Genesis 22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² 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.”

Abraham called by the Lord to sacrifice his own son Isaac unto the Lord in Genesis 22: If we were to preach it along the redemptive historical approach, we will have to treat Isaac as Christ and Abraham as God? No way!

Now there’s a huge difference between Isaac and Christ being sacrificed.

Isaac had no idea as a young kid what his dad was really trying to do even though when Abraham was trying to kill him, bound him up ,there’s no mention about his struggle in whatever. However in the case of the son of God, Jesus Christ when he was commanded and called by God the Father to be sacrificed on the cross as a substitutional redemption for mankind, he obeyed and he knew exactly what’s he’s going in for.

Even though he struggled greatly in the Garden of Gethsemane including dropping of sweat and blood, it is astounding as a human , Jesus asked God the Father to take away the cup of sufferings but he also asked finally, after much struggle, that the Father’s will be done. And the angels came and strengthened him and he settled on that end and proceeded to be whipped and scorned and pierced, crucified, suffered the most painful death on the cross and most shameful way for the sake of redeeming mankind. He knowingly and willingly to be sacrificed. Whereas Isaac was not willing and he did not know what the heck was going on. That’s a huge difference between the two.

Its Exemplary sermon, not Redemptive Historical

Therefore we cannot force the passage into the redemptive historical approach sermon. The real sermon will be on the obedience and faith of Abraham to the call of God which in a sense is also redemptive historical. That’s an exemplary approach sermon.

Because Hebrews 11 says Abraham believed that God will raise his son even after he has sacrificed him and therefore that empowered him to proceed to obey God in this brutal and unfathomable command of God. In other words God gave the Providence to empower and help Abraham to obey his call by who God is.

The secret of obedience to Christ is to really know who God is and his character of goodness and faithfulness. Amen