Sermon Central
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Overcome By Obedience Series
Contributed by John Dobbs on Sep 18, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: A truly amazing story in the OT is the promise that God made to Abram and Sarai that involved them having a son. Sarai unable to have children. The Promise was unexpected! As time went by, both of them passed the age of childbearing and there was a lot of mystery around God’s promise.
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Video of this message can be found by searching for Forsythe Church of Christ channel on YouTune.
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Discussion Questions
1. Genesis 22 begins by telling us that God was testing Abraham. Abraham does not seem to be aware of that. What is the difference between ‘tempting’ and ‘testing’? How would you know if God was testing you?
2. God told Abraham in 22:2 to “take your son, your only son”. Abraham also had a son named Ishmael. Why do you think God referred to Isaac as the ‘only son’?
3. The text does not mention Sarah, Abraham’s wife and Isaac’s mother. Does this mean that Sarah was not a participant in the story, or not? Why do we think this? If we think Sarah was a participant in the story, how do we imagine she participated? Why do we imagine that?
4. In this story we have no resistance from Isaac. How do you read that? Are his objections just omitted? Was he silent out of respect / love for his father? What are your thoughts on that?
5. The foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross is vivid in this text. Henry Morris notes that Genesis 22:2 is the first use of the word “love” in the Bible. The first use of the word “love” in the New Testament is found at what event in Matthew 3:17? Does this offer any insights to you about the love of God?
6. Why do we sometimes struggle with obedience? What can give us the strength to obey God even when it is difficult to do so?
7. What else in this text did you want to talk about?
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Resources
Benckhuysen, Amanda. Commentary at
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13/commentary-on-genesis-221-14
Chambers, Oswald. Reading located at
https://utmost.org/classic/the-way-of-abraham-in-faith-classic/
Rutledge, Fleming. And God Spoke to Abraham: Preaching from the Old Testament.
Shelly, Rubel. Genesis: The Beginnings of Faith. College Press, 1997
Stemdan, Ray. Sermon at https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/genesis/lifes-hardest-trial
Wiersbe, Warren. The Bible Exposition Commentary: The Pentateuch. David C. Cook, 2001.
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Some Quotes I did not use in the sermon:
Shelly: “So the father rand son traveled together for three days. Did Abraham travel in the solemn silence of his knowledge of what lay ahead? Did he prattle the whole way, wanting to spend every one of those precious, final moments talking with his boy? Did he ask countless leading questions, wanting to hear - in order to remember in exact detail - the sound of Isaac’s voice? And what about Isaac himself? Might he have pressed his father for details of this unscheduled trip they were taking? Only one thing is certain: Abraham could not tell Isaac everything about what lay ahead, for he did not know himself.”
Wiersbe: “As he climbed Mount Moriah with his son, Abraham was confident that God would meet every need. On what could Abraham depend? He certainly could not depend on his feelings … Nor could he depend on other people … he could depend on the promise and provision of the Lord.”
