Welcome to this final study on the five failures of Abraham. I want to express my appreciation to each of you who has followed these studies. I hope these studies have given you a new understanding of the struggles Abraham and Sarah faced as they dealt with God’s promise that they would be parents of a son in their old age.

Today we come to the final study in this series. One thing we have learned from these studies: Abraham and Sarah were people who loved the LORD. They left everything behind to follow the LORD. When we study the sacrifice they made to obey God, we realize that their decision to follow and obey was costly. They were people of faith, and at times, faith demands sacrifice.

Another thing we have learned from our studies is that Abraham and Sarah were human beings with the strengths and weaknesses that all human beings have. Abraham and Sarah were an old couple who were called to believe something almost impossible for people their age: that they would become parents of a son in their old age.

The story of Abraham and Sarah is one of struggle. Both of them wanted to help God so that God’s promise could be fulfilled through a son. Let us review the struggles of Sarah and Abraham and their efforts to have a son.

The Struggles of Sarah

I will begin with Sarah. Sarah was an old woman, and she was unable to give her husband a son. In the culture in which Sarah lived, barrenness was seen as the greatest misfortune and humiliation a woman could face. Barren women were plagued by feelings of worthlessness and humiliation. Sarah’s struggle with infertility epitomizes the agony of barrenness and the conflict it brings to a family. To women, barrenness was a disgrace, and many Israelites considered it the harshest punishment the LORD could visit on a woman. Sarah attributed her barrenness to God. She told Abraham, “The LORD has kept me from having children” (Genesis 16:2).

In situations where the wife was barren, the husband could take a second wife in order to obtain a son from her, or the barren wife could give a slave-girl to her husband as a secondary wife or as a concubine. The children born of this union would then be adopted as the children of the barren wife.

Sarah was desperate to have a son and anxious to give Abraham an heir. Sarah believed her situation was hopeless and that, at her age, it would be impossible for her to conceive. So Sarah gave her handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham as a secondary wife so that she could have a son through her. Hagar conceived and gave birth to a son named Ishmael. However, the birth of the child made the situation worse for Sarah because Hagar began to despise Sarah because of her infertility.

The Struggles of Abraham

Abraham’s struggles centered on his childlessness. When God called Abraham and told him to go to the land of Canaan, Abraham was an old man. He was seventy-five years old when he began his journey. God had promised him that his descendants would be numerous and that they would inherit the land of Canaan. God also promised that through him and his descendants all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

For the promise to be fulfilled, Abraham needed a son, but his wife was old and barren. A few years had passed since Abraham arrived in Canaan, and he was still childless. Believing he would die without children, Abraham decided to adopt a son. He adopted his trusted slave, Eliezer, as his son and made him the heir to his house. But Abraham’s decision to make Eliezer the heir of his house was not acceptable to God. God appeared to Abraham and told him that Eliezer would not be his heir. The heir of the promise would be his own son. When Abraham heard God’s promise, “he believed the LORD” (Genesis 15:6).

Several years passed. Abraham was now eighty-five and still childless. Both Abraham and Sarah were desperate for a son. One day, Sarah approached Abraham and pleaded with him to take her handmaid Hagar as a secondary wife and have a son by her. Abraham did as Sarah asked and took Hagar as his wife. Hagar conceived and gave Abraham a son. However, things did not improve in Abraham’s household. The conflict between Sarah and Hagar was so severe that Hagar fled Abraham’s house to return to Egypt. God intervened in this family dispute. He told Hagar to return to Sarah and promised to bless her son.

Thirteen years later, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God appeared once again to Abraham to renew the covenant he had made with him. Twenty-four years after the call, God told Abraham that he would make him the father of a multitude of nations (Genesis 17:5). To become the father of a multitude of nations, Abraham needed a son, and he believed that Ishmael was the son of the promise. Abraham said to God, “Why not let Ishmael be my heir?” (Genesis 17:18 GWN).

