The Ultimate Test Genesis 22:1-22:19
The Ultimate Test
This week I want to look at Gen 22: 1-19
1. The test (Gen 22:10-12)
Here the Lord speaks to Abraham and tells him to offer that which he holds dearest to God, his son Isaac.
This reminded me of the first commandment in Ex. 20:
You shall have no other gods before me.
It reminded me also that this is also a foreshadowing of what God the Father Himself ultimately did. Sacrificed his own Son for our sins.
Note here God does not TEMPT but TESTS.
TEMPTATION appeals to man’s lower nature and TESTING appeals to his higher nature to overcome his natural inclinations.
1 Peter 1:6 & 7
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Story: I read in a book called: Who dares wins The Story of the Special Air Service by Tony Geraghty: that if you want to join the SAS, you have to go through a rigorous training.
One particular test was an endurance test. Early in the morning when the soldier was not fully awake he is set down with sparse instructions to reach Pen Y Fan. Usually the soldier would get lost once or twice and land up having to jog much of the time to get to his destination on time. In the rain his pack would get heavier. On route near to his destination he would "accidentally" meet the trainers drinking tea apparently totally complacent. These instructors would often say: "You all in mate, hop in the back of the truck and put your feet up".
If he wavered and took his back pack off he was automatically failed.
You see the test was to find out what his RESOLVE was. Could they rely on him to get the job done. Would he complete the job under pressure. Why because SAS troops are sent into seemingly impossible situations and they cannot afford to have people who are not 100% on fire to get the job done and are not sidetracked.
We are in a war. God Himself is our commander in chief and Satan and his minions are our sworn enemies. It is a "no holds" barred fight.
Our ENDURANCE TEST is the TEST of our FAITH. Can the enemy highjack us from Canaan to Egypt or do we remain faithful troops seeking and remaining in the Promised Land.
Satan will tempt us. God will allow us to be tested, but not beyond that which we can endure.
Are we "Crack Troops" or "Raw Recruits"?
God wants SAS troops not SOS troops?
Back to Genesis 22: Let us look at the two characters in the story here:
2. Abraham
I am sure, though it is not recorded, that he must have gone from the presence of the Lord with a heavy heart.
I’m sure he went through conflicts: He was, let’s face it, a man like us.
a) Conflict between his love for his son and his love for God.
God emphasises the attachment in verse 2.
Take your son your only son whom you love.
The Lord is testing us is there anything more important than Him.
Jesus in Luke 22:42 as He saw the Cross before Him asked the Father to take the cup away from Him. He did not want to go through with it.
Yet nevertheless not my will but thine be done: Perhaps we need to ask ourselves the question:
Do we love ANYTHING or ANYONE else more than the Lord.
b) The seeming conflict between God’s goodness and His demand.
It was a battle in his intellect.
God in His goodness can’t really be asking for the death of my son my dearest son can he?
Abraham was not some kind of robot.
He CHOSE to believe God and it was credited to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS. He made God LORD.
The word Lord means “loaf giver” because the lord of the servant provided the servant with the bread he needed for his daily existence
Do we mean that if Jesus is Lord HE is the one who provides. That is He is the loaf giver as the name Lord suggests.
If so we are to obey him TOTALLY.
Story: There is a saying that God made man in his own image and ever since then man has tried to return the compliment.
In other words we try to make God into the image we THINK he should be rather than trying to find out WHO he REALLY is.
c) The seeming conflict between God’s promise being fulfilled and Isaac’s death.
I’m sure Abraham asked the question: Lord how are your promises going to be fulfilled if Isaac dies?
At least he had learnt the lesson not to give God a helping hand to fulfil divine promises.
He had seen the consequences from the HAGAR story.
If he asked these questions, there is no record of Abraham being given, an answer, but he had got to know God and His Faithfulness long enough to trust God.
Perhaps he even believed God would raise Isaac from the dead.
He probably could not have shared the burden with Sarah otherwise she would have told Isaac and Isaac may well have tried to stop Abraham.
Here we see a picture of what God the Father went through when Christ was put on the Cross at Calvary.
The Son whom He loved who was to die for the sins of the World.
3 Abraham’s Obedience (Gen 22: 3-9)
And so he rose early the next morning. He broke camp and went to Mount Moriah. (And some of us have trouble getting up for a 8.00 am service on Sunday morning. He got up early to complete the job God gave him.
Tradition has Mount Moriah (2 Chr. 3:1) as the site in Jerusalem where the Temple under Solomon was built. It was about 80 kms from South Philistia where Abraham was living. (And I think it is a long way from my house to the tram on foot!!)
It was about 3 days journey on foot. (Incidentally this would give you an idea how long a journey the journey from Ur to Canaan must have taken. (2000 km at 80 kms in three days was 75 days travelling two and a half months travelling time)
We see that Abraham’s obedience was prompt, unconditional and absolute.
He did not hang around to allow sin to creep in. He did not leave himself open to temptation, to listen to the devil coaxing him.
