“Father Abraham”
Genesis 22:1-18
Curtis Strange, one of the golfers in the Master’s Tournament teed up on the 12th hole, hit a beautiful shot, it rolled right up and dropped in the cup for a hole in one. The crowd went crazy with applause. Cheering. Then Curtis Strong did an interesting thing. He leaned down, reached into the cup, picked up the ball and tossed it into the creek. Now the media went crazy. With cameras on him and microphones they asked him why did you do that. Why didn’t you keep it? You could have left it to your grandchildren. I love his response. I certainly hope that when I’m gone I have something better than a golf ball to leave more to my grandchildren. It’s called a legacy. Webster defines it as an inheritance, something that is a gift from the past.
Abraham is one of the super heroes of the O.T., really of the entire Bible. And he is a hero because of the legacy he left to his children. Now immediately your response might be what in the world does that have to do with me. Whether you realize it or not, Abraham is your father. In Genesis 22 we find these words ... v. 15-17. You and I are one of those stars, one of those grains of sand; Abraham is a spiritual father to all believers. And he leaves a legacy to all of us this morning.
Now I presume that you remember the story of Abraham and Sara and the birth of their son, Isaac. God had promised that despite their old age that Sara would conceive and bear a son. So when Abraham was 100 and Sara was 90 their son was born. It was a miracle of course and they named him Isaac which means “laughter.” Now they named him “laughter” for a couple of reasons. First of all it was funny to think that Sara could have a child at this time in her life. But they also named him “laughter” because of the joy he had brought into their lives. They had been childless for all of these years and now God has blessed them with a son.
At the time of this event, Isaac was about 12 years of age. God appears to Abraham and says, “I want to take your son and offer him as a sacrifice on this mountain.” I cannot begin to imagine how Abraham felt inside when God asked him to do that. Vv. 3-5. Then in Vv. 6-7. This must have been one of the most difficult moments in Abraham’s life. If you can picture it, his son carrying the wood that was going to be used to start the fire that would consume his son’s body and Isaac looks up and says “daddy we have the wood, we have the fire, but where is the sacrifice?” Abraham answered, v. 8. Now the first thing we see here is a Principle to remember. V. 1 says God tested Abraham. It wasn’t a test so that God could find out if Abraham had enough faith and devotion to Him. God already knew that Abraham was devoted. But Abraham needed to see it. You see we never really know for sure what we are capable of, how we will react, how tall we will stand or how faithful we will really be until a moment of crisis arrives. We may be able to talk a good talk, put on a good front but when the crisis arrives how we handle it will show our level of faithfulness. So God gives this command so that Abraham will have to examine his heart and decide what his priorities really area.
Now this is one of the difficult passages of scripture where we question God if we don’t look at this carefully. In some ways it reminds me of the story of the rich young ruler who seemed to have everything. Wealth, youth, power and he came to Jesus and said “Good Master, what I must do to get eternal life?” Jesus said (1) obey the commandments. He says Jesus I’ve done that. He says well one more thing. Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor and come and follow me. Scripture says he then became sad because he had a lot of money.
There are plenty of men and women who come to Christ in the NT who were never required to give away everything they had. That’s why I think this was simply a test. The rich young ruler, if he had passed the test would know that he truly had a heart for God. If he said OK I can picture Jesus saying... you passed the test. Keep it. And I believe that is what we see here with Abraham. Would God really want him to sacrifice his son to prove his faithfulness. I don’t think so but he would want to see if He is willing. You see Abraham was really being asked a critical question and here it is ... “Do you love Isaac more than you love me?” Now God doesn’t want us to love our children less than we already do, he just wants us to love Him more. 1. There is a principle we must remember. So here is this principle. Our love for God must take priority over our love for other people, even our family. We are to love God more than anything or anyone.
Exodus 20:2-3 !st commandment. In other words God says I must come first.
