Monday, April 13, 2020

Good Friday: Why Must There Be Sacrifice?


Brothers and sisters, today I am not going to speak to you about the common sacrifice Israel practiced for thousands of years.  We, who live in this modern world in this part of the world, don’t seem to connect that much with the animal sacrifice that the Jews have been doing since the time of Moses.  I understand that many of you have at least some knowledge of the animal sacrifice in the Torah.  So, today I want to invite you all to reflect on a particular sacrifice that crosses any culture, geography, and even time.  This particular sacrifice will cut our soul personally if we truly and deeply reflect upon it in all seriousness.  This is the sacrifice that Abraham was told to make, the sacrifice of Isaac, the son Abraham loved. 

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.
Genesis 22:1-19

Many theologians agree that this particular story of Abraham is the greatest story ever written in the Old Testament.  Not even the story of David vs. Goliath can surpass the story of Abraham journeying to Mount Moriah in order to sacrifice his son that he loved, Isaac, as commanded by God.  In this story we find that God tested Abraham.  No, this is not like the school tests we all are familiar with.  This is much mightier than all those tests we may ever get in school.  It is even mightier than the test Job experienced.  And even, all other tests Abraham went through became miniscule compared with this one test.  Kenneth Mathews of the New American Commentary on Genesis pointed out:
The impact is the elevation of this single event so as to make all of the past promises hang on Moriah’s test. The call at Haran requires the patriarch to leave his former circles of security; the orientation of the promises is toward the future, emphasizing the birth of an heir. Now the Lord requires Abraham to relinquish the future by offering Isaac as a sacrifice.[1]
In this test, Abraham’s struggle was extremely difficult.  The test crushes down any human instinct in the fallen world.  Yet, Abraham was different.  He was unique.  Mathews said that Abraham
resisted the human impulse to withhold his son for his own advantage, expressing a submissive spirit.[2]
The struggle that he underwent was enough to confuse the wisest philosopher in the world.  “Why must he sacrifice the son that God Himself said would indeed be the one to carry the torch of the promise of God of salvation to all?  Was God contradicting Himself?  How could the One Holy God contradict Himself?  Yet He gave the command.  Yes, He also kept His promise that Isaac was born through Abraham and Sarah.”  James Montgomery Boice reflected on Abraham’s struggle and said:
I think Abraham was puzzling over the problem. “How can God be true to his promise if I sacrifice Isaac?” he was asking. “What is God going to do to remain a God of honor?”[3]
The salvation of the entire world is at stake here.  Yet God asked Abraham to let that go.  What was Abraham’s option?  To deny God His command?  To rebuke God for His confusing command?  To obey God without question?  Nahum Sarna of the JPS Torah Commentary on Genesis commented about Abraham’s response to God’s command:
The patriarch makes no verbal response, not even hinneni, “Here I am!” He who was so daringly eloquent on behalf of the people of Sodom surrenders in total silence to his own bitter personal destiny. He does not question divine constancy.[4]
No, Abraham did not question God.  He chose to obey.  He chose to do God’s command.  He did not even ask: “Why must I sacrifice Isaac?”  It seemed that Abraham knew something in his heart about sacrifice.  He knew that a sacrifice must be done.  He did not know what kind of sacrifice would satisfy God.  He had made many sacrifices before.  He sacrificed lambs, bulls, and all other kind of sacrifices.  He never sacrificed a human being, how much more his own son that he loved so much.
            Yes this is most painful to Abraham.  God suddenly called Abraham and gave him the command in verse 2, a command that would break any father’s heart to a million pieces:
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
The emphasis that God made couldn’t be clearer in this verse.  God wanted Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, whom God knew he loved with his life.  This is the only time when God would ever ask a human being to sacrifice his own beloved son.  I cannot imagine if this was a command addressed to me.  Can you imagine if God calls you in the middle of the night and says you have to sacrifice the only child you love?  I know it would break my heart.  You probably would say the same, that such command would break your heart to a million pieces.  We would not stop asking: “Why?  Why Lord?  Why?”
            Abraham did not know that this single event was a shadow of what to come.  The writer of the book of Hebrews captures Abraham’s mind and writes:
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.  (Hebrews 11:17-19)
Abraham’s belief was extraordinary.  He believed in the resurrection of the dead, even before any miracle of that sort was ever performed.  Yet he did not know that what he did that day was a shadow of the greatest story ever told.  Let me tell you a story of Ravi Zacharias and his encounter with a Sheikh of Hamas, Sheikh Talal:
Well-known Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, and some other prominent religious leaders, had been invited to the Middle East to talk to some of that region’s religious leaders.  One of them was a sheikh who was one of the four founders of Hamas.  The sheikh, a large, powerful-looking man, had been in prison for 18 years.  He’d also lost some of his children to suicide bombings.  The room where this meeting took place was full of smoke and people.  The discussions had been intense up to this point:

