SUPER MEN - Abraham: Father of the Faithful (Father’s Day)
June 16, 2019
Genesis 22:1-18 (p. 14)
Introduction:
For almost 2 years my son was in Bagdad, Iraq. He was part of the 1st Cav…His job, a Gunner in a Bradley Fighting vehicle, or Humvee. He made 3,886 trips into the streets and homes of Bagdad…he had his vehicle blown out from under him twice.
The casualty rate for Tyler’s job was about 33%. In each vehicle is a driver, a navigator and a gunner. The gunner is always exposed…always being shot at…always shooting back.
There was a part of me, a big part, that knew Tyler might not come home…that any day the phone could ring and it would be “the US Government regretting to inform us…”
My daughter was a senior in High School during this time and anyone who has had a senior in High School knows what kind of phone calls are going to come…recruiting calls from every service branch. Here’s something I will tell you that you might not know. All these recruiting calls come through the caller ID as “US Government.” Every single time the phone rang and I looked at that identification on the ID my heart dropped…dreading the news…fearing the pain.
Those 18 months where I could not spare my son, not protect him, were extremely difficult. They were months of faith. They were times to trust my Savior.
I was in Killeen, TX when Tyler stepped off that white bus, and even as I remember the circumstances with you now I can barely contain the emotion of having a son…I’d experienced the fear of losing…walking safely into my arms.
Some of you have felt the same emotions. Some of you have experienced a child’s death, or a child that is spiritually dead. You’ve wondered how much faith it would take to trust and endure…and you weren’t sure you could endure it.
Why do I view Abraham as one of the Super Men of God’s Word? Because he is called by God…The Father of the Faithful. He is asked by God to trust Him even when the most precious thing in his life is at risk…his son…Abraham is called, “God’s friend.”
I often read scripture and wonder how I would have responded in a situation…I think it’s a challenging way to read scripture…and when I read Genesis 22 here’s the question I ask myself…
I. AM I WILLING TO WALK UP THAT MOUNTAIN?
I’ve discovered something as I get older…I fear God. I don’t just revere God because of his absolute perfection and holiness.
I FEAR HIM.
Listen, I know He loves me…loves me beyond my ability to understand love…I know Romans 8 tells me “He did not spare giving His only Son for me because of his great love…and that “Nothing is able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But I also know what God’s plan is for me…It’s recorded in Romans 8:29. His plan is “to shape me into the image of His only Son.”
Where does that sharpening take place? Where does faith shine like polished silver? In the fire…when it’s tested.
Its’ when we are asked to walk up the mountain carrying the wood for the sacrifice and the fire…and it’s when God is asking us to trust Him with what we love most.
How often does God ask us to do this? Honestly? Not very often…even our tithe is just 10% when we all know, or should, that “every good gift we have comes from the Father above.” (James 1:17)
But there will be times that the God who causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28), asks us to trust Him to do this when it seems impossible.
Abraham had learned to trust God’s provision over a lifetime of tests…some he passed, some he failed…all he learned from!
Abraham left the Ur of the Chaldeans to go where God would lead him…left his homeland and relatives. All in, pretty close. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife to protect himself and his stuff. He failed miserably. Abraham & Sarah were promised a child, but because it took too long they tried through Hagar, Sarah’s maid. Giant Fail!!!
So as an old man, maybe 115-120, when God said: “Take your son, your only son Isaac to the mountain region of Moriah and (v. 2) sacrifice him here,” Abraham has a lifetime of passes and failures to filter this request through. And what comes out of that filter? God has always been faithful. God has always honored His promises. God has never lied to me. He has never broken the covenant.
It took him 3 days to get to the place of sacrifice. I wonder what the conversation was like, did Abraham sleep? I don’t know, but when they arrived at the mountain he told the servants to stay put while “I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” (v. 5) We, that two letter word says a lot.
Romans 4:21-22 says “Abraham was fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Thankfully there are very few times God asks us to walk up the mountain…to step into the furnace, or to enter the lion’s den.
But, I can assure you God will allow us to be tested. Sometimes we’ll pass, sometimes we’ll fail…Hopefully when the mountain is in front of us, we’ll have learned who God is and how He provides…and what His purpose is…
The Refiner’s Fire
The story is told of a group of women that met for Bible Study. While studying in the book of Malachi, chapter three, they came across verse three which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled the women and they wondered how this statement applied to the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out more about the process of refining silver, and to get back to the group at their next Bible study.
