Let me share a story from Chuck Swindoll.
“Four guys decided to go mountain climbing one weekend. In the middle of the climb, one fella slipped over a cliff, dropped about 60 feet and landed with a thud on the ledge below. The other three hoping to rescue him yelled, ‘Joe, are you OK?’
‘I’m alive, but I think I broke both my arms!’
‘We’ll toss a rope down to you and pull you up. Just lie still’ said the three.
‘Fine’, Joe answered.
A couple of minutes after dropping the rope, they started tugging and grunting together, working feverishly to pull their wounded companion to safety. When they had him about three quarters of the way up, they suddenly remembered he said he had broken both arms.
‘Joe, if you broke your arms, how in the world are you holding on?’ Joe responded, ‘With my teeeeeeeth’”.
Amazing what we can do when desperate huh? Especially because when we are desperate, we have to depend on the strength that God gives us, you’ve all heard of the mother that can lift a car off her child to save the child’s life.
I used to envy people that never seemed to have any trials in their lives, of course it seemed like that, but I’m not sure anyone has lived without trials. But now I’m grateful for the trials in my life, because there is no doubt they have increased my faith.
Did you know that if a bar of steel is worth five dollars, when made into regular horseshoes, it’s worth $10? If this same $5 bar is made into needles, the value rises to $350. And yet if it’s made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it’s worth more than $250,000.
The same bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, passed through one blast furnace after another again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished until it’s ready for its task.
That’s why God allows trials in our lives, to refine us. So we are to:
I. Expect and Welcome Tests from God (vv 1-2)
In the “school of faith” we must have occasional tests, or we’ll never know where we are spiritually. Abraham had his share of tests right from the start. Leaving his family, turning down a fortune from Sodom, saying good-bye to Ishmael. Some he passed, some he didn’t, but each one moved him through the grades as he matured in his faith.
Now I hesitate to say that every difficult experience we have is a test from God. But any experience can become a test or temptation depending on how we deal with it, just not necessarily from God. Our own disobedience and sin can cause pain or disappointment, and sometimes its just life that causes us to have to adjust, like when a loved one dies or moves away.
It’s very important for us to distinguish between:
A. Trials vs Temptations
Temptations come from our own desires within us as we read in James 1:12-16, while trials come from the Lord who has a special purpose to fulfill on our lives. Temptations are used by Satan to bring out the worst in us, but trials are used by the Holy Spirit to bring out the best in us.
Temptations often seem logical while trials often seem unreasonable. For instance, why would God give Abraham a son and then ask him to kill him?
Temptations are usually similar for all believers, but our specific trials of faith may be quite different. God tailor makes our tests, notice how he never made Lot go through the same things as Abraham. Why?
Because Lot was being tempted by the world and the flesh, and never grew to the state of spiritual maturity that Abraham did. In some ways it’s a compliment when God sends us a test, it shows that we might be growing enough that God wants to promote us to the next grade in the school of faith.
I like some of what Scott Peck says in his book “The Road Less Travelled”. He says, “Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept this truth – then life is no longer difficult”. In other words, if you keep fighting the fact that life is not easy, if you keep asking why things happen, the struggle is much worse than if you just accept it and work through the difficulty.
So our first lesson today is expect trials from God, because the Christian life is not easy and isn’t meant to be.
Probably the most important word in the Bible is used for the first time here in verse two. That is the word love. “Take your only son whom you love.” There’s something called the principle of first mention, where in the Bible, when a word first appears it usually sets the tone for the pattern of it’s usage throughout the Bible.
Here it refers to the love a of a father for his son, and even more it’s used in connection with the sacrificial offering of that loved son. Note that the first mention of the word love in the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke occur at Jesus’ baptism when God says from heaven “this is my beloved son”.
Now our culture today may see a mother’s love for her children as the highest love we know, but for the Hebrew culture nothing compared to a father’s love for his son, especially his first son.
So the first three Gospels shout this love for his only begotten son, but then look how the book of John begins, “For God so loved the world (meaning the people of the world) that he gave his only begotten son”. There is no higher love in this culture than a father for his son, yet here we see that God loved us so much, that he sacrificed this son. There is no higher love in the universe than God’s love for us.
So even though we hear a lot about judgment, punishment, discipline, these all come from a love that we cannot even fathom, from a Father who is willing to do anything for us, including punish us so that we will be saved from ourselves in our desire to want everything other than him.
One other thing I think needs to be pointed out here is that God never commanded Abraham to actually kill Isaac, but to offer him there as a burnt offering. Sure the implication is that Isaac will die, but the word is offer, and as it turns out, this was an offering of a living sacrifice. God had no intentions of Isaac being killed, just as he had no intentions of his son Jesus dying without being resurrected. Apparently Abraham had faith that God would do the same with his son Isaac because of the promise he had made.
Next, we need to:
II. Focus on Promises, not Explanations (vv 3-5)
Why, why, why? Why not?
A. Faith Does Not Demand Explanations
I read a quote this week that, “In the commencement of the spiritual life our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, do what seems unreasonable, and expect what seems impossible”.
