Genesis 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
"Not thy bullocks and thy lambs; how willingly would Abraham have parted with them by thousands to redeem Isaac! Not thy servant, no, not the steward of thy house. Thine only son — Thine only son by Sarah. Ishmael was lately cast out, to the grief of Abraham, and now Isaac only was left; and must he go too?” (Benson Commentary)
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”
“God had promised through Isaac an innumerable posterity; and yet at a time when Isaac had no child, or even a wife, God commanded him to be sacrificed. Is such a contradiction? Not to Abraham, who only concluded that God intended to raise him from the dead! Two things of great importance come to light here, and both shall be noticed more fully; these are the problems of apparent contradictions and the doctrine of the resurrection... It was, to be sure, Abraham's faith in God's power of resurrection that enabled him to reconcile the promise and the command, this being evident from Gen. 22:5, where Abraham is said to have promised his servants that both he and Isaac would return, AFTER they worshiped God. Note: the Hebrew in that verse should be rendered, ‘We will come again.’…The certainty that Abraham did believe in the resurrection derives from the plain import of these words, and also from the deduction that unless he had so believed, it would have been impossible for him to have acted as he did in the offering of Isaac. …the Old Testament is not without its sure and certain witness of the resurrection. ‘For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol (that is, `the grave'); neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption’ (Psalms 16:10). This is nothing if not a prophecy of resurrection.” (Coffman Commentary)
6 So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
“The typical importance of Isaac is seen in the following: (1) He was supernaturally the son of Abraham; Christ's birth also was supernatural. (2) He was the ‘only begotten’ of his father... [uniquely promised and sent], and Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18). (3) Both Isaac and Jesus consented to be sacrificed. (4) Both of them bore the wood, Isaac the firewood, Jesus the cross. (5) Both were sacrificed by their fathers, Isaac by Abraham, and Jesus by the heavenly Father. (6) The sacrifice of each of them occurred upon the very same location, one of the mountains of Moriah. (7) Both were in the prime vigor of life when offered, and very likely of the same age. (8) Isaac (in a figure) was dead three days and nights, this being the time lapse between God's command that he be offered and their arrival at Moriah, during which time, to all intents and purposes, Isaac was already dead; Christ also was dead and buried three days and nights. (9) Isaac was a model of love and affection for his wife, symbolizing the great love of Christ for the church.” (Coffman Commentary)
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
"And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven,.... Not a created angel, but the eternal one, the Son of God, who perhaps appeared in an human form, and spoke with an articulate voice, as be frequently did; for that this was a divine Person is clear from his swearing by himself, and renewing the promise unto Abraham, Genesis 22:16,
and said, Abraham, Abraham; the repeating his name denotes haste to prevent the slaughter of his son, which was just upon the point of doing, and in which Abraham was not dilatory, but ready to make quick dispatch; and therefore with the greater eagerness and vehemency the angel calls him by name, and doubles it, to raise a quick and immediate attention to him, which it did:
and he said, here am I: ready to hearken to what shall be said, and to obey what should be ordered; see Gill on Genesis 22:1." (Gill's Exposition)
"for now I know that you fear God… God knew it before, but now Abraham had given a memorable evidence of it. He need do no more; what he had done was sufficient to prove the religious regard he had to God and his authority. The best evidence of our fearing God is our being willing to honour him with that which is dearest to us…” (Benson Commentary)
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
But Isaac was not sinless. And thus: The similarities end when Abraham lifted his knife to slay Isaac. The Angel of the LORD intervened providing a ram in the place of Isaac. And Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovah jireh (THE-LORD-WILL-PROVIDE); as it is said to this day, 'In the Mount of The LORD it shall be provided.' (Gen 22:14)
"Come to the hillside with Abraham and Isaac and become involved in the understanding of that really dramatic moment. Isaac is loosed and stands free at the side of the altar. The ram is taken and substituted for Isaac. Abraham and Isaac looked at the dying ram taking Isaac’s place. In our imaginations we can see the whole world of the human race being offered a glimpse of this, being given the possibility of understanding, and we realize that substitute atonement is being demonstrated and being pointed forward to with crystal-clear illustration that a child could understand. The ram was dying in the place of Isaac. This further step of understanding is being given to the already long history of lambs being the necessary sacrifice for entering in the presence of God. Isaac steps off; the ram is substituted. Will Isaac ever forget the feeling of that release? Will he ever be able to forget what it means to be free?”(Edith Schaeffer)
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, 16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— 17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
By myself, I have sworn, says Jehovah… "So we find that the person who was called the angel of the Lord is here called Jehovah;... An oath or an appeal to God is, among men, an end to strife; as God could swear by no greater, he sware by himself: being willing more abundantly, says the apostle, to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it by an oath, that two immutable things, (his Promise and his Oath), in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. See Hebrews 6:13-18.” (Adam Clarke Commentary)
because you have done this thing… "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac...” (Heb 11:17) “The word ‘offered up’ is the same that is used for slaying and offering up sacrifices… but how could it be truly said that Abraham ‘offered up Isaac,’ seeing that he did not actually slay him? In regard to his willingness, in regard to his set purpose, and in regard to God’s acceptance of the will for the deed, he did do so. There was no reserve in his heart.... He took the three days’ journey to the appointed place of sacrifice; he bound Isaac unto the altar, and took the knife into his hand to slay him. And God accepted the will for the deed. This exemplifies a most important principle in connection with God’s acceptance of the Christian’s obedience. The terms of His Law have not been lowered: God still requires of us personal, perpetual, and perfect obedience. But this we are unable to render to Him while in our present state. And so, for Christ’s sake, where the heart (at which God ever looks) truly desires to fully please Him in all things, and makes an honest and sincere effort to do so, God graciously accepts the will for the deed.” (A. W. Pink)
Jehovah "received him in a figurative sense." (Heb 11:19) Abram understood the precept of resurrection of Christ but failed to understand His virgin birth. Without this precept, Jesus is only a good man; but with it, He is very God of very God, even the perfect Lamb of God. Abraham finally did place a sacrifice on the altar – the ram in the thicket— and he received a covering for his sins. In the fullness of time, God offered: "Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering." (Gen 22:8) "Though that blessed Seed was now typified by Isaac, yet the offering of him up was suspended till the latter end of the world, and in the mean time the sacrifice of beasts was accepted, as a pledge of that expiation which should be made by that great Sacrifice. And it is observable, that the temple, the place of sacrifice, was afterward built upon this mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3:1; and mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was not far off.” (Benson Commentary)
So yet again the promise is repeated and assured with certainty, to include: "And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,.... That is, in his one and principal seed, the Messiah, that should spring from him, Galatians 3:16, in whom all the elect of God, of all nations under the heavens, are blessed with all spiritual blessings, with peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life, with grace here and glory hereafter;…” (John Gill’s Expositon)
19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 20 Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Huz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 And Bethuel begot Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Maachah.
"This short history seems introduced solely for the purpose of preparing the reader for the transactions related Genesis 24, and to show that the providence of God was preparing, in one of the branches of the family of Abraham, a suitable spouse for his son Isaac.” (Adam Clarke Commentary)