Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 22. Genesis chapter 22. And we come to our second sermon in our Advent series, Shadows of a Son. Last week, we looked at Genesis chapter three, verse 15, with the shadow of the son of a woman. And this morning, it's the shadow of the son of Abraham. As we come to the reading and preaching of God's word, let me pray for us. Father, in your light, we see light, and so we pray that you would come now, and by the reading and the preaching of your word, by your spirit, you would illuminate our hearts and our minds so that we would see Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly. And it's in his name that we ask. Amen. Genesis chapter 22, verse one. 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 rose 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 burned 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 burned offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burned 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. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, And he said, here I am. 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. 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. 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. And the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son. 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. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba. The grass withers, the flowers feed, but the word of our God endures forever. When he woke in the woods in the cold of the night, he'd reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him. He held the boy close to him, so thin. My heart, he said, my heart. So writes Cormac McCarthy in his 2006 novel, The Road. It's a post-apocalyptic story of a son and father as they make their way to the south coast of America, trying to get to the ocean to escape the aftermath of the apocalypse. It's a moving story of a father and son's deep bond as they try to survive together in a world bereft of hope. The suspense and emotion of this story arises out of the relationship between the father and the son. Each the other's world entire, as Cormac McCarthy writes. Each the other's world entire. What a line. And it's a line that captures something of another father-son story, only this time it's a real one, not a fictional one. It's the story of Abraham and Isaac as they make their way to Mount Moriah for Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice to God. I think it's fair to say that each was the other's world entire, at least as far as Abraham is concerned. Because think about who Isaac was to Abraham. He was the son whom he had longed for his whole life. When Abraham came to the promised land, he arrived at 75 years old without any hope of having children. Sarah, his wife, at 65, had been barren her whole life, not even a miscarriage to speak of. And yet, God promised her and Abraham a son from their own bodies. As we know, it took 25 years, but God remained faithful to his promise, and Sarah conceived at the ripe old age of 89 years old. and then gave birth to her son in her 90th year, a humanly impossible age to bear a child. I looked up this week on Google how old in the modern age was a woman who had born a son, the oldest woman, 59 years old. Sarah was 89 when she conceived and bore a son. The surprise, conception, and birth of their promised son was captured in the name that God gave to him. Yitzhak. He laughs. Laughter. That was the name of their son, Isaac. So we can see that Isaac was the longed for son of the family. But his significance extends beyond that. He was also the longed for son of the promise. the promise to make Abraham into a great nation, to make his offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, to make him into a father of many nations, to make his offspring the offspring through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. All those covenant promises hung on one person, one son, Isaac. to borrow the words of Cormac McCarthy, Isaac was Abraham's world entire, which makes the test that God brings into Abraham's life all the more surprising and poignant. Verses one and two. 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. Every word of that command must have been like a dagger to Abraham's heart. Take your son. not your servant, not your steward, not your surrogate son, Ishmael, but your own son, Isaac. Take your son, your only son." Of course, Ishmael was Abraham's other son, but he had sent him away with Hagar. So practically speaking, Isaac was the only son at home. But more than that, biologically, He was the only son that Abraham and Sarah had together. And covenantally, he was the only son of the promise. Take your son, your only son, whom you love. Take Isaac. Laughter, the one who has brought you joy and laughter all these years, take that son and offer him to me as a sacrifice. And yes, Isaac is not just to be killed, he is to be sacrificed. He is to be offered to God devoutly, sincerely, as an act of worship with heart and mind and soul and strength. Isaac is to be a burnt offering, which was an offering that made atonement for sin and symbolized one's total consecration and dedication to God. And this is what this test and trial was really about. Do you love me, Abraham? Do you love me more than your only son whom you love? Back in Genesis 12, God had given Abraham a similar test when God called him to go and leave his country. his kindred, his father's house, and to go to the land that God would show him. That was a test to see if God loved, if Abraham loved God more than his own father. He passed that test. Now God tells him to go to another land, the land of Moriah, to offer his son as a burnt offering. This time it is a test to see if Abraham loves God more than his own son. The fact that the land of Moriah is a three-day journey shows that the offering is not to be done under a sudden impulse. but under the slow burn of obedience. Just think about that torturous three-day journey. Begins with a sleepless night after