Jamin Bradley

Abraham and Sarah had gotten a good laugh from God’s promise that they would have a child, and they instead worked out their own way to secure a descendant. First, they planned on handing the family legacy down to Abraham’s chief servant, Eliezer. But then they decided to resort to a form of sex slavery where Sarah gave Abraham her chief servant as a surrogate wife. This servant became pregnant and then went on to be abused by the family.

In time, Abraham and Sarah received the promised child of their own genetics. All of God’s promises rested upon this heir. They had no other genetic descendant left to rely on, including Abraham’s surrogate wife, whom they had sent away now that they had no use for her. Their story had been full of twists and turns in which they had partnered with sin many times.

God now required a test—and it was a doozy. Would Abraham be willing to sacrifice his son to God, not only losing his precious son, but all of the promises he had been guaranteed in this heir? Abraham had not always been faithful in the past. Would he be faithful now, even if it cost him everything?

The answer was a surprising yes. Abraham made his way up a mountain to the Heavens to meet with God and prove that he would be faithful this time. But the Angel of the Lord eventually stopped him from going through with it—communicating a loud and clear message to the ancient world: unlike the other gods, this particular God does not want your child sacrifices.

Abraham eventually made his way down the mountain with his child. But I often imagine the Angel of the Lord (a being that I theologically hold to be Jesus in the Old Testament) sticking around and staring at Abraham’s altar with pain in his eyes. Abraham didn’t know this, but he would eventually have a descendant who would have to get on that altar to fulfill all the promises God had made to him. God himself would have to give up his own son if the world was going to be put right. The angel would have to put on flesh and be born with Abraham’s genetics. How hard it must have been for Jesus to stomach the foreshadowing.