Genesis 22 A Lamb for an offering

When God asks us to sacrifice, he always provides a lamb in the bushes.

It's been a long week for me. A week of second guessing myself and choosing direction.  A week of travel, meetings, and family time that has caused me to wonder why I read and ponder and study the scriptures the way I do.  Why am I on this scripture journey? And that led me to consider if Abraham ever wondered why his love for God had brought him to the place where he was willing to listen to obedience and love for God over ethical reason, over family security?  His faith was so sure that he didn't know how God would answer his pleas, but he knew he had to obey, and that his answer would come in and through his obedience. In practicing obedience he would find the answers and understanding of God's law that he longed for.  God had kept his promise before, why would God forsake him now? He didn't know where the Lamb for an offering would come from, but surely as he prepared and did all that God required of him, he knew that the lamb would be there. He trusted God. And in trusting God, he learned to trust himself. God knew how Abraham would respond. The test was for Abraham to learn how Abraham would respond. 

Concerning Abraham, President Hugh B. Brown said,  

"God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac because "Abraham needed to learn something about Abraham" (in Truman G. Madsen, The Highest in Us [1978], 49). 

Elder George Q. Cannon spoke about Abraham in the April 1899 Conference. He said: 

“Why did the Lord ask such things of Abraham? Because, knowing what his future would be and that he would be the father of an innumerable posterity, he was determined to test him. God did not do this for His own sake; for He knew by His foreknowledge what Abraham would do; but the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson, and to enable him to attain unto knowledge that he could not obtain in any other way. That is why God tries all of us. It is not for His own knowledge; for He knows all things beforehand. He knows all your lives and everything you will do. But He tries us for our own good, that we may know ourselves. ... He required Abraham to submit to this trial because He intended to give him glory, exaltation and honor; He intended to make him a king and a priest, to share with Himself the glory, power and dominion which He exercised” (GeorgeQ. Cannon, in Conference Report, Apr. 1899, 66).

Sometimes it feels like when I sit down to write I am listening to obedience over reason. I don't have a clue how many people I am reaching?   Do my words matter? Is it a wise use of my time, my faith? But I know, like Abraham,  that God is reaching me: one person, one mother, one daughter, one sister, one grandmother, one handmaiden of the Lord, one family.  When there are so many other things I can with my time I wonder why I write so deeply about what I learn? The beauty is that every time I write... every time I am obedient to the promptings to analyze and present my thoughts on the scriptures, I find "a lamb" in the bushes, some surprise that God has prepared for me that I would not have seen if I had chosen to disobey. Usually it comes in a learned principal that raises my spirit up, or stabilizes the ground I stand on. Or it might teach me a new perspective that becomes imperative in my own families peril of survival, but not always. Sometimes it merely brings me peace. A peace that I am certain Abraham felt when he realized where his loyalties lay and the rewards that his faith would bring him and all of his likewise obedient progeny. 

The sister missionaries in my daughters mission

I have a daughter who is currently on a mission for our church. Her leaders have kept a mission blog and I read it from time to time. Tonight when I read through it I was amazed at how much sacrifice is given by each missionary and by each leader. There is one photo of the mission president and his wife washing dishes. Mission Presidents come from all walks of life: wealthy, poor, educated, not so educated, successful businessmen, farmers, sportsmen, educators, etc. When they come to serve the Lord they come to serve. The only prerequisite they need is a willing heart to sacrifice what or whom they love so that others can learn and feel of God's love.  Fortunately the law of blood sacrifice passed with the atonement by Jesus Christ. God now proves us by asking us to present our willingness to serve and love one another. It starts in our family with our spouse, our children, our parents and then moves to our neighbors our church community, our school or city of residence. We are asked to forsake selfish pleasures and desires for the welfare of something larger than ourself.  When we do this we find .... our own joys.  But mostly.. we find ourself. We discover what we hold dear. Each choice to serve and obey defines us. It draws us into the circle of God's love. 




It's not because God needs to know who we are and what we are capable of, it's because like Abraham who was given a commandment to sacrifice the very thing he had lived his entire life for, the very promise that God had given him, we are brought to our own personal trials so that we too might know where our loyalties and our joys lie. 


