This is the eighth post in a series from Hebrews 11. You’ll find all the posts done so far in this series here.
After the summary statement in verses 13-16 of this chapter, the author of Hebrews returns to his examination of Abraham’s faith. He’s already explained that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed God and left his homeland, and it was by faith that Abraham conceived his son Isaac. Now the author tells us that it was by faith that Abraham offered up Isaac.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there. (Hebrews 11:17-19 NET)
You know the story, right? God speaks to Abraham:
Take your son—your only son, whom you love, Isaac—and go to the land of Moriah! Offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will indicate to you. (Genesis 22:22)
This was, of course, a test of Abraham’s love for God: Did he love God enough to give up his son? This text in Hebrews, however, points us to something else that was tested—Abraham’s willingness to keep on believing and obeying God when faced with what appeared to be contradictory revelations from him. God had told Abraham that Isaac’s descendants would carry on Abraham’s name, and Abraham had already received partial fulfillment of that promise in the birth of Isaac. Now God was telling Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering, an act that would seem to ensure that Isaac would have no descendents at all. At the very least, it would have been confusing.
How did Abraham square God’s command with his promise? He denied neither, but trusted instead in God’s ability to raise the dead. God, Abraham concluded, would be able to fulfill this promise even if Isaac died, because God had the power to raise him to life again. So Abraham determined to obey God’s command.
He was already in the process of offering up Isaac when God intervened in a way he had not anticipated.
But the Lord’s angel called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered. “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” (Genesis 22: 11,12 NET)
God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son Isaac, giving Abraham and all the rest of us a picture of the provision God would make for us by the sacrifice of his own Son.
The phrase “only Son” used to describe Isaac should be understood to mean “unique son,” since Abraham had other sons besides Isaac (Genesis 25:1-2). None of them, however, were conceived in the unlikely way that Isaac was, and only Isaac received the covenant promises.
And even though God stopped Abraham from following through on his plan to offer Isaac, in a sense, says our text, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead. In his mind, Abraham had already given Isaac up for dead, expecting him back only through a miraculous work of God. The way God chose to intervene was different than what Abraham expected, but, in keeping with his trustworthy nature, God did act so that his promise to Abraham would be fulfilled.