READ Abraham 1:5,7, 15-16
What is Abraham’s father (and
family) trying to do?
What is the problem?
Who saves Abraham from being
sacrificed?
READ Abraham 1:18 and 2:3
What does the living God
require of Abraham?
What did Abraham have to do to
actually receive the promised blessings of priesthood, land and posterity?
Why does the Lord require
sacrifice?
READ: Lectures on Faith 6: 7
"Let us here observe,
that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has
power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for,
from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life
and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly
things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained
that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the
sacrifice of all earthly things, that men do actually know that they are doing
the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God. When a man has offered
in sacrifice all that he has, for the truth's sake, not even withholding his
life, and believing before God that he has been called to make this sacrifice,
because he seeks to do His will, he does know most assuredly, that God does and
will accept his sacrifice and offering, and that he has not nor will not seek
His face in vain. Under these circumstances, then, he can obtain the faith
necessary for him to lay hold on eternal life.”
What sacrifices did the Lord
require of Abraham to receive the promised blessings?
The Sacrifice of a Son
After years of childlessness, Sarah begged Abraham to take her handmaid, Hagar, as a second wife, that she might be able to supply Abraham with children, which he does (see Genesis 16:1-2). They conceive a son, which an angel tells Hagar to name Ishmael. Thirteen years later, the Lord comes to Abraham and tells him that the time of the realization of the blessings of his posterity is come.
READ Genesis 17:16-21
What is Abraham’s response?
Who is the covenant son?
What does that mean?
Does the Lord bless Ishmael?
Skip ahead three or four
years… Isaac is born and is a toddler, and Sarah catches the teenaged Ishmael
mocking him and goes to Abraham to banish Ishmael and his mother, so that he
will not be a joint-heir with Isaac.
READ Genesis 21:11-20
Who is Ishmael and what is he
symbolic of?
Who then is Isaac?
READ Genesis 22:2-13
What additional context adds
weight to Abraham’s sacrifice?
Why would the Lord ask Abraham
to do this?
What does it mean “God will
provide himself a lamb”?
How was elderly Abraham able
to bind his son?
What must Abraham been
thinking with his arm stretched forth with the knife to sacrifice his son?
Who does the “ram in the
thicket” represent?
Who does Isaac then become
symbolically?
But are rams always found in
thickets?
READ Hebrews 11:17-19
Did the Lord send a ram in the
thicket to save Isaac from Abraham’s knife?
In this scenario, what must
Abraham been thinking as he looked down at the body of his dead son?
Read Lectures on Faith 6:8
“It is in vain for persons to
fancy to themselves that they are heirs with those, or can be heirs with them,
who have offered their all in sacrifice, and by this means obtained faith in
God and favor with him so as to obtain eternal life, unless they in like manner
offer unto him the same sacrifice, and through that offering obtain the
knowledge that they are accepted of him.”
Is the sacrifice of all
earthly things always necessary for faith unto salvation?
How does Abraham’s life teach
us about the relationship between making a covenant by sacrifice and receiving
the fullness of the gospel and the high priesthood?
What is the Abrahamic
Sacrifice really about?
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