But Ishmael was not the son of the promise. God said to Abraham, “No.” God’s “No” to Abraham was an indication that the son of the slave woman could not be the son of the promise; it had to be a son of Abraham and Sarah, to whom the promise was also made.

God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, . . . I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her” (Genesis 17:15–16). When Abraham heard that Sarah would conceive and bear a son, Abraham fell on his face, laughed at what God had promised, and said to himself, “Can a son be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, have a child?” (Genesis 17:17 GWN). When Sarah heard the news that she would become a mother, Sarah also laughed and said to herself, “Now that I am old, will I become pregnant and be the mother of a child?” (Genesis 18:12).

The focus of the promise God made to Abraham depended on the birth of a son. Abraham put this promise in jeopardy many times because he failed to believe that God would fulfill his promise. Abraham put the promise in jeopardy when he went to Egypt and gave Sarah to Pharaoh to become his wife. Abraham put the promise in jeopardy when he went to Gerar and gave Sarah to become the wife of Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abraham put the promise in jeopardy when he adopted a slave to be his son. Abraham put the promise in jeopardy when he asked God to make Ishmael the heir of the promise. And when God told Abraham that Sarah would become the mother of his son, Abraham fell on his knees and laughed, a laughter of unbelief that revealed once again how weak his faith was that God would fulfill his promise.

Abraham failed to trust in God to protect him and Sarah. Abraham failed to trust in God when he took steps to acquire a son, one by adoption, another by surrogacy. And Abraham failed to trust in God when he laughed at God’s promise to give him a son through Sarah.

Abraham’s five failures to trust in God created a problem for God. Could God trust Abraham that he would be faithful and that he would be the agent of blessings to the nations? How could God know that he could trust Abraham? God had to test Abraham to know whether he feared God and whether he was willing to obey him without reservation.

The Testing of Abraham

The testing of Abraham is found in Genesis 22:1–18. This is a long passage, but it is one of the most amazing passages in the Old Testament. Since we have been studying the failures of Abraham, I believe it is important for us to learn how Abraham redeemed himself in the eyes of God. So I will quote the biblical text, which will serve as the background for our study today.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “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 on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Studying the Testing of Abraham

The text says that the testing of Abraham occurred “After these things” (Genesis 22:1). The writer of Genesis does not explain what “these things” were, nor does he say what prompted the testing of Abraham. What had Abraham done or not done that prompted God to test him? It is possible that the writer of Genesis was referring to the departure of Ishmael. Because of the conflict between Sarah and Hagar, Hagar left Abraham’s house with her son Ishmael and went toward “the wilderness of Beer-sheba” (Genesis 21:14).

In the context of our studies, I believe that “these things” refers to Abraham’s many failures to God. The five times Abraham failed to trust God prompted God to test Abraham to see whether Abraham would indeed become the agent of the promise. Each failure had to do with the promise of a son. Now Abraham’s test is related to that promise and to the son of the promise.

In the past, Abraham made several efforts to get a son. He adopted a slave to be his son because Abraham was old and childless. Abraham had a son by Hagar, and that, in his eyes, was a fulfillment of the promise God had made that he would become the father of a son in his old age. All these efforts were efforts to have a son. Now the testing is whether Abraham was willing to give that son away and to trust God for the future of the promise.

So, in order to discover Abraham’s commitment to the task assigned to him, “God tested Abraham.” The King James Version says that “God did tempt Abraham” (Genesis 22:1 KJV). The testing of Abraham should not be understood as God “tempting” Abraham. The story of Abraham shows that “the relationship between God and Abraham was a relationship in progress. It had its ups and downs, in which each has been affected by the other” (Fretheim 2007:127). The purpose of the test should be understood as God testing Abraham’s commitment and faith.

The reader of the story knows that this was only a test; however, Abraham does not know that this was a test. To Abraham, it was real. Even God knew the dreadful nature of the request. The Hebrew text says: “Take, I beg you, your son.” Although the Hebrew word is not translated in our English Bible, the Hebrew word nā’ indicates that there is an element of imploring in the divine request. The use of this word, rarely used by God, suggests a sense of urgency: God needs to know about Abraham’s faith.

