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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. XXII.
We have here the famous story of Abraham’s offering up his son
Isaac, that is, his offering to offer him, which is justly looked
upon as one of the wonders of the church. Here is,
I. The strange
command which God gave to Abraham concerning it,
II. Abraham’s strange obedience to this command,
III. The strange issue of this trial.
1. The sacrificing of Isaac
was countermanded,
2. Another sacrifice was provided,
3. The covenant was renewed with Abraham
hereupon,
Lastly, an account of some of Abraham’s
relations,
&c.
| Abraham Commanded to Offer Isaac. | B. C. 1872. |
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1 And it came to pass after these
things, that God did tempt Abraham,
and said unto him, Abraham:
and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine
only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and
get thee into the land of Moriah; and
offer him there for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I
will tell thee of.
Here is the trial of Abraham’s faith, whether
it continued so strong, so vigorous, so
victorious, after a long settlement in communion
with God, as it was at first, when by
it he left his country: then it was made to
appear that he loved God better than his father;
now that he loved him better than his
son. Observe here,
I. The time when Abraham was thus tried
(v. 1):
After these things, after all the other
exercises he had had, all the hardships and
difficulties he had gone through. Now, perhaps,
he was beginning to think the storms
had all blown over; but, after all, this encounter
comes, which is sharper than any yet.
Note, Many former trials will not supersede
nor secure us from further trials; we have not
yet put off the harness,
See
II. The author of the trial: God tempted
him, not to draw him to sin, so Satan tempts
(if Abraham had sacrificed Isaac, he would
not have sinned, his orders would have justified
him, and borne him out), but to discover
his graces, how strong they were, that
they might be found to praise, and honour,
and glory,
1 Pet. i. 7.
Thus God tempted
Job, that he might appear not only a good
man, but a great man. God did tempt Abraham;
he did lift up Abraham, so some read
it; as a scholar that improves well is lifted
up, when he is put into a higher form. Note,
Strong faith is often exercised with strong
trials and put upon hard services.
III. The trial itself. God appeared to him
as he had formerly done, called him by name,
Abraham, that name which had been given
him in ratification of the promise. Abraham,
like a good servant, readily answered, “Here
am I; what says my Lord unto his servant?”
Probably he expected some renewed promise
like those,
and
But, to his
great amazement, that which God has to say
to him is, in short, Abraham, Go kill thy son;
and this command is given him in such aggravating
language as makes the temptation
abundantly more grievous. When God
speaks, Abraham, no doubt, takes notice of
every word, and listens attentively to it; and
every word here is a sword in his bones: the
trial is steeled with trying phrases. Is it any
pleasure to the Almighty that he should
afflict? No, it is not; yet, when Abraham’s
faith is to be tried, God seems to take pleasure
in the aggravation of the trial,
v. 2.
Observe,
1. The person to be offered.
(1.) “Take
thy son, not thy bullocks and thy lambs;”
how willingly would Abraham have parted
with them by thousands to redeem Isaac!
“No, I will take no bullock out of thy house,
Ps. l. 9.
I must have thy son: not thy servant,
no, not the steward of thy house, that
shall not serve the turn; I must have thy
son.” Jephthah, in pursuance of a vow,
offered a daughter; but Abraham must offer
his son, in whom the family was to be built up.
“Lord, let it be an adopted son;” “No,
(2.) Thy only son; thy only son by Sarah.” Ishmael
was lately cast out, to the grief of Abraham;
and now Isaac only was left, and must
he go too? Yes,
(3.) “Take Isaac, him,
by name, thy laughter, that son indeed,”
Not “Send for Ishmael back, and
offer him;” no, it must be Isaac. “But,
Lord, I love Isaac, he is to me as my own
soul. Ishmael is not, and wilt thou take Isaac
also? All this is against me:” Yea,
(4.) That
son whom thou lovest. It was a trial of Abraham’s
love to God, and therefore it must be
in a beloved son, and that string must be
touched most upon: in the Hebrew it is
expressed more emphatically, and, I think,
might very well be read thus: Take now that
son of thine, that only one of thine, whom thou
lovest, that Isaac. God’s command must
overrule all these considerations.
