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And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am].

God did tempt Abraham. — Temptation is twofold - (1.) Probationis (2.) Perditionis The former is of God; the latter, of the devil. God is said to tempt, when he puts us upon the trial of our faith and obedience, that he may "do us good in the latter end". Deuteronomy 8:16 Satan ever seeks to do us harm. He, when he comes to tempt, comes with his sieve, as to Peter. Luke 23:21 Christ with his "fan". Matthew 3:12 Now a fan casteth out the worst, and keepeth in the best; a sieve keepeth in the worst, and casteth out the best. Right so Christ (and his trials) purgeth our corruption, and increaseth grace: contrarily the devil, if there be any ill thing in us, confirmeth it; if faith, or any good thing in us, he weakeneth it. Now the temptations of Satan are either (1.) of seducement; James 1:15 or (2.) of buffeting and grievance. 2 Corinthians 12:7 In seducement we are pressed with some lesser or darling corruption, whereto our appetites by nature are most propense. And here Satan hath his machinations; 2 Corinthians 2:11 methods; Ephesians 6:11 "depths"; Revelation 2:24 "darts"; Ephesians 6:16 "fiery darts" pointed and poisoned with the venom of serpents, which set the heart on fire from one lust to another. In buffetings we are dogged with the foulest lusts of atheism, suicide, …, such as nature startleth at, and abhorreth; and these, if we resist, and be merely passive, are only our crosses, Satan’s sins. For before a temptation can be a sin, it must have somewhat of coveting in it. And trials are only taps to give vent to corruption.

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And he said, Take now thy son, thine only [son] Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, … — This was the last of Abraham’s ten trials, and the sorest. All our troubles to this are but as the stivers and chips of that cross upon which this good patriarch was crucified. Origen hence persuades parents to bear patiently the loss of their children. Laetus offer filium Deo, esto sacerdos animae filii tui ,& c. Abraham was not only to kill his only son (which yet was more than to have torn out his own heart with his own hands), but to cut him in pieces, to lay him orderly on the altar, after the manner of a sacrifice, and to burn him to ashes; himself making and tending the fire, and putting him in, piece after piece, when any was out. A hard and heavy task: especially since it directly crossed the promise, that "in Isaac all nations of the earth should be blessed"; and seemed to involve the utter ruin of all mankind. Here, reason was at a stand. It was faith only that could extricate the perplexed patriarch, by giving him to know "that God was able to raise him up even from the dead". Hebrews 11:19 Hoc Abrahamum fecit αμεταπτωτον . This was it that kept him from tripping.

Get thee into the land of Moriah. — Both Abraham’s great temptations began with one strain, Vade tibi , Get thee gone. Genesis 12:1 ; Genesis 22:2 Here God led Abraham into temptation, but delivered him from evil. Have you not been tempted, saith the holy man, Bain’s Letters. in this or that kind? It is because God in mercy would not "lead you into temptation." Yea, this is in some sort more to be acknowledged than victory when you are tempted. For not to be tempted is more immediately from God, and less in man’s power than to prevail against temptation. Since nothing doth overcome us against our will: but without our will God doth lead us into trials: for he knoweth we would taste little of these if we might be our own carvers.

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And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

And Abraham rose up early, … — To show his prompt and present obedience. He neither consulted with his wife, nor with his own reason. She might have haply hung upon him and hindered him, as Zipporah did Moses to the hazarding of his life. Exodus 4:24-26 He captivates all the powers of the soul to his Creator; goes after him without questioning, and so shows himself to be "renewed in the spirit of his mind": that is, in his natural reason: for that, like an old beldam, is the mother and nurse of all our distempers and strayings. Cassianus tells us of a young man that had given himself up to a Christian life: and his parents, misliking that way, wrote letters to dissuade him from it; which when he knew, he would not once open them, but threw them in the fire. Let us do so by the suggestions of flesh and blood, and the counsel of carnal friends, or we shall never rest and feast in Abraham’s bosom. I know not by what reason, said Borthwick the Scotch martyr, they so called them my friends, which so greatly laboured to convert me, as they called it: neither will I more esteem them than the Midianites, which in time past called the children of Israel to do sacrifice to their idols. Act. and Mon., fol. 1157.

