Genesis 22,1-13 2024
Judica 29
Patrick, Apostle to Ireland, ✠ mid to end 5th cent.
Gertrude, Virgin, Abbess of Nivelles, Belgium. ✠ 659
17. März 2024
1. ℣ Vindicate me, O God, and discern my cause:
℟ For You, O God, are my Strength (Psalm 42,1a-2a vul lxx).
О our Jesus, we now draw near to You and look at Your suffering with faith. You went into the Garden of Gethsemane and sweat bloody sweat, alas, for us that we might be delivered from the power of Satan. You were brought before the judgment seat, accused and condemned to death ... so that we may be acquitted. Amen. (Stark 501-02 © 1852; English 78).
2. »Then Abraham said to his young men: „Stay here with the donkey; I and the young man will go over there and worship and we will return to you.“ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and placed 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 am I, my son.“ He said: „Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?“ Abraham said: „God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.“ So they went both of them together.«
3. Martin Luther wrote in 1543: … die gantze Schrifft … alles Eitel Christ us. The whole of Scripture is pure Christ (WA 54,88.38-39). Genesis 22 tells us the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, and Christ is in, with and under that story.
4. Genesis 22 presents us with a dilemma. Scripture is clear that Yahweh detests human sacrifice (Leviticus 18,21; Deuteronomy 12,31; Jeremiah 7,31; Ezekiel 16,20-21). »And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings [obscene practices] so small a matter that you slaughtered My children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?« (Ezekiel 16,20-21). Yet, here in Genesis, Yahweh tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It is clear that Yahweh tells Abraham to do this as a test of his faith. How much do you trust Me, Abraham? Do you love Me enough to give Me that which is most dear to you? This test is revealed in verses 1 and 12: »He said: „Do not lay your hand on the young man 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« (Genesis 22,12-13). Although Yahweh had told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, it was clear all along that Yahweh had provided the ram to be the actual sacrifice.
5. But the theological plot thickens. In verse 1 it is God who tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac; we may certainly interpret this to be a reference to God the Father. In verse 11 it is not Yahweh, that is, the Father, but the Angel of Yahweh, that is, the Son of God, Jesus, who stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and tells him to sacrifice the nearby ram. Abraham did not withhold his only son from God the Father and God the Son. God provides Abraham with a substitute.
6. About 2000 years after Genesis 22 this same God the Son is living and ministering amongst the Jews, and He declared: »For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him« (John 3,16-17).
7. We have in Genesis 22 a remarkable unfolding of what Jesus would do. Isaac bore his cross—the wood for his sacrifice. Jesus, the New Isaac, bore His cross to Calvary. There would be no substitutionary ram caught in the thicket, for Jesus was the Substitute and the Ram to be sacrificed. God the Father kept His promise and brought fallen humanity forgiveness, life and eternal salvation to each of us through His Son. Redemption is not merely about suffering and death on the cross, but it also includes Christ’s resurrection three days later. The cross and the empty tomb go together. We cannot separate them in God’s Heilsgeschichte (plan of salvation). The cross was the method of purchasing our forgiveness, and the resurrection was the means that each of us will also rise from our grave.
8. As we journey together this Lenten season, look to God as Abraham and Isaac did. Abraham called the name of that place »Yahweh will provide; as it is said to this day: „On the mount of Yahweh it shall be provided.“ God provides. God is the God of the living, not the dead. We direct our eyes and hearts to Mt. Calvary where God has provided life and salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lamb who has taken away the sin of the world. Christ purchased our forgiveness fully and completely and in Christ Jesus we will all be raised to new life and free from all sin. On Mt. Calvary God the Father sacrificed His Only-begotten Son, and thus He called the name of that place: Yahweh has provided, for it is said to this day: On the mount of Christ it has been provided.
9. Iudica me, Deus, et discerne causam (Psalm 42,1a vul lxx). God the Father judged His Son with all our sins, and in judging Christ He has vindicated us.
10. The cross is erected,
The great dispute now settled.
That Christ the world’s salvation
For our sin Himself gave
Unto His Creation thus to save.
In this sign is the foundation.
(Das Kreuz ist aufgerichtet elkg 426,1 2021 Kurt Ihlenfeldt 1967).
This is most certainly true.
11. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
12. Let us pray. We beseech Thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon Thy people that by Thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore both in body and soul. Amen. (Judica, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
Starck, Johann. Tägliches Hand-Buch. Copyright © 1852 Enßlin & Laiblin.
Starck, Johann. Tägliches Handbuch. Franz Pieper, tr. Copyright © 19oo Concordia Publishing House.
Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.
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