April 13: Exploring Devotion

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

The word devotion or, in the verb form, to be devoted, can have several meanings. In a marriage ceremony, the minister usually declares at some point that the two are devoted to each other until death alone parts them. A woman caring for a desperately ill loved one sometimes evokes the praise from others that she is totally devoted to the care of the sick person. In a different sense, we often call our quiet time with God each day our devotional time. We “do” our devotions. Evidence of Abraham’s devotion to God can cause us to blush with shame as well as the whispered hope that such will never be required of us.

Abraham’s spiritual journey began with a shattering demand (vv. 1-2). After Abraham peacefully settled the dispute with Abimelech over the well at Beersheba (21:32), life took a routine flavor for Abraham. However, without fanfare or warning God proved Abraham’s faith with the command for him to offer his “only son Isaac” as a burnt offering on a mountain yet to be revealed. In this seventh time God appeared to Abraham, the spiritual challenged peaked out. The phrase “only son” occurs also in Hebrews 11: 17 as God’s “only begotten son,” similar to the phrase in John 3:16, used to describe the sacrifice of Jesus. Abraham fathered other sons, such as Ishmael, the child of Hagar (16:3-4), as well as, later, six sons by Keturah (25:1-2). Nevertheless, Isaac was uniquely born and as such became a fitting type of Jesus.

The next stage in his devotion development required heart-breaking preparations (vv. 3-5). He personally split the wood for the burnt offering after which he arose, saddled the donkeys, called two young men to accompany him and Isaac, and proceeded to Mt. Moriah. His gathering the wood brings to mind a grieving father back in the days when loved ones often were buried in the family plot. We can picture in our minds the father looking over the stack of planks stored in the farm carpenter shop. Choosing the most hardy he would then saw them to size being careful to mortise the joints for strength. The casket would cradle his four-year-old son.

The sacrifice of Isaac was to take place on Mt. Moriah in what is now the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The site later was known as the threshing floor of Araunah (2 Sam. 24:18), or the threshing floor of Onan the Jebusite (1 Chron. 21:15). Muslims many centuries later constructed an edifice over the rock called the Dome of the Rock, the place from which Mohammed, they believe, ascended to heaven. Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, in that order comprise Islam’s three holiest cities.

Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac showed his unwavering faith (vv. 6-8). We need not quibble with some expositors who question whether God would demand a hu­man sacrifice. As the record shows, He never intended for the act to take place. He was establishing a principle basic to a personal relationship with God, the principle that righteousness and the promises are based on faith and not through obedience to legal rituals (Rom. 4:13, 14). In other words, we are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:9).

From Abraham’s perspective he was willing to offer Isaac because he believed the promise of a posterity through Isaac was inviolable. Hebrews 11:19 explains his view: “He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead from which he also got him back as an illustration.” If he had sac­rificed Isaac, he knew God could and would raise him from the dead. Since God had rejuvenated the reproductive capabilities of both Abraham and Sarah, raising Isaac from the dead would be no problem for God.

Abraham’s expression of his devotion to God gained him God’s unqualified approval (vv. 17-18). The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time (v. 15). If, as many scholars argue, the Angel of the Lord is a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of Christ, the only begotten Son of God blessed the actions of Abraham toward his only begotten son. The Angel confirms the validity of God’s promised impact of Abraham on all the nations of the earth.