Abraham Saw An Angel, And Stopped.

This isn't my question, but someone I know asked this, and it is a very good question.
God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, but before he does it, an angel appears and stops him.
So was that a test he failed? Did he disobey God? Who was this angel? Do we know it wasn't satan making Abraham defy Gods command?
Why didn't God tell Abraham to stop Himself, if God was the one to first tell him to do it?
 
This isn't my question, but someone I know asked this, and it is a very good question.
God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, but before he does it, an angel appears and stops him.
So was that a test he failed? Did he disobey God? Who was this angel? Do we know it wasn't satan making Abraham defy Gods command?
Why didn't God tell Abraham to stop Himself, if God was the one to first tell him to do it?

Look closer at the verse my brother in Genesis 11:1-18.

What we find is the phrase..........."angel of the Lord".

That tjon IS in fact the pre-incarnant Christ. That is the same one who came to Abraham and Sara and told them they would have a child. It is the same one who was in the firery furnance and the Lion's den. It is the same one in the burning bush.....
Jesus the Christ, God in the flesh and totally man and God.

Abraham in fact intended to kill Isaac.

Gen. 22:12
"And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad neither do thou any thing unto him; FOR NOW I KNOW THAT THOU FEARSET GOD SEEING THOU HAST NOT WITHHELD THY SON THINE ONLY SON FROM ME".

Abraham believed that God would resurrect Isaac from the dead.
 
This is an example of the Old Testament Christ model. Some say "the angel of the Lord" is Jesus Christ. I would have to double check the context in this portion of scripture...

Genesis 22:

1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (tested) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 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.
3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, (obedience) 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.
4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5 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.
6 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.
7 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?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: (faith) so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (salvation)
13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket (replacement sacrifice) by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

@ tjon: what are your thoughts?
 
I was told on another thread not to confuse angels and the Holy Spirit. Would even the pre-incarnate Christ be said to be an Angel? Just wondering. By the time of this incident, Abraham was very familiar with talking to God and Angels - just a guess here. Maybe he knew the difference. On the other hand, there is no scripture where Abraham had any talks with fallen angels or demons.
 
Matt 10:40 "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. Here Jesus is referred to as an apostle...just one example.....apostellō
An angel though is a created being, whereas the Holy Spirit is the third person of the God Head and as such is not to be confused with a created being.
 
This is an example of the Old Testament Christ model. Some say "the angel of the Lord" is Jesus Christ. I would have to double check the context in this portion of scripture...

DRS.......The phrase "angel of the Lord" comes under the doctrine of "First Mention".

When a word or phrase is first used in the Scripture, the contextual meaning used then is also applied to every other time you see that same phrase.

So.........."The angel of the Lord" is first seen in Genesis 16:7........
"And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountan of water in the wilderness by the fountain in the way to Suir".

We can understand this angel as the pre-incarnant Christ because he promises what only God could do..........

1. "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly (16:10).
2. "Thou art with child and shall bear a son (16:11).
3. "He will be a wild man" (16:12).

These things show a prescience that is proper and connects only to God Himself.

Then there is verse 13..........
"And she called the name of the Lord that spake to het ...THOU GOD seest me, for she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me."

So, from that point on Biblically, the term "angel of the Lord" refers to the pre-incarnant Christ.
 
Very informative, are you getting any of your information from hebrew translations?
I know when preachers are teaching the bible, and there is a word, sometimes two will be the same word in english, for example love, and love, but in hebrew bible it will be a completely different word giving it added meaning.
 
Part of the confusion may be over the term "angel", the original meaning was "messenger".
Original usage did not imply "guy with wings and a harp" the way modern English does.
 
Very informative, are you getting any of your information from hebrew translations?
I know when preachers are teaching the bible, and there is a word, sometimes two will be the same word in english, for example love, and love, but in hebrew bible it will be a completely different word giving it added meaning.

No, just from my old balding head and from years of getting out the Word of God.
 
Paul is quoted as saying in Acts 27:23,24,

For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
 
This isn't my question, but someone I know asked this, and it is a very good question.
God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, but before he does it, an angel appears and stops him.
So was that a test he failed? Did he disobey God? Who was this angel? Do we know it wasn't satan making Abraham defy Gods command?
Why didn't God tell Abraham to stop Himself, if God was the one to first tell him to do it?

The test was passed, as Abraham attempted to do what God told him to do.

He did not disobey God, and was in fact trying to follow God's command when the angel stopped him.

We know the angel wasn't Satan or an agent of Satan because God commends Abraham for his obedience. God never intended that Isaac be sacrificed, only to test Abraham's willingness to give up what was most precious to him for the sake of God.

I suspect Abraham was waiting all along for God to tell him to stop. The angel was God's agent for telling him to stop, speaking God's command to him. If I come to you personally, speak to you on the phone, send you an email, or send someone to you with a message from me, the message is still me speaking to you.
 
The test was passed, as Abraham attempted to do what God told him to do.

He did not disobey God, and was in fact trying to follow God's command when the angel stopped him.

We know the angel wasn't Satan or an agent of Satan because God commends Abraham for his obedience. God never intended that Isaac be sacrificed, only to test Abraham's willingness to give up what was most precious to him for the sake of God.

I suspect Abraham was waiting all along for God to tell him to stop. The angel was God's agent for telling him to stop, speaking God's command to him. If I come to you personally, speak to you on the phone, send you an email, or send someone to you with a message from me, the message is still me speaking to you.