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Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

Then on the third day. — A great while for him to be plodding, ere he came to the place. But we must conceive that his brains were better busied, than many of ours would have been therewhile. We must not weigh the cross, for then it will prove heavy: we must not chew the pill, but swallow it whole, else it will prove bitter. We must not plod too much, but ply the throne of grace for a good use and a good issue of all our trials and tribulations.

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And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

Abide ye here with the ass. — This, the Hebrews use for a proverb, against such as are dull and uncapable. Zophar saith, that "man is born as a wild ass’s colt". Job 11:12 As an "ass’s foal" for rudeness, and "a wild ass’s" for unruliness. It imports that he is untamed and untractable, till a new heart be put into him. Agur had not the understanding of a man, till he spake to Ithiel and Ucal for it. Proverbs 30:1-2 He wants the whole man, totum hominis , that doth not fear God and keep his commandments. Ecclesiastes 12:13 Tu et asinus unum estote , will not do it; which was the counsel given to a young novice entering a monastery Alex. Cook’s Abatement of Popish Brags.

And come again to you. — Nesciens formam rei futurae, prophetavit sciens de eventu, prophetavit quod ignoravit , saith Ambrose. Epist.

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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid [it] upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

And laid it upon Isaac his son. — Who was herein a lively type of Christ, bearing the cross whereon he was offered up. Tω σωματι των χολαζομενων εχαστος εκφερει τον εαυτου σταυρον , , saith Plutarch, speaking of the Roman fashion of crucifying malefactors. And surely it was by a wonderful providence of God that the Jews brought our Saviour to Pilate to be put to death; since they hated nothing more than to confirm or countenance the Roman tyranny among them by any means. Hence Gamaliel gave counsel to dismiss the apostles. Acts 5:38 And hence the chief priests and rulers took it as so exceedingly heinous that Paul was taken out of their hands by the chief captain. Acts 23:10 But God had a hand in it, that this and other types and scriptures might be fulfilled, that foretold the very manner of his death on a tree. Let the Jews stumble now at the cross, and fall backward. Let the Gentiles jeer us, as Lucian Aνασκολοπισμενον ( horreo dicere ) σοφιστην προσκυνουνθες - In Vita Peregr. doth, for that we deny the multitude of their gods, and yet believe in a crucified God, Omnis homo aut est cum Christo regnaturus, aut cum diabolo crucianduv . - Aug. Justin, lib. 18. Let us desire to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified; and if ever we desire to be kings in heaven, - and every man must be aut Caesar, aut nullus , a king or a captive, - let us seek by the eye of faith to see the Sun of Righteousness in the west (as Strato’s servant taught him): let us look upon Christ hanging on the cross, dying on that altar, and we shall live for ever.

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And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here [am] I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering?

Where is the lamb for a burnt offering. — Isaac was not to be told now what belonged to a sacrifice. He had been long since taught by his father what was to be done in the service of God. "When I was young, my father taught me," saith Solomon, Proverbs 4:4 so did his mother also, Proverbs 31:1-31 in her Lemuel’s lesson. Plantus tenellas frequentius adaquare proderit , saith Primasius. Primas, in Philip. Greg. Moral., lib. xxvii cap. 14.

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And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

God will provide himself a lamb. — A pious and precious proverb; Qui finxit alas papilioni, is curabit omnia . much to be mused on, and made use of, when we are in an exigent, and see not whither to turn us. Then say, Deus viderit . God will with the temptation also give an issue. 1 Corinthians 10:13 Necesse est adesse divinum, ubi humanum cessat auxilium , saith Philo. Sciat etiam Celsitudo vestra , saith Luther in a letter to the Prince Elector of Saxony; Scultet. Ann. I would your Highness should well know that businesses are far otherwise carried and concluded in heaven than at the Diet at Noringberg, … And to Philip Melancthon he writes thus: Si nos ruemus, ruet Christus una, ille regnator mundi: et esto ruat, … Sed scribo haec frustra, quia tu secundum philosophiam vestram, has res ratione rogere, hoc est, ut ait ille, cum ratione insanire pergis, et occidis teipsum; nec vides prorsus extra manum tuam et consilium positam esse causam, etiam extra curam tuam velle agi. Idem.

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