God’s request was: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac” (Genesis 22:2). Abraham had two sons, and both of them were firstborn sons. Ishmael was the firstborn son of Hagar, and Isaac was the firstborn of Sarah. With the departure of Ishmael from Abraham’s house, only Isaac is left. That is the reason Isaac is called “your only son.” Abraham, in obedience to God’s request, set out to go to the land of Moriah where he would offer his son as a burnt offering. Abraham took his son, two of his servants, a donkey, and the wood for the offering and traveled to Mount Moriah.

The sacrifice was to take place “on one of the mountains” in the land of Moriah. The book of Chronicles says that Mount Moriah was the place where Solomon built the house of God in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 3:1).

Abraham journeyed three days from the place where he was living to the place where Mount Moriah was located. “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away” (Genesis 22:4). On the way to the mountain where the sacrifice would take place, Isaac asked his father: “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). Abraham, probably moved by his son’s question, probably agonizing over what he was about to do, responded to his son’s question with words that showed his faith and trust in God. Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8).

When Abraham arrived at the place where the sacrifice would take place, he built an altar, arranged the wood on top of the altar, tied up his son, and placed him on top of the wood. As Abraham took the knife and prepared to sacrifice his son, the Angel of the LORD appeared to him and told him not to sacrifice Isaac. Then “Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son” (Genesis 22:13).

The Hebrew word that Abraham and Isaac used for the animal to be sacrificed was śeh, which refers to a small animal in the herd. The word śeh is generally translated as “small cattle” and refers to the young of sheep (a lamb) or goats (a kid). In the book of Leviticus, the śeh, the small livestock, was a clean animal and suitable for sacrifice. The śeh was customarily used when the worshiper desired to offer an animal sacrifice.

The animal that Abraham mentioned, the śeh, was a young lamb. On the other hand, the ram, Hebrew ’ayil, was often one of the animals used in the sacrificial system of Israel. Rams were sacrificed as burnt-offerings, as thank-offerings, and as trespass-offerings. When rams were offered as sacrifice, they were considered of higher value than sheep and lambs (Micah 6:7). A ram was sacrificed when God made a covenant with Abraham. A ram was sacrificed when the altar of the tabernacle was dedicated. A ram was sacrificed on the Day of Atonement as a burnt offering.

When Abraham answered Isaac’s question, Abraham believed that God would provide a śeh, “a small animal,” for the sacrifice. Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). When Abraham said these words, he did not know what kind of animal God would provide; he only believed that God would provide the animal for the sacrifice instead of his son. So instead of providing a young lamb, a śeh, God provided a full-grown ram, an ’ayil, for the sacrifice. Thus, one can say that God provided much more than Abraham expected God would provide.

What Can We Learn About Abraham’s Trust in God?

Abraham went to a place unknown to him: “one of the mountains that I shall show you.” Abraham believed that God would act on behalf of his son when he told his servants: “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham believed that God would make provisions so that he would not have to sacrifice his son: “we will come back to you.”

When Isaac asked about the sacrifice, Abraham believed that God would provide: “Abraham said, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.’” Abraham was willing to trust in God when he “reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.” Abraham obeyed because he believed that God would provide and, in the end, save his son from death.

God knew that Abraham would become the agent of blessing to all nations because Abraham was willing to carry out God’s command to the end.

What Can We Learn About God’s Testing of Abraham?

God tested Abraham because he needed to know about Abraham’s faithfulness: “Is Abraham the faithful one who can become my agent to bless the nations?” God did not intend to kill Isaac but to learn whether Abraham was willing to trust God to become the agent of blessings to the nations.

The testing of Abraham was not a farce; it was a real test because God needed to know about Abraham’s willingness to trust in God. As a result, God said to Abraham: “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God” (emphasis added).