2. The place: In the land of Moriah, three
days’ journey off; so that he might have
time to consider it, and, if he did it, must do
it deliberately, that it might be a service the
more reasonable and the more honourable.
3. The manner: Offer him for a burnt-offering.
He must not only kill his son, but
kill him as a sacrifice, kill him devoutly, kill him
by rule, kill him with all that pomp and
ceremony, with all that sedateness and composure
of mind, with which he used to offer
his burnt-offerings.
| Abraham’s Obedience. | B. C. 1872. |
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3 And Abraham rose up early in the
morning, and saddled his ass, and took
two of his young men with him, and
Isaac his son, and clave the wood for
the burnt offering, and rose up, and
went unto the place of which God had
told him.
4 Then on the third day
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw
the place afar off.
5 And Abraham
said unto his young men, Abide ye
here with the ass; and I and the lad
will go yonder and worship, and come
again to you.
6 And Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering, and
laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took
the fire in his hand, and a knife; and
they went both of them together.
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his
father, and said, My father: and he
said, Here am I, my son. And he said,
Behold the fire and the wood: but
where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son,
God will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering: so they went both
of them together.
9 And they came
to the place which God had told him
of; and Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound
Isaac his son, and laid him on the
altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham
stretched forth his hand, and
took the knife to slay his son.
We have here Abraham’s obedience to this
severe command. Being tried, he offered up
Isaac,
Heb. xi. 17.
Observe,
I. The difficulties which he broke through
in this act of obedience. Much might have
been objected against it; as, 1. It seemed
directly against an antecedent law of God,
which forbids murder, under a severe penalty,
Now can the unchangeable God
contradict himself? He that hates robbery
for burnt-offering
cannot delight
in murder for it.
2. How would it consist
with natural affection to his own son? It
would be not only murder, but the worst of
murders. Cannot Abraham be obedient but
he must be unnatural? If God insist upon
a human sacrifice, is there none but Isaac to
be the offering, and none but Abraham to be
the offerer? Must the father of the faithful
be the monster of all fathers?
3. God gave
him no reason for it. When Ishmael was to
be cast out, a just cause was assigned, which
satisfied Abraham; but here Isaac must die,
and Abraham must kill him, and neither the
one nor the other must know why or wherefore.
If Isaac had been to die a martyr for
the truth, or his life had been the ransom of
some other life more precious, it would have
been another matter; of if he had died as a
criminal, a rebel against God or his parents,
as in the case of the idolater
or the stubborn son
it might have passed as a sacrifice to justice.
But the case is not so: he is dutiful, obedient,
hopeful, son. “Lord, what profit is
there in his blood?”
4. How would this
consist with the promise? Was it not said
that in Isaac shall thy seed be called? But
what comes of that seed, if this pregnant bud
be broken off so soon?
5. How should he
ever look Sarah in the face again? With
what face can he return to her and his family
with the blood of Isaac sprinkled on his
garments and staining all his raiment?
“Surely a bloody husband hast thou been to
me” would Sarah say (as
and it would be likely to alienate her affections
for ever both from him and from his
God.
6. What would the Egyptians say,
and the Canaanites and the Perizzites who
dwelt then in the land? It would be an
eternal reproach to Abraham, and to his
altars. “Welcome nature, if this be grace.”
These and many similar objection might
have been made; but he was infallibly assured
that it was indeed a command of God and
not a delusion, and this was sufficient to
answer them all. Note, God’s commands
must not be disputed, but obeyed; we must
not consult with flesh and blood about them
but with a gracious obstinacy
persist in our obedience to them.
II. The several steps of obedience, all
which help to magnify it, and to show that
he was guided by prudence, and governed by
faith, in the whole transaction.
