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God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac Gen.22:1. And it was, after these incidents This is the usual, rather vague biblical reference - not so much about the time itself, but about the sequence of events. From the subsequent context (Gen. 22:6), in any case, it is clear that the sacrifice of Isaac took place when he had already grown enough to be able to carry the required amount of wood for the fire, therefore, he was at least 12–15 years old. God tempted Abraham and said to him: Abraham! He said: here I am. Metropolitan Philaret distinguishes two types of temptations: temptation in evil, or the stimulation to action of evil inclinations hidden in a person, and temptation in good, or the direction given to the principle of good acting in him to open battle against evil or against obstacles in good, to achieve victory and glory; the first is not from God, but is a consequence of abandonment by God (2 Chronicles 32:31); the second is from God, and, to the extent of spiritual strength, is sent as grace to those who are worthy to receive “and grace upon grace” (John 1:16). “God did not tempt Abraham,” says Blessed Theodoret, “in order to find out for himself what he did not know; but to teach those who do not know how much he justly loved the patriarch.” A similar view of temptation, as a manifestation of divine love and a reason for the development and strengthening of virtue, is held in many other places in the Bible (Ex. 16:4; Deut. 8:2, 13:3; Ps. 25:2; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:7; 1 Cor. 10:13, etc.). Gen.22:2. God said: Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac; Isaac is called the "only" son of Abraham because he is the only son of Sarah, Abraham's lawful wife, and even more because on him alone, as the son of promise, rested all the divine blessings regarding the future glorious destiny of Abraham's descendants. And it is this only support of all the cherished thoughts of the elderly patriarch that is now threatened with sacrificial slaughter! go to the land of Moriah and there offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains about which I will tell you. The word “Moria” translated from Hebrew means: “Jehovah’s discretion,” and one might think that when giving Abraham the command to go according to His divine inspiration, the Lord did not indicate to him any specific area, which at that time already bore the name Moriah, but simply commanded him to go to the land where He would lead him, in other words, to the land of divine discretion. Such a country, as it turned out later, was one of the mountains that lay from Bathsheba at a distance of three days' journey (Gen. 22:4) and received, in memory of this event, the name Mount Moriah. According to the book. Chronicles, later Solomon's temple was erected on this very mountain (2 Chron. 3:1). Abraham gives the strongest evidence of his deep faith and complete obedience Gen.22:3. Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his servants and Isaac his son; He chopped wood for the burnt offering, and got up and went to the place that God had told him about. Patriarch Abraham spent a difficult night, having received a revelation about the sacrifice of his only, beloved son! But the power of faith and obedience to God triumphed over all other feelings of Abraham: he, as the Apostle Paul explains, was illuminated by the thought that God, who miraculously gave Isaac life from his elderly parents, “is able to raise him from the dead” (cf. Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:19). And as soon as the morning dawned, Abraham was already in a hurry to fulfill the divine will! Gen.22:5. And Abraham said to his youths: Stay here with the donkey, and I and my son will go there and worship, and return to you. In fair fear that Abraham’s servants, not accustomed to human sacrifices, will prevent him from fulfilling the divine command, Abraham leaves them at the foot of the mountain and promises to soon return to them with his son. In this promise one cannot see deception, even if it was made for a good purpose, but they should be understood as proof of Abraham’s faith that God would not allow Isaac to perish, but would bring him back to life again. Gen.22:6. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; An interesting detail that further enhances the representative similarity of the sacrifice of Isaac with the great Calvary sacrifice, during which our Lord Jesus Christ himself had to bear His cross (John 19:17). Gen.22:7–8. And Isaac began to speak to Abraham his father, and said: My father! He answered: Here I am, my son. He said, “Here is the fire and the wood; where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said: God will provide for Himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son. And they both walked on together. This entire dialogue between father and son is filled with deep devotion to God. Hiding from Isaac that it was he who was intended to serve as a sacrifice, Abraham involuntarily prophesies, since he indicates that God himself will choose the sacrificial lamb, which later, indeed, was justified (Gen. 22:13). Abraham's very speech about the lamb contains a representative indication of the great Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, i.e. on the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice for us all. Gen.22:9. And they came to the place that God had told him about; and Abraham built an altar there and laid out the wood This altar, in all likelihood, was a small pile of stones collected there, at the top of the mountain. and having bound his son Isaac, he laid him on the altar on top of the wood. From all the details of this narrative it is clearly clear that Isaac completely voluntarily and unquestioningly obeyed the divine command. Although he was already at an age when he could resist his elderly father, he shows him the most touching obedience: the son’s obedience here is equal to the father’s faith and both of them show great heroism of spirit. If Abraham, however, as we see, finds it necessary to first bind Isaac, then he does this either to prevent any involuntary movements of his, at the sight of the raised knife, or, more likely, due to the general sacrificial custom. An Angel appears to him and stops his hand Gen. 22:10–11. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took a knife to kill his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said: Abraham! Abraham! He said: here I am. At that very moment, when Abraham was about to raise his hand to slaughter his son, he was suddenly stopped by a mysterious voice from heaven, coming from the face of the Angel of the Lord, who had already appeared to him several times before (Gen. 18:10) and in whom most likely he should see the Lord God himself, as this is confirmed by the given context of speech (Gen. 22:12, 15, 16, 17-18). Gen.22:12. The angel said: Do not raise your hand against the boy and do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God. The expression is human-like, conveying the idea that Abraham has now given the most brilliant proof of his deep faith and his complete obedience, i.e. has reached that height of spiritual and moral perfection, after which any change for the worse becomes psychologically impossible in him. and you did not withhold your son, your only son, from Me. An expression almost literally repeated by the Apostle Paul in relation to God the Father, who sacrificed His only begotten Son for the sin of people (Rom. 8:32). Gen.22:13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw: and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of [Isaac] his son. By special divine will, it so happened that near the place of the sacrifice there was a ram, entangled with its horns in a thicket of bushes of some kind of rock, which our Slavic text calls “savek”; seeing in this unexpected coincidence a special divine indication, Abraham sacrifices this ram, instead of his son Isaac. The place of sacrifice is named Jehovah-jireh Gen.22:14. And Abraham called the name of that place: Jehovah-jireh ****. Therefore, even now it is said: on the mountain of Jehovah it will be provided. The Slavic text gives the translation of the last two words: "The Lord is in the form". Most commentators see here a repetition of what was said by Abraham earlier (v. 8, “God will see for himself a sheep for a burnt offering” in the Slavic text) and which has now been so accurately justified. Renaming this or that locality in memory of a famous event that took place there was widespread in biblical antiquity (Gen. 16:13–14, 21:31, etc.). And the fact that in the Hebrew text in completely identical two phrases 8 and 14 Art. The use of different words to designate the Lord, Elohim and Jehovah, provides a strong objection to combat rationalistic criticism of the biblical text. As for the second half of Article 14, they represent a kind of proverb that developed on the basis of this fact and was used in similar cases, i.e. when all human means have already been exhausted and only hope remains for miraculous divine help, like that which God showed to Abraham and Isaac at the very last decisive moment for them. Abraham receives divine blessing Gen. 22:15–16. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said: I swear by Me, says the Lord, that because you have done this deed, and have not withheld your son, your only son, [for Me,] The best explanation of these words is given in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, where the apostle thoroughly proves that this divine oath is a human-like expression of the thought of the unconditional immutability of divine promises (Heb. 6.16–18). Examples of such oaths can be found in many other places in the Bible (Gen. 24:7, 26:3, 50:24; Ex. 13:5, 11, 32:13; Isa. 45:23; Jer. 44:26; Am. 4:2; Heb. 6:13, etc.). Gen. 22:17–18. then by blessing I will bless you and by multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven and like the sand on the seashore; and your seed shall take possession of the cities of their enemies; and through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. This final and last divine promise in Abraham’s life is particularly solemn and powerful. Just as Abraham, by his readiness to sacrifice Isaac, revealed the highest degree of obedience and devotion to God, and the Lord, as a reward for this, gives him evidence of His highest favor, confirming and strengthening the promises previously given to him about the number and glory of his descendants. Moreover, in the word 18th century. about the only and exclusive seed, through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed, most interpreters, following the Apostle Paul, see an indication of the great Seed of the woman, who has to erase the head of the serpent, i.e. on Christ, the Son of God (Gal. 3:16). Number of generations from Nahor to Rebekah Gen.22:20. After these events they told Abraham, saying: Behold, Milkah has given birth to thy brother Nahor sons: The purpose of this indication is to show the origin of Rebekah, the future wife of Isaac and, therefore, the mother of the chosen offspring (Gen. 24:15). Genesis 22:21–24. Utz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, Quesed, Hazo, Pildasha, Idlafa and Bethuel; Bethuel gave birth to Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight [sons] to Abraham's brother Nahor; and his concubine, whose name was Reuma, also gave birth to Tebaha, Haham, Tachash and Maacah. When, by virtue of divine command, Abraham once set out from Ur of the Chaldeans on the way to Harran and generally to Syria and Palestine, he broke all ties and relations with the kinship that remained in his homeland. And suddenly, almost at the end of his life, he receives unexpected news about the family of his brother Nahor, which has grown to 12 sons (8 from his legal wife and 4 from his concubine). About some of them, or more precisely about their descendants, you can find some indications in the Bible itself: for example, the firstborn of Nahor, Uz, apparently gave his name to the country of Uz, which lay in northeastern Arabia, from which Job came (Job 1:1), the name Vuz is mentioned as the name of one of the Arabian tribes that lived between Dedan and Teman (Jeremiah 25:23) and in some proximity to the homeland of Job, for from there one of his friends comes from Elihu (Job 32:2). Under Kesed, many, following Jerome, are inclined to see the ancestor of the “Chaldeans” (“kesed” or “kasdim”), who lived in the north of Mesopotamia, in the neighborhood of Susa and Egam; finally, some indication of Maachah is seen in the Maachites, who, as one of the Canaanite tribes bordering Mesopotamia, are spoken of in Deuteronomy and in the book. Joshua (Deut. 3:14, Josh. 13:13). You might be interested in: