FAITH THAT IS TESTED
Genesis 22: 1-14
Good News Christian Fellowship
BUCAS, Daraga Albay
October 22, 2006
INTRODUCTION
A. About last week’s message.
1. Last week we have learned that trusting the Lord brings:
• Deliverance
1. saved us “out from horrible pit;” from helplessness and desperation.
2. saved us “out of miry clay,”; God moved us from desperation to a sense of security.
• Joy
1. Joyful obedience
2. Joyful testimony
• Faith
1. Deliverance
2. Salvation
B. Today we will have to take a look on the ultimate test in Abraham’s life. It was told that perhaps more than any other Old Testament character, Abraham repeatedly emerged in the bible as a model for strong faith. How can Abraham who lived from antiquity teach us anything about FAITH?
C. Abraham’s life testifies that it is our FAITH that pleases God. But our FAITH must be tested, forging our character and refining our trust to prepare us for the day when our FAITH will become sight. As Apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians 5:7, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
D. Genesis 22 records Abraham’s greatest trial and the greatest revelation of the gospel which God made to Abraham. God has brought Abraham to the series of test back in Genesis 12. Now in Genesis 22, Abraham faced his supreme test, a rigorous final exam at the hand of God.
E. Now lets look what lesson we can learn from him. But before we go to his final test, let’s first take a look at Abraham’s crises in life recorded in Chapter 12, 13, and 17 of Genesis that led up to Abraham’s final test.
HIS CRISES IN LIFE
A. Called To Depart From Ur. – God Told Abraham, a native of Ur, to leave his hometown and his family, and go to the land of his inheritance. He was seventy-five when Abraham forsook his boyhood dwelling for a new and unfamiliar dwelling – the land of God’s promise. Nevertheless, Abraham trusted in God’s promise to make his descendant a great nation through whom all people on earth be blessed. So Abraham bid goodbye to his family and friends, and willingly turned his back on Ur forever.
B. Separating From Lot (Genesis 13) This chapter gives an account of strife between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot (vv.5-7), impelled him to separate from Lot. The land could not simply sustain both families. So to avoid strife, Abraham set aside his personal needs and offered Lot the choices land (vv.8-9). In this situation, Abraham trusted God and waited once again for Him to reveal His plan.
C. Giving up His Cherished Plans for Ishmael (Genesis 17) This chapter treats of a covenant made with Abram, sometimes called the covenant of circumcision, the time when God appeared to him, and promised to make it, and did, (17:1); the change of Sarai’s name, and a promise made that she should have a son, to the great surprise of Abraham, (Gen.17:15). Remember that Abraham had another son named Ishmael, who was born of Hagar (Genesis 16:15) However, this was not God’s plan. God had determined that the child of His promise would come from Abraham and Sarah, and no one else (Genesis 17:15-16, 19-21). God said to Abraham, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac…”
God told Abraham to give-up or relinquish his plans for Ishmael. Look at Abraham’s petition to God in verse 18: “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
John Gill commented:
“…that he might enjoy the favour of God, his gracious presence and communion with him; that he might live a holy spiritual life here, acceptable and well pleasing to God, and possess eternal life hereafter ..”
Abraham’s concern for Ishmael is very evident in his impassioned entreaty to the Lord. Despite of His deep love for Ishmael, Abraham determined to follow God’s way and not his own.
A FAITH CONFIRMED (Genesis 22)
A. Revelation of the Test. Unbelievably, in the fourth and final crisis, God commanded Abraham to take Isaac, his long- awaited son, and offer him as a sacrifice.
Read verses 1-2.
“And it came to pass after these things” - After all the other trials, hardships, heartaches, and difficulties he had already endured, perhaps Abraham had begun to think, “At last, the storms are over.”
So, this man, Abraham after have been:
• Called To Depart From Ur
• Separated From Lot
• Giving up His Cherished Plans for Ishmael
• This is the man who had to wait 25 years for God to fulfill his promise - Isaac.
Abraham must have thought to himself, after all that he had been through, “Now the worst is over. Now I will live in peace. Ishmael is gone Lot is gone. Hagar is gone. Now, I have Sarah and Isaac. I might now receive the promise of God through Isaac. Through him, and him alone, God would fulfill His covenant (Genesis 15).
But wait a minute! Trial isn’t over yet. A supreme; an ultimate is yet to come.