God said, “for now I know that you fear God.” This text says something very important about God. The text clearly states that God lacks crucial information about Abraham’s total commitment to trusting him. The popular reading of the story of Abraham’s sacrificing Isaac is that God knew before the test that Abraham was willing to go ahead and sacrifice his son Isaac. However, what God says in Genesis 22:12 clearly says that God was not aware how Abraham would respond. God said, “now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

This story tested not only Abraham’s faith in God but also God’s faith in Abraham. The test was not designed to teach Abraham anything: Abraham trusted God to provide for him. It is God who learns from this experience: “now I know.” For the sake of the promise, God needed to know whether Abraham trusted God.

How Should We Evaluate the Testing of Abraham?

Verse 12 is the key for the proper understanding of Abraham’s vindication before God. In the past Abraham failed God five times. Now God tests Abraham to see whether Abraham fears God. To fear God is “a trust and confidence in God’s purpose without concrete evidence on which to rely.” (Fretheim 2007:131)

The testing of Abraham was a real test in which the response of Abraham was unknown. This is the reason God needed to know how Abraham would respond. God must be sure that Abraham would be faithful until the very end of the ordeal. When Abraham stretched his hand and took the knife to kill Isaac, God stopped the test because he saw that Abraham was committed to do whatever God commanded him. The test was not a game with God. God genuinely did not know. The flow of the narrative accomplishes something in the awareness of God. He did not know. The testing of Abraham was not for the benefit of Abraham; it was for the benefit of God. “Now he knows.” (Brueggemann 1982: 189).

The fundamental assumption behind the testing of Abraham was God’s need to know how Abraham would respond: would he obey God, or would he choose his son instead of God? The biblical text shows that God lacks a certain kind of knowledge—that is, precisely how men and women will act in trying circumstances. Of course, such ignorance arises from human freedom, which is itself a gift from God. Therefore, the divine act of self-limitation has created the necessity for such testing. James Crenshaw writes, “Now I know that you fear God. The formula implies limited knowledge on the deity’s part, inasmuch as humans are free to make choices and thus to obey or to ignore heavenly messages” (Crenshaw 1984:25).

If God knew how Abraham would respond, then this would not be a test, but a cruel way for God to deal with Abraham. The future of God’s purpose in the world was the real issue here. Was Abraham the one who could work with God so that all families of the earth could be blessed through him? The result of this test was that Abraham proved that he believed and trusted in God and that God could use him to accomplish his work of reconciliation.

Now that God knows that Abraham fears God, God makes a solemn promise to Abraham: “By myself I have sworn, says the LORD: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.”

God also said: “And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

God could not use a disloyal Abraham to accomplish his purposes in the world.

Thank you for this opportunity to share with you the trials of Abraham. If God can use a man like Abraham, a person who at times failed to trust in God, then God can use you and me in his work. In conclusion, the greatest lesson we learned from the failures of Abraham is that there is hope for us.

Completed Studies on Abraham’s Failures

The Five Failures of Abraham (June 14, 2022)
Ur and Haran: Abraham’s Background (February 16, 2023)
The Failures of Faith in Abraham’s Journey
Abraham and Terah: Family Dynamics and Divine Calling
Abraham Before His Call: The Mesopotamian Context
The Call of Abraham: Divine Initiative and Human Response
Abraham and Lot: Separation and Its Implications
God’s Promises to Abraham
Abraham’s First Failure: Egypt and the Wife-Sister Deception
Abraham’s Second Failure: The Eliezer Solution
Abraham’s Third Failure: The Hagar Alternative
Abraham’s Fourth Failure: Laughter at Divine Promise – Part 1
Abraham’s Fourth Failure: Laughter at Divine Promise – Part 2
Abraham’s Fifth Failure: Gerar and Repeated Deception – Part 1
Abraham’s Fifth Failure: Gerar and Repeated Deception – Part 2
The Testing of Abraham: From Failure to Faith

NOTE: For several other studies on Abraham, read my post Studies on Abraham.

Claude Mariottini
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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