"WE HAVE AN ALTAR" (2)
“WE HAVE AN ALTAR” (2)
Genesis 12: 7, 8; Genesis 13: 18; Genesis 22: 9 - 14
JT Perhaps the brethren will bear in mind that we did not touch chapter 8 this morning, that is, Noah’s altar. It is well to keep it in view because it is the first altar in the Scripture and therefore is important, for in the first mention of anything in Scripture we usually have the general thought of it. We should bear in mind also that, entering on the Old Testament, the thought is just to see what the varied features of the subject are. The basis of our inquiry is the altar that “we have”. We dwelt on it in the New Testament this morning, although there is much there that we did not note. In general, what came before us is what the christian’s altar is. The Old Testament Serves to open up the subject. The practicality of the subject in the New Testament is seen in Matthew 5, where a believer is contemplated by the Lord as offering a gift at the altar and remembering that his brother has something against him. He leaves his gift there by the altar and goes and is reconciled to his brother, as if the idea is necessarily marred unless those who have part in the altar are one, are united. We have the idea in Matthew again, the altar sanctifying the gift.
WM The altar is greater than the gift. The altar sanctifies the gift.
JT Yes. In Matthew 23 the Lord refers to what the scribes and Pharisees said: “Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it is a debtor”, and says, “Fools and blind ones, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar which sanctifies the gift? He therefore that swears by the altar swears by it and by all things that are upon it”, Matthew 23: 18 - 20. This shows how great a thought is conveyed in [p. 345] the altar.
RWS Did you say this morning that it works out in the Supper?
JT I think so. It is the public side. The altar is in the court of the tabernacle, which is in view from without.
ANW Do we have the altar in the tenth of 1 Corinthians, and the Supper in the eleventh chapter?
JT That is right. It is the public side of the truth. Therefore it stands in a general way for christian worship. Genesis will help us, I believe, in the order in which we should look at the subject, first in Noah, then Abraham, then Isaac, and then Jacob, each of whom had his altar. Then in the book of Exodus, which indicates the divine requirement; things are not left with us in Exodus, but in Genesis the altar is left with the builder, meaning that spontaneity is contemplated, God taking account of our measure and honouring our growth.
WM After redemption is accomplished, we have the details of the altar, whereas in Genesis it is the spontaneous side.
JT Genesis is to bring out the work of God, what it is in itself. We have to take account of it in that way. But it cannot be left thus indefinitely; so that as God has His people in the wilderness on the ground of redemption He puts forth His requirements. That commends itself to faith, which owns that “of him, and through him, and for him are all things”, Romans 11: 36.
ANW How does Abel, whose offering was acceptable, differ from these that have an altar?
JT Abel is not said to have had an altar. The offering was there. The position is not as great as Noah’s because the altar is greater than the gift, as we have seen. So that you have an advance in Noah in that he built an altar of his own volition, and that is what Genesis brings out — what the work of God is as left in that way. If a brother or sister does only what he or she is required to do, so far well, but that is [p. 346] apt to be legal and of very little moral worth. But if you see him doing something according to God that is not required of him, that indicates the work of God in him. Many do things because they are required to do them, but you have to get behind that and see what marked them before. The work of God always shows itself; there is always a result from it and if people are to be tested we should inquire as to them before special responsibility is imposed.
Rem In Revelation 11 you get the temple first and then the altar, before you come to the worshipper. There is moral order.
JT That is right. The idea of the altar is what Christ is as enduring judgment, so that Abel was not on the same level as Noah. Noah marks progress in faith.
WM I suppose the whole world stood around Noah’s offering.
JT The creation stands around it yet. The creatorial position of God is in that setting. That stands. He is a faithful Creator, but now He smells a sweet savour which He did not have in Eden.
Ques “God so loved the world”, John 3: 16. Is that based on the recovery through the death of the Lord Jesus, so that He can really see it in its original idea, that is, as He saw it in the beginning?
JT I think so. It is the world taken up afresh. It is an abstract thought. He loved the world. It is what He had in His mind; He is going to fill it with living persons. He made it to be inhabited.
FI Would you help us in regard to what you said, that the altar is Christ and therefore it is greater in Noah’s case than in Abel’s? Does not what Abel offered speak of Christ?
