Have you ever had one of those days. If we’re honest we have to admit that not only have we had one of those days, we have had one of those weeks or one of those months or one of those years. One of those times when everything seems to happen. After a while, when we have been bombarded with the trials and tribulations of life and when it seems as if the bad news just keeps coming, we reach the point where we ask: "Lord, why? Lord, how long are we going to have to withstand all of this? Lord, when will You lighten our load? What’s the meaning of all this?"
Isn’t it true that it’s the storms, the trials, the testings of life that tend to blow open the doors of our hearts to show what’s truly there? Do you remember the story of Jesus and His disciples as they headed out into the Sea of Galilee one afternoon? A sudden storm came up. Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat, and His disciples were going crazy, frantic with fear. They looked at Him, asleep in the back of the boat, and they said, "Jesus, what are You doing?
Aren’t You concerned? Don’t You care that we’re about to drown?" Jesus woke up and stilled the storm. And having seen that this storm had blown open the door of the disciples’ hearts, having seen that fear was there, He turned to them and said, "Where is your faith?"
As we look at this amazing chapter in the book of Genesis, a chapter that occurs near the end of the life of the man Abraham, we see him experience the fiercest storm, the greatest test of his life. As it opens the door of his heart, we can walk in and there find much to learn about our times of testing. Let’s look at the beginning in Genesis 22:1. "Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ’Abraham!’ ’Here I am,’ he replied. Then God said, ’Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." Can’t you almost hear Abraham asking God, “You want me to do what?”
When God wants to test someone, His methods don’t always make sense to us. This test came very suddenly and unexpectedly in Abraham’s life. He was nearing retirement. He was planning for those cruises on the Mediterranean. He was planning for those fishing expeditions on the Jordan River. Then suddenly and without warning came this greatest test of his life.
One time, the comic strip Kudzu featured this country-style preacher. He was praying to God, and he said, "Oh Lord, You know I don’t ever ask for much, but, Lord, I pray that You would grant me just this one thing ... dignity. That’s all I ask, Lord." In the next frame, there was a lightening bolt and a huge "Zap!" In the final frame, there he stood with his pants down around his ankles, revealing underwear with heart shapes on it. He said, "This is a test, ain’t it, Lord?" Do you ever feel that way sometimes? Life can be a series of tests, can’t it? We just wish there would be that kind of levity attached to those tests.
If you were to look back in Abraham’s life, beginning in Genesis 12 and up to this time, you see test after test. Abraham passed some of the tests and at other times he failed. But the significant thing, probably even unaware to Abraham at this time, is that God was using each of those tests to build faith into the superstructure of Abraham’s soul.
This was the greatest test of Abraham’s life. Why? The most obvious reason is that this was his son. It’s painful as you read the description in the verse there, as God calls him out. "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him..." That’s the most obvious.
The second is that what God is asking Abraham to do in this sacrifice is to literally lay aside, to throw away everything Abraham had lived for, for the previous thirty-five or forty years of his life. You have to go back and recall those events in Abraham’s life in chapter 12.
As we see the chapter open upon Abraham’s life, God calls him to leave his home place, the city of Ur, and go to a land God is going to show him. He doesn’t even tell him where it is. Also, God promises him there that He would not only bring him to a promised land, but He promises an heir, that God will make of Abraham a great nation that will be a blessing to all nations of the world. There was only one problem with that. Abraham and Sarah had no children.
So you see succeeding events along the years of Abraham’s life in which, first of all, he tries to suggest to God that Eliezer, his servant, could be the promised heir. (That was in keeping with the custom of that day since Abraham was childless.) God says, "No, Abraham. It’s going to be an heir through you and Sarah." A little bit later, Abraham and Sarah both get together, and Sarah gives Abraham her handmaiden Hagar. Abraham and Hagar have a son named Ishmael, and Abraham suggests to God, "God, Ishmael would make a fine heir." God says, "No, Abraham. It’s going to be through you and Sarah.’
The problem was Abraham at this time was ninety-nine. Sarah was ninety. They both laughed at the possibility that they could have a child at that age. Well, wouldn’t you? Who has ever heard of a senior adult having a child? When I was a young boy, on Mother’s Day, I remember our church recognizing certain mothers. We would recognize the oldest mother, the youngest mother, the mother with the most children, etc. When I became a pastor I told my first congregation that we were not going to do that because we didn’t want to promote teenage pregnancy and especially Sr. adult pregnancy. So, we brought in a fishing scale and recognized the mother with the heaviest purse.