All through his life God had been preparing Abraham for this event. We need to keep in mind; however, that Abraham was over one hundred years old. He and Sarah waited years for the birth of Isaac.
God command to take Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him thee as a burnt offering, must have caught Abraham by surprise. Imagine Abraham’s grief when he received this command. All the promises made to Abraham concerning his seed and the land of Canaan were wrapped up in Isaac. Therefore, to offer up Isaac meant to give up everything that he had lived for and waited for s long.
Every word in this verse must have been like a sword in his heart!
B. Response of Abraham (vv. 3-10)
His response helps us understand characteristics of faithful obedience.
• Immediate response - “Abraham rose up early in the morning,” No delays, no thought of turning back – only a prompt obedience to God’s command. One night was all that separated God’s directive from Abraham’s timely obedience.
• Characterized by Faith (v.4-5) – As Mount Moriah loomed ominously on the horizon, Abraham remained focused on the worshipping the Lord, trusting His ability even to raise Isaac from the dead if it came to that. In verse 5 there is a beautiful expression of hope and faith. Notice the words: “We will worship and then we will come back to you”
Bob Deffinbaugh says:
“I do not believe these words were idly spoken but that they reflected a deep inner trust in God and His promises. The God who had commanded the sacrifice of Isaac had also promised to produce a nation through him” (17:15-19; 21:12).
No remorse, no regret, or bitterness from Abraham’s lips.
• Based on the Character of God (vv. 6-8) – God has promised Abraham that his descendants and all the people of the earth would be blessed through Isaac. Even as he took the fire and the knife and led his son up the mountain, Abraham was silent and resolute. Isaac’s stirring query prompted Abraham to finally break his silence and express a mind-boggling trust in the goodness of God. Bob Deffinbaugh describes Abraham’s response this way:
The answer was painfully evident to Abraham, and yet there is in his answer not only a deliberate vagueness but also an element of hope: “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (verse 8).
Abraham’s compassionate, hope-filled answer reflected an unswerving trust in God’s faithfulness. The obedient patriarch staked his entire future on the Lord’s unchangeable nature.
• Thorough and complete – A brief review of the previous verses reveals Abraham’s steady, deliberate preparation for his remarkable journey to Mount Moriah. He “saddled his donkey,” “split wood,” “built the altar,” “arranged the wood, “bound his son Isaac, “laid him on the altar, “ stretched out his hand, “and took the knife to sly his son” (Genesis 22:3-10). Abraham didn’t shrink back from a single detail. And God rewarded his unflinching faith.
C. Reward of God (vv.11-18) Abraham was prepared to plunge the knife deep into the bound body of Isaac when God finally intervened. Read verse 11.
How relieved Abraham must have been to hear a voice from heaven just then! Abraham listened intently for God’s next instructions. Read verse 12
God honored his faith by providing a fitting substitute for Isaac. Read verses 13-14.
Overcome with joy and praise for the Lord’s provision, Abraham named the site in honor of God’s faithfulness. Then God rewarded Abraham with a perpetual blessing that would impact generations to come. Read verses 15-18.
LESSONS WE CAN LEARN
Abraham’s story of proven and rewarded faith teaches us three important lessons about our relationships with the Lord.
1. What we retain for ourselves, God asks us to release to Him. God wants us to entrust to Him our children, our marriages, our careers, and our cherished dreams for the future – everything we hold dear. He is worthy of that trust.
2. God always honors faithful obedience. He rewards those who believe His word and seek Him with their hearts and lives (Heb. 11; 6). But He cannot reward us if we stubbornly cling to the things of the world. He wants us to come to Him with empty hands so that He can fill them with His abundant blessings. That was true for Abraham, and it’s true for you and me as well.
3. Abraham cost his highest offering – his son. What sacrifice is too costly for us? God demand everything we are and everything we have.
APPLICATION
1. There is going to come a time in all of our lives when God asks us to give our personal “Isaacs” back to him. “Isaacs” represent thing that we treasure most.
2. Our decision at that point whether we go in God and continue in His will for our lives. What things did you cling to then that kept you from fully trusting the Lord?
3. Trials come in various forms – trials of our faith come in different ways. But God offers special grace to match every shade of sorrow. And the purpose of these fiery ordeals is that we may come forth as purified gold, and to make us ready to enjoy the inheritance.
4. God wants us to have FAITH to do everything He wants us to do. But we must acknowledge that everything we accomplish is only by His grace and strength.
