As we start here on these two verses, we have to note that the Angel of the Lord is not an angel as we normally understand, but none other than the One we call the Word or the God of the Old Testament. The One who became Jesus Christ. This was the Lord. We know this from what is in the context here because of His famous response. It says, "Now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your only son from Me." It was not some angel acting for the Lord. It was the Lord Himself acting as the Angel for this spokesman, the messenger of God.
We have to also add to our proof here that this was the One we call the Word because in verse 16 He swears by Himself. An angel could not swear by himself. He would swear by the Lord, if anything. But who does the Lord swear by? Well, there is nothing higher than Him, so He swears on Himself. This is a big point that is made in Hebrews that God swore by Himself and made this promise inviolable that He gives Abraham later on in the chapter. It was sure, it was a sure promise because He swore it on Himself. He is the same Being who had appeared to Abraham at other times, He appeared to Hagar, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Joshua, Gideon, Sampson's parents, and others besides, where He is called the Angel of the Lord.
So in this guise, if you will, He is the messenger of God, the messenger of the Father and Son. He is the spokesman of the Two. He is the one that is always sent as God's emissary to interact with and lead His people. And He especially shows Himself at such critical junctures as this.
Now notice that God's call to Abraham here is very much more urgent than in verse 1. In verse one, he says, "Abraham!" and Abraham says, "Here I am." But here He says, "Abraham, Abraham!" like maybe Abraham was getting a little bit hard of hearing or something. But it just shows the urgency that He did not want him to harm his son. He did not want him to slash down or slash up or however it was that he was going to kill Isaac. He wanted to make sure He stopped him. And Abraham's response to both times, in verse 1 and here in verse 11, is the same. He says, "Here I am." Notice they do not put an exclamation point after it. It is just a statement of fact.
The three incidences of "Here I am" in this chapter (it is also in verse 7 when he responded to Isaac), indicate the patriarch's steadfastness. He was calm, he was steady. I mean, obviously he did not want to do what he was going to do. But he responded immediately to God and said, "Here I am, me, I hear you." I am sure that he was undoubtedly thrilled and relieved to hear God's voice stop him, to intervene in what they were going through. But his response, in both cases, when he got the original command and now and even to Isaac when he asked him about the lamb, he is calm, he is collected, he was an unflappable man, even though I am sure inside he was very emotional. But he deals patiently and willingly with God just as he does with his son.
It is the same way. It is the same love that is flowing out to others. He has this reservoir of love. His love for God, his love for fellow man, which he shows. So he says, "Here I am." It seems to be code for "How may I serve you? What can I do for you? I am ready and willing and able to do what you need to do."
God's response in verse 12 reveals to Abraham that this exercise has been a test of his faith. We have known it all along, reading the story that God was going to test him. That is the first thing that is said in this chapter. But Abraham—maybe he does not know. Maybe he figured out that it was a test. But this is the first time it is confirmed that this was a test of Abraham's faith, of his godly fear, and of his loyalty and character. I am sure that God undoubtedly knew that Abraham was extremely faithful and could pass this test that he had given him. But I think that He did not know absolutely that Abraham would remain faithful. He knew that Abraham had it in him. But would … . . .
Now, we have no record of his early life except for his circumcision at age 8 days, and also probably around age 2 he was weaned and he was mocked by Ishmael. Now the supreme moment in his life undoubtedly occurred early in his young manhood.
The word translated, “lad” both here and in verse 5, means an unmarried child still in his father’s house. Josephus says that Isaac was 21. Other commentaries that I have read speculated anything from age 12 or 13 up to about 25. Some in the church speculated that he might have been thirty-three and a half. That if he was the type of Christ as a fulfillment of the promise, is it unwise, is it unreasonable to speculate that he carried it right on through in that Isaac was thirty-three and a half years when Abraham went to sacrifice him. Nobody knows, and in the long run it is unimportant.
What is important is Isaac’s willing submission to his father even to the point of death. If indeed Isaac was a young man in the full bloom of his life, full bloom of his strength, and his hopeful anticipation of his future of getting married and having children, then what he did here is extremely impressive. If Isaac was indeed 21, or 25, or 33, surely he would have been able to overpower or get out of the grasp of his 120+ year old father and run away. But he did not do that.
So, you see Isaac as a young child and on up through his teen years as a young man, had been taught by his father about the great God and His purpose and promise and the part Isaac was to play in that. I believe that Isaac too had a pretty great measure of faith. It was not just in his father, but that faith ascended through his father and on up to God.
What question must God have answered concerning of us?
He said, "Now I know you will obey Me! Now I know that you fear Me, and now I know you!"
Was this trial, and its positive conclusion, just for Abraham, the father of the faithful, or is it absolutely for every one of us as well? God the Father and Jesus Christ have to have that question answered as it concerns me individually, and they have to have it answered as it concerns you individually.
The statement God made to Abraham, He has to make of everyone who will be in His Kingdom. God has to say of each one of us, whatever our names are: Now I know you fear Me; "Now I know you!" We are not accepted because we belong to this or that group, we are accepted based on our individual performance in this calling given to us.
God said, "Now I know." You put that together with Hebrews 11 and that tells me that as far as Abraham was concerned, Isaac was as good as dead. No thought can be withheld from God. He read Abraham's mind! Isaac was dead, and that is why He stopped him. Abraham cleared his conscience because he knew God so well, he knew that even though he did not understand, everything that God does is righteous and good, everything that God requires of us is consistent with His character. Everything that God requires of us is consistent with His purpose. He never deviates from His patterns, and therefore Abraham knew that the defect was in his own mind, in his own feelings, not in God's command.
Abraham did what he did—almost did—in slaying his son, because he respected, he reverenced, he loved God. He thought so much of God he was willing to give up the one most loved by him to the One he feared, respected, honored more than anybody in the world. The “father of the faithful” had to show God directly this very thing was in him. What was driving Abraham was not just faith. It was faith and fear. He did not just believe that God existed. He believed God, and he knew God’s power. He knew God’s purity. He knew God’s character, and he so highly respected it he did not want to bring anything on that name to dishonor it.
In verses six through twelve Isaac's faith in God is shown in his submission to his father and it comes to the fore. But at this point it is not the main point of the story. But it too is a major example as well.
