Genesis 22:8

Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Ver. 8. God will provide himself a lamb.] A pious and precious proverb; {a} much to be mused on, and made use of, when we are in an exigent, and see not whither to turn us. Then say, Deus viderit . God will with the temptation also give an issue. {1Co 10:13} Necesse est adesse divinum, ubi humanum cessat auxilium , saith Philo. Sciat etiam Celsitudo vestra , saith Luther in a letter to the Prince Elector of Saxony; {b} I would your Highness should well know that businesses are far otherwise carried and concluded in heaven than at the Diet at Noringberg, &c. And to Philip Melancthon he writes thus: Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus una, ille regnator mundi: et esto ruat, &c. Sed scribo haec frustra, quia tu secundum philosophiam vestram, has res ratione rogere, hoc est, ut ait ille, cum ratione insanire pergis, et occidis teipsum; nec vides prorsus extra manum tuam et consilium positam esse causam, etiam extra curam tuam velle agi. {c}

{a} Qui finxit alas papilioni, is curabit omnia .

{b} Scultet. Ann.

{c} Idem.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen_22:8

God will provide Himself a lamb

Gods provision of a lamb in Christ

This incident shows us in what lies the value of that sacrifice, and with what feelings we should regard it.

I. THE SACRIFICE WHICH GOD APPROVES MUST RE OF HIS OWN APPOINTING.

II. THE SACRIFICE WHICH GOD HAS PROVIDED IS SUPREMELY WORTHY OF ACCEPTANCE, AND GRACIOUSLY SUITED TO OUR CONDITION.

1. It has reconciled us to God.

2. It has procured the forgiveness of sins.

3. It opens the way to endless bliss.

III. THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE SACRIFICE GOD HAS PROVIDED IS THE TURNING POINT OF A MANS SPIRITUAL HISTORY.

1. It includes all the rest--repentance, faith, love, obedience.

2. It gives efficiency to all the rest.

3. It is the true test of spiritual character.

Abrahams answer to his sons question

I. THERE IS THE IDEA OF SUBSTITUTION. This is the pivotal fact in the scheme of redemption.

II. THIS WAS AN ACT OF DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY,

III. THE FUNDAMENTAL DEFECT IN THE RELIGION OF NATURE. It affords no lamb to complete the sacrifice.

IV. THE IMMINENCE OF ISAACS PERIL SUGGESTS THE DANGER IN WHICH UNGODLY SINNERS CONSTANTLY LIVE.

V. MUCH MIGHT BE SAID OF ISAACS FAITH IN THIS TRANSACTION--his weakness, his submission to parental authority, &c.

VI. HERE IS THE FIRE GODS UNAPPEASED JUSTICE; AND HERE IS THE WOOD: YOUR UNHOLY MEAT AND LIFE; BUT WHERE IS THE LAMB? God demands worship. A sacrifice He will have; but, with those two factors, justice and sin, no acceptable offering can be made. Bring the Lamb of God to the altar of worship, or expect yourself to be immolated on that altar, a victim of His offended justice and His broken law! (E. O. Frierson, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gen 22:8. My son, God will provide himself a lamb — This was the language either, 1st, Of his obedience; we must offer the lamb which God has appointed now to be offered; thus giving Isaac this general rule of submission to the divine will, to prepare him for the application of it to himself: or, 2d, Of his faith; whether he intended them so or not, the meaning of his words proved to be that a sacrifice was provided instead of Isaac. Thus, 1st, 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. 2d, 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, of his providing.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The only way to overcome all tentation, is to rest upon God’s providence.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 8. My son, God will provide himself a lamb] Here we find the same obedient unshaken faith for which this pattern of practical piety was ever remarkable. But we must not suppose that this was the language merely of faith and obedience; the patriarch spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which HE had provided for himself, who in the fulness of time should take away the sin of the world, and of whom Isaac was a most expressive type. All the other lambs which had been offered from the foundation of the world had been such as MEN chose and MEN offered; but THIS was the Lamb which GOD had provided - emphatically, THE LAMB OF GOD.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. So they went both of them together. Here we perceive both the constancy of Abraham, and the modesty of his son. For Abraham is not rendered more remiss by this obstacle and the son does not persist in replying to his father’s answer. For he might easily have objected, Wherefore have we brought wood and the knife without a lamb, if God has commanded sacrifices to be made to him? But because he supposes that the victim has been omitted, for some valid reason, and not through his father’s forgetfulness, he acquiesces, and is silent.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

