Passing Life’s Tests
Hebrews 11:8-19
PART IV - Traveling with Trust - The “Why?” Test.
Hebrews 11:17-19
INTRODUCTION
There is a saying that goes, “Suspicion enters the door through which love and trust exit.” You know when I read the story of Abraham and Isaac, and how God asked Abraham to slay his only son, my suspicion is aroused. I wonder what God’s intentions are. And I wonder why it is that God required a human sacrifice. You know, the why? Test is perhaps the most difficult test we will face, because sometimes there are just no answers. But in many ways it is also the most important test that God will lead us to. It is the most important because if we pass it, our love for and trust in God grows, but if we fail, the reverse is true.
The writer of Hebrews then, has given us an insight into how Abraham faced and passed the why? test. He makes it clear that a real believer can trust God’s purposes without knowing why.
The first thing he says is that …..
TRUSTING IN A SOVERIEGN GOD (v 17a)
HEB 11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
It is clear here that God is the one who did the testing. The point being that God is active in every circumstance of life. Abraham trusted in a sovereign God - a God that is in control of all things at all times, even testing, good or bad. What we learn from this is that a real believer can trust God’s purposes without knowing why by trusting in a sovereign God.
You see when Abraham obeyed God’s command to leave Ur and go to the promised land, he simply had to give up his past. That was relatively easy. It was easy because Abraham knew God was the God of history. And throughout the history of his own life, Abraham had seen and experienced God’s faithfulness towards him. But when Abraham was summoned by God to slay his son, to offer him as a sacrifice, he was asked to surrender his future as well!
It’s relatively easy for us to trust the God of history because we can survey his track record and make a judgement as to his reliability. But when we’re asked to place the unknown future into the hands of God, that takes real faith. It’s hard to trust the God of the future. But the God of history is the God of the future also. Abraham knew that God was sovereign - that he rules over the past, present and the future. And even though the future generations of Abraham depended upon Isaac’s survival, he was still prepared to go through with this sacrifice because he trusted God. Abraham knew that nothing ever happened by accident - even something as bizarre as a human sacrifice ever happens by accident.
The dictionary defines ‘accident’ as “an unforseen event or one without apparent cause.” Any Christian who understands the sovereignty of God will immediately determine from this definition that there is no such thing as an accident.
It’s like the stockman who goes to buy some life insurance. The broker asked him if he had had any accidents in the past year, to which the stockman replied “No. But I was kicked by a horse, chased by a raging bull and bitten by a Dugite - that laid me up for a while.” The agent said, “Weren’t they accidents?” To which the stockman replied, “No, they did it on purpose.” You see this stockman realised that there are no such thing as accidents.
In the same way Abraham was able to surrender his future to God because he knew there was no such thing as an accident. God doesn’t make mistakes. So even though Abraham didn’t understand ‘why’ God wanted him to slay his son, he knew that he could obey him without question. His faith told him that God would work out his purposes, even if he himself could not see how that could be done.
The sense in the original language behind v17 really brings out Abraham’s confidence. He was so willing and determined to obey God by sacrificing Isaac, that in his own mind Abraham had completed the task - the task was as good as done. And his confidence is again clearly evident in the Genesis account that we read earlier. In Genesis 22 we see how Abraham left his servants and set off for Mt. Moriah with Isaac in tow, but with no sacrificial lamb. He was confident that the Lord would provide. The reason Abraham could be so confident about the future is that he took God’s promises seriously.
TAKING GOD AND HIS PROMISES SERIOUSLY
HEB 11:17b He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."
The core problem in these verses is that the fulfilment of God’s promises depended on Isaac’s survival. If Isaac was to die how could the promises be fulfilled? At this point the writer of Hebrews turns his focus from Abraham to God and his faithfulness to his word.
If God was to retain his integrity, in the eyes of Abraham, then he would have to come through at the last minute with some amazingly creative solution to the problem at hand. And we know of course that he did, by providing a wild Ram. Now, if we were to place ourselves in Abraham’s shoes the moment before this wild Ram caught his eye, we might feel the turmoil in our gut when faced with the prospect of slaying our only child. However nothing is mentioned here about turmoil in Abraham’s life. In fact the impression we get here is that Abraham treated this incident, and it’s worrying outcome, as God’s problem. It was for God and not Abraham to adapt his promise to comply with what seemed to be a contrary command.
