Three Covenant Oaths
God fleshes out His plan in Genesis 15, 17 and 22, swearing covenant oaths to Abram that He will make of his descendants:
• a great nation (ch. 15), fulfilled in the Hebrews' liberation from Egyptian enslavement and their formation as the nation of Israel;
• a kingdom (ch. 17), fulfilled in the kingdom of Israel that began with King David and continued with his descendants;
• and finally a blessing to all the nations (ch. 22), fulfilled in his descendant Jesus (Mt 1:1), who offers emancipation from sin and death to the whole world.
From the beginning of salvation history, we see that God mediates His covenants through visible, human structures, appointing human authorities to govern His people in His name. We are also reminded that His plan will ultimately bring about a universal or “catholic” blessing, because it will encompass all the nations.
Abram quickly experienced difficulties in his walk of faith. He did not reject God, but he tried to carry out God’s plan through his own efforts, apparently assuming that the Lord would bless his adaptations. After God made His first covenant with Abram, Sarai and Abram grew tired of waiting for Sarai to bear children. Consequently, Abram and his wife decided that the blessing would come through the offspring of Sarai’s maidservant, Hagar (Gn 16). We learn that this improvisation was not God’s will (cf. Gn 2:23-24), because He promised Sarai — whom he renamed “Sarah” (“princess” or “queen”) — that she would bear a son Isaac, with whom He would establish His covenant (17:15-21). The renamed Abraham initially thought God’s idea laughable (17:17), as did Sarah (18:9-16), given their advanced age. But the Lord revealed to Abraham and Sarah, as He would later reveal to Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah (Lk 1:5-21), that nothing is impossible for Him, including overcoming an elderly woman’s barrenness.
Prefiguring Calvary: Abraham Offers Up Isaac
As divinely foretold, Sarah bore a son and God told Abraham that “through Isaac shall your descendants be named” (Gn 21:12). A short while later, God told Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Gn 22:2). That’s a divine word that must have given Abraham great pause: “Only son? The land of Moriah? And offer as a burnt sacrifice the son through whom God is supposed to fulfill all of His covenants with me?!”
Scripture scholars have also pondered greatly Genesis 22:2’s scriptural “speed bump.” Let’s consider each issue in turn. We know that Abraham fathered two sons, but only one was an heir to the covenant God established with the patriarch. (We can collectively speak of the three covenants God made with Abraham as “the covenant.”) Note that our father in faith received the name “Abraham” (father of a multitude) in anticipation of Isaac’s birth, not in relation to his fathering of Ishmael. God would take care of Hagar and Ishmael (Gn 21:14-21), but, according to God’s saving plan, Isaac was “the man.” Ishmael was born according to Abraham’s attempt to improvise God’s plan. Isaac was born according to God’s provision for the elderly patriarch, the Almighty letting Abraham know early on that He was fully capable of providing all of His sworn blessings.
Abraham’s faith in God’s providence, though, was being tested again in Genesis 22. The choice of Moriah must have caused turmoil for Abraham. Considering other biblical evidence, we can reasonably conclude that Abraham knew that the mountains of Moriah were in Salem, later known as Jerusalem (2 Chr 3:1). Salem, meaning “peace,” was synonymous with Zion (Ps 76:2) and Zion with Jerusalem, the central city of God’s kingdom that would be founded later in salvation history (Ps 2:6; Is. 24:23). The Book of Genesis seems to imply that Abraham knew about Moriah, because there is no further explanation by God or question by Abraham about the proposed sacrificial site. God was asking Abraham to go to the land of Melchizedek, the priest-king who had blessed him after his battlefield conquests (Gn 14:14-20). But sacrificing Isaac did not sound like a cause for celebration. How could the nations be blessed through Isaac’s descendants if Isaac himself were killed before he sired any children? Despite the meaning of its name, Salem probably didn’t seem very “peaceful” to Abraham at this point.
Abraham, his two servants and Isaac traveled on, gathering wood along the way. On the third day — a day to which Jesus also gave great significance via His own Sacrifice — Abraham saw the mountainous place of sacrifice in the distance. Father and son continued alone, Isaac carrying the heavy wood while his father brought the knife and fire. The unsuspecting Isaac asked the inevitable question, “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham responded, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Gn 22:7-8).
Finally, the pair arrived at Moriah. After preparing the wood, Abraham bound Isaac, laid him on the altar of sacrifice and raised the knife to kill his son, obedient to God’s command. But the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham from carrying out the sacrifice, commending his fidelity to God, because “you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (Gn 22:12).
Like Fathers, Like Sons
Still, God’s command puzzles us. Why would God command Abraham to sacrifice his only son, when He had promised to fulfill His covenants through that same son? Yet Abraham had confidence that God would, if necessary, resurrect Isaac to fulfill His covenant oaths (cf. Heb 11:17-19). Looking ahead in the biblical story of the Mass for a moment, we can see that the Father did not ask of Abraham something He wouldn’t ask of Himself or His own Son, Jesus. Abraham and Isaac would prefigure the infinite, eternal love of Father and Son. Jesus, the most important descendant of Abraham and Isaac, would actually lay down His life and even appear defeated for a few days.
Abraham substituted a ram for Isaac and named the mountain “The Lord will provide” (Gn 22:14). How strange that Abraham names the mountain “the Lord will provide” after God provided a ram which, if young enough, could have been classified as a lamb. Abraham told Isaac that God “will provide” the lamb and yet, after the Lord provided a ram to sacrifice instead of Abraham’s son, Abraham still named the mountain “the Lord will provide,” not “the Lord did provide.” In the very next line, the Book of Genesis adds with apparent emphasis, “[A]s it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided,’” clearly conveying an expectation that God would one day yet provide a lamb (Gn 22:14, emphasis added).
Because of Abraham’s fidelity, God swore one final oath with the patriarch, first reaffirming that his descendants would be numerous and conquer their enemies. God then elevated his final promise from Genesis 12:3 to covenant oath status: “[B]y your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice” (Gn 22:18; cf. 15-18). A couple of thousand years later on the same mountain, another descendant of Abraham — the Lamb of God Whom the Father would provide — would perfect the model of obedient sonship.
Thomas J. Nash is Director of Special Projects at Catholics United for the Faith. He is the author of Worthy Is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass (Ignatius Press) from which this column is excerpted and condensed with permission of Ignatius Press. He is also a co-author of Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass (Emmaus Road Publishing).