8. provide himself] Heb. see for himself, cf. Gen_41:33. Abraham’s words express his self-control and his faith, and have a reference to Gen_22:14. The provision by God of a lamb for a burnt-offering lies at the root of the interpretation of the present passage in its typical application to the Sacrifice of Christ. Cf. the mention of the Lamb in Joh_1:29; Joh_1:36; 1Pe_1:19; Rev_5:12. The present passage is the first Lesson for the morning of Good Friday.

so they went … together] In the brief words of this simple and moving description is compressed a world of intense feeling. Cf. a similar phrase in 2Ki_2:6; 2Ki_2:8.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering,.... In which answer Abraham may have respect to the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Joh 1:29, whom he had provided in council and covenant before the world was; and who in promise, and type, and figure, was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev 13:8; and whom in due time God would send into the world, Joh 10:36, and make him an offering for sin, Isa 53:10, and accept of him in the room and stead of his people: and this was a provision that could only be made by the Lord, and was the produce of his infinite wisdom, and the fruit of his grace, favour, and good will and of which Abraham had a clear sight and strong persuasion, see Joh 8:56; though as the words may be considered as a more direct answer to Isaac's question, which related to the sacrifice now about to be offered, they may be regarded as a prophecy of Abraham's, and of his faith in it, that God would, as in fact he did, provide a lamb or ram in the room of that he was called to offer; or he may mean Isaac himself, whom he was bid to take and offer, and so was a lamb of God's providing; though he did not choose directly to say this, but puts him off with such an answer, suggesting that it was best for him to leave it with God, who, as he had called them to such service, would supply them with a proper sacrifice; and in speaking in this manner he might give room for Isaac to suspect what was intended, and so by degrees bring him to the knowledge of it. Some Jewish writers (e) say, that Abraham to this answer added in express terms,"my son, thou art the lamb:"

so they went both of them together; they proceeded on in their journey until they came to the place they were directed to go. The Targum of Jonathan says,"they went both of them with a perfect heart as one;''the Jerusalem Targum is,"with a quiet, easy, and composed mind or heart;''and Jarchi,"with a like heart;''all intimating that Isaac was thoroughly acquainted with what was to be done, that he was to be the sacrifice, and that he heartily agreed to it, and that he and his father were of one mind in it, and that he went with the same will to be offered up, as his father did to offer him; and indeed the expression being repeated from Gen 22:6, seems to suggest something remarkable and worthy of attention.

(e) Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 31.)

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God will provide himself a lamb; either,

1. Literally, though I know not how; for his wisdom and power are infinite: or,

2. Mystically, as Christ, whose type Isaac was, is called a Lamb. Thus Abraham prudently reveals the matter to him by degrees, not all at once.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. God will provide — Hebrews, Elohim-jireh, God will see. See on Gen_22:14.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: the utterance of heroic faith rather than the language of pious dissimulation (vide on Ver. 5)so they went both of them together. To see in this twice-repeated expression a type of the concurrence of the Father and the Son in the work of redemption (Wordsworth) is not exegesis.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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. Or,

2. Of his faith; whether he meant it so or no, this proved to be the meaning of it; a sacrifice was provided instead of Isaac. Thus,

1. 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.

2. All our sacrifices of acknowledgement are of God's providing too; 'tis he that prepares the heart. The broken and contrite spirit is a sacrifice of God, of his providing.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

יראה לו השה — this means as much as: He will look out for and choose a lamb for Himself, and if there will be no lamb for a burnt offering, then, בני MY SON will be the offering. Although Isaac then understood that he was travelling on to be slain, yet.

וילכו שניהם יחדיו THEY WENT BOTH OF THEM TOGETHER — with the same ready heart (Genesis Rabbah 56:4).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ויאמר...אלוקים יראה לו השה לעולה בני, Avraham’s reply to his son is capable of two interpretations. One interpretation would be that the word בני is a response to Yitzchok’s cry or question, meaning “I am here my son; G’d will select the lamb for the burnt offering.” In other words: “don’t worry G’d already knows who is going to be the lamb for the offering. He will put it at our disposal.” The second interpretation of Avraham’s answer would arrange the words as follows: “G’d will select the lamb for the offering; who is the lamb? It is my son.” Yitzchok understood from this that he had been chosen to be the offering. This is why the Torah continues, significantly: וילכו שניהם יחד, “they continued walking together,” i.e. of one mind and of one spirit.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.