The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

him for now J know that thou fearert God, sce:nc! thou hast not withheldthy mt~, thineonly son from nie. 13 And Abraliam lifted up his eyer,and looked and behold behlnd him a ram caught in a thicket by hisIbortls; andkbraham went anti took the ram, and offered him up for aburnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the nameof that place Jehovah-jireh : as tt is satd lo this day, In the mount of theLORD it shall be seen. 15 And the angel of the LORD called untoAbl ahaw out of heaven the second time. 16 And raid. By myself have Isworn said the LORD for because thou hast done thts thing. and hastnot withheld thyson 'thine only son: 17 That in blessing I will blessthee, and in multiply&g I will multiply thy seed as the starsof the heaven.and as the sand wh~ch IS upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possessthe gate of his enemles; 18 And in thy seed shall ah the nations of theearth be blessed! kccause thou hmt obeyed my voice 19 So Abraliamreturned unto hu ywng men, and they rose up and 'want together toBeer-rhcb? ; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba. (Note: It is not necessar?for the allegory to quote the remaining Bve verses of this chapter.)It appears that, just as Abraham had not previously inwasto be offeredformed Isaac his son that it was k wti~in sacrifice, so God had not told His pon Jesus Christ ofthe necessity of his sacrifice, until the time had come. Inwithholding this information from him until the due time,God exhibited His tender love for His Son, in not paini~ghim with suspense for a longer time than was necessary;qnd also demonstrates the confidence which the Fatherhad is His Son's faithfulness; for God's whole plan wasdependent on His knowledge that Jesus Christ, wouldgladly walk in obedience to His will.Abraham's reception of Isaac from' the 'Altar'as fromthe dead, was a fiqure of the resurrection of the antitypi-cal I~aac (Heb. 11 : 19). The infinite power of God wadrnqn~fested m the raising of Jesus Christ ;from the 'dead.As a reward for his willingness to sacrifice his belovedson, which was the culminating and supreme test of Abrdham'sfaith, God not only repeated once more His promiseto bless him and to multiply his seed as the stars ofheaven and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore, buton this occasion He confirmed it by an oath; and for thesame reason, though also, 'perhaps, partly because ofIsaac's obedience to his father's will, He added for the37