Well, God told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child in spite of their age. I shudder to think of the possibilities today. But, nine months later, Isaac, (whose name, by the way means "laughter") was born. The promised heir, the impossible possibility was born. Now God says, "Throw it away, Abraham. Give it up."
That brings us to the third reason why this was the greatest test in his life.
This was so impossible because he was having to face what seemed like a total contradiction to what he had come to understand and to know as the nature and the character of God Himself. "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind" (Numbers 23:19). Yet, God seems to be breaking His word to Abraham, going back on His word. "Now Abraham, take this one I promised you and sacrifice him to Me." This was the greatest test of his life.
Then look at verse 3 and how Abraham responds. "Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about." Abraham responds immediately. The Bible tells us that he rose, he got ready, and he took off. Abraham obeyed immediately. Now I don’t know about you, but as I thought about this, I thought there would be two options. If this was me, I would try to put it off for as long as possible, hoping that God would forget. But of course, God doesn’t tend to forget. Second of all, I would hop on a slow boat to China. I would try to get away as far as I possibly could. But not Abraham. Abraham immediately obeyed.
Trust God’s Purposes Without Knowing Why
Someone once made a statement that has so much truth to it. The person said, "True spirituality can often be measured by the length of response time of God’s people to God’s commands." You see, Abraham had been learning all his life.
He responds immediately. There’s something very significant that Abraham had learned, and this is one of three things I want you to jot down this morning.
Abraham learned to trust God’s purposes without knowing why. That’s why he could respond immediately. He had learned to trust God’s purposes without knowing why.
Now please, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to say that I think Abraham never asked God, "Why?" I think he probably did. In fact, it’s a fallacy on our part, I believe, to think that God’s choicest people never ask, "Why?" When you read God’s Word, you see everybody from Job to Jeremiah asking God, "Why?" but the significant thing to observe is that so many times (in fact, it seems most of the time), God never says why. Yet, in each of the cases, you see God’s people learning to respond to God and trust God’s purposes without knowing why. That’s why Abraham responded, why he obeyed immediately.
But as we continue to look into his heart we can see more as the passage continues on. Beginning in verse 4, "On the third day [and note that it was almost a three-day journey that they took] Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, ’Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then [look at what he says] we will come back to you." That’s an amazing statement of faith. He’s supposed to go over there and sacrifice Isaac. Yet, he says, "We will worship, and we will come back to you."
Then in verse 6, "Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke and said to his father Abraham, ’Father?’ ’Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ’The fire and the wood are here,’ Isaac said, ’but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ’God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’"
Here are two amazing statements. In verse 5, he says, "We will worship and then we will come back to you." In verse 8, answering the question of Isaac about the lamb, Abraham says, "God himself will provide the lamb..."
Trust God’s Provisions Without Know How
Do you ever ask, "How?" in the midst of those tests of life? We all ask, "How?" don’t we? "Lord, how will I find another job? "Lord, how will I survive this financial crunch I’m under?" "Lord, how will I ever get through to this child?"
"Lord, how am I possibly going to save this marriage?"
You know what we do in the church? We say, "How are we going to meet our budget?" "How are going to solve the problem in the nursery?" "How are we going to find a youth minister who will stay longer than a few months?" "How will we fit ten more people in the choir loft?" "How will we be able to afford to build a building when we’re not meeting our budget now?" "How? How? How?" Yet, what we see in the heart of Abraham is the second thing I want you to jot down. That is, Abraham had learned to trust God’s provisions. Abraham had learned to trust that God would make a way without knowing how. What an amazing statement of faith. We all want to know, "How?" But Abraham points us to the truth that we must trust in God’s provision without knowing how. In other words, Abraham didn’t have to have a set of blueprints in front of him that was going to show him exactly how God was going to pull this off. Yet, he trusted that God was going to provide.
Now how did Abraham come to that place of faith in his life? I always wondered, as I looked at this passage, (remember, it was almost a three-day journey) I wondered what did Abraham think about during those three days. The Scriptures seem to indicate that was a very quiet journey. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the only words spoken were, indeed, the only words that we have printed for us in God’s Word. What did Abraham think about?