1. He rises early,
v. 3.
Probably the command
was given in the visions of the night,
and early the next morning he set himself
about the execution of it–did not delay, did
not demur, did not take time to deliberate;
for the command was peremptory, and would
not admit a debate. Note, Those that do
the will of God heartily will do it speedily;
while we delay, time is lost and the heart
hardened.
2. He gets things ready for a sacrifice,
and, as if he himself had been a Gibeonite,
it should seem, with his own hands he cleaves
the wood for the burnt-offering, that it might
not be to seek when the sacrifice was to be
offered. Spiritual sacrifices must thus be
prepared for.
3. It is very probable that he said nothing
about it to Sarah. This is a journey which she
must know nothing of, lest she prevent it.
There is so much in our own hearts to hinder
our progress in duty that we have need, as
much as may be, to keep out of the way of
other hindrances.
4. He carefully looked about him, to discover
the place appointed for this sacrifice,
to which God had promised by some sign to
direct him. Probably the direction was given
by an appearance of the divine glory in the
place, some pillar of fire reaching from heaven
to earth, visible at a distance, and to which
he pointed when he said
(v. 5),
“We will go
yonder, where you see the light, and worship.”
5. He left his servants at some distance
off
(v. 5),
lest they should interpose, and
create him some disturbance in his strange
oblation; for Isaac was, no doubt, the
darling of the whole family. Thus, when
Christ was entering upon his agony in the
garden, he took only three of his disciples
with him, and left the rest at the garden
door. Note, It is our wisdom and duty,
when we are going to worship God, to lay
aside all those thoughts and cares which may
divert us from the service, leave them at the
bottom of the hill, that we may attend on the
Lord without distraction.
6. He obliged Isaac to carry the wood
(both to try his obedience in a smaller matter
first, and that he might typify Christ, who
carried his own cross,
while he himself, though he knew what he did,
with a steady and undaunted resolution carried
the fatal knife and fire,
v. 6.
Note,
Those that through grace are resolved upon
the substance of any service or suffering for
God must overlook the little circumstances
which make it doubly difficult to flesh and
blood.
7. Without any ruffle or disorder, he talks
it over with Isaac, as if it had been but a
common sacrifice that he was going to offer,
(1.) It was a very affecting question that
Isaac asked him, as they were going together:
My father, said Isaac; it was a
melting word, which, one would think,
would strike deeper into the breast of Abraham
than his knife could into the breast of
Isaac. He might have said, or thought, at
least, “Call me not thy father who am now
to be thy murderer; can a father be so barbarous,
so perfectly lost to all the tenderness
of a father?” Yet he keeps his temper, and
keeps his countenance, to admiration; he
calmly waits for his son’s question, and this
is it: Behold the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb? See how expert Isaac was in
the law and custom of sacrifices. This it is
to be well-catechised: this is,
[1.] A trying
question to Abraham. How could he endure
to think that Isaac was himself the lamb?
So it is, but Abraham, as yet, dares not tell
him so. Where God knows the faith to be
armour of proof, he will laugh at the trial of
the innocent,
Job ix. 23.
[2.] It is a teaching
question to us all, that, when we are going
to worship God, we should seriously consider
whether we have every thing ready, especially
the lamb for a burnt-offering. Behold,
the fire is ready, the Spirit’s assistance and
God’s acceptance; the wood is ready, the instituted
ordinances designed to kindle our
affections (which indeed, without the Spirit,
are but like wood without fire, but the Spirit
works by them); all things are now ready,
but where is the lamb? Where is the heart?
Is that ready to be offered up to God, to
ascend to him as a burnt-offering?
