"When they came to the place where God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood." -Genesis 22:9
We often read Genesis 22 and think about Abraham's great willingness to give God everything He asked for. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his first and only son to God without hesitation. However, we rarely look at things from Isaac's point of view. Isaac clearly was aware of the process of offering sacrifices, as we see in Genesis 22:7. However, Isaac was 100% submissive to both his earthly father, and Heavenly Father in all things.
In this world, the word "submission" is a dirty word. It's become such a dirty word, that it makes the average person's skin crawl in disgust just at the mere thought of it. But we as Christians cannot have this attitude towards it. How can we fully devote ourselves to God, giving Him all things, without submitting to His every word?
The reason that the world sees "submission" as such a dirty word, is that it essentially means to remove all will from one's self, and to take on the will of someone else. We want freedom. We want to be our own people. But in all reality, no matter what we believe, we are never ours. We either belong to God, or we belong to the devil. There is no middle-man. There is no other option. We have heaven, and we have hell. We cannot serve two masters, (Matthew 6:24) meaning that in order to serve Christ, we must first submit ourselves wholly to Him. We need to make His will our will.
As we have previously established, Isaac was old enough to understand sacrifices. He understood their importance, and had clearly witnessed them before, meaning he was more than likely over the age of 12. Now keep in mind that Abraham had Isaac at a very old age, so he was over 100 at this time. Isaac could have easily escaped from Abraham.
Isaac could have easily taken down his father. Isaac was placed on top of the wood, even though he knew what was going to happen. He was willing to give up his own life for God. He understood that the very last thing he would ever see was his father's eyes, as he was killing his own son. And yet, Isaac did not run. Isaac did not attempt to escape. Isaac stayed.
God was not going to make Abraham give a human sacrifice. However, God sent His son, as well, to be a sacrifice. God allowed Jesus to be put up on the cross, and Jesus never opened up His mouth against those that were accusing Him (Isaiah 53:7).
If Jesus was submissive to those murdering Him, that we could be saved, why not submit ourselves to the One that promises eternal life? We need to learn from Isaac, and be obedient even in death just as Christ was, (Philippians 2:8) and be focused so much on Him, that we no longer have to worry about the things of this world.
