The movie “Sophie’s Choice” tells the story of a woman who was having a hard time adjusting to life due to a past event that consumed her with guilt and pain. Sophie was a Polish Christian who was arrested by the Nazi’s during WWII and placed with her two kids into a Concentration Camp. While in line to go to the death camp, a Nazi guard approaches Sophie and forces her to make an unthinkable choice. The Nazi guard says that he will take one of the kids with him (which would mean certain death) and then the unthinkable request is placed upon Sophie as she is told that she is to make the choice of which of her kids she will give up to die. To refuse to give up a child would mean that both would die. So she is forced to pick between her toddler and her infant. The scene is horrific and almost unbearable to watch as Sophie is hysterically screaming, begging not to be put in such a predicament, and the guard is shouting, and the kids are crying. Then when the choice is made…Sophie falls to the ground in tears as she watches as her little toddler taken from her and carried away…and you can hear the screams of her child as he is gets farther and farther away.
Now as I watched that, I couldn’t imagine myself made to chose and I thought could there be anything worse that to have an evil man force you to chose between your kids so that he could kill one. Then this week I was reminded that there is something worse. Imagine that it is not a choice between two kids, but you are told that you have to give up your only child to have him killed, and then be told that the one who is to kill the child is you. And to make it much worse is that this is not some evil Nazi guard telling you to do this, but it is the loving Heavenly Father you have devoted your life to following.
This morning we come to the most difficult moment in the life of Abraham. We have seen Abraham struggle, but not like this. We have seen Abraham endure hardships and heartaches, but not like this. We have seen Abraham’s faith tested, but this would be the ultimate test. Warren Wiersebe wrote that, “Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, do what seems unreasonable, and expect what seems impossible.” This morning we come to perhaps one of the most difficult text in the bible, and I want to approach it carefully. It’s a hard text to deal with but yet if we come to grips with it it is filled with wonderful truths and timeless treasures. I want us to look at the heartache of Abraham, the Faith of Abraham, and then we’ll conclude with some lessons we can take home with us from this text. Sophie has her choice, not let’s look at Abraham’s choice when he is asked by God to sacrifice his son.
When God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, almost to reiterate the unthinkable nature of the request, “God says take your one, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.” It’s almost as if God is saying, “I know how much you love him and I know how important he is to you, now go and sacrifice him to Me.”
Now to tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure how I would respond to such a request. I with I could say this is what I would do, but unless I was put into that situation I honestly wouldn’t know what I would do. When I read this text, I come to it with two important viewpoints. The first is that I am a father who loves my kids very much. Just the thought of something ever happening to one of my girls scares the dickens out of me. When my oldest daughter Clarissa got her ears pierced, I actually had to get up and leave the store I was such a nervous wreck. (They were going to charge us something like 15 dollars for this…no, I just can’t stand to see my girls hurt.) So to think that I would be the one to harm them, that’s almost an unbearable thought to me.
The second viewpoint is that I believe that God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I believe that God loves us and wants what is best for us. I believe that God is the creator and that He is love. Not just a type of love, He is love! But I would dare say that from Abraham’s viewpoint right now at the beginning of this text, God sounds anything but good and loving.
Now it was a common practice in that day for the pagan gods to demand of their followers human sacrifices, but God had abhorred such things. In Deut 12:31 God said emphatically, “You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” The thing that God abhorred, God is now asking Abraham to do.
And I imagine as soon as Abraham heard this, his heart sank within him. Some have made this sound like this was a walk in the park for Abraham. They believe that Abraham had such faith that it didn’t faze him a bit. I would disagree with that and say that this was not only not a walk in the park, but it was the closest thing to a walk in hell that Abraham had ever experienced. Remember, Abraham for all practical purposes had already lost one son when he had to send his 17 year old Ishmael away.
And this was Isaac. This was his son through the woman he loved. This was the promised child. 25 years of waiting after the promise had been made, and every promise God had made to Abraham was tied up in his son Isaac. Most scholars put Isaac at this stage to be about 20 years old. He is not a baby anymore, and so they walk together, for what may be the last time.
For three days they had to walk together to the mountain God was leading Abraham to. I wonder if during those three days Abraham began to recollect on the past. I picture Abraham looking at his son remembering what it was like when he first heard the voice of God tell him he was going to have a child. I see him remembering the day when after 25 years of waiting, Isaac was born. I see him watching Isaac play in the tent. And as they get closer, Isaac asks a question that I think crushed Abraham. In vs. 7, it says, “Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
Now what must have made this extremely terrible is that not only was he going to lose his son, but this was God who was asking him to do this. Now some have tried to sidestep this fact. One commentator I read this past week said that God didn’t really ask Abraham to do this, Abraham just thought God had asked him to do it. Yet the text clearly states that it was God who was testing Abraham. And Abraham had the fire and the wood, he had the knife but the one thing he did not have was an explanation. Why would God ask me to do this? Why is God putting me through this?
Have you ever found yourself asking those same questions? God, why is this happening to me? God, can’t you put an end to this suffering? God why? This is a question I have asked myself this week as I kept reading this text and rereading it, why would God do this to Abraham?