You see Abraham was able to plough ahead in obedience to God, even though he had these two seemingly conflicting directions, because a real believer can trust God’s purposes without knowing why by taking God and his promises seriously.
Abraham took God’s promises so seriously and trusted God with such a passion that he was able to place the life of his only son into the Lord’s hands. And he was able to do this without the slightest hint of doubt that God would stay true to his word and provide a way to keep his promise.
You know some promises are like the crust on the egg and bacon pie I had for dinner last night - easily made and easily broken.
Some promises can’t be taken too seriously. But it’s just not like that with God, he doesn’t make “pie-crust promises.”
Sometimes it seems like he does. Sometimes we wonder just why God is allowing some weird, even tragic events to occur. Some of which seem to be contradictory to his promises to us. What we forget is that God’s commands can only be correctly answered in one way, and that’s by obedience. But, his promises can be fulfilled in any number of ways. In fact God’s creativity is limitless.
Abraham knew this. In fact his obedience rested on his faith in the creative power of God. He didn’t know why God was testing him in this way, but he did know God had some unique plan to overcome this impossible situation. So Abraham obeyed while all the time expecting God to teach him something new about himself through his creativity.
TRAINING FOR SPIRITUAL MATURITY (v 19a)
You see, Abraham held the key to a peaceful and fulfilled life. He not only trusted in a sovereign God; and he didn’t simply take God and his promises seriously. Abraham also had a relationship with God that was dynamic and alive; a relationship with God that was powerful and effective - it made a difference to his life, and most importantly even at 100 years of age, his relationship to God was still growing. Abraham was a work in progress. His relationship to God was so potent because he actually thought about the deep meaning of his faith, and this helped him deal with the difficult situations in his life. Abraham knew that a real believer can trust God’s purposes without knowing why by training for spiritual maturity.
HEB 11:19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead …
This was arguably Abraham’s greatest trial and the only way he could get through it was to sit down and nut it out for himself that God could actually raise the dead to life. We notice that at no point was Abraham’s faith ever passive. Here we see that when faced with a perplexing ‘why’ test that he could just not explain, Abraham didn’t just sit back and watch the world go by. He got down and calculated that God could raise the dead to life. We’ve seen that from own his experience Abraham could say with confidence that God had brought life back to his own impotent body that in v12 is described as “as good as dead!” If God could bring new life through his own dead body then surely he could raise Isaac back from the dead? This is what he concluded.
All the while his relationship to God was anything but a lazy one. It was one of thoughtful planning and action. It was not passive. It was not ad hoc or left to chance - he was not a Sunday Christian!
If we want to deal with the difficult “why?” tests in life we need to be in training for spiritual maturity.
Have you ever seen a straight river? Canals are straight, but all rivers seem to be crooked. We call it “meandering.” Why are rivers crooked? Because the natural tendency of a river is to take the easiest way around any obstacle. So rivers are always crooked, and they always run downhill.
Some people are like rivers. They are too lazy and immature to put forth much effort into walking with God. For them it’s easier to watch TV than to pray and easier to read their newspaper than to read their bible.
You know, the more natural response for Abraham in this situation would’ve been to question God’s guidance in the offering of Isaac, rather than to believe and obey. That would be the easy way around this obstacle. But Abraham chose the direction that would be harder but would also lead him to a greater spiritual maturity and a more confident and peace filled life.
CONCLUSION
Indeed a deeper relationship with God will help you overcome all the tests that come you way in 2004. Whether it be the where? Test - the when? Test - the How? Test or the why? Test.
When God tests us he shakes things up so that we might learn to live by faith and not by sight. He wants to build your life on the permanence of the eternal, not on the instability of this temporal world. So when you are tested, and you will be tested, welcome the challenge like a child welcomes sound instruction from a loving father.
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