The Substitute

Genesis 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. ² Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." ³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." ⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" ⁸ Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. ⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. ¹² "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." ¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." ¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

On June 2, 1925, Wally Pip, the starting first baseman for the New York Yankees, was hit in the head by a pitch in pre-game batting practice. The manager put a substitute in to play for Pip that day. Pip never started another game at first base for the Yankees because his substitute went on to play in 2,130 straight games – a record that stood for many years. You’ve probably never heard of Wally Pip. But even if you’re not a baseball fan, you have probably heard of Pip’s substitute: Lou Gehrig. What a substitution!

On a September day in 1992, Green Bay quarterback, Don Majkowski, was taken to the training room early in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals with severe ligament damage in his ankle. A young, raw quarterback traded from the Atlanta Falcons, came in for the Majik Man. He had a rough game, but threw a touchdown pass to Kitrick Taylor with 13 seconds left on the clock to win 24-23. I think you’ve all heard of this Majkowski’s substitute – Brett Favre. Favre holds the record for 297 consecutive starts in the NFL. That’s quite a substitution!

Early in the second millennium before Christ, Abraham was told by God, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Abraham faithfully obeys the Lord and takes his son, Isaac, places him bound upon an altar on Mt. Moriah. He is about to bring the knife down on his son, when the Angel of the Lord, stops him. There is a ram caught in the thicket. At the last moment, there is a substitution for Isaac.  

This morning, on this first Sunday in Lent, we see the seriousness of our sin, for we, too, need a substitute. But this is how sinful we are and how needful we are – the substitute was displayed for us no less than three times on Mt. Moriah. First, Isaac typified Christ as our substitute; then the sacrificed ran was realized as a type of Christ, our substitute; and then the Angel of the Lord was present, who is the Old Testament presence of the Son of God, our Substitute.

This lesson in Genesis 22 begs the question, “Why would God tell Abraham to sacrifice his son?” This wasn’t for God’s benefit, but for Abraham’s. Abraham had been waiting for decades for this promised son. Now that he had him, he could have given in to the temptation to allow his love for his son to crowd out his love for his God. Jesus once said, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). God tested Abraham so that he might not only appear as a good man, but a great man. Strong faith is exercised with strong trials and through hard service. Like winning an overtime basketball game or overcoming cancer or recovering from foreclosure.

This test of faith was to allow Abraham to have the necessary opportunity to put God first. It wouldn’t just be “killing” his son, but “sacrificing” him as a burnt offering – a blood sacrifice which symbolized a person’s complete dedication to God.

To obey God’s command, Abraham had to disregard everything his heart and his reason told him, and to concentrate totally on God’s promise: “My covenant I will establish with Isaac” (Genesis 17:21). The epistle to the Hebrews helps us to understand Abraham’s attitude: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17-19) If there was a conflict between God’s command and God’s promise, resolving that conflict was God’s business. Abraham’s business was to put God first and obey God’s clear command.

Before, Abraham had subverted God’s promises by taking matters into his own hands by lying about Sarah to Pharaoh and sleeping with Hagar so he might have a son. But this time Abraham gets up early, cuts the wood for the sacrifice and with two servants and Isaac, sets out for the land of Moriah, a 50 mile journey. When they reached the site, three days later, Abraham orders the servants to stay, while he and Isaac go on ahead. Abraham’s instructions to the servants are significant for two reasons. “I and the boy will worship …”  Abraham is about to sacrifice his son and what word does he use to describe the act? “Worship.” When we think of worship we typically think of offering a song or a prayer or an hour or a gift. But when Abraham worshiped, he offered his son. He offered the biggest part of his life to God.

He also told his servants, “… and then we will come back to you.” During the three day walk, Abraham had plenty of time to consider how all the Messianic promises were through Isaac. So, if Abraham had to kill Isaac, then God was simply going to bring Isaac back to life. His son would be raised from the dead and the two of them would come back down the mountain.

Abraham is silent as father and son walk up Mt. Moriah together. Isaac breaks the silence, “Father, where is the lamb for sacrifice?” The answer must have cut Abraham like a knife. He answers, “The Lord will provide.”

And the Lord did provide!