(2.) It was a very prudent answer which
Abraham gave him: My son, God will provide
himself a lamb. This was the language,
either,
[1.] Of his obedience. “We must
offer the lamb which God has appointed now
to be offered;” thus giving him this general
rule of submission to the divine will, to prepare
him for the application of it to himself
very quickly. Or,
[2.] Of his faith. Whether
he meant it so or not, this proved to be
the meaning of it; a sacrifice was provided
instead of Isaac. Thus, First, Christ, the
great sacrifice of atonement, was of God’s
providing; when none in heaven or earth
could have found a lamb for that burnt-offering,
God himself found the ransom,
Secondly, All our sacrifices
of acknowledgment are of God’s providing
too. It is he that prepares the heart,
The broken and contrite spirit is a
sacrifice of God
(Ps. li. 17),
of his providing.
8. With the same resolution and composedness
of mind, after many thoughts of
heart, he applies himself to the completing
of this sacrifice,
He goes on with
a holy wilfulness, after many a weary step,
and with a heavy heart he arrives at length
at the fatal place, builds the altar (an altar
of earth, we may suppose, the saddest that
ever he built, and he had built many a one),
lays the wood in order for his Isaac’s funeral
pile, and now tells him the amazing news:
“Isaac, thou art the lamb which God has
provided.” Isaac, for aught that appears, is
as willing as Abraham; we do not find that
he raised any objection against it, that he
petitioned for his life, that he attempted to
make his escape, much less that he struggled
with his aged father, or made any resistance:
Abraham does it, God will have it
done, and Isaac has learnt to submit to
both, Abraham no doubt comforting him
with the same hopes with which he himself
by faith was comforted. Yet it is necessary
that a sacrifice be bound. The great sacrifice,
which in the fullness of time was to be
offered up, must be bound, and therefore so
must Isaac. But with what heart could
tender Abraham tie those guiltless hands,
which perhaps had often been lifted up to
ask his blessing, and stretched out to embrace
him, and were now the more straitly
bound with the cords of love and duty!
However, it must be done. Having bound
him, he lays him upon the altar, and his hand
upon the head of his sacrifice; and now, we
may suppose, with floods of tears, he gives,
and takes, the final farewell of a parting
kiss: perhaps he takes another for Sarah
from her dying son. This being done, he
resolutely forgets the bowels of a father, and
puts on the awful gravity of a sacrificer.
With a fixed heart, and an eye lifted up to
heaven, he takes the knife, and stretches out
his hand to give a fatal cut to Isaac’s
throat. Be astonished, O heavens! at this;
and wonder, O earth! 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. Now this obedience
of Abraham in offering up Isaac is a
lively representation,
(1.) Of the love of God
to us, in delivering up his only-begotten Son
to suffer and die for us, as a sacrifice. It
pleased the Lord himself to bruise him. See
Abraham was
obliged, both in duty and gratitude, to part
with Isaac, and parted with him to a friend;
but God was under no obligations to us, for
we were enemies.
(2.) Of our duty to God,
in return for that love. We must tread in
the steps of this faith of Abraham. God, by
his word, calls us to part with all for Christ,–all
our sins, though they have been as a
right hand, or a right eye, or an Isaac–all
those things that are competitors and rivals
with Christ for the sovereignty of the heart
(Luke xiv. 26);
and we must cheerfully let
them all go. God, by his providence, which
is truly the voice of God, calls us to part
with an Isaac sometimes, and we must do it
with a cheerful resignation and submission to
his holy will,
| Isaac Rescued. | B. C. 1872. |
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11 And the angel of the LORD called
unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham: and he said,
Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not
thine hand upon the lad, neither do
thou any thing unto him: for now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son from me.
13 And Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and looked, and
behold behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horns: and Abraham
went and took the ram, and offered
him up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son.
14 And Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh:
as it is said to this day, In the
mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Hitherto this story has been very melancholy,
and seemed to hasten towards a most
tragical period; but here the sky suddenly
clears up, the sun breaks out, and a bright
and pleasant scene opens. The same hand
that had wounded and cast down here heals
and lifts up; for, though he cause grief, he
will have compassion. The angel of the Lord,
that is, God himself, the eternal Word, the
angel of the covenant, who was to be the
great Redeemer and comforter, he interposed,
and gave a happy issue to this trial.
