Passage: Genesis Chapter 22 (All) The testing of Abraham’s Faith.
Do you have any faith? How do you know? How can we determine if our faith is real or if our faith is real strong? The true proof of faith is a test of faith.
And God sometimes brings us for testing for very closely related reasons.
1) To test our faith so that we and He might see that it is genuine.
2) To strengthen our faith - because only when our faith is tested can it grow stronger.
Abraham’s faith was tested. In terms that we can understand God wanted to make sure that Abraham’s faith was authentic. Not because God didn’t know - he knows already. But part of what makes Faith authentic is it’s successful exercise. So let’s read together this terrifying passage in Genesis 22:1-19. Terrifying because it’s reminder is that God wants nothing to be held as more dear to us than Him.
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Warren Wiersbe said: "Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us, but God tests us to help bring out the best." (Wiersbe, W. W. (1993). Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the Old Testament (Ge 21:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
What is more important to you, the proliferation of things or God? Your family or God? Your comfort or your God? I wonder sometimes if God will not test your love for him, like he tested Abraham’s love for Him. Abraham’s test of faith is a model of fear, commitment and courage for us.
God’s command was simple: Take what you love, and offer it to me.
The lessons in this familiar text are multiple. But first I want to show you Hebrews 11:17-19.
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1. TYPE:
Abraham and Isaac are what is called a type in a sense both of the God The Father and of Jesus The Son-Of-God. Jesus was slain in the very vicinity where Isaac was to be offered and a substitute was made. Jesus is the substitute. Isaac, from all accounts was apparently a fairly willing party to the whole affair, as was Jesus. The Ram was the substitute which Christ became.
As they were walking to the mountain, Isaac asked his Father, "Where’s the Lamb?" Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb, and just as Abraham was lowering the knife to kill his son, God stopped him and provided the lamb, caught in a thicket. Centuries later, God would provide His son; John the Baptist would proclaim, "Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." In the Temple courts while the Jews threw hateful glances at Him Jesus would fend off his critics by saying, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." -John 8:56
Application: When we go through testing, God knows what we are enduring. He is not simply watching from a distance like some unimpassioned spectator with no vested interest and nary a care. He is here, he is personally involved and He is sustaining us and yes, even weeping with us while we weep. God is here, and God will provide whatever it takes to carry us through the fire. Even raising us from the dead if necessary in order to accomplish his task in our lives.
2. PRACTICAL: God didn’t want Isaac dead, he wanted Abraham’s heart. Let’s stop here for a moment and really think through the hard question -what do I value above God? Now I know that at first we want to say, "Nothing at all! I view Nothing as being more important than God." But do we really understand what it means to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength?
Do we really understand Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic command in Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple." Those are tough words to take. And it’s an even harder question to take when we bother to ask it of ourselves.
Is there anything in me or in my life that I value in any way above the Father? Honestly, I believe that careful searching and diligent probing will often reveal in most of us, I believe, that there are areas of our hearts that are not fully given over to God. A revelation that should drive us to our knees in surrender when we discover it.
The old hymn asks the question, "Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid, your heart does the spirit control?" And another says, "we never can prove the delights of his love until our all on the altar is laid." Both hymns look at this text and find our need to elevate God and set aside everything else.
Let’s lift him up my friends. Lift him above our families - where we discover there is in fact a greater joy in sharing fellowship with family in the name of Christ. Lift God above your Jobs and hobbies - where we discover that He will provide for us. Lift God above our most precious possessions where you and I will find that the shackles that bind us to worthless and temporary things fall away in a new found freedom to serve Him.
3. SECURITY: Security and saving faith and eternal security is never gained by obedience, but it’s existence is proven by it. The letter of James takes great effort to describe the relationship between works and faith. God’s Grace through Faith alone saves, but obedience proves the authenticity of that faith.
God’s unthinkable request that Abraham sacrifice his son was followed immediately by Abraham’s compliance. Compliance that woke him early in the morning, walked far off to the mountain, tied his son and laid him on the altar. Compliance that took a knife and hand, and began the stroke that would take his life. But God stopped him... Showed him a replacement and accepted Abraham’s sacrifice.
Now Look at verse 15 where God’s promises to Abraham are made more certain...
NIV Genesis 22:15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
God had already made these promises to Abraham once before. In fact each Time Abraham’s faith was tested, God repeated this very promise.
In Genesis 12:1-4 God told Abraham to Go to an unknown land and covenanted with him to make him a great nation, to protect him and to bless all nations through Him. "So Abram went forth as the Lord has spoken to him.
In Genesis 15:1 After defeating a foreign army and yet refusing to accept a reward from wicked men so that only God could be said to prosper Him, God said to Abram "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great."
But Abram’s faith wavered perhaps but for a moment and God Took Him outside and told him in 15:5 that if Abram could count the stars, only then would he be able to count all his descendants. And Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as Righteousness.
Again in 15:12-ff God Told Abraham to enter into a formal covenant with Him, Abraham complied and God made the same promises again.
Years later in chapter 17:2 God came to Abraham and promised to fulfill his covenant to give him a son. It was a promise that Abraham and Sarah both struggled with, but accepted and Isaac was born.
With each struggle to keep believing against huge obstacles; and with each trial - God reminded Abraham of his covenant with Him. And here again, in the 22nd chapter, Abraham is tested, God’s covenant is confirmed and Abraham grows in faith and maturity.
My friends, I know that testing in your lives and mine is never easy. I know that we endure struggles to trust and believe God in common and uncommon circumstance. And I know that if we simply cling to obedience that God will continue to make our faith more sure, and our reward more certain.
Our faith, is brought out by testing, But when we are tested, remember that we have a merciful high priest who has been tested in every way just as we are tested. God is faithful, and Jesus intercedes for us always at the right hand of the Father, pleading our cause and displaying His scars for our soul.
God tests us to determine our loyalty, to cement our dedication and to draw us apart from a love of the world and into a deeper love of Himself. We must learn to renounce this world’s attraction and cling to God’s sufficiency. God want’s our whole heart, not our divided loyalty. Psalm 86:11 is a beautiful prayer, "Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name."
When we have been tested, we know that our faith, which is purer and more precious than gold will be purer still, more holy still and more precious than ever; and it will result in praise to God in the name of Jesus.
Keep believing my friends. AMEN.