JT The offering is His intrinsic worth, expressed in the Lamb of God; the altar is moral worth, His enduring power in suffering. It is how He endured suffering; it is Gethsemane really — Gethsemane and [p. 347] the cross. What He is as seen in the altar underlies the expression of His intrinsic worth God-ward. It is difficult to make one greater than the other when both refer to His Person, but His own words would make the altar greater, if we may make comparisons. It opens up a very wide inquiry and is most instructive and needful, for it is doubtful if any of us understand much about the altar. The gift is simpler. The altar is what can sustain, and hence it is made of shittim wood covered over with brass. The shittim wood would denote the bearing power of Christ, and that bearing power went as far as to sustain all the judgment of God executed upon Him. The altar received all the offerings year after year, the fire always burning upon it.
Rem Even before the Lord died, was not the idea of the altar seen in Him when He said, “Neither do I condemn thee”, John 8: 11? He moved along in His spirit in the light of what He was about to do as the victim.
JT Yes, what He would have to sustain. It intensified as He drew near to Gethsemane. It was the power that sustained the pressure that came upon it; without that the offering could not be made. You must have the altar first. The Lord is capable of bearing that pressure, of going through it. Hence the altar is said to have been anointed seven times. It is not said that Moses was told to sprinkle the anointing oil on it seven times, but he did (Leviticus 8: 10). It is one of the instances that bring out the spirituality that was there. You see what is to be endured, you concentrate on that. The altar being there, Christ “by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”, Hebrews 9: 14. The altar, Priest, and offering are thus seen in His own Person.
GMcP Mark says that He taught His disciples that He must suffer (Mark 8).
JT The teaching is important. The Lord would teach us as to His sufferings.
[p. 348] FI Does the moral worth, as represented in the altar, go as far as the cross?
JT Gethsemane is anticipative of the judgment. It is the pressure of Satan in view of it, but the actual judgment was on the cross.
WM He “endured the cross”, Hebrews 12: 2.
ANW In Philippians 2 we have who He was, “subsisting in the form of God ... taking a bondman’s form”, that would be who He was essentially and “becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross” would be what He was morally.
JT “And that the death of the cross”. He went the full length required whatever Sufferings this entailed.
WM When He took a bondman’s form, is that a moral idea?
JT Yes, it was preparatory to all that the will of God required in Him as Man.
ANW I was thinking of the He, who He was, then what He did, then what was done to Him — God having raised and exalted Him.
Ques A believer “bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”, would that be an altar feature as seen in Paul?
JT That is right. It is the idea of what you are sustaining — “bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”, 2 Corinthians 4: 10.
ANW Why must the altar be first?
JT Sin having come into the world, you must have bearing power in man to sustain God’s judgment in view of redemption. No creature could have that. The more you dwell upon it, the more wonderful is the bearing power of Christ when you think of the judgment of God.
WM “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29.
JT It brings up the whole question of His sufferings, what He bore. “Who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. It was not by another.
[p. 349] It was Himself — who alone could do it. He does great things otherwise, of course, but everything hinges on this. Without this there could be nothing — without this great bearing power in the One who could go to the cross and bear the forsaking of God, redemption could not take place.
GMcP “Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2.
JT Just so, “Him crucified”.
APT I think it might be helpful if a little more was said on Matthew 5. It says, “first go, be reconciled to thy brother”, Matthew 5: 24. “First go”. It seems to follow on getting a look at the altar.
JT That is right. “First go”, would imply that something hard to bear has to be faced. Your brother has something against you. Maybe you do not deserve that he should have anything against you, but you have to face him. It is a hard thing to face an offended brother. The Lord immediately goes on to speak of “thine adverse party”.
Ques The altar is not mentioned in the eighteenth chapter, only in the fifth. Why is that?
JT The Lord brings the altar in as regards one offering a gift; as if the altar had reminding power. It brings something to our remembrance; “and there shouldest remember that thy brother has something against thee”.
Rem The value of “the brother for whose sake Christ died” (1 Corinthians 8: 11) would come into our minds as we approach the altar.
JT Quite so. If you are a mere religionist, if you worship without spiritual exercise, the altar would not say much to you as you draw near to it. But if you are an exercised man worshipping God, the altar would speak. The altar itself speaks, see Revelation 16: 7.
Ques Does it imply that the offering would be unacceptable to God if we offered without having this matter [p. 350] settled?
JT I think so. The altar has its own voice, as we have seen. You leave the gift there. Somebody comes and sees the gift there and says. Whose is that? Well, the offerer has gone off to be reconciled to his brother before offering. There would be a very practical testimony to brotherly feeling and consideration for God in that.