Perhaps it was because God knew the heart of Abraham and the love that Abraham had for Isaac had grown greater than his love for God. He began to love the gift from God more than God Himself. In scripture we learn that God is a jealous God and that we are to put nothing ahead of Him. God is jealous for our love, but it is a good jealousy. An example we used a while back to show that God’s jealously for us is actually a good thing. God is jealous because God is loving. You are the same way I bet. Let’s suppose that one day you dig in to your husband’s wallet to get take some money and all of a sudden you a picture fall out of a beautiful young woman whom you have never seen. You ask, “who is she?” He says, “She’s a friend. When I can’t talk to you I talk to her. She is understanding and caring, and she’s always there when I need her.” Now ladies let me ask you, would you be jealous for your husband? Would he be dead? You would be jealous if you loved him.
Well maybe Abraham’s love for Isaac had exceeded his love for God. You know, Abraham got what he wanted and that was it. Kind of like when we ask God for something and when the test results come back negative, or when our loved one is okay, we forget all about God. Rest assured that God will not put up with such behavior.
Now we looked at the heartache of Abraham, now let’s look at his faith. You see, the first question I asked myself as I was reading this text is how could God do this to Abraham, the second question was how could Abraham go through with it. Now remember, this was not just a spur of the moment decision. Abraham had a 3 day journey as he walked right next to Isaac to think about it. So how could he do it? The answer is that Abraham believed God.
Look at vs 5 of your text. It says, He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you” Now notice the plurality there. We will go and we will come back. How could he say such a thing? It’s because he believed God.
You see, God had made a promise. God had said that it is through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned. Through Isaac all nations would be blessed. You see, God told Abraham a promise and Abraham knew the character of God. He didn’t understand why this was happening, he didn’t understand why God was putting him through this, and he didn’t know how it would all work out, but Abraham knew that God had made a promise and God always keeps his promises!
A key verse to this story comes in Hebrews 11:17-19. it says, “17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. 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." 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.”
Abraham knew God. He didn’t understand why all this was happening, but he knew that God was good and that God is faithful and that good was going to come from it. Now I don’t know what trials you are experiencing in your life this day, and I can’t tell you why what is happening to you is happening to you, but believe me when I say that God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Philip Yancey wrote that faith is trusting God in advance what will only make sense in reverse.
Abraham believed God, he reasoned that God could raise the dead and figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead. For three days, Isaac was going to die, but on the third day, and on the last possible moment, as the knife in Abraham’s hand was coming down to strike Isaac, an angel appeared and stopped him, and then God opened Abraham’s eyes and there he saw a ram in the thicket, a substitute. And there Abraham gained a whole new appreciation for God. In fact, He gave God a new name- Jehovah Jirah-the God who provides. Charles Spurgeon used to say that the promises of God never shine brighter than in the furnace of affliction. And it’s often during the most difficult times in life when we get to know God best.
Now what do we gather from this text. Well one lesson I want us to learn from this is that your Faith will be tested. Faith is not an easy thing and life will not always be a joy ride. Now God doesn’t test your faith in the purpose to try to tear you down, nor does He test your faith to see how strong your faith is, but perhaps it for you to see how strong your faith is. You don’t know how strong you are until it is put to the test. And every experience in life has the potential to become a test of your faith.
Second, learn to live your life with your hands wide open. Corrie Ten Boom once commented that she learned to hold everything loosely in her hand, because she knew she would grasp them tightly and the Lord would have to pry her fingers away, and it would hurt. When we live with open hands, God doesn’t have to pry our grip. God wants us to hold everything- even those things that matter the most- loosely, and to be prepared to give Him the very thing we think we can’t afford to give Him
By doing this, you realize that every thing is a gift from God, and you learn to treasure those gifts and not take them for granted and to be grateful for the time with those gifts instead of complaining when they are gone. I’ll never forget one Thanksgiving day radio broadcast of Focus on the Family where they had callers call in and tell them what they were thankful for, and one woman called in thanking God for her two year old son who had just died the week before, she thanked God for what was the two best years of her life. Learn to live with your hands wide open.
And finally, know that God will provide. God knew what Abraham needed right when Abraham needed it. And God knows what you need, both the big trials in life and the everyday challenges you experience. Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio host once said on one of his shows and I quote, “Jesus hold the answer to all of the everyday problems that you face. I am talking about an acceptance and belief in Jesus, in Heaven, and in God. I guess you candela with you problems on your own without these beliefs, but it’s much, much tougher. With those beliefs, you realize how insignificant the budget deficit debate is in comparison with the big picture.” Maybe you need strength right now. Maybe you need a word of assurance that it’s going to be all right. Whatever your need, know that God will provide for your need in His own way and in His own time.
And if you ever doubt that God will provide let this story of Abraham and Isaac remind you of another story where God met yours and my greatest need: a time when a Father gave His only begotten Son, and a time when a Son willingly laid down His life according to His Father’s will. But the difference is that this time there would be no ram in the thicket, no one to take His place. This time, there would only a lamb on a cross. And He did it for you.
Max Lucado in his book “He Chose the Nails” wrote, “Consider what he did. He gave his Son. His only Son. Would you do that? Would you offer the life of your child for someone else? I wouldn’t. There are those for whom I would give my life. But ask me to make a list of those for whom I would kill my daughter? The sheet will be blank. I don’t need a pencil. The list has no names.
But God’s list contains the name of every person who ever lived. For this is the scope of his love. And this is the reason for the cross. He loves the world.” And He Loves you.