I have found that when I read and contemplate the scriptures each week, I am able to make my relationship with him more active. No longer am I a passive receiver of words.  By writing what I learn the lessons become imprinted on my heart and act as a guiding star in my daily decisions. How often have I considered Sarah and Abraham and their love for one another, their epic story of love, fidelity, faith, and what they sacrificed for me so that I might have a higher understanding of God's law. How grateful I am to my friend who challenged me a year ago to read Genesis. Never in my wild imaginations could I have conceived how profoundly this book of holy scripture would forever change me. By making a consistent effort to commit to feast on his words I have found great peace and comfort in my trials. I have learned to let anxiety pass me by and understood better what it means to trust in the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I have not known fewer trials, but I have had the strength to use my trials as stepping stones. And isn't it true that with each trial we face if we don't make it into a stepping stone, it becomes a stumbling stone that stresses us and causes us to loose our way. 

Concerning the stress and trials that Abraham went through to discover these truths Elder Neal A. Maxwell  said our lives “cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free....

“Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1991, 117; or Ensign, May 1991, 88 ).

Most focus in Genesis 22 is on  the fact that he is offering his son, that he has ignored the moral law of not killing your own, that it goes against everything God had taught him, or that it is just so horrible to consider that he would give his son. We focus on Isaac and his grief and pain. Abraham's sacrifice is hard to consider because Abraham's trial is our own. It is why we have a hard time pondering it. It is the sacrifice we forsake to serve another, to stand as a witness, to show God and ourself that the love within us is the love we believe it is. 

A well of water - the Lord's living water Gen 21:19, 25

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.John 4:14

In a recent trip to New Orleans  my husband and I took a ghost tour that guided us through much of the French Quarter. The tour guide shared animated stories of death and destruction, the necessary prerequisites for ghosts.  It turns out that one of our ghosts was the cause of the 1788 fire that destroyed nearly 80% of the city.

The story of  the New Orleans fire gave me reason for pause, for within this story comes the reason for the cities “well(s) of water.” But as it turns out New Orleans wells did not provide the promise of life or  protection from death that Spanish rule hoped they would. They in fact proved quite the opposite. 

As a prominent government leader and resident of the French Quarter Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nunez had on a religious alter within a second story bedroom of his home, a large number of lit candles, and was prayerfully observing Good Friday when his servant called him to lunch. While downstairs the wind blew the curtains into the room full of candles causing fire to rapidly spread throughout the room.  Aware of the fire he ran 3 doors down to the church to sound the town fire bells. Within minutes the Cedar framed house hewn from the nearby swamps and used to construct almost all of New Orleans exploded. The resin that served to make cedar impervious to water also made it highly flammable.  The tragedy of the story is that the fire bells used to warn the town of just such a danger had been wrapped in silence in observation of Good Friday. With no warning and the match-light qualities of the homes, the fire consumed, within five hours, 856 of the 1100 structures.

To prevent such a catastrophic event from ever happening again, Spain decreed that all new structures must be built of brick, have iron railed balconies and courtyards that contained an inner well of water. So it is that every home within the reconstructed New Orleans had a well whereby water could be drawn for the use of cooking, drinking, bathing and most importantly putting out fire. 

The full tragedy of the fire comes not from the destruction of the town but in its rebirth. The twenty-eight years between 1789 and 1817 represented years of reconstruction. No one could have conceived that the wells of water that were placed to prevent death and destruction would prove to be the cause of the cities massive deaths. As stagnant bodies of water they  became the breeding grounds for mosquitoes, the transporter of Yellow Fever.  No records exist that allow the cataloging of death before 1817 but between the years of 1817-1905 more than "41,000 people died from the scourge of yellow fever in New Orleans." 

Not all wells of water bring life. Not all wells bring truth. As an Egyptian raised on the mighty Nile, Hagar knew the important relationship between water and life. Having been cast into the wilderness of the desert, Hagar believes what her life has taught her that without water she and her son will perish. 

Hagar stood but a short distance from a well of water that promised to save her and Ishmael and could not see it. What was Hagar's well of life? The water? Or was it her ability to hear and obey the voice of the Lord? What is it that helps us to see "the well of life" that God has provided for us? What is that we must do to help us open our eyes and find the truth that will not only fill our physical needs but also lead us into eternal life? 
  
The Lord had made a promise to her that her son would become "a nation." (21:18) Within the Lord's promise came the well of living water. Indeed the well of living water for Hagar was the covenant and promises that she and Ishmael had made with Lord when they partook of the Abrahamic covenant. Hagar's life was not spared by the existence of a well of water but by her faith in the Lord who directed her to "open her eyes" and see the well of water. 

