Abraham’s Sacrifice

Scripture Reference: Genesis 22:1-18; Hebrews 11:17-19

Memory Verse:

“And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb …’”

Genesis 22:8a

Welcome Activity:

Have your kids blindfolded. Tell them to open their mouth because you are going to give them something to eat.

“Do you trust me?

What if I am giving you a yucky worm or a rotten apple to eat?”

Continue in this train of thought for a little while and then put something VERY tasty in their mouth (lolly-pop, biscuit, etc.)

Discuss what it felt like to trust someone when you did not know what they were going to do. “Abraham trusted God even when he did not understand what God was going to do.”

The Story:

Many, many years ago God decided to build a great nation so that this nation could follow him and bless the world. God chose Abraham as the man that would begin this nation.

Have you ever tried to count how many stars there are in the sky at night? There are too many to count! Well, God told Abraham that counting his descendants would be like trying to count stars. He would have so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren that no one could even count them.

Abraham believed God but, as the years went by, he and his wife, Sarah wondered how God would make this happen. They were getting older and older and they still had no children together.

But, of course, God kept his promise!

Finally, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old they had a baby. They named their son Isaac.

Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac very much and looked forward to the day when Isaac would marry and have children. Then those children would grow up and have children and then those children would grow up and have children.

Abraham loved his son and loved God. Even though Abraham loved God and believed what God said a day came when Abraham was tested. The testing day was the day God asked Abraham to do a very difficult thing.

During the time of Abraham people showed their devotion to God by placing food or sometimes an animal they had killed on an altar and burning it up. This was called a “sacrifice”.

Even though Abraham knew about this kind of sacrifice he had never heard about the kind of sacrifice that God asked of him on this testing day.

God said, “Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love. Go to the land of Moriah. There kill him and offer him as a whole burnt offering. Do this on one of the mountains there. I will tell you which one.”

Most people would have just said, “NO WAY, GOD!” After all, Abraham loved Isaac. Besides, Isaac was his only son. God had promised him that Isaac would grow up and have children and his children would grow up and have children so the one day God’s people would be so many that no one could count them. If Isaac died this could never happen.

And that is when Abraham realised something very important. God would always do the right thing. If he obeyed God, even in this very hard thing, God would make it all right in the end. He thought that maybe God would let Isaac die but then he would bring him back to life.

Abraham did not understand exactly what would happen but he had faith in God. He would do what God said.

When Abraham and his son got to the top of the mountain they stacked stones on top of stones to build an altar. Isaac asked his father what animal they would put on the altar. Only Abraham knew that Isaac would be the one on the altar instead of an animal.

And then the time came for Abraham to do what God said and kill his son. But do you think Abraham actually killed his son? No, he did not. At the last minute an angel called out in a loud voice and told Abraham to stop. Even though God knew that Abraham had enough faith to obey him God did not want him to actually kill Isaac.

What a relief! God would never want a person to be killed and burned on an altar. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in some bushes. He and Isaac offered the ram as a sacrifice on the altar.

On that day Abraham learned that he loved God more than anything else. He would always have faith in God.

And Isaac continued to grow up and follow God. And guess what? He had children and then they had children and then they had children…

As years passed the number of Abraham’s descendants became so many that they were as difficult to count as the number of stars in the sky.

Review Questions:

1. What did God tell Abraham to do with his son, Isaac? Take him to Mount Moriah, kill him, and offer him as a burnt offering sacrifice.

2. What happened when Abraham was just about to kill Isaac? An angel stopped him.

3. God did not really want Abraham to kill his son. Why did he ask Abraham to do it? It was a test of his faith.

(Source: Mission Bible Class)

Activities After the Lesson:

1. Have your kids watch the animated story of “Abraham Offers Isaac” below:

2. Let them make this Craft: 1st Place

Ask children to draw four squares on a piece (or fold the paper into squares).

In one square they should write the word “GOD”. In each of the other four squares, they can draw pictures of people or things that are very important to them.

Create “1st Place” ribbons from paper or actual ribbon.  Children then talk about the people and things that are important to them and then glue the first place ribbon on the square containing the word “God”.