No disagreement from me, only one thought.

Personally I do not think Abraham was waiting for God to stop him. I believe he had faith that WHEN he slew Issac, God would resurrect him from the dead............but that is just me.
 
No disagreement from me, only one thought.

Personally I do not think Abraham was waiting for God to stop him. I believe he had faith that WHEN he slew Issac, God would resurrect him from the dead............but that is just me.

I'd never considered that. It's difficult for me to swallow that God would ever ask a believer to kill, anyways. I understand the foreshadowing of Christ, still it is a chilling story.
 
Gen 22:8 Abraham said, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together.
Seems to me that Abraham could see that the Lord would provide a way out as well as a lamb for sacrifice. When we think about it.. no wonder he is held up as an example to be followed.
 
I'm not big on animal sacrifice, either. I agree with Rusty's thoughts above. Giving their "best" food and plants, probably was already recognized as a "sacrifice", though. This practice ended after the 2nd Temple's destruction wasn't it? I'm still going on that in Abraham's time, other so called "Gods" did require human sacrifice, some children. Issac was not a child in this scenario, tho. According to some, he was 37. I was taught, as a child, that this event was to show God's people that he did not require human sacrifice.
 
I'm not big on animal sacrifice, either. I agree with Rusty's thoughts above. Giving their "best" food and plants, probably was already recognized as a "sacrifice", though. This practice ended after the 2nd Temple's destruction wasn't it? I'm still going on that in Abraham's time, other so called "Gods" did require human sacrifice, some children. Issac was not a child in this scenario, tho. According to some, he was 37. I was taught, as a child, that this event was to show God's people that he did not require human sacrifice.

Not so Silk.

Sacrifices were to be animals. The Old Test. saints were not saved by keeping the Law but were saved by the Sacrifices that brought to God because every animal's blood had to be shed and that blood pointed to the coming of Messiah whose shed blood would cleanse all sin. Up to the death of Jesus, the blood of the sacrifices only "covered' sin and had to be repeated over and over and over.

In Geneis 22:14 we see the phrase "NOW I know that thou fearest God" indicates that God was certain that Abraham revered Him more than anyone else since he was willing to offer his son.

God intended to try Abraham's love to see if he loved God more than his son and to try his faith in His promise concerning descendants.

Now consider Gen. 21:12
" And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called."

Now Hebrews 11:17-19
"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure".

And from those verse is the Scripture we can I believe understand that Abraham believed God would resurrect Isaac.
 
I don't have a problem with anything you have said, Major. And all of that has been previously mentioned except the Hebrews verse (which I see now where you got the idea). I was always wondering as a child why God would want the animal sacrifice (because other Gods did that?) (to feed the priests and their families?). I didn't grow up as a Jew, I grew up as a Christian, and you are right - before Christ, how did you get sin forgiveness? They had like 614 odd religious laws to follow. I still like the child version of why this event occurred but I don't preclude all the others that have been mentioned here. And as an adult, I see all the reasons.
 
Here's the way I see it: God requires atonement for sin-animal sacrifice was the LEAST intrusive compared to other "religions" that require human/ human blood/ human child/ human elder/ human virgin sacrifice etc....

1: Blood sacrifice was understandable to the people.
2: They were going to kill the animals anyway.
3: the 'condition' of sacrificed animals was to be 'unblemished' forcing the caretaker to be respectful of the sacrifices life. Rather than just grabbing any old goat and tossing it on a fire, great care and reverence was giving to the sacrifice because of the reverence for God.

The whole process is a concept for reminding people of the power of God, the respect for life and the finality of death. The Hebrews were to take sacrifices seriously unlike some of the trivial/ ritualistic nature of other religions. Hebrews were requires to make atonement for their sins and "offerings" were given for times of joy. Whereas many other religions 'sacrificed' anything and everything to whatever god for whatever purpose.

My thought is that the whole sacrifice process was to segue the Hebrews away from heathen/ pagan religions of the Egyptians and focus their 'religion' on the one true God and prepare the people for the one true sacrifice to atone for ALL sin.
 
I agree....the blood of the animals did nothing...The faith in God and their hope in the Messiah was what they were supposed to be focusing on....But in the end, they lost that faithful view.

Then of course the question must be.........Why did God require the shedding of blood for the remission of sin going all the way back to Adam and Eve.

Nope........I can not agree with Rusty on this.

Life is in the blood.

Lev. 17:11.................
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul’”.

So then WHY did God tell us to sacrifice animals. The Lord called for the blood sacrifice of animals because He was teaching His people about the cost of sin.

Since the befinning of time God has been leading us through the types and shadows from the words of His prophets toward the coming of the Messiah whose blood would cleanse men from their sin. God was getting man ready to see the blood that was going to be shed for the remission of their sins, our sins, and every sin ever committed. Every drop of blood ever split from a bird, bull, calf, cow, goat, sheep, or lamb was only a substitute until the blood of the Son of God was given for sins. The shed blood of animals pointed toward the coming of the Messiah.

No one has to agree with me but I would encourage you to agree with the Word of God.

Romans 5:9................................
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Peter 1:18-19
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Hebrews 10:19-22
For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Of course that brings up the next logical observation.
What did Jesus say the cup represented while instituting the Lord’s Supper? He said, “This is my blood of the New Testament/Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins”(Matt. 26:28).
 
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