I would imagine, first of all, that he thought about Isaac. He thought about how precious their relationship was, how much Isaac had meant to him, and all the adventures of coming to Isaac’s miraculous birth. But secondly, as the time continued to pass by, I believe Abraham began to think back over the pilgrimage of his life, over all those tests he had gone through (the ones which he had succeeded and the ones at which he had failed). As he looked back over the inconsistencies of life, he saw one thing that was consistent, one thing that was constant. That was God’s provision in every step along the way, whether he succeeded or whether he failed. God made a way. He learned to trust God’s provision without knowing how.
We continue to look at Abraham’s heart. We see now, beginning in verse 9, the passage almost coming to a complete halt. In verse 9, we read, "When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." Do you feel it come to that absolute halt?
Here is Abraham, having built so many other altars just like this during his lifetime, but never one quite like this one. You can see him take those stones, one at a time, as he builds that altar much more deliberately than he had ever built an altar before. With each stone, he’s asking the question, "Lord, is this enough? When are You going to provide?" He built an altar.
Then it says that he laid the wood on top of the altar. With each piece of wood, probably laying it in much more of a design than he had ever done before, he asked the question, "Lord, is this far enough? Is now the time for Your provision?" Then it says that he bound Isaac. I’m sure, tying that knot with much more precision than he had ever tied a knot before.
And every moment along the way, he was wondering, "God is this far enough?
Is this the time of Your provision?" It says he took Isaac, and he laid him upon the altar, on top of the wood. As he laid him there, I’m sure he was asking, crying, "Lord is this far enough?" But with each succeeding step, with each succeeding question of "when," there was silence. You see, in a circumstance in which it seemed that every sense of God’s presence had vanished, Abraham still obeyed. He had learned over the years of his life that which, indeed, takes us years to learn as God’s people. That is, we live not be explanations .... but by promises. Abraham had learned something else so significant. That’s the third thing I want you to jot down.
He had learned to trust God’s timing without know when.
Trust God’s Timing Without Knowing When
In the midst of the silence, he continued to obey. Abraham learned to trust God’s timing without knowing when. Then suddenly, at a moment, which from our perspective seems like it took an eternity, but which from God’s perspective was perfect timing in Abraham’s life, God broke the silence.
Look in verse 11. We read there joyfully, "But an angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ’Abraham! Abraham!’ ’Here I am,’ he replied. ’Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ’Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ’On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’"
I like to put it this way. On the mountain of God’s testing, He will provide.
Years ago, I read a story about Tim and Janice who were medical missionaries to Kenya. As they arrived on the mission field for the first time, they were excited about the opportunities that God had given them there. They were anticipating with great eagerness the ministry that God had blessed them with there in Kenya.
But very suddenly and unexpectedly, one thing after another began to go wrong.
Tim, the husband, came down with a sudden and unexplained fever. He almost died from that. Shortly after that, his wife Janice went into a severe depression. Not long after that, Tim having recovered from his fever, was out working on a tractor, and the tractor suddenly overturned on him.
Not long after that, one day, their son came crying out his room in their house, saying he had been bitten. They walked into his room to discover to their horror that there was a deadly viper, one of the most poisonous kind. For days, the little boy languished on the very edge of death itself.
Some time after all these events had taken place in their lives they were wondering why, how, and when. Tim was in the process of trying to transport some supplies from where they were to a more remote village. He came to an old rickety bridge that he had come to so many times before. Every time they came to this bridge, they had to unload all the supplies from the truck, then walk the supplies over to the other side, and then, very carefully and precariously drive that truck across that old rickety bridge. As he came to that bridge, at that point, he thought to himself, "You know, one of these days, I have got to strengthen this bridge."
He said, "Suddenly, God broke the silence." It was as though God hit him over the head with that proverbial spiritual two-by-four. He didn’t hear God audibly, but he heard God in his heart say, "Tim, that’s what’s been happening in your life. I’m not trying to weight you down. I’m trying to strengthen the bridge of your faith."
On the mount of God’s testing, He will provide. Learn to trust God’s purposes without knowing why. Learn to trust God’s provision, that He will make a way, without knowing how. Learn to trust God’s timing, without knowing when.
