DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN

“Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go there, worship and return to you.”
Genesis 22:5

Avraham had one more trial to walk through to gain his title as the father of our faith, however. Sometime later Adonai called to Avraham and asked him to sacrifice his son. Now understand, Yishma’el was already gone and Yitz’chak was the only other son that Adonai had given to Avraham and Sarah, and now Adonai was asking Avraham to sacrifice him. The Torah doesn’t record Avraham wrestling with Adonai in this matter. In fact, the very next verse tells us that early the next morning Avraham got up, gathered his things, and set off to the region of Moriyah with Yitz’chak and two servants.
They reached a point on the third day of their journey where they saw in the distance their destination. The region of Moriyah is believed by some to be the first point in which Adonai created; the middle of the landscaped earth if you will. This idea is based on the fact that as the navel is the center of the body, so Israel is the center of the world. Jerusalem is in the center of Israel and the sanctuary the center of Jerusalem. The holy place is then found centered in the sanctuary and the ark in the center of the holy place. What then lies before the holy place? It is the Foundation Stone. As the region of Moriyah sits where the Dome of the Rock now is, it may be safe to conclude that Adonai was calling Avraham back to where life first began as another lesson concerning faith.
Avraham looked back as his servants and made a statement that deserves our attention. Avraham looked back at the servants and said, “Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go there, worship and return to you.” The NIV states more bluntly, “we will come back to you” (Gen 22:5). Did you catch it? Avraham said ‘we’ will come back. How could he say ‘we’ knowing that Adonai had told him to sacrifice his son? Should he not have said ‘I’ will come back? No, because he had learned, be it the hard way when waiting twenty-five years from his first promise from Adonai concerning Yitz’chak’s birth, that Adonai can do anything when we have just even a little faith. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Avraham now saw himself physically taking his son up the mountain, but by faith, walking with his son back down the mountain.
Avraham did not back down from this command of Adonai. When asked by Yitz’chak where the lamb was, Avraham responded that Adonai will provide. Together they reached the place Adonai had told them about and began to build the altar. Then, in a great act of obedience to Adonai, Avraham bound his son and laid him on the altar. With his knife ready, and probably through petition and tears, Avraham took his position for the sacrifice.
It is in this moment that perhaps Adonai was asking Avraham if he loved Him enough to give up his son. The same question can be asked for an event that happened close in proximity many hundreds of years later. It was around the Moriyah region that later Yeshua, the lamb that took away the sin of the world, would also be bound and given as a sacrifice. While Yitz’chak’s sacrifice would not have saved the world, that of the Messiah did.
A voice called out, “… Don’t lay your hand on the boy! Don’t do anything to him! For now I know that you are a man who fears Adonai, because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” (Gen 22:12). Adonai took note of Avraham’s obedience and faith. The only son given of a promise to Avraham and Sarah was not forsaken from God, and for that Adonai re-stated to Avraham that he would indeed be blessed, barak (Gen 22:17). In the end, Avraham and Yitz’chak both came down the mountain that day, just as by faith Avraham had seen.

Genesis 22:1-24