When it was Ravi’s turn to ask the sheikh a question, the following dialog took place:

Ravi:  “Can I just say one thing to you sir?  5000 years ago on a mountain not far from here, a man called Abraham took his son up the mountain to offer him as an expression of his faith.  You remember that story?”
Sheikh:  “Yes.”
Ravi:  “Let’s not argue about which son right now.”
Ravi:  “But he (Abraham) took his son up that mountain and as the knife is about to come down, God stops that arm, and He says, “Stop!””
Sheikh: “That’s right.”
Ravi: “What did God say?”

The sheikh just stared at Ravi.

Ravi:  “God said, “Stop, I, Myself, will provide.””
Sheikh:  “That’s right.”
Ravi:  “Sheikh, here in Ramallah, very close to us is a hill.  2000 years ago, God kept that promise.  This time, He took His own son up that hill, and this time the hammers did not stop.  Sheikh, until you and I receive this son God has provided, we’ll be offering our own sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for position, and land, and power, and prestige.”

The sheikh looked at Ravi, and there was such a stunned silence in the room.  Ravi never thought of that talk beforehand.  What he’d said just came out on the spur of the moment.  Ravi thought he’d really blown it.
On the way back to their jeeps, the sheikh, hurriedly, put the other guests in their vehicles and then ran over to Ravi’s jeep.  He patted Ravi on both cheeks and then kissed him on both cheeks.  He told Ravi he was a good man and that he hoped they’d meet again some day as his eyes welled up with tears.
In a similar way Boice quoted F. B. Meyer and said:
“So long as men live in the world, they will turn to this story with unwaning interest. There is only one scene in history by which it is surpassed: that where the Great Father gave his Isaac to a death from which there was no deliverance.”[5]
Brothers and sisters, Abraham sacrificing Isaac was but a shadow of God the Father sacrificing His own beloved Son on that wretched cross in order to save us.  But now, we would ask: “Why must the Son of God be sacrificed?”  Let me explain to you in the following.
            The Law demands justice be upheld.  Because God is the God of justice.  Exodus 21:23-24 records this law about the demand of justice:
23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
The Fall renders all human beings, even those who are to be born in the future, guilty of sin.  Through Adam we all have sinned and thus punishable in hell.  God gives us all life.  When we sin we lose that life.  So we owe God our life.  Life must be paid by life.  That is why we must pay with our life.  Meaning we must die to pay what we owe to God.  However, if God wants to save us from death, then our life must be paid for.  This payment of life must be done accordingly.  A human life can’t be paid with a lamb life, or even a million bulls.  There is a value difference.  A human life can’t even be paid with an angel’s life.  So a human life must be paid by a human life.  But nobody in this world can pay for everybody owes their lives to God and must pay.  There is only one that could pay, for He is sinless, thus He does not have to pay for His life, and He is Jesus Christ.
            Therefore, if we, human beings, are to be saved, God can’t just flick His fingers and make everything good again.  His justice won’t allow it.  A sacrifice must be made.  The right sacrifice must be made in order to satisfy His justice.  A sloppy sacrifice won’t do.  A billion bulls and lambs won’t cut it.  Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.  A human life for a human life.  The Son of God must be sacrificed if we are to escape hell.  This is the answer to why a sacrifice must be made.  I haven’t explained here why Jesus is the only one that must be sacrificed for the salvation of His people.  We have not the time and space to do so.  It would be for another time.
            The event about Abraham sacrificing Isaac was done by God to test Abraham’s faith, to cast a shadow of God the Father truly sacrificing His only begotten Son, and to teach us the real pain of sacrifice.  No, sacrifice is not a mechanical system or merely a religious ritual.  Sacrifice demands the whole being.  Its pain pierces deep into a person’s very core, even God.  Do not take this lightly.  God knows it, so He stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac.  But a sacrifice must be made.  The real one that truly saves the world.  So God the Father did not stop Himself from sacrificing His Son.  Do you know what this means?  It means He loves you and me very very much.  Brothers and sisters, we, therefore, should not take His love and thus His sacrifice lightly.  It is only fitting for us to love Him back with all our being.  Abraham did.  And so we also must.  Amen!


[1] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, vol. 1B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 283.
[2] K. A. Mathews, Genesis 11:27–50:26, vol. 1B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005), 284.
[3] James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 686.
[4] Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 151.
[5] James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 683.

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