Alone and forsaken Hagar could not see the promise of the Lord. Why? Why do most of us not see what God has promised us? In her most dire state Hagar was like most of us when life turns against us. She was angry and: 

         1. Separated (14) from all the family she had ever known.
         2. Grief stricken and left to wander in the wilderness (14).
         3. Without water (15) or food
         4. Alone (15) separated herself further from Ishmael
         5. Distraught and overwhelmed by her circumstances(16) waiting to die.
         6. Fearful (17).
         7. Given to prayer of desperation and weeping (16 & 17)

From the talk by Aileen H. Clyde I found these words about truth, living water, and Hagar. 

Consider the Savior’s image when he spoke of the necessity of discerning truth. He likens knowing the truth to receiving “living water”; that is, water that is fit to drink: pure, running water. He tells the woman at the well: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:10). 

When I think of lifesaving water and of wells, I also think of Hagar (see Gen. 21:14–20). Hers is a complicated family story. She is forced alone into the wilderness of Beersheba with her young son, Ishmael. In due time the water and bread she has taken with her into the desert are consumed, and thirst and hunger overwhelm her and her little boy. Because she cannot bear to hear the cries of her son, the record tells us that she puts him in a shaded place and goes “a good way off” (Gen. 21:16). There, she lifts up her voice and weeps. In response, an angel of God speaks comfort to her and reminds her that she is not forsaken. Then, we are told, “God opened her eyes, and shesaw a well of water” (Gen. 21:19; emphasis added). We, like Hagar, are required to see “a well of water.” We, like the woman at the well, must ask of the Lord: “Give me this water, that I thirst not” (John 4:15). This is the purpose of Relief Society. It teaches us as daughters of God how to see and how to ask for that which we need of the Lord so that we need not thirst again. Remember the Prophet Joseph’s promise to us that through this society we “shall rejoice, and knowledge and intelligence shall flow.”

Hagar's life was saved and restored because of her faith in the Lord. The Lord offers each of us a well of living water. We can choose to drink of it and live. But water abounds in our life, how do we choose wisely which water will save us? How do we learn to know the living water of truth and let it be our guide?


The Spanish believed that the answer to their survival relied on the physical existence of water within a close proximity to danger.  They believed their source of water would alone aide in their survival. They could not see that their "water" had become their most imminent danger. Stagnant, separate, preserved, and unable to be cleansed, their wells served as breeding grounds for the mosquito and ironically their own death. 


Living water flows with life, action, and truth. It inspires and leads us to share and interact with one another. With each drink we are renewed and refreshed. It cannot be preserved but must be shared. Living water delivers us not only by offering our bodies its required need but by feeding our soul with its pure, clean principals. Hagar found living water when she prayed and wept unto the Lord. She again found living water when she opened her eyes to the promises that the Lord had made to her and Ishmael. Her living water filled her when she once again served herself and her son by returning unto him and sharing her knowledge not only of the well but of the angels message. She accepted the Lord's gift of love and allowed his promise to be fulfilled. Later the same well that served to save them from death becomes the means for their promised inheritance of Beersheba. Did Abraham know how this would work out when he turned Hagar and his son into the wilderness? I don't know.  But he had faith that the Lord would provide. He had faith that the Lord would keep his promise unto his seed that came through Ishmael.

This story portrays the difficulties that Hagar and Ishmael had to face before remembering the Lord's promise to them. Their life was hard. They faced challenges that at times seemed overwhelming, but when they remembered the gospel principals of prayer, obedience, service, etc. their life became filled with promise. In the 2008 General Conference Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge of the First Quorum of the Seventy spoke to the choice that we have when facing life's challenges. He says,

 The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. "There is an opposition in all things," (2 Nephi 2:11.) everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. (Moroni 7:15-17.) We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier?

2008 October General Conference, The Way

In addition a talk entitled the Abundant Life helps us understand that our living water comes from the acceptance of the spiritual. Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve talks about some of the characteristics that will help us recognize the Lord's promise in our lives.