Ques Does the gift refer only to praise, or to service, too?
JT Anything that would take the character of an offering or sacrifice. Now it would, of course, be spiritual.
But coming to Genesis 8, what I think is practical in the passage is unselfishness in the offerer. This great thought runs through the Scriptures and increases. It says, “Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl”, (verse 20). He had no consideration as to whether any of the species would be impaired. He was considering for God and he offered of every clean animal and of all clean fowl.
GMcP The Lord gave Himself.
JT The nearer you get to the cross the more unselfishness looms up in greatness, and it must mark every offerer.
FRA What is the difference between Hebrews, “We have an altar”, and Abraham and Noah building an altar?
JT Genesis is to bring out the work of God before He began to put His people under law. That is, what they are doing. If a brother applies for fellowship — well, what has marked him hitherto? Sometimes you hear of people who wish to come into fellowship for some ulterior motive. Only recently has he begun to think about it. What had he been doing before? Now he is conforming to every requirement, but why so different before? Genesis is full of freshness, the spontaneity of life. That is a leading feature in Genesis.
So here we have the outcome of what Noah was, his [p. 351] name signifying rest. He is true to it. Names are often given prophetically in Scripture. I think Noah’s was. His father in giving it to him gave the reason why. If a name is given prophetically, then you look for the answer to the prophetic indication. So the odour is “an odour of rest”.
WM It is remarkable how spontaneity is shown in the sacrifices. There was no instruction as to what was clean and unclean at that time, but he seems to know.
JT He had evidently learned from God as to what was clean and unclean. He walked with God and would thus know, in measure, what was suitable to Him. You can picture him building the ark from day to day. People would come along and jeer at him. He would be impressed with the uncleanness of men. In taking him up for the great service he executed, God would qualify him in every way.
Rem Often there is not a verse of Scripture for doing or not doing certain things, but committing ourselves to the fellowship of God’s Son, there ought to be a basis on which we can understand and discern instinctively.
JT You will be discerning as you answer to the work of God in you. As born again, normally you can distinguish between what is clean and unclean. It is to bring out the work of God. Looking back on your history you say: I had the instinct, I could not put a name on the thing, but now I see it. Now that I have come into the fellowship of God’s people I am taught the names of things and I know them.
JC So Mary anointed the Lord intuitively.
JT She knew what to do. The act arose from herself and it fitted in there perfectly, and that is what you get in these cases in Genesis. What they did is commendable.
Rem What she was before came into that anointing. We do not know how long she had kept it.
JT The book of Genesis is illustrated by persons [p. 352] finding jewels. Diamonds are such in nature, pearls are such in nature. Well, Exodus is setting them, putting them where they shine best. They are not intended to be carried in your pocket. They are to be seen to the best advantage. In Exodus, God is putting them where they make the best showing, that is in His own dwelling. Where can the fruit of His works shine more beautifully than in His own dwelling — where He is Himself?
GMcP “The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, Exodus 15: 17. Do you think there should be some spiritual indications of contact with the altar amongst those who wish to have fellowship with us?
JT Yes. You want to see them when the saints are not looking at them. Is there some ulterior end in view, or is it because they want to be with God’s people? Is there evidence of the work of God? Genesis is the spontaneous work of God; Exodus is the fellowship involving divine requirements.
GMcP Can you tell us how we discern the work of God?
JT God makes much of discernment. It is one of the scarcest things among the brethren. It says in Malachi 3: 18, “And ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not”. Ye shall do it. Discerning between good and evil is the outcome of the exercise of our senses, as we learn from Hebrews 5: 14.
Rem Leviticus 11 distinguishes between the unclean and clean, going into great detail.
JT When you come to Exodus and Leviticus, God is not leaving it to us to determine the clean and unclean; His dwelling is in view and all must be according to His mind. But then Noah knew. There is no word as to how he knew, but he knew. He brought them in, too, the clean and the unclean. They all came into the ark. We can understand how God would [p. 353] teach him in view of the great service he was to render and the place he was to occupy in the testimony.
Ques Why was there a much greater number of clean animals — seven — and of unclean only two?
JT In view of the offerings, no doubt. Noah did not spare any species. He gave of “every clean animal, and of all clean fowl”; he sacrificed them to God.
WM Why does the Spirit emphasise that he took of all?
JT I understand that it is unselfishness. If Noah was thinking of the wide creation, all these creatures destroyed, he would say, We need them all, as many as we can keep, but he offered of all the clean species. Of course there were some left of each, for they went into the ark in sevens.
