Think of a person you love very much or a possession you value highly.
How would you feel if God asked you to give up, or sacrifice, this person or possession?
What would you do?
God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, whom Abraham loved very much. Although Abraham was not ultimately required to make this sacrifice, his willingness to do so was “accounted unto him for righteousness.” Because of Abraham’s righteousness, he and his descendants were greatly blessed.
see D&C 132:36
Background
Why Did Abraham Call Sarah His Sister?
The idea that Abraham, the great man of righteousness, deceived Pharaoh in order to protect his own life has troubled many students of the Old Testament. That his life was in danger because of Sarah’s beauty seems quite clear. It seems peculiar, but whereas the Egyptian pharaohs had a strong aversion to committing adultery with another man’s wife, they had no qualms about murdering the man to free his spouse for remarriage.
Even though Abraham was correct in calling her his sister, he did deceive the Egyptians. How can this action be justified? The answer is very simple. His action was justified because God told him to do it.
see Abraham 2:22–25.
The Prophet Joseph Smith taught the following:“That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another. “God said, ‘Thou shalt not kill;’ at another time He said, ‘Thou shalt utterly destroy.’ This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted—by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire.”
Since God is perfect and does not do anything that is not right. Abraham’s act was not wrong.
Abraham 1
The family of Abraham had turned from righteousness and had become idolators. Abraham was persecuted by the false priests of Pharaoh and his own father was willing to sacrifice his son for evil purposes. Jehovah saved him.
How might Abraham’s experience on the altar of the false priests have helped prepare him for future trials?
How can our trials help us prepare for future difficulties?
Genesis 15-16
Abraham is promised a big posterity.
Sarai gives Hagar to Abram as his wife.
Hagar bears Ishmael.
Genesis 17
v1....Walk uprightly and be perfect
“Salvation does not come all at once; we are commanded to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things, and receive all things, even the fulness of the Father’s glory.
“I believe the Lord meant just what he said: that we should be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. That will not come all at once, but line upon line, and precept upon precept, example upon example, and even then not as long as we live in this mortal life, for we will have to go even beyond the grave before we reach that perfection and shall be like God.
“But here we lay the foundation. Here is where we are taught these simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in this probationary state, to prepare us for that perfection. It is our duty to be better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than we are today. Why? Because we are on that road, if we are keeping the commandments of the Lord, we are on that road to perfection, and that can only come through obedience and the desire in our hearts to overcome the world. - Joseph Smith
v5,15.... Abram's name changed to Abraham, Sarai's to Sarah
v10....circumcised
The word circumcision comes from the Latin words meaning “to cut around.” It was instituted by revelation as a sign or token that one was of the covenant seed of Abraham. To better understand why the Lord chose this particular sign or token, read the account in the Joseph Smith Translation:
see JST Genesis 17:3–7, 11
Much additional information is given in this account.
1. Before instituting the law of circumcision, the Lord explained why He was establishing this token of the covenant.
- The people had left correct principles and forsaken the true ordinances.
- Baptism was one ordinance being incorrectly observed.
- The people were washing their children and sprinkling blood in remembrance of Abel’s blood, which they taught was shed for sins.
- They misunderstood the relationship between accountability of children and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
- It was a covenant token.
- It was for the seed of Abraham.
- It signified that children were not accountable until they were eight years old.
In many places the Lord speaks of true circumcision as being the circumcision of the heart. The heart that is “circumcised” is one that loves God and is obedient to the Spirit. The “uncircumcised in heart” are wicked, proud, and rebellious.
Though a person may have had the token of circumcision in the flesh, unless he was righteous the covenant was invalidated and the circumcision became profitless. Thus, circumcision was only a sign or token of what needed to happen to the inward man. If the inward change had not taken place, then circumcision was virtually meaningless..
With the fulfillment of the Mosaic law under Jesus, the token of circumcision was no longer required of God’s covenant people.