If you look at all the Old Testament characters, and even Jesus himself, the lesson is the same. We live by promises not explanations. How often do you do something important where the outcome is guaranteed? Not very often, but does that stop you? Do you need an explanation of why the outcome is so before you do something?
Do you not go to the store because of the possibility that they may be out of bread? Do you get in the car to drive to Winnipeg needing an explanation of why your car may break down on the way? It takes faith to cross the street for heaven’s sake. There aren’t even any promises in these examples, but God on the other hand has given many promises, but we show more faith in other motorists, than we do in His promises sometimes.
Surely Abraham must have had questions, but notice that the Word stresses that not only did Abraham obey, but he didn’t delay at all, getting up early in the morning and going as God commanded.
This request from God to Abraham was completely unreasonable, and if anyone ever had a reason to ask why, it was Abraham here. “You give us this miracle, now you want me to kill Isaac?” But:
B. Faith Rests on Promises
When a test comes our way, we usually have two responses, why Lord? And, why me? Scripture tells us in many places that trials will come to Christians, and that God tests us to purify our faith (1Pe 1:6-9), perfect our character (James 1:1-4) or even to protect us from sin (2Cor. 12:7-10), but we seem to fail to see how this applies to us.
Abraham was not going to let go of God’s promise that “in Isaac shall thy seed be called”. He believed without a doubt that even if God let him slay his son, God could raise him from the dead.
Look again at verse 5 “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you”. Abraham had no intention of returning with a corpse even though he was going up the mountain to kill him and burn him up. Abraham didn’t know where, when, how, or why God would come through, but he followed the instructions.
Do we trust that if we follow an initial weird instruction from the Lord that he will give us more instruction along the way to make it all come together and make sense? That’s a hard one. And this is where we have to:
III. Depend on God’s Provision (vv 6-14)
Not just materially for survival, but also in progressive revelation of His will. Two statements are noteworthy here. In verse 8 Abraham says, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering”. And Jehovah-jireh another new name for God, is spoken in verse 14 meaning “The Lord will see to it” or “the Lord will provide”. Abraham was confident of God’s provision as he marched up the mountain with his son.
He didn’t follow his feelings. Are your feelings totally dependable? How about other people? It’s great when we have some dependable people in our lives, and God gives us feelings to help with discernment, but there are some trials in life that can only be faced alone with God. He gives us opportunities where no feelings or friends can help us, so that we can really see what He alone can do for us.
Where does God meet our needs? In the place that he sends us, where he assigns us to be. I have seen this truth over and over again. Follow where he wants you to go and there will be the provisions.
When does God meet our needs? At the exact time we need it and not before. Have you ever prayed for something, and gotten discouraged because you don’t see anything happening in advance, but right at the last minute, He comes through? Ask the Weirs about that next Sunday.
How does God provide for us? Usually in very natural ways. Have any of you ever seen an angel. A ram got caught in a bush, very natural. Money won’t rain from heaven, but you might get an unexpected cheque in the mail.
To whom does God give His provision? To those who trust him and follow his instructions. We have a right to expect God’s provision when we are doing His will, but why would he be obligated to provide for our own ideas and desires? We were made for Him.
Why does God provide for our needs? For the great glory of His name. The Lord’s prayer begins with “Hallowed be thy name”. Abraham and Isaac didn’t just run down the mountain when they saw the ram, they stayed and worshipped by sacrificing the ram. Everything God does through the Holy Spirit even today, is solely to glorify the name of Jesus. If the provision won’t do that, it probably won’t be provided, not by God.
I want to point out a few other things here. First:
A. The Father and Son Acted Together
Twice it mentions that the father and son went together, just like Jesus and His father were united. Abraham didn’t withhold his son and neither did God the Father, even though both loved their sons deeply. Both sons knew their father’s will and submitted, they were not forced.
You’ll notice that Abraham did not force his son to come and even to lie down on the altar, Isaac did it voluntarily, just as Jesus did, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
B. The Son had to Die
The knife would end Isaac’s physical life, and the fire would burn the wood on the alter where his body lay. In Isaac’s case a temporary substitute died for him in the Ram, but nothing could take the place of Jesus on the cross, who was the permanent substitute for all of us. Isaac symbolically died as a living sacrifice.
Isn’t it interesting that Isaac asked about a lamb, yet God delivered a ram? The lamb was yet to come in the person of Jesus Christ.
Fire often symbolizes the holiness of God in the Bible. Jesus not only experienced the cross which was like the knife in terms of being the physical instrument of death, but he also experienced the fire, the judgment of God for the sins of the entire world. Isaac didn’t have to experience either the knife or the fire. Jesus felt both so that no one who believes in Him will have to experience the fire either.
C. The Son bore the Burden of Sin
Isaac didn’t start carrying the wood until they arrived at Mount Moriah when Abraham “laid it upon his son”. I don’t believe this represents the cross as some do, but it does picture the burden of sin that Jesus bore for us. Isaiah says, “the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all”. The wood then gets completely consumed during the worship just as God’s judgment will consume all sin.