 Today, I want to list a few of the characteristics that the happiest people I know have in common. They are qualities that can transform ordinary existence into a life of excitement and abundance. First, they drink deeply of living waters. Do you seek peace of mind? Drink deeply of living waters. Do you seek forgiveness? Peace? Understanding? Joy? Drink deeply of living waters. The abundant life is a spiritual life. Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions-attending their meetings perhaps, glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers-but their hearts are far away. If they are honest, they would admit to being more interested in the latest neighborhood rumors, stock market trends, and their favorite TV show than they are in the supernal wonders and sweet ministerings of the Holy Spirit. Do you wish to partake of this living water and experience that divine well springing up within you to everlasting life? Then be not afraid. Believe with all your hearts. Develop an unshakable faith in the Son of God. Let your hearts reach out in earnest prayer. Fill your minds with knowledge of Him. Forsake your weaknesses. Walk in holiness and harmony with the commandments. Drink deeply of the living waters of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2006 April General Conference, The Abundant Life

As I think about water and its significance in our lives, I am filled with the idea that water alone is not enough to save us. In the town of New Orleans their stagnant water protected them from fire but invited an unseen death.  Hagar's ability to live depended not on drinking the water but on finding the water. The idea that God has made promises to me and that I must not despair but must drink daily of his living water through service, obedience, inspiration, joy, kindness, understanding, and through accepting all the blessings the gospel brings. When we partake of the Lord's covenants, his promise to us becomes our well of living water. And it flows within us. It cleanses us. It renews us and brings us Joy. 

A Father's Blessing Genesis 21:9-13

And he loveth those who will have him to be their God. Behold, he loved our fathers, and he covenanted with them, 

yea, even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he remembered the covenants which he had made; 

wherefore, he did bring them out of the land of Egypt.

1 Nephi 17:40

What mother has not wanted the best with regard to her own child's welfare, livelihood, or inheritance? Or has done what was necessary to ensure it? What father has not grieved over his wife's anxiety and fear concerning their child's welfare and inheritance? What mother has not sought the blessings of God's higher power to help ensure her child's longevity, success or place in his kingdom? What older child has not acted out in jealousy at the birth of a younger sibling? Especially when as many as fourteen years separated them? 

The story of Sarah and Hagar  is one that carries many familiar human emotions common to family life. As I read it I was reminded of my own feelings and desires surrounding the birth of my children.  For each birth I rejoiced, prayed and hoped for the very best.  Before their birth I created a journal for them and then used it to describe their own birth experience. I created a scrapbook to document their firsts: words, steps, etc, and I made each an outfit of white to wear to their first priesthood blessing.  I would do whatever was needed to ensure that each of my children  had the best opportunities and that nothing (even my own shortsightedness) stood between them and their family inheritance: love, faith, gifts, education, time, stories, traditions, and above all the blessings that their father and his sacred priesthood could offer them. Indeed I purposefully chose to marry a man who as a priesthood bearer honored and sustained all that I hoped for with regards to my children. I purposefully chose a man who not only would love and cherish me but would understand the importance of how his priesthood power could shower down the blessing of heaven upon my children, our posterity. A man who lived worthy to both receive and give the priesthood blessings to our family. A man who respects and adheres to the example of Abraham's blessing upon his sons. 

Through no real planning of his own Abraham has found himself the father of two, not one son. 

Through his faith fulfilled Abraham found himself and Sarah the proud parents of Isaac. Ishmael came as a result of Sarah's fear that Abraham's God had failed him. Later after Sarah's faith matures, Isaac came as a result of Sarah's faith in "one who had promised." (Hebrews 11:11) 

I read allot about the relationship between Sarah and Hagar and Abraham. They all brought forth very valid points concerning their circumstances and their faults and the judgements we place on them and their actions. I believe that this story is really about a mother's love for her sons. Sarah loved Ishmael. Hagar loved Ishmael. As family they loved each other and one another's sons. Abraham loved them all. But his love of God and respect for his ability to bless them that proved to be the motivation for his action.  Even though the family appears to take a matrilineal track (with the adherence of Sara's will) it was in fact the Lord whom Abraham chose to obey. (Gen 21:12-13) It was Abraham's choice to respect his priesthood power of prayer and revelation as well as his covenants that led to setting his "bondwoman" or slave free,  into the wilderness, where the Lord could then fulfill his promise to her by providing her and Ishmael with the land of Beer-sheba. Gen 21:14-31. 