AHP Do you find the same features worked out in David at the end of 1 Chronicles? It tells the abundance of the offerings they gave.
JT Quite so. There is great volume there — thousands of them.
RWS In the beginning Noah, without any instruction, offers the clean creatures only; and after all the instruction, in Malachi, they offer the crippled and diseased to Jehovah.
JT Malachi is a sort of terminus. It brings out what the Old Testament developed. It developed love in Jacob and unbrotherliness in Esau. It brought out what God loved and what He hated. He enlarges on the kind of offerings they were making. As you say, they were selfish. They did offer, but they brought the poorest things to God, and that is what Noah would rebuke. He did not consider that way at all. He considered for God, and the far-reachingness of his offering, too, comes in because it is the ground on which the physical creation has stood ever since. We are benefiting by it today, rain coming down, etc.; as the chapter says, “Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter,
[p. 354] and day and night, shall not cease”, Genesis 8: 22. There is a fixed order of things. “I will no more ... curse the ground on account of Man”. It ought to touch us — how far-reaching in blessing an unselfish act of this kind may be.
SMcC In the New Testament Peter speaks of those saved in the ark as eight.
JT Yes, they went over to a new order of things. That involves formation — quality.
SWP Is that why there is movement in connection with these Scriptures that you read? Abraham is marked by movement.
JT Yes. The worship of God calls for exercise. As already remarked, it is going forth. So that you get here what precedes this incident: “And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl — everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark” (verses 18, 19). It was not a stagnant nor a dead state, it was living. They were moving according to what was right. Now that the judgment is over they are taking purified ground, they are entering a purified earth.
SWP In Hosea it says, “the thorn and the thistle shall come up upon their altars” (Hosea 10: 8), because of lack of exercise.
JT The worship of God implies a living state of things. People that are stationary are not worshipping — they are not living. It is the living that praise God. So that, “let us go forth to him”, and, “To whom coming ... as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 2: 4, 5.
Rem In Mark the Lord “goes indeed, as it is written concerning him”, Mark 14: 21. He is going forth.
JT When you come to Abraham you have another thing — an appearing. The work of God is seen throughout Genesis acting of itself, and then able to appreciate [p. 355] divine movements, and able to notice what God is doing. This marked Noah, but he did not have an appearing. Genesis 12: 7 says of Abraham, “And there he built an altar to Jehovah who had appeared to him”. That is the next thing. In virtue of the work of God in me, I am able to notice how God shows Himself. That is a test to young people. What are their motives? Why are they moving in this direction? Have they an impression of a good meeting when there is a divine manifestation? Are they affected by that? Some talk of what is said, but what is the impression you had? Abraham is the first of whom it is said that he had an appearing.
Ques Is that the outcome of soul history?
JT Yes. The next thing that you do will indicate that you had discerned it. The altar is built to the God who appeared to him.
GMcP Do you discern the appearing in the gospel? The apostle speaks of the grace of God appearing to all men (Titus 2: 11).
JT That is His grace, but still God shines there. But there is more than that in Abraham. It is a question not simply of the gospel but of counsel, the great thoughts of God for you, “Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, to the land that I will shew thee” (chapter 12: 1). Abraham represents that side of the christian — God calls him out and tells him about things. He has intimate relations with him. It is a distinct advance on Noah. Later He says, “and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (chapter 22: 2). And he built an altar to the God who appeared to him, as already said. It is the God that appears to me. If I get an impression of this kind I am different at the next meeting I attend.
ANW I am not only thankful now that I am saved, but I have an impression of the One who saved me.
JT And I know that He is so interested in me.
[p. 356] For after all, Abraham was a man of like passions as ourselves. His history is to teach us how God is interested in every one of us. There is no one in this room that God would not appear to. He is so interested that He will show Himself to you, and He has in mind that you should move according to the impression conveyed in the appearing. He first appeared as the God of glory to Abraham — so that he should get out of his country and move into the land of Canaan.
Ques Do we get that with the two on the way to Emmaus? They returned and found the eleven.
JT That is right. The Lord showed Himself to them. Their contribution the next time they attended a meeting was the outcome of this. The Lord’s path on earth was marked by meetings with His own. “The men who have assembled with us all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out among us ...”, Acts 1: 21. Luke 24 speaks of the next meeting and the two from Emmaus have a contribution.