God has given Abraham the command, and then three days. of walking and talking with his precious son, two nights under the stars, wrestling with what he is about to do to him. And Abraham has no one to unburden himself to. The fact that he rises early in the morning suggests Sarah is not informed. There's no tearful farewell between mother and son. She doesn't know about it. Isaac doesn't know about it. The servants don't know about it. Just Abraham and his God. This is the tense drama in this most familiar and famous of stories. A father on a journey with his son to sacrifice him on a mountain. to his God. As the story unfolds, we see three things, each related to the three main characters. Number one, the father who trusts. The father who trusts, verses three to 10. Abraham's faith and obedience is seen in his immediate response to God's command. Three, he rises early after what must have been a sleepless night. Then he saddles the donkey himself, gathers two of his young men, wakes up his son, cuts the wood for a burnt offering, and sets off to the land of Moriah before Sarah has woken up. No debating or deliberating with God, no dilly-dallying, no delaying. Just faith in action. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us why Abraham acted in faith and obeyed. He believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. But that still didn't take away the anguish of what he was going to do to his precious son, slit his throat with a knife. and then burn him on an altar. Sure, he believed he would receive him back from the dead, but the memory of what he did to his son would never have been erased. Abraham's faith is seen further in verse five, when he says to the young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and come again to you. The translation of Isaac as a boy is misleading. It should really read a young man. It's the same word as young men earlier in the verse. This makes sense in the context because only a young man would be able to walk a three-day journey. The donkey was for carrying the food and the water and the wood. And clearly Isaac is big enough to carry wood for a burnt offering on his back up a mountain. So Isaac is a young man. Some commentators think 25 years old, some propose 33 years old for reasons that will become obvious later on. But notice what Abraham says, I and the young boy, we will go over there and we will worship and we will come again to you. Do you see his faith? He's trusting that God will raise Isaac from the dead. Verse 6 shows Isaac's faith, Abraham's faith again. He takes the wood for the burnt offering and places it on Isaac's back, a pre-glimpse of where this is heading. You can just feel the emotional tension especially with how verse six ends. So they went, both of them, together. Then Isaac breaks the silence in verse seven. 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 burned offering? Abraham responds, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son. Abraham's response here could be taken in one of two ways. He might mean that he thought God would actually provide a substitute lamb for Isaac. Or he might mean that Isaac was the lamb that God was going to provide. I think it's probably the latter because of what Hebrews 11 says about Abraham believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead. And it also makes sense of Abraham binding Isaac and laying him on the altar without hesitation. Isaac is the lamb that God has provided. In any case for Isaac, the answer is sufficient. And so the refrain repeats, so they went both of them together. We can just imagine the physical closeness as they ascend the mountain together, holding hands at times, perhaps sometimes Abraham coming behind him and placing his hand on his back. But then comes the most poignant and obvious expression of Abraham's faith in action, verse nine. 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. Abraham had built many altars in his lifetime in the promised land, but none like this one. And then comes the excruciating moment as he takes his son, his only son, whom he loves, Isaac, his son of laughter, the one he had longed for for 25 years and more, and then who he had enjoyed for 25 years and more. The one upon whom all the covenant promises depended. The one through whom God was going to bless all the families of the earth. Abraham takes that son and binds him. There's no recorded struggle by Isaac. But Abraham still binds him to ensure that the offering is not disrupted once the knife cuts the throat and once the flames begin to engulf the body. This is a burnt offering that cannot be spoiled in the moment of its offering. It must be perfect. It must be a whole burnt offering. With Isaac, his son, laid on the altar, Abraham proceeds with his final act of obedience. I think we're allowed to be a little imaginative at this point. Many of the most conservative commentators become quite imaginative. A final kiss, perhaps an extra one for his mother or on behalf of his mother, And then with tears filling both of their eyes, Abraham raises the knife to slaughter his son. The whole thing is quite astonishing. The devoted father has become the devoted sacrificer. This is the first thing we see in this most famous and familiar of stories, the father who trusts. Second, the son who accepts. The son who accepts. Verses 7 to 9. What's interesting in this story is that throughout it, Isaac is mainly passive. Verse 3, he is taken by Abraham. Verse 6, Abraham lays the wood on his back. Verse 10, Isaac is bound by his father and laid on the altar. Apart from when they are said to walk together, Isaac is essentially passive throughout. He only speaks once, and that is to inquire about where the lamb is for the sacrifice. And after that, he does not speak again. Perhaps we could sum up Isaac's part in this story as that of the submissive son who accepts his suffering at the hand of his father. In a word, the son who accepts. At one point, he accepted his fate, we're not told, but whatever point it was, there is no resistance. The young, innocent man accepts that his father is the sacrificer and he is the sacrifice. Yes, he is bound by his father, but it is totally unnecessary. because there is no struggle or screaming, no objection or opposition, only a quiet acceptance as he communicates through tear-filled eyes, Father, not my will, but yours be done. Here is the son who accepts. The turning point of the story is when the third character appears, and that is God, who speaks from heaven, verses 11 to 12. