Here I am
Genesis 22:1-11
All of us who know anything at all about the Bible are familiar with this story . . . how God spoke to Abraham to get out of his country into Canaan, and he did.
Later God told Abraham that He would bless him by giving him a son and making his son into a nation. When it did not happen because of the obvious problems, Sarah being barren, Abraham tried to come up with his own solution to the problem by suggesting to God that he make Eliazer his heir, being his right hand man, he had earned a place. But he was not a blood relative.
Then Sarah makes a suggestion, taking Hagar, her handmaid for a concubine and have a child.
God rejected both of these alternate plans that had been suggested by Abraham and told him that through Sarah he would have a son.
Sarah did conceive and bore a son and they named him Isaac (meaning Laughter, Perhaps because Sarah laughed at the seemingly absurd promise that she and Abraham would have a son at such an old age! Or maybe it had to do with the joy of physically holding a promise of God).
Then we reach our scripture today, all of a sudden, God tells Abraham to take Isaac up to a mountain in the area of Moriah and to sacrifice him upon an altar as a burnt offering!
Can you imagine the heart ache Abraham felt?
God had brought him from his home and his family to a land where he was a complete stranger and even an enemy to many of the inhabitants of that land.
God had refused his solutions to the problem of his not having an heir to inherit the land!
God had promised him that he would have a son, and that through this son, his offspring would become a nation.
Now God is telling him to kill his heir for whom he had been so patient. Well sort of..
How about your life? How much do you trust God to direct your life? Do you really trust God enough to turn loose and respond to his direction?
Paul tells us how to act, in response to God offer of a guiding relationship offered through Jesus.
Romans 12:1-2 says . . . . Living Sacrifices
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Luke says it this way in Luke 9:23-25 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?"
--The point that I’d like to get across in today’s message is that every believer must present himself to God.
HOW?
By doing exactly what the Bible says. Now some will think it is ridiculous, the book is 2000 years old. How can it direct my life?
I hope that from your reading of the Bible, you will agree that it teaches that Christians have an obligation to do something for Christ. Perhaps, you think you have no clue to what God wants. And I will share with you that is where the Holy Spirit moves to center stage.
When opportunities to do something for God appear, the spirit makes you notice. Unfortunately, it will never make you react.
All it can do is give you a funny feeling and prompt a response. Over time we learn what to do with the feeling. Many times we respond and that normally results in a “I did something good feeling.”
But eventually we end up saying no for some reason time or situation, whatever and the funny feeling changes flavor, to something sort of like regret.
It does not take too many times of saying no before we become immune and brush off God’s directions without a second though.
Maybe is thinking, I’ve done my part, or I don’t like that idea, or just No Not me.
Eventually, there is nothing you would freely do for God in response the that prompting, no matter how simple.
-What do you think races through the mind of a man that had been so faithful to God? There is no way that I heard that Right! God is that really you?
For Abraham, it was a test, a test of “how much do you love God.” A test of did he trust God. It was a test of his faith that God was worthy no matter what the request.
Sometimes we go through things in our life to prove to us just how great God is. He wants to put us in a position to rely totally on Him. He wants us to quit relying on self, so He tells us to do something that seems impossible. He is just testing our faith!
He’s not doing it for His benefit; He’s doing it for ours! He wants us to see that he is worthy and faithful to us. He builds our faith by calling for a response.
Abraham and Isaac traveled the 50 or 60 miles from Beersheba to the area of Moriah in about three days. This had to be very difficult time for Abraham. He carried the materials and he had a lot of time to think about what he was called by God to do.
The scripture did not have Isaac ask his dad why he looked so sad. It did not describe any questions of a hesitation or an extra slow pace. It does not mentions that Abraham broke down when he said God would provide the sacrifice. Is this cold or what?
We hear the story of preparation from the start of the trip to the arrival on the mountain. Abraham is getting ready to do exactly as God instructed. He built and alter, tied up Isaac and the knife in his hand. I imagine his hand just starting down when the angel calls out and he aborts the swing.
Folks are there any comparisons between how we react to the instructions issued thought the prompting of the Holy Spirit and how Abraham reacted.
Really there is no comparison. We have never been asked to sacrifice any of my children, but if I were I would head immediately head to the Psycho-Ward. I would know it as something wrong with me.
However, I have felt the spirit and responded with seemingly silly trips to the hospital, or made what started as an uncomfortable phone call.
Sometimes I wonder if I have been tested just to watch me respond.
The spirit sometimes tells me not to do something. I suspect that the inclination to take action was mine in the first place.
So, the Spirit is also active in telling those that will listen to hold back or say no.
The spirit is often called our conscious. When it is at work, it is working on our pride. All too often we let our pride hold us on a path even when we realize It is a mistake. Pride tends to make us rigid an un-willing to admit mistakes and turn back to a better way. Pride keeps people from participating in new things perhaps because it was not their idea or we never did it that way before.
I don think we like it when someone else gets the word from God and we hold back because we don’t like being told what to do.
Pride can really cause a lot of headaches. You know, we could probably save a lot of thoes headaches if we listened to the spirit and found the open doors and stopped banging our heads on the ones that God has closed.
Our problem is that we just don’t listen any more. And then we wonder what happened, why we don’t feel blessed. We have fear over administrative things and little or no concern over spiritual progress.
Abraham has the knife in his hand but, God stops the offering and provides a substitute.
Abraham never states any doubts about God’s instruction; he does not leave the mountain with a distrust of God. He names he place (God will provide) - Not God will test. To me that indicates that he left with a renewed faith, not bitter or distrusting.
Abraham had a faith in God and his promises that few people on this earth can match.
How could he muster such faith?
I think the reason is because he long before gave himself completely to God. When he left his home, He gave up his right to be the 1st heir in his family inheritance. He was not just taking a risk for something better, he was responding to the direction from God. He trusted God for a new home, a new inheritance and from his personal experience God had always been faithful.
Abraham’s faith was proved to be true. And he demonstrates it by his actions. I hope and pray that we all do the same.
All Glory be to God!
