Hebrews 11:17-20 - Abraham and Isaac

11:17-19

Abraham’s severest test came when God told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. This story is quite amazing if we read it. Prior to this we see that Abraham had many struggles with faith, yet when we come to read the story of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gen 22) we see that there is no hesitation on Abraham’s behalf, no sign of reluctance to obey the command. Moreover, he seemed to be convinced that they would indeed both return (Gen 22:5). Most sermons on this incident talk about the agony that Abraham must have gone through, yet if we read the Bible itself we do not actually find any mention of that, We just find straightforward obedience and faith.

Why does the writer use this incident here? Maybe verse 18 gives us a clue. The command of God to Abraham seemed to negate His earlier promises, seemed to go against the fulfilling of God’s own word. Maybe the Hebrews thought that the command not to engage anymore in Levitical practices went against fulfilling God’s word, especially if they had a Jewish background and had been brought up in the Jewish tradition. Isaac did indeed not die, and the Hebrews would indeed be declared righteous by God.

11:20

Now this is a slightly strange one. We can see that Isaac had faith in blessing his sons, he saw a future for them and believed that God would fulfill His promises, but we know, of course,that there was much more to the story, as given in Genesis 27. Jacob, at his mother’s instigation, deceived his father into giving him the blessing. After he became aware of the deception Isaac proceeded to bless Esau. Even when giving Jacob the blessing Isaac had doubts over which son it was (Gen 27:24).