“Abraham Gives Isaac To God”

Do you remember that Abel sacrificed a lamb to God? Do you remember  how pleased God was with him for doing this?

We’ll one day God said to Abraham. “Abraham, take your son Isaac whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah and burn him as a sacrifice upon one of the mountains I will point out to you!”

Yes , Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac upon and altar just as Abel had to sacrificed that lamb so long before. How could Abraham kill his own dear son?

But God told him to do it.; Abraham heard Him speak. He knew that he must do whatever God said, and he knew that even if Isaac were burned on the altar so that nothing was left but ashes, God could take those ashes and make him live again.

So Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two young men with him, some wood to lay on the altar, and Isaac, his son.

They started toward the mountain God had told him about. They travelled all that day and the next day and the next, before Abraham finally saw the mountain far ahead of them. Then he told the young men to stop and wait. He and Isaac would go to the mountain and worship, he told them, and then would come back to them.

Why do you think Abraham said that both of them would come back? I think it was because Abraham believed God would bring Isaac back to life.

Isaac carried the wood, and Abraham took some fire to light the wood (Since they had no matches). The two went on together.

Isaac did not know what God had told his father to do, nor why his father was taking him to the mountain. He knew they are going to offer a burnt offering, but he didn’t know he was going to be burnt up on the altar as a sacrifice. So as they walked along together, he said to his father, “Father, we have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Abraham answered, “My son, God will find Himself a lamb for the burnt offering.”

When they came to the place God had sent them to, Abraham built an altar and laid the wood on it. Then he tied Isaac and laid him on the wood, and Abraham lifted the knife to kill his son.

But at that instant the angel of God shouted to him from Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham! Stop!”

Then the angel told him not to hurt Isaac. Abraham had proved that he feared God. He had been willing to obey God’s command even if he had to sacrifice his own son.

Then Abraham noticed a Ram caught in the bushes by it horns. God had sent it there to be used as a burnt sacrifice (offering) instead of Isaac. Abraham killed it and burnt it on the altar.

God was greatly pleased with Abraham for being willing to obey. Then the angel of God spoke to him from heaven again and told him that God would bless him by giving him many, many, grandchildren and great grandchildren. His family would some day be so large, the angel said, that no one could even count them! And they would help all the other people in the world.

(The angel said this about helping other people everywhere, because the Savior of the world was going to be born into Abrahams family.)

Then Abraham and Isaac came back to the young men who were waiting for them, and they all returned home.

Sarah, Isaac’s mother, died when she was 127 years old. Abraham and Isaac came back cried a lot because she was dead. The Abraham asked the people who owned that country to sell him a piece of land where he could bury her.

In that country people were buried in caves made in the sides of hills. Then a great stone was rolled against the opening of the cave to close it. When anyone died the stone was rolled away and the dead person was laid inside the cave was shut up until someone else was buried there.

There was a man in that land whose name was Ephron, who owned a field with a cave at one end of it. Abraham wanted to buy this cave to bury Sarah in. So he asked Ephron’s friends to tell him that Abraham wanted to buy it.

Ephron said Abraham could have the cave without paying, but Abraham preferred to buy it. Ephron agreed to sell it, and Abraham gave him 400 pieces of silver for the cave and the nearby field and trees. So he buried Sarah there.

Abraham was getting very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way.

Isaac was a full-gown man and wanted to get married. But his father Abraham didn’t want him to marry any of the girls in that country, because they all worshiped idols instead of worshiping God. He wanted Isaac to marry a girl from the country  where his relatives lived, where the people obeyed God and didn’t worship idols.

But that country was far away. So Abraham called his oldest servant, the one who was in charge of all his business, and asked him to go o that distant land where his relatives lived and to bring back a girl for Isaac to marry.

But what if I can’t find a girl who is willing to come so far? “The servant asked.

Abraham told him, “God will send an angel ahead of you to help you and the right girl to come and be Isaac’s wife.”

So then the servant loaded ten of Abrahams camels with beautiful presents and started off.

After many days of hard travel he finally arrived at the town where Abraham’s relatives lived. He made the camels kneel down by a well that was just outside the city.

Questions:

What did God tell Abraham to do?

What happen just as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac?

What did Abraham use as a burnt offering?

Why didn’t Abraham want Isaac to marry a girl from his own country?

What did Abraham tell his servant to do?