photo credit: Christian Pictures Blog – Rom. 4:17 …In the sight of God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls the things not being as being.
Many Christians tend to trivialize the story of Abraham offering up Isaac to God as a burnt offering, saying that “God tested him to see if he can give up his own son, and Abraham passed the test!” But what the Bible reveals is a much deeper and sweeter reality than this.
Why did God require Abraham to offer his only son Isaac to Him as a burnt offering? Was it merely because God wanted to test Abraham?
First of all, God wanted Abraham not to cling to anything other than God Himself but to rely on Him only and trust in Him; for this, Isaac had to be sacrificed.
Secondly, God’s intention was not to “eliminate Isaac” but rather return Isaac to Abraham in resurrection for multiplication and blessing! In God’s eyes, the real Isaac (Christ Himself as the Only Begotten Son of God) was killed, and he was returned to Abraham in resurrection for multiplication and for being a blessing to all the nations on the earth (see Gen. 22:4-18).
In our Christian experience today God desires that we would be detached from what He gives us and what He does for us, and that we would cling only to Him. It is human to be attached, love, rely on, and trust in the things God does for us or gives us, so God will request us to give these things back to Him so that we would rely only on Him.
In asking us to offer our “Isaac” to Him God wants to bring him through death and return him to us in resurrection, in His own time, for it to be a blessing to all those around us. Just as it was with Abraham so it is with us: we are in front of a “nexus of contradiction”, where we must believe that God has given us Isaac and yet we must obey God to sacrifice Isaac.
In Abraham’s case, these two apparently contradictory requirements from God pressed him deeply into God, and he was infused with God to arrive to another level of faith – believing that Isaac is the seed AND that if he must be killed, God will resurrect him (Rom. 4:17; Heb. 11:17-19).
In the Lord’s recovery today all over the earth the Lord needs many who have this experience and become Zion so that His goal of having the reality of the Body of Christ manifested in the local churches would be fulfilled.
After we Offer to God what we have Received of Him, He will Return it to Us in Resurrection
After Isaac was offered to God, he was returned in resurrection for the fulfillment of God’s purpose
According to Rom. 4:17, Abraham believed God for calling things not being as being (the birth of Isaac) and for giving life to the dead (the offering of Isaac). Abraham offered up Isaac to God bv faith, counting that God is able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him back in figure (Heb. 11:17-19).
I was very much helped to understand this matter by a paragraph in life-study of Genesis (msg. 57, pp. 761-762) by Witness Lee,
After Isaac was offered, he was returned in resurrection for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose (Gen. 22:4, 12-13, 16, 18). After being returned in resurrection, Isaac was another person. He was no longer the natural Isaac but the resurrected Isaac. This is very encouraging. After we have offered to God what we have received of Him, He will then return it to us in resurrection. Every gift, spiritual blessing, work, and success we have received of God must undergo the test of death. Eventually, it will come back to us in resurrection. The Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Suppose God gives you a certain natural gift. That is one grain of wheat. If you keep this natural gift, never offering it to God, it will remain as one grain. But if you offer it back to God, after it has passed through death, it will be returned to you in resurrection and become a blessing. It does not depend on what we can do or intend to do for God. It all depends on our growing up to be offered to God as a burnt offering and then being raised up from the dead to be a resurrected gift….For one grain to be multiplied into a hundred grains is God’s blessing. If you offer your one grain to God and allow Him to put it into death, it will be returned to you in resurrection. Then you will see multiplication and great blessing. This is God’s way.
Abraham believed God and he was so filled with faith (which comes from God’s infusing) that he trusted God to the uttermost.
On the one hand he KNEW that Isaac was the promised seed in which all the nations will be blessed, and on the other hand God asked him to offer up Isaac to Him as a burnt offering. Therefore, Abraham believed that, if God is asking him to offer up Isaac, He is able to raise him from the dead – because it is through Isaac that His promise is fulfilled.
God’s way of dealing with man is through death and resurrection; only what is in resurrection can please God and accomplish His purpose. Everything in our life must pass through the supreme test of death to make a way for the God of resurrection (see John 11:25; 2 Cor. 1:9).
God may call us to do something for Him, He may give us a burden to serve Him in a certain aspect, and He may reveal His will to us – and it is clear to us that this is His will, His burden, and His calling. However, at one point He will ask us to lay on the altar even this very calling, burden, and will of God, so that in His time He will return it to us in resurrection.
Watchman Nee has a very insightful writing on this in his book, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in ch. 6 (p. 84),
Before the Lord, we have to realize that even the commission we have received, the work we are doing, and the will of God that we know, must be dropped. There is a big difference between what is natural and what is of resurrection. Everything that we do not want to let go of is natural. Everything that comes from resurrection is preserved by God, and we cannot hold on to it with our fleshly hands. We have to learn to thank the Lord for calling us to His work and also learn to thank Him for calling us to not work. We are not directly related to God’s work but to God Himself….What is resurrection? Resurrection is anything that we cannot put our hands on, that we cannot hold on to. This is resurrection. Natural things are the things that we can grasp hold of, while we cannot grasp hold of the things in resurrection.
Passing Through Death and Resurrection to be a Blessing for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose
Every gift from God, every spiritual blessing that God has given us, every work He has called us to do for Him, and every success He allows us to have in doing things for Him – all these must pass through death and resurrection and, eventually, they will be brought back to us in resurrection to be a blessing for everyone and fulfill God’s purpose.
After Isaac was killed on the altar (in God’s eyes), he was returned to Abraham in resurrection and God blessed him for multiplication and for blessing for all nations (Gen. 22:16-18).
If we offer to God what we have received from Him (whether a burden or a work, a calling, a function, a ministry, etc) when He requests it from us, He will return it to us in His time and in His way in resurrection, and it will become a blessing for the fulfillment of His purpose.
After enjoying the Lord, being in His presence, and experiencing Him, God may request from us to lay on the altar our calling, the burden He gave us, our function, our work, our gift, our constitution, and even our ministry. How long they have to be in death is not something for us to decide: it is the Lord’s way, His timing, and His will.
Only what comes out through death into resurrection can be a blessing and can fulfill God’s purpose. God’s blessing always comes in resurrection, and to be under the His blessing is the most precious thing in our life. If we offer “our Isaac” to God and he is returned to us in resurrection, we will be under God’s blessing.
God is the source of blessing, and all things are out from Him, through Him, and to Him: He will get all the glory, and His purpose is fulfilled!
Lord, we just want to be under Your blessing. May we not be attached to the things, burdens, works, or gifts You give us but be willing to lay them on the altar when You request. Make us those like Abraham who daily grow in faith by having Your appearing with Your infusing. Lord, cause faith to grow in us until You consider we’re ready to offer up our Isaac so that he may pass through death and be returned in resurrection. We want to be under Your blessing and even be a blessing to others in resurrection for the fulfillment of Your purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 57), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Offering of Isaac and Experiencing God as the One who Gives Life to the Dead (you can buy this morning revival book here).
- Further reading: recommending ch. 6 in Watchman Nee’s, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine; / Living with Jesus a new life divine; / Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, / Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. (Hymns #486)
# Jesus lived the God-man pattern, / Set the way for us to follow, / He denied His natural man and / Was obedient unto death, / Once He was the only God-man; / Now we are His duplication. / As the many grains we’re blended / As His corporate reproduction. (Song on Christ as the Pattern)
# Consecrated is Thy temple, / Purged from every stain and sin; / May Thy flame of glory now be / Manifested from within. / Let the earth in solemn wonder / See my body willingly / Offered as Thy slave obedient, / Energized alone by Thee. (Hymns #403)
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