The Abrahamic covenant makes frequent reference to one’s seed. The organ of the body that produces seed and brings about physical birth is the organ on which the token of the covenant was made. The organ of spiritual rebirth, however, is the heart (see 3 Nephi 9:20). Thus, when a person was circumcised it signified that while he had been born into the covenant, he need not be baptized until he became accountable before the Lord. But spiritual circumcision, or the circumcision of the heart, must take place once one becomes accountable or one is not considered as true Israel. As Paul said so aptly, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God” (Romans 2:28–29).
v19...Sarah shall bear a son, Isaac...I will establish my covenant with him
Genesis 21
v2...Sarah conceives Isaac
Genesis 22
Elder
Melvin J. Ballard wrote: “You remember the story of how Abraham’s son
came after long years of waiting and was looked upon by his worthy sire,
Abraham, as more precious than all his other possessions, yet, in the
midst of his rejoicing, Abraham was told to take this only son and offer
him as a sacrifice to the Lord. He responded. Can you feel what was in
the heart of Abraham on that occasion? You love your son just as Abraham
did, perhaps not quite so much, because of the peculiar circumstances,
but what do you think was in his heart when he started away from Mother
Sarah, and they bade her goodbye? What do you think was in his heart
when he saw Isaac bidding farewell to his mother to take that three
days’ journey to the appointed place where the sacrifice was to be made?
I imagine it was about all Father Abraham could do to keep from showing
his great grief and sorrow at that parting, but he and his son trudged
along three days toward the appointed place, Isaac carrying the fagots
that were to consume the sacrifice. The two travelers rested, finally,
at the mountainside, and the men who had accompanied them were told to
remain while Abraham and his son started up the hill.
“The
boy then said to his father: ‘Why, Father, we have the fagots; we have
the fire to burn the sacrifice; but where is the sacrifice?’
“It
must have pierced the heart of Father Abraham to hear the trusting and
confiding son say: ‘You have forgotten the sacrifice.’ Looking at the
youth, his son of promise, the poor father could only say: ‘The Lord
will provide.’
“They
ascended the mountain, gathered the stones together, and placed the
fagots upon them. Then Isaac was bound, hand and foot, kneeling upon the
altar. I presume Abraham, like a true father, must have given his son
his farewell kiss, his blessing, his love, and his soul must have been
drawn out in that hour of agony toward his son who was to die by the
hand of his own father. Every step proceeded until the cold steel was
drawn, and the hand raised that was to strike the blow to let out the
life’s blood.” (“The Sacramental Covenant,” New Era, Jan. 1976, pp. 9–10.)
Bear
in mind that Abraham was saved from a similar fate instigated in
wickedness by his own father. As with most people, Abraham must have
abhorred human sacrifice.
Why would the Lord require such a trial of his
faith?
What can be learned from the life of Abraham, who was faithful
to the end?
v1...God did tempt Abraham
The word translated as “tempt” in the King James Version comes from the Hebrew word nissah, which means “to test, try, or prove.” The test given to Abraham had two aspects. First, he was asked to give up something very precious to him. To kill one’s child would be horrible enough but to kill the child that had come after decades of fruitless waiting, the child promised by holy men sent from God, the child in whom the covenant was to be fulfilled, must have been a test beyond comprehension. The willingness of Abraham to give up something as dear as Isaac sharply contrasts with the reluctance of the rich young ruler who asked the Savior what he must do to be saved. When told he should sell all of his possessions and follow the Master, “he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions” (Matthew 19:22).
But an equally difficult, if not greater, test was what could be described as the question of the integrity of God. Abraham himself had nearly lost his life on an idolatrous altar and had been saved by the direct intervention of the Lord (see Abraham 1:12–20). Abraham knew that the law of God forbids human sacrifice or murder of any sort. Surely one would wonder at such a command, asking himself, “Can this be from God? Does God contradict himself?” And then to know that, additionally, it would mean the end of the very covenant line that God had Himself promised to establish would surely be almost overwhelming.
Elder Spencer W. Kimball commented on this aspect of the test: “Exceeding faith was shown by Abraham when the superhuman test was applied to him. His young ‘child of promise,’ destined to be the father of empires, must now be offered upon the sacrificial altar. It was God’s command, but it seemed so contradictory! How could his son, Isaac, be the father of an uncountable posterity if in his youth his mortal life was to be terminated? Why should he, Abraham, be called upon to do this revolting deed? It was irreconcilable, impossible! And yet he believed God. His undaunted faith carried him with breaking heart toward the land of Moriah with this young son who little suspected the agonies through which his father must have been passing.
v8...God will provide himself a lamb
see Jacob 4:5
Jacob clearly teaches that Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac is “a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son”. A similitude is an object, act, or event in physical reality which corresponds to (is similar to or is a simulation of) some greater spiritual reality.
Most readers of the Old Testament can immediately see the similarities between the test of Abraham and the sacrifice of the Father, but many miss the precise detail of this similitude that God used to teach about the future sacrifice of His only Son. The following are some of these significant details.
- Abraham obviously was a type or similitude of the Father. Interestingly enough, his name, Abram, means “exalted father,” and Abraham means “father of a great multitude” Both are names appropriate of Heavenly Father.
- Isaac was a type of the Son of God. One of the meanings of his name is “he shall rejoice.” Like Jesus, he was the product of a miraculous birth. Isaac’s birth certainly was not as miraculous as the birth of Jesus through Mary, but at age ninety, Sarah too was a woman for whom birth was not possible by all usual standards. Yet, through the intervention of God, she conceived and bore a son. Paul called Isaac the “only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17) when he referred to this event.
- The Lord not only asked Abraham to perform the act of similitude of His own future actions but indicated that it had to be in a place specified by Him. This place was Moriah, “upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2). (Today Mount Moriah is a major hill of Jerusalem.) The site known traditionally as the place where Abraham offered Isaac is now the site of the Dome of the Rock, a beautiful Moslem mosque. A few hundred yards to the north on a higher point of that same hill system is another world-famous site known as Gordon’s Calvary. Its Hebrew name was Golgotha. Not only did Abraham perform the similitude, but he performed it in the same area in which the Father would make the sacrifice of His Son.
- When they arrived at Moriah, the Genesis account says, “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son” (Genesis 22:6). The Joseph Smith Translation, however, reads, “laid it upon his back” (JST, Genesis 22:7). Some have seen in this action a similarity to Christ’s carrying of the cross upon His shoulders on the way to His Crucifixion (see Clarke, Bible Commentary, 1:139; John 19:17).
- Isaac voluntarily submitted to Abraham. This important parallel is often overlooked. The Old Testament does not give enough detail to indicate exactly how old Isaac was at the time of this event, but it is possible that he was an adult. Immediately following the account of the sacrifice on Mount Moriah is recorded the statement that Sarah died at the age of 127 (see Genesis 23:1). Thus, Isaac would have been 37 at the time of her death. Even if the journey to Moriah had happened several years before Sarah’s death, Isaac could have been in his thirties, as was the Savior at the time of His Crucifixion. Nevertheless, Isaac’s exact age is not really important. What is significant is that Abraham was well over a hundred years old and Isaac was most likely a strong young man who could have put up a fierce resistance had he chosen to do so. In fact, Isaac submitted willingly to what his father intended, just as the Savior would do.
- Once the event was over and all ended happily, Abraham named the place Jehovah-jireh, which the King James Version translates as “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14). Adam Clarke, citing other scholars, said that the proper translation should be “on this mount the Lord shall be seen.” Clarke then concluded: “From this it appears that the sacrifice offered by Abraham was understood to be a representative one, and a tradition was kept up that Jehovah should be seen in a sacrificial way on this mount. And this renders … more than probable … that Abraham offered Isaac on that very mountain on which, in the fulness of time, Jesus suffered.”Jesus was sentenced to death within the walls of the Antonia fortress, which was only about a hundred yards from the traditional site of Abraham’s sacrifice. He was put to death at Golgotha, part of the same ridge system as Moriah.
- Scholars not only have noted the significance of the site for the sacrifice of Jesus Himself but also have pointed out that it related to the site of Solomon’s temple where the sacrifices under the Mosaic dispensation took place. “The place of sacrifice points with peculiar clearness [to] Mount Moriah, upon which under the legal economy all the typical sacrifices were offered to Jehovah; … that by this one true sacrifice the shadows of the typical sacrifices might be rendered both real and true”.
see D&C 101:1-5
Why is it necessary to be tried even as Abraham?
see D&C 101:5,35-38 , 122:5-7
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