The location is also important. Mt. Moriah is the mountain in Jerusalem where the temple was built. Jerusalem didn’t exist yet, but this was the very spot that Jesus would carry the cross from when he went to Calvary.
Finally:
D. The Son was Raised from the Dead
Isaac didn’t actually die, but in a figurative sense he did die and was raised from the dead a new person. Abraham was prepared to go through with it. Interesting in verse 19 it says “Abraham returned to his young men” but it mentions nothing about Isaac. We know he does return home with his dad, but we don’t hear his name again until he meets his bride a couple chapters from now.
Isaac is indeed a type of Christ, he symbolically dies, is raised, and isn’t heard from again until he gets his bride, and this sequence reminds us that the next event on God’s agenda after the Lord’s resurrection from the dead, is the return of Christ to claim his bride, the church.
Now after all this, the passage reminds us to:
IV. Look Forward to God’s Blessing (vv 15-24)
Do we obey to get God’s blessing? No. But it’s very common in the Bible that after passing tests of faith God does bless in some way. With Abraham God starts by giving him:
A. New Approval
In verse 5, what does Abraham call this whole ordeal? Worship. Here we see a great definition of worship, obeying God and desiring to please him. Worship is not about us. And God commends Abraham with a “well done”.
Both the Greek and Hebrew definitions of the word worship, mean to bow down, or prostrate oneself. Not just in a physical way, but this also means a humble submission to His will. Singing, attending worship services, listening to preaching are not truly worship unless the heart is bowed down to God.
So this was an ultimate act of worship meant to glorify God, and nothing else. A willingness to do whatever God’s will is regardless of the cost. That is when our worship will be approved.
Notice we never hear of Jesus worshipping God, yet he instructs others to do so. This is because he is constantly worshipping God through continually submitting to his will. It is never an episode for him, he is never not worshipping God. His final worship was bowing his head on the cross after completing God’s will for him.
Abraham also received a:
B. New Son
Abraham and Isaac were at the altar together, and Isaac had now become a living sacrifice, as we are all called to be in Romans 12. God gave Abraham a son, and Abraham gave the son back to God. What a baby dedication huh? Nothing really belongs to us, including our children and even our own lives. Everything we have is a blessing from God, we just get to use them for the amount of time He determines.
What about:
C. New Assurances
Abraham had heard all these promises about his innumerable offspring and that his seed would bless all nations, many times over the years. But now they took on new meaning. He has the promised son, and the offering of Isaac with God sparing the son here on this mountain, would bring blessing to the whole world in the person of Jesus Christ.
You know it would appear to the naked eye that there are many more grains of sand than there are stars in the sky. But with the advent of the telescope they can calculate that the number of stars in the observable universe is about 10 to the 25th power. The estimated number of grains of sand outside of the ocean floor has been calculated to be approximately the same number.
The earlier promise just mentioned the stars which to the naked eye can only be counted to about three thousand, not that impressive, but God knew how many there really were, and he now equates them with the grains of sand, virtually innumerable.
Abraham also received a:
D. New Name for God
Abraham learned this new name and characteristic of God. Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will see to it” (or provide). Have you experienced Jehovah-jireh? Perhaps no other aspect of God strengthens faith more. Because of how God has faithfully provided in the past, I have absolutely no doubt that when I do His will, he will provide in whatever way I need. What a blessing to know this truth about God.
The great missionary Hudson Taylor apparently had a plaque where he lived that had two Hebrew words on it “Ebenezer”, which means “until now the Lord has helped us”; and “Jehovah-jireh” or the Lord will see to it. Whether he looked back, or looked to the future, it was with confidence that God would provide, and he had nothing to fear.
Another new name that came to Abraham was Rebekah, who was his brother’s granddaughter, the girl God was saving for Isaac. Now I doubt that Abraham knew this at the time, but God adds it to the end of this chapter, the mention of only one grand child in this list of sons of Nahor. Hinting at what was to come in Chapter 24 where the promise is truly culminated.
Now perhaps the greatest thing about going through trials with the Lord is that we develop a deeper:
E. New Love for the Lord
These are compiled from John 14:
“if you love me, you will keep my words, my commandments, and I will give you the Holy Spirit to be with you forever, my Father will love you, I will love you and manifest myself to you, and we will come and make our home with you”.
Hello! Does that not motivate you to love Him and follow His commands? And as we experience more of His love, and His dwelling within us, becoming one with us, working through us, our love for Him will grow stronger and be renewed.
Have you experienced this deeper love? Do you feel lukewarm toward Jesus? Do you only vaguely or intellectually understand and experience His love for you? Does the Holy Spirit feel about as real to you as the Easter bunny?
Abraham and Jesus would say to you, step out in faith and follow God’s will.
Action Plan:
You might want to invite someone to our Easter service for starters.
But has God been urging you to take a leap of faith? 1) Confirm it with your pastor/other spiritually mature person, and Scripture to see if it is truly in line with God’s will; 2) Discuss it with your family; 3) Make any preparations necessary; 4) Pray and step out as God has instructed; and then 5) Watch for his provision and blessing.