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. 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. Abraham has passed the test. He fears God above all else. He loves God more than his only son whom he loves. But it is not enough for Abraham to now pack up the wood and take down the altar and walk down the mountain with his son. No, he came to worship on a mountain and he must still worship on this mountain. There must be a sacrifice on his behalf and on behalf of his son. Someone else must die to make atonement for them before God. Verses 13 and 14 supply the answer. 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 as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord Will Provide. as it is said to this day on the mountain of the Lord, it shall be provided. Did you notice the use of the word behold in verse 13? It was used back in verse seven by Isaac in his query about where the lamb was for the sacrifice. And now behold again, behind Abraham, there is a ram. I don't think this means that God made it magically appear out of nowhere. The fact the ram is caught in a thicket of thorns by its horns suggests a more natural occurrence of its appearance. But neither should we conclude that it is accidental. No, it is providential. Abraham indicates this by the name he calls the place, the Lord will provide. The word provide here is a possible rendering of the verb, but it is more literally translated seize. The Lord will see, as in the Lord sees the need and provides for the need. In this case, he provides a substitute sacrifice for Abraham's son Isaac. But we should not pass over the details of the ram and the thicket on the mountain. Every aspect of this provision is seen and planned and orchestrated by God. Just think about the years of planning that went into this one moment. Years prior to God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he ordained for a baby ram, lamb, to be born to a ewe, which would grow and be weaned off its mother and become a mature ram with horns, wandering in the land of Moriah, and which would, on one particular day, wander up the mountain to the place where Abraham had prepared an altar. In addition, years prior, God ordained for the seed of a thicket bush to be wafted through the air and land on the side of a mountain in Moriah and grow through rain and sunshine that he provided over the years, to grow into a large thicket bush full of horns, full of thorns, sorry. And then God ordained that on this particular day, The third day of Abraham's ordeal, that this ram would stumble and misstep near this thicket of thorns and get its horns caught and be unable to free itself. All within just minutes of Abraham raising a knife to slay his son. In the fullness of time, the Lord saw and provided perfectly, sufficiently, sovereignly. Here is the God who sees and plans and provides a substitute sacrifice for his people so that the covenant promises might be maintained. Here is the God who provides. So we've seen three things from this most familiar and famous of stories. The father who trusts, the son who accepts, the God who provides. The question is, what has this got to do with Advent? What has a mountain in Moriah got to do with a manger in Bethlehem? Perhaps Martin Luther can help us. Luther once said, the manger and the cross are never far apart. The manger and the cross are never far apart. What's interesting in this story in Genesis 22 is that the birth of Isaac and the death and resurrection experience of Isaac are not that far apart. Hebrews 11 describes the mountain experience of Isaac as a kind of death and resurrection experience. Well, what's interesting is that in the Genesis narrative, that death and resurrection experience of Isaac is just one chapter after his birth. even though the two events are 25 plus years apart. The way the book is shaped, it's as if Isaac is born to die. Chapter 21, he's born. Chapter 22, he's on his way up a mountain to die. It's as if the longed-for promised son comes on the scene of redemptive history for the sole purpose of dying as a sacrifice on a mountain. His birth and his death are not far apart. And that connection in the story of Isaac becomes the shadow of a greater story about another longed-for promised son. Boys and girls, you've been listening so well so far. And now here's a question for you. What's a shadow? What is a shadow? Or let me put it a bit differently. What creates a shadow? A shadow is created by an object standing in the light. Shadows only exist when objects exist in the light. I've got a shadow up here, and it's because I'm standing in the light. Well, one way of understanding the Old Testament with its different people and places and events is by understanding them as shadows of people, places, and events in the New Testament that come into the light. And that's exactly like the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. The person Isaac and the place Moriah and the event of a sacrifice is a shadow of a greater person, place, and event in the New Testament. Many aspects of the Abraham and Isaac story connect the shadow to the reality. Isaac is the son of Abraham. Jesus is introduced in Matthew's gospel as the son of David, the son of Abraham. Isaac is the only son of his father whom he loved. Jesus is the only begotten son of his heavenly father whom he loved. We sung about it this morning. Of the father's love begotten, e'er the worlds began to be. Isaac carries the wood for the burnt offering on his back up a mountain. Jesus ascends Mount Calvary carrying the cross made of wood on his back. Isaac