Rem Is there not a contrast between the previous chapter where it says, “And Terah took Abram ...” (chapter 11: 31), and this chapter where it appears that God is taking him now. He is going to be set free from natural influence.
JT It appears that Terah is the leader of the expedition, but God said nothing to Terah about getting out. Now God is taking Abraham on, and He is impressing him with appearings.
EGMcA Are there different characteristics in the three passages read?
JT Certainly. The first is the appearing, God’s interest in me. It would establish confidence between Himself and my soul. Then the next thing is what Abraham did at Hebron: “Then Abram moved his tents, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron. And he built there an altar to Jehovah”, Genesis 13: 18. That means I am moving on to establishment. I see another world. It is Hebron. I am getting [p. 357] a view of another world. Later instruction shows that Hebron implies this.
SWP Is appearing connected with revelation? What is the difference?
JT It is a question of what the appearing meant, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham ...”, Acts 7: 2. The idea is there, that it was God. At Hebron there is no appearing. It is now a question of the place.
FRA When the Lord appeared to the two on the way to Emmaus they moved.
JT Yes. There is movement in every case. In the twelfth chapter, after the first altar is built, it says, “And he removed thence towards the mountain on the east of Bethel” (verse 8). He is not yet at Bethel; in fact, Abraham is never said to be in Bethel, but he is in proximity to it; the idea of it enters into his movements. Then Mamre is that I am looking into another world. It is stability. Division had taken place, for Lot had left him; but he is stabilised.
Rem The design of each appearing is to influence us in the right direction. Abraham retrograded here.
JT He does not go down to Egypt after the altar at Mamre.
ANW The appearance of the Person and what He says makes a great impression on the believer.
Ques Do you get advancement with Peter in the two appearings, the one at the end of Luke and the one at the end of John?
JT In Luke the Lord turned and looked on him, and he went out and wept bitterly — the second conversion. But in the twenty-first of John he is probed, and gets his commission restored and enlarged. I think that establishment is in connection with Peter: “when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”, Luke 22: 32.
WM When Abraham moved to a certain place, Bethel was in one direction and Ai in the other, Bethel [p. 358] being the house of God and Ai the city of defeat and disaster.
JT Quite so. Thus the believer in his early movements often does things by instinct, but afterwards he understands that they are under God’s ordering. After-history shows what each of these places signifies — Bethel meaning the house of God and Ai meaning disaster because of self-confidence in the people of God. The mountain which lay between would denote elevation and strength — these marked Abraham.
EGMcA It says, “and there he built an altar to Jehovah, and called on the name of Jehovah” (chapter 12: 8). There is nothing said about his calling on Jehovah at the time of the first altar. Calling on the name of Jehovah is a very great thing. You are showing by your prayers that you are not self-reliant. Calling on the name of the Lord means that I am trusting in His power, not on my own or that of the world. “The name of Jehovah is a strong tower”, Proverbs 18: 10.
JT The principle of calling on the name of the Lord came out in Seth. He saw that his son was just a dying creature. What good will he be if God does not do something for him? As Seth calls his son Enosh, “Then people began to call on the name of Jehovah”, Genesis 4: 26. So that Paul says, “for when I am weak, then I am powerful”, 2 Corinthians 12: 10.
WM If we see stability in the altar, we see weakness and dependence in the offerer.
JT Young believers think they can do this and that, not understanding that the flesh profits nothing, but when Enosh is understood as applying to me, I say, If God does not do something, all is hopeless. Thus I begin to call on the name of the Lord.
AHP This would mark those that have come into fellowship.
JT Yes. They attend the prayer meeting. They see the needs. What lists of petitions we should have when we come to the prayer meeting! You prove [p. 359] through the week how hopeless our position would be if God does not stand by us and act for us. The prayer meeting in an especial way is where we call on the name of the Lord.
AHP Would that be essential to the continuance of the idea of the altar at Hebron?
JT Yes. Calling on the name of the Lord brings you to stability, the oaks of Mamre. God has a world of His own, set up on unshakable foundations, which Hebron represents. I am afraid our prayer meetings are often set, religious affairs, whereas we should come with lists of petitions, knowing that God can do things for us.
WM I remember Mr. Raven saying once that he did not go to a prayer meeting. He said, I go to a meeting for prayer.
JT I think we should keep in mind the place where prayers are wont to be made, where they have been made, answers to which have been received. God makes us joyful in His house of prayer. That is the place where He is. He hears our prayers and He will answer them. It may take years to answer some of them, but you have the assurance in your soul as being heard, that God will answer them.