I. Isaac is rescued,
The command
to offer him was intended only for trial,
and it appearing, upon trial, that Abraham
did indeed love God better than he loved Isaac,
the end of the command was answered; and
therefore the order is countermanded, without
any reflection at all upon the unchangeableness
of the divine counsels: Lay not thy
hand upon the lad. Note,
1. Our creature-comforts
are most likely to be continued to us when
we are most likely to be continued to us when
we are most willing to resign them up to
God’s will.
2. God’s time to help and relieve
his people is when they are brought to
the greatest extremity. The more imminent
the danger is, and the nearer to be put in
execution, the more wonderful and the more
welcome is the deliverance.
II. Abraham is not only approved, but applauded.
He obtains an honourable testimony
that he is righteous: Now know I that
thou fearest God. God knew it before, but
now Abraham had given a most memorable
evidence of it. He needed do no more;
what he had done was sufficient to prove the
religious regard he had to God and his authority.
Note,
1. When God, by his providence,
hinders the performance of our sincere
intentions in his services, he graciously
accepts the will for the deed, and the honest
endeavour, though it come short of finishing.
2. The best evidence of our fearing God is
our being willing of serve and honour him
with that which is dearest to us, and to part
with all to him or for him.
III. Another sacrifice is provided instead
of Isaac,
Now that the altar was built,
and the wood laid in order, it was necessary
that something should be offered. For,
1. God must be acknowledged with thankfulness
for the deliverance of Isaac; and the
sooner the better, when here is an altar
ready.
2. Abraham’s words must be made
good: God will provide himself a lamb. God
will not disappoint those expectations of his
people which are of his own raising; but
according to their faith it is to them. Thou
shalt decree a thing, and it shall be established.
3. Reference must be had to the
promised Messiah, the blessed seed.
(1.) Christ was sacrificed in our stead, as this ram
instead of Isaac, and his death was our discharge.
“Here am I (said he,) let these go
their way.”
(2.) Though that blessed seed
was lately promised, and now typified by
Isaac, yet the offering of him up should be
suspended till the latter end of the world:
and in the mean time the sacrifice of beasts
should be accepted, as this ram was, as a
pledge of that expiation which should one
day be made by that great sacrifice. And it
is observable that the temple, the place of
sacrifice, was afterwards built upon this
mount Moriah
and mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was not
far off.
IV. A new name is given to the place, to
the honour of God, and for the encouragement
of all believers, to the end of the world,
cheerfully to trust in God in the way of
obedience: Jehovah-jireh, The Lord will provide
(v. 14),
probably alluding to what he had
said
(v. 8),
God will provide himself a lamb.
It was not owing to any contrivance of
Abraham, nor was it in answer to his prayer,
though he was a distinguished intercessor;
but it was purely the Lord’s doing. Let it
be recorded for the generations to come,
1. That the Lord will see; he will always have
his eye upon his people in their straits and
distresses, that he may come in with seasonable
succour in the critical juncture.
2. That he will be seen, be seen in the mount, in
the greatest perplexities of his people. He
will not only manifest, but magnify, his wisdom,
power, and goodness, in their deliverance.
Where God sees and provides, he
should be seen and praised. And, perhaps,
it may refer to God manifest in the flesh.
| Abraham’s Blessing Confirmed. | B. C. 1872. |
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15 And the angel of the LORD called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second
time,
16 And said, By myself
have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because
thou hast done this thing, and
hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son:
17 That in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven,
and as the sand which is upon
the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess
the gate of his enemies;
18 And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed; because thou hast
obeyed my voice.
19 So Abraham returned
unto his young men, and they
rose up and went together to Beer-sheba;
and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.
Abraham’s obedience was graciously accepted;
but this was not all: here we have
it recompensed, abundantly recompensed,
before he stirred from the place; probably
while the ram he had sacrificed was yet burning
God sent him this gracious message, renewed
and ratified his covenant with him.