Both Sarah and Hagar desired a father's blessing for their child. Each received it. Both Sarah and Hagar desired an inheritance for their son. Each received it. The difference was not in the son but in the mother's faith and trust in the Lord's promise to them. Sarah, having learned her lesson of unbelief in Abraham's God recognizes Ishmael's mocking as disbelief and a lack of faith. Maybe a difference of perspective but none the less enough of a difference to alarm Sarah. As the guardian of Isaac's faith and the Abrahamic covenant I do not hold Sarah's actions as being ones of disgruntlement or jealousy. I see her actions as ones of protection for the faith of her covenant with God and protection of Isaac's upbringing and as a way to ensure that Ishmael does nothing to dishonor his father's love for him. I believe that Sarah's actions stemmed from her devotion to God and respect for her husband's priesthood, that she was full of truth and took her matriarchal duties to teach and uphold the covenat seriously. That she understood that nature of Isaac's divine birth.  Did she realize that God's love would ensure Ishmael's land inheritance and survival. I think yes.  Sarah was much older and wiser than Hagar.  She was aware of what faith in Abraham's "most high God" could do for all of those she loved and called family. 

Who was Hagar? Some believe she was more than an Egyptain slave given to Abraham by the Pharaoh,  that she might have been the Pharaoh's daughter, a princess born of and accustomed to royal birth. She would have had to endure a great culture shock as she left the grandeur of the Egyptian palace for the nomadic dessert. She would have been accustomed to judging a woman's usefulness not merely by her beauty but rather by her ability to give birth, hence her quick despise of Sarah when she conceived. As Sarah's slave and handmaid she would have been present at Isaac's birth. She would have been loved by Sarah or else why would Sarah have entrusted her to her husband's bed. They would have shared many intimate secrets that would have bound them to one another as sisters. 

But Hagar's inability or refusal to comprehend the faith of Abraham and Sarah becomes an issue that must be reckoned with before Isaac reaches an impressionable age. Sarah's love for Hagar and Ishmael cannot preclude her love for God who fulfilled his promise to her and Abraham. So it is to Abraham that she turns to for the fulfilling of both son's blessings and for the guidance that Abraham, as the father of both sons, must receive. 

Ishmael 

• 14 years of age at time of separation
• like Esau, Reuben or Manasseh Ishmael is the oldest brother 
• Paul refers to him as a child "born after the flesh," referring to his birth that came as a result of man's arrangements not from God's promise.  (Galatians 4: 23) 
• as a circumcised male he belonged to the covenant (Gen 17:23-27) age 13 
• Abraham rejoiced over Ishmael (17:18) "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee"
• An Angel came to protect Ishmael while in utero. (Gen 16:9)  Hagar had fled from Sarah and in order for the child to survive (the first three years were crucial) she needed Abraham's house for protection and security.
• Ishmael has his own promise from the Lord: "I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (Gen 17:20) 
• Ishmael's separation from Abraham and Sarah was likely a way to divide the inheritance land thus providing Ishmael with a land of his own. Was Sarah being spiteful or loving in setting a proper precedence of inheritance between Abrahams two sons? 
• Ishmael shared the blessing of posterity and land that came from the covenant (Gen 17:20)

Isaac 

• 3 years of age (or close to it) near the time of his weaning. 
• Like Jacob, Joseph, and Ephraim, Isaac was the second oldest brother
• Paul refers to him as a child that was born  "as by promise," referring to the miracle of his birth to one who was ninety years of age and past the time of women. 
• Was circumcised at the age of 8 days to ensure his place in the covenant. The token of circumcision was vital to the covenant. 
• Isaac was greatly rejoiced over and made a fuss over. Isaac was conceived by Sarah's faith because as Paul put it, "she judged him faithful who had promised." Hebrews 11:11 
• Isaac's name "to laugh" refers to the joy that Sarah and Abraham felt at his birth
• Ishmaels departure from the camp of Abraham secures Isaacs spot of inheritance. 

9  ¶ And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. - Was it Ishmael's actions, (a 14 year old son of Abraham) that caused Sarah concern or Hagar, his mother's unwillingness to discipline her son and ensure the proper guardianship of the covenant? 

10  Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.-  Is not Ishmael Isaac's older brother? Will his influence and hence Hagar's influence have profound affect upon Isaac? What will she do to ensure that her part of the covenant to raise Isaac righteously before the Lord is upheld? 

11  And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son.- Ishmael is his son as is Isaac. Would Abraham have been able to see the influence of Hagar's attitude that "despised"Sarah. (16:5)

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. Abraham calls upon the Lord for wisdom and receives it. 

13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

Genesis 21:9-13 Abraham is assured that Hagar and Ishmael will be protected and watched over.