READ Abraham 1:5,7, 15-16
What is Abraham’s father (and family) trying to do?
Sacrifice him to the god(s)
they worship.
What is the problem?
They are idol worshipers (they
worship a man and do his will or they worship things made by men or ideas about
god invented by men).
The living God did not command
this sacrifice.
Who saves Abraham from being sacrificed?
The son of the living God:
Jehovah (also known as the living god of the Old Testament).
READ Abraham 1:18 and 2:3
What does the living God require of Abraham?
To sacrifice his family and
land of his familial inheritance and follow Him to a strange land.
What did Abraham have to do to actually receive the
promised blessings of priesthood, land and posterity?
Sacrifice.
Why does the Lord require sacrifice?
It shows us what we treasure
in our heart of hearts.
It produces the faith in the
living God necessary unto life and salvation.
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?
It began with the sacrifice of
leaving his country and following the Lord.
Abraham exercised faith through sacrifice to receive the blessings
promised earlier by the Lord - of the high priesthood, of a land, and of a
posterity. It continued throughout his
life, as we will see, even after he received the promised blessings.
It is interesting that the
Lord required Abraham to sacrifice the land and later the posterity that God
had given him as the realization of the promised blessings. God required sacrifice to receive the
blessings and then further sacrifices OF the blessings Abraham had been given
(in the case of posterity, first the “sacrifice” of Ishmael and then the
literal sacrifice of Isaac).
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?
He laughed.
He doubted.
He petitions that the Lord
blesses him with posterity through the son he already has and loves (through
Hagar).
Who is the covenant son?
Isaac.
What does that mean?
He has the birthright - to
receive the Holy Order and its new and everlasting covenant himself, IF HE WILL
rise up himself (Isaac).
Does the Lord bless Ishmael?
Yes, but not with the fullness
of the Gospel/Priesthood covenant.
Although he is circumcised,
which is a sign of the covenant (v25).
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?
He is symbolic of us - fallen
man.
He commits sin.
He is cast out of his father’s
presence because of it.
He is not the heir of his
father; heirship is through the “begotten” son in the covenant.
He inhabits the lone and
dreary world.
He is subject to death, with
no independent power of life.
He lives a life of hardship.
God sends messengers to teach
him.
God rescues him from death.
Who then is Isaac?
Symbolic of Christ.
The begotten son.
The heir to the Holy Order.
The sacrificial “lamb”.
READ Genesis 22:2-13
What additional context adds weight to Abraham’s
sacrifice?
He was offered by his own
father as a sacrifice to a false god.
He was promised an eternal
posterity through THIS son.
He had been given power over
the elements through the High Priesthood - he could have prevented this but was
submissive to the Lord in all things.
He sacrificed all things to
the Lord to obtain the faith sufficient to find Him (his father’s family, his
land and his son Ishmael) and now he was being asked to sacrifice the Lord’s
blessings to him, as well.
Why would the Lord ask Abraham to do this?
It is the ultimate test for
him: will he withhold anything from the Lord?
What does it mean “God will provide himself a lamb”?
God = Jehovah, will sacrifice
Himself as the Lamb (see Alma 34:10, 14).
As far as Abraham knows, Isaac
is the “lamb”, in this instance.
How was elderly Abraham able to bind his son?
Isaac must have submitted.
Isaac’s realization of what
“god will provide” must have changed at this point – it speaks to Isaac’s
nobility of soul to submit to the Lord’s request.
What must Abraham been thinking with his arm stretched
forth with the knife to sacrifice his son?
“The Lord giveth and the Lord
taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (see Job 1:21).
Who does the “ram in the thicket” represent?
Christ, as the “lamb” God
himself will provide.
Who does Isaac then become symbolically?
Those of us who have submitted
to the Lord in all things through covenant; His seed that He saves through is
vicarious atonement.
But are rams always found in thickets?
If the ram is symbolic of
Christ and the sacrifice is the atonement, then ultimately yes.
But ultimately, for our
exaltation, no, as God sometimes requires us to go through with the sacrifice
for our own good - as He did with Abraham in sending Ishmael out into the
desert with nothing but a loaf and a bottle.
Also, if we take LoF 7:9 on
face value (that Christ is the prototype of the saved man and we must be
precisely like He is and nothing else or we cannot be saved, because if He was
anything but what He is, He would not have been saved Himself), we must also,
in some future eternity, play the role of Christ in working out an atonement
with fear and trembling – so the answer, ultimately, is no.
READ Hebrews 11:17-19
Did the Lord send a ram in
the thicket to save Isaac from Abraham’s knife?
There were ancient Jewish
traditions which held that Abraham actually killed Isaac on the mount and then
he was brought back to life (See also Hugh Nibley’s Abraham in Egypt,
pp. 329-344, 372-375).
While this is not the account
we have in our Bible, it raises the quality of the analogy to the sacrifice of
God’s beloved son even more: the death was carried out but then the Son returns
to life (albeit not a resurrected life).
In this scenario, what must Abraham been thinking as he
looked down at the body of his dead son?
The Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).
The
Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts – they are higher; what must I (Abraham)
be missing? Nothing is impossible unto
the Lord, so what happens next?
This is made even more
poignant by the fact that Abraham held the fullness of the high priesthood
after the Order of the Son of God which has the power to raise the dead (see 3
Nephi 7:19). But Abraham would not have
been permitted to use that power (righteously) without permission from
God. Did he begin to proposition the
Lord to use that Priesthood or did he begin preparations to bury his son and
then was told be God or an angel to use his priesthood to raise Isaac up
again? Perhaps the “ram” in the thicket
was actually an angel or the Lord Himself appearing to command Abraham to
administer to his son and bring him back from the dead.
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?
Yes.
This kind of sacrifice is
between the individual and God.
But you cannot fabricate a
sacrifice to try and qualify – the sacrifice must be commanded of you by God.
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?
Abraham is “sacrificed” on the
altar of a false god by his idolater father.
Abraham sacrifices his family
and his country to find the living God (by leaving them behind).
Abraham finds the living God
he is seeking for and obtains a promise (hope) of Priesthood, Posterity and a
Land of Inheritance (temporally and eternally).
Abraham sacrifices throughout
his life and receives the blessings he was promised.
Abraham is asked to sacrifice the
blessings God had given him: he sacrifices Ishmael by sending him into the
desert and he sacrifices Isaac on the Mount.
Sacrifice all things; then
sacrifice them again.
What is the Abrahamic Sacrifice really about?
It is a test of understanding
(see Moses 5:6): do you see the sacrifice as profane or holy; we wrongly think
that proper performance of an outward act is what is required for holiness and
that we will be saved by our good works.
When in reality, the Abrahamic
Sacrifice shows that you will not withhold
anything from the Lord – it shows where your heart and faith truly is.
It
will come to each person based on what they value and would regret to their
core to surrender. Whatever that is, you will be asked by the Lord to
give it to Him. You must decide to do when it is asked of you.
The
request will unmistakably come from Him – you will know it is God who
asks. You cannot fabricate a sacrifice
to try and qualify for eternal life – it must be an acceptable sacrifice and
the Lord will dictate it.
It
will be something so specific to you, that you alone will understand why it is
the required sacrifice – what you will struggle most with putting on the Lord’s
altar.
All
are able to develop the faith to lay hold on eternal life only because they
have been led by Him through this process, which leads to actual
knowledge. Trust in Him and only Him as you take those steps of
faith.
When
you have the faith sufficient to lay hold on these things, the Lord will
declare to you by His own voice, that you have been begotten of Him that day and
have a place with Him in eternity (see Psalms 2:7).