All covenants were made by sacrifice, so was
this by the typical sacrifices of Isaac and the
ram. Very high expressions of God’s favour
to Abraham are employed in this confirmation
of the covenant with him, expressions
exceeding any he had yet been blessed with.
Note, Extraordinary services shall be crowned
with extraordinary honours and comforts;
and favours in the promise, though not yet
performed, ought to be accounted real and
valuable recompences. Observe, 1. God is
pleased to make mention of Abraham’s
obedience as the consideration of the covenant;
and he speaks of it with an encomium:
Because thou hast done this thing, and hast
not withheld thy son, thine only son,
v. 16.
He lays a strong emphasis on this, and
(v. 18)
praises it as an act of obedience: in it
thou hast obeyed my voice, and to obey is
better than sacrifice. Not that this was a
proportionable consideration, but God graciously
put this honour upon that by which
Abraham had honoured him.
2. God now
confirmed the promise with an oath. It was
said and sealed before; but now it is sworn:
By myself have I sworn; for he could swear
by no greater,
Thus he interposed
himself by an oath, as the apostle expresses
it,
He did (to speak
with reverence) even pawn his own life and
being upon it (As I live,) that by all those
immutable things, in which it was impossible
for God to lie, he and his might have strong
consolation. Note, If we exercise faith, God
will encourage it. Improve the promises,
and God will ratify them.
3. The particular
promise here renewed is that of a numerous
offspring: Multiplying, I will multiply thee,
v. 17.
Note, Those that are willing to part
with any thing for God shall have it made up
to them with unspeakable advantage. Abraham
has but one son, and is willing to part
with that one, in obedience to God. “Well,”
said God, “thou shalt be recompensed with
thousands and millions.” What a figure
does the seed of Abraham make in history!
How numerous, how illustrious, were his
known descendants, who, to this day, triumph
in this, that they have Abraham to their
father! Thus he received a thousand-fold in
this life,
4. The promise,
doubtless, points at the Messiah, and the
grace of the gospel. This is the oath sworn
to our father Abraham, which Zacharias refers
to,
&c. And so here is a
promise,
(1.) Of the great blessing of the
Spirit: In blessing, I will bless thee, namely,
with that best of blessings the gift of the
Holy Ghost; the promise of the Spirit was
that blessing of Abraham which was to come
upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
(2.) Of the increase of the church,
that believers, his spiritual seed, should be
numerous as the stars of heaven.
(3.) Of
spiritual victories: Thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. Believers, by their faith,
overcome the world, and triumph over all the
powers of darkness, and are more than conquerors.
Probably Zacharias refers to this
part of the oath
(Luke i. 74),
That we, being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might
serve him without fear. But the crown of all
is the last promise.
(4.) Of the incarnation
of Christ: In thy seed, one particular person
that shall descend from thee (for he speaks
not of many, but of one, as the apostle observes,
shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed, or shall bless themselves,
as the phrase is,
In him all
may be happy if they will, and all that belong
to him shall be so, and shall think
themselves so. Christ is the great blessing
of the world. Abraham was ready to give
up his son for a sacrifice to the honour of
God, and, on that occasion, God promised
to give his Son a sacrifice for the salvation
of man.
20 And it came to pass after these
things, that it was told Abraham,
saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also
born children unto thy brother Nahor;
21 Huz his first born, and Buz
his brother, and Kemuel the father of
Aram,
22 And Chesed, and Hazo,
and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these
eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s
brother.
24 And his concubine,
whose name was Reumah, she
bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and
Thahash, and Maachah.
This is recorded here,
1. To show that
though Abraham saw his own family highly
dignified with peculiar privileges, admitted
into covenant, and blessed with the entail of
the promise, yet he did not look with contempt
and disdain upon his relations, but
was glad to hear of the increase and prosperity
of their families.
2. To make way for
the following story of the marriage of Isaac
to Rebekah, a daughter of this family.
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