The following week, the woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him while at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest, beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.
As she watched the silversmith work, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire, where the flames were the hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, then she thought again about the verse, that “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the entire time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes, that not only did he have to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on it the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. The she asked the silversmith, “But how do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy - when I see my image in it.”
I fear God because I know how He tests me “to bear His image.”
Listen to this conversation between Abraham and his son Isaac.
GENESIS 22:6-10 (p. 14)
Abraham reaches out his hand and takes the knife to slay his son…He is fully persuaded that God keeps His promises…He’s shining in the fire.
And on top of Mt. Moriah we see its shadow point to another mountain called Calvary.
II. THE PLACE WHERE GOD PROVIDES THE LAMB
Just as Abraham is about to bring the knife down into the breast of his son…Heaven intervenes!
GENESIS 22:11-14 (p. 14)
Abraham names this place “Jehovah Jirah - The Lord will Provide.”
Isaac asked, “I see the wood and fire, but where’s the Lamb?” and even before everything occurs, Abraham says “God Himself will provide the Lamb.”
God surely did…a substitute sacrifice in place of Isaac…an atoning Lamb.
The old covenant is just the shadow of the person Jesus…in this sacrifice on Mt. Moriah where God intervenes…a place where Abraham becomes the Father of the Faithful…the lamb God provides points to the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Calvary should have been my cross…Golgotha should have been my punishment. The wages of sin is death…It should have been my death…I’d earned that paycheck…but so did you!
Isaiah the prophet wrote these words 800 years before Jesus was born…He says this:
ISAIAH 53:5-10 (p. 511)
We all like sheep have gone astray…Therefore He became the Lamb led to our slaughter…He was pierced for our transgressions…He was crushed for our iniquities…His punishment brought us peace…by His wounds we are healed.
John the Baptist recorded this truth from the beginning, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
Peter the Apostle wrote as an old man, “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors. But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world.” (1 Peter 1:18-20)
Abraham looked up to see the lamb which God had provided and a sacrifice…a substitute for his son Isaac.
Abraham would have never experienced the amazing grace of God if He had not obeyed God by walking up that mountain.
Our salvation is found in looking up to see the Lamb which God has provided for our son’s salvation, our daughter’s salvation, our salvation…the whole world’s salvation.
SAY IT WITH ME -
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Jehovah Jirah…God has provided the perfect, sinless, atoning sacrifice…He wasn’t caught by His horns in a thicket…He was nailed to a cross…Held there by an eternal all consuming love for people.
Abraham is called the “Father of the Faithful” and today I would take you to the cross. Look up on Calvary and see the blood of the Lamb, poured out for the sin of the world…The cross is where you find your way back to God…It’s where you find your way home.
The Holy Spirit will cut your heart…He will reveal your sin and He will point you to the cross…He will reveal God’s love and amazing grace…and then you have to choose through faith whether you lift the knife…not to kill your son…but to die to self…and live for God.
Charing Cross is the geographical center of London, England, and the location of one of the primary railway stations in the city. The name stems from the fact that
King Edward I erected a cross on that site in memory of his wife Eleanor after her death in 1290. All distances in the United Kingdom from London are measured from Charing Cross. This spot is referred to simply as “the cross.” A lost child was one day picked up by a London “bobby.” The child was unable to tell where he lived. Finally, in response to the repeated questions of the bobby, and amid sobs and tears, the little fellow said, “If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.” (SOURCE: James Brown Pounds, “London’s The Cross” in Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7,700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Rockville, Maryland: Assurance Publishers, 1979, 206.) When we repent at the foot of the cross of Jesus, we find eternal forgiveness; we find our way home.
We’re all lost…and the only way to find ourselves home is at the cross. “We are saved by God’s grace through faith.” The cross is the epitome of grace…It’s the reality that Abraham & Isaac pointed to from Mt. Moriah…but if we want revival and truly understand what it means for “the righteous to live by faith,” we cannot encounter the cross without dying ourselves…
Salvation isn’t just believing the cross was real…It is the place where we die to be reborn…It’s the place our pride and rights are slain…and as we rise from the waters of baptism we walk in newness of life…because His spirit now resurrects our soul toward God…toward Home…