Did God really tell you to do this? Remember how Satan tempted Eve in the Garden in Gen.3.
You note that he leaves the servants behind so that no one can stop him from fulfilling his task.
He had a ONE TRACK MIND for God. He was not going to be SIDETRACKED.
He was going to pass GOD’S ULTIMATE TEST OF HIS FAITH.
And as he and Isaac walk up the mountain, Isaac asks him: Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
This must have been hard for Abraham. I can feel for him as a father, if I had had to undergo the same test with one of my boys.
Abraham’s answer, perhaps without his knowing it is prophetic that God will provide the lamb. And again looking to Calvary: Christ the Lamb of God was provided by the Father for the "propitiation of our sins" (as the Anglican Prayer Book says). To atone for our sins.
ABRAHAM had CONFIDENCE UTTERLY IN GOD and with reason. God had been faithful throughout Abraham’s walk with God and he knew God would not let Him down. He had been GROWING in FAITH for about 60 years.
4. Let us look at Isaac.
He was probably in his teen years.
We read he was able to walk a long journey and then on the third day carry a heavy load.
Abraham was an old man and it would have been easy for Isaac to run away. He could have easily resisted his father binding him on the altar.
We see therefore that
i) Isaac had learnt to trust his father.
He was obviously a youth sufficiently mature to consent to his own death. As the Bible commentator Marcus Dods puts it:
Trained by long experience to trust his father, he obeys without complaint or murmur.
He also had a heart for God. He had LEARNT by his father’s example.
Clearly Abraham was not one of the preachers who says: DON’T DO AS I DO; DO AS I SAY.
ii) Isaac learns to adopt the will of God before his own.
He recognises that God has asked this of his father and he submits to it.
Truly this story bears out the promise of Rom. 8:28
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those that love God to those that are called according to his purpose.
This test shows us how much ABRAHAM’S faith had grown.
5 God returns Abraham’s Sacrifice. (Gen 22: 10-14)
Having found Abraham faithful, the Lord restores Isaac to him. We need to live by faith and not by sight.
Story: In Canada, we learnt a new driving principle with Tim Osiowy, a pastor there. We drove back from Hudson’s Hope through Pine Pass. It was snowing, the headlights did not work, there were 10 foot ditches either side of the road and we could hardly see anything. We learnt the principle of DRIVING more by FAITH than by SIGHT.
Abraham’s paternal love has been purified and his surrendered son would be dearer to him than before.
When father and son go though a stage of obeying God together, the bond between them is very much deeper. They add a dimension to the father/son relationship of a servant of God/ servant of God relationship.
So it is with us in the fellowship. Our friendship to each other is deepened as we walk together. The brother/brother relationship also develops the servant of God/ servant of God relationship.
6 Conclusions
We learn from this:
i) God is interested in the inner attitudes of our heart
ii) The place became aptly called " God will provide – “Yahweh or Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide"
This is also a compound name of God. God provided the sacrifice: A substitute.
This was a foreshadowing of the true Substitute Christ the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. And He was sacrificed not too far away from Mount Moriah!
Incidentally Abraham experienced the same feelings that the Father must have gone through when He sacrificed Jesus His Son on the Cross for our sakes. Let us not be casual to what it cost Him.
iii) Through his trials Abraham could know God better, as Paul puts it," in the power of his resurrection and fellowship of the sharing of his sufferings" (Phil 3:10)
We find when we obey that obedience brings with it:
i) Stronger faith in God
ii) Fellowship with God
iii) A deep peace and sense of God’s approval
iv) More appreciation for God as your provider
v) Blessing greater than you ever gave up Abundant life.
vi) A more effective testimony of the reality of God and his grace
vii) A new appreciation of God’s promises and His Word
7 Final thoughts
From these studies we have seen the growth of Abraham’s faith and this alone tells me that we need to GROW in FAITH.
We see the maturity and what Abraham has learnt.
Indeed if we take a peek into Gen 24 when Abraham sends his servant
"to Abraham’s country and relatives to find a wife for Isaac (v. 4)
and makes him promise to carry out this instruction.
When the servant asks if the girl who he finds would not come to Canaan, should he take Isaac back there, we see Abraham responding:
Beware lest you take my son back there. The Lord the God of heaven who took me from my father’s house and the land of my birth and who spoke to me and swore saying: To your descendants I will give this land He will send an Angel before you and you will take a wife for my son from there.
If the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from my oath, only do not take my son back there.
As an aside: Note the promise Abraham refers to was given in Gen. 12:7 before Abraham got hijacked to Egypt.
Another indication that going to Egypt was not necessarily in the Will of God.
Again God’s will is more important than Abraham preserving an heir. What is tremendous is that Abraham was TEACHABLE.
If we are to be true disciples we need to be teachable.
If we ever get unteachable, we are not worthy servants of the LIVING GOD.
We must REMAIN OPEN TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION AND CORRECTION FROM THE LORD