Isaac is the sacrifice. He carries the wood for the sacrifice upon his shoulders. Silent. Innocent. Bound. Laid upon the altar. His father gives him a parting kiss (perhaps an extra kiss from Sarah). Abraham takes the knife and raises his hand to give the final cut to Isaac’s throat. “Here is an act of faith and obedience which deserves to be a spectacle to God, angels and men. Abraham’s darling, Sarah’s laughter, the Church’s hope, the heir of promise, lies ready to bleed and die by his own father’s hand, who never shrinks at the doing of it.” (Matthew Henry Commentary on Genesis)

Until … until the Angel of the Lord calls out with a doubly urgent, “Abraham, Abraham.” God had brought Abraham’s spiritual training exercise to a successful climax, and a heavenly messenger announced that. But this was not just an angel, but the Angel. For He says, “You have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” This is the pre-incarnate Christ, the Son of God before He takes on human flesh and the divine name of Jesus. The Lord has provided a substitute. A ram caught in the thicket.

In this fantastic lesson of faithfulness, worship and obedience, we see our need for a substitute. We don’t need a substitute because of a banged-up head or a bruised ankle, but because we have a fatally wounded spirit and a dead soul. We are not faithful like Abraham. We question. We doubt. We talk back to God. We do not remain silent like Isaac, trusting that our parents and our God know what is best for us. When times of testing come into our lives through disease or debt or death, we fail the test.

The coach may yank us from the game when we run the wrong play or fail to carry out the perfect execution of his plan. But this is much more than just doing the wrong thing or failing to do the right thing. Our problem goes much deeper than we what we do wrong or fail to do right. Our problem is the sin inside of us. The sin that separates us from God. That has broken our relationship with our heavenly Father. That won’t allow us to surrender our whole selves over to God. That drives us to try harder and harder, but results in more and more failure.

The coach may bring us to the bench if we are hurt. But we’re not just hurt, we’re dead! Dead in sin. Corpses of unbelief. Cadavers destined for an eternal death in hell.

That is why we need a substitute. And praise God! The Lord provides!

Our substitute is Jesus Christ. As the Angel of the Lord was there staying the father’s execution of his son, so the Angel of the Lord has stayed God the Father’s execution of us – God’s sons and daughters.

Isaac was a type or picture of Christ. Jesus carried the wood of his cross upon his shoulders up to Mt. Calvary. He was innocent. He did nothing to deserve this death. He was silent – like a sheep before her shearers (Isaiah 53:7). As Isaac asked, “Father, where is the Lamb for sacrifice,” so Jesus asked, “Father, may this cup be taken from me,” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus was bound to and nailed upon the altar of the cross. All of the promises of God were contained in this beloved Son. It was the Father who was doing the sacrificing. And it would be a blood sacrifice of complete dedication. Though this was breaking the heart of Abraham to think of killing his 20-year-old or so son, it was countless times more so for God to have planned the killing of His Son from eternity.

Solomon’s temple, the place of sacrifice, was afterwards built upon the top of Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3:1). Mt. Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was not far off from this Temple Mound.

Isaac was his father’s beloved and his mother’s laughter. Jesus was the Father’s Delight, the Promised Seed, Immanuel and the One who saves. But Isaac stopped being a type of Christ when the Angel of the Lord intervened. Then the ram became the type of Christ. For the ram was sacrificed upon the altar of Mt. Moriah. His blood was shed. He died so that Isaac might be spared. And Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was sacrificed on Mt. Calvary. His blood running down the cross. He died so humanity might be spared. He died at the hands of God the Father, who never shrank from doing it. For God knew, as Abraham did, that His Son would come back to life from the nearby tomb.

The ram became Isaac’s substitute. Jesus became our substitute. That was our perfect Substitute on Calvary’s cross. He bled so we might be forgiven. He died so we might live. He cried out to God in agony so we might offer God our praises. He suffered the righteous anger of God so we might feel the awesome love of God. He became this world’s greatest sinner so we might be made God’s redeemed saints. He experienced the eternity of hell in His hours upon the cross so we might enjoy an eternity of glory in heaven.

God’s own Son, the perfect final sacrifice, the innocent Lamb of God, has been caught in our place, killed for our offenses and punished for our misdeeds. God didn’t use a knife, though. He used a cross.

By His wounds we are healed. Our sins are paid for. We are righteous in God’s sight. All because of our Substitute. Through this Substitute, all nations on earth are blessed.

Because of a substitution, Lou Gehrig is in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Because of a substitution, someday Brett Favre will be in the Packers’ and the NFL’s Hall of Fame. Trusting in Jesus Christ, the Substitute God appointed for you, someday you will be in heaven’s Hall of Fame … forever! Amen.