to a death of
agony and shame. The angels who witnessed the humiliation and soul
anguish of the Son of God were not permitted to interpose, as in the
case of Isaac. There was no voice to cry, “It is enough.” To save the
fallen race, the King of glory yielded up His life. What stronger proof
can be given of the infinite compassion and love of God? “He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Romans 8:32
.
The sacrifice required of Abraham was not alone for his own good,
nor solely for the benefit of succeeding generations; but it was also
for the instruction of the sinless intelligences of heaven and of other
worlds. The field of the controversy between Christ and Satan—the
field on which the plan of redemption is wrought out—is the lesson
book of the universe. Because Abraham had shown a lack of faith in
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God’s promises, Satan had accused him before the angels and before
God of having failed to comply with the conditions of the covenant,
and as unworthy of its blessings. God desired to prove the loyalty of
His servant before all heaven, to demonstrate that nothing less than