Matthew 22:37
Matthew 10:37
Gary Ezzo says that one of the problems with families today is that the husband and wife join hands to forma a family circle and then a child comes along and they placed the child in the center with the husband and wife still forming the circle. But now everything revolves around the child. Then a 2nd child comes and that child is also placed in the circle. And now everything revolves around two children. And as the family becomes larger the center becomes so big that the hands of the father and mother are pulled apart and the circle is broken. He says that what we must do is form the circle but with Christ in the center. Then as each child is born, they join hands with Mom and dad to make the circle bigger. And the result is that the circle is never broken as long as Christ is the center. Here’s the deal. We must love God more than we love anyone. He is first.
2. Look with me at the application of the principles. 40 years ago Dr. James Dobson wrote a book titled Dare to Discipline. Dobson went against what everyone was saying at that time. He dared to say that the Bible teaches that we ought to discipline our children ... this book has now been revised and reissued, updated. It is full of solid advice for parents on discipline. Every parent should read it.
Dr. Dobson says there are two things that can be unhealthy (1) the absence of love in a family. It will destroy a child. Perhaps you grew up in a home that was cold, without emotion, and you never felt love there and as a result your spirit, your emotions were damaged. (2) Excessive love can be unhealthy. He says there are 3 mistakes we can make. (1) Over protection. When a child is 1st born the first thing we want to do is to hold them and protect them from all the evil in the world. But we can do it to excess. You see the goal of good parenting is to raise your child to become an adult who can be independent. You release them gradually. When they are old enough we let them ride a bike. They may fall down. They may get bruised, they may get a bump or two but it’s OK. When they’re old enough we let them go to summer camp. One day they get a part time job. A driver’s license. They are allowed to date when the turn 25. Allow your child to grow up. (2) Over indulgence. Giving your child too much. It’s interesting that I see this in parents who have wealth, have plenty to give but I also see it in parents who really don’t have it. Parents who will almost do without food so their child can have an ipod. One of the important jobs we have as parents is to teach our children that there are more important things in life than just material things. If we constantly give them everything they want-if they have every toy, all the designer clothes, go anyplace they wish-they will never learn the value of things. (3) being too permissive.
Proverbs 29:17
Proverbs 13:24
The world’s philosophy says that you just love your child and eventually they will do the right thing. But you see this leaves out one very important ingredient. The sin nature of man. All of us have a sin nature. Young children can be sweet and innocent but if they are left free to choose eventually they will make wrong choices. You don’t have to tell them how to do the wrong thing. Children in fact will never know the difference between right and wrong unless you teach them. Just ask any schoolteacher today what his or her biggest problem is and they will tel you .. it is a lack of discipline.
(4) Over activity. John Rossman says we have created a “frantic family syndrome” We think our kids need to be involved in virtually everything. They have music lessons, dance lessons, t-ball, soccer, karate, scouting and then we wonder why they never have time to get their homework done and why they never have time to participate in church activities and we feel like we are neglecting them if we don’t let them do everything. Listen if you have children you need to schedule at least 5 meals every week where all of the family sits down together. No phones allowed. No texting at the table. No interruptions. You look each other in the eye and you actually talk.
Now look at the Promise God gives us. In this passage there is a promise of blessings to all of Abraham’s children .. that’s all of us.
The story has a much better ending than the beginning. When you read it for the first time you gasp at what you think is about to happen. But Abraham passes the test. Vv. 16-17. God was telling Abraham that he would always keep His promise to him since he had done what God told him to do. His promise is the same to us. Raise your children in the Lord and God will bless their families. You probably can see the similarity in this passage and what God did when he actually did sacrifice his son on the cross. We see Isaac carrying the wood up the hill to be sacrificed and we cannot help but see Jesus carrying the wooden cross up to Mt . Calvary. We see Isaac being laid won on the altar and we see Jesus being laid on the cross. But there is one difference. When the knife was about to fall on Abraham God shouted stop! When the hammers came down to put the nails in the hands and feet of Jesus there was no voice from heaven. God’s son died for you and me right then. And as a result we have a new promise ... the promise of eternal life. This morning if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior i want to invite you to do so.
