The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

One of the titles of the God that we see throughout the scriptures is “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”.  The Savior even used it Himself when teaching the people: “Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” (Matt. 22:31-32).  The title often appears in the context of God’s ability to free us from bondage. 

When the Lord appeared to Moses, He said, “I the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  The Lord then told Moses, “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (Exodus 3:6, 8).  In the Book of Mormon King Limhi used the title as he spoke to his people about how they were going to escape their bondage: “I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.  Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob” (Mosiah 7:18-19). When Mormon wrote about the bondage of Alma and his people, he said, “I will show unto you that they were brought into bondage, and none could deliver them but the Lord their God, yea, even the God of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob” (Mosiah 23:23).  Alma the Younger spoke about the captivity of his fathers and how “the Lord God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did deliver them out of bondage” (Alma 29:11).  He likewise talked to his son Helaman about his fathers and how “they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it was the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Alma 36:2).  In our dispensation in the revelation on the camp of Israel as the Saints sought a home to escape their persecution, the Lord said, “I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.  I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” (D&C 136:21-22).  So why would the scriptures use this phrase so consistently when speaking about God’s ability to deliver us from bondage?  We don’t typically regard Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as examples of being delivered from bondage.  But thinking about their stories, in some ways they were delivered out of bondage by the power of God.  We know that Abraham was close to being sacrificed on pagan altars, and at the very moment when they were about to slay him, “The angel of his presence stood by [him], and immediately unloosed [his] bands” (Abraham 1:15).  Though the context was certainly very different, Isaac also was saved from being sacrificed when “the angel of the Lord” stopped him at the last moment and provided the animal for the sacrifice (Genesis 22:11).  Abraham was also saved from potential bondage to the Egyptians when he went there to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.  The Lord gave him specific instructions to protect him and Sarah so that his “soul [would] live” (Abraham 2:24).  Jacob was saved from a different kind of bondage as he was stuck serving Laban, his father-in-law, who had somewhat turned against him.  It took a revelation from the Lord to tell him, “Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee” (Genesis 31:3).  Jacob left secretly, Laban pursued in anger, and after much controversy between then Laban finally let Jacob leave in peace.  Jacob was also saved from the bondage of famine when the Lord miraculously preserved their family through the doings of Joseph.  All of these are physical examples of the types of bondage that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were delivered out of by the Lord.  Perhaps the most important way that these three are connected with bondage is that it was with each of them that the Lord covenanted to bless “all the families of the earth” through their seed.  The most important member of their seed of course would be the Savior who came through their posterity (Abraham 2:11).  Ultimately it is the bondage of sin that is the greatest for all of us, and Christ would come to deliver us from death and hell in fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.