EGMcA At the time of Ezra it says, “And they set the altar on its base; for fear was upon them because of the people of the countries”, Ezra 3: 3. They offered up burnt-offerings to Jehovah. This brings out what the altar is.
Rem Tell us a little more about the fixed idea in connection with Hebron.
JT Hebron means another world which the Lord calls “that world, and the resurrection”, Luke 20: 35. Things are immovable in God’s world. There is to be a world set up on the principle of resurrection.
WM Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt (Numbers 13: 23).
APT [p. 360] Would that correspond with the epistle to the Colossians?
JT Yes. Colossians is Hebron. God had it in mind and now it is established in Christ risen.
EGMcA Is that seen in connection with the altar in the twenty-second chapter?
JT We can see there the progress that Abraham is making. He had built all these altars of himself. We are not told what he offered up. You will observe that in chapter 12 it is just, “he built an altar” (verse 7), and in verse 8 he “called on the name of Jehovah”, and in chapter 13: 18 “he built there an altar to Jehovah”. But there is nothing about his offerings. Now God is going to bring out, typically, at least, in this man the greatest thought of offering, the greatest truth as to it that we have. God is going to test him as to offering. God does not say anything to him about building an altar, but He says, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (chapter 22: 2). What will he do? It says, “And Abraham built the altar there” (verse 9), which is, I think, remarkable. First of all, he has the wood with him. Isaac is bearing it. It says, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up and went to the place that God had told him of. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. And Abraham said to his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand,
[p. 361] and the knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke to 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 sheep for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering. And they went both of them together. And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there ...” Notice that he built the altar there. It does not say an altar. The Spirit of God puts these things down to show how faith progresses. You come to the great thought of sacrifice and you must have an altar. But it is not simply an altar, but the altar. There is only one really. This great occasion requires the full thought.
Ques Is the thought of exclusiveness here in that the young men were to abide with the ass?
JT I think so. It is going to be between Abraham and his son. It is a wonderful picture. The wood is there, the fire is there, and the knife is there. There is nothing to minimise the ultimate sufferings for someone, and Isaac is carrying the wood himself. It is very remarkable that the victim is himself seen carrying the wood.
WM Do you not think there is one thing that differed with Isaac in that he had not the apprehension of what he was to go through?
JT Of course he is only a type of what God had in mind; and we cannot say what went on in the young man’s soul. It is a wonderful picture of unity between the Father and the Son. “They went both of them together”. It is said twice. And it is a place that is shown. It is the first time you get this. We should note also that Abraham uses the word “worship”.
WM Do you not think the terrible apprehension and suffering were on the father’s part?
JT It brings out the sacrifice that God made. He “spared not his own Son”, Romans 8: [p. 362] 32.
GMcP It is remarkable that worship should be so closely allied to suffering.
JT That is what Abraham had in mind. All this enters into Gethsemane, and ought to be in our souls if we are to be worshippers.
AHP Would this chapter correspond with the Lord’s words, “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, John 4: 23? I wondered whether the book itself develops this wonderful feature of the altar, in relation to which worship to God would be truly acceptable.
JT I think John brings out the Father and Son going together. The end in view is worshippers.
Rem All the feelings connected with every expression God-ward would have for its basis this place, mount Moriah. The altar of Jehovah was built there.
JT It is a question of what is shown. We are nearing Exodus here, and we are nearing Solomon. It is a shown place, not God showing Himself to me, but of showing me a place.
ANW “We worship what we know”, John 4: 22. What does that suggest to you?
JT The Lord was alluding to what was in Israel. It is very beautiful that He should say “we” there. The woman called Him a Jew. He did not deny that He was a Jew, but He refers to His deity when He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”, John 4: 10. He did not however say He was not a Jew. The “we” there would be the “we” of intelligence in Israel.
WM Would it be the “we” of identification in the exercises of God’s people?
JT It was the intelligent worship which was there, so perfectly known to the Lord. So that at the last passover I suppose you get it fully, all that entered into that feast. The Lord would have in His mind Exodus and [p. 363] onward. There never was such a passover as that. All that it meant was there. So that He says, “I will not drink at all of the fruit of the vine” (He was drinking then, but He would not do it again) “until the kingdom of God come”, Luke 22: 18.
GMcP All that was for God’s pleasure in Israel was centred in Christ.