asks where the lamb is for the sacrifice and Abraham responds that God will provide a lamb for the sacrifice. Jesus is the lamb who ascends Mount Calvary to offer himself as a sacrifice for sinners. The ram, a substitute sacrifice is caught in a thicket of thorns. Thorns are a sign of the curse. And boys and girls, what does Jesus wear on his head when he dies? a crown of thorns. He is bearing the curse. Mount Moriah is the place where the temple was later built and sacrifice is offered to God and Mount Calvary is within the vicinity of the temple and ancient Moriah. What Abraham predicted in verse 14, that on the mountain of the Lord, it shall be provided, was fulfilled when Jesus died on that mountain. Isaac's near death and resurrection experience occurs on the third day of this ordeal. Jesus rises from the dead on the third day after his sacrificial ordeal. Do you see how the Abraham and Isaac story is a shadow of a greater story? And where did it all begin? Not on a cross, but in a manger. The manger and the cross are never far apart, as Luther said. Easter does not begin at Lent. Easter begins at Advent. In this regard, have you ever thought about Jesus' connection to wood in his life? Jesus is born and then placed in a wooden manger. There were no metal feeding troughs in those days. Jesus works with wood his whole life as a carpenter. And then at the end of his life, he is crucified on a piece of wood, a cross. Jesus' life is bookended with wood. And where do we get wood from? From trees. Boys and girls, do you remember what day of creation God created trees? The third day. And why did God create trees on the third day? Well, he wanted to decorate his mountains and valleys. He wanted people to have trees in their gardens and in their cities. But the real ultimate reason why God made trees was because he would need a manger for his son to be placed in as a newborn babe. He would need some wood for his son to work with as a carpenter. He would need some wood for a cross to be made for his son to die on. The next time you go walking in Rittenhouse Square and you admire the trees, remember, They were made for God's Son to be born and placed in, for God's Son to work with, and for God's Son to die on. He made the trees on the third day of creation so that we could be saved through a death and resurrection on another third day in history. As we saw earlier, He made a thicket on Mount Moriah so that on the third day, Aram could be caught and offered as a substitute sacrifice so that Isaac could be saved. And God made trees in Palestine so that his son could be placed in a manger, work with wood as a carpenter, and then hang on a cross so that we could be saved. The whole of creation is manger to cross tilted. The whole of creation is manger to cross shaped, manger to cross oriented. Even the trees bend toward the sun, S-O-N. And even one of them was shaped to hold the sun. The Lord sees and the Lord provides. And all of it was planned and orchestrated by him many years in advance. Years before Jesus died on a cross, God ordained for seeds of trees to waft across the plains of Palestine and land in areas where they could take root and germinate. He provided the rain and the sunshine so that they could grow up into mature trees and then be cut down for a manger, for a carpenter, and for a cross. The Lord saw and the Lord provided so that we could be saved. This is the real story of which the offering of Isaac and the substitute Ram is but the shadow. There are, of course, some differences. The son of Mount Moriah was spared. The son of Mount Calvary was not spared. A ram was provided as a substitute sacrifice for the promised son, Isaac. No ram was provided as a substitute sacrifice for Jesus because he was the sacrifice. But the biggest difference of all is that Abraham offered his sacrifice of a son under an order. God offered the sacrifice of his son under no order. Abraham acted out of compulsion. God acted out of compassion. Abraham did what he did out of obedience. God did what he did out of love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That son, his only son whom he loved from all eternity, God gave that son to us. And what did we do to him? We stuck a thicket of thorns on his head and nailed him to a tree. And yet God used even that to be the means of a substitute sacrifice for our sin. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. I have two sons and no disrespect to any of you, but if you were dying, and I could give one of my sons to save your life, I wouldn't do it in a million years. And you've been quite nice to me since I've come to 10th. But God, while we were yet sinners, while we were his enemies, did not spare his only son. but gave him up for us all. Matthew Henry has called the Abraham and Isaac story, one of the wonders of the church. Well, this story of the heavenly father and his only begotten beloved son, this is the wonder of the church. A wonder that begins at Advent and Christmas. The wonder that lifts our hearts in praise as we ponder the free gift of God in the first coming of his son, as we prepare for the second coming of his son. And when his son does return, We are going to behold the scars of that thicket of thorns on his brow. We're going to behold the scars in his hands and feet. We're going to see the scar in his side, and we are going to bow down and worship God our Father and say, what love is this? that you would give your Son for us. And so we pray this Advent season, come, Lord Jesus, come. Let us pray. Father, we bless you for the great and amazing gift of your Son to us. And we ask that in this Advent season, you would help us to appreciate it through new eyes, that you are the God who saw and provided, all the way down to the minute detail of providing trees for a manger and a cross. And so help us, Father, having seen the incarnation and the death of your Son through new eyes, Help us, we pray, by your spirit to respond with hearts full of praise for the great gift of your son to us. And we ask this in his precious name. Amen.