JT The Father was looking for something more than that. “But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4: 23), and that is what the Lord had in mind in John. Abraham says, “I and the lad will go yonder and worship”. What a pair they were!
APT Are you viewing Abraham as one like ourselves?
JT He rises to the type of the Father here, but he is a type of the believer, too. You can see how Abraham stands out. God would try him, but in the trial he rises to a type of God Himself. So that you get, he “piled the wood”. We must not in our minds mitigate the sufferings. The fire was there to ignite the wood, but the wood is piled up, suggesting that there was plenty of it.
SWP Does it suggest a moral climax in Abraham when it says, “And they came to the place of which God had told him”, so that he “piled the wood”?
JT I think so. Faith would apprehend what God had said about the place and what His present mind was about it. God is watching that place and what is going to happen in it. It is typically a scene of the most transcending importance. Think of Jesus on the cross! “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is the perfection of obedience and yet retaining His relation with God. He says, “My God”. He has not given that up. In all the terribleness of God’s judgment Christ addresses Him as His God! But He was conscious of being forsaken.
APT He was heard on account [p. 364] of His piety.
RWS What is the force of the third day in Genesis 22?
JT There you have another thing. It is a full testing period. He did not do it on the second day. The spirit of obedience continued.
WM He did really offer up Isaac.
JT Yes, he bound him on the altar and took the knife to slaughter his son.
ANW What does the binding suggest to you?
JT I think he had committed himself to it. The type would mean that the Lord Jesus had committed Himself to it in Gethsemane. “Not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42. That is irrevocable. It would be morally impossible for Him to go back from that. As the Lord commits Himself, God accepts Him. The judgment is to be unmitigated.
Ques What relation has the forsaking to the Father? On the cross the Lord says, “My God, my God”.
JT “Neither does the Father judge any one”, John 5: 22. God in that relation does not judge any one.
Ques Does the relationship of Father not go right through?
JT That would not do. That would not be absolute abandonment. We cannot say that God is one and the Father is another. The judgment, the forsaking was by God as God.
APT What would be the meaning of “caught in the thicket”?
JT I think that would mean the will of God. The Lord was held by that, as we see in Gethsemane. It was a ram. A ram is a sheep in a sense, but it is the idea of progenitiveness. What is to come out of all this is in view.
Rem The figure changes from Isaac to the ram in willingness.
JT The ram is held by its horns, which means [p. 365] Jesus was held by the will of God. It is seen in Gethsemane.
Ques Would the thicket represent the Roman Empire and the Jews, etc., and all that surrounded Him?
JT I think so. It would be God allowing them. Christ being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God was by the hand of lawless men crucified and slain (Acts 2: 23).
Ques Would it suggest His suffering love?
JT I think it is His committal. He is held by it. “Not my will, but thine be done”. Morally He could not revoke it.
AHP That would enter into the intelligence of the worshippers.
JT All these things have to do with worshippers. The weakness of our worship is most distressing. Our altar has to do with the worship of God, and in order to be worshippers, we have to understand all these things.
EGMcA You emphasise “the altar”. Would the other two altars not be great enough to carry on this?
JT No. Faith has come to the great idea here. The gift itself and the altar, the full thought of it.
Ques Do the thoughts of the altar and the only-begotten Son coalesce here?
JT The chapter brings out that Abraham in offering up his only-begotten son rose into correspondence with God. God gave His only-begotten Son for us. Another sense in which believers may correspond with God is in loving Christ with the love with which He loves Him. The Lord says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them”, John 17: 26. That is the most exalted kind of love. Having it, I love Him, in measure, as God loves Him.
AHP Would the thought of spiritual feelings enter into this worship, too?
JT Yes. This chapter is full of feelings. I do not [p. 366] know of any chapter in Genesis so full of holy feelings as this.
Ques Have you any suggestion as to why Abraham names the place?
JT Faith is able to put a name on things, “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said at the present day, On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” (verse 14). This links on with Exodus “The mountain of God ... Horeb”, Exodus 3: 1. Not that this was it literally, but it is the place of divine resources.
Rem The apprehension of all these things means soul movement for every one of us.
JT The next thing is that heaven is noting Abraham in a new way. Isaac is not said to have come down. Abraham goes down to his young men, but Isaac has gone up, as it were. Rebecca is now mentioned (verse 23). Christ risen and, we may say, glorified, and the assembly thus, in